Showing posts with label The Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Truth. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Trump Gets Closer To Impeachment After Proof That Russia Helped Him Win Wisconsin And Michigan


Russia used Facebook's ad targeting system to help Donald Trump carry both Wisconsin and Michigan. 

According to CNN, “A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages, sources said.”

Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan by a combined 33,400 votes. With the Russians running targeted advertising for Trump in key swing states, a picture is beginning to take shape of how the Russians may have been able to collude with the Trump campaign to swing the election. It is already known that Russia used Facebook to organize rallies for Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania, add the advertising in Wisconsin and Michigan to the mix and Trump’s surprise victory begins to look less surprising.

The Russians interfered in the election. There is only one piece of information missing. Who inside the Trump campaign was working with Russia to exchange data to help with the voter targeting?

Jared Kushner was responsible for the campaign’s data operation, so any questions about who worked with the Russians should begin with President’s son in law and right-hand man.

Each new puzzle piece that snaps into place is another step toward Trump impeachment.

Trump Called Out: 'You Don't Give A Shit About Puerto Rico'

Trump got called out to his face while dedicating a golf trophy to the victims of Hurricane Maria. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, the hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.

“Donald Trump on Sunday dedicated a golf trophy to hurricane victims in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, and it didn’t go well. As Trump spoke at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, New Jersey, someone in the crowd called out: “You don’t give a shit about Puerto Rico.”



 Online, the reaction was about the same:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-puerto-rico_us_59d1b83ae4b09538b509160b?ncid=APPLENEWS00001


Gun Crazy: Las Vegas Edition

Posted by Rude One

I'm not going to try to recapitulate the horror of last night in Las Vegas where at least 58 people were killed by a single gunman firing from the 32nd floor of a hotel into a crowd of 22,000 at a Jason Aldean concert, the deadliest massacre in modern times. I'm not going to tell you about the gunman because fuck him. Fuck everything about him. Fuck his life. Fuck his death. Fuck everything he ever loved. Fuck him in Hell with the hot barrels of the 18-20 guns and each of the thousands of rounds of ammo he had with him in the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

I don't give a fuck if he was white or brown or plaid. I don't give a fuck if he was ISIS or Nazi or whatever. I don't give a fuck about his brother, who keeps getting interviewed. What I do give a fuck about is that he was able to own that many guns. How the fuck does a nation allow that? How is that rational? How does it make anyone safer? It's aiding and abetting someone's mental illness at some point. He's just a hoarder with a side of intense paranoia and a socio- and/or psychopath.

Not that gun owners care or have any perspective. Let me give you one anecdote before getting to the motherfucking NRA. Lorraine Berry wrote to me this morning: "I'm trapped in a waiting room in Florida waiting for a mammogram. Watching the news and some newsperson asks why the guy did this. I say, 'Because we sell machine guns in this country.' Immediately, 5 women come after me, tell me they love their guns. One owns 6. Immediately start speculating it was Antifa that did this. I cite facts but they accuse me of being emotional...After they thought I had stopped paying attention, they started talking among themselves. 'My son-in-law is a registered gun dealer. I know so many people with mental problems that own guns. I don't know how they got through the loopholes. Unless you've been certified, you can buy a gun.' But they're so sure that it's their right to own those guns. Told me it was their constitutional right. They told me they were tired of being 'silenced.' I said, 'You haven't had a gun law passed in a decade. You own Congress. I have no idea how you are the victims here.'"

That feeling of imminent victim hood is what drives the National Rifle Association, a group of vermin that feeds on the corpses of gunshot victims, sucking their blood to boost gun sales and their membership, fostering the mental illness of thousands of Americans, the 3% who own over half the guns in the nation, a group that the dog fucker in Vegas belonged to, and the NRA fans the flames of their madness, telling them, through the cruel, pursed, snarling lips of Dana Loesch, that politicians are gonna send goons to take their guns away, something that has never happened in the modern United States, but it makes them feel like victims, it feeds the paranoia, it pushes them to buy more guns and more ammo.

What a goddamned, pathetic nation this must be for this to be allowed.

Right now, not only is the NRA active in trying to get a bill allowing silencer purchases for any "hunter" or "sportsperson," it's trying to get a decision on a magazine size ban in Maryland overturned. It's celebrating new laws allowing for concealed carry of weapons on college campuses in several states. It's a terrorist organization as sure as ISIS is. The NRA uses fear and violence to promote its political agenda. And it uses shit-tons of money. The NRA leadership is dancing on piles of cash with fresh bodies of people from Las Vegas and with the rotting corpses from Orlando and with the child-sized skeletons of Newtown.

We have to be able to agree that some things are just wrong. If we can't agree, as a society, that the way we have handled the ownership of guns in the United States is a complete catastrophe, we can't move forward. At this point, the proliferation and propagation of guns is like what happens when measles gets into a group of children whose parents have refused to inoculate them. Yeah, your freedom got a bunch of people hurt. Is it worth it?

You should not be allowed to own a bunch of guns. You should not be allowed to own large magazines. You should not be allowed to own semi-automatic or automatic rifles. You should be required to get trained and licensed. You should have to register every gun. You should have to use whatever modern technology is available to make guns safer. You shouldn't be allowed to buy a large amount of ammunition without a special permit. You should have to pass a background check for every purchase. You should have to be certified as not mentally ill. You shouldn't be allowed to have a gun if you have had domestic violence restraining order filed against you.

That's basic, man. Any society that doesn't do that, the bare minimum in the realm of "well-regulated," is a society that has gone insane.

Instead of doing something, Republicans and other conservatives tell us that we shouldn't politicize a shooting (although, you know, ignoring the politics of something is a political act). They tell us that good guys with guns can stop crimes (although I'm not sure how a few thousand people firing at the hotels on the Strip would have helped anyone). They tell us that places like Chicago, with slightly tighter gun laws, have a great deal of gun violence (although most of those guns come from outside Chicago because, apparently, there are roads that go in and out of the city).

They will do anything to protect the delusions of the gun nuts, as well as their filthy campaign war chests.

I have no words of wisdom. I can't offer any comfort.  We've all said it all before. We all know what has to be done. But we don't do it.

We are all hostages to the armed and deranged among us.

(Note to complainers: I don't give a fuck today if you think my use of "mentally ill," "crazy," or "insane" is "ableist." I just don't give a fuck today. Save it for tomorrow.)

Monday, October 2, 2017

Prayers Aren’t Enough After Deadly Mass Shooting, We Have To Act On Gun Control

59 people died and 527 were injured at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night when a mass shooter opened fire into the crowds. Witnesses say the shots lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes, and the shooter was using an automatic weapon designed to kill a lot of things very quickly.

Both Republicans and Democrats began Tweeting out their “thoughts and prayers” after the tragedy, but that’s not good enough. As Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains, the time to act – or at the very least open up a serious dialog – about gun control is right now.



http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooter/index.html

Sandy Hook Senator: Its Time For Congress To Get Off Its Ass And Do Something On Mass Shootings

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wasted no time responding to the shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, the deadliest such attack in modern U.S. history.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-murphy-mass-shooting-response_us_59d23e9ce4b06791bb11e8fa

Paul Ryan is CLUELESS AS FUCK About Poverty and the American Dream

Paul Ryan thinks that, no matter what condition you are born in, the American dream is only limited by your "god given potential." Benjamin Dixon reports on why the Speaker of the House is CLUELESS AS FUCK.


Tucker Carlson Says Wealthy Black People Don’t Understand Oppression

During one of his more ridiculous segments this past week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke with Scott Bolden, a black lawyer who happens to be well off financially.

In the heated exchange between the two, Carlson repeatedly tried to claim that Bolden’s wealth is an indicator that (1) black people are not oppressed, and (2) that he’s never experienced real oppression because he has money.

Carlson grossly misstates the actual problem, and shows that he has no clue how oppression works, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.



https://www.alternet.org/media/watch-tucker-carlson-flip-his-lid-when-hes-told-he-doesnt-understand-what-its-be-black

SCOTT BOLDEN: I've been brutalized by the police. I've been offended by the police.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): You're wearing thousand dollar cufflinks, don't give me the victim card.

BOLDEN: Doesn't matter. Race is the tie that binds us, economics may separate us but the police have wrongfully stopped me. They've spread me out in front of my Georgetown home.

CARLSON: I actually believe you but you're diverting from --

BOLDEN: But they haven't to you, they haven't to you. So you can't relate to it.

CARLSON: So I can't relate to it, OK. So because I'm white you're saying I have no voice in this conversation.

BOLDEN: You do.

CARLSON: You are fundamentally unreasonable and the position you are taking is an inherently racist one.

BOLDEN: We fundamentally disagree.

CARLSON: Because you are dismissing the position of someone on the basis of his skin color and that is outside the bounds.

BOLDEN: No, I'm dismissing it because of your experience or lack there of.

CARLSON: You know nothing about my experience.

BOLDEN: Have the police ever brutalized you? Wrongfully stopped you? Spread you on the ground?

CARLSON: Spare me, mister million dollar lawyer, this talk.

Conservative Logic: We LOVE Free Speech, But Shut The FUCK Up!

LOL Tomi Lahren forgets she was fired and sued The Blaze over for the same thing she’s now telling the NFL to do. Hosted by Hasan Piker.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Urgent Pentagon statement contradicts Trump: Half of Puerto Rico has no water and its getting worse

DoD Accelerates Hurricane Relief, Response Efforts in Puerto Rico

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2017 — The Defense Department is accelerating relief operations and the deployment of additional response capacity to Puerto Rico to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's need for a comprehensive commodities distribution network able to reach isolated communities and provide sustained medical support for the island’s residents, Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement this morning.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico National Guardsmen load pallets of food and water onto an UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for distribution to Orocovis, Puerto Rico, Sept. 29, 2017. The National Guard has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other state and federal agencies in response and relief operations for Hurricane Maria. Air National Guard photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Y. Alvarez-Rea
 
In San Juan, Puerto Rico National Guardsmen load pallets of food and water onto an UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for distribution to Orocovis, Puerto Rico, Sept. 29, 2017. The National Guard has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other state and federal agencies in response and relief operations for Hurricane Maria. Air National Guard photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Y. Alvarez-Rea 
 
Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, who’s in command of the DoD response effort in Puerto Rico, is working with FEMA and service components to get distribution priorities right, Davis said.

Buchanan, assisted by his deputy, Army Brig. Gen. Richard C. Kim, assessed that the planned force flow will build the capacity necessary to support Hurricane Maria response priorities, the spokesman said.

Army Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, Chief of Engineers and commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, is also in Puerto Rico overseeing the temporary power project, electrical distribution repairs and infrastructure improvements, Davis said.

The Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp is now involved in response operations in and around Puerto Rico, the spokesman said.

Davis provided the following updates and details of hurricane relief operations in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean region:

Puerto Rico Situational Update

-- FEMA reports assessments completed at 64 of 69 hospitals; 59 are partially or fully operational; five unassessed facilities are psychiatric hospitals that do not provide emergency care.

-- Forty-five percent of customers have access to drinking water. Ninety-five percent of customers remain without power; power has been restored to San Juan airport and marine terminals.

-- Eight hundred and fifty-one of 1,100 retail gas stations have reopened and purchase limits have been lifted. Forty-nine percent of grocery and big box stores are open.

-- Erosion repairs to the Guajataca Dam are scheduled to begin Oct. 1-2.

-- The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort departed Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday and it is estimated to arrive in Puerto Rico on Oct. 4.

-- Five of six FEMA-priority sea ports are open or open with restrictions; surveys of Ponce and Roosevelt Roads are ongoing.

U.S. Virgin Islands Situational Update

-- An assessment of the main hospital on St. Thomas will be completed today.

Details of DoD Response in Puerto Rico

-- U.S. Northern Command is deploying enhanced logistics capacity, centered on commodity distribution and medical support, and designed around a sustainment brigade. Northcom is flowing five force packages into Puerto Rico focused on logistics, tilt/rotary wing lift, and medical units. Force Package 1 is on the ground with leadership in Puerto Rico for planning and assessment. Force Packages 2 and 3 will deliver logistical units and associated command and control and is deploying. Force Package 4 will follow and deliver helicopters, aviation command-and-control elements and medical units. Force Package 5 will deploy next and provide more robust medical capacity.

-- The USS Wasp, carrying three MH-60 helicopters, is en route to Puerto Rico and will embark 10 additional aircraft. The Marine Corps has identified eight additional MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and two KC-130 fixed-wing aircraft that will self-deploy to support operations on Puerto Rico.

-- U.S. military helicopters moved 3 HHS Disaster Medical Assistance Teams with 12,500 pounds of equipment to Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Ponce from Roosevelt Roads to support the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “hub-and-spoke” concept for the delivery of medical care. Seven federal medical stations will be co-located with each of the seven hospitals identified as ‘hub’ hospitals.

-- The Guajataca Dam spillway continues to erode; immediate risk reduction measures are ongoing to stabilize the dam spillway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports two to three inches of rain has fallen, and an additional two to four inches each day over the next two days is possible.

-- U.S. Transportation Command will deliver super sandbags for spillway stabilization today; sandbag installation will follow on or about Oct. 1.

Foreign Disaster Assistance
 
-- U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Task Force Leeward Islands continues evacuations on Dominica. Following the evacuation of priority U.S. citizen medical cases, the Hurricane Response Task Force will transition to on-call status today.

Trump's Hypocrisy Problem: Private Planes, Private Emails, And Public Humiliation

Between the revelations that his appointees are zipping around the country on private planes at the expense of US taxpayers and the fact that at least 6 members of his staff – including his own family members – are using private email accounts to conduct official business, Donald Trump and the Republicans are suffering from a massive hypocrisy problem. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.



http://thehill.com/homenews/house/352649-house-oversight-panel-to-investigate-cabinet-officials-using-private-planes

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Another Trump Cabinet Official Caught Taking 10 Day European Trip At Taxpayer Expense!

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses more fraud, waste, and abuse within the Donald Trump Cabinet.



Majority wish Obama were president, as Trump labeled 'mentally unstable'

A majority of Americans wish former President Barack Obama was still in the White House and in charge of the nation according to a new poll.

A new survey from Public Policy Polling found that 52 percent of respondents wish Obama were in the midst of his third term. By comparison, only 41 percent prefer having President Donald Trump over Obama.

But it's not uncommon for a former president to see his popularity jump after he leaves office. 

A 2009 Gallup poll showed that only 35 percent of people liked former President George W. Bush, but after he'd left office and the news that he had taken up painting emerged, his approval rating has jumped up to 59 percent.

Unfortunately for the current resident, the poll included many other negative ratings. The survey found 54 percent of people claim Trump is dishonest, 47 percent say he's mentally unstable and 48 percent call for his impeachment. 

Former President Obama has made only a handful of forays into the political conversation, but has joined his fellow ex-presidents to call for relief after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria battered parts of the United States.

He's also continued to occasionally speak to the press on his personal life, recently admitting that he cried while dropping his daughter Malia Obama off at Harvard University this year.

Obama even found some time to hang out at The Presidents Cup golf tournament with former president’s Bush and Bill Clinton.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

As Puerto Rico Suffers, @realDonaldTrump Worries About Big Banks And Wall Street!

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's lack of response in the wake of Hurricane Maria and the dire situation in Puerto Rico. Looked at are Trump's tweets and public statements.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Donald Trump, you lying hypocritical imbecile, you need to shut your draft dodging ass up about The American Flag!

Where were you when it was your turn to respect the flag?

"I didn't dodge the draft just so some son of a bitch could take a knee during the National Anthem."

7/18/15 UPDATE: Now that Donald Trump has maligned Senator John McCain as a phony war hero who got himself captured in Vietnam, below you’ll find a reminder--which TSG published the last time the Republican claimed to be running for president--how Trump avoided military service.

The son of a wealthy real estate developer, Trump received four student deferments that were followed by a 1968 medical deferment that came a few months after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

After denigrating McCain during remarks today at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump faced reporters questions about his lack of service. Asked about the last of his five deferments, Trump said that his disqualifying medical condition was a bone spur in one of his feet (he could not remember which one). It is unknown on which golf course the injury was sustained.

HEY, DOTARD TRUMP!

 




APRIL 28--Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned.

During a TV interview Tuesday morning, Trump--who spent his high school years enrolled at the New York Military Academy--said, “I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life.”

He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.

However, Selective Service records reveal that Trump, the fortunate son of a multimillionaire real estate baron, took repeated steps to avoid serving in Vietnam.

By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969 draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a medical deferment, according to military records on file with the National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.

In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business at the Wharton School. So, while claiming that he would “never forget” being at Wharton watching the draft numbers being drawn, the 64-year-old Trump seems to have misremembered, as candidates are fond of saying.

Trump obtained his first two Class 2-S student deferments in June 1964 and December 1965, when he was student at Fordham University in the Bronx. He was briefly reclassified as 1-A--or "available for military service"--in late-November 1966, but that classification was switched back to 2-S three weeks later.

Another 2-S deferment is dated January 16, 1968, just months before his graduation from UPenn (to which he transferred following his sophomore year at Fordham).

Following his UPenn graduation, Trump--no longer qualified for a 2-S deferment--was again briefly classified as available for service on July 9. However, three months later, on October 15, his classification was switched to 1-Y, which was given to men deemed qualified for military service “only in time of national emergency.”

The 1-Y classification came a month after Trump underwent an “Armed Forces Physical Examination,” according to Selective Service records, which note the results of the exam as “DISQ.”

While the military records do not further detail why Trump was granted the 1-Y deferment, a 1992 biography of the businessman by journalist Wayne Barrett reported that Trump received a medical deferment following the September 17, 1968 exam.

Trump’s 1-Y classification stayed in effect until February 1, 1972 when it was changed to a 4-F classification (which covered registrants not qualified for military service). The change in classification was likely prompted by the military’s December 1971 decision to abolish the 1-Y classification.

The Selective Service records also include a copy of the registration card signed by Trump in June 1964, 10 days after he turned 18. The possible future Commander-in-Chief, it turns out, has birthmarks on both his heels.



Saturday, September 23, 2017

Donald Trump's Cabinet Acts Like Royalty - Flying Private Jets Paid For By Tax $$$

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses the horrendous hypocrisy of Donald Trump's Cabinet officials as they talk about saving tax dollars while spending HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars flying private jets all over the country!

Friday, September 22, 2017

Donald Trump Makes Up African Country of #Nambia In Front Of African Delegation!

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's ignorance of the world's nations after his remarks before a delegation of African leaders at the United Nations, where Donald Trump invented the nation of "Nambia" and praised it for its advances in healthcare.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Bill Cassidy just won't stop lying about his healthcare bill

By Laura Clawson


THIBODAUX, LA - FEBRUARY 23:  Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) speaks during a town hall meeting on February 23, 2017 in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Cassidy spoke on a wide range of issues including healthcare, jobs and government spending.  (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Bill Cassidy
“This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face,” Jimmy Kimmel said on Tuesday night. And on Wednesday morning, Cassidy did a lot more lying about his healthcare plan. He lied on CNN:
“I’m sorry he does not understand,” Cassidy said of Kimmel. “Under Graham Cassidy Heller Johnson, more people will have coverage, and we protect those with preexisting conditions. States like Maine, Virginia, Florida, Missouri — there will be billions more dollars to provide health insurance coverage for those in those states who have been passed by by Obamacare, and we protect those with preexisting conditions.”
He lied on MSNBC:
“There will be more people covered under the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson amendment than are under status quo and we protect those with pre-existing conditions,” Cassidy said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
And the reality that Kimmel laid out so clearly—that Cassidy’s bill simply does not live up to the tests he set himself and will hurt a lot of people—remains:
That statement, similar to one Cassidy also made on CNN, is virtually impossible to defend. The Graham-Cassidy proposal, which Republicans are rushing to take up for a floor vote next week, calls for reducing federal spending on health care through two sets of changes. [...]
As for Cassidy’s other claim, that his bill would protect people with pre-existing conditions, that’s not true, at least in the sense most people would understand it. The bill would very explicitly allow states to waive existing rules, which the Affordable Care Act put in place, prohibiting insurers from charging higher premiums to people based on their medical status. With that flexibility, insurers could make coverage prohibitively expensive for people with a variety of medical conditions, from diabetes to cancer.
Cassidy wants to make his bill seem different from the wildly unpopular Republican bills that failed, but the only thing that’s really different is that this time, Republicans are up against a Sept. 30 deadline for repealing Obamacare and the pressure to get on board will be that much more intense. This bill will still gut the Medicaid expansion that’s gotten so many people the health coverage they need and it will still weaken protections for pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits and much more. He lies, he lies, he lies—and he lies in the service of harming millions of Americans.

Another Obamacare repeal bill?! It’s time to jam the congressional phone lines again. Call your senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on any repeal bill.

The Short Bus To Armageddon: Trump At The U.N.

Posted by Rude One

When do we get to stop being embarrassed, huh? Every time that President Donald Trump opens his lamprey mouth and shakes his semen-colored mane, it's like another shiv in the gut while we stand in the prison shower that is the United States in 2017.

"Which group of shit-sniffing baboons is he gonna talk to this time?" we wonder. Will it be the crazed conservative hawks, the ones whose savagery make Democratic hawks look like confused parakeets?

Will it be his base, whose heads are evolving into the shape of a permanent dunce cap, the one-third of the American populace who pretend they want anarchy when, really, all they want are more guns and fewer dark-skinned people?

Will it be the unsatiated capitalists, the ones who would monetize child rape if they thought they could squeeze a few more pennies out of the bloodied anuses of babies? And usually, it's all three, to varying degrees, with Trump a carnival barker yelling at the freaks and carnies to scoop up the spilled popcorn and toss it back in with the rest to sell again tomorrow.

At the United Nations today, Trump spoke stiffly and boorishly, his pinch-fingered hand gesticulating like he was jacking off his own micropenis. It was like some kind of dumb college prank, where you make the stupidest freshman get up at karaoke and sing the National Anthem instead of some damn Ed Sheeran song. Put a MAGA hat on that bitch, and you've got a Trump voter.

Whatever you think of the U.N., most of the leaders in that room are people who have dedicated their lives to the politics of their nation. Most of them are vastly educated, well-read, worldly, and, to varying degrees, smart enough to know a fucking idiot when they see one. So you had to imagine the reactions to Trump at the General Assembly ranged from horror to bemusement to calculating how easy it would be to roll this rube (looking at you, Saudi Arabia).

Did Trump brag about how great things are now that he's been resident for all of 8 months? Fuck, yeah, you know he did. Actually, apparently, his residency started even earlier: "The United States has done very well since Election Day last November 8th. The stock market is at an all-time high -- a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time."

Yes, I'm sure Hage Geingob, the president of Namibia, who has a PhD in international relations from the University of Leeds, really thought that Trump deserved the credit for this. (By the way, interestingly, Geingob came to the United States to start college at Temple University, in Philadelphia, in 1964 before transferring to Fordham University in New York City. Trump started at Fordham in 1964 before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.)

Were there lines that should have made any sentient world leader just crack up with sad laughter? You bet. "In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch," Trump had the gall to say as most of Central and South America, a good chunk of East Asia, and assorted islands from all over the world rolled their eyes so hard they saw their own brain pans.

Sure, but did he sound like a pathetic, low-level thug who wants everyone to think he's a made man? Aw, come on. That's his default mode. He warned, "We can no longer be taken advantage of, or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return." He threatened, "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." And, yeah he called Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man." In front of the U.N. It's like having your drunk aunt shake her bare titties at her nephew's graduation.

And, obviously, Trump talked as if no one else there has any idea how the world works. "If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph," he said in a line that's right out of his Captain America fanfic. He continued, "When decent people and nations become bystanders to history, the forces of destruction only gather power and strength." Certainly, every country that has dealt with terrorism, which is a fuck-bunch of 'em, appreciated being told they should not be bystanders.

On it went, with shitting on the Iran deal (which is working, despite every feeble protest Trump makes), praise for Russia and Turkey, called out the "loser terrorists," and repeated a blatant lie: "Our country has achieved more against ISIS in the last eight months than it has in many, many years combined."

Yeah, it was like piss from heaven that all the golden showers lovers on his side could bathe themselves in. And everything you need to know about the speech, and everything that you believe about it, is contained in how you think about this: One of the first people to praise the speech was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tweeted, "In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech."

Yes, it's so very brave to threaten to wipe out a desperate tiny country, to walk away from a peace deal, and to ignore the greatest threat to the planet, climate change, altogether. We're riding the short bus to Armageddon. And there are no stops ahead.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Trump’s Golf Ball Retweet Was Low, Even For Him

Donald Trump over the weekend decided to retweet a GIF of himself hitting a golf ball that had been merged with a GIF of Hillary Clinton falling down (the editors had made it look like Trump’s ball hit Hillary and that’s why she fell.)

This kind of behavior should be beneath the resident of the United States, yet Trump once again managed to sink well below the already-lowered bar that has been set for his administration. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.