Note To Trump-Humpers: None Of Your Conspiracy Theories Exonerates Your Man

Posted by Rude One

Whenever some dingleberry of seeming bias against resident Donald Trump is sharted out by his state media on Fox "news," the resident and his supporters will crow that he is "vindicated" of one thing or other, usually that his campaign conspired with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election. Someone on some goddamn website or Twitter account finds some utterly minor thing that, blown up with graphics and set to sinister music, can be made to seem like the Deep State run by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is just setting up poor, innocent, pure, God-chosen Donald Trump in order to frame him for some crime he wouldn't ever even contemplate committing.

They did it with the Uranium One bullshit, declaring that "the real Russia scandal." They did it with the Nunes memo, which just showed that the FBI follows leads. They accuse Republicans Robert Mueller and James Comey of bias, which seems to mean, "If you want to investigate whether Donald Trump and people around him might have committed crimes." And they're doing it with the text messages of a couple of FBI agents now, with the latest supposedly implicating President Obama (spoiler: it doesn't and you're stupid if you think it does).

But here's the deal: Not one of these things clears Trump or his awful family or his merry band of plague rats and rabid dogs that we are forced to call "the White House."

Let's lay it all out as clearly as possible once again (because this is shit I've talked about before).

- Hillary Clinton could have totally given away 20% of the U.S. uranium deposits to the Russians in order to secure donations to her family's charity (honestly, just writing that seems so patently absurd, it hurts my brain a little). Sure, she would have had to have bribed or threatened the dozens of other people involved in any decision about uranium, but, shit, she's Hillary Clinton, allegedly the stone cold murderer of dozens of political enemies, so, sure, yeah, let's say this could totally happen.

- The FBI could have totally lied about the Democratic Party's involvement in the Steele dossier, as the Nunes memo asserts (even though, factually, the FBI didn't lie, but we're saying if horseshit were gold here), in order to continue surveillance of Carter Page, which they had started in 2013, but, obviously, they totally knew that he would be named by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers and just got a jump on it.

- James Comey could have totally been compromised into not charging Hillary Clinton with a crime on the emails, which somehow translates into something something no collusion Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch in the parlor with a candlestick. (I really don't understand the "fuck evidence and punch reality in the dick" mindset.)

- Agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page could have been totally biased against Trump and their texts about what an asshole he is indicate that they had preconceived notions about whatever part of the investigation they worked on. And there could totally be a secret society of FBI agents meeting in some off-site coven to do some hoodoo to Trump. And today's big revelation, that Page had texted in September 2016, "potus wants to know everything we’re doing," could totally mean Obama wanted to interfere with the Hillary email investigation and not that he wanted to know if the United States was being cyber-attacked by Russia, which is definitely what it was, but, you know, Hillary using a private email server is worse than Watergate times Teapot Dome times Iran-Contra, motherfuckers.

Goddamn, you people are fucking nuts.

And, you know, the only way that any of these conspiracies make sense as being real is if there is a massive uber-conspiracy involving everyone from grunt-level agents to the former president of the United States to discredit Trump and his administration, and, even then, it would have had to start 5 years ago.

Of course, all Trump needs for all this to work is a few craven Republicans, like Devin Nunes and Ron "Secret Sauce" Johnson, to run interference, as well as media outlets permanently attached to his poisonous man-teats. The idiot hordes will gobble it up like Jesus jizz.

Yet, if every single one of those conspiracies were true, it still does nothing to prove that Trump isn't a money-launderer who is in the back pocket of Vladimir Putin and other rich as fuck Russians, it does nothing to prove that Russia didn't use a bunch of different methods to tilt the election to Trump, and it also does nothing to change the outcome of the 2016 presidential race (the excuse that Trump and his spokeslackeys use as the reason why Democrats care about a foreign government fucking with our electoral process or that Trump may be compromised, not that they might actually give a shit that our sovereignty might have been breached).

If Donald Trump were innocent, you wouldn't need a single one of the crazy conspiracies to explain it all away. You'd have the truth. But truth is now just a ragged angel whose wings have been perforated by the birdshot of unending lies.

Several Eagles will skip Donald Trump White House visit after winning Super Bowl

By Matt Lombardo

mdlombardo@njadvancemedia.com,

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- Several Eagles players plan on skipping the traditional White House celebration after winning Super Bowl LII over the New England Patriots on Sunday night.

Wide receiver Torrey Smith, defensive end Chris Long, and safety Malcolm Jenkins are among the players planing to boycott visiting President Donald J. Trump.



Here is the exact moment the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, finishing off the New England Patriots, 41-33, in Super Bowl LII (52) at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn. on Sunday, February 4, 2018 (2/4/18). (Video by Eliot Shorr-Parks | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Trump has repeatedly attacked NFL players for silent acts of dissent whether it is kneeling or raising fists during the national anthem in advocating for criminal justice reform and eradicating social injustice.

"They call it the anthem protest," Smith said this week. "We're not protesting the anthem. It's a protest during the anthem. I understand why people are mad, or may be offended when someone takes a knee.

"My father when he dies, is going to be buried with an American flag draped around his casket, being that he served in the army. I understand why some people are offended by it. Also, there are soldiers that have issues going on right now, and they are things that effect them. They're things that effect my father. He understands both sides of the issue."

Meanwhile, Long -- who also skipped the post Super Bowl White House trip last year as a member of the New England Patriots -- says that he does not want his children to grow up having been influenced by Trump's actions or policies.

"No," Long said during the Pardon My Take Podcast. "I'm not going to the White House. Are you kidding me?"

Officer Friendly

Trump authorizes release of controversial Republican memo

Donald Trump has authorized the release of a controversial Republican memo, and has sent word to the House Intelligence Committee the document may be made public, a White House official said.

www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/politics/republican-intelligence-memo/index.html

Trump vs. The Deep State

Why $1,000 One Time Bonuses Are Part Of The Tax Scam

By louis c

Let me give you a little background of what I've done for the past 22 years as work. I represent a union in the Greater Boston area and part of my responsibilities is to negotiate contracts with the employer on behalf of the union employees. The people I represent are mostly in the maintenance departments of schools, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, museums and sports' facilities.

The pay ranges from a low of about $26 per hour for unlicensed employees, to a high of $40 an hour for licensed personnel (electricians, plumbers, HVAC). So. let's just put the average at about $33 an hour for the sake of this argument.

A $1,000 bonus is not a pay raise. It represents less than fifty cents ($.50) an hour for the year. 40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 x 50 cents is $1,040.

The one time bonus, instead of a 50 cent raise means the bonus is only for one year. A fifty cent raise is every year, as your salary has increased. On top of that, overtime is now calculated at the higher rate of pay, compounding the increase when you work the overtime.

I have generally been getting 2 and a half to 3 percent raises, per year, for 3 year contracts. This means we are getting 75 cents to a dollar increase each year, for each hour worked.

If I had to go into a ratification meeting on a three year contract with a $1,000 bonus and no raises for 3 years, they'd kill me, let alone not ratify the Tentative Agreement (TA).

When we enter the negotiations, we are often offered a bonus from the other side, for opener. A bonus doesn't increase the salary and dies after it is paid, as a salary increase lives on to the employee (and all the employees to follow) forever.

These well publicized one time bonuses should be seen for exactly what they are, part of the overall scam being perpetrated on the middle class workers of this country.

New York Attorney General To Investigate Firm That Sells Fake Followers

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE JAN. 27, 2018

The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, on Saturday opened an investigation into a company that sold millions of fake followers on social media platforms, some of them copying real users’ personal information.

The company, Devumi, and its sale of automated followers to a swath of celebrities, sports stars, journalists and politicians, was detailed in a New York Times article published earlier on Saturday. 

While based in Florida, Devumi claims on its website to be based in New York City.

At least 55,000 of its “bot” accounts used names, pictures, hometowns and other details taken from people on Twitter. The real users hailed from every U.S. state, including New York, and dozens of countries, a Times analysis found.

“Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law,” Mr. Schneiderman wrote on Twitter. “We’re opening an investigation into Devumi and its apparent sale of bots using stolen identities.”

Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York. Credit Sasha Maslov for The New York Times

The investigation is the latest in a series of federal and state inquiries into the commercial and political abuse of fake accounts on social media. Tens of millions of fake accounts have been deployed to defraud businesses, influence political debates online and attract customers.

Social media companies, including Twitter and Facebook, have drawn intense scrutiny for not taking greater steps to weed them out. Many of the accounts identified by The Times appear to violate Twitter’s own policies, but remained active on the social media platform for years, each retweeting and promoting Devumi customers.

“The tactics used by Devumi on our platform and others as described by today’s NYT article violate our policies and are unacceptable to us,” Twitter said in a message posted on its media relations account on Saturday.

Mr. Schneiderman, who was first elected in 2010, has brought a series of cases focused on the emerging world of online fraud, impersonation and abuse. In December, he began an investigation into how the Federal Communications Commission was flooded with millions of fake comments on a proposal to scrap so-called net neutrality rules. Many of the comments used names and addresses borrowed from real people, almost always without their knowledge.

“The internet should be one of the greatest tools for democracy — but it’s increasingly being turned into an opaque, pay-to-play playground,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2018, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: New York Opens Inquiry on Firm That Sells Fake Followers. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

The Mueller Bombshell Proves Republicans Are Running Out Of Time

History will not be kind to Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and others who stand by idly.

 

By Charles P. Pierce

Jan 26, 2018

6.5k

Getty Images

It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing.

—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902.

So, if I read the state of play correctly, special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the president* and the president*’s administration* for obstruction of justice, and Mueller has been running this investigation for seven months knowing that the president* came within an ace of firing him last June for the purposes of, ah, obstructing justice. He’s had this information in his back pocket every time a member of the administration* came before him under oath. I’ve never been a criminal defendant charged with obstruction of justice, but this seems to me to be a bad situation for an obstructor of justice to be in.

The major scoop in The New York Times that has shaken up the world can be read in a number of different ways that all lead to the same conclusion. Right from jump, the president* has been scared right down to his silk boxers of what Mueller would discover regarding his campaign’s connections to Russian ratfcking and regarding his business connections to freshly laundered Russian cash. This conclusion does not change even if you think that White House counsel Don McGahn leaked this story to make himself the hero or to cover his own ass. This conclusion does not change even if you think the ratlines off the listing hulk of this administration are thick with fleeing rodents. This whole thing remains a product of the president*’s guilty mind.

(And the story did shake up the world. The president* went before a gathering in Davos on Friday and began raving about “fake news” and the perfidy of the American media. He got booed. Many cats were called. No shoes were thrown, but George W. Bush set a pretty high bar there.)

The story does explain the curious frenzy over the last week: the president*’s saying that he’s “looking forward” to a chat with Mueller, and that he might even deign to have the chat under oath; the apparent rush to present the Congress with a half-baked “compromise plan” on immigration that has no chance of passing the House of Representatives; and the fact that the president* took every member of his inner circle except his wife to Switzerland. I suspect those folks heard the baying of the hound even before Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman did. More ominous is the possibility that McGahn—or whomever—leaked this story because the president* is thinking about firing Mueller now, or in the near future, and whoever the leaker was understands very well what a monumental calamity that would be for all concerned.

Related Story

Which Fox News Host Had the Best Mueller Meltdown?

You would think that we would see the wheels turning now. You would think that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell would find some slivers of patriotism between the cushions of their sofas and step up to fulfill the constitutional obligations of their respective offices. There is a genuine crisis on their doorsteps right now, and, next week, the president* is supposed to give his State of the Union address, and god alone knows what he’s going to say. They have not moved. They have given no indication that they will move. History will brand them as cowards and as traitors to the country’s best ideals. History’s not going to be kind to a lot of people who are living through these insane times.

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Trump Ordered Mueller Fired, But Backed Off When White House Counsel Threatened To Quit

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html

Hackers putting malware in pirated copies of 'Fire and Fury'

By wagatwe  

Tuesday Jan 23, 2018 · 2:59 PM EST

Michael Woff’s book Fire and Fury has attracted tons of attention for anyone even vaguely curious about life inside the Trump White House and copies have been flying off the shelves. Wikileaks posted a PDF copy of the book and pirated copies quickly began making the rounds. Unsurprisingly, hackers jumped on the opportunity to do some misdeeds. Cybersecurity firm employee Michael Molsner tweeted the discovery.

Sometimes we come across strange malware 😂 8667949f8fd4ce4da0424af4208104e3 pic.twitter.com/D9l4xu62A6
— micham (@micham) January 19, 2018

The Daily Beast did a little digging into malware, which is in a PDF file with almost 100 pages cut from the full 328 page version.

The Daily Beast obtained a sample of the malware, and processed it through an online analysis service, which marked the files as a so-called backdoor. A backdoor may give hackers remote access to a victim’s computer.

It’s not the most exciting or underground malware in the world: A slew of antivirus programs detect the malicious program, according to results from malware analysis site Virus Total.

So it isn’t the most devastating cyber attack, but it’s important to get your materials from authorized sources. Hackers aren’t above capitalizing on nonfiction political bestsellers to gain access to your computer.

The Trump news cycle continues

McConnell is so full of shit that he should be declared a hazardous waste site

Posted by Rude One

Not for one single second should anyone trust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on his vaguely-worded fake promise to bring up a bill for the undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. You know, the Dreamers. McConnell is so full of shit that he should be declared a hazardous waste site, but people keep wanting to build houses on that toxic bit of Senate real estate.

Democrats caved after making multiple offers for ways to reopen the federal government that would either force action on the DREAM Act or contain protection for those recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. They even offered to fund the stupid fucking wall. It went nowhere.

To be fair, the bill to reopen the government until February 8 does contain six years of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, which takes that off the table on the upcoming negotiations.

And, to be fair, the shutdown has brought even more attention to the plight of the Dreamers, whose path to citizenship is supported by a huge majority of Americans, and the fact that their fate is in the hands of the callous GOP and their mad leader, Donald Trump. When the Republicans fail to do shit, and they will fail to do shit, it will (hopefully) be as clear as can be who broke their word when the government shuts down again. But we have reached the limit of trust in the political process.

At this year's Women's March, I saw many more signs about immigrants compared to last year. Hell, we even chanted pro-immigration slogans in New York City. But I've started wondering at what point is marching not enough of a statement, that the argument is not being made strongly and forcefully.

Anyone with a fucking ounce of heart was sickened by the sight of Jorge Garcia, saying goodbye to his wife and children in Michigan before being deported to Mexico, a country that he left 30 years ago, when he was ten. Garcia is, for all intents and purposes, American. He is married to an American woman. He has American children. Jesus fuck, can't we have some kind of squatters' rights to at least be left the fuck alone?

And maybe you were outraged at the idea of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers being able to walk onto a Greyhound bus in Florida and ask people for proof of citizenship. It's a "show me your papers" scenario right out of every anti-Nazi or anti-Soviet Union movie or book. They removed a woman from the bus and her family hasn't heard from her since. Sure, there may be some legitimate reason for the CBP's actions towards the woman. But if they really are routinely asking for your i.d., that's some 4th Amendment-violating shit right there.

And then maybe you can stomach watching this BBC report on Pacific County, Washington, which went for Trump by 7 points. The area has seen kids pulled out of schools to be with their deported parents, industries running low on workers, and general shock that, holy shit, "deportation" isn't just for undocumented murderers (of which there are precious few, despite the GOP's best efforts to scare you into thinking otherwise).

I keep wondering when is there going to be a breaking point. When is there going to be a point where the citizens of a town or city simply form a human wall against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have been showing up in hospitals and courthouses and other previously "safe" places? When will real resistance, peaceful, nonviolent, but decidedly not just about your tweets or your government-sanctioned march, come to be? When will people say that enough is enough, get themselves arrested, and all flood the judicial system so that it grinds to a halt (from the dying snail's pace it's on)?

In New Fairfield, Connecticut, another man with an American wife and two American children, Joel Colindrés, who escaped violence in Guatemala 14 years ago to come to the United States, was ordered to leave the country. He is currently appealing this decision, and several dozen people came out in this town north of Danbury to protest his possible deportation. What if agents come to take him away and some of those protesters decide that they will not allow it to happen? That is the wall that's needed, the humane, caring, righteous wall to halt the excesses of a government gone as crazy as its leader in tearing apart families, that is harming our citizens, especially the children of the deported.

This will be part  of the next phase of resistance. It will happen. Perhaps with Colindrés, perhaps with Lukasz Niec. Niec is the doctor in Michigan (the fuck is up with ICE agents in Michigan?) who was brought to the United States from Poland in 1979, when he was 5 years old. He received permanent resident status in 1989. But because he had a couple of low-level misdemeanor convictions from when he was a teenager, he is subject to deportation. He's a fucking doctor. He can't speak Polish. He's not even undocumented. Hell, I left Queens when I was 4, and I wouldn't know what the fuck to do if I were sent back there, let alone a completely foreign country.

It's fucking gut check time. We are into "First they came for" territory. We've gone from the undocumented immigrants to the Dreamers to legal residents. When will we speak out? When will we act? Or will we once again wait until it is us?

The government is operating against what a majority of the nation believes, and it is harming communities, as well as families, hurting the nation in the pursuit of a blatantly nationalistic and, frankly, anti-American goal. It is long, long past the time for a new non-violent resistance movement to protect the soul of the country. And if you believe that soul is white, you can fuck off to some fantasy place and wallow in hate and ignorance.

Eagles Dominate Vikings To Reach Super Bowl LII

Source: New York Times

It was 2013 all over again for Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles, as the quarterback channeled his younger self to light up Minnesota’s vaunted secondary in a 38-7 victory in the N.F.C. Championship game.

Foles’s huge performance ended the Vikings’ season and catapulted the Eagles to Super Bowl LII, where they will face the daunting task of taking on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Foles, who had looked like a potential franchise quarterback in a stint as Philadelphia’s starter in 2013, was thrust back into a starting role following Carson Wentz’s devastating knee injury in Week 13. He had struggled to move the ball, with his play taking the team from Super Bowl favorite to consistent underdog.

But against the Vikings the 28 year old Foles was back to looking like the star some thought he would become. He completed 26 of 33 passes for 352 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was 10 of 11 on third-down passes, completed four passes of 35 or more yards, and turned what had been Philadelphia’s greatest weakness — its ability to generate big plays — into its biggest strength.

In an on-field interview with Fox after the game, Foles struggled to sum up his emotions, describing himself as “speechless.” “In this moment it’s unbelievable, he said. “It’s humbling.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/sports/nfc-championship-vikings-eagles.html

---

=E=A=G=L=E=S= Eagles!

Dear Mr. Trump...In truth the only shithole nation is the one that tolerates a racist resident.

HYPOCRITES!!! Family Values Republicans Silent As Donald Trump Pays Porn Stars Hush Money

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’, Jesse addresses the reporting surrounding the $130,000 payment that was allegedly paid to porn actress Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels), by Donald Trump, in an effort to keep her silent about their 2006 affair.

Have You Heard...

Stupidity

Martin Luther King Would Fuck Trump's Shit Up (Africa Edition)

Posted by Rude One

While conservatives continue their annual desperate attempt to colonize the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., King stubbornly remains a revolutionary figure, one who was blatantly socialist and vehemently anti-capitalist. In fact, King drew a direct line between Western capitalism and the exploitation of African countries. He knew what had turned those countries into "shitholes." A trip to Ghana in 1957 to celebrate that nation's independence from England and the election of a new prime minister solidified King's view that the treatment of African Americans by whites in the United States was strikingly similar to the effects of colonialism in western and southern Africa.

In a sermon after his Ghana trip called "Birth of a New Nation" (goddamn, you know King knew exactly what he was doing with that title), King connected Ghana to the slaves in biblical Egypt ridding themselves of their chains, and he explained what had just happened:

"Prior to March the sixth, 1957, there existed a country known as the Gold Coast. This country was a colony of the British Empire. This country was situated in that vast continent known as Africa. I’m sure you know a great deal about Africa, that continent with some two hundred million people, and it extends and covers a great deal of territory...

"For years the Gold Coast was exploited and dominated and trampled over. The first European settlers came in there about 1444, the Portuguese, and they started legitimate trade with the people in the Gold Coast. They started dealing with them with their gold, and in turn they gave them guns and ammunition and gunpowder and that type of thing. Well, pretty soon America was discovered a few years later in the fourteen hundreds, and then the British West Indies. And all of these growing discoveries brought about the slave trade."

King continued to tell the story of the Gold Coast, bringing it to the then-present: "Finally, in 1850, Britain won out, and she gained possession of the total territorial expansion of the Gold Coast. From 1850 to 1957, March sixth, the Gold Coast was a colony of the British Empire. And as a colony she suffered all of the injustices, all of the exploitation, all of the humiliation that comes as a result of colonialism. But like all slavery, like all domination, like all exploitation, it came to the point that the people got tired of it."

After talking about how the Gold Coast became Ghana, King brought it back to his opening images, "Ghana reminds us that freedom never comes on a silver platter. It’s never easy. Ghana reminds us that whenever you break out of Egypt, you better get ready for stiff backs. You better get ready for some homes to be bombed. You better get ready for some churches to be bombed. You better get ready for a lot of nasty things to be said about you, because you getting out of Egypt. And whenever you break aloose from Egypt, the initial response of the Egyptian is bitterness."

Martin Luther King would fuck up the shit of Donald Trump and his coterie of Republican motherfuckers because that is what he did, and he would specifically fuck up Trump's shit now over the ersatz president's inability to see beyond his own racism when it comes to African nations and their people. King would call out the oppressors for their oppression because that, too, is what he did.

When we remember King, it should always be as a balls-to-the-wall fighter for people of color and, eventually, for all disempowered people. He would be in the streets, marching now, and he would be confronted by white people with tiki torches and uncontrollable cops, and Donald Trump would blame King for any violence that took place because that is what he does.

Donald Trump Stayed On The Golf Course As Hawaii Panicked

He didn’t even tweet about the false missile alarm as soon as he put away his golf clubs.

By Mary Papenfuss

Critics are blasting resident Donald Trump for continuing to golf Saturday while frantic Hawaii residents rushed for cover after a false cell phone alarm about an incoming ballistic missile.

The resident was on the course at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, after the alert was issued at 1:09 p.m. EST, according to press pool reports. His motorcade didn’t leave the club for Mar-a-Lago until 1:38 p.m.

Although Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency quickly tweeted that the initial warning was an error, it took 38 minutes before a second mobile alert declared the first a false alarm. Officials said the wrong button had been pushed.

Pool report had Trump leaving golf course at 138 PM ET and arriving at Mar-a-Lago at 149 PM. Alert was posted at 109 ET and declared false by Gabbard at 119 & by Hawaii at 120 ET. https://t.co/KOi9mLu0ny

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 13, 2018

As of Saturday evening, Trump had not issued any personal statement — or tweet — about the scare. He did tweet about “fake news” and again called journalist Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a “fake book.” He described Wolff as “mentally deranged.”

So much Fake News is being reported. They don’t even try to get it right, or correct it when they are wrong. They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author, who knowingly writes false information. The Mainstream Media is crazed that WE won the election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2018

Anyone else wondering why the hell @realDonaldTrump didn’t tweet about this morning’s false alarm in Hawaii? To busy with golfing or doesn’t care since it’s not about him? pic.twitter.com/1Q8GryecLR

— Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) January 13, 2018

It’s not clear exactly when Trump learned of the alert, although presumably the resident would be informed of any potential threat immediately.

White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement that the resident had been “briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise.”

“This was purely a state exercise,” she added.

A White House official told CNN that the resident was briefed in person by national security adviser H.R. McMaster, deputy national security adviser Ricky Waddell and White House chief of staff John Kelly.

A senior administrative official told Politico that there was no military response around the resident during the incident because there was no actual threat detected by the military. The source also said that Trump’s Cabinet hasn’t yet tested plans for how they would respond in such an attack.

Former Pentagon official Col. Morris Davis criticized the resident in a tweet for continuing his round of golf on his “taxpayer funded vacation” as Hawaiians “braced for a ballistic missile strike.”

For 38 minutes American citizens in Hawaii braced for a ballistic missile strike ... and @realDonaldTrump continued his round of golf in Florida on his 120th taxpayer funded vacation day in less than a year. https://t.co/tSSSNiDLDk

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) January 13, 2018

Former Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) tweeted that Trump was “somewhere on the back nine” while “1.5 million American citizens” were told to seek shelter.

As 1.5 million American citizens were told a ballistic missile was headed their way and to seek shelter immediately, @realDonaldTrump was somewhere on the back nine of his Florida golf course.

He went ahead and finished out 18.

— John Dingell (@JohnDingell) January 13, 2018

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) was quickly informed of the alert error and assured Hawaiians in a tweet that there was “no incoming missile,” even before the second alert went out.

HAWAII - THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE. pic.twitter.com/DxfTXIDOQs

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018

She didn’t criticize Trump for golfing. But she did complain that the resident was neither taking the nuclear threat from North Korea seriously enough nor dealing with it wisely.

Donald Trump is taking too long. Now is not the time for posturing. He must take this threat seriously and begin direct talks with North Korea, without preconditions, to de-escalate and denuclearize the Korean peninsula. There is no time to waste.

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018

The people of Hawaiʻi should never have had to go through this. The people of America should not be faced with this threat right now. We need peace - not political bickering. We have to talk to North Korea and find a peaceful path to get rid of this nuclear threat.

— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018

A former Pentagon communications director during the Obama administration quipped that “thank God” Trump was playing golf during the false alarm.

Thank God the resident was playing golf. pic.twitter.com/K7wPtsevGO

— Patrick Granfield (@pgranfield) January 13, 2018

Trump frequently criticized Barack Obama for golfing when he was in office, suggesting that he was neglecting his presidential duties.

President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing. Too little, too late!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2016

While our wonderful president was out playing golf all day, the TSA is falling apart, just like our government! Airports a total disaster!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2016

President Obama has a major meeting on the N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2014

Did Trump ever really win the election? What else did Russia do to cheat for him?

America The Shithole

Posted by Rude One

It's not even surprising anymore when resident Donald Trump, an angry pumpkin on top of a very large pumpkin on top of a smaller pumpkin, says or does something racist. He is a fucking racist. If you're a fucking racist, you do fucking racist shit all the time because that's who you are. If he didn't say or do a racist thing, we might say, "Oh, look, he wasn't racist in that moment." But just because a rat in your house didn't shit all over the floor one day doesn't mean that the rat still isn't a rat. It just kept its shit to itself for once.

So how are we supposed to react when we hear and Senator Dick Durbin confirms that Trump called, at the very least, African nations "shithole countries" whose people he doesn't want emigrating here? My gut reaction was utter outrage and contempt, but I have nothing but contempt for Trump and everyone who supports him, including each and every motherfucker who voted for that plague rat.

Trump supporters have been shown many off-ramps where they can get off this Highway to Hell they've been on. Support for neo-Nazis was one exit. Condemning black football players who were protesting was another. Any number of lies could have worked. All along, there have been these places where they can veer away and turn around. But so many have decided they are on the road for good, and they don't give a damn what Trump says about preventing immigrants from poor black or brown countries from coming to the U.S. in favor of people from places like Norway. And no amount of my rage at what a savage cunt mite Trump is will change that because a racist is a racist is a racist.

You know what people from shithole countries do when they get here? They get jobs, sometimes the worst jobs we have because, like most immigrants who have ever come here, they aren't thinking of themselves. They are thinking of the better life they will give to their kids. That's the myth of this country we tell repeatedly: the immigrants who come here with nothing in order to have a better life for them and their families. One of my grandfathers came over from Italy. Do you think he was a doctor? Or a professional? Fuck, no. He was a laborer. And he helped build things here because that's what he did. And Italy was a shithole. Ireland was a shithole. Russia, Poland, many, many countries were shitholes. All the people in this photo came from shitholes, some with just their native clothes on their backs, because they wanted to get out of the shithole.

But let's get more recent than Ellis Island. By any measure, Liberia has been a terrible place to live for decades. Between horrific wars and horrific disease, it would be kind to just call it a "shithole." That's why hundreds of thousands became refugees and why over 60,000 of those refugees came to the United States in the late 20th and early 21st century. A whole lot of them settled in Staten Island, which, believe it or not, is still a borough of New York City. And many of those go to the college where I teach. I have taught Liberian students for years and they have been, to a person, kind, smart, engaged, and hard-working. And that's because they came from a shithole. Many of them were refugees from that shithole; some of them or their family members were tortured. They embrace the chance they have here (and are often treated like shit here for their efforts).

Funds are raised for refugees by churches, the real Christian churches, not the fake ones that promise you salvation for a price. You can read stories of an Illinois evangelical ministry helping settle Liberian refugees, of a Rhode Island Baptist church helping recent arrivals from the Congo, of the Nazarene ministry in Missouri that is assisting refugees from Syria. In other words, if you stand with your church in making sure that refugees have a place in the United States, you stand opposed to the resident. Or you're a goddamn hypocrite.

You know where else is a shithole? In large swaths of the United States, including many places where Trump voters live. A United Nations report essentially declared that the U.S. is the shithole of the "rich nations," with poverty so extreme that it is pretty much on a par with Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. And we have one big thing in common with most of the countries Trump has condemned: no universal health care.

The resident is a racist. We knew that. Millions of people in this country are racist. We knew that, too. We also know that many racists don't think of themselves as racist and sure don't want to be called "racist." Well, here's another gut check, motherfuckers. If you can stand with a man who believes what Trump believes, with a man who has the power over life and death and is wielding that power against people of color, then you have made your choice to plunge into the shithole Trump has created and wallow around in his shit, pretending that it's not shit at all. We are a shithole as long as Trump remains president.

Someone will say that I'm agreeing with Trump because I say some countries are shitholes. That's getting it wrong. Trump said he didn't want "all these people" from those nations coming here. But I want to get people out of there.

If you don't want immigrants from shitholes to come here, it's not because they are terrible people. It's because you are.

(Note: To be fair, Liberia just had a peaceful election, so there is always hope in any shithole.)
(Note: There are lots of shitholes that people call home. Doesn't mean it's not a shithole.)
(Note: And, no, I haven't even gotten into just how big a role the United States has played in turning many of those countries into shitholes.)

@TomiLahren and @JesseBWatters Defend Donald Trump's 'SHlTHOLE' Remark

In this ‘Dollemore Daily’, Jesse addresses the problematic comments made by Donald Trump related to immigration from countries with populations comprised predominantly of people of color rather than from Norway and other white countries, and the twisting and turning done by some Republicans to defend and come to his aid.

Prove That Trump Isn't A Fucking Moron

Posted by Rude One

Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury is filled with quotes from people stating, quite simply, that Donald Trump, ersatz resident of the United States, is a barely literate dunce. A "fucking moron," if you will. In interview after interview, Wolff has asserted that every single person he spoke with in the White House agreed that Trump is a goddamned dimwit, someone barely able to walk and breathe at the same time, a mental toddler, a shit-for-brains rich puke who dumb-lucked his way through life because his daddy's money kept him...Wait, what was I talking about? Yeah, that's it. He's stupid.

Predictably, whenever anyone says that Trump is not the greatest at something, the administration lickspittles go out in force to say, in essence, "Fuck you, fake news fuckos. I know Trump is the best human who ever existed and I thank God every day that He allowed me to be alive at the same time as Trump." Or words to that effect.

Here's Stephen Miller, a White House Nazi who is just begging for a punch in the dick, shortly before Jake Tapper threw him the fuck off CNN: "The reality is, is the president is a political genius who won against a field of 17 incredibly talented people" and a bunch of other opponents. Miller continued, plucking orange pubes out of his teeth, "And he did it all through the people and through his strategy and his vision and his insight and his experience." Miller's the type of creepy motherfucker who you know jacks it to murder porn. Honestly, Tapper should have grabbed Miller by the scruff of his neck and tossed him into the street like a bouncer with a noisy drunk.

Trump's brain has got other, slightly less odious defenders. CIA Director Mike Pompeo went on Fox "news" Sunday and also pretended that President Dunceface leaves Stephen Hawking in the dust. He declared, "I watched him take the information that the intelligence community delivers and translate that into policies that are of enormous benefit to America...He deals with the most complex issues and has handled them in a way that I have great admiration and respect for." Pompeo also assured us that Trump "reads."

Let's take a page from Trump himself. When questions were created by right-wing nutzoids about whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States, Trump hounded Obama about producing his birth certificate. The best-known birther in the nation, Trump wouldn't let it go until Obama did finally make the document public. Even then, that wasn't enough for Trump, who fanned the flames of crazy until it no longer served a political purpose for him.

So let's demand that Trump fucking prove that he's not an idiot, that he's actually engaged and understands the issues. That he is "like, really smart" and that he understands tax law better than any CPA or health care as well or better than anyone. That he's fit for office. Prove it. Put the fuck up or shut the fuck up. Because right now, we're just supposed to take his word and the word of his lackeys and sycophants. And if President Obama's word wasn't good enough on his place of birth, then Trump's word sure as shit ain't enough.

Trump's gotta do a press conference, a real one, not a spontaneous one. He's gotta sit for an interview with someone who isn't one of his conservative ball washers. It's gotta be a real reporter who will ask him specific questions about specific policies and demand detail. C'mon, motherfucker. Let's see what you've got.

Also, Trump's gotta show he can act like a leader and not just an asshole pretending to be a tough guy. He's gotta give a speech where he talks actual policy and not just slogans. He's gotta focus and not just go through a list of shit like a brain-damaged monkey who can't decide what branch to sit on and throw feces, like he did yesterday in Nashville. No mentioning his electoral college win. No discussion of "Crooked Hillary." An intelligent, grown-up speech that an intelligent grown-up would make. It doesn't even have to be genius. Just stable. Show us all this magnificent man that all of his defenders see. Because right now, we sure as shit can't see it through the fog of degrading tweets and incoherent speech.

Of course, he won't do any of this. Even if Trump were asked to do it, he wouldn't because he can't. And those same obsequious fucks would get out there and tell us that he's too fucking smart for us to understand his layers and depths. Meanwhile, his idiot hordes will tell us that Trump is smart because, indeed, idiots want one of their own as their idiot king.

Here, in what we might quaintly refer to as "reality," we know that Trump's inability to speak in fluid sentences or his constant repetition and simple vocabulary isn't hidden genius. It's just a pathetic lack of intelligence. If we fail to question Trump on his basic ability to function, we are participating in a cover-up as surely as his family and every single person who won't go public with what they know about the man who bumblefucked into the residency.

Note: Trump's lack of brain power doesn't forgive him or his vile family for any of their venal criminality. You can be dumb and evil.

Poverty Eliminated

Puerto Rico Is Suffering For Our Sins

Posted by Rude One

Before we forget about it completely in the fog of Michael Wolff's book about the fog that Donald Trump apparently exists in, let's pause to recognize that, post-Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is still fucked and it won't be unfucked for a long time. How can we list the ways?

- It might be May before the entire island has power. Half the people on the island, including those in some urban areas, do not have electricity. And while the Army Corps of Engineers thinks that power will be restored to 95% of Puerto Rico by March, we're still talking Americans living without power for 6 months since the storm, and, in the more remote areas, 8-9 months, just in time for the 2018 hurricane season to start. (Those areas still have over 80,000 people in them.)

- Some of those remote areas still don't have potable water. FEMA has been insisting that 95% of Puerto Ricans have access to drinkable water, but the island's water was a fucking mess before the storm. Yeah, pre-Maria, 99.5% of the island's citizens drank water that violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. And after the storm, with water treatment plants needing, you know, electricity, even if you get your water from your kitchen sink, it still was contaminated with bacteria, as seen by an uptick in illnesses caused by those little fuckers.

- Connecticut's two senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, returned this week from a visit to the island. Murphy, in particular, was stunned by what he saw. He said that "'almost none' of the aid Puerto Rico was supposed to receive has been delivered as part of a $36.5 billion October package that also allocated relief for Florida and Texas." And Murphy believes that the final death toll from the failure of the federal government to send the aid needed will be "in the multiple thousands."

- Speaking of the death toll, it's already estimated to be over 1000, when you take into account things like the people who died because the power grid was destroyed and they couldn't get dialysis. Don't take my word for it. Listen to the demographer who helped come up with that number. Alexis R. Santos-Lozada believes that the lower number of 64 directly attributable to the hurricane in action will remain the official death count. She warns, "[M]inimized figures could weaken efforts to provide relief to communities affected by the hurricane at the local and international level." The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, just launched an effort to look into the actual number of deaths.

- While it looks like the issue might be shortly fixed, Puerto Rico is a primary place where IV bags and saline fluid are made, and so there has been a shortage of those in hospitals on the mainland. Amazing how this shit works. The FDA is saying that the manufacturing plant is back on the commercial grid, but, holy shitballs, did you even know this was happening?

- Meanwhile, there has been an exodus of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States, which they can do freely and legally (sorry, Trumpenheimers) because they are Americans. Hundreds of thousands of them have come to settle here. At least 200,000 are now living in Florida, which Trump won by 113,000 votes in 2016. Anecdotally, many of those new residents are registering to vote. PR Gov. Rosselló is saying he will work to mobilize the millions of Puerto Ricans in the states to take revenge on Republicans in 2018.

And that, in the end, will be the only way to unfuck a part of the United States that our madman resident wants us to forget about.

The Debate