Last week, the Supreme Court of the United Sates ruled unanimously that the 21 youths suing the federal government over its inaction on climate change can move forward.The U.S. District Court’s trial start date of October 29, 2018. The case is Juliana v. United States.
The federal government attempted to have the case thrown out because of lack of evidence (!) and they also tried to see the evidence that the plantiffs are going to present before the trial even started. SCOTUS rejected both claims.
This could be a very interesting case. The plaintiffs allege that the United States government's affirmative actions caused climate change, violated the youngest generation's constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and failed to protect essential public trust resources. The facts of climate change are going to be presented in court and entered into the public record. The evidence is overwhelming that it is man made and indeed threatening constitutional rights.
I realize there have been many liberals wringing their hands over the conservative tilt of the court. But this case shows that all of the SCOTUS justices, conservative or liberal, know the law better than any of the rest of us. If anything, dogmatic conservative who refuse to accept reality should be worried about SCOTUS. Their unicorn fart fantasy of turning this country into a conservative paradise ain't gonna happen with Brett Kavanaugh or anyone else on their list.
The law is not on their side.
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Monday, August 06, 2018
Friday, August 03, 2018
The Pope Ups the Pro-Life Ante
There are people who pretend to be pro-life, and then there are the people who really are pro-life. Pope Francis is the real deal:
I may not agree with the Catholic Church on everything, but it has overcome many of its hypocritical deficiencies and is generally a force for good.
This is definitely not the case with American evangelicals and Republicans. They claim to be pro-life, but they're constantly on the warpath, clamoring for more military spending, more guns on the street, applying the death penalty to more cases, torturing suspects in military internment camps, and constantly attacking minorities and immigrants.
Take the governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts. He's supposedly a Catholic, but when the state of Nebraska repealed the death penalty in 2015, the Roman Catholic governor used his family fortune to bankroll a referendum to reinstate it.
American evangelicals and Republicans are all phonies. They claim to be so morally superior to the rest of us, yet they voted in droves for known sexual predators like Donald Trump and Roy Moore.
These are the same people who keep clamoring for more "religious liberty" in the United States, but what they really want to do is insult, ostracize, beat up and eventually drive out all gays and Muslims.
These self-proclaimed moral majoritarians in the White House and Republican statehouses shred the ten commandments every day.
The only reason Republicans oppose abortion is so that they can sucker single-issue Catholics into voting for them. Because people like Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Roy Moore and all the other Republican toads embody everything that good Catholics despise.
Back in the day Republicans demanded that the Catholic Church excommunicate Democrats who supported a woman's right to choose (which is not the same as favoring abortion).
Perhaps the Catholic Church should excommunicate all the Republicans who endorse the death penalty, clamor for the torture of suspects, spread the cancer of handguns, and deny the basic human rights of immigrants and minorities.
Pope Francis has declared the death penalty wrong in all cases, a definitive change in church teaching that is likely to challenge Catholic politicians, judges and officials who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment.
Before, church doctrine accepted the death penalty if it was “the only practicable way” to defend lives, an opening that some Catholics took as license to support capital punishment in many cases.The Catholic Church has a long history and hasn't always been on the side of the righteous, but in the last sixty or seventy years the Church has become more consistent on the sanctity of life. It, of course, opposes abortion, but generally favors reasonable reasonable restrictions on handguns, opposes war in all its forms, and vigorously advocates for the poor, minorities, immigrants and victims of terrorism and government oppression.
I may not agree with the Catholic Church on everything, but it has overcome many of its hypocritical deficiencies and is generally a force for good.
This is definitely not the case with American evangelicals and Republicans. They claim to be pro-life, but they're constantly on the warpath, clamoring for more military spending, more guns on the street, applying the death penalty to more cases, torturing suspects in military internment camps, and constantly attacking minorities and immigrants.
Take the governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts. He's supposedly a Catholic, but when the state of Nebraska repealed the death penalty in 2015, the Roman Catholic governor used his family fortune to bankroll a referendum to reinstate it.
American evangelicals and Republicans are all phonies. They claim to be so morally superior to the rest of us, yet they voted in droves for known sexual predators like Donald Trump and Roy Moore.
These are the same people who keep clamoring for more "religious liberty" in the United States, but what they really want to do is insult, ostracize, beat up and eventually drive out all gays and Muslims.
These self-proclaimed moral majoritarians in the White House and Republican statehouses shred the ten commandments every day.
The only reason Republicans oppose abortion is so that they can sucker single-issue Catholics into voting for them. Because people like Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Roy Moore and all the other Republican toads embody everything that good Catholics despise.
Back in the day Republicans demanded that the Catholic Church excommunicate Democrats who supported a woman's right to choose (which is not the same as favoring abortion).
Perhaps the Catholic Church should excommunicate all the Republicans who endorse the death penalty, clamor for the torture of suspects, spread the cancer of handguns, and deny the basic human rights of immigrants and minorities.
Put Them In Gitmo
If you want to know just how fucking sick and dangerous Trump supporters are, look no further than this recent story about Alex Jones (a regular Trump adviser along with Sean Hannity) and the Sandy Hook families.
In the five years since Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., death threats and online harassment have forced his parents, Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, to relocate seven times. They now live in a high-security community hundreds of miles from where their 6-year-old is buried.
Yep. That's right, folks. It's not merely enough that Mr. Pozner has to live with the death of his child. He also has to live under constant threat from Trumpsters who think that the Sandy Hook shooting was "fake news" and that the parents are crisis actors. These are the people that used to be outliers and now they are part of the mainstream Republican party. For further evidence of this, take a look at this photo taken at a recent Trump rally.
Trump supporters believe that their dear leader is fighting a war alongside a hero named "Q" against a deep state menace that includes the media. Check out how CNN's Jim Acosta was treated at the event.
These people are dangerous. They are domestic terrorists. They need to be Gitmo'd.
Now.
In the five years since Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., death threats and online harassment have forced his parents, Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, to relocate seven times. They now live in a high-security community hundreds of miles from where their 6-year-old is buried.
Yep. That's right, folks. It's not merely enough that Mr. Pozner has to live with the death of his child. He also has to live under constant threat from Trumpsters who think that the Sandy Hook shooting was "fake news" and that the parents are crisis actors. These are the people that used to be outliers and now they are part of the mainstream Republican party. For further evidence of this, take a look at this photo taken at a recent Trump rally.
Trump supporters believe that their dear leader is fighting a war alongside a hero named "Q" against a deep state menace that includes the media. Check out how CNN's Jim Acosta was treated at the event.
These people are dangerous. They are domestic terrorists. They need to be Gitmo'd.
Now.
Thursday, August 02, 2018
Not All Cop Shootings Are Worthy of Protest
Marchers in Minneapolis are blocking trains to protest the death of Thurman Blevins, who was shot and killed by cops responding to a call about a man drinking and randomly firing a pistol. Video of the encounter shows (though not very clearly) that Blevins had a gun, which was found at the site, along with a bullet casing.
There have been countless cases where police have killed a black man for no good reason, and the African-American community has a right to be extremely angry about their treatment at the hands of law enforcement.
Philando Castile should not have been killed. Michael Brown should not have been killed. Trayvon Martin, though not shot by cop, should not have been killed. Walter Scott, Eric Courtney Harris and Akai Gurley should not have been killed, and in their cases the killer cops were actually convicted.
An awful lot of cops seem to be on a power trip, and start shooting at anyone who disobeys them or runs away, even if it's not clear they've done anything wrong. Many cops think that fleeing is a sign of guilt, when the reality is that being near anyone with a loaded handgun exponentially raises your odds of being killed -- especially black men near cops.
Sometimes the cops even shoot black men who are lying on the ground obeying their orders with their hands up. So it's easy to understand why black men run when the cops show up: they get shot no matter what they do, so they might as well take a chance on running.
But the Blevins case does not seem to be worthy of protest because of his erratic behavior:
According to the 911 caller, that man was "intoxicated," and "walking around shooting off his gun," which the caller labeled a "silver nine millimeter." The caller says the man shot his gun into the air and the ground, and hadn't hurt anyone, and that he was carrying a bottle of Amsterdam gin.So, yes, it's a tragedy that Blevins was killed. But like most Shakespearean tragedies, it was of his own making.
What if the cops had just let him run away? He might have gone home and sobered up. Or he might have shot his girlfriend, or his mother, or robbed a liquor store and killed the clerk, or went to work and killed six people. You can see how cops feel that they just can't win, no matter what they do.
The reality is, cops don't only kill black men. Last month in Chaska, a Minneapolis suburb, cops responding to a 911 call killed a sixteen-year-old white boy who was acting erratically, threatening his mother with knives and a bat.
Justine Damond, a white woman reporting a rape last year, was killed by a Minneapolis cop who almost took his partner's head off when he fired at her through the squad car window.
And just few days ago in Aurora, Colorado, cops killed Richard Black, an elderly man who had just shot and killed a naked crazy man who'd broken into his house and attacked his grandson. The responding officers mistook the grandfather, who had a conceal carry permit, for the assailant because he was armed.
Which just proves that the NRA is dead wrong: guns do not make you safer. Blevins is dead because he had a gun. Black is dead because he had a gun. And most of the others are dead because cops thought they might have guns.
Cops are on a hair trigger all the time because so many guns flood the streets of America. Every time they approach someone sitting in a car, or in their house, or walking on the street, they face a real danger of being shot. But that still doesn't justify trigger-happy behavior.
African-Americans are killed by cops at twice the rate as whites. This is a horrible injustice. Cops who kill black men without justification should be fired and charged with murder. Cops should not be able to use the "I was afraid so I shot him" defense: they're trained professionals who are paid to make the right decision about deadly force, and should be held to a higher standard.
But protesters should choose their causes more carefully to avoid cheapening the effect: not every black man killed by the cops is a martyr.
Some are just dangerous, drunken idiots shooting up the neighborhood.
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Milk: Republicans Against Regulations, Except When They Aren't
Dairy farmers and cattle ranchers are not happy. There's been a steady rise in the number of vegans and vegetarians, and the search for alternatives to milk and meat is threatening their bottom lines.
One of the big battlefields is naming. For decades people who are allergic to dairy products have turned to things like soy milk. As veganism goes mainstream, people are looking for alternatives to animal products, and soy milk is increasingly popular.
But a lot of people are allergic to soy, or don't like how it tastes. And so the marketplace has responded with almond milk, coconut milk and even oat milk.
Republicans have been screaming about reducing regulations for years, and the Trump administration has been rolling back environmental regulations like crazy.
So how does FDA in the Trump administration respond to the thriving growth in plant-based dairy alternatives? By hammering the burgeoning industry with regulations!
The Food and Drug Administration signaled plans to start enforcing a federal standard that defines “milk” as coming from the “milking of one or more healthy cows.” That would be a change for the agency, which has not aggressively gone after the proliferation of plant-based drinks labeled as “milk.”Now this is ridiculous. Soy milk has called that for at least thirty or forty years, and coconut milk has been called that for centuries.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb talked about the plans this week, noting there are hundreds of federal “standards of identity” spelling out how foods with various names need to be manufactured.
The thing is, no one ever calls soy milk just plain "milk." It's always got the "soy" in front of it. So there's never any confusion.
But dairy farmers are guilty of hypocrisy: feta cheese is properly made of sheep's and/or goat's milk. Many people who are allergic to dairy products can eat feta.
In the United States producers usually make fake feta, using cow's milk, which means people with dairy allergies can't eat it. In Europe feta is a protected designation, and to be called feta, the cheese must be made the traditional way in Greece, essentially giving Greece a trademark on the word feta, the way the Champagne region in France has a lock on champagne. Thus, American cheeses can't be sold in Europe under names like feta, parmesan and gorgonzola.
American dairy farmers want to sell completely phony feta and parmesan in Europe, but are trying to prevent the sale of clearly labeled soy milk.
The Trump administration wants to use government regulation to pick winners and losers in the war between soy milk producers and dairy farmers. Typical Republican hypocrisy.
For meat producers there's an even bigger problem coming down the pike. Some vegans don't eat meat because of the cruel conditions under which animals are raised, and the huge environmental costs: cows produce enormous amounts of methane, contributing to global warming. Large corporate farms create toxic lagoons filled with cow and hog manure. Spills from these lagoons are responsible for killing millions of fish across the country every year.
Meat production is also horrendously inefficient; per gram of protein, animal protein uses 6-10 times as much water as plant-based protein. It also takes a long time to raise large animals like cattle and hogs. Animal husbandry for food production is not sustainable with larger and larger human populations.
So scientists are looking at alternatives, like "cultured meat." Meat is just animal muscle tissue, which can now be grown in a test tube. It's basically cloning muscle tissue.
This would use drastically fewer resources. It would eliminate the need for factory farms where animals are packed into tiny cages their entire lives, making it cruelty free. There would be no urine or feces produced, so there would be no toxic manure lagoon spills. There would be no need for slaughterhouses, which are notoriously dangerous to work in and basically require immigrants to staff them, because Americans simply refuse to work in these awful, awful jobs. And it would be far more sanitary, since there would be no dirty animals or slaughterhouse workers touching the meat.
But meat producers are already trying to ban calling cultured muscle tissue products "meat," again using FDA regulations to thwart their competition.
Which is totally ludicrous: these products are genetically identical to meat. You can make a rational argument for disallowing the term soy milk -- I actually have no problem with the FDA making soy milk producers call it a "soy beverage." But cultured meat is meat, even more than lunch meat, or sausage or hamburger are meat.
Have you ever eaten a hot dog? Or a bologna sandwich? Or even a turkey sandwich? Most of these "meats" have utterly no resemblance to real meat.
Most days I have a turkey sandwich for lunch. However, this is a misnomer: the texture and flavor of "turkey breast" lunch meat is nothing like a real turkey breast. Based on its texture and appearance it seems that they render it into a slurry, add preservatives and water, compress it in a tubular mold, slice it and then package it in plastic.
In real turkey, like you have on Thanksgiving, you can tease apart the fibers in the meat and tell that it was actually a muscle at one point. But most every kind of prepackaged lunch meat is a solid, textureless blob of animal protein.
Just like cultured meat.
Hamburgers, hot dogs and sausage are even less like real meat than cultured meat, because they don't use all muscle tissue. They include all kinds of animal byproducts (muscle, gristle, organs, fat, lips, snouts, etc.), ground up together into a product that has no resemblance to the texture of real meat.
Republicans claim to be against regulation, but they aren't. In their view, the purpose of regulation is to stifle competition, not to protect consumers from unsafe products or predatory monopolies.
Typical Republican hypocrisy.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
"Fixing" Problems He Caused
The thing about Donald Trump is that he constantly is causing his own problems. He does something really stupid, then does something that he thinks "solves" the problem he caused in the first place.
Most of the time he causes political problems for himself with his constant lying, but this habit has much larger consequences that endanger the entire economy and risk nuclear war.
For example:
A while back Donald Trump started making bellicose tweets and threatening to nuke North Korea. Then Trump did an about face, had a meeting with the dictator that runs the joint, Kim Jong Un, proclaiming how smart and how much Little Rocket Man loves his country. Trump got nothing from North Korea and publicly gave a petty dictator a blowjob.
Trump adopted Kim's position that the United States and North Korea should pursue "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," which basically means that Trump will retreat from South Korean peninsula, abandoning our allies.
Trump brags he saved us from nuclear war -- the one he threatened to start.
A while back Trump started a trade war with China and our allies. Other countries are now retaliating. The trade war is hurting companies like Harley Davidson, but even the threat of a trade war was killing American farmers who export soybeans to China. So the other day Trump announced that he would spend billions of dollars to subsidize farmers hurt by the idiotic trade war that he started. It's nothing short of a bribe to make them overlook how much he's screwing them over.
Months ago Trump tore up the deal to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions, which was reached by international consensus. The other day Iranian President Rouhani said, "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars." That's a pretty conciliatory thing for an Iranian to say, considering that most every time an Iranian says "America" it's preceded by "Death to."
But Trump responded with a blistering all-caps Twitter tirade threatening to destroy Iran if they ever threaten the United States again.
Which is almost exactly what Trump did when Kim Jong Un threatened to nuke the United States. And then Trump turned around and had a summit meeting with Kim and has since had nothing bad to say about the petty little dictator, who by all reports is still developing nuclear capabilities (according to the Wall Street Journal).
And the stupid thing is, Iran is going to continue to yammer "Death to America" and Trump will do nothing about it, because Trump is stupid and weak, and is Putin's puppet. Putin uses Iran and Hezbollah to indirectly attack the United States, usually through Israel. (This eternal antagonism is intentional and mutually beneficial because it keeps the conservatives in power in all involved countries: Russia, Iran, Israel, and the United States.)
Trump desperately wants a "win" with Iran to make Obama look bad. As he did with North Korea, Trump will sell out any- and everyone to make himself look good.
So what did Putin and Trump talk about in Helsinki? None of his advisors seem to know.
I'd wager that Putin agreed to let Trump start a fake beef with Iran. Then Putin will come to the United States later this year and "broker" a fabulous new agreement with Iran, solving the problem that Trump will cast as Obama's fault.
The agreement will keep the status quo exactly as it is. Iran will sell oil, and continue to ramp down their nuclear program. It will make Putin look great, and Trump will bask in his master's glow.
And again, Trump will "fix" a problem that he caused in the first place.
Trump is just a transparent con man. A piece of trash who changes his story almost every hour.
First he asks Russia to hack the Democrats. They do. Trump's son, son-in-law, security advisor, campaign manager and other campaign surrogates meet dozens of times with Russian ambassadors, lawyers and spies. Republican and NRA operatives like Paul Erickson were literally sleeping with Russian spies like Maria Butina.
Then Trump wins the election and denies Russia messed with it. He blames a 400-lb fat guy sitting naked on his bed (could that be projection?). Pressed, all his experts constantly acknowledge Trump is lying. Then Trump grudgingly admits Russia interfered. Then he flip-flops on this ten more times, back and forth, back and forth, looking like a mendacious, feeble-minded nitwit embarrassing himself and everyone who works for or supports him.
In Helsinki Trump fawns all over the man who ordered the hacking of our election, the man who made Trump president. Reporters ask Putin if he wanted Trump to win and if he helped him. Putin says yes!
And days later Trump insists that Russia wants Democrats to win, even though Putin publicly endorsed Trump while getting a blowjob from him in Helsinki.
And then, to top it all off, Trump orders the IRS to eliminate the requirement that PACs report the identity of their donors, opening the floodgates for foreign money into American elections. The governor of Montana has already sued over this.
Why did Trump do this? He wants the Russian money, of course: he's notoriously cheap. But it's also quite possibly a false-flag operation in the works. Russia and other countries will secretly fill Trump campaign coffers, while making a few small donations to Democratic PACs, funneling through innocuous intermediaries, which will conveniently be "discovered" by WikiLeaks at some embarrassing point in the fall campaign.
Trump will then say, "See! I told you Russia wanted the Democrats to win! Nyah, nyah!"
This man is a traitor. Each day that Republicans let this piece of garbage sit in the Oval Office they blacken their souls as collaborators in treason.
Most of the time he causes political problems for himself with his constant lying, but this habit has much larger consequences that endanger the entire economy and risk nuclear war.
For example:
A while back Donald Trump started making bellicose tweets and threatening to nuke North Korea. Then Trump did an about face, had a meeting with the dictator that runs the joint, Kim Jong Un, proclaiming how smart and how much Little Rocket Man loves his country. Trump got nothing from North Korea and publicly gave a petty dictator a blowjob.
Trump adopted Kim's position that the United States and North Korea should pursue "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," which basically means that Trump will retreat from South Korean peninsula, abandoning our allies.
Trump brags he saved us from nuclear war -- the one he threatened to start.
A while back Trump started a trade war with China and our allies. Other countries are now retaliating. The trade war is hurting companies like Harley Davidson, but even the threat of a trade war was killing American farmers who export soybeans to China. So the other day Trump announced that he would spend billions of dollars to subsidize farmers hurt by the idiotic trade war that he started. It's nothing short of a bribe to make them overlook how much he's screwing them over.
Months ago Trump tore up the deal to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions, which was reached by international consensus. The other day Iranian President Rouhani said, "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars." That's a pretty conciliatory thing for an Iranian to say, considering that most every time an Iranian says "America" it's preceded by "Death to."
But Trump responded with a blistering all-caps Twitter tirade threatening to destroy Iran if they ever threaten the United States again.
Which is almost exactly what Trump did when Kim Jong Un threatened to nuke the United States. And then Trump turned around and had a summit meeting with Kim and has since had nothing bad to say about the petty little dictator, who by all reports is still developing nuclear capabilities (according to the Wall Street Journal).
And the stupid thing is, Iran is going to continue to yammer "Death to America" and Trump will do nothing about it, because Trump is stupid and weak, and is Putin's puppet. Putin uses Iran and Hezbollah to indirectly attack the United States, usually through Israel. (This eternal antagonism is intentional and mutually beneficial because it keeps the conservatives in power in all involved countries: Russia, Iran, Israel, and the United States.)
Trump desperately wants a "win" with Iran to make Obama look bad. As he did with North Korea, Trump will sell out any- and everyone to make himself look good.
So what did Putin and Trump talk about in Helsinki? None of his advisors seem to know.
I'd wager that Putin agreed to let Trump start a fake beef with Iran. Then Putin will come to the United States later this year and "broker" a fabulous new agreement with Iran, solving the problem that Trump will cast as Obama's fault.
The agreement will keep the status quo exactly as it is. Iran will sell oil, and continue to ramp down their nuclear program. It will make Putin look great, and Trump will bask in his master's glow.
And again, Trump will "fix" a problem that he caused in the first place.
Trump is just a transparent con man. A piece of trash who changes his story almost every hour.
First he asks Russia to hack the Democrats. They do. Trump's son, son-in-law, security advisor, campaign manager and other campaign surrogates meet dozens of times with Russian ambassadors, lawyers and spies. Republican and NRA operatives like Paul Erickson were literally sleeping with Russian spies like Maria Butina.
Then Trump wins the election and denies Russia messed with it. He blames a 400-lb fat guy sitting naked on his bed (could that be projection?). Pressed, all his experts constantly acknowledge Trump is lying. Then Trump grudgingly admits Russia interfered. Then he flip-flops on this ten more times, back and forth, back and forth, looking like a mendacious, feeble-minded nitwit embarrassing himself and everyone who works for or supports him.
In Helsinki Trump fawns all over the man who ordered the hacking of our election, the man who made Trump president. Reporters ask Putin if he wanted Trump to win and if he helped him. Putin says yes!
And days later Trump insists that Russia wants Democrats to win, even though Putin publicly endorsed Trump while getting a blowjob from him in Helsinki.
And then, to top it all off, Trump orders the IRS to eliminate the requirement that PACs report the identity of their donors, opening the floodgates for foreign money into American elections. The governor of Montana has already sued over this.
Why did Trump do this? He wants the Russian money, of course: he's notoriously cheap. But it's also quite possibly a false-flag operation in the works. Russia and other countries will secretly fill Trump campaign coffers, while making a few small donations to Democratic PACs, funneling through innocuous intermediaries, which will conveniently be "discovered" by WikiLeaks at some embarrassing point in the fall campaign.
Trump will then say, "See! I told you Russia wanted the Democrats to win! Nyah, nyah!"
This man is a traitor. Each day that Republicans let this piece of garbage sit in the Oval Office they blacken their souls as collaborators in treason.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Updating Godwin's Law
Does Godwin's law need to be updated? Yes, I think it does given that we live in an age with Donald Trump and his insanely irrational supporters. Thankfully, Mike Godwin himself agrees as well.
By all means cite GL if you think some Nazi comparison is baseless, needlessly inflammatory or hyperbolic. But Godwin’s Law was never meant to block us from challenging the institutionalization of cruelty or the callousness of officials who claim to be just following the law. It definitely wasn’t meant to shield our leaders from being slammed for the current fashion of pitching falsehoods as fact. These behaviors, distressing as they are, may not yet add up to a new Reich, but please forgive me for worrying that they’re the “embryonic form” of a horror we hoped we had put behind us.
Yep.
By all means cite GL if you think some Nazi comparison is baseless, needlessly inflammatory or hyperbolic. But Godwin’s Law was never meant to block us from challenging the institutionalization of cruelty or the callousness of officials who claim to be just following the law. It definitely wasn’t meant to shield our leaders from being slammed for the current fashion of pitching falsehoods as fact. These behaviors, distressing as they are, may not yet add up to a new Reich, but please forgive me for worrying that they’re the “embryonic form” of a horror we hoped we had put behind us.
Yep.
Labels:
Donald Trump,
Godwin's Law,
Mike Godwin,
Trump supporters
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Putin Supplies Trump's Montenegro Talking Points
Vladimir Putin is now feeding Fox News and Donald Trump their talking points:
During an interview with Trump that aired Tuesday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked him why the U.S. should abide by the rules of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and defend Montenegro if it is attacked.Now, before Helsinki Trump had never given Montenegro a single thought. Trump only asked himself that question because Montenegro is one of Putin's pet peeves: Russia engineered a failed coup in Montenegro in October 2016. American never really heard about it because it was at the height of our election campaign. That wasn't an accident.
“Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?” Carlson asked. “Why is that?”
“I understand what you’re saying,” Trump replied. “I’ve asked the same question.”
“Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people … they have aggressive people. They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III.”
So why Montenegro, and why now? Because of the meeting in Helsinki, where Putin fed Trump new instructions. I can just imagine how it went down:
Putin [staring intently into Trump's porcine little eyes]: Repeat after me: The people of Montenegro are very aggressive. They are arresting my spies and coup plotters and I can't have that. You don't want to start WWIII over a tiny country that nobody cares about.The details of Putin's coup attempt in Montenegro:
Trump [porcine little eyes glazed over in hypnotic trance]: The mountain negroes are very aggressive... The mountain negroes are spies and want to start World War III... Nobody cares about mountain negroes....
In October 2016, for the day of the parliamentary election, a coup d'état was prepared by a group of persons that included leaders of the Montenegrin opposition, Serbian nationals and Russian agents; the coup was prevented. In 2017, fourteen people, including two Russian nationals and two Montenegrin opposition leaders, Andrija Mandić and Milan Knežević, were indicted for their alleged roles in the coup attempt on charges such as "preparing a conspiracy against the constitutional order and the security of Montenegro" and an "attempted terrorist act."Montenegro is a small country that was part of Yugoslavia. After Yugoslavia split up, Montenegro and Serbia formed a loose federation. In 2006 Montenegro voted for independence, splitting from Serbia, a Russian puppet state. Since independence Montenegro has aligned itself with the west, the United States and NATO. They use the euro. They want to be a free, modern democracy and not a client of Moscow.
In June 2017, Montenegro formally became a member of NATO, an eventuality that had been supported and opposed by approximately same share of the country′s population and had triggered a promise of retaliatory actions on the part of Russia′s government.
Putin is trying to rebuild Russian hegemony country by country. In 2008 he invaded and occupied part of Georgia. In 2014 he took Crimea and has occupied the eastern part of Ukraine. He shot down an airliner heading to Amsterdam. He interfered in the Brexit vote, the American election, and in other elections all across Europe. He's already got countries like Serbia and Belorussia under his thumb, and is angry that Montenegro got away.
And in case you're wondering why a Slavic country has a name like Montenegro, it is Venetian for "black mountain." The native name of the country is Crna Gora (Црна Гора, pronounced tsrna gora), and the official language is Crnogorski, a dialect of Serbo-Croat.
It is no accident that Montenegro has become the flash point just now. Putin knows how racist and ignorant Trump and his followers are, and knows how to pull their strings. He knows they would be outraged that the United States might go to war to defend negroes. So Putin put the Montenegro bug in Trump's ear.
With the arrest of Maria Butina, it is clear that Russia is doing the same thing in the United States that they did in Montenegro: sending over agents, seducing political activists, recruiting allies in the Republican Party and the NRA.
The only difference is that the Montenegrins managed to repel the Russian coup, while the Americans just let it happen.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh Is Completely Compromised
Donald Trump always brags that he picks the best people. But invariably the people he chooses have terrible judgment or are corrupt, or compromised in some way.
Almost two out of every three senior members of the Trump administration have resigned or been fired, a mere 18 months into this dumpster fire of a presidency. And most of the rest of them have serious ethical problems that will eventually get them fired (like Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross's insider trading scandals).
Even the retirement of Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy is tainted by conflicts of interest: Kennedy's son ran the real estate division of Deutsche Bank when the bank loaned Trump a billion dollars.
Now Trump's pick to replace Kennedy has his own scandal: in recent years he was as much as $200,000 in debt with three credit cards and a loan. Supposedly he accrued the debt by buying his friends' season tickets for the Nationals baseball team.
This doesn't pass the smell test. This guy makes $220,000 a year, and his wife makes $66,000. It's just not credible that someone with that background and that kind of income could get into this kind of debt buying baseball tickets for friends.
No one is that generous. Or stupid. And if he really is that stupid or generous, it is disqualifying for a seat on the Supreme Court.
No, there's more to this. My guess is that he not only has season tickets to the Nationals, but he has racked up huge gambling debts betting on his team, or some other expensive and compromising activity that Trump is trying to cover up with this bogus baseball ticket story.
This kind of debt should be a huge red flag: the FBI and the CIA would never hire someone who is so compromised, and has terrible economic judgment.
Kavanaugh has been trying to live beyond his means, with tastes and appetites that far outstrip his earning potential. He does not come from money, and the salary for a justice is not much greater than what he's making now. So Kavanaugh will likely fall right back into the same trap.
Scott Pruitt, the former EPA director, is cut from the same cloth. He resigned in total disgrace for spending outrageous amounts of money on unnecessary travel and security, using his aides and security detail to run personal errands (buying used mattresses!) and trying to extort jobs from chicken franchises and lobbying firms.
If we should learn anything from the Pruitt episode, it is that men of lesser means in the Trump administration are too easily swayed and compromised by material gains.
But that is of course why Trump picked Kavanaugh. And that is why his nomination should be rejected by the Senate.
Almost two out of every three senior members of the Trump administration have resigned or been fired, a mere 18 months into this dumpster fire of a presidency. And most of the rest of them have serious ethical problems that will eventually get them fired (like Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross's insider trading scandals).
Even the retirement of Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy is tainted by conflicts of interest: Kennedy's son ran the real estate division of Deutsche Bank when the bank loaned Trump a billion dollars.
Now Trump's pick to replace Kennedy has his own scandal: in recent years he was as much as $200,000 in debt with three credit cards and a loan. Supposedly he accrued the debt by buying his friends' season tickets for the Nationals baseball team.
This doesn't pass the smell test. This guy makes $220,000 a year, and his wife makes $66,000. It's just not credible that someone with that background and that kind of income could get into this kind of debt buying baseball tickets for friends.
No one is that generous. Or stupid. And if he really is that stupid or generous, it is disqualifying for a seat on the Supreme Court.
No, there's more to this. My guess is that he not only has season tickets to the Nationals, but he has racked up huge gambling debts betting on his team, or some other expensive and compromising activity that Trump is trying to cover up with this bogus baseball ticket story.
This kind of debt should be a huge red flag: the FBI and the CIA would never hire someone who is so compromised, and has terrible economic judgment.
Kavanaugh has been trying to live beyond his means, with tastes and appetites that far outstrip his earning potential. He does not come from money, and the salary for a justice is not much greater than what he's making now. So Kavanaugh will likely fall right back into the same trap.
Scott Pruitt, the former EPA director, is cut from the same cloth. He resigned in total disgrace for spending outrageous amounts of money on unnecessary travel and security, using his aides and security detail to run personal errands (buying used mattresses!) and trying to extort jobs from chicken franchises and lobbying firms.
If we should learn anything from the Pruitt episode, it is that men of lesser means in the Trump administration are too easily swayed and compromised by material gains.
But that is of course why Trump picked Kavanaugh. And that is why his nomination should be rejected by the Senate.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
The NRA Will Go Down With Trump
Now that Russian agent Maria Butina has been arrested for spying, I'm wondering how long it's going to be before she starts singing about the NRA taking money from Russian intelligence. We've known for years that the NRA views liberals and anyone else, quite frankly, who even mildly disagrees with them as enemies.
So, it's becoming clearer that the gun humpers have gotten into bed with Putin because they'd rather fellate their boom sticks than have allegiance to their country. I'm looking forward to the day that I thought I'd never see: NRA members arrested for spying and the organization itself dissolved for treason.
So, it's becoming clearer that the gun humpers have gotten into bed with Putin because they'd rather fellate their boom sticks than have allegiance to their country. I'm looking forward to the day that I thought I'd never see: NRA members arrested for spying and the organization itself dissolved for treason.
The Morning After Treason
If you want an explanation for Donald Trump's behavior yesterday in the press conference with Vladimir Putin, look no further than this video.
The people that support Donald Trump hate liberals so much that they would rather ally themselves with an enemy nation than their own countrymen.
There is now no doubt that President Trump is a traitor. He broken his oath of office and should be removed from office immediately. Whether he is denying the Russian attack on our country in 2016 out of hubris or because Putin has something on him is immaterial. Yesterday, he showed the world where his true allegiances lie.
They lie with Russia, not the United States of America.
Trump, of course, is not really the problem. It's the people that follow him. Even with Fox News yesterday blasting the president as weak, there are still people out there, like the woman in the video above, that are supporting this guy. These US citizens have been taken in by Russian foreign agents like Maria Butina (more on her later) by using their hatred of liberals as hook. They will do anything, even commit treason, to make sure that liberals don't get into power again.
As I have said many times, these people are dangerous and need to be neutralized. There may come a point when our intelligence agencies are going to have to look at Trump supporters as enemies of the state acting against our national interests.
Trump's supporters are the problem and the focus should be on them.
The people that support Donald Trump hate liberals so much that they would rather ally themselves with an enemy nation than their own countrymen.
There is now no doubt that President Trump is a traitor. He broken his oath of office and should be removed from office immediately. Whether he is denying the Russian attack on our country in 2016 out of hubris or because Putin has something on him is immaterial. Yesterday, he showed the world where his true allegiances lie.
They lie with Russia, not the United States of America.
Trump, of course, is not really the problem. It's the people that follow him. Even with Fox News yesterday blasting the president as weak, there are still people out there, like the woman in the video above, that are supporting this guy. These US citizens have been taken in by Russian foreign agents like Maria Butina (more on her later) by using their hatred of liberals as hook. They will do anything, even commit treason, to make sure that liberals don't get into power again.
As I have said many times, these people are dangerous and need to be neutralized. There may come a point when our intelligence agencies are going to have to look at Trump supporters as enemies of the state acting against our national interests.
Trump's supporters are the problem and the focus should be on them.
Monday, July 16, 2018
Trump Just Swallowed Putin’s Golden Shower
At today's press conference in Helsinki Vladimir Putin spewed a Golden Shower of denials of his country's interference in the 2016 election, and Donald Trump just swallowed it.
There have been dozens of indictments in the Russia investigation, including several guilty pleas, so there's no doubt whatsoever that the interference occurred -- the only question that remains is how closely Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russians, and whether Trump himself is compromised.
Back in June, 2016, the very same day Trump invited the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, Russian operatives launched a phishing attack against Democratic officials in an attempt to hack their emails. Trump seems to think that if he commits treason in front of the entire world, couching it as a joke, it doesn't count.
If he had been joking, he would have pulled a Comey and said, "I was just joking, and I am shocked and horrified at the thought that this terrible invasion on American sovereignty might be my fault." But instead, Trump keeps parroting Putin's demonstrably false denials.
In parlance that Trump should understand: every time he says "Putin denies he had anything to do it, and I believe him," the entire world laughs at Trump.
They're not laughing because they think he believes Putin -- everyone knows Putin ordered the hacks, and they know Trump knows Putin ordered the hacks. No, they're laughing because an American president, in full view of the entire world, is giving a murderous dictator fellatio and swallowing every spurt.
Just today yet another indictment of a Russian agent was announced. This time it was Maria Butina, the honeypot who conspired with the NRA and other gun nuts.
At this point, even his die-hard supporters are acknowledging that they have a serious problem with Trump.
Trump claimed "both sides" were at fault in Russia's attempts to sway the election. Just like there were fine people on "both sides" when a neo-Nazi killed a woman in Charlottesville.
And then today Trump said, "All I can do is ask the question - my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin he just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties."
Trump doesn't see any reason why Putin would have screwed over Hillary Clinton to get Trump elected? Trump, who constantly fawns over Putin, is now best pals with Putin's other puppet, Kim Jong Un. Trump has started a trade war with China, Europe, Canada, Mexico and all our allies. Trump has cast the future of NATO -- a thorn in Putin's side -- in serious doubt. Trump has given Putin everything Putin wants on North Korea, Crimea, Ukraine, Syria, etc. Trump told the world at a press conference that he thinks the FBI, CIA, NSA and NSC are lying about Putin ordering the hacking and the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
After today's performance in Helsinki, can there be any doubt that Trump is either Putin's puppet and openly conspiring with him?
The worst -- and best -- thing about Trump is that it has shown that our system of government has a serious flaw in it: the American president has too much latitude to do catastrophically stupid things when there is one-party rule.
In theory the Congress has the power to prevent Trump from making every one of the colossal errors he has made in the last year and a half. But they have abandoned their responsibility as stewards of this country's future because they're afraid of blowback from a few angry voters, or they're anxious to stop abortion, or get a business-friendly Supreme Court.
And the crazy thing is, we already knew how corrupt Trump was, even before the election: from money laundering for Russian oligarchs and the mob through his casinos and real estate deals, to his tax evasion, to his hiring illegal immigrants to do construction, to his Trump University ripoffs, to his sexual molestation of dozens of women, to illegal campaign contributions through the Trump foundation to buy off the Florida AG to get her to vacate the Trump University lawsuit in Florida, and on and on.
There are hundreds more cases like those: all corrupt, all criminal, and they have all been publicly known for decades, but somehow Trump just keeps getting away with it.
Helsinki just showed us why every voter in America should vote a straight-line Democratic ticket this fall. It's looking increasingly likely that the only thing that will protect the United States from a slow descent into a Russia-style dictatorship is a Congress run by the Democrats and impeachment proceedings.
But Republicans can short-circuit that. If they man up and impeach Trump themselves, or less embarrassingly, invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, they can regain the moral high ground and keep all the gains they've made.
And Republican voters should be okay with that. They've got what they wanted: the Supreme Court will soon be packed with conservatives who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Environmental regulations have been savaged. The wealthy have their tax cuts. And they'll have Mike Pence as president.
That last was how real Republicans held their noses and voted for a narcissistic scumbag like Trump: Pence was supposed to be the backstop. Diehard Trump voters will be angry, but they're a tiny minority of drunk, drug-addled racists and sexists who will get fed up with politics when their class clown president is ousted, and stay home on election days, continuing to collect their disability checks and watch the World Fishing Network.
Republicans should show Trump the same kind of loyalty he's shown so many people who've worked for him.
Fire his ass.
There have been dozens of indictments in the Russia investigation, including several guilty pleas, so there's no doubt whatsoever that the interference occurred -- the only question that remains is how closely Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russians, and whether Trump himself is compromised.
Back in June, 2016, the very same day Trump invited the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, Russian operatives launched a phishing attack against Democratic officials in an attempt to hack their emails. Trump seems to think that if he commits treason in front of the entire world, couching it as a joke, it doesn't count.
If he had been joking, he would have pulled a Comey and said, "I was just joking, and I am shocked and horrified at the thought that this terrible invasion on American sovereignty might be my fault." But instead, Trump keeps parroting Putin's demonstrably false denials.
In parlance that Trump should understand: every time he says "Putin denies he had anything to do it, and I believe him," the entire world laughs at Trump.
They're not laughing because they think he believes Putin -- everyone knows Putin ordered the hacks, and they know Trump knows Putin ordered the hacks. No, they're laughing because an American president, in full view of the entire world, is giving a murderous dictator fellatio and swallowing every spurt.
Just today yet another indictment of a Russian agent was announced. This time it was Maria Butina, the honeypot who conspired with the NRA and other gun nuts.
At this point, even his die-hard supporters are acknowledging that they have a serious problem with Trump.
Trump claimed "both sides" were at fault in Russia's attempts to sway the election. Just like there were fine people on "both sides" when a neo-Nazi killed a woman in Charlottesville.
And then today Trump said, "All I can do is ask the question - my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin he just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be but I really want to see the server but, I have confidence in both parties."
Trump doesn't see any reason why Putin would have screwed over Hillary Clinton to get Trump elected? Trump, who constantly fawns over Putin, is now best pals with Putin's other puppet, Kim Jong Un. Trump has started a trade war with China, Europe, Canada, Mexico and all our allies. Trump has cast the future of NATO -- a thorn in Putin's side -- in serious doubt. Trump has given Putin everything Putin wants on North Korea, Crimea, Ukraine, Syria, etc. Trump told the world at a press conference that he thinks the FBI, CIA, NSA and NSC are lying about Putin ordering the hacking and the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
After today's performance in Helsinki, can there be any doubt that Trump is either Putin's puppet and openly conspiring with him?
The worst -- and best -- thing about Trump is that it has shown that our system of government has a serious flaw in it: the American president has too much latitude to do catastrophically stupid things when there is one-party rule.
In theory the Congress has the power to prevent Trump from making every one of the colossal errors he has made in the last year and a half. But they have abandoned their responsibility as stewards of this country's future because they're afraid of blowback from a few angry voters, or they're anxious to stop abortion, or get a business-friendly Supreme Court.
And the crazy thing is, we already knew how corrupt Trump was, even before the election: from money laundering for Russian oligarchs and the mob through his casinos and real estate deals, to his tax evasion, to his hiring illegal immigrants to do construction, to his Trump University ripoffs, to his sexual molestation of dozens of women, to illegal campaign contributions through the Trump foundation to buy off the Florida AG to get her to vacate the Trump University lawsuit in Florida, and on and on.
There are hundreds more cases like those: all corrupt, all criminal, and they have all been publicly known for decades, but somehow Trump just keeps getting away with it.
Helsinki just showed us why every voter in America should vote a straight-line Democratic ticket this fall. It's looking increasingly likely that the only thing that will protect the United States from a slow descent into a Russia-style dictatorship is a Congress run by the Democrats and impeachment proceedings.
But Republicans can short-circuit that. If they man up and impeach Trump themselves, or less embarrassingly, invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, they can regain the moral high ground and keep all the gains they've made.
And Republican voters should be okay with that. They've got what they wanted: the Supreme Court will soon be packed with conservatives who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Environmental regulations have been savaged. The wealthy have their tax cuts. And they'll have Mike Pence as president.
That last was how real Republicans held their noses and voted for a narcissistic scumbag like Trump: Pence was supposed to be the backstop. Diehard Trump voters will be angry, but they're a tiny minority of drunk, drug-addled racists and sexists who will get fed up with politics when their class clown president is ousted, and stay home on election days, continuing to collect their disability checks and watch the World Fishing Network.
Republicans should show Trump the same kind of loyalty he's shown so many people who've worked for him.
Fire his ass.
With Two Tweets, Treason...
Take a look at these two tweets from President Trump earlier this AM.
With these two tweets, Trump has effectively given up on defending this nation. We were attacked by a foreign nation in 2016 and he blames our own country.
He's a traitor. Pure and simple
President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018
With these two tweets, Trump has effectively given up on defending this nation. We were attacked by a foreign nation in 2016 and he blames our own country.
He's a traitor. Pure and simple
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