Random Observations On Michael Cohen's Mob Hearing

Posted by Rude One

1. When Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for resident Donald Trump, said to the House Oversight Committee at his open hearing yesterday, "I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat," it didn't budge the needle one bit on Trump's support among his idiot hordes of voters. They love him because he's a racist, a conman, and a cheat. They love him because he cheated and conned and got away with it and they don't give a hairy rat's asshole if they're the mark. And they love him even more because he's a racist who's rich because it shows that you can be a racist piece of shit and still make coin and become resident. So put that out of your minds, dear, liberal reader who so wanted Cohen to burn it all down. Cohen could have shown up with videos of Trump raping a 12 year-old girl on top of an American flag, laughing while Vladimir Putin shits on his doughy face and Mohammed bin Salman shoves rolled up wads of cash into his enormous ass, and his idiot hordes of followers would say, "Damn, that's livin'."

2. And the Republican Party wouldn't give a goddamn either. Essentially, the GOP is no longer made up of Americans. It's comprised of Trumpians, mostly men and a few women who are loyal to the man, not the nation, and who will allow him to get away with any crimes he wants as long as he continues to give them tax cuts, savagely conservative judges, and bullshit bravado for the aforementioned hordes. At no point in the hearing did a single Republican attempt to defend Trump. In fact, you could say that on some accounts, Cohen did more to defend Trump on some specific allegations than the Republicans, when he said he couldn't absolutely confirm a conspiracy with Russia and didn't believe the piss tape exists. But Cohen went at Republicans, at times giving looks that seemed to say that he knows where their bodies are buried, too. When he was finally sick of all the shit Republicans were throwing at him, Cohen snarled at insufferable dickhole Jim Jordan of Ohio, "I just find it interesting, sir, that between yourself and your colleagues that not one question so far since I’m here has been asked about resident Trump...The American people don’t care about my taxes. They want to know what it is that I know about Mr. Trump. Not one question so far has been asked about Mr. Trump." That is some baller shit right there.

3. Every Huckleberry Chucklefuck on the GOP side who sounded like they had a mouthful of chicken-fried balls merely repeated the same shit over and over about Cohen: that he lied to Congress before; that there were all these Fox "news"-generated conspiracies going on that involved, among others, the Clintons; that Cohen might try to make some money on his tribulations (so I guess we can expect that Newt Gingrich and a hundred other scummy Republicans drummed out of DC won't be invited to the cocktail parties and Hannity reacharounds anymore); that he was in it for himself. After a while, it was hard to tell one white guy with a Southern accent from another. Oh, shit, was that Jody Hice? Or Ralph Norman? Or Mark Green? Jesus, when the two white women on the GOP side spoke, it was a huge relief because at least the pitch of their voices was different.

3a. Of course, it was easy to tell who Mark Meadows of North Carolina was. He was designated bitch face for the whole proceedings, screeching like a banshee that stepped on a Lego piece whenever he found something the least bit offensive. The racist, birther son of a bitch who only got elected because of racist gerrymandering almost cried when Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib accused his racist ass of doing racist shit. Meadows had brought Trump party planner and now HUD official for some fucking reason Lynne Patton, a black woman, to stand behind him in what was obviously a move to prove that racist Trump isn't racist. "See?" he was essentially saying. "Trump loves black people so much that he hired one of the only ones he knows to run an agency he couldn't give a happy monkey fuck about. Not racist!" Cohen eviscerated Meadows with a simple statement: "Ask Ms. Patton how many people who are black are executives at the Trump Organization. The answer is zero."

3b. Special mention to Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins, who is from my family's district and is just dumber and more useless than a sack of wet hair. He kept thinking he had caught Cohen hiding evidence when he brought up boxes where Cohen found the documents he was presenting. At least twice, Cohen explained that the boxes were taken from him by the FBI and returned to him. Higgins is an ex-cop, so maybe he's used to just confiscating shit and selling it to buy military equipment for his Cajun jackass brigade. He's another one of those disgraced motherfuckers who a bunch of yahoos love because he's "straight-talkin'" or some such shit, so they vote for his Deputy Dawg ass. (And, yeah, I've gotten in vicious arguments back home over him.)

4. What came through most clearly is that Donald Trump is just a fucking asshole. I mean, just a horrible, blithering, narcissistic piece of garbage, and not even quality garbage. Like the garbage that gets stuck on the bottom of the can and rots and then you have to scrape it out. It is likely orange. Trump loves to act like a mob boss, doing things with a wink that his stooges understand. Cohen talked about how the whole election was just an "infomercial" for Trump's brand, that winning was never in the cards in Trump's mind. He talked about how Trump evaded the draft, with Trump saying, "You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam." He talked about how Trump loves dicking over people who owe him money. He said that Trump had him threaten Trump's schools even though they are prevented by federal law from releasing his academic records, and that Trump had him threaten people hundreds of times (which means that Cohen got a kick out of doing it, like he had some power). And, c'mon, can we not ignore the fact that the resident of the United States is paying off porn stars for their silence? Can we all not agree that that's just so fucking sleazy? Or that he was negotiating for a Moscow tower while he was running for resident? Mostly, though, Trump lies and lies like lies are air and food and water. Trump has lied about everything, every goddamn thing, and he has created a barrier of lickspittles, sycophants, and lackeys to prevent truth from either getting out or penetrating in. And right now, Republicans are the fuckin' Praetorian guard for Trump.

5. Mostly, Democrats did okay. They got Cohen to delve a little bit into the operation of the Trump Organization, although they didn't dive nearly as deeply as they could have. They ranted too much about how they were doing something good for the country by holding the hearing (to counter the Republicans completely worthless claim that the hearing was harming the nation). And they dropped the ball a few times, which was as much due to the limitations of the 5-minute clock as anything. But they could have dug in to expose more clearly what a ramshackle entity Trump's business is, how it's just a few people, mostly family, doing slimy shit to make sure the Trump name stays out there. Kardashians with real estate and fewer scruples.

5a. However, fucking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not there to fuck around. She didn't pause to make any statement. Instead, she gave a goddamn masterclass on how you can take five minutes and break through the rhetorical bullshit in order to get to the heart of a matter. She focused in on Trump's deflation of the value of his properties to avoid taxes. That's a crime, and Trump could face big fines and tax evasion charges when the Southern District of New York prosecutors get done with it. Shout out also to Ayanna Pressley, Democrat from Massachusetts, who dug into more financial crimes, these related to the way the Trump Foundation was used as a slush fund, often just to stroke Trump's huge ego. And she emphasized, as did Michigan's Brenda Lawrence, Trump's racism because he's a fucking racist.

5b. Leave the speeches to the Democratic Chair of the Oversight Committe, Elijah Cummings, who concluded the hearing with a thunderous attack on his GOP colleagues and on those who degraded Cohen. It was a cry for decency that he was making to wholly indecent people, but, tearing up at Cummings' words, Michael Cohen, an indecent man trying to find decency and respect again, seemed to really hear them. Cohen was a shit human who worked for a shittier human, and Cummings offered him a chance at redemption.

6. What did we gain from yesterday? A sense that we might get at the truth of what was done to the United States in November 2016. A feeling of, if not hope, then something hope-adjacent that we might use the mechanisms of our government to save ourselves.

6a. But the Republicans won't help at all. They are done as anything other than as a subsidiary of the Trump corporation.

6b. And we shall need to heed Cohen's warning about Trump that " I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power." That's some scary shit right there because, well, see number 1 up there.

The 10 Most Jaw-Dropping Lines From Michael Cohen’s Leaked Testimony

Michael Cohen testifies before Congress on Wednesday, but his opening statement was published by The New York Times late Tuesday.

In it, the disgraced former attorney to resident Donald Trump painted a picture of a “racist,” a “conman” and a “cheat” sitting in the Oval Office. Then, in scathing detail, Cohen listed examples of each in action. 

Here are some of the most stunning excerpts from the statement:

“Mr. Trump is a racist”

“He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ‘shithole.’ This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.
“While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way.
“And, he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.”

Trump has a very low opinion of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. 

“Mr. Trump had frequently told me and others that his son Don Jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. And also, that Don Jr. would never set up any meeting of any significance alone – and certainly not without checking with his father.”

How Trump dodged service in Vietnam  

“Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.
He finished the conversation with the following comment. ‘You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.’”

Trump is not a patriot

“The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led
me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. In fact, he did
the opposite.
“When telling me in 2008 that he was cutting employees’ salaries in half ― including mine ― he showed me what he claimed was a $10 million IRS tax refund, and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving ‘someone like him’ that much money back.”

Trump ‘reveled’ in refusing to pay his bills  

“One of my more common responsibilities was that Mr. Trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom were small businesses, that were owed money for their services and told them no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. When I advised Mr. Trump of my success, he actually reveled in it.”

Trump knew about Roger Stone and Wikileaks

“In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be great.’”

One of Cohen’s biggest regrets: Lying to Melania Trump

“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.”

Trump repaid Stormy Daniels hush money with personal checks

“I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that resident Trump personally signed from his personal bank 14 account on August 1, 2017 – when he was resident of the United States – pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me – the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer ― for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year – while he was resident.
“The resident of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.”

Cohen warns Trump: I’m not your ‘fixer’ anymore 

“For those who question my motives for being here today, I understand. I have lied, but I am not a liar. I have done bad things, but I am not a bad man. I have fixed things, but I am no longer your ‘fixer,’ Mr. Trump.”

The identity of Individual #1

“For the record: Individual #1 is resident Donald J. Trump.” 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-cohen-opening-statement_n_5c761ccbe4b062b30eb91450 

Was GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz's Tweet to Michael Cohen Witness Intimidation?

Matt Gaetz, you Florida tea party slack jawed yokel, you need to drink a stiff cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! 

dlevere.

As Michael Cohen apologized to a Senate panel Tuesday for having previously given false testimony, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Congressman serving Florida’s first district and a stalwart ally of resident Trump, took to Twitter with a tweet that some ethics experts considered a threat to Cohen.

“Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…,” Gaetz’s tweet said.

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/was-gop-congressman-matt-gaetzs-tweet-to-michael-cohen-witness-intimidation/ar-BBU85gQ

The Everyday Delusions Of The Trump Supporter (White Terrorist Edition)

Posted by Rude One

If you're going to be a supporter of resident Donald Trump, there's a certain amount of delusion you've got to have. And there's a whole range of the kinds of delusional thinking that can infect you.

You've got the seemingly practical delusions of most of the GOP members of Congress, a kind of "I can live with his barking insanity and wholesale destruction of our constitutional system if I get tax cuts for my wealthy donors" delusion.

On the other end of the spectrum, you've got the nutzoid conspiracy theorists, the ones who believe that Trump is a superhero who is being undermined by a cabal of Hillary Clinton, Democrats, media types, and, sure, Jews.

In the middle is the average delusional Trump voter, the kind who justify everything he does by declaring that Trump's not racist, not dumb, and certainly not unqualified for the job. They actually believe stupid shit he says, like that a border wall would solve all our problems with illegal drugs and prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the country.

They actually believe that Trump saved the economy from the wreckage of Obama's (checks notes) 75 straight months of job growth. They will justify anything in terms of Trump's obvious awesomeness, wondering how we can't comprehend the wonder that is the glowing orange blob that is Donald Trump.

And, perhaps most mindbending, some of them actually believe that the rise of white supremacist terrorism and violence in this country has nothing to do with Trump.

Like some things ought to be a no-brainer, right? When the FBI arrested very white guy Christopher Hasson in Maryland last week, he had a shit-ton of guns and ammos, as well as several Hulks worth of steroids and a small CVS of other drugs and supplies, and a plan to start a race war and a kill list of Democratic lawmakers and members of the media who are critical of Trump. So it's not a huge leap of logic to assume that asshole was inspired by Trump's rhetoric.

But not Eddie Scarry of the Washington Examiner (Motto: "No, not that one. Not that one either. Okay, just fuckin' click to find out"). In a "column" (if by "column," you mean, "A moronic, masturbatory yawp that its author desperately hopes will get him some Hannity man-love") titled, "Christopher Hasson, Coast Guard officer, was a nihilist and there’s no evidence he was a Trump supporter," says, well, the title pretty much says the entire thing, just on repeat.

It's all a bunch of self-own, really. In court documents, Scarry points out that in January, Hasson searched for "what if trump illegally impeached” and “civil war if trump impeached.” But don't you dare say that means he wanted civil war if Trump was impeached. Besides, Scarry says Hasson was driven by "a preoccupation with race and a nihilistic view that had no clear attachment to politics at all, outside of an unspecified antipathy for “liberalist/globalist ideology.” But don't you dare smack your head as you tell this bridge troll that Trump has a preoccupation with race and has derided "globalists." For Scarry and his delusional ilk, Trump simply can't be the racist piece of shit the majority of us know he is because, well, he isn't? I don't know. I can't get that up in my own ass.

In order to keep asserting, as he does, "Hasson didn’t care about Trump," Scarry ignores a couple of things. Like that almost all of the people on Hasson's kill list have been directly criticized by Trump. Otherwise, why would he give a shit about Joe Scarborough or Richard Blumenthal (who he called "Sen blumen jew," continuing that hilarious conservative sense of humor)? Or that he wants to kill "poca warren," which uses Trump's nickname for Elizabeth Warren?

The very act of eliminating Trump's influence on Hasson requires a ludicrous amount of denial. But that's more or less the only way Trump voters can exist in their bizarre, thick bubble where facts and reality don't penetrate.

(Note: It took everything I could not to make a joke about the name "Scarry." I couldn't decide whether or not to go with "frightening" or "full of scars" or "related to Richard Scarry.")

(Note again: The fact that an individual can legally buy that many guns makes us a ridiculously dumb country.)

Donald Trump Silent On Plot To Kill Critics

Joe: ‘Not a word from the resident’ and that ‘speaks volumes.’ Amid resident Trump’s silence on the alleged domestic terror plot by a Coast Guard lieutenant, the Morning Blow team discusses the state of American politics today.

Keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns

The New Jersey state Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that would keep presidential candidates off the state’s 2020 ballot unless they release their tax returns.

According to the Courier Post, the Democratic-controlled state Senate passed the measure along party lines in a 23-11 vote on Thursday, sending the bill to the Assembly committee and full legislature for a vote before it heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy (D) for consideration.

The controversial measure would deny candidates for President and Vice President a spot on the state ballot if they do not publicly release five of their most recent tax returns at least 50 days before the general election in 2020.

The bill, if passed, would also bar the state’s electors from voting for candidates for President and Vice President as part of the Electoral College system if they choose not to comply with the legislation.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/431062-new-jersey-senate-passes-bill-that-would-keep-trump-off-2020-ballot

TRUMP IS LOSING IT! Calls For Jail For Investigators, Retribution Against Critics, & GOP Is Silent!

Let's talk about the dangerous and increasing authoritarian tendencies of Donald Trump, who is now talking about JAILING Department of Justice investigators and wanting RETRIBUTION for critics.

It Can't Happen Here

Robert Reich: Is Trump The Worst Resident In History?

Robert Reich compares Trump's residency to the worst Presidents in American history.

Watch More: 7 Signs of a Tyrant ►► https://youtu.be/tg8y5H_Rrf0

 

Putin's Spies & Disinformation Machine // Malcolm Nance - MSNBC 11th Hour

MSNBC 11th Hour's Brian Williams hosts Intel Community veteran Malcolm Nance to discuss recent evidence of Kremlin espionage, using Trump associates, and disinformation campaigns intended to cause chaos and disruption.

Check out Malcolm on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/malcolmnance

The Resident Is The National Emergency: Eugene Robinson

'The resident's decision to officially declare an emergency - to pretend to build an unbuildable border wall - is not only an act of constitutional vandalism. It is also an act of cowardice...,' writes Eugene Robinson in a new WaPo column. Robinson joins Morning Blow to discuss.

Unless Howard Schultz Wants to RE-ELECT TRUMP - He Needs to Just Go Away Already!

We have to play it right this election so we don't end up in the same situation as 2016.

Go check out TRENTA PAC: https://www.trentapac.com/ and follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TRENTAPAC

This Is Why Trump Continues To Be Utterly DOMINATED By Ann Coulter!

Let's talk about Donald Trump's bizarre deference for Ann Coulter. No matter what nasty thing she says or tweets about him, Donald Trump continues to hold her in ostensibly as high regard as Vladimir Putin!

Dozens Of Crazed Trump Supporters Form “Human Wall” Along Southern Border

Last week Trump suggested that he would build a “human wall” along the southern border if Democrats don’t give him the funding that the wants for his border wall. Apparently some of his supporters took the message to heart, and they went down to the southern border and formed a wall themselves.

Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses the insanity of this and why his supporters will literally do anything he tells them to do.



https://thehill.com/latino/429431-dozens-of-trump-supporters-form-human-wall-at-southern-border

FINALLY! Trump CoS Mick Mulvaney Slips and Admits Republicans Lied About Obama!

Let's talk about Mick Mulvaney's recent interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, during which Mulvaney admitted clumsily that Republicans during Barack Obama's eight years in office weren't worried about doing their jobs.

Trump’s DHS Guts Task Forces Protecting Elections From Foreign Meddling

Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won’t prepare adequately for election threats in 2020.

“The clear assessment from the intelligence community is that 2020 is going to be the perfect storm,” said a DHS official familiar with the teams. “We know Russia is going to be engaged. Other state actors have seen the success of Russia and realize the value of disinformation operations. So it’s very curious why the task forces were demoted in the bureaucracy and the leadership has not committed resources to prepare for the 2020 election.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-dhs-guts-task-forces-protecting-elections-from-foreign-meddling

Medicare for all: threat or menace?

Trump Toady Held BIG Ceremony To Install Plaque With His Name On Repaired Border Fence

By Aliza Worthington

Of course he did.

resident Narcissist actually put a plaque with his name on it on a section of the fence that was repaired on our southern border. It said, "Here lies what was left of my shame. Hahahaha just kidding I never had any shame."

 Watch as Alan Gomez reveals this astonishing-but-not-really tidbit to Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle on their show. They were discussing the bipartisan budged deal struck in Congress to avoid another shutdown, and fund the government.

In attempting to predict whether it will succeed in doing that, Gomez rightly said that since no one on God's green earth knows what the hell is going on in that idiot Trump's head, it's impossible to tell.

I'm paraphrasing only slightly.

Then he casually mentioned that Trump might just be satisfied with 55 miles of fencing, put a plaque on it like he did in California, call it a success and herald the win to the heavens. At that point, Ruhle stopped him in disbelief.

This just in: Joe Scarborough is an idiot!

By Kag

So, Morning Mika's Husband took some of his own "executive time" to pen a Washington Post op-ed claiming that Michael Bennet, Colorado's "soft-spoken, white son of the establishment" could be the answer to the Democratic party's prayers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-bennet-could-be-the-answer-to-the-question-every-democrat-is-asking/2019/02/11/4e90832a-2e2d-11e9-86ab-5d02109aeb01_story.html?utm_term=.acd760d6f119

Leave it to proud ex-Republican to try to sell us on a conservative white, straight, middle-aged corporatist as the "savior" of the party he loves to preach to but would never join. Michael Bennet gave one good speech (and I'll give it to him--it was a good speech) on the senate floor, and all of a sudden he's supposed to eclipse the likes of Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown as the one senator who can beat the Idiot Cheetoh because he's...what...so much like him?

Michael Bennet, just like Trump, knows what it's like to have everything handed to him. He only won his senate seat because he got to run as an incumbent, having been appointed by then-Governor Bill Ritter to fill a vacancy. And Ritter only plucked Bennet from the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools job (a position he was appointed to despite having ZERO school administration experience) because he (Ritter) had some personal grudge against the wildly popular Andrew Romanoff, former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. And despite Romanoff having clobbered Bennet at the state convention, Bennet ended up winning the primary because President Obama, in a move for which I will never forgive him, endorsed Bennet. (Why on earth Obama put his thumb on the scales in a Democratic Primary, I will NEVER understand.)

As Colorado's senator, Michael Bennet has distinguished himself by...well...not distinguishing himself. Until his famous "Ted Cruz is a big meanie" speech, very few people could have named the state he represents. He serves on three rather quiet committees, and his votes tend to be non-controversial, as are the bills he sponsors. In short, he just doesn't seem to want to make news. Now, that might be Scarborough's idea of presidential material, but I personally want a leader who...leads.

I truly don't intend to knock Bennet. As our senator he has been fine. Just fine. (Personally I'm hoping Andrew Romanoff, who just announced a run for Cory Gardner's seat, will make it to the Senate after all. Romanoff is my idea of a real Democrat.) I just think it's kind of rich that Joe fucking Scarborough thinks he knows what the Democratic party "needs." After all, when Joe served in the People's House--as a Republican--he sponsored a bill to withdraw from the United Nations, voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and worked to try to impeach Bill Clinton. And I won't even go into his own little intern scandal. Google it.

Joe seems to think that since Bennet isn't a lefty-liberal, that he can "save" the Democratic party. Well, I think that the 2018 elections proved that the party, and indeed the country, is ready for some loud, proud lefty-ness. And frankly, if we want to beat Cheetoh, the last person we should nominate is a milk-toast, "soft-spoken" centrist. If Joe thinks that's what this country needs, let him convince his own former party to nominate Michael Bennet.

Coffeebucks-Man!

Random Observations On Some Racist Dipshit Kids And All Of Us

Posted by Rude One

1. Fuck you if you're watching the videos of students from Covington Catholic School hooting and yelling and chanting and dancing in their douchewear of MAGA hats and Trump shirts and you think, "Oh, this is totally innocent and not racist." And double fuck you in your mouth and your ass if you look at images and videos of very white Nick Sandmann standing and smirking in front of very Native American Nathan Phillips and believe, as Sandmann's parents' hired guns wrote for Sandmann, "I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand." Bullshit. Anyone who has ever been around a group of young white dipshit males has seen that fuckin' smirk, that face that says, "You wouldn't touch me because I'm white and I got a group of angry white boys around me who are pissed off that they missed the era of lynching." Jesus, it must have been frightening to be surrounded by those howling piss ants in their MAGA gang colors.

1a. The one thing I'll give the forensic videologists of the right is that I never clearly heard the racist dipshit kids chant, "Build the wall." They may have. They may not have. I'm just saying I didn't hear it. Update: I watched another video, the one where the kid (whose name is probably Squee) rips his shirt off, and they are definitely chanting, "Donald Trump" for a couple of moments.

1b. Don't fuckin' tell me to "Watch the video of the whole thing." Motherfuckers, I did watch it. And it shows exactly what it looks like: a bunch of privileged white Christian boys getting off first on confronting some black people (the Hebrew Israelites are fuckin' assholes) and then on confronting some Injuns. They likely thought they'd finally get a hug from their MAGA fathers for doing it. Hell, they were probably gonna circle jerk about how brave they were for months after. Probably still will. While a Trump speech is playing on their phones.

1c. Teenagers know that everything...every fucking thing...will be recorded. They love it. They want it. They want to see how the stupid shit they do gets major likes and hearts and whatever the fuck. That's also what Sandmann was thinking standing there, knowing that his boys were recording. "Holy shit, this is gonna be so sick on my Insta." The old person argument of "I could do stupid things when I was a teenager and no one would ever see it" is bullshit because today's kids expect to be recorded. They do the stupid shit because they want it recorded.

2. As a liberal, I think the way that teenagers of color are treated by our American justice system, our American culture, and our American politicians is fucking disgusting. It is a savage fucking country that arrests kids and tries them in court as adults and talks about them like they are grown ups and not bundles of hormones whose brains haven't fully developed. It's a savage fucking country that lets kids live in abject poverty and does almost nothing to help them get out and then punishes them when they step even a little out of line, like acting up in school. All of this need to change, be reformed, overturned, anything. We have failed our kids miserably in so many ways.

2a. If you're conservative and you're pissed off at all the people on the left who are condemning the Covington Catholic dipshits, saying that they're just kids and are making stupid kid mistakes, I wonder how you'd've reacted if it had been a group of African American teen boys who just came from a Black Lives Matter march and were smirking at and mocking a white minister singing, "Amazing Grace"? Fuck you. You know what you would've said. You'd've been calling for them to be castrated and sent to the fields. Yet now you act like the public outrage at the dipshits makes them the moral equivalent of unarmed black teens shot by the police.

2b. The right also viciously attacked the Parkland teens for daring to speak out about gun control. When they planned a national school walkout for students, conservatives lost their goddamned minds. "They're being manipulated by adults," they said. "They're just being exploited." Yet somehow when you arrange for groups of Catholic school kids to go march against abortion rights, that's not exploitative. Weird, huh?

2c. If you're liberal and you want the racist dipshits treated like non-white kids are treated in America, well, sorry, but that's just fuckin' hypocritical. I don't want the racist dipshits gunned down by cops or sent to prison for absurdly long sentences or anything like that. I don't want that to happen to any teenagers. I do want the entire goddamn country to get back to the idea that all kids are kids, and, except in exceedingly rare cases, they should be treated as such. That's not a way to excuse the racist dipshits from Kentucky. But it is to say that our reaction to all teen dipshittery, criminal or not, should be contextualized by the fact that they are still kids. (And if you think sending death threats to the school or the kids is right, you can go fuck yourself.)

2d. To get super-harsh here, when teens are gunned down in a school or are the victims of some other crime, we are quick to label them as "children." Well, why do teen victims get to be innocent children while teen criminals get to be adults?

2e. Yeah, the dipshits deserve to be punished by their school and, if a crime was committed, charged with it. Of course. That's obvious. But punish them as kids, as we should all kids.

3. The dipshits have shitty parents, shitty teachers, and shitty religious leaders. They all have failed. The chaperones on the trip failed. The adults failed. They should be punished. They should be fired if they are at the school. Too bad we can't fire parents. The adults close to these kids are gonna fuck it all up. They already are.

4. Nathan Phillips has actually been incredibly insightful about the whole situation. In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, he said, "I'm disappointed with [Sandmann's] statement. He didn't accept any responsibility. That lack of responsibility, I don't accept it." All he wants is for the dipshits to accept that they were dipshits. That's where learning begins. "I'm just working for a better future for all of our children," he said. "But, I can't work with liars and thieves." And, in one of those so-wise-it's-almost-a-stereotype moments, he added, "I live in the plains and I've watched a tornado come down. It's very destructive. What I saw in front of me that day was destruction from a terrible storm tearing apart the fabric of my America and threatening the future of all our children."  He now wants to meet with the dipshits and try to teach them what they did was wrong, in case they don't understand that simple fact. Maybe he can tell them what the Indigenous Peoples March was for, too.

4a. Yeah, he's not a Vietnam War vet, although he did serve in the Marines. Well done, right-wing media. So? Does that mean Phillips deserves the treatment he received? Assholes.

5. Just shut the fuck up, David Brooks. 

Hey Billionaires, NOBODY Wants You To Run For President!

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has made headlines all week after he announced his interest in running for President, but the American public isn’t too happy about it.

In fact, most people are sick and tired of billionaires like Schultz who want to take away our privileges and safety nets while hoarding billions of dollars in cash for themselves, but that is EXACTLY what Schultz’s platform is shaping up to be. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Huckabee Sanders Says God Wanted Trump To Be President

During an interview with CBN, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that God actually chose Trump to be resident and that the Almighty WANTED Trump to be resident of the United States.

This woman isn’t playing with a full deck, and her comments prove that. But there’s a lot of implications from her comment that she likely didn’t realize, and Farron Cousins explains those.

Behind The Scenes

How Donald Trump brought about the end of my marriage

By JenMerrill

 

Rallying at the first Women's March with my aunt, a cardboard Hillary Clinton, and my poster

 

As I made plans to participate in my third Women’s March in January, there had been one big change in my life this time around: I was no longer living with my husband.

Last fall, after 24 years of marriage and almost two years of dealing with the aftermath of the devastating 2016 election, I decided I could not live with this person anymore. Why? 

Because, while the results of the election were devastating for me, they were not for my husband. He voted for Donald Trump, and he has continued to support him. So as a staunch liberal and a frequent Trump protester, I had to do something.

Over a couple of months, I began to look for a full-time job to support myself. I toured apartment complexes in our area, I ordered new furniture on my credit card, and I began the process of moving my life to a new place—without him. I moved out of our house of 20 years during the last weekend in October and into an apartment. And I have not regretted it.

* * *

Eric (a pseudonym) and I met in the early 1990's, when we were both in our late 20's. We didn’t talk much about politics, but I volunteered for Greenpeace and Amnesty International and was just beginning to identify as a liberal. From what I gathered, he was pretty apolitical and middle-of-the-road in his views. We seemed to get along great. 

We enjoyed going to parties with mutual friends, listening to live music at local clubs, going on hikes in the area, traveling, and laughing together. Looking back at it, that’s probably all we had in common. At the time, it seemed like a lot.

We got married in May 1994, adopted a dog, and had our first child in October 1996. He was followed by another son, and then a daughter. I guess our compatibility started to fray a little after we started a family. We had differences of opinion about raising our kids, but who doesn’t? He came from a more traditional, Catholic family who expected me to quit my full-time newspaper job when I had my first baby. That bugged me. I did resign, but that was because I had a tiny premature baby at home and couldn’t bear to leave him in day care and be gone all day working. So I started a freelance editing business and worked from home, which I continued to do over the years while I raised three kids.

Along the way, I realized that Eric and I were canceling each other out at the voting booth. He voted Republican or, later, Libertarian, and I never voted for anyone but Democrats. We joked about it, but it wasn’t a major deal.

Until it was.

Our differences—and the strain they caused—began to pile up over the years. I am the daughter of a women’s libber who was an activist in the 1960's and 70's, and I was influenced by her. Eric seemed to disparage feminism. He made several sexist comments to me during our marriage, such as the fact that he thought he should be the head of our household. He once told me that he didn’t need me as a friend, because he had enough friends. It felt like he was relegating me to a more sexual, subservient role.

Our problems as a couple gradually increased. I became a gun safety activist, and toted my oldest son with me when I went to the Million Mom March on Mother’s Day 2000. 

Other marches followed, and eventually I joined Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, after the massacre at Sandy Hook. Being a parent definitely brought that whole issue to the forefront for me. But as a father, Eric never felt strongly about the kids being killed in schools in our country. I had passionate views about this topic, and he just laughed at me and my emotions. He didn’t argue about gun safety with me, but my activism seemed to be a joke to him.

Exactly when Eric started to move more to the right of center, I’m not certain. But as I suffered through the George Bush years, it definitely bugged me that Eric voted for him in both elections. Around this time, he also started to get more religious and explore new churches. I was not a churchgoer, and we didn’t get married in a church. But I started to suspect that he was sliding over to the religious right. I had participated in an abortion rights march before we got married, and now here Eric was reciting pro-life (and anti-choice) propaganda.

Then Barack Obama came along. I volunteered for his campaign, and was overjoyed when he won. My middle child was geared up to volunteer too, at just age 9. He went with me to the first Obama inauguration, and I was so happy that he wanted to be there. We bundled up in layers of winter gear that cold January morning and took a VRE train in from Virginia to Union Station. Walking out of the station onto the streets spilling over with such energy and excitement, I was thrilled to be part of this historic moment, and to be sharing it with my son. We both donned Obama knit hats that I bought from a street vendor.

But later, I went home to the person I had taken my marriage vows with. Of course Eric didn’t like Obama. He grumbled about him and his policies, and he continued to complain about him for the next eight years. It was another reminder to me that we just were not simpatico. I brought up the idea of marriage counseling, but we never went forward with it. I found it was easier just not to talk politics with him.

But all of that pales in comparison to what was to come next: Donald Trump. I truly think the 2016 presidential campaign and election heralded the beginning of the end of our marriage.

When I heard that Trump was running, I really didn’t think anybody would actually support him, especially in my circles. I said jokingly to Eric, “You better not vote for Trump in the primary,” never considering that he actually might. His synopsis of Donald Trump was simple: “He cracks me up.” I tried talking to him about all my objections: the racism, the misogyny, the blatant egoism, the corruption, the idiocy, the mocking of the disabled! But he didn’t care. He thought that Trump’s actions and words were funny and didn’t believe what the media were reporting. He hated Hillary Clinton and what she stood for. And to add insult to injury, he told my daughter he didn’t like Hillary because “she doesn’t wear dresses or skirts.” When I heard that, I was fuming.

And soon I was canvassing for Hillary. I joined Pantsuit Nation, and I got involved however I could. I was horrified when Trump picked off all his Republican rivals and eventually became the GOP choice for president. But like so many of us, I really didn’t think he would win against Hillary.

And then he did, and my worst nightmare came true. Waking up the morning after the election to confirmation that Trump was going to be president was surreal. I was too upset to talk about it with Eric—I was sure he would gloat about the Trump victory. I felt really distanced from him the week after the election. He knew I was distraught, but we had nothing to say to each other.

I had to find comfort with like-minded people; I wasn’t going to find it in my marriage. So I texted my Democrat friends and invited them out for drinks at a local restaurant, to commiserate. After hugs and symbolic safety pins were passed out among us, we made plans to go to the resistance march in January 2017 that we were just starting to hear about. A friend offered to charter a van to get us into Washington for the march. And with our plans taking off that night, my heavy heart was lightened a bit.

But there was one thing I couldn’t say to my friends as we discussed going to the Women’s March and protesting the new administration: “My husband supports Trump.” I could not admit that. I was too embarrassed and ashamed, so I hid it.

But my mood got better as word spread to family and friends about our transportation for the march, and that one van ended up becoming four chartered buses from Vienna, Virginia, to the National Mall. My mom flew out from Chicago to join us, along with my aunt from Maine, and my 14 year old daughter planned to go as well.

The night before the march, the four of us carefully took colorful markers to poster board, creating our heartfelt protest posters—even while Eric was spouting off ridiculous pro-Trumpisms to my mom and aunt. I tried to shush him, and I’m sure my annoyance was palpable. But he just didn’t seem to get it, and I felt myself disconnecting a little more from him with each moment.

Before the election, I had asked Eric not to show his support for Trump in front of my family or friends. At one point, I almost stormed away from the table when we were out to dinner with a couple in Annapolis who also were staunch Democrats, because he was defending Trump. I asked him to stop or I would have to walk away. He just didn’t seem to get the scope of my deep disdain for Trump, and my utter annoyance with him for supporting the man.

The day of the first Women’s March was amazing, such a momentous time to be out there with thousands of other protesters in pink hats. I was proud to be part of this moment with my mom and my daughter, and gratified about the numbers of people from all over the country and world taking part in this and the sister marches. But the fact that my husband was home disagreeing with what we were so passionately doing on the streets of the nation’s capital just gnawed away at me.

I had no idea that day that the Women’s March would be the first of many such protests of the Trump administration that I would come to take part in. There was so much to object to, I just couldn’t stay home, especially living as close to Washington as I do. I was an occasional activist before Trump became president. After that day, resistance became my life’s norm. I continued to march, to go to rallies and protests, as every week there was something else to be alarmed about. All the while, Eric made light of my activism, embarrassed me in front of people with his comments, and usually managed to express the opposite of what I believed in.

So I started to seriously think about getting out. I realized the truth: Eric was not my soulmate, and he probably never was.

After a too-long beach vacation with my relatives in August 2018, I was feeling more resigned about ending our marriage. We didn’t get along well during that trip, and I was always worried that Eric would open up his mouth and spout out words supporting Trump, or that sounded vaguely homophobic, or that expressed his inane belief that climate change was a myth. And I noticed he had become so rigid about everything, like an old man I didn’t know. How did I end up here with this person? I couldn’t even look at him anymore, and the long car ride home seemed endless.

I came back home determined to find my way out. I knew he would never leave our house, and if I wanted to separate, I would have to be the one to move out. I wasn’t working full-time then, but I started to apply for jobs and also went to secretly tour apartment complexes in our area. It wasn’t the first time I had explored the idea of moving out, but this time I felt more sure and actually went to see possible new homes. I told no one of my plans.

Eric could tell that I was troubled about our relationship and that I was distant with him. 

He tried, however halfheartedly, to make it better. I went back and forth on what to do. I felt if I was going to do this, I had to leave soon. But how was I going to explain to anybody that after 24 years of marriage, it would be our difference in politics that would end up tearing us apart?

I delayed my decision for a little while and tried to see the positive side of staying with him and the life we had built together. But then came the last straw.

Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. I couldn’t bear this and knew I had to go resist, again. I found out about a big protest being planned. The night before, I brought it up to Eric, hoping that he would finally agree that this all was a travesty, but no—he angrily stated that Kavanaugh was innocent and the “Democrats have waged a smear campaign on a great federal judge.” I lost it. I couldn’t believe that he was defending a sexual predator like Kavanaugh, especially when we have a teenage daughter.

The next day, I called the apartment complex next to my daughter’s school and told them I wanted to sign a lease. I was prepared to call it quits. I knew I couldn’t live with a Trump supporter anymore. I told Eric I was getting a full-time job and moving to an apartment. I felt terrible, but it was hard for me to talk about it with him without getting very emotional, so I kept it brief. However, I knew it was the right thing to do.

Soon I moved out of the house we shared for 20 years, and it was a relief. Eric and I later talked about the reasons why I left. He replied that he didn’t think politics was something to split up over, that it didn’t matter that much to him. I said that it does to me. And that was the heart of the issue, right there: It matters a lot to me.

* * *

Now that I’m in the new apartment, although it is much smaller than the house we shared and I don’t see my kids quite as much, I have felt my anger, annoyance, and shame dissipate. And that’s better for everybody. I am happier now that I no longer share a bed and a life with someone whose beliefs are so contrary to mine.

So as I recently prepared to march again in Washington, I reflected on how this was my first political protest since moving out of the house and marriage. This time I was in a much different place, both figuratively and literally, as I headed out to the third Women’s March. When I stepped into the streets with my sign and started chanting, I knew that I could live with myself a little bit better. Because now when I continue the resistance, I’m no longer going home to the opposition.

And that feels great.

Jennifer Merrill is a freelance writer, former newspaper copy editor, and current editor at a science education trade association. She is the author of Chasing the Gender Dream on Amazon. You can follow her on Twitter @Hey_Jen_Merrill.

This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.

Colorado Senator Lays Into Ted Cruz For His Shutdown Hypocrisy

By Karoli Kuns

This government shutdown is weighing on all of us. I'm sick of it, I'm sick of cable networks streaming Trump being a jerk, I'm sick of all the lies, and I'm heartbroken by all the horrible stories of what's happening to the people who work for the government.

I am not alone, apparently. Senator Michael Bennet went off on Ted Cruz, the shutdown, and his frustrations with the shutdown. Hard.

“I seldom rise on this floor to contradict somebody on the other side,” Bennet began. “I have worked very hard over the years to work in a bipartisan way with the presiding officer with my Republican colleagues, but these crocodile tears that the senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take.”



“When the senator from Texas shut this government down in 2013, my state was flooded. It was under water. People were killed. People's houses were destroyed. Their small businesses were ruined forever. And because of the senator from Texas, this government was shut down for politics,” Bennet shouted, voice rising. He was referring to the 2013 Colorado floods, which devastated the state and killed 8 people.

He was just warming up. Watch the abridged version above, or the full version below.

On and on and on

Impeach Donald Trump

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/impeachment-trump/580468/

Internet Roasts Trump For His Fast Food Hillbilly Buffet

The Internet lit up on Monday evening as photos of Donald Trump’s buffet for the Clemson Tigers’ celebratory dinner made the rounds on social media.

Trump greeted the National Champions with food from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King, with some pizza for good measure.

The dipping sauce packets were placed in beautiful silver bowls, and golden candles lined the table of this hillbilly buffet. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

The Stupidverse

Russian Spy Traitor Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration

Resident Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-concealed-details-of-his-face-to-face-encounters-with-putin-from-senior-officials-in-administration/2019/01/12/65f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html

Jesse talks about the latest reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post which reveals that not only has Donald Trump gone to great lengths to keep secret (even from the United States Intelligence community) the content of his private conversations with Vladimir Putin, but that in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey, the FBI opened a counter intelligence probe into Donald Trump to determine whether or not he was a witting/unwitting Russian intel asset.

Congressional Black Caucus Calls For White Supremacist Steve King To Face Consequences

CBC Chair Karen Bass called on Republicans to make clear the Iowa congressman is “no longer welcomed in their party” after his repeated racism.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-caucus-calls-for-white-supremacist-steve-king-to-face-consequences-for-his-racism_us_5c3a5ee3e4b0922a21d5642d

Did '50s TV show feature a con artist named Trump promising to build a wall?

By Mike Moffitt, SFGATE

It certainly sounds like an urban legend — an episode of a 1950's western TV series featured a snake oil salesman named Trump who claimed that only he could save a community from destruction by building a wall.

But the debunking site Snopes says the show, part of the "Trackdown" series starring Oakland native Robert Culp, did in fact air on CBS in 1958.

A clip from the episode was uploaded to YouTube, captioned "Predicted Donald Trump," in November 2016.

The "End of the World" show features actor Lawrence Dobkin as Walter Trump, a con man who predicts a firestorm would rain down on the Texas town of Talpa unless he intervenes to save it. Culp, playing Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, calls Trump's bluff and eventually arrests him for "stealing."

Trump sold the townspeople force-field umbrellas to deflect meteors.

Interestingly, the character's speech is so similar to the resident, it almost seems as if Donald Trump borrowed some catchphrases from Walter Trump. A portion of the dialog follows:

Narrator: Hoby had checked the town. The people were ready to believe. Like sheep they ran to the slaughterhouse. And waiting for them was the high priest of fraud.

Trump: I am the only one. Trust me. I can build a wall around your homes that nothing can penetrate.

Townperson: What do we do? How can we save ourselves?

Trump: You ask how do you build that wall. You ask, and I'm here to tell you.

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump declared, "Politicians have used you and stolen your votes. They have given you nothing. I will give you everything. I will give you what you've been looking for for 50 years. I'm the only one."

On June 16, 2015, Trump said, "I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively,"


https://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Did-50s-TV-show-feature-a-con-artist-named-Trump-10848356.php

F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working On Behalf Of Russia

By Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and Nicholas Fando

WASHINGTON — In the days after resident Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the resident’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the resident’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the resident’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html

Trump tried to sell his wall on QVC last night like it was a mailorder frozen steak at Sharper Image

By Snake Plissken

And the only person who called in on the order line was someone wanting to know why Mexico isn't paying for it.

The People VS Donald J. Trump

He is demonstrably unfit for office. What are we waiting for?

By David Leonhardt

Opinion Columnist

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/opinion/sunday/trump-impeachment.html

HE'S TOAST!!! Congress Is Getting Donald Trump's Tax Returns!

The incoming Democratic Congress looks like it's going to use its majority to stand up for the American people and hold Donald Trump accountable, starting with requesting his tax returns (as allowed by U.S. Code › Title 26 › Subtitle F › Chapter 61 › Subchapter B › § 6103) from the Secretary of the Treasury.

The game's afoot!

Doomsday Bomb

GOP Congressman: Trump Is 'A Wealthy Man' & if He Wants A Wall He Should Fork Over Some Cash For It

By David Badash

. Rep. Walter Jones is calling on resident Trump to put his money where his mouth is – at least where the wall is concerned. The North Carolina Republican says it's "morally irresponsible" to build the wall by increasing the debt, and wants Trump to pay for at least part of it.

"As a wealthy man, the resident might consider pledging some of his own funds," Congressman Jones said in a statement on his government website, as Roll Call first reported. "Whatever it takes, just so long as we don’t add to the debt that is bankrupting our great country."

Jones says a "fiscally responsible plan to pay for" improved security on the southern border, and insists any compromise "should be paid for without adding to the deficit or the debt."

“America’s national debt is nearly $22 trillion. Next year our annual deficit is projected to top $1 trillion. We can’t afford to keep financing the provision of government services by borrowing more and more money. It’s morally irresponsible and it’s got to stop,” Jones added.

“If Mexico isn’t going to be made to pay for a wall, that means funds must be found internally.

Options could include cutting other wasteful federal spending. Foreign aid and the war in Afghanistan would be good places to start."

DoubleTree hotel fires two employees who called police on black guest

A DoubleTree hotel in Portland, Ore., has fired two employees involved in an incident in which a black guest had police called on him while he was talking on the phone in the hotel lobby.

A message posted on the DoubleTree Portland's Twitter account Saturday said the treatment of Jermaine Massey, who was staying at the hotel while visiting the area from Washington state, was "inconsistent" with the hotel chain's "standards & values."

"We have terminated the employment of the two men involved in the mistreatment of Mr. Massey. Their actions were inconsistent with our standards & values. We reiterate our sincere apology for what he endured & will work with diversity experts to ensure this never happens again," read the message.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/doubletree-hotel-fires-two-employees-who-called-police-on-black-guest/ar-BBRzHCA

Could Trump lose the 2020 nomination contest?

By Lara M. Brown

Resident Trump is politically more vulnerable than he ever has been, despite the enthusiastic support he enjoys from his (shrinking) base of white, evangelical voters.

His state-by-state job approval numbers suggest that if the 2020 election were held today and he won every state where he has a net positive or tied approval rating (25 states), he would garner 242 electoral votes, 28 votes short of the 270 needed to win the White House. Further, a multitude of criminal investigations surround nearly every aspect of Trump and the organizations he ran with his family.

To make matters worse, on Jan. 3, Democrats will become the majority in the House of Representatives and, aside from continuing to fight against Trump’s (largely unpopular) $5 billion demand to pay for the construction of a southern border wall, they plan to wield their oversight authority aggressively. The Trump administration is poorly prepared for the volume of congressional requests that soon will arrive to the White House.

  
Given these facts, it’s hard to imagine that Republican leaders are sanguine about Trump’s pursuit of a second presidential term. Whether the candidate is outgoing Ohio Gov. John Kasich, outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, or Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, rumblings about serious nomination challenges are emanating from many Republican quarters.

Still, as Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson recently noted, “Toppling a sitting president of your own party is a maneuver with the highest degree of difficulty.” While Gerson is right in describing the challenge, he goes on to argue that the “most relevant historical model is probably Eugene McCarthy’s race against President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.” But this isn’t quite true.

From the modern era, the better analogy is 1980, and the fight that was waged by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) against President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination. Like Trump, Carter in 1976 had surprised his party and many of the presidential “favorites” then serving in the Senate by winning the nomination as an “outsider.” Also, like Trump, when Carter won the White House, he had a difficult time working with those in his party who held the majority in Congress. Many of his fellow partisans disagreed with his fiscally conservative approach, which they saw as contributing to the faltering economy. In November 1979, shortly after the Iranian hostage crisis began, Kennedy officially jumped into the Democratic nomination race, touting the need for “new leadership.”

Though Kennedy made several missteps, including a rambling television interview where he failed to explain why he was running, he managed to win pledged delegates across the country and to lead a ferocious effort to upset the nomination balloting at the Democratic National Convention. But Carter had been prepared for the challenge from Kennedy — and from California Gov. Jerry Brown. For months, Carter’s team had worked to burnish his policy accomplishments, elevate his position as the incumbent, and lay down the tracks for a state-by-state primary campaign, which included raising millions of dollars and hiring field staff.

This historical precedent reminds us of two things that are not true today when we consider Trump and the Republicans who may mount a nomination campaign against him. First, Carter’s primary opponents were viewed more as “show horses” than “work horses.” Brown and Kennedy both were perceived as shallow and overly confident media hounds. Many of the names being floated as potential challengers to Trump are the opposite. They are more substantive, experienced and discerning — all-around more morally-grounded men than Trump. Second, Carter could be both a savvy and disciplined candidate when it was required. Trump can’t seem to stop either his bombast or his lying.

Whether Trump would lose his party’s nomination remains unclear because today’s political polarization has fostered such a blind devotion to the leaders of one’s party. Still, with Trump’s latest approval rating again below 40 percent, his weakness seems to be increasing, rather than abating, and a nomination challenge seems in the offing.

As former Rep. Mo Udall (D-Ariz.) cogently explained in relation to the possibility with Carter:

“There are only two conditions when a party challenges its own incumbent president. One is where major elements of the party feel so intensely and so bitterly about one issue that they oppose him no matter what the consequences. They don't care if it costs the presidency. That’s what happened to Lyndon Johnson in 1966 over Vietnam. The other time is when their own president looks so weak, runs so persistently and significantly behind opposition candidates in the polls, that others in the party begin fearing he’s a loser and they’ll lose, too — if they stick with him.”

The ball hasn’t yet dropped in Times Square, but already 2019 is shaping up to look like 1979. 

Happy New Year, Mr. Trump.  
  
Lara M. Brown, Ph.D., is an associate professor and director of the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, and formerly was an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University. She frequently appears on TV and radio programs as an expert on American political history, party development and national elections. Follow her on Twitter @LaraMBrownPhD.

SADLY PREDICTABLE! Donald Trump Shamelessly Lies And Endangers Troops Overseas!

Jesse Dollemore talks about how after over SEVEN HUNDRED DAYS in office Donald Trump decided to FINALLY visit troops who are serving in the thick of it.

In the process of desperately trying to make everything about him and his Twitter feed, he exposed the identities and location of members of Navy SEAL Team 5 as well as told insane lies in a speech to the troops about the paychecks!