Convicted Felon Becomes President of NRA

Oliver North was just elected to be the president of the National Rifle Association. Recall that Mr. North was indicted on 16 felony counts for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair. He was ultimately convicted of three of these counts: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and ordering the destruction of documents through his secretary. If it wasn't for the ACLU, North would still have those convictions on his record.

So, the world's leading terrorist organizations has found a new leader and it's a criminal. I'm shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED!

Trump's Making the Price of Gas Go Up

Remember how Republicans said that electing Barack Obama would jack up the price of gas to $10 a gallon? During her ill-fated presidential campaign Michele Bachmann promised that she would get the price of gas down to two dollars.

But that milestone occurred on Obama's watch, in 2015. Check out the picture on the right of Bachmann celebrating Obama's accomplishment.

Now, the president doesn't normally have a lot of direct control over gas prices. Administration policies can have long-term effects on oil prices, such as increased fuel efficiency standards on vehicles, which reduces demand and lowers prices. The Trump administration trashed Obama's fuel efficiency standards, by the way.

But generally the day-to-day ups and downs of the cost of a barrel of oil are controlled by the state of the economy and events in the news.

Since the election of 2016 the price of gas has gone steadily up (up to $2.81 from $2.35 a year ago). Now it's starting to spike: it's up to $70 a barrel. Why? Donald Trump's big fat mouth.

Benchmark prices for American crude oil cracked $70 a barrel on Monday, the first time they have climbed that high since 2014, as investors factored in the prospect of President Trump pulling the United States out of an international agreement that eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. 

There is no better deal to be had with Iran. Furthermore, the US pulling out of the agreement will send a message to North Korea that the United States cannot be counted on to stick to any agreement it signed.

All our allies, as well as Russia and China, are urging the United States to keep the Iran agreement intact.

Predicting what Trump will do is impossible, because his strategy is to lie and lie and then lie some more, then change direction multiple times, sowing chaos all the way. Then he waits to see what shakes out and changes course again.

And that's what I predict Trump will do. He will scream and whine and tweet and threaten to revoke the deal, and there'll be a flurry of activity with Mike Pompeo flying around the globe, and Trump will gyrate for a few weeks, and then announce that's he's come up with a hugely better deal which will be essentially the same as what we've got already.

Because Trump doesn't really care about Iran. He just wants to look tough. Putin and all the oil men want Trump to keep the essence of the Iran deal intact, so that's what Trump will do.

The same thing will happen with North Korea's nuclear program. Trump will pretend like he's made some huge breakthrough, and there'll be a "historic" meeting that lowers Trump to Kim Jong Un's level, and Kim will ostentatiously close a testing site (which he has to do anyway because it's no longer safe).

Kim may even pretend to get rid of some nukes. But he won't really do it, because Trump cannot be trusted to keep a promise: Kim would suffer an ignominious death like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.

At the end of the day nothing will really change: North Korea will keep their nukes and the Iran deal will remain intact.

But Trump will puff up his bloated face and pretend he's a stable genius, claiming victory when the status quo is completely unchanged.

No Boiling Pit of Sewage, I Guess

California just became the fifth largest economy in the world, surpassing Great Britain. California's gross domestic product rose by $127 billion from 2016 to 2017, surpassing $2.7 trillion, the federal data said.

Certainly this is no surprise to me as Democrats (who have run the entire state for the last decade) do capitalism better than Republicans do. Yet it must come as somewhat of a shock to all of those doomsayers and pantsshitters on the right who loudly claimed (from their parent's basement) that the best economies are the ones built by Ayn Rand. Of course, they can never find examples of this, past or present, which makes it yet another example of their tantrum against some sort of authority figure from their past.

I wonder how the all the douchey right wing bloggers and commenters are going to explain this one away. All that money...made by a government with high taxes and high spending. Where's all the stifling they foam at the mouth about? The government intrusion? The excessive regulation?

Seems like it's all working out just fine in deep blue California...

Hypocrites in the NRA

And let's not forget this little ditty...

Suprise! (Not!) Trump Repaid Cohen Porn Star Hush Money

According to Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's new lawyer, everything that Trump denied about Stormy Daniels actually happened!

Trump had unprotected sex with Daniels while his wife was caring for their infant child. Trump was not only cheating on his wife, he was also cheating on his mistress, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy playmate.

Then Trump's Mr. Fixit, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels hush money just before the election. And then Trump repaid Cohen, in exactly the fashion that I knew he would: through his retainer.

Let's have Giuliani explain this:

“If we had to defend this as not being a campaign contribution - I think we can do that. This was for personal reasons," Giuliani said.

"The president had been hurt personally, not politically, personally so much and the first lady by some of the false allegations that one more false allegation, six years old - I think he was trying to help the family. For that, the man is being treated like some kind of villain and I think he was just being a good lawyer and a good man," he continued.

"It wasn't for the campaign, it was to save not so much their marriage, as much as their reputation," he said.

When asked why Cohen paid Daniels the money, Giuliani said Cohen made the allegations against Trump go away, saying "he did his job."

“Imagine if that came out of October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton?" Giuliani asked.

"Cohen made it go away," he added. "He did his job."

Previously, Trump had said that he never paid Cohen any money for this. Now Trump admits he was lying. Trump hasn't admitting banging Daniels yet: Giuliani says she's lying, and that Cohen paid her off not because of the campaign, and not to save the marriage, but to save Trump's reputation.

What a load of crap. On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post published the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women's pussies. Any positive reputation Trump had was flushed down the toilet: everyone knew he was a serial harasser of women.

As Giuliani himself made abundantly clear, Cohen paid off Daniels to prevent her story from coming up in the last debate. That makes it a campaign expenditure.

At this point, it's clear that pretty much every accusation of impropriety and corruption made against Trump is true. His denials are just holding actions to defer admissions of guilt to another time, to use them as advantageously as possible.

The issue here is not that Trump idiotically banged a porn star without a condom. Everyone knows he's a liar, a cheater, a scumbag and an idiot. No, the news here is that Trump is vulnerable to blackmail.

And according to Giuliani, Trump has a lawyer on retainer whose job description is literally to pay off potential blackmailers.

Cohen was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, for years, to "do his job." How many more of these potential extortionists are out there, and what else are they getting from Trump to keep his secrets?

Are the Numbers Dwindling for Gun Rights Activists?

Here are a couple of photos from some recent pro gun rallies.

And here is a photo from a gun safety rally.

Maybe the lies about liberals being communists trying to grab our guns isn't working anymore. I'm sure defending wholesale slaughter on regular basis isn't helping either.

It's most ironic to note that the very dystopian future they fear is actually coming to pass due to their continued support of pro homicide policies. Even more hilarious is their insistence that Democrats are the ones with a commie bent when their dear leader is the one snuggling with Vladimir Putin.

Perhaps they need a long, hard look in the mirror.

Gun Humpers are Awesome!

I think ol' Brian is a wee bit worried about the future, don't you? Hee hee...

Still, this video strikes me as a man desperately worried about his penis size.

Some Logic?

Skipping The White House Correspondents Dinner

Exclusive Footage of the Leader of the United States Picking Up His Puppet

Quote of the Day

“I’m not sure trust is what people want from Trump. … I think they want from him his attitude, and I think that they don’t mind him being wrong on the facts. He doesn’t tell the truth on a lot of things.”

--Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball

Attitude indeed...ADOLESCENT attitude raging against an adult that did them wrong 30-50 years ago. Why can't these assholes just go to therapy instead of making the country suffer?

I do wonder how long the wrong on facts thing will last.

1-2-3-4...You're A Conservative!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how people become conservative. I realize that some of it is nature (Republican Brain and all) but there is a nurture element to it that needs to be addressed. I'm continually amazed by the severe umbrage that is taken by conservatives when it comes to authority figures, laws, and people telling them what to do. Life is filled with people telling other people what to do. Why are conservatives such fucking babies about it? In my opinion, here's how they get to this point...

Step 1: An authority figure in their lives doesn't give them enough love and/or treats them poorly. This is likely a mother or father. Ask a conservative if one of their parents let them down and every single fucking one of them will begin to foam at the mouth about how mom/dad sucked and stuff.

Step 2: Bury these feelings and fail to get therapy to work them out.

Step 3: Transfer the emotions about said authority figure to the government, the elite, the media, liberals, and anyone else who has done them wrong or told them to do something they didn't like.

Step 4: Become a fully willing pawn of right wing media which emboldens anti-authority feelings while fomenting fear, anger and hatred of anyone more accomplished and intelligent.

Presto...you are now a conservative!

Sheer Incompetence. Again.

When Donald Trump announced that he had nominated the White House physician to be the next secretary of veterans affairs I thought it was ridiculous: Dr. Ronny Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy, had never run a large organization. Jackson is a trauma doctor who had served in Iraq and ran the small White House medical office. The VA is a sprawling bureaucracy with dozens of facilities across the country and 370,000 employees.

Moreover, I really had to question Jackson's judgment after his fawning report on Trump's health. He said that the seriously obese 71-year-old Trump was merely overweight (he had to use a golf cart on a trip to Italy when other leaders walked), was in "excellent" health, had excellent genetics and could live 200 years if only he had a healthy diet.

Since no human has ever lived more than 122 years, no competent doctor would say this: obviously he was joking, but the health of the president (especially one as physically and mentally unfit as Trump) is not a joke. Jackson is either a huckster, a Trump sycophant or wants something from Trump.

Now Jackson's nomination is serious trouble:

President Trump acknowledged Tuesday that Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, his nominee to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, is in serious trouble amid allegations that he oversaw a hostile work environment as the White House doctor, allowed the overprescribing of drugs and possibly drank on the job.

Trump apparently did nothing to vet Jackson, and it's clear why. Republicans want a puppet in the VA who will rubberstamp their plan to privatize veterans health care, because it has a huge budget and medical service companies that contribute to Republican election campaigns want in on the action.

And then Trump said this:

“I told Admiral Jackson just a little while ago, what do you need this for? This is a vicious group of people. … What do you need it for?” Trump said Tuesday, during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. “I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it. What does he need it for? I don’t think personally he should do it. It would be totally his decision.”

Huh? Trump asked Jackson to run the VA, knowing full well what the nomination process involves. Trump is complaining that senators are doing the job that his administration failed to do before tweeting out Jackson's nomination. This is sheer incompetence.

The vetting process at the Trump White House appears to be this: if Trump likes what you say on TV, then he thinks you're qualified for a job in his administration. Jackson clinched his nomination with his hyperbolic press conference on the president's physical.

Other recent hires (including some aborted hires) from TV land include talking heads John Bolton (Fox News), Joseph di Genova (Fox News), Larry Kudlow (CNBC), Heather Nauert (Fox News), Mercedes Schlapp (Fox News) and Tony Sayegh (Fox News).

And, of course, how can we forget Anthony Scaramucci's blazing 10 days as White House communications director? His qualifications: Trump liked how the Mooch buttered him up on TV.

Nobody in the Trump administration knows what they're doing. Like Scott Pruitt (EPA), or Ben Carson (HUD), Mick Mulvaney (Consumer Protection Agency), Ryan Zinke (Interior), Rick Perry (Energy), Betsy DeVos (Education), and countless others. All these appointees actively oppose the missions of the agencies they run or are completely oblivious about them.

This is why so many Trump appointees are constantly getting in trouble for ethics violations and profligate spending.

Worst. President. Ever.

A Good Guy Without A Gun

Remember this?



A couple of years later we had this...

2 members of U.S. military stop Islamist attacker on train in Belgium

And yesterday we had this...

‘It was life or death,’ says man who snatched gunman’s AR-15

Huh. Looks like gun humpers don't have any idea WTF they are talking about. Shocking...not...

How about we stop listening to them? Oh wait, we already are...:)

Yeah, I Don't Trust Them

The Socialists Are Coming!

A recent piece in the New York times details how socialists have finally come out of the closet and are feeling welcome by more people than conservatives would like to admit.

Supporters, many of them millennials, say they are drawn by D.S.A.’s promise to combat income inequality, which they believe is tainting every facet of American life, from the criminal justice system to medical care to politics. They argue that capitalism has let them down, saddling them with student debt, high rent and uncertain job prospects. And they have been frustrated by the Democratic Party, which they say has lost touch with working people.

I can't wait for the mouth foaming and premonitions of a boiling pit of sewage when these folks start to win. It will happen.

And there will be a whole generation of leaders telling conservatives how to better live their lives...:)

Quote of the Day

"It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion" ----Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Chapter II, Part II, Article I, p. 911.

Conservatives Are Not As Racist As You Think

A recent Facebook discussion over the Starbuck's "waiting for a friend while black" debacle got me to thinking about conservatives and racism. There is zero doubt that most conservatives are racially insensitive. But are they out and out racist?

Racism is defined as "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Certainly, there are plenty of conservatives that think that people of color are inferior to them and they likely feel threatened. Trump supporters definitely lean in this direction. Yet, I submit that some of them are not full out racist. They have another problem.

They just don't like people telling them what to do.

This is especially true of libertarians. If someone told them they should be more racist, they would foam at the mouth about doing the opposite. Whatever problem they had with authority in their formative years engages quickly and out comes the adolescent asshole. It's all about defying that authority and chiding people that respect those in power.

Of course, the other reason why they don't like authority is due to the fact that THEY want to be the authority. How dare someone tell them what to do when they should be telling all of the rest of us what to do!

How Did These God Damned Spammers Get My Cell Number?

In our region, the Twin Cities, there are four area codes (612, 651, 763, and 952). I live in 952 but my cell phone's number is in 651, which is the other side of town. Most of the people I know are in the 612, 952 and 763 area codes.

Most every afternoon I get a call on my cell phone from a number in the same exchange. The few times I've answered these calls they have been spam calls for direct marketers or businesses I've never dealt with (auto glass dealers).

The number displayed when I get these calls isn't the caller's real number: it's fake. Direct marketers spoof the caller ID, using a number in the same area code and exchange to make you think that someone living in your neighborhood is calling you. But since I don't know anyone in that exchange of the 651 area code, I know immediately that the call is spam and I don't want to talk to them.

I've given my cell phone number only to friends, family and only recently the doctor's office. I used to give out my landline to companies that required it, but we recently dropped the landline. Now I use a Google Voice number for companies that I never want to talk to. So no companies should have my cell number.

But how did these spammers get hold of my phone number? The same way Cambridge Analytica got hold of 80 million people's data without their permission:

From Facebook, or some other app that one of my friends installed on their phone.

When you install the Facebook app one of the things you give it access to is your contact list. That means Facebook knows your phone number and, worse, the phone numbers of everyone in your contact list.

Does Facebook sell the phone numbers it harvests from our contact lists? I don't know. There's nothing stopping them from doing so. Google also has my number, since I have an Android phone, and Apple has the phone number of everyone with an iPhone.

It's possible that Google sold my number to spammers, or Apple sold the contact list of one of my friends. Or maybe it was a company that has an app that purports to do one thing, but exists solely harvest contact lists to sell to spammers.

And that's the problem. It's one thing for Facebook to sell the personal data of Facebook users. But Facebook and companies like it have access to mountains of data about the people that Facebook users know, and there's nothing to stop them from selling those people's data as well.

If your reaction is, "Pish, tosh. What's new about this? Phone companies used to publish big fat books with everyone's phone number in them."

The difference is twofold: first, these contact lists allow companies to create networks of people, to figure out who knows who. Phone books didn't list the phone numbers of all your friends as well.

Second, Facebook has access to all the information in your contact list, including physical addresses, email addresses and any other notes you may keep on your acquaintances. Like their birthdays, or the code for your friend's home security system so you can feed their cat. Some people might even store their bank account number or other sensitive information in their contact list.

Clearly we need legislation that limits what companies like Facebook, Google and Apple can do with this sensitive information, and controls on apps to prevent them from accessing information on your friends without their permission.

Lake Elmo: a Case Study

Conservative ideology and stubbornness isn't limited to the Deep South. It can also be found in states like Minnesota.

Lake Elmo is a suburb of the Twin Cities, in what was formerly the boondocks. It's now becoming intensely developed as the population of the region continues to grow.

In the last few year residents of Lake Elmo, like my brother- and sister-in-law, have been bitching because the Metropolitan Council ordered the town to install a sanitary sewer system that will cost a lot of money.

Residents complain that they can't afford $14,000 per house for the sewers. They don't mention that these assessments are not lump payments: they are assessments paid over many years. They don't mention that the state gave the city a million bucks to defray the cost. And they don't mention that they'll no longer have to pay to pump out their septic systems multiple times a year.

Lake Elmo started out as a small town long ago, unlike most Twin Cities suburbs that were developed from farmland over the course of just a few years. New suburbs were planned out all at once with roads, water, sewage and so on.

But since Lake Elmo grew up over a century, homes and businesses drilled wells and used underground septic systems, in which sewage is collected under buildings, and allowed to seep into the groundwater.

This works fine in thinly populated rural areas. But once you hit a certain population density, it's no longer feasible. There's more waste than the aquifer can safely absorb and decontaminate: pretty soon urine and feces start leaching into your water supply.

And right on cue, to illustrate the problem of well water contamination, Lake Elmo is facing another problem: PFCs in their water supply. Recently the town was forced to shut down a well and a water tower.

PFCs cause cancer and a wide variety of other diseases; infants and fetuses are most vulnerable. For years 3M discharged chemical waste into nearby landfills, ultimately contaminating local wells.

Both these problems are the result of lax environmental regulation of businesses producing dangerous chemicals and a failure to plan for future population growth.

The conservative idea that everything should stay just the way it was 250 years ago simply does not work when the population exceeds a certain number.

For the economy to grow, the population has to grow. Growing cities and states that keep dumping excrement into aquifers, toxic industrial chemicals into landfills and car exhaust into the air will eventually kill their own people.

That's why Donald Trump's dismantling of the EPA is one of the biggest disasters of his presidency.