Sometimes, You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Drumpf's lawyers think he'll be "less busy" after the Coronation, errr...Inauguration!

From NYMagazine:

 

Here’s some more fodder for the theory that Donald Trump doesn’t plan to do a lot of the heavy lifting during his presidency. During a hearing on Thursday in the Trump University fraud lawsuit, which is set to begin on November 28, the president-elect’s lawyers asked that the trial be moved to February or March, when he’ll have less on his plate.

Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli explained to reporters after the hearing that the transition period will be too intense for the president-elect to participate in the case, according to the Washington Post. Petrocelli called it a “very difficult circumstance for a sitting president — more so, I would say, for a president-elect, because he’s turning, right now as we speak, to a mountain of challenges in front of him, to get himself up to speed.”

"Heavy lifting?" More likely he'll be breaking Shrub's record for most presidential vacations in the first year in office! Good, let Pence get himself into trouble with Congress, the Courts, and the people. He's the one we need to get rid of first, anyway.

"Too busy," my ass!

 

Why Things Went Wrong Last Night, and What To Do Next

I'll tell you why the polls were wrong: the ignorant, uneducated fools who voted for Drumpf thought it would be funny to lie to the man or woman in the suit asking impertinent (to them) questions.

I've seen this behavior up close. It gives them a feeling of superiority to bamboozle the educated person with their country nonsense, pulling the wool over the eyes of the arrogant, college-educated person questioning their beliefs.

Well, guess what? We know their beliefs and motivations now! They're out in the open for all to see their ugliness, backwardness, and bigotry. They feel that Hollywood has shown them as jokes and fools? Well, they are, and it's going to be even more obvious in the months and years to come, as their trust in an arrogant, egotistical, racist, misogynistic, bigoted, selfish, lying rich white man betrays them all. They feel disrespected by the elites? What have they done to deserve respect, besides always being the dead weight that the rest of us have tried (forcibly, at times) to carry into the future? They want their concerns heard and addressed? Well, now they've got one of their own (they think) in the top job, let's see how well he listens. Early guess: he won't.

They want to drag us back into the past, and they've taken a big step towards that. We have to stop them first, then beat them. Time will help. Trump's minions are all older, they won't be around much longer, and the spirits might help us give them early retirement. But we have to do our part, and it's a job that you can't quit, and now, can never stop. We have to fight ignorance and bigotry, and stop being polite when we hear or see it, especially online where these thoughts fester and grow. The "regular people" hate PC speech? Well, wait till they get a load of what I have to say! I'm not honor-bound to respect foolishness, divisiveness, bigotry, and hatred, and I will continue to speak up in opposition whenever and wherever I hear it. I'm just going to be LOUDER from now on!

We have to prepare to defend our values, our beliefs, our standards and principles, and give our support to politicians who stand beside us in defense of those values. No more of this "well, they could be better on Issue X, so I can't support them" bullshit! When the opposition is literally composed of demons from Hell, you support anyone who's willing to stand with you, and hash out the details later. Progressives are facing a repetition of 1932, this time with nuclear weapons, resurgent racism, sexism, and bigotry, and a degrading global climate. We have to take whatever allies we find; time enough later to tend to offended interests later.

Tonight is the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the end for German Jews in the Thirties:

"On November 9 to November 10, 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. German Jews had been subjected to repressive policies since 1933, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) became chancellor of Germany. However, prior to Kristallnacht, these Nazi policies had been primarily nonviolent. After Kristallnacht, conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse."

Let us not forget that Hitler was democratically elected, with a majority of the German voting population supporting him. We should also remember that Hitler and his Nazi Party began with, espoused, and ran on a platform of extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism. "Through the 1920s, Hitler gave speech after speech in which he stated that unemployment, rampant inflation, hunger and economic stagnation in postwar Germany would continue until there was a total revolution in German life. Most problems could be solved, he explained, if communists and Jews were driven from the nation. His fiery speeches swelled the ranks of the Nazi Party, especially among young, economically disadvantaged Germans."

Beginning to sound familiar?

History cannot be allowed to repeat itself, this time. We cannot allow a fascist demagogue to command the most powerful military in human history, nor extinguish the brightest light of democracy that the world has ever seen. He may have won this battle, this election, but Trump and his regressive forces have yet to win the war.


Thomas Jefferson said "for I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

So do I also swear, to fight tyranny, injustice, and oppression with every weapon at my disposal. Are you with me?


“O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath —
America will be!”

— Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”

America WILL be.

Minnesota Republican Forget To Put Trump On The Ballot, Hilarity Ensues

You just can't make this stuff up.

From City Pages:

The Republican Party of Minnesota finds itself in a pickle. 

It's their fault. 

Earlier this year at the state Republican convention in Duluth, the party picked its 10 electoral college voters. The state party was also supposed to choose 10 alternate electoral college names. It didn't. 

Therein lies the problem.

What could've been an in-house mess went public yesterday, when blogger and former Republican Party of Minnesota official Michael Brodkorb noticed that something didn't look right about the Secretary of State's sample ballot. Donald Trump wasn't on it.

The dumbasses forgot to pick 10 alternate electoral voters, and now they're "scrambling" to fix their mess! "According to Pioneer Press reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger, the state GOP filed the proper papers Thursday, and the Trump/Mike Pence team should appear on the sample ballot soon." In other words, they're going to jury-rig a ballot, while their presidential candidate screams from the rooftops that this election is "rigged."

They couldn't have fucked this up worse if they had tried. On the other hand, what do you expect? They're Republicans.

Start The Clock!

Prediction: By this time tomorrow night (22:00 CDT), Trump will have revealed some part of his secret intelligence briefing to the public. Also, Paul Manaport will be investigated for acting as an unregistered lobbyist for a foreign power - Russia - within the next week.

You heard it here first!

America Eats Its Young....and Their Parents, Too (If You're a Trumpster)

With apologies to George Clinton...
 

This actually happened yesterday:

A crowd of Donald Trump supporters heckled the mother of an active duty military sergeant after she dared to ask his running mate about his continued attacks on Khzir and Ghazala Khan, Gold Star parents who have criticized Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and proposals.

What the hell is going on in our country? The GOP, which usually fetishizes their "love" for all things military- and veteran-related - well, at least until it involves spending money, keeping our troops out of wars, and taking care of our military personnel after they've been injured or have completed their service - actually booed this woman, this mother of a currently serving USAF staff sergeant, for having the gall to question Republican VP candidate Mike Pence about Trump's vile comments and Twitter fight with the Khans? Trump is unquestionable, now? His statements cannot be challenged? Does that sound like America to you?

A growing body of Trump pronouncements, rants, and quotes seem to indicate, as Goldie Taylor surmised, that Trump doesn't believe in America, that he "is abundantly comfortable, it seems, with placing his fragile, outsized ego ahead of our nation’s values...Breathlessly posting insults to social media—using the sort of brutish rhetoric most common among gun-toting, Third World warlords— Trump revealed that he not only does not hold Gold Star families sacrosanct, but that he eschews the very nature of our highest ideals."  But it's one thing for Trump to feel and act this way, and another when his supporters echo his narcissistic, uninformed, self-aggrandizing, and (I can hardly believe I'm saying this) un-American views and attitudes.

I'm a patriot, but I've never been a flag-waver. I believe in American exceptionalism, but I don't think it's right for us to try and lord it over other nations, or to try to pretend that we're "the greatest best country that God has ever given Man on the face of the Earth" (thank you, Stephen Colbert!) without mentioning that things could still be a helluva lot better. That said, I do love my country, but I have always feared mindless devotion and submission to any philosophy, religion, creed, or person. Especially this person, this empty-headed, publicity-craving, orange buffoon masquerading as a Presidential candidate.

When I watch Trump's supporters now, the first thing that comes to my mind is, "when do the massed candlelight marches and Nazi-style salutes begin?" Khirz Khan is already being accused of being a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood by right-wing commentators, or, to use their terminology, by "useful fools." The father of an slain American hero is accused of being an agent of one of our enemies. The mother of an American serviceman is booed right out of the room, simply because she dared question the words of their "Leader." What next? When will we hear the sound of glass breaking in the middle of the night?

This is wrong. Just wrong. And no matter if Trump wins or loses, these self-deceiving, hypocritical fools who support Trump will still be with us, for at least another election cycle or two. And I thought the Tea Party was bad! We must, MUST defeat Trump and everything he stands for, in a tsunami of condemnation, a landslide Democratic victory that exceeds anything seen since World War II. The stakes are too high for anything less to occur.

 

An Open Letter to the "Berniebros"

Please, STFU. Stop arguing, stop complaining, stop making false and unsubstantiated charges against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, and just get with the program. The goal is to defeat Donald Trump and the Republicans, and save our country from a fascist tyranny. Your incessant whining about the Democratic primary election being "stolen" is a distraction and a detriment to the vitally important task of defeating Donald Trump for the Presidency of the United States. Your own candidate and his staffers have accepted the fact that he lost. Any malfeasance committed by the DNC had no effect on the amount of votes cast in the primaries, which Bernie lost by over three million votes nationwide. Your unending complaints, your incredible repudiation of your favored candidate's instructions and requests, your ignorance of how the primary system works in the Democratic Party and your unwillingness to learn how it actually does work, and your constant denial of reality, i.e., the fact that Sen. Sanders lost, is fast becoming an obstacle to the goal of defeating an existential threat to the country we all share and which you profess to love.

Repeating GOP lies from the past twenty-five years about Hillary only helps Trump. Calling her "Killary" only reinforces the false narratives that the Republicans have created about her. If you'd ever bothered to research, really research the charges levied against her that you're mindlessly repeating, you'd see that they all come from right-wing sources, from wingnut politicians, pundits, and liars. "Hillary is corrupt." "Hillary is under the influence of Wall Street bankers." "Hillary has persecuted the women that Bill has had affairs with." (This one really strikes me as laughable: what was she supposed to do, invite them into her home for tea & cookies? What would you do, if it happened to you?) "Hillary is a murderer." "Hillary killed those people in Benghazi with her bare hands." "Hillary damaged national security with her email server." "Hillary destroyed 30,000+ emails to cover her ass." (Where are the five MILLION emails that Karl Rove deleted or destroyed in 2007, and why don't you care about them?) "Hillary is a traitor." "Lock her up!" (For what? No one, not even the kangaroo court committees that the Republicans set up to hurt her chances of being elected President, have filed formal charges of criminality against her.) None of these charges are true, none of these charges are reputable, and none of these stories are credible. Stop indulging in GOP wish fulfillment, and learn the real facts!

I understand that you're disappointed that your man didn't win. But crying "foul!" when it's really a case of rough-and-tumble politics as usual, is childish and ineffective. Hillary and Debbie Wassermann-Schultz have been friends and political allies for decades. Did you really think that DWS wouldn't bend the rules to the point of breakage for her old buddy and ally? And if DWS and Bernie had been close instead, would you complain if she had bent the rules for him? More importantly, do you have any evidence, any substantiated proof, anything other than rumor and innuendo, that the primary was "stolen?" Do you realize how serious and offensive a charge you're levying against Hillary? Do you understand that you're calling the entire Democratic Party and its institutions corrupt and incapable of conducting a fair election, simply because of your pique that Bernie didn't win, and you can't accept that?

STOP THIS. Your complaints and charges are threatening to invalidate the entire process, are losing us votes, and are only helping Trump to win. Do you really want to live in Trump's America? Are you so angry that Bernie lost that you're willing to bring down the entire American election system, simply because your candidate lost? Are you so distraught over Bernie's loss that you're willing to risk the loss of our democracy over it? Are you so angry that you even ignore Bernie's pleas to unite behind Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump?

In short, are you willing to see our country burn?

 

Wake the fuck up.

Kim Kardashian Temporarily Dethroned By Americans' Interest In Democracy

Americans briefly returned to sanity Friday night, as the search term "register to vote" surpassed searches for Kim Kardashian on Google:

According to Google Trends, the search term “register to vote” is typically dominated in search volume by those looking for all the information they can stuff in their heads about Kim Kardashian. But not last night. For one brief but glorious moment, voters took to the interwebs to find out how they can make a difference in the next election — before resuming their searches for Kim Kardashian, obviously.

Amazing! Americans, for one brief, shining moment, showed greater interest in the future of their country than in the overexposed tits of a talentless "celebrity." What next? Actual voting? The mind boggles!

Thanks go out to the Financial Times' Jake Grovum, who first tweeted about this.

The Last Gasp of the (Overprivileged and Underqualified) White Man

Hmmm, looks like I've got some housekeeping to do. But anyway: 

In One Embrace, Barack and Hillary Demonstrate the Very Thing That Drives Trump Supporters Crazy

This, to my mind, is correct, and likely the very reason for the years of irrational hatred both Obama and Clinton have endured. Hell, I remember when Capt. Kirk and Lt. Uhura shared the first interracial kiss on Star Trek in the Sixties. That relatively chaste embrace got the show preempted on several Southern TV stations for several weeks!

I'm certain that more than a few cans of cheap beer were thrown at the TV in many Trump-supporting homes, RVs, and trailers. I've see that reaction personally when my Caucasian fiance and I visit certain neighborhoods, and when the black President of the United States hugged his white, female successor onstage, I'd be willing to bet some cold, hard cash that a more than a few people reached for their angina medication.

They can't stand the fact that the most powerful man in the world is black, that a high Cabinet position is occupied by a woman, that seemingly everywhere they look, a woman or person of color is in a position of authority, power, and prestige formerly and exclusively occupied by a white man. Add in a loss of economic mobility, a tablespoon of racism, and the stereotypical sexual tensions and folkloric beliefs vis à vis black men and white women that are held by your average, high school educated white man, and he'll blow a gasket.

Trump, with his cynicism and crafty understanding of lower-class whites, has been fanning these racial flames throughout his campaign. His many subtle dog whistles and overt shout-outs to the lowest elements of American society are proof of this. I call this election "The Last Gasp of the (Overprivileged and Underqualified) White Man," as we transform into a society in which race and gender ceases to be neither a guarantee of success nor a life long barrier to achievement. It's a watershed event, but unfortunately not the end of the era. However, being near the end of this period, expect those who see themselves as the losers in this struggle to fight with everything they've got.

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 

--"Ulysses," Alfred, Lord Tennyson