Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Yes, We DO Think You ARE Stupid

By NanceGreggs

I have often seen Democrats being chastised, lectured, even vilified for stating that Republican voters are stupid.

You think that we think you are dumber-than-dumb. And the fact is WE DO think exactly that. We don’t call you brainless idiots in order to be provocative. We don’t refer to you as dumb-asses because we are determined to anger you. We don’t label you as mindless, low-IQ voters in an effort to be divisive or combative.

We do it because the evidence is in – and it invariably points to the fact that you are every bit as undeniably stupid as we think you are.

The election of Donald Trump is the perfect case in point.

You were stupid enough to vote for a man who has always outsourced all of his own manufacturing jobs, because you believed he would bring YOUR outsourced job back.

You were stupid enough to listen to your “Christian” pastors when they told you a thrice-married, self-proclaimed pussy-grabber is an upstanding moral man, chosen by God himself to lead a nation.

You were stupid enough to think a man who tweets incoherent nonsense was intelligent enough to run an incredibly complex government in an increasingly complicated world.

You were stupid enough to support a man who stated outright that he intends to take your healthcare coverage away from you.

You were stupid enough to believe that a billionaire – who has never in his entire life done anything for anyone other than himself – had suddenly become a champion of those of you struggling to make ends meet.

You were stupid enough to elect a man who has a very long history of cheating hard-working Americans – people like yourselves – out of their fees for materials delivered, and services rendered.

We Democrats are not – contrary to your stupidly-held beliefs – all over-educated Ph.D.s who sip $24 lattes between Mensa meetings. We are not ‘elitists’ who spend our time looking down our noses at the less educated, especially in view of the fact that many of us are no better educated, nor financially well-off, than you are.

The difference between us is that we Democrats look beyond the political rhetoric in order to find the facts, while you simply swallow whatever bullshit is spewed by FOX-News, or Rush Limbaugh – even Alex Jones. We have the common sense to know that in today’s world, those facts are as close as a mouse-click away. We understand that the truth is out there, if only you have the minimal intellectual capacity it takes to find it.

So, yes, we DO think you’re stupid – because you are. You demonstrate it daily. You are the people who think Obama was president on 9/11, the people who believe that illegals working 12-hour days in the fields are stealing your six-figure-per-annum jobs, the people who believe that the Bowling Green Massacre actually happened.

What else are we to think, other than that you are unbelievably, mind-bogglingly, beyond-all-imagining, STUPID? How are we supposed to ignore your incredible, self-imposed ignorance? Why should we pretend that people who are still complaining about Obama’s botched response to Katrina (which happened more than three years before he was in office) are anything more than dumber-than-dumb ignoramuses who lack the necessary skill to interpret something as complicated as a calendar?

Look, the truth is YOU ARE STUPID. And what’s worse, you are actually proud of being stupid. So don’t blame us for pointing out what you yourselves have gone out of your way to make obvious. Don't wave your stupidity around like a neon flag if you don't want anyone to notice it. Don't regurgitate quotes from people proven to be liars if you want to be perceived as people capable of independent thought - or even common sense.

There is, of course, a way to stop being called stupid. You can always try NOT being stupid.
It’s so crazy, it just might work.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Things That Wouldn't Have Been Surprising For Trump To Do At His Fucked-Up Press Conference

Posted by Rude One

Donald Trump's press conference yesterday was so weird, so disconcerting, and so filled with lies and fantasies and violent imagery that it wouldn't have been surprising if...

1. Trump had presented the corpse of a man tortured and killed by ISIS and put on a ventriloquist act with the body as his Charlie McCarthy, asking it, "Do you wish President Obama had wiped out ISIS?" and making the bloodstained head nod and the lips move and, in an awful accent that would best be described as "a bad version of Achmed the Dead Terrorist," answered, "Yes, most wonderful and sexy Donald Trump. Only you can save us Christians from being boiled alive and having our heads cut off."

2. Trump had looked at the orthodox Jewish reporter from Ami magazine (motto: "What? You don't love Israel with your whole being, you shmendrik?") and said, "You wanna see how anti-Semitic I am? Watch this" and taken out his dick and a small knife and recircumsized himself, adding "You see that? Who loves the Jews more than me?" before throwing the piece of of his dick at the media and snarling, "Fake news!"

3. Trump had asked a black reporter if she is friends with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and that she should arrange a meeting for him with the CBC, as if the black woman was his secretary. (Oh, wait. He really did do that to April Ryan of the American Urban Radio Networks.)

4. Trump had said, "You wanna see how much I don't care about Russia?" and then phoned Vladimir Putin on his unsecured Android phone, asking, "Is your refrigerator running?" and awaiting an answer before adding, "Well, then you better catch it," hanging up, and telling the reporters, "See? You keep saying 'Trump loves Putin,' 'Trump loves Putin.' Would a man who is friends with Putin prank him so viciously? That's the best prank you ever saw, by the way" before whispering behind him, "Call and apologize, Bannon, now."

5. Trump had explained, "You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons like lots of things are done with uranium including some bad things." (Oh, wait. He really did says that, right after lying that Hillary Clinton "gave" Russia "20 percent of our uranium," as if the Secretary of State could just hand over a giant stockpile of an element.)

6. Trump had dropped his pants and taken a shit on a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton while sputtering about "306. You didn't expect me to get to 222, 250, but 306," shouting, "Greatest electoral victory" as he tried to squeeze out just a little more.

7. Trump had locked the doors, ordered a band to start playing "Rains of Castamere," and then watched while the reporters from Breitbart, Fox, CBN, and Gateway Pundit stabbed to death all the mainstream media, having Jim Acosta's throat cut last as he smirked and said, "Not so fake now."

8. Trump had claimed that he fired Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser even though Flynn's contact with Russia wasn't "wrong," according to Trump, but instead said Flynn was fired for lying to Vice President Mike Pence, even though Trump knew that Flynn had been lying to Pence two weeks before Pence found out, which would seem to mean that, by his own standard, Trump should fire himself. (Yeah, you guessed it. That clusterfuck of illogic really happened.)

9. Trump had jacked off silently and with his eyes closed for about twenty minutes in response to a question about leaks until he finally seemed to ejaculate as he proclaimed, "I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done."

10. Trump had ranted and raved while saying that the press would say, "Donald Trump rants and raves at the press," while ranting that he wasn't ranting, as Republicans behind the scenes were pissing themselves at the display of ignorance, hate, and self-aggrandizement that was on display and the right-wing media and his supporters praised Trump's performance as the greatest thing in the history of anyone ever talking to the press ever and everything just got a little sadder as we head into President's Day weekend and think, "Are you fucking serious? Are you fucking serious?" 

Friday, February 17, 2017

He Will Not Be At Fox News Much Longer

If he keeps this up.



Trump repeatedly talks about himself at marathon news conference

Talking about his negotiating skills, his ratings draw, his poll numbers & more, Pres. Trump talked a lot about himself at Thursday's news conference. MSNBC's Brian Williams reacts with his panel.


Trump's First Solo Press Conference As President

Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Trump's press conference full of false claims, grievances and attacks on the media.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Intel Community Is Sabotaging Trump! - Warns Notable DEMOCRAT

Dennis Kucinich explains the recent national security moves that were made and how it might drastically affect the future.

Jimmy Dore breaks it down.

Top 5 Reasons YOU'RE AN IDIOT (For Supporting Trump)

By Stephen Radecki

This took me 3 months of impotent liberal rage, sweat and tears - So you better fucking like it.

Pay no attention to the poor audio, change of shirts, background, hair and lighting... or to the the fact that I'm Canadian and this doesn't really affect me in any way.

Some of my dialogue is lifted from Sam Harris and others.

**Ignore the part about the disabled reporter. Its not a valid point, HOWEVER, it does help demonstrate his immaturity as an adult.

Donald Chump: Just who the hell do you think you are?

BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.

Dear Mr. So-Called President:

So let me explain to you how this works.

You were elected as chief executive of the United States. I won’t belabor the fact that you won with a minority of the popular vote and a little help from your friends, FBI Director James Comey and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The bottom line is, you were elected.

And this does entitle you to certain things. You get your own airplane. You get free public housing. You get greeted with snappy salutes. And a band plays when you walk into the room.

But there is one thing to which your election does not entitle you. It does not entitle you to do whatever pops into your furry orange head without being called on it or, should it run afoul of the Constitution, without being blocked.

You and other members of the Fourth Reich seem to be having difficulty understanding this. Reports from Politico and elsewhere describe you as shocked that judges and lawmakers can delay or even stop you from doing things. Three weeks ago, your chief strategist, Steve Bannon, infamously declared that news media should “keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.”

Just last Sunday, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller declared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” that “our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

What you do “will not be questioned?” Lord, have mercy. That’s the kind of statement that, in another time and place, would have been greeted with an out-thrust palm and a hearty “Sieg heil!”

Here in this time and place, however, it demands a different response:

Just who the hell do you think you are?

Meaning you and all the other trolls you have brought clambering up from under their bridges.

Maybe you didn’t notice, but this is the United States of America. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Nation of laws, not of individuals? First Amendment? Freedom of the press? Any of that ringing a bell?

Let’s be brutally clear here. If you were a smart guy with unimpeachable integrity and a good heart who was enacting wise policies for the betterment of all humankind, you’d still be subject to sharp scrutiny from news media, oversight from Congress, restraint by the judiciary — and public opinion.

And you, of course, are none of those things. I know you have a fetish about strength. I know your pal Vladimir would never stand still for reporters and judges yapping at him.

I know, too, that you’re accustomed to being emperor of your own fiefdom. Must be nice. Your name on the wall, the paychecks, the side of the building. You tell people to make something happen, and it does. You yell at a problem, and it goes away. Nobody talks back. I can see how it would be hard to give that up.

But you did. You see, you’re no longer an emperor, Mr. So-Called President. You’re now what is called a “public servant” — in effect, an employee with 324 million bosses. And let me tell you something about those bosses. They’re unruly and loud, long accustomed to speaking their minds without fear or fetter. And they believe power must always answer to the people. That’s at the core of their identity.

Yet you and your coterie of cartoon autocrats think you’re going to cow them into silence and compliance by ordering them to shut up and obey? Well, as a freeborn American, I can answer that in two syllables flat.

Hell no.

The Plot To Hack America

Randi Rhodes talks with guest Malcolm Nance US Intelligence +35 yrs, NY Times Bestselling Author, Navy Senior Chief.



'He will die in jail': Intelligence community ready to 'go nuclear' on Trump, senior source says

U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to “go nuclear” after Donald Trump’s latest attack on the intelligence community.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the “real scandal” was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, he blasted what he said were “un-American” leaks that led to Flynn’s ousting.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/he-will-die-in-jail-intelligence-community-ready-to-go-nuclear-on-trump-senior-source-says/

Monday, February 13, 2017

Mika: 'What Stephen Miller Said Should Worry Everyone' Morning Blow MSNBC

Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller hit the Sunday shows to discuss everything from voter fraud to immigration. The Morning Blow panel reacts to Miller's alarming performance.


Question to Trump Voters: Aren't You Just Embarrassed?

Posted by Rude One

You know, I was halfway through writing a big piece that boiled down to "What if Donald Trump was a raging liberal who promised to do all the things I want? Would I be just ashamed to support him at this point?" I stopped because it was all so, so fucking obvious.

But I really want to know from Trump voters: Does any of this embarrass you?

Any of the shit with Michael Flynn and Russia?

Any of the ridiculous things Trump says, like threatening to "destroy the career" of a state legislator?

Any of the ludicrous comments and promises he makes?

His complete lack of understanding of the way the government actually functions?

His complete lack of knowledge about the United States's relationships with other countries?

The disastrous and unnecessary military mission in Yemen?

The fact that he is literally doing the things he said he was going to do, like tearing families apart?

The demonstrable lies?

Does any of it make a dent with you?

I stopped, too, because I realized that it doesn't. And that reasoning with most Trump voters is like running a flea circus. You can fool people into thinking the fleas are doing tricks and acrobatics, but it's just fleas being fleas. Whatever frame you put on it, they're gonna do whatever the fuck they please.

Whenever we face the joke of a presidency we're forced to endure right now, we're not merely facing the pumpkin-headed doom goblin at the top. We're facing all of his supporters who are unmoved by any ethical lapse, any law broken at this point, even the Constitution itself. So we either have to write them off as a mad tribe that has taken over the temple and hope they orgy themselves to death or we have to reason with them, however terrible it might be to walk up to a group of convulsing idiots and ask them to listen to your insights you got from watching CNN.

The takeaway from the blog post was going to be that I'd like to think that I'd be embarrassed. I'd like to think that it would matter even if President Stumblefuck McBleedingheart was going to tax the wealthy more and rein in Wall Street and get rid of money in politics and spend shit-tons on infrastructure and alternate energies and make reversing climate change a top priority and attack poverty with education and jobs programs and on and on. If he was as dumbly evil and evilly dumb as Trump, I'd like to think I'd be able to say, "Yeah, but, holy fuckballs, man, can we just impeach him already?"

Shame is a powerful tool. We need to deploy it more and make Trump's ardent supporters feel like outcasts for denying reality.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

GOP Rep tries the "death panel" line at town hall

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R) fields questions at a healthcare reform listening session in New Port Richey, Florida. The false claim of 'death panels' in the ACA was PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" in 2009.



"..The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."

George Orwell

Daily White House Press Briefing With Sean Spicer 02/11/2017

Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) take questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Mikey Day, Vanessa Bayer, Sasheer Zamata, Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney).


Thursday, February 9, 2017

Trump's Willing Victims: The Poor, Dumb Bastards Of The White Working Class

Posted by Rude One

I know we're all supposed to be freaking the fuck out over Donald Trump's mad desire for as much Putin dick as he can take. And I know we're suppsoed to be fact-checking the shit out of the administration's magical list of "terrorist attacks" that the horror-loving media supposedly didn't cover adequately, which can only mean "left out a call for a lynch mob," since the list contains some of the major events of the last couple of years. But there's an article that's stuck in my craw, something that is especially enraging in this time of an open spigot of anger.

Over at CNN's website, there's a piece titled "Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope." It's about Beattyville, Kentucky, a town that's on the ass end of nowhere in Appalachia and a place that used to rely on coal mining until that dried up sometime in the George W. Bush administration (and, no, it wasn't mean ol' white-hating, tree-huggin' Obama that did it). And these dirt poor fuckers, addicted to opioids, racist up to their tits, and utterly reliant on the government for welfare, health care, and most of the jobs in the area, believe that Donald motherfuckin' Trump is gonna be their savior.

The whole article is a look at how liberal policies, you know, shit that was done by Democrats, have pretty much been the only things keeping the townspeople alive and how goddamned deluded they are to that fact. For instance, "Beattyville residents want jobs, especially ones that pay more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They think if anyone can bring jobs back, it's Trump." It's so blindingly stupid and counter to everything that Trump and Republicans talk about. You know what's one way to make sure that you don't get a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? You raise the goddamned minimum wage, you know, like most Democrats want.

On and on the article goes. We learn that "57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security." And since hope is something that knows no rationality, "'I hope [Trump] don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits,' says [25 year-old Amber] Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare."

What do you say to Amber? Do you tell her that believing that Trump will create more jobs is as much a fantasy as Hillary Clinton's murders? Do you say that, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, she's fucked, as she is if Paul Ryan's budget, with cuts to government assistance programs, gets passed?

They believe that Trump is some kind of demi-god who will magically create jobs and make their lives better. "'I believe he wants to take care of us, the little people,' says [a] gas station manager. 'I think he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take care of America. I truly do.'" No, you dumb shit, he's gonna give the money to himself, his family, and his friends. If a few coins drop on the floor for you to scrounge for, well, there you go.

And who knows how to change their minds. The death of coal mining jobs has also meant the death of any hope for union involvement. So all they've got is prejudice, talk radio, and alienation. And drugs. You can't forget the drugs. Goddamn, Mitch McConnell told Beattyville residents to their faces that bringing jobs to eastern Kentucky was "not my job" and they still voted for him.

Essentially, the people of Beattyville are refugees living in our country. They are utterly dependent on the government. They have been abused and abandoned by the forces of capitalism. And they exist in an area of deep poverty and crime. The kindest thing we could do for them as a nation is buy their houses and land and relocate them to somewhere where there are some fucking jobs. Because you're not gonna shit out a new industry that'll make Beattyville boom, unless there is big time investment in tourism (truth be told, it's in a goddamn beautiful area).

Coal is done, as I've said, as everyone who isn't a fucking maniac president has said, including the coal companies. It's either been lapped by natural gas or automation has taken over for the miners.

But for the poor who voted for Trump, you are going to be punched in the face repeatedly by your own fists. And you'll come running to Democrats to help you, and we will, 'cause that's who the hell we are, and then you'll run right back to the racist pricks because that's just who the fuck you are: ungrateful, uneducated bastards who have been brainwashed so thoroughly that you don't realize who is stabbing you and who is trying to get your wounds healed, willing victims asking, "Please, may I have another" as the knife is twisted in your gut.

New Dead Sea Scrolls Found



Archeologists in Israel discovered a 12th cave they believe once housed the Dead Sea Scrolls after finding historical artifacts proving they had been stored there. If they are right, it would be the latest “scroll cave” discovered in over 60 years, Harretz reported Wednesday.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archeology found Cave 12, in the archeological site in Qumran, Israel, close to the location where the first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 in the West Bank. Until the announcement, it was believed that 11 caves had once contained the scrolls.

Cave 12 contained shattered pottery jars, which held the scrolls, scroll casings  and strips of cloth that tied the scrolls, which were all over 2,000 years old, one of the project’s head researchers, Dr. Oren Gutfeld from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Travel + Leisure.

Researchers announced that the cave likely held the Dead Sea Scrolls after discovering empty lidded pottery jars similar to the ones found inside of Cave 8. While archeologists found a piece of parchment rolled up in one of the jars from the Second Temple period, which was the same era the Dead Sea scrolls were made in (530 BC to 70 AD), it was blank.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 manuscripts containing parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible. In addition to being one of the earliest copies of the Ten Commandments, it is also comprised of secular texts, such as calendars, astronomical information and community regulations.

These can now be viewed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Researchers said the Dead Sea Scrolls that used to be in the cave were likely stolen by Bedouins in the middle of the 20th century after finding two iron pickaxe heads from the 1950’s inside.

"Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen," said Gutfeld. 

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Democrats Should Resist, But Everything That Happens Is On Republicans

Posted by Rude One

Let's get rid of one part of this in short order: Democrats in Congress should be resisting Trump every step of the way. That includes pushing hearings to crisis levels of antagonism, voting against every unqualified candidate, and, of course, filibustering his Supreme Court picks. It shouldn't even be up for discussion. They will lose and lose, but Democratic House and Senate members would be fundamentally misreading their marching, chanting, raging voters if they fail. As for the fear that Republicans in the Senate will get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, you can be sure that the moment that Democrats do refuse to allow a vote on whatever right-wing nutzoid Trump tries to shove down America's throat, skeevy powermonger Mitch McConnell is gonna change the rules with his disturbing semi-grin that's a middle finger to his opponents. It's a question of when, not "if" on the filibuster.

Democrats can spin this easily. They could say they won't vote on things until the Muslim ban is halted. They could say that they won't vote for Trump's Supreme Court picks because a majority of Americans don't think he should be able to do so. They could stand up for the judiciary as Trump keeps ignoring court orders.

Democratic voters are already fighting. They are mightily insulted and want active rejection of all things Trump. These are flames that should be fanned by Democrats in Congress until Republicans start to feel the residual heat and are afraid of getting burned.

That's because, on some level, many Republicans realize that they own this presidency and its actions. Oh, sure, sure, they're fine going along with a great deal of dirt that Trump does. Except for the pathetic, neutered goat bleatings of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and a handful of others, Republicans are either conspicuously silent or hee-hawing in support of the Muslim ban, and they're drooling at the prospect of getting Scalia II on the court. But we're now just two weeks into the Trump administration (insert your own retching sound), and we've got a Benghazi and multiple foreign crises. There's only so long that you can keep your head in the sand until you just suffocate.

Actually, it's unfair to compare the disastrous raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen to Benghazi. What happened at the consulate in Libya was an unexpected event. The Yemen raid was an American plan that had been rejected by the Obama administration and then approved by Trump despite the lack of intelligence that might have prevented all the deaths that occurred, including a Navy SEAL and several children. In other words, Trump's first military test was a clusterfuck of fail. And not a single hearing has been scheduled nor have you heard a peep from Republicans.

And you might not, ever. You might not hear them say how utterly absurd it is that Trump is treating the president of Mexico like he's a gardener who cut a shrub at Mar-a-Lago too short. You might not hear them even whisper that agitating China is just dumb. You might not hear them wonder why the hell Trump is pissing on our relationship with Australia, one of our most reliable allies in the world. You might hear them cheering on another useless war, this time with Iran, because that'd just fulfill a dream they've had since 1979. You will hear them crapping themselves over any threat that's Muslimish while clamming up over domestic terrorists like white supremacists and Breitbart's staff.

Still, we know that not only are Republicans cowards, but they're liars and hypocrites who would dance on the corpses of dead children rather than admit their ideology has failed. They'd rather learn to breathe sand than lift their heads and walk upright because they're gonna get to kick sick people off health insurance, discriminate against LGBT Americans, and force women into back alley abortions, the trifecta of quotidian cruelty they're begging to inflict.

So how do we get through to them? Because, see, we don't have two years to wait for the congressional midterms. Hell, all we need is one terrorist event in the United States, and Trump will declare martial law because he's too dumb and deranged to know any other way to handle it.

Two plans: the first is already happening. Inundate the offices and phone lines, especially of GOP representatives. Make their lives miserable with people registering how angry they are. The reps, even in gerrymandered districts, are more vulnerable than most senators. We gotta get people running against them. Put these assholes out on the curb. And make the rest beg for mercy.

And our activism has to target people who voted for Trump. Yeah, I know, I know, they're loathsome racists or racist-adjacent. But there are a hell of a lot of them who are regretting their votes - the wayward Bernie voters, the "take him seriously, but not literally" idiots, and the ones who realized that maybe getting into a war with Mexico is a little worse than Hillary's emails.

Mostly, it all depends on the constant action of Democrats and non-aligned progressives. Make sure Republicans know that they will be held to account for what they do, not just Democrats. This is on the GOP. Make them pay.

Pelosi: "Impeachment off the table"....again??? WTF??

Monday at Capitol Hill at a House Democrats news conference, discussing Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) comments last week that her “greatest desire,” would be to impeach President Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the president has “acted in a way that is strategically incoherent, that is incompetent and that is reckless.” and that is not grounds for impeachment but “When and if he breaks the law, that is when something like that would come up.”



Friday, February 3, 2017

We Know How This Ends


The White House is once again tolerant of white supremacy.




WASHINGTON—There are some remarkable stories that have vanished for now in this city. One of the most prominent of these is that out-and-out white supremacy is operating at the very top levels of the executive branch of the government in a way that it hasn't since, I don't know, the Wilson administration. The Collected Works of Steve Bannon are bad enough. From USA Today:
"They are motivated. They're arrogant. They're on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat."
And, if Bannon isn't enough, there's this guy who looks at immigration as an invasion, an act of war. Which, of course, never has been a problem anywhere else in the world, ever. From New York:
"The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle."
The whole campaign stank of this kind of thing, but there was a great scrambling during the campaign to minimize or to ignore it, or at least to minimize or ignore the possibility that it would continue to flourish within the administration. (This manifested itself more clearly in the stubborn refusal by many news organizations to recognize how vital this phenomenon was to the campaign's overall appeal.) This, it seems, was very premature. This development on Wednesday is downright unnerving. From Reuters:
The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States. Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.
Leave aside the fact that everyone who knows what they're talking about thinks this move is counterproductive in the fight against that which the president* believes he's at war. This is an unmistakable signal to the camo-wearing, gravity-knife wing of modern conservatism that it's less of a priority for federal law enforcement any more.


This comes on the heels of a story in The Intercept that white ethnocracy is becoming quite the fashion among various law-enforcement officers.
In a heavily redacted version of an October 2006 FBI internal intelligence assessment, the agency raised the alarm over white supremacist groups' "historical" interest in "infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel." The effort, the memo noted, "can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources or personnel." The memo also states that law enforcement had recently become aware of the term "ghost skins," used among white supremacists to describe "those who avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes." In at least one case, the FBI learned of a skinhead group encouraging ghost skins to seek employment with law enforcement agencies in order to warn crews of any investigations.
There is no question that this old, rough beast has been unleashed in our politics again. The first steps in unlocking the cage happened years ago, when modern conservatism attached itself to the reanimated corpse of American apartheid and rode it to glory. Anyone who doesn't see the danger should pay a visit to Oklahoma City. That is what we can do to each other if our leaders are reckless, ambitious men who think what they say has no consequences.

In the museum near where the Murrah Building once stood, there is the handle of a jack that was in the back of the truck in which Timothy McVeigh placed his bomb. That jack handle was blown nearly a quarter of a mile and lodged in the wall of a law office. There is also a clear tube containing hundreds of watches, all stopped at 9:03. No political gain is worth that.

The Gridlockers Bitch About Gridlock

Democrats intensified their opposition to President Trump on Tuesday by further delaying the confirmations of several of his Cabinet nominees, prompting a bitter showdown with Republicans who accused them of paralyzing the formation of a new administration.

First, Democrats boycotted a Senate committee scheduled to take two votes, one on Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, and the other on Steve Mnuchin, his choice to lead the treasury. Then, they blocked a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

The theatrics reflected growing concern over Trump’s travel ban for refugees and foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, an order issued Friday with virtually no consultation with top government officials or senior lawmakers. In blocking Sessions, Democrats also cited the president’s firing Monday night of acting attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to defend the ban.






Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Democrats Block Votes Because These Two Couldn't Stop Lying

Are Democrats finally growing a spine? Not really. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.



"On Tuesday, shortly before the Finance hearing began, committee Democrats huddled in the office of the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and agreed that they would all boycott the session, aides said.

The boycott was prompted by Democrats’ concerns that Mnuchin had initially misstated his personal wealth on financial disclosure forms and misstated how OneWest Bank, a bank he led as chairman and chief executive officer, scrutinized mortgage documents. Democrats have also raised questions about Price and his personal financial investments in health-care companies and legislation he promoted that could have benefited several of the same companies. Some of the stock trades, as well as campaign donations from companies, closely coincided with one another.

Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html

The Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind Announced


This June, the next Chapter in The Elder Scrolls Online will begin. Return to the iconic island of Vvardenfell for over 30 hours of adventure in a brand new location, with a new class, a new PvP mode, a new Trial, and so much more. 
 
The fate of Morrowind hangs in the balance and you must take up the mantle of a hero to help Vivec, the legendary warrior-poet and Guardian of Vvardenfell, save the world from a deadly Daedric threat.

Set roughly 700 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, ESO's new Chapter takes you to familiar locations as you attempt to solve the mystery of Vivec's mysterious illness and restore his strength. Travel from the volcanic Ashlands to the mushroom-filled forests, and walk the streets of Vivec City, still under construction at this point in time.


With the largest landmass addition to date, a brand-new player class, and an intense new PvP mode, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is the perfect entry point for new players and a great way for veterans to continue their journey.

Those who already own ESO can simply upgrade their experience and immediately jump into the new Chapter when it launches on June 6, 2017 for all platforms, including on PC in Japan. And thanks to the One Tamriel update from last October, new players can also sail directly into Morrowind and play with other adventurers of all levels. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind also includes all the original ESO content, so new players will have access to hundreds of hours of excitement throughout Tamriel. Existing players can choose to carry their characters over to Morrowind, or start fresh on a new adventure with a new face.

And you may indeed want to give a new character a go, as Morrowind introduces the first new class since ESO launched. The new Warden class wields powerful nature-based magic and, true to the Elder Scrolls franchise, can be customized with a number of abilities to suit your play style. Explore the island of Vvardenfell and charge headfirst into battle knowing your Warden's ferocious War Bear always has your back.



Morrowind also introduces a new Trial and PvP mode for you to check out. Enter the Telvanni tower of Tel Fyr with your strongest allies to battle your way through the Halls of Fabrication, and explore a part of the Clockwork City in a challenging new 12-player Trial. Or, you can head to the Ashlands to take on fellow players in exciting 4v4v4 battles in arena-like environments. These highly competitive fast-paced matches will feature your choice in a variety of game types across three different maps.
 


Four different editions of Morrowind will be available at launch: the Standard Edition, the Upgrade Edition, the Digital Collector's Edition and a physical Collector's Edition. Get all the details on what's included in each edition here, or you can check out our pre-order FAQ here.

Starting today, when you pre-order any edition of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, you'll receive the Discovery Pack which contains the following:
  • Exclusive Warden costume – a costume for all classes that matches the Warden's outfit, as seen in the announcement trailer above
  • Dwarven War Dog – a unique armored (non-combatant) in-game pet
  • Treasure Maps – maps detailing the location of Vvardenfell's greatest rewards
  • Dwarven Crown Crate – a special Crown Crate that gives you the chance to receive Dwarven-themed mounts, pets, costumes and more
  • Experience Scrolls – advance through Vvardenfell, gaining 50% more experience for two hours

We'll be sharing more details about each of the new features Morrowind has to offer over the next few months, and can't wait to have you discover the latest Chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online. Tell us what you're most excited about on our official forums, or on Twitter using the #Morrowind hashtag!

http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2017/01/31/the-elder-scrolls-online-morrowind--announcement-and-details

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Trial Balloon For A Coup?

By Yonatan Zunger

Analyzing the news of the past 24 hours

The theme of this morning’s news updates from Washington is additional clarity emerging, rather than meaningful changes in the field. But this clarity is enough to give us a sense of what we just saw happen, and why it happened the way it did.

I’ll separate what’s below into the raw news reports and analysis; you may also find these two pieces from yesterday (heavily referenced below) to be useful.
From “The Day After Tomorrow.” I resisted the temptation to use the analogous shot from “Planet of the Apes.”

News Reports

(1) Priebus made two public statements today. One is that the ban on Muslims will no longer be applied to green card holders. Notably absent from his statement was anything about people with other types of visa (including long-term ones), or anything about the DHS’ power to unilaterally revoke green cards in bulk.


A point of note here is that Priebus is the one making these statements, which is not normally the Chief of Staff’s job. I’ll come back to that below.

(2) Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that the intent of yesterday’s order was very much a ban on Muslims, described in those words, and he was among the people Trump asked how they could find a way to do this legally.

(3) CNN has a detailed story (heavily sourced) about the process by which this ban was created and announced. Notable in this is that the DHS’ lawyers objected to the order, specifically its exclusion of green card holders, as illegal, and also pressed for there to be a grace period so that people currently out of the country wouldn’t be stranded — and they were personally overruled by Bannon and Stephen Miller. Also notable is that career DHS staff, up to and including the head of Customs & Border Patrol, were kept entirely out of the loop until the order was signed.

(4) The Guardian is reporting (heavily sourced) that the “mass resignations” of nearly all senior staff at the State Department on Thursday were not, in fact, resignations, but a purge ordered by the White House. As the diagram below (by Emily Roslin v Praze) shows, this leaves almost nobody in the entire senior staff of the State Department at this point.
The seniormost staff of the Department of State. Blue X’s are unfilled positions; red X’s are positions which were purged. Note that the “filled” positions are not actually confirmed yet.
As the Guardian points out, this has an important and likely not accidental effect: it leaves the State Department entirely unstaffed during these critical first weeks, when orders like the Muslim ban (which they would normally resist) are coming down.

The article points out another point worth highlighting: “In the past, the state department has been asked to set up early foreign contacts for an incoming administration. This time however it has been bypassed, and Trump’s immediate circle of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus are making their own calls.”

(5) On Inauguration Day, Trump apparently filed his candidacy for 2020. Beyond being unusual, this opens up the ability for him to start accepting “campaign contributions” right away. Given that a sizable fraction of the campaign funds from the previous cycle were paid directly to the Trump organization in exchange for building leases, etc., at inflated rates, you can assume that those campaign coffers are a mechanism by which US nationals can easily give cash bribes directly to Trump. Non-US nationals can, of course, continue to use Trump’s hotels and other businesses as a way to funnel money to him.

(6) Finally, I want to highlight a story that many people haven’t noticed. On Wednesday, Reuters reported (in great detail) how 19.5% of Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, has been sold to parties unknown. This was done through a dizzying array of shell companies, so that the most that can be said with certainty now is that the money “paying” for it was originally loaned out to the shell layers by VTB (the government’s official bank), even though it’s highly unclear who, if anyone, would be paying that loan back; and the recipients have been traced as far as some Cayman Islands shell companies.

Why is this interesting? Because the much-maligned Steele Dossier (the one with the golden showers in it) included the statement that Putin had offered Trump 19% of Rosneft if he became president and removed sanctions. The reason this is so interesting is that the dossier said this in July, and the sale didn’t happen until early December. And 19.5% sounds an awful lot like “19% plus a brokerage commission.”

Conclusive? No. But it raises some very interesting questions for journalists to investigate.

What does this all mean?

I see a few key patterns here. First, the decision to first block, and then allow, green card holders was meant to create chaos and pull out opposition; they never intended to hold it for too long. It wouldn’t surprise me if the goal is to create “resistance fatigue,” to get Americans to the point where they’re more likely to say “Oh, another protest? Don’t you guys ever stop?” relatively quickly.

However, the conspicuous absence of provisions preventing them from executing any of the “next steps” I outlined yesterday, such as bulk revocation of visas (including green cards) from nationals of various countries, and then pursuing them using mechanisms being set up for Latinos, highlights that this does not mean any sort of backing down on the part of the regime.

Note also the most frightening escalation last night was that the DHS made it fairly clear that they did not feel bound to obey any court orders. CBP continued to deny all access to counsel, detain people, and deport them in direct contravention to the court’s order, citing “upper management,” and the DHS made a formal (but confusing) statement that they would continue to follow the President’s orders. (See my updates from yesterday, and the various links there, for details) Significant in today’s updates is any lack of suggestion that the courts’ authority played a role in the decision.

That is to say, the administration is testing the extent to which the DHS (and other executive agencies) can act and ignore orders from the other branches of government. This is as serious as it can possibly get: all of the arguments about whether order X or Y is unconstitutional mean nothing if elements of the government are executing them and the courts are being ignored.

Yesterday was the trial balloon for a coup d’état against the United States. It gave them useful information.

A second major theme is watching the set of people involved. There appears to be a very tight “inner circle,” containing at least Trump, Bannon, Miller, Priebus, Kushner, and possibly Flynn, which is making all of the decisions. Other departments and appointees have been deliberately hobbled, with key orders announced to them only after the fact, staff gutted, and so on. Yesterday’s reorganization of the National Security Council mirrors this: Bannon and Priebus now have permanent seats on the Principals’ Committee; the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have both been demoted to only attending meetings where they are told that their expertise is relevant; the Secretary of Energy and the US representative to the UN were kicked off the committee altogether (in defiance of the authorizing statute, incidentally).

I am reminded of Trump’s continued operation of a private personal security force, and his deep rift with the intelligence community. Last Sunday, Kellyanne Conway (likely another member of the inner circle) said that “It’s really time for [Trump] to put in his own security and intelligence community,” and this seems likely to be the case.

As per my analysis yesterday, Trump is likely to want his own intelligence service disjoint from existing ones and reporting directly to him; given the current staffing and roles of his inner circle, Bannon is the natural choice for them to report through. (Having neither a large existing staff, nor any Congressional or Constitutional restrictions on his role as most other Cabinet-level appointees do) Keith Schiller would continue to run the personal security force, which would take over an increasing fraction of the Secret Service’s job.

Especially if combined with the DHS and the FBI, which appear to have remained loyal to the President throughout the recent transition, this creates the armature of a shadow government: intelligence and police services which are not accountable through any of the normal means, answerable only to the President.

(Note, incidentally, that the DHS already has police authority within 100 miles of any border of the US; since that includes coastlines, this area includes over 60% of Americans, and eleven entire states.

 They also have a standing force of over 45,000 officers, and just received authorization to hire 15,000 more on Wednesday.)

The third theme is money. Trump’s decision to keep all his businesses (not bothering with any blind trusts or the like), and his fairly open diversion of campaign funds, made it fairly clear from the beginning that he was seeing this as a way to become rich in the way that only dedicated kleptocrats can, and this week’s updates definitely tally with that. Kushner looks increasingly likely to be the money-man, acting as the liaison between piles of cash and the president.

This gives us a pretty good guess as to what the exit strategy is: become tremendously, and untraceably, rich, by looting any coffers that come within reach.

Combining all of these facts, we have a fairly clear picture in play.
  1. Trump was, indeed, perfectly honest during the campaign; he intends to do everything he said, and more. This should not be reassuring to you.
  2. The regime’s main organizational goal right now is to transfer all effective power to a tight inner circle, eliminating any possible checks from either the Federal bureaucracy, Congress, or the Courts. Departments are being reorganized or purged to effect this.
  3. The inner circle is actively probing the means by which they can seize unchallenged power; yesterday’s moves should be read as the first part of that.
  4. The aims of crushing various groups — Muslims, Latinos, the black and trans communities, academics, the press — are very much primary aims of the regime, and are likely to be acted on with much greater speed than was earlier suspected. The secondary aim of personal enrichment is also very much in play, and clever people will find ways to play these two goals off each other.
If you’re looking for estimates of what this means for the future, I’ll refer you back to yesterday’s post on what “things going wrong” can look like. Fair warning: I stuffed that post with pictures of cute animals for a reason.

Note: If you want the full feed of what I write, follow me at google.com/+YonatanZunger and @YonatanZunger on Twitter. There’s too much to put on Medium!

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Congressional GOP Utterly Silent After Jason Chaffetz Busted Using Personal Email Server


In a great ironic twist, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has been promising to lead the investigation of Hillary Clinton even now that Donald Trump has become president, and is now under fire himself for use of an illegal private email server.

The Democratic Coalition Against Trump reported Rep. Chaffetz to the FBI, explaining:

The Democratic Coalition Against Trump reported Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to the FBI on Wednesday morning for possibly breaking Executive Order 13526 and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 793(f) of the federal code, which makes it unlawful to send or store classified information on a personal email. As was recently resurfaced by the Democratic Coalition’s #TrumpLeaks program, Rep. Chaffetz lists his personal Gmail address on business cards brandished with the Congressional seal. Rep. Chaffetz sits on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, which has jurisdiction over “internal and homeland security,” among other things.

“The mishandling of classified information that concerns the national security of our nation is something that the FBI takes very seriously,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition. “The irony is unparalleled- Representative Chaffetz, the person who led the charge against Secretary Clinton’s personal email server use, could actually be the one who is breaking the law and putting our national security at risk in the process.”

This coalition brings up several good questions.

First, will Chaffetz be able to lead an investigation of Hillary Clinton while he himself is suspected of doing the exact same thing she’s accused of doing?

Second, why is she the only one being investigated, when there is ample evidence of many, many government officials using private email servers, as well as evidence of Donald Trump and his Russian ties communicating through private servers?

Third, why was Hillary’s email an issue at all.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Donald Trump still, quite literally, doesn’t know anything about anything

In First Network Interview as President, Trump Confirms Things That Aren’t “Tremendous” Are “Disasters”