A Self-Inflicted National Embarrassment

This guy played baseball?

Donald Trump is such a pathetic loser. When he heard that Anthony Fauci was throwing the first pitch at a Nationals game, he became insanely jealous, and said this:

“Randy Levine is a great friend of mine from the Yankees,” Mr. Trump, referring to the president of the baseball team, told reporters on Thursday as Dr. Fauci was preparing to take the mound. “And he asked me to throw out the first pitch, and I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.”

There was one problem: Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.

But Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized.

So, to no one's surprise, Trump was just talking through his MAGA hat, and his stooges had to walk the claim back:

After the president’s announcement, White House aides scrambled to let the team know that he was actually booked on Aug. 15, although they have not said what he plans to do. Over the weekend, Mr. Trump officially canceled.

“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday, using a racist name for the coronavirus. “We will make it later in the season!”

Hah. Trump spends all his time watching Fox News and playing golf, and thinks that the coronavirus would just go away if only those damned doctors would stop testing people.

And it only gets worse. On Tuesday Trump devolved into whining self pity on the national stage:

Just over a week after he began a rebooted effort, driven by rising infection rates and sinking poll numbers, to talk about the virus in terms more in line with medical consensus, Mr. Trump was again making unfounded claims and defending discredited medical experts. It was the sort of eccentric, science-deficient performance that many of his aides believe unnerved the public during the spring and has come to gravely threaten his re-election prospects.

Noting that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, his administration’s top coronavirus coordinator, have high approval ratings even as his own have sagged, Mr. Trump added, “And yet, they’re highly thought of — but nobody likes me.”

“It can only be my personality,” he concluded.

It's not just his personality, though his constant whining, lying, jealousy, selfishness, callousness, racism, misogyny, vengefulness and narcissism certainly make it impossible for anyone to actually like him. They only toady up to him out of fear, greed or ambition, or "like" him because they find his toxic tirades against liberals entertaining or his racist rants confirming their own predilections. But no one is actually fond of him as a person.

But they also don't like him because of his incompetence, incoherence, inconsistency and ignorance, as perfectly illustrated by what happened next:

When reporters pressed him on a viral video he had retweeted on Monday night that included doctors falsely claiming that hydroxychloroquine was a “cure” for the virus and that masks were unnecessary, Mr. Trump responded: “They’re very respected doctors. There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it, and she’s had tremendous success with it.’’ 

When a reporter noted that the physician who spoke of “a cure,” Dr. Stella Immanuel of Houston, also “made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens,” Mr. Trump responded, “I know nothing about her,” and abruptly ended the briefing moments later.

First Trump says this "doctor" is spectacular and then mere seconds later says he knows nothing about her. This is the same "doctor" who also says that endometriosis is caused by having sex with demons.

This is not how a "strong and powerful" leader behaves. This is how a thirteen-year-old girl acts. Just ask Roseanne Barr, (formerly?) a big Trump supporter, who says that Trump is the first woman president.

How much more evidence do we need to see that Trump is completely unqualified to be president? In a nationally televised news conference intended to calm American's nerves in the midst of a pandemic he says something in the most confident terms and when confronted with reality just throws up his hands and runs away to pout.

The man is just a demented huckster with the most tenuous grasp on reality, trying to sell snake oil to a country that is in desperate need of real leaders, real doctors and real scientists, not fake presidents like Trump and religious quacks like Immanuel.

Is This Communism

So Much for "Law and Order"

Somehow, it isn't a surprise that the man who murdered George Floyd has been filing fraudulent tax returns since 2014:

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, was charged with multiple tax-related felonies, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

Mr. Chauvin and his wife, Kellie Chauvin, failed to file income tax returns and pay Minnesota income taxes, and underreported and underpaid income taxes, according to Washington County prosecutors. The investigation into six years of tax filings, prosecutors said, also showed that the Chauvins did not pay the proper amount of sales tax on a vehicle.

When Chauvin killed Floyd it became known that Chauvin owned houses in Minnesota and Florida and was a registered Republican. I speculated that Chauvin was also committing tax fraud and voter fraud because he was working a full-time (and a part-time) job in Minnesota while registered to vote in Florida.

This is the scam that wealthy people like Trump use all the time to vote in multiple jurisdictions and avoid taxes. They live in Minnesota (or New York), and then own property in Florida, and then claim citizenship and register to vote in Florida, even though most of their business is conducted in Minnesota (or New York), and they live in Minnesota (or New York or Washington) they claim residency in Florida to avoid taxes.

I'm waiting for the third shoe to drop for Chauvin, when they file charges against him for voter fraud.

Guys like Chauvin and Donald Trump claim to be for "law and order," but they constantly break the law. Slowly choking a man to death in the street can hardly be counted as law and order, and that murder has predictably sown protests across the planet. Law enforcement has just made the situation more chaotic.

Trump responded by sowing even more chaos, sending jackbooted thugs across the country to arrest protesters in Portland, claiming to restore "order," tear-gassing the mayor of Portland in the process.

But chaos is nothing new for Trump: his own administration is a chaotic dumpster fire, with hundreds of positions still unfilled, and employees being fired for cause, for disloyalty, for leaking, for telling the truth, and -- in the case of the inspectors general rooting out corruption in the Trump administration -- for doing the job they're legally required to do.

Trump has spread chaos across the country and the world over. He has completely destroyed the previous "world order," single-handedly demoting the United States from the leader of the free world to just another banana republic. Now Russia and China are the predominant powers in the world, and the United States economy is in the toilet because Trump completely botched his coronavirus response. He put his toady Pence and his nitwit son-in-law in charge of the response instead of the scientists and experts whose advice countries like Germany, New Zealand and even China took, drastically reducing their case loads while our are mushrooming.

Trump regularly breaks the law and violates the Constitution: Trump "University," the scheme to blackmail the Ukrainian president, the emoluments he receives from foreigners through his hotels and resorts, his asking the US ambassador to get the British Open at his Scotland golf course. So many of his cronies have resigned, fired, jailed, convicted or confessing to crimes that Trump ordered or were done on his behalf (Cohen, Flynn, Manafort, Stone, etc., etc.). And then Trump used the office of the president to further that corruption, pardoning crooks like Roger Stone, Rod Blagojevich, Harvey Milken, Bernie Kerik, even pardoning war criminals like Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who threatened to kill his fellow SEALs if they reported him.

Trump doesn't believe in the law: it's just a tool to use to hammer his enemies (as in the lawsuit he filed against a tiny Wisconsin TV station for running an ad against him).

The only order guys like Chauvin and Trump care about is the social order, with white men on top and women and minorities at the bottom.

Put 2020 Into Perspective

Prior to our current times, let’s say pre-1990, life had a lot of problems. It got worse the further you went back. Disease, famine, war etc...people still got on with their lives. And their capacity to deal with that misery also was greater the farther you go back.

Today, people have better lives. They still do despite the pandemic. But we aren’t used to dealing with any real strife like previous generations. Think about what someone in 1880 or 1935 had to deal with. Most people didn’t live past 50. No one had money except a few people. People starved all the time.

Yes, crappy things are happening. Individuals have it really bad compared to society as a whole. But overall, I’ll take 2020 any day over previous eras in terms of a better world. I just wish we had the gumption that those past generations had. I know I don’t

The Myth of the Secret Trump Voter

“Dear everyone: there’s no such thing as a “secret Trump vote.” What there is is a really high turnout rate for Rep voters- like in the 70s- as compared to D turnout which at best hit the mid 60s in my 2018 voter file analysis.” (Rachel Bitecofer)

 Please give Rachel a follow and stop listening to nonsense about secret or shy Trump voters. Republicans vote more reliably than Democrats. That’s the only way they can win.

My Dream Last Night

Last night I dreamt that I lived in a country where people still had to deal with the pandemic but it was quite different.

They had leaders who were scientists that relied on facts and evidence, not anecdotes and online gossip. The people admired their intelligence and weren’t antagonistic about their knowledge and accomplishments in a contrarian and adolescent way.

The people were disciplined in their pursuit of solutions and weren’t distracted by irrational nonsense. They helped each other out instead of engaging in petty arguments and pointless debates on social media. They encouraged and supported each other, valuing logic above all else.

They were rational but passionate.

They asked the right questions like:

-How many people have had the virus?
-How many people have it?
-How much of the virus is required to transmit it?

They followed through in pursuit of answers to these questions with comprehensive strategies and gave their energy to goals that actually solved problems.

They were curious in the best possible of ways, wanting clear, positive outcomes for society as a whole while dealing with actual facts and evidence.

And then I woke up and realized what country I actually lived in:

 A CHILDISH SHIT SHOW OF SELFISH AND SELF RIGHTEOUS MORONS.

What the fuck, people? Can we turn this around?

Watergate Advice is Still Good: Follow the Money

I've been playing volleyball for more than 30 years. I know a lot of players. When the pandemic started all the gyms closed down, even before the state of Minnesota called for a general shutdown.

As the state opened up this spring I started looking into playing outdoors, which is much safer. The first guy I called, we'll call him D, said he wasn't going to play this year because his wife has a health condition.

This is a guy who plays almost every day in the summer, and in the winter drives more than 150 miles round trip once or twice a week to play at an indoor sand court in Wisconsin.

As infection numbers declined I decided to play sand doubles with a group of guys who (I thought) were being fairly careful. We didn't high five and maintained our distance. But the most important thing was to keep the circle small: no more than 10 people who are taking care to avoid contact with others.

I haven't even been inside a building, other than my house, for the past five months. If I do get infected, I want to make damn sure I don't pass it on to someone who didn't agree to be exposed.

Clearly I'm taking a risk by playing, but I have the explicit consent of everyone I'm in contact with to take that risk. My sister, who has a number of health conditions, was hospitalized with the virus, but she's okay now. So I figured genetics are on my side.

Then a couple of weeks ago one of the guys in the group invited his brother. After I was done playing I found out that the brother had just come from Arizona, a coranavirus hot zone. I was ticked.

So I resumed my self quarantine and stopped playing, assuming I had been exposed. I monitored my temperature and other potential symptoms. I've had none, but that's not uncommon -- about 50% of infected people don't know they've got it. And contrary to what Donald Trump says, the coronavirus is not 99% harmless. Trump might think he has the best words, but he most definitely does not have the best numbers.

According to experts, exercising outdoors while maintaining distance is pretty safe. So I continued to bike. I stopped by a different volleyball court where another group of people I know happened to be playing. One of them we'll call K. K also just came from Arizona. Between games he was citing numbers from some right-wing website, claiming that reaction to the pandemic is overblown.

Today we read that Arizona is experiencing the worst covid-19 outbreak in the country. Ninety percent of the ICU beds are occupied. Arizona is now the first state in history to enact "crisis care standards" for deciding who will receive treatment -- the infamous "death panels" that Republicans accused Obama of creating with the Affordable Care Act.

What's the difference between D and K? D works for a medical technology company and can work from home. K is a regional manager for national car rental company.

D knows that the coronavirus threat is real and is paid to save people's lives.

K is paid to entice people into flying around the country, rent cars so they can go to Disneyworld and the Grand Canyon, where they patronize bars and restaurants.

When it comes to the pandemic, you just can't trust people who are literally paid to say that things are fine, that the coronavirus is just the flu, that's it's not airborne, that only old people die, that only a tiny percentage of people suffer long-term effects.

All of those things are false: the coronavirus is not a flu virus and a flu shot provides no immunity whatsoever.

Experts may argue about droplets and aerosols, but it is crystal clear that people get the disease by breathing the same air as infected people. The evidence has been there since the beginning: the well-documented case from a restaurant air conditioner, the Washington state choir practice, and the superspreader soccer match in Italy.

Younger people with no underlying conditions do die (Nick Cordero, a Broadway actor, just died at age 41), and children are coming down with an inflammatory condition similar to Kawasaki disease.

About 20% of infections require hospitalization, which means spending thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many victims suffer strokes, heart attacks, limb amputations and long-term neurological and lung problems because Covid-19 causes severe clotting throughout the body (that's what killed Cordero). That's not "harmless."

Trump makes his money from hotels, resorts and golf courses, all of which have been hammered by closures from the pandemic. The booming economy that he inherited from Obama has gone down the toilet, and the stock market has been gyrating madly as gamblers who usually bet on sporting events, all now canceled, turned to stocks to sate their addiction.

So, who do you believe when it comes to the pandemic? The people on the front lines who staff the hospital wards, ICUs and labs, or the hucksters whose income (and reelection) depend on lying about the severity of the crisis?

If Trump had acknowledged the severity of this pandemic from the beginning and really locked down the entire country with a coordinated federal response, the way Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand and Angela Merkel in Germany did, we would have been done with this in May. (How much better would this country have fared if we'd had a woman president during this crisis?)

But all Trump cared about was promoting himself and his properties. The disease would magically go away by summer, he said, because that's what happens with flu, and this was just the Kung Flu. So now it's summer, and the disease is running rampant in the south -- Florida, Texas, Arizona and California -- because everyone flocked to air-conditioned bars after Trump demanded the states open up.

All these years later Deep Throat's advice is still good: follow the money. If someone's future depends on denying the reality of the pandemic, don't believe a word they say.

Best. Ad. Ever.

Betrayed

Metastasized Right Wing Blogger

The swift changes to our country's social fabric have left folks like Kevin Baker coming completely unglued from reality. His latest exercise in attempting to sound smart is merely one long away of saying, LIBERALS BAD. His reasoning is based on a failed ideology that perpetuates in tiny bubbles of self-referential confirmation. 

It's a petty and insecure dogma that refuses to accept outside information (facts, reality) that completely contradicts it. Essentially, it's a cult with members like Kevin and his followers engaging in bizarre thought processes that can best be described as unhinged. They hide like cowards from challenges because they want to keep up their fantasies regarding how the world works. 

It's also worthy to note that he doesn't actually write much of his "uber posts" at all. Most of the words are cut and paste jobs with no original thought whatsoever. If he had gone through formal schooling and achieved higher levels of education, he might have been capable of critical thinking. Of course, he would have had to get over his short man syndrome-like issues with academia which will likely never happen. 

Back when I was allowed to post on his site (before everyone became afraid of my intellect), I pondered the possibility of one of their own running the country. He keeps obsessive track of my posts there, even having an entire subheading (containing 20 posts!) dedicated to yours truly, so it would be easy to find it. I predicted that such a leader would result in American deaths, a crashed economy, and marked deafness of tone to major issues of the day like racism that would result in social unrest. 

Donald Trump has proven this to be EXACTLY the case. 120K dead because a child (just like Kevin) didn't want to admit that liberals were right about something. 

Running a country on the one conviction of "owning the libs" demonstrates a massive ignorance and utter stupidity in terms of how effective and necessary our federal government is to the working machinations of our republic. You can't fake you know wtf you are doing when lives are on the line. 

Kevin and his ilk don't get it because all they have is adolescent retorts. They are about to be judged on that philosophy and are going to be relegated to the ash heap of history forever. Thank God, because we can't afford to lose any more American lives due to their childishly insecure and petty bullshit. 

Read

Who'd a Thunk?

Two weeks later, the chickens have gone to the hospital to roost:

Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate, announced on Twitter on Thursday that he had been hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, learned Monday that he had tested positive, was hospitalized Wednesday, and on Thursday “was resting comfortably in an Atlanta-area hospital,” according to a statement posted on his Twitter account.

Mr. Cain attended Mr. Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20. A few hours before the event, the Trump campaign disclosed that six staff members who had been working on the rally had tested positive for the virus during a routine screening. Two members of the Secret Service also tested positive there, people familiar with the matter said.

In a video on his website, Mr. Cain described the rally and he said he had worn a mask while in groups of people. But he also posted photographs of himself on social media that showed him without a mask and surrounded by people in the arena.

“People were concerned, because of the media, about whether or not this was going to turn into another uptick in number of cases of Covid-19,” Mr. Cain said in the video.

Are Republicans congenitally stupid?

The media aren't responsible for your Covid infection, Herman. You are, for running around the country pretending that everything is hunky dory.

Defeating the coronavirus should really be easy, and we could have done it if someone other than that idiot Trump was president. New Zealand did it. Most Asian countries are doing far better than we are. Even France is. The EU has banned travel from the United States because Trump has totally blown it.

If we had clamped down really hard for three weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, then controlled all entry into the country, it really would have burned itself out. But not like magic. Like science. Quarantine with rigorous testing and contact tracing is the only way to stop the spread of the virus.

But no. Trump had to pretend it would go away magically. Then have press conferences every day for a month, blabbering about injecting bleach and shining UV light inside your lungs.

Then he wanted to open the country up by Easter. Now he's blaming the record number of cases and hospitalizations, mostly in Florida, Arizona, California and Texas, on too much testing.

Today Florida reported more than 10,000 new cases, 325 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. Testing didn't put those people in the hospital or kill them.

So what should we do? Those four states should be quarantined, at a minimum. Their airports should be closed for all but essential travel because they are huge vectors of infection.

But to really stop this pandemic we'd have to take real action, by shutting down the country again. That, of course, would require a federal response. But Trump is a coward, afraid of looking like a pussy.

If he was really a tough guy he would say:

You know, I was wrong. I totally blew this. I was afraid the numbers would make reelection impossible. But it's too late for that now. I know I'm gonna lose in November, and I deserve to lose. I might as well put America first and save some lives. So we closing the country down again, for the entire month of July. If everyone but the people who provide essential services stays home, we can beat this thing.

When the stay-at-home order is lifted, I will resign the office of the presidency. I'm directing my people to begin vetting candidates to replace Mike Pence when he takes my place on August the first.

Thank you, and God bless America.

On August 2nd Pence can pardon Trump and he can shuffle off to Mar a Lago, hit the golf course with his buddies, contract the coronavirus, and spend his last days in a Miami ICU, writhing in agony, rasping, "I can't breathe..."

Profiles in White Privilege

Check out these idiots.

They are Mark and Patricia McCloskey of Central West End St. Louis and they are this week's poster children for white fragility. 

Protesters marching to the mayor's house walked through an unlocked gate to travel on the private street by the home of the McCloskey's. Mark and Patty got a little freaked out when they saw the black folk and went for the heavy armaments. Don't they look completely fucking ridiculous?

Yes. Yes, they do. 

My family is from Missouri. I was born there and my sister lives close to this neighborhood. I'm very familiar with how people view race in this state. Essentially, they think all black people are criminals and when their white privilege is threatened, look out! 

In so many ways, this is a perfect illustration of how out of step some white Americans are with the times. The world is shifting rapidly before them with statues and flags (see also: participation ribbons, prizes for second place ) of losers, racists, and traitors coming down, police departments being reimagined, and the majority of the country supporting Black Lives Matter. The McCloskeys watched the future pass by their house last week and they looked completely impotent to do anything about it. The fear and the desperation on their face is FUCKING HILARIOUS... 

They are afraid and feel insecure so they go to their blankey (ArmaLite Rifle) to make them feel all better and stuff. Sorry to disappoint you, fragiles, you aren't relevant anymore. 

Is Trump a Senile Idiot or a Liar? Yes!

Two stories in the news today highlight how senile and out of touch Donald Trump is.

First was the excuse he gave for retweeting a video of a geezer in a golf cart yelling "white power!"

The White House said Sunday that President Trump didn’t hear someone shouting “white power” in a now-deleted retweet of a pro-Trump rally in Florida. 

“He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Yeah, Trump's excuse is that he can't hear.

The second was the story about how the Russians have been paying the Taliban bounties to kill Americans. The White House was briefed on this months ago in the PDB (presidential daily briefing), but Trump says nobody told him:

President Trump is denying a New York Times report that he was briefed on an alleged Russian effort to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill Western forces — including U.S. troops — in Afghanistan.

Citing unnamed officials, the Times report, published Friday, details how U.S. intelligence officials reached the conclusion about the secret payments and then briefed the president in March. The White House National Security Council conferred an interagency meeting that same month to discuss the matter, according to the report. The finding was also included in the President's Daily Brief, according to the Times.

The same people Trump is negotiating a peace deal with are being paid to assassinate Americans by a Russian dictator that Trump kowtows to at every chance. A dictator that helped get Trump elected.

And Trump says he had no clue this was happening. He's blaming his staff for not telling him, when he can't pay attention to his briefings for more than a minute unless they have lots of pictures and constantly fluff his ego.

It's like this all the time with this clown: either he's a deaf, oblivious idiot who can't hear someone yelling "white power" in a video and can't remember being told the Russians were putting bounties on American soldiers, or he's lying.

It's really that simple. He's a senile idiot or a liar.

Either way, this is exactly the sort of thing that disqualifies him from the presidency.

It's been clear from the get-go that Trump's dementia and mendacity were not either-or, but a double-dose of both.

How can any self-respecting conservative still support this senile, narcissistic piece of garbage?

Shrinking

The Lincoln Project, a conservative group organized to defeat President Trump, has put together some fantastic ads that will be airing from now until election day. Here is my favorite so far. 

 

Trumpbo

If you want to get a peek into just how deep the delusions are among Trump supporters, look no further than this little diddy.

Trump as fucking Rambo? Really? He pussed out of Vietnam (a war he "wasn't a fan of") because of bone spurs. He has visited the troops how many times?

Seriously. Fucking. Insane.

Without Comment

A Perfect Summation of Trump Supporters Right Now

Some rally last night. Really packed the house, right? 

This image really shows how isolated his supporters are from the rest of the country. 

Trump is the Poster Boy for White Privilege

Last week there was a Black Lives Matter protest in southern New Jersey. This was the scene:

[A]s the diverse group marched along Monday, waving signs and chanting slogans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was met by several white men who had gathered near a sign that said “All Lives Matter” and in front of a pickup truck draped with an American flag and a pro-Trump sign.

One of the men yelled at the marchers angrily while kneeling on the neck of another who was facedown on the ground — an apparent attempt to mock the killing of Mr. Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In addition to mocking Mr. Floyd’s death, [the men] had yelled, “If George Floyd would have complied he wouldn’t be dead”; “Go cash your checks”; and “Black Lives Matter to no one.”

So this is their argument: If Floyd had complied, he wouldn't have died? He was in handcuffs, helpless on the ground. How much more compliant can you get?

Also, since when is the punishment for disobeying the police on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill the death penalty? And since when do we try cases on the street, with cops acting as judge, jury and executioner?

Not long ago Rayshard Brooks, a black man from Atlanta, was friendly and complying with the police after being found asleep and drunk in his car at Wendy's drive-through. He fled when they tried to cuff him.  Given the large number of men who have died in police custody (Floyd, Eric Garner, and hundreds of others), this is a completely reasonable response.

The cops shot him in the back. Brooks was not a danger or himself or anyone else. The cops had his car, they knew who he was, but when he disobeyed and ran they murdered him. One of the officers has been fired, and the other has been suspended. The death has been ruled a homicide.

The underlying issue with these problematic cops is that they think their authority is limitless. If you disobey them (by talking back or running away), they feel disrepected and respond with deadly force.

The counterprotesters in New Jersey seem to think that killing someone for disobeying and disrespecting authority figures is just fine.

Can we think of someone else who constantly disobeys and disrepects authority figures such as federal judges (Gonzalo Curiel), the FBI, the attorney general of the United States, the many inspectors generals who have found him and his cronies breaking the law, and flouting the Constitution itself by accepting foreign emoluments?

If Trump had been born poor and black and displayed this attitude in his interactions with the police, he would have murdered on the street long ago. But since he's white and his daddy was rich, he could get away with opening his big fat yap as much as he likes.

This is what white privilege is all about. Ignorant rich white folks can get irate when the cops stop them in their expensive cars and there are no consequences, but if a black man says the wrong thing (Philando Castile: "Officer, I've got a legal concealed firearm"), the cops shoot them or they're down on the ground, getting the life choked out of them.

The police are public servants.They work for the people that they arrest and detain. In their dealings with wealthy white citizens the cops usually (though not always) remember to be courteous and fair. But when they deal with poor black and brown citizens the pretense of civility quickly falls away.

There should be no double standard.

Every State In The Union

There is still a minority of people in this country (mostly right-wingers) that falsely believe that this movement isn't a big deal. Time to remove your head from the sand and look at this map.

People are done. DONE. The system is going to change and it will do so rapidly. This is a good thing. Don't fight it. Don't cling to the lie that this is a "liberal" agenda.

It's an agenda for everyone and it's a winner.

Trump's Drinking Problem

Donald Trump has a history of using the military as a prop for his political campaigns. He insisted on bringing West Point cadets back for a graduation ceremony in the middle of a major pandemic, forcing the cadets go through airports and fly on airplanes that are proven vectors for the coronavirus. Sixteen cadets tested positive upon returning for Trump's speech.

During this dangerous, stupid and useless stunt, it became obvious (again) that Trump is not a well man. He slurred words (again) during his rant, and clearly had difficulty drinking (again), needing two hands to raise a small glass of water to his lips.

Afterwards, Trump clearly had difficulty walking down a ramp, looking like some pathetic geezer who had had too much to drink.

All this would probably have gone ignored, as it has many times before, except that Trump himself had to tweet about it, whining that the gently inclined ramp was slippery (it wasn't -- the general beside him had no problems), and claiming that he ran the last three steps. Trump is the only person I know who thinks that a shambling stumble is "running."

For years now people have debated whether it's appropriate to diagnose Trump's mental and physical well-being from symptoms exhibited at public appearances. Others, like David Graham at The Atlantic, think his physical ailments are irrelevant -- it's the lies and Trump's abysmal performance in office that matter.

The fact is, your physical health has a direct impact on your mental health. Trump's difficulty drinking and walking are probably indicative of some kind of neurological deficit. He might have trouble raising his arm because his rotator cuff is trashed from years of swinging a golf club incorrectly. He might have trouble walking because his ACL was torn, like Tiger Woods. Or maybe Cadet Bone Spurs' bone spurs were acting up.

Or his neurological symptoms may be due to Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, both of which affect mobility, or because he had a stroke. Diabetes causes nerve damage, which could also explain his difficulty walking and drinking.

Trump is famous for bragging about how little he sleeps, as if it's a badge of honor. Sleep is how the body takes out the trash in your brain. Get too little sleep and the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's start clogging up the brain. Sleeplessness is a classic sign of dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic.

We know Trump is lying about his health, because the summaries of the physicals he provided the media are just puff pieces written by him or his campaign. His personal physician admitted this two years ago.

Trump is 74 years old and is obese. Joe Biden is 77 and is not. Six years ago Biden was able to jog around the White House with Barack Obama for a puff piece for Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign. At about the same age Trump was unable to walk up a hill in Sicily at a G7 summit.

Trump is constantly talking about strength, yet it is clear that he physically weak and clumsy, as demonstrated at West Point. More to the point, he is mentally weak and extremely erratic, as demonstrated by his constant kowtowing to dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim ("We fell in love") Jong Un, his inability to take any kind of advice or criticism from advisors who know far more than he does about subjects critical to the future of the United States, and the chaotic state of the White House, where everyone is walking around in fear that Trump will lash out and blame them for his latest gaffe.

We have had presidents in the past who suffered strokes in office (Eisenhower and Wilson), had severe physical problems (FDR and JFK), and were even suffering from Alzheimer's (Reagan). But they didn't act impulsively, tweet blathering insults at everyone, and constantly display complete ignorance about every subject important to the presidency, from the nuclear triad strategy, to how long it takes to mount a mission to Mars, to injecting bleach to stop the coronavirus.

How can anyone think this clown should be president?

There Is No Mystery...

I rode my bike over to a friend's house a couple of weeks ago. We got to talking about the coronavirus (what else?), and the people we knew who had been infected.

I told them about my sister: she had a stroke a decade ago, resulting in aphasia and paralysis on the right side of her body. She lives in a group home with four residents. The place had been in lockdown since early March, but one of the workers brought the virus in and my sister got sick. She was in the hospital for a weekend, but didn't need a ventilator, and she's recuperating now.

One of the guests was skeptical about the disaster that was unfolding in New York, especially in minority communities, certain that something else was going on there, insinuating some dark conspiracy or what, I don't know.

There's no mystery. The virus was brought into the city by business travelers coming from China, and vacationers returning from Europe. It didn't start in minority communities.

On the plane travelers infected flight crews and fellow passengers. At the airport they infected gate agents, janitors, rest room attendants, porters and other travelers. On the way home or to the hotel they infected Uber and cab drivers. At hotels these travelers infected check-in clerks, concierges, and maids. Residents of the city infected their doormen, maids, cooks, nannies. And their wives, husbands and kids.

Once in the city they went to stores, bodegas, bakeries, bars and restaurants, where they infected shopkeepers, stock clerks, bakers, bartenders, busboys, waiters and maitre d's.

Notice how most of the people travelers come into contact are working low-paying service jobs, which are very frequently staffed by minorities.

The population density in New York is the highest in the country, over 70,000 people per square mile in Manhattan. People, especially poorly-paid minorities, don't have cars, they ride the subways, crammed into standing-room-only trains.

So, if there's one place in the United States where you'd expect a disease to run rampant, it's New York.

An Ohio state senator was fired from his job as a physician this week for saying that "colored people" don't wash their hands as well as other groups:

State Senator Stephen A. Huffman, a Republican and a doctor, made his remarks on Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Health Committee about whether to declare racism a public health crisis. They came as he speculated about reasons black people might be more “susceptible” to Covid-19.

“Could it just be that African-Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups or wear a mask or do not socially distance themselves?” he said. “Could that be the explanation of why the higher incidence?”

It's incredible that this guy would make this statement after literally months of news reports about Walmart and Amazon not giving their workers personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and disinfectant. Most of these jobs don't offer health care or sick leave. Many employers demanded that workers show up even if they were sick.

The people who work at group homes like the one where my sister lives, and the nursing homes where the coronavirus has killed tens of thousands of elderly residents, are usually women, often minorities, almost always poorly paid, and very frequently working two or three different part time jobs at different facilities.

The very nature of their jobs prevents any kind of social distancing: they have lift elderly residents out of bed and put them in wheelchairs, put "transfer belts" on them to hoist them up, sit them on the toilet, give them baths, comb their hair, and even feed them.

Another major vector for the disease in the Midwest has been meat-packing plants, where the lines have workers standing shoulder to shoulder hacking chickens, cows and pigs apart. These jobs are difficult and horrible, poorly paid, and mostly staffed by immigrants and minorities. And then Trump issued an executive order to force workers to show up at these "critical infrastructure" jobs. I guess he can't survive without his Big Macs.

And as for masks: doesn't Huffman remember anything? At the start of the pandemic Trump told us the virus would disappear "like magic." Then the Trump administration told us all that masks wouldn't help. Then they said that masks should go to medical professionals instead. And then those same medical professionals couldn't get hold of masks! And then there was the price gouging by companies selling masks on Amazon. And the story about the faulty masks being passed off by a Trump crony to the Indian Health Service.

How can this guy possibly criticize the "colored population" for not wearing masks, when Donald Trump absolutely refuses to wear one, and many of Huffman's fellow Republicans in Congress and dozens of state legislatures categorically refuse to wear them?

Not wearing a mask, going out to bars and restaurants and ignoring social distancing rules have become a rallying cry for rabid Republicans, and yet somehow the "colored population" is at fault for getting sick because they work jobs that force them into close contact with people, their employers make them work when sick, and there were no masks to be had by anybody?

And once they get sick, American minorities are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus because they have a greater incidence of medical conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, which increase the likelihood of dying, because they're poorer, live in "food deserts" and eat poorly, and have less access to health care.

There's no underlying secret conspiracy or racial predisposition behind New York's infection rate or the deadly toll the pandemic has had on minority groups. If you just open your eyes to the realities of life for the working poor, it's obvious that these people are sicker because American society has chosen to pay people working essential jobs next to nothing under terrible conditions.

We Broke The Contract

White people need to understand exactly what the fuck is going on right now. Watch this video.

 
 

Get it now? Or are you still going to deny or blame others?

Acton. Change. Now. 

Minnesota is Being Overrun by Idiots from Florida

Minnesota has been the epicenter of a world-wide protest movement over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was callously murdered by four cops while bystanders recorded the crime and repeatedly told them they were killing Floyd. The killer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Floyd's throat for more than eight minutes, slowly choking the life out of him, while three other cops just stood by and watched.

To coin a phrase, this cop is a male Chauvinist pig.

I could not figure for the life of me figure out what Chauvin was thinking while doing this cold-blooded murder, given the uproar over the killing of Eric Garner under similar circumstances in 2014. People were recording Chauvin while he calmly lynched Floyd, an act of domestic terrorism. It was even more egregious than Klan lynchings because it was committed under color of authority.

Then I read that two of the cops were trainees under Chauvin. Why was Chauvin choking the life out of a man so brazenly, in full view of the public and his trainees? He was making an example of Floyd for the public, and completing the other cops' training, showing them "how it's done."

This is the hard and fast truth about the systemic nature of police brutality against blacks in the nation's police forces.

Are all cops this bad? No. But it's not just a "few bad apples," as so many conservatives love to say. The underlying attitude is "the only thing these blacks understand is violence, so that's how we're going to treat them."

It irks me is that Chauvin is getting all Minnesotans branded as racist pricks, when the guy isn't a real Minnesotan:

On Friday, protesters gathered in front of another Chauvin home in Windermere, Fla., which he has owned since 2011 with his wife, Kellie, a Laotian refugee, realtor and former Mrs. Minnesota pageant winner.

Both Chauvin and his wife have registered to vote there, rather than in Minnesota, records show. Chauvin last cast a ballot in Florida in November 2018. His wife’s registration is listed as inactive. Both are Republicans.

Trump is constantly yapping about voter fraud. How does this racist Republican have a full-time job for 20 years as a cop in Minnesota, a part-time job busting heads outside a Minneapolis club, and still be voting in Florida? Huh? This is voter fraud and tax evasion, Derek.

Don't get me wrong, we've got plenty of racist dickheads native to Minnesota, like my dad. But it seems that police departments should require their employees to be residents of their cities (or at least their states), so they feel some sort of responsibility for their conduct on the job, instead of just hiding out in the suburbs after knocking a few heads downtown.

Shortly after Floyd's death, massive Black Lives Matter protests began, culminating one night with the burning of the Third Precinct police station, and then rioting, looting and more arson across the city and country. Everyone condemned the black community for the violence.

Well, the police have caught the guy who started the fire at the Third Precinct: a white guy named Branden Wolfe, a (former) security guard for home improvement chain Menards, who was arrested with a full set of police riot gear, including a baton and handcuffs.

And where is Wolfe from? Florida!

Another white guy, this time from Illinois, put photos of himself looting an Office Depot on Facebook and a video of himself saying, "Let's start a riot!" and the invitation: “I’m going to Minneapolis tomorrow who coming only goons I’m renting hotel rooms.”

Across the country have been widespread reports that cops have been beating peaceful protesters and reporters, shooting and blinding people with pepper balls and rubber bullets, indiscriminately using tear gas that makes people cough and gasp and wheeze during a pandemic, and knocking down old men in the street, and then lying about it.

Then a bunch of sheriff's deputies from Anoka County (a northern Twin Cities suburb) and state troopers were out slashing car tires, including those of at least two reporters! Are these cops or hoodlums?

Jesus H. Christ! How can anyone possibly defend this as good policing? "State Patrol troopers strategically deflated tires … in order to stop behaviors such as vehicles driving dangerously and at high speeds in and around protesters and law enforcement," one spokesperson offered lamely in police-speak. Oh, you mean like the cop in Brooklyn who slammed his SUV into a crowd of protesters?

If this country needs a wall it should be around Florida to keep all those goons down there.

It should be noted that the attorney general of Minnesota, who upgraded the charges against Chauvin to second-degree murder, is Keith Ellison, an African-American Muslim. Ellison won his office in 2018 with 49% of the vote (to 45% for the Republican), in a state that is 85% white. He was previously a congressman from the Fifth District, which is 63% white, and won 69% of the vote in 2016. His successor in Congress is Ilhan Omar, a woman, a Somali immigrant and a Muslim, who won with 78% of the vote.

So we Minnesotans are not all racist dicks.

C or P?

Trump Built His Wall

I can't think of a better metaphor for Trump and his followers.

They are walled off from reality. They haven't a clue what's coming this fall and they have deluded themselves into thinking there is a "secret" majority of Trump voters that will help him in 2020 as they erroneously believe they did in 2016. 

He barely won in 2016 and now he has to run on his record which is terrible. The election of 2020 is going to be a referendum on him and it will result in massive losses. What's even going to be more shocking is how he and his supporters are going to blame everyone else but themselves. 

I'm actually more worried about 2022 if the Dems get complacent again. 

A Man Living In Arizona Thinks He Knows More About My Hometown Than Me

Kevin Baker has been dishonest again on his eternally unchallenged, insecure bubble of self-referential confirmation web site. This time it's personal, though, because he's lying about Minneapolis, my town.

The police, like they have in Minneapolis, abandoned the city.

The Minneapolis police department did not abandon the city. A classic lie from a gun humper who is so insecure about his ideology that he feels the need to make shit up. 

Kevin, if you want to know what actually happened (and how those events make your arguments for AR-15s even weaker), comments here are completely open. Post whatever you want and it will not be deleted. That goes for anyone, btw. And, Kevin, I apologize to you unreservedly for deleting your comment. That will never happen again to you or anyone else (spam excluded).  

Further, I think you should invite me back to post on your site. Running back from an argument you lost on Quora to get back pats and high fives must not be very intellectually stimulating. I think you need someone to check your manufactured reality once in a while, especially with the coming election which I am certain is going to make your head explode.

I do understand, of course, if you refuse. It is hard to face reality:)

The Trump Presidency

Where is the president?

As the country falls apart due to racial tensions, Americans are wondering-where is President Trump? Why can't he make an address to at least assure the nation that we should all come together?

The last few months have made it plainly clear that he doesn't know WTF he is doing and is absolutely the worst person to be president right now. 

He's selfish, arrogant, incompetent, and completely lacking in empathy, especially when it comes to racial issues. In short, he's just like his followers, AKA the actual problem.

I've wondered for years what our country would look like if the right-wing blogger mentality ran the country. It would look like this:

1. Tens of thousands dead 

2. A crashed economy

3. Rioting in the streets.

And why? Because of their adolescent emotions about government and, in particular, accomplished leaders that are more intelligent than them. 

Given their continued whining about how it's always someone else's fault, can we eject them from the capsule for good? Democrats and other liberal groups will bury them forever if they just show up and vote. I know they will this year but they have to every single year.

Otherwise, more death, more loss of money, and more rioting in the streets. 

My City In Ruins

The systemic racism in the Minneapolis Police Department (and, indeed, the entire country) has destroyed large swaths of my city. My heart is broken but I have to admit that when I saw the 3rd police precinct burning to the ground early this morning, I felt a sense of the old order being washed away. The media is portraying them as “thugs” or “hooligans” but maybe the people who torched the police station were just ordinary people who had enough of the racism in law enforcement.

John Lennon wrote in the song "Revolution," “When you talk about destruction, don’t you know you that can count me out...in...” That’s where I’m at this morning.

We are no longer going to tolerate white officers killing African American males. Period. If it happens again in an unjustified fashion, the buildings that house institutional racism will be destroyed. We will not take it any longer.

I didn’t write this it’s copy paste but it’s powerful and you should see it.

To help understand what white privilege is...

I can do all of these things without thinking twice about it... I can relax in the comfort of my own home (#BothemSean and #AtatianaJefferson and #BreonnaTaylor). I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery). I can ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride). I can have a cellphone (#StephonClark). I can leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards). I can play loud music (#JordanDavis). I can sell CDs (#AltonSterling). I can sleep (#AiyanaJones) I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown). I can play cops and robbers (#TamirRice). I can go to church (#Charleston9). I can walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin). I can hold a hairbrush while leaving my own bachelor party (#SeanBell). I can party on New Years (#OscarGrant). I can get a traffic ticket (#SandraBland). I can lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile). I can break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones). I can shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford) . I can have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher). I can read a book in my own car (#KeithScott). I can be a 10yr old walking with my grandfather (#CliffordGlover). I can decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese). I can ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans). I can cash a check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood). I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo). I can run (#WalterScott). I can breathe (#EricGarner). I can live (#FreddieGray). I can ask someone to put a leash on their dog when it is required in the public park we are in. #ChristianCooper) I CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING MURDERED. #GeorgeFloyd) #BlackLivesMatter

Fear Is No Excuse

Amy Cooper is having the worst week of her protected, privileged life. After threatening a black man with the cops she lost her job and her dog. She's just the latest example of a privileged white person using the police to bully black Americans.

The excuse used by people like her is always, "I'm afraid." She was "afraid" of a "threatening" black man whose only threat was calling her on violating the park's leash law.

"I'm afraid" is always the excuse gun nuts use when they shoot black people. Or when dirty cops kneel on black men's neck and kill them, as they did recently in Minneapolis.

But clearly Cooper wasn't afraid of the birder in the park. She was totally in the wrong, and was belligerent, threatening and intimidating.

If she had really been afraid, she would have simply left. But instead she approached the man and was the aggressor.

It's the same with George Zimmerman, who murdered Trayvon Martin in Florida and was acquitted  because Zimmerman said he "was afraid." The guy with the gun was afraid? People who are actually afraid run away, they don't rush up the supposed subject of their fear.

Being afraid should never be an excuse for making malicious police reports or murdering black teenagers, any more than "I was drunk" is an excuse for crashing your car, or "I was horny" is for committing rape, or "I am penniless" is for robbing a bank.

But racism wasn't Cooper's only sin. She is a horrible dog owner: watch how she drags the dog around by the throat.

And more: Cooper is one of those obnoxious twits who think that parks are dog toilets. These people don't let their dogs run amok in parks because they have some romantic notion that her dog's inner wolf should be free and wild.

No, they want their pets to do their business in the bushes so they don't have to pick up after them.

People who actually care about their pets keep them leashed or indoors,  not just because Kitty or Fido will leave their shit where other people will walk in it, but because they could be attacked by bigger dog, or get rabies from a skunk, or kill or chase away the wildlife (like the birds the birder was there to see), or be killed by deer, or get hit by a car.

Cooper is one of those thoughtless, selfish people who think the rules don't apply to them, and lash out at anyone who tries to hold them to account.

Geeze. People like this shouldn't have pets if they can't take care of them properly.

Understanding White Supremacy

Most white people don't understand white supremacy. Here is a handy image that will help explain it to them.

Racist Cops Love Trump

My hometown was in the news recently with yet another white cop killing a black man.

Do you know what the worst part about this incident will be? It’s not the inhumane behavior by the cop who murdered this man. It’s not his partner standing by and doing nothing. It’s not the fact that if this man were white and carrying an AR-15, he’d have a red fucking carpet rolled out for him. It’s not even the system that created this monstrosity and continues to support it every day.

It’s the spin that’s about to come out from the fuckholes who are going to attempt to justify this. There are a lot of them, folks, and guess who they voted for?

I don’t get how a group of people (conservatives) can keep their heads from exploding with two conflicting thoughts in their heads at all times. They hate government authority but man, do they love police beating on criminals, especially black ones.

Liberals Get To Define What Being A Liberal Means

Tired of the straw man and adolescent arguments about liberals propagated by internet fuckholes? Look no further than Lori Gallagher Witt.

I'm a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines: 

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. PERIOD. 

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen. 

3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt. 

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist. 

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare. 

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live. 

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine. 

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you. 

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc). 

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods, or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation. 

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past. 

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized. 

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common-sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine. 

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person? 

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else. 

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men, and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be? 

I think that about covers it. The bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

A Study in Memorial Day Contrasts

The Face of Hate

The level of anger directed at the media from these protestors was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today. pic.twitter.com/5jCR0YY9VH

— Kevin Vesey (@KevinVesey) May 14, 2020

Two captions come to mind.

How Fascism Takes Root in America. 

What a Cult Looks Like.

Sacrifices must be made...

Economy Failing and Country Dying

He is now known in our house as Incompetent Fuckhole Ruined My Son's Senior Year. And he will be until his ass is booted out of office. 

Trump Regularly Shits Himself

"[Trump's] incontinence stems from his decades of stimulant abuse and fast food diet. His bodily functions are being dictated by his drug addiction—and he tries to cover it up. The crew nicknamed Celebrity Apprentice “The Shitshow,” because he would soil himself during tapings, often after flying into a rage and cursing out the Script Dept. Because he couldn’t read a three-syllable word." 😳

---Noel Caster, 

"Celebrity Apprentice" talent handler

A Pack of Idiots

A couple of days ago the White House announced that Donald Trump's valet was infected with the coronavirus. Then they announced that Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, was infected with the coronavirus. Then it was announced that one of Ivanka Trump's aides was infected with the coronavirus, and the FDA commissioner was in quarantine. Then it was announced that 11 Secret Service personnel are infected with the coronavirus, and 60 more are in quarantine.

After all those infections, Trump -- showing how ultimately selfish and stupid he is -- had a photo op with several 95- to 100-year-old WWII vets, vainly and cowardly hoping to steal some of their glory for himself. No one at the ceremony was wearing the masks that could save those men's lives.

Of course, no one in the White House is paying any attention to the guidelines from the CDC, which is why they're all infected. Yes, most of them will be just fine. But that's not the point.

When you get infected you become a vector for the disease, and you infect other people. Like your mom, or the grandma that your mom takes care of. Or 100-year-old WWII vets.

These "pro-life" Republicans don't care how many people die of COVID-19. They just want to keep Trump in office. For what? So Trump can continue to run this country into the ground with more idiotic trade wars? So Trump can talk more people into injecting bleach or killing themselves with hydroxychloroquine? So Trump can fawn over Kim Jong Un like some awestruck middle school girl?

Jesus Christ, these people are so embarrassing.

Katie Miller is the wife of Steven Miller, the architect of Trump's racist anti-immigration strategy. Recently the administration announced more limits on immigration "due to the pandemic." You can't let a good disaster go to waste!

It's incredibly ironic that Miller's own wife and Pence's press secretary is infected, because Trump and his lackeys ignore the best advice of the task force that Pence himself is running!

At this point it seems that Trump's White House is infecting more people than the immigrants Trump wants to keep out.

These people are such arrogant nitwits. Didn't they hear that Boris Johnson, the prime minister of Britain, almost died from COVID-19? (Johnson even named his newborn child after the doctors he credited with saving his life)

What a pack of idiots and clowns, led by an total idiot and clown. Or as numerous former Trump cabinet officers so succinctly put it: What a fucking moron.

Joe Biden and Tara Reade

Joe Biden should have a town hall on women's issues. The panel should be all women. He should invite Donald Trump. Attendees should be women who have issues with his past behavior and he should just listen to what they have to say and talk about how he will change.

Here is an update (as of this AM) about everything we know about the allegations.

If one photo could sum up the right...

I'm not sure who this fuckhole is but he is a perfect representation of what I think about when I imagine right-wing bloggers and commenters.

Angry, white, fat, bearded, armed, racist.

Rachel Bitecofer Spoils the 2020 Election

How do things look for the Dems this fall? Quite good.