Thursday, August 25, 2016

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.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

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!

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

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.

 

Monday, August 1, 2016

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.