A: The simple truth that to learn, one must accept that they know nothing.
It has finally happened. Donald Trump has been indicted in New York for using campaign funds to, through Michael Cohen, pay porn star Stormy Daniels (whom Trump now calls “horseface”) to not disclose her sexual liaisons with Trump while his wife Melania was giving birth or directly after or both.
Donald “Grabem-by-the-Pussy” Trump is like a little brat-bully boy who can’t stand that Daniels told not only that the “affair” (adultery) happened (I doubt she had feelings for him) but also had the audacity to describe his penis as being “musgroom-shaped”. So insulted was he that, in retaliation, his tiny brain struggled to find a name to call one of her body parts something mean.
Yes, that’s what he came up with.
Horseface.
“You call me a name, I’ll call you a name, na, na-na, na nah!” Why didn’t he let it slip out, “I’m gonna tell on you!”
“Horseface”? Stephanie is quite lovely, to be honest. I’d post a photo of a horse but nobody would see any resemblance.
Keep in mind that Michael Cohen has already served time for his part in the payoff.
High time, then, that the man who sent him to do it and then threw him to the wolves pays for his own crime.
As for Mike Pence: for four years he was a milquetoast and a do-nothing who hated gays because he had his own issues. Then, for one moment in his life, he did the right thing. Now, he’s a worse example of a human being than before. If you read between the lines in the video above, he’s clearly all for obstruction of justice.
And finally we come to Marjorie Taylor Green. As bad as I feel about it, I can’t even pray for her. She’s evil, delusional and highly dangerous to our country.
I intend to go out fighting this evil and madness. I’ll get re-engaged with local politicians and I’ll donate or volunteer if possible. We all lose if Republicans carry the day in the next election. That would have serious consequences for not only us, but for the world.
There’s a reason for my previous post about self defense. This insane shit is one part of it.
Do not talk politics at work. With neighbors. At church. At the market. And never with strangers. Because that innocent looking person at the magazine rack, the blonde at the laundromat, the bartender, the mild-mannered quiet guy next door who never bothered to introduce himself and gives an innocent smile while trimming the hedge…
Consider them unstable, vicious and violent denizens of the hate community and keep a low profile while going about your business.
Now, this dude is insane. Well, that is, he was insane. Now he’s stinking up the slab of a morgue, a martyr for the masses of insane who worship that twit, Donald Trump.
And if you think dying for trying to do something boneheaded like attacking an FBI field office is valiant, then you need help beyond the means of modern mental health care abilities.
Even the conservative farmer in this video says that’s nuts.
After the FBI raided (executed a warrant at) Trump’s equivalent of Escobar Castle, which made Mar-a-Lago look like a San Francisco pimp spread, anchors on Fox News and screwy, looney op-ed and blog writers began claiming that the Feds had carried backpacks into the buildings to plant evidence. Trump seems to have commented with faulty timing that he had nothing to hide until files were carted out, then he began crying about planted evidence.
But that’s not all because Garland has ordered the release of the subpoena from earlier this year, a receipt for which was signed, and now Trump’s lawyers are rushing to block that release because it proves Trump was lying and in contempt of court for failing to turn all but a portion of the documents over, which is why the raid was necessary in the first place. Ignoring a bench warrant, subpoena, or any other written demand by a judge is stupid. But Trump’s looney lawyers don’t seem able to convince him of that. He just orders a couple of buckets of KFC and watches Fox News (pity the housekeeping staff who have to pick up the chicken bones and mop the commode).
The real problem is that Trump has established a base of fanatical support without really appreciating how far it was going. Except that, also without knowing it, he was used by more astute and sinister men who allowed him to front for them while they set the stage for a fascist or totalitarian coup.
It just looks like a mess on the surface.
It’s anything but. And this fall, how you vote is critical.
On the streets, you have to stay out of this. Protect yourself, do not allow yourself to be at ease anywhere. If you don’t already have a wish list for the site I gave in the self defense post, go now and look it over. I don’t want you to court trouble; at the same time, I do want you to be ready for it.
Jesus is supposed to have said something about turning the other cheek. At no point is he quoted as saying, Thou shalt be submissive whilst a stranger cuts thy throat.
These violent nuts are everywhere and I don’t want them to hurt you, me, or anyone.
In fact, it’s so bad that, at this point, it’s an amazingly delicate thing to discuss the latest episode of a TV series at the water cooler or over coffee in the break room. You might offend someone who reads political or social statements into your words. It’s insane.
Some guy–another Trump-sucker–went to kill the FBI with that ubiquitous piece of shit, the AR-15. He’s dead now. That’s the kind of enemy to be feared, not unlike other suicidal extremists, and you know who I mean. Fanatics. Extremists. Far from the religion or political group they came from.
Be cautious. Be aware. Be safe.
But temper caution; it must never turn into paranoia. You deserve better. Being careful is good enough. You can’t get trapped in a cave you never enter.
Okay, let’s have the bad news first. In California, the BA.5 subvariant of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has a fearful trait. Once in the body it replicates faster and more efficiently than its predecessors. And it ain’t gonna go away, so wherever you are, prepare. Keep masking, distance yourself from others, and keep safe. Get updates on boosters whenever they’re available and you should be good to go.
According to NBC News, a New York Times poll shows that 75 percent of Republicans still support Donald Trump, still believe his lies and would vote for him again. Morons.
And just to show you how much the world regards women as cattle, let’s say hello to Vincent McMahon of WWE fame. The majority shareholder of the company has been outed for paying 12 million dollars in NDAs, or hush money, to women he sexually abused, including at least one woman in his employ as a wrestler. It’s so bad that, after forcing her to perform oral sex on him and she refused further contact of any sexual nature, he demoted her and then would not renew her contract. Imagine how humiliating that was, and how it still affects her. 3 million is nothing to what she goes through.
It is unknown how many more women he violated, but things like this usually bring a lot of past victims forward, and McMahon deserves everything he gets. Because I know there are more. I’ve heard stories about him for decades, all of them grotesque. Forcing wrestlers to take steroids, then denying it, destroying lives and refusing to ever say their names again, writing puerile scripts that got so weird that I eventually stopped watching.. Mark Henry once had “an affair” with a pretty old Mae Young who used to wrestle, supposedly impregnating her. Some time later she went into labor and birthed a hand.
Mae Young announced her pregnancy at none other than the Baltimore Arena on 27 January, 2000.
The hand was the “miscarriage” caused by Kurt Angle in the following clip:
Now that was funny. She wasn’t really hurt, but my sick sense of humor has its limits, and the hand was it.
I had ideas about McMahon before this, but 1999-2000 were my favorite two years for wrestling. WCW was always cool, and Goldberg, the nWo and even Tank Abbott were there. The wrestlers for both franchises were fun to watch, but as soon as WCW was bought by WWE, that did it. I stopped watching. Still don’t. Even the video games, with their pay-extra wrestlers, clunky controls and awful create mode, suck.
Long before 2000 and long after, McMahon was a ravenous wolf who preyed on those he considered beneath him. And he considers almost everyone beneath him, especially women.
I’d like to see the bastard prosecuted. He’s so defiant and smug that even after leaving his daughter in an acting CEO position, he’s appeared on two shows in the ring. What a snot.
President Biden has headed to Israel on a multi-stop Middle East visit. He’s got a tough job ahead, especially in Saudi Arabia where questions about a murdered Washington Post reporter are bound to come up. On the other hand he’s got to negotiate oil prices. Iran will be discussed on every leg of the trip because impossibly, that nation is hosting Russian fruit loop Vladimir Putin and he’s asking for help in his massacre of Ukrainian children. You can’t make this shit up.
Russia seems in control of the eastern front, but Ukraine remains strong and defiant. How much longer, I wonder, until this insane war spills beyond the current theater of war? I hold to my previous assessment: it will spread.
Wait. Before I leave you tonight, what about the good news I mentioned in the title of this post?
There is none. I couldn’t find any.
Until next time, be well, be careful, be safe, and may God bless.
Yeah, I remember this crap. All of it. How could I forget it? What a bunch of bullshit. The man who, campaigning for the office of president, had people punch each other, had women thrown out of rallies without their coats, who was abusive and arrogant and a regular Neanderthal piece of shit…ran on lies, twisted and remarkably effective.
It told me something I didn’t want to believe about the people of the United States.
He did say, “People are going to say Merry Christmas” again.
I thought, the fuck is he talking about?
Because you know what?
I couldn’t walk through any store without seeing Christmas decorations, cookies, or whatever. Never happened, not once did I see Christmas disappear. Nobody ever told me I couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” to a neighbor.
But, and you can feel free to check this out, since I was little, I saw Christmas cards that said “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” and it never meant anything political or politically correct. It just covered Christmas and the New Year or anything else you wanted.
Brian Tyler Cohen is my favorite independent news analyst. He does all of his own work and answers to no corporate overlords.
He has something to say regarding the interview with Trump from another crazed conservative, this time a guy who should never be doing interviews and I mean, not even elves at the fucking malls.
The guy, who suddenly thought one day that Ted Cruz and those wahoos at Duck Dynasty were fashion-savvy, leads Trump with the most leading query in media history because, of course, he knows how Trump needs to be led to save time.
Look. Donald Trump did NOT save Christmas. And he knows, as stupid as he is, that he didn’t do a goddamn thing but play golf and tweet while sitting on the toilet all night with diarrhea while the shithouse TV blared Fox News.
I say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Christmas” about this time every year. If someone I know happens to have a problem with it, I don’t say anything but “how’s it going”, in which case I honestly want an answer. You never know what you’re going to hear. Or who might be startled that you actually care.
Look, I’ve had enough of Christmas. I don’t want to sit here every year and talk about the last Christmas I saw my boy alive, no more than to celebrate July 4th because my daughter drowned that day. I’m tired of blaming myself or others because life sucks a big dick, and will never be fair.
I want peace and I will have a little bit of it before I die. I will not be in denial or despair; I’m just gonna let it be. I have no problem with whoever celebrates what; I just don’t.
Donald Trump? Saved Christmas?
Neither should anyone else.
Has the whole world gone completely mad?
What a load of republican shit.
Cancel culture is a myth. A republican lie used to scare the shit out of white people. That fact is that some things aren’t appropriate, never should have been, and now, finally, pop culture is getting it.
When the movie Blazing Saddles came out I thought it was funny, and maybe some of it still is. But mostly, I find it very unfunny. The bikers with the fake handlebars was good. But the gay chorus and Dom Deluise, the N-word, the governor with the redhead in bra and panties behind the drapes, that shit is offensive. And I wish it was always so, but I can’t change what has been. I can’t change my attitude about how some things aren’t okay anymore. Republicans are very susceptible to fear mongering political figures from those in office and the media. They defend racism, guns everywhere, while they pretend to wring their hands every time there’s a mass shooting (and no news outlet will tell you how often it really happens), and they just love Jesus while behaving overtly the opposite of every single thing Jesus said people should do.
I’m sick of it. I’m tired of hearing Trump act like a defender of Christmas when he’s about the farthest thing from a Christian you can get. I’m sorry I had to write another post like this.
Don’t believe him. Don’t trust him. Claim some truth, some peace for yourself. Nobody is out to exterminate all white people or even cancel Christmas. That’s bullshit.
Merry Christmas, and happy holidays to all. Be at peace. You can start by deciding on your own how republican bullshit has become a part of this season.
Trump must be tired of winning because he’s built a house of cards. And those cards are falling one at a time.
As more horror stories are being told about January 6th, this one breaks my heart. A fellow Marylander whom I will now and forever regard as a brother. A dad who lost a child to depression that led to his suicide–a dad who buried that son on January 5th, one day before–showed up to work. His daughter Tabitha begged him not to go. Not to leave her alone…so he told her he had to go, and it was a very important day, and she could go with him. And we know what happened next.
This and more make it clear that Donald Trump cannot be allowed to escape the consequences of his words. Colin Powell has said that it is possible to heal the country and impeach Trump at the same time. That the two are not at odds with each other and in fact are both essential. He said he would have impeached Trump the first time.
As the retired general and former leader of the Joint Chiefs and former Secretary of State, he knows how serious the crime was that led to that first impeachment. Having seen what transpired on Wednesday, he sees a far worse crime. A wise man whose education and years of experience have made him the perfect man to seek out for answers, he is a Republican who refuses to go with the extremists and who has both feet planted squarely on solid ground in the traditional conservative party ethos.
He sees this country as it was, which, given all that’s happened, needs cleaning and maintenance but is not without hope. I’ve always liked and trusted the general, served under him and know him to be honorable and possessed of integrity and wisdom. If he sees hope, I see hope. We all should.
The question is, why impeach Trump? The papers will be filed Monday, January 11th. Mitch McConnell himself printed out the procedure and passed it out to both houses of Congress. He wants to make sure everything is in motion by the 19th. Hearings can continue beyond but it has to be done.
Impeach The Bastard
Impeachment means several things. The first is that it removes the secret service detail from him, a perk all former presidents get. Next is, he cannot collect a pension. I for one believe this is fair because of all the money he’s taken from the government by conducting business on his properties.
Finally, anyone so impeached cannot run for any other political office ever again.
But it also would leave him more susceptible to prosecution because his house of cards will be gone, leaving the last place to neurotically “hide” useless. More people will see him as he really is. If his speech that day didn’t do it, if the attack on the Capitol wasn’t enough, then seeing him pathetically whining without any cover, almost nude as it were, will be enough for people to finally turn on him.
But what about the ones who still voted not to ratify the electoral vote results that night even after they’d all been forced to shelter under chairs?
What about them?
It is staggering to think that there were so many Republicans still sticking to their Trumpism and delusions. Ted Cruz is a special kind of evil and I get his vote. A former aide said she resigned from Cruz’s office because he changed after Trump was elected and added that she “didnt know him anymore”.
Ted Cruz behaved stupidly that night urging his fellow senators to act in a bipartisan manner and “shock the viewers”.
Not the public, not American citizens. The viewers. Played to the cameras, the idiot. And he wasn’t alone. It’s always been about image and audience for Trump and Cruz fell into lock step long ago.
How stupid can one get, playing to an audience and making it so obvious? Because that’s not country first, not patriotism and certainly not professional.
Because twitter, Fox News, OAN, Newsmax and Infowars and Facebook groups all glorified Trump no matter what he did. Everyone who let those sources go without rebuking them is directly responsible for what happened on Wednesday.
Everyone on Trump’s staff and in his cabinet who gave up and silently stood by is responsible for the terrorist attack on the Capitol. Everyone from press secretaries to Kellyanne Conway and beyond who rationalized his speech and behavior bears part of the blame and the fact that some are leaving the sinking ship won’t help them. They stayed until it was obvious that he had finally done something that could get them all into deep shit. And they flee like cowards.
Trump is a coward. Pence, who Trump tried to assassinate, is too quiet. He’s a coward. With Trump silent he should be vocal. He’s not. The silence breeds more threats of mob terroism. A new wall now stands around the US Capitol Building. Trump finally got a wall.
Then an asylum bill already passed was blocked by a judge, dealing another blow to Trump after he lost his Twitter account permanently.
Right now, Trump is probably so bound up that he couldn’t squeeze one out if he drank a bottle of castor oil. No it didn’t stop with Twitter; he’s even been banned from pinterest. That’s the tide turning against Trump. Without his cell phone and apps, he’s nothing more than a little boy lost in a corn maze. He can shout but no one will hear.
What’s going on with cabinet members? here’s what. I agree with this opinion piece one hundred percent. Bailing in the 11th hour and calling it protest or moral reasons is bullshit. They’re not going to be there when the shit hits the fan. They think quitting will prove their own innocence.
It won’t.
And Lindsey Graham is no hero. He only voted the way he did because earlier, the very people who he had helped enable Trump to rouse had him eating carpet. Graham later said impeachment would only divide our country further. What he’s not saying is that it’s clear we’re divided. We get it. But Trump’s mealy mouthed shit about healing and uniting, parroted by Graham and others, is crap. He did not mean a word of it. Nobody who sends a mob to assassinate the House leader and vice president wants anyone to heal. Donald Trump hasn’t the capacity for empathy, sympathy, remorse, regret or anything but anger that his coup failed and fear that he will be punished for the attempt.
Unfortunately it isn’t over. 8chan, Parler, darkweb sources point to more on the way, this time better armed and fanatical to the point of suicide attacks. And according to a viral video on Parler, Trump himself has something “planned” for the 20th.
I hate this shit. Impeachment is essential. It will take up Trump and Giuliani’s time. It’ll scare Trump silly. As for the 20th, I am reassured by my own knowledge that the inauguration will be done as scheduled. The National Guard and federal officers will establish kill zones, lines of fire in which intruders can easily be shot. There will be every protection possible arrayed, and much of it invisible to the rednecks.
A West Virginia representative, newly sworn in, has been arrested for his participation in the breach of the Capitol building.
Pretty suspicious that this comes dead on the heels of a chance discovery that Russia had hacked enormous data from the government. I would not be surprised if an investigation proved all of this was linked.
Dear God is there no end to the lies this man can tell?
Donald Trump made this speech buried in the search results. His Twitter account restored, he began by condemning the attack on the Capitol building on Wednesday and saying that the attackers had soiled the seat of our democracy. Then he sort of conceded the election and promised a peaceful transition of power.
He claimed no responsibility in his evil provocation of the violence that he condemned. He didn’t say that he was with his family watching it all start and that junior was selfy-recording them in something like a command post and it was a party atmosphere. With music! He didn’t say that he watched the coverage and refused to stop it. He lied and claimed he immediately called for the National Guard and federal officers when he reportedly refused and Pence did it.
He made this speech because it benefited him to do so. In his mind he fears removal from office, which there’s no time to do. But he fears it just the same because once those measures are taken he cannot run for office ever again and he’s already set his sights on 2024.
His reality is not of this realm. It is one only he exists in, one only he can view. We can’t know his thoughts, but his deeds and uncounted words tell us not to believe him. Not to trust him.
I could give a retort between every sentence he said. And yet I know that there is no use in doing so. Tomorrow he will likely change up everything and defy those threatening to remove him from office. We don’t know.
Donald Trump lying at a rally, a press conference, a town hall or in a tweet is nothing new. It’s not even new that the lies are fucking bags of dead cats. Misery. Downplaying misery. Making up shit about how he is adored by his generals. I betcha his admirals got jealous over that one.
He claims that everywhere he goes, people insist on hugging and kissing him, and he won’t refuse them.
It doesn’t matter that a former coronavirus task force member quoted him as saying that he was rather pleased that he wouldn’t have to “shake hands with those disgusting people” anymore. By “disgusting people” he meant the supporters at his rallies. They don’t believe he said it; anything they don’t like is fake news or a “hoax”.
And never mind the proven fact that the spectators at his town hall were paid. They sold their souls for peanuts. Greed and lust are the only constants humanity has left.
It was bad when he was busted saying on tape how deadly COVID-19 is and that he was downplaying the danger. It was worse when he held a few superspreader events and people really caught the disease.
Let’s be honest. The first lady is every bit as sick and depraved as he is. Rumors about her being a hardcore adult actress instead of a nude model may be untrue but you can’t blame people for thinking it was true. The supposed education level she claims may not be true either as she can’t speak English worth a fuck, but did manage an intelligible “fuck Christmas” once. Now we know the truth behind her ugly holiday decorations.
As for being depraved, let’s be civil here. Are we not ladies and gentlemen, after all?
Let’s not play that she didn’t eat him alive with her eyes. Slowed or paused, any onesecond between Melania and Trudeau clearly shows glorious proof that she appreciates how “handsome” her husband is. Conservative morons said “nothing to see here” but there’s definitely something to see here.
There’s no proof that she did hardcore porn, but she’s every bit as disgusting as her husband is.
We used to think she was trapped, a kept woman with child custody held over her like a safe hanging from a rope in an old Laurel and Hardy skit. We used to feel sorry for her.
The first time we began to drop jaws was when she showed up near the border wearing a coat that read on the back, “I really don’t care,” which was about as subtle as Donald throwing rolls of paper towels to people in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria knocked out power, leveled homes and businesses and rendered drinking water facilities useless. Anyone who is not angry about that to this day misses the meaning of evil, how utterly horrible it is. He was making fun of those poor people!
The children who were and still are separated from their parents at the border were put in tents, and then cages thrown up in warehouses. This was a mountain of human rights violations. And apparently Melania was right. The full message on her jacket read, “I really don’t care, do u?”
I guess not, Melania. I guess not. Nothing has been done about it and your husband should be fucking jail right now.
He’s delusional and definitely drunk with power. He just threatened to fire the Florida governor if he loses that state.
He said he would “find a way” to fire Governor DeSantis because he knows he doesn’t have the authority to do it. You don’t get more hateful, bullying or dark than that. I’ll bet his blood is below 32°. I’m sorry, but he’s six bricks short of having a chimney. His butter slid off his hotcakes long ago. Hell, I’ll bet he thinks Aunt Jemima is real and hangs out with Frederick Douglass. Fucking twat.
If he’s reelected, this country goes right in the trash bin. Nothing will remain even for his supporters. His children will pay the price. Riots by the end of the next term will make any and all public outings impossible for them. It would be constant, mortal danger. The jokes will stop when people starve or freeze to death on the streets because they’ve lost their jobs, homes and businesses. You think it will be safe for Trump’s enablers, too? You think people don’t have a breaking point?
Because they do. And anyone associated with Trump will be unsafe everywhere they go. Remember when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was forced to retreat from a restaurant? That may have been frightening to her but it was nothing to what starving, sick people would do. History is full of revolts and revenge.
The Republican party has to answer for Trump’s crimes against humanity. Vote them out of office and save not only lives, but our country as well.
Ah. I could live for days like this. A gentle rain, the rumble of distant thunder, the scent of a cleansing on the earth…
But it isn’t tranquil. Too much is happening for me to be lulled by it.
Out there, it’s a nightmare. Maybe you live somewhere that’s trapped in a nightmare. To see the news this morning took every good thing out of me.
Watching Morning Joe was no fun at all. I like that program. Particularly when Joe gets on an angry tear. What a speaker. Mika sometimes sighs and says, “here we go,” and it’s funny, because they’re married. I always get a chuckle when she does that.
Today was a day I didn’t hear anyone get that riled. It was a bad day. Yesterday was a bad day and every day before it was bad.
I suspect anyone who does a news and commentary show is deflated right now. The wind ain’t gonna come to those slack sails, you know?
Which story did you want to cover first? Toss up there, Mika. Did you ever think you would see a day like this? Did you ever really imagine this? All of this?
The dawn over the Bay area in California on Wednesday looked like a scene in the Keanu Reeves film “Constantine” when he goes to Hell. It’s a chilling scene, no play on words intended. But waking up, seeing that, whoa. How do you even handle that?
The latest update I could find is actually on Wikipedia’s update page and counts ten deaths so far. Dont tell me climate change isn’t real. We know by the extended dry season in California and the violence of the storms providing lightning strikes. We know some of the fires were caused by human activity including, for pity’s sake, a pyrotechnic display. That’s goddamn irresponsible, but it’s done, and its effects are far from done.
In another time, this would not be happening. We’ve seen terrible fires before, but never anything like this, and there’s really no stopping it. The wikipedia references the amount of acres, or hectares, burned. That those numbers have increased while I’m writing this staggers my imagination.
I’m personally very frightened for people I know, and one relative, who are out there. But my concern is for everyone. It is a truly hellish scene. I’m horrified by what you’re going through out there.
According to a tweet by the NWS, there’s no model to account for the future of the smoke, which today is darker and closer to the ground in some places. They were asking for people’s observations to try and sort out what they could.
NWS, as I suspect NOAA and every other organization that deals with weather, are having a tough year. If 2020 was a weather system, they’d all say that it sucked. Not very professional, but honest.
The hurricane season isn’t over and keep in mind, October is not here yet, and some of our worst hurricanes have occurred late in the season. Right now, there’s tropical activity and more to come. This, after Louisiana has been hit hard. They cant take another hit like that. Not that any state can, but hey, the news ain’t gonna tell you much about that state while so many other horrors are going on. Keep a weather eye. Literally.
BOOKS
Yeah. Everybody’s got a book out. For a price, you can now read things about Donald and Melania Trump that in all honesty we should have been told about long ago.
Melania is a terrible person. She’s illiterate and cruel and driven by greed to put up a false facade. For years we speculated on why she would slap her husband’s hand away and whether she was a battered wife and too scared of losing custody of her son to leave him. We were foolish to think these things; not only are they untrue, but she never deserved the slightest bit of our sympathy. The book to read: Melania And Me.
Then comes the shocking (not really) book Rage by Bob Woodward. We’ve heard the audio with Trump admitting that he knew COVID-19 was seriously contagious and deadly but he played it down to “avoid panic” and that he’s still playing it down.
Except that, one day after the audio was released, Trump was asked why anyone should ever believe him again. He denied saying what he said and added, “I meant we have to stay calm.”
Sorry, Mr. President, but trying to keep people calm doesn’t cover constant lies, toxic cure suggestions, withholding monetary aid to states and forcing them to order shutdowns, or begging all over the world for PPE and ventilators. You did that, against all the common sense and decency everyone else had but you lacked.
You know what? The administration just took federal taxes off the withholding payroll for government workers. They have no choice and even though the money has to be paid later, this is the probing, the overture, to breaking Social Security. He’s already on his second or third attempt at having pre-existing conditions removed from the ACA. And when the money has to be repaid, you think anyone’s going to be able? No. And their debt will accrue interest. It’s a sin.
There’s a shit storm of revelations about Trump coming out like the ones in Cohen’s new volume. He calls Trump a cult leader and claims to have been a member of the cult. I’m not sure.
Certainly not the first lawyer to go overboard for money and prestige, he’s coming off a bit dishonest to me. I don’t think he’s telling the whole truth. The book: Dishonesty. Quite appropriate.
All these and more are books that contain staggering revelations about the Trump presidency. It’s horrific, and yet, all of the facts that they contain are things that, had they come to light sooner (in March, Woodward knew that Trump was lying about COVID-19 despite being fully aware that it was going to kill a lot of people) would inarguably have saved lives and the economy.
Cohen’s book reveals much about Russia and Trump. It’s every bit as bad as we were sure it was, only worse. Back in 2016, and onward, we were sure that Vladimir Putin had something on Trump. Something he didn’t want to ever become known. This of course, as I wrote back then and since, is the Russian way. They compromise, record money transactions or anything else they can use, and then threaten to reveal it. In Trump’s case, we knew that he had pursued relentlessly some business deals with Russia. He was vocally impressed with Putin and then something happened. Rumor had it that he was taking golden showers, that it was on video and Russia had the proof.
This fits. But it isn’t enough. First, he once visited son Eric at university and the boy came down from the dorm in a sweatshirt, and Trump slapped him. He said “A Trump wears a tie! Go get dressed!” It’s always been about image with Trump. So a video of him engaged in water sports would embarrass him no end. His skin is thin. But I never have thought that was the true nature of it all. There had to be more. It was about his true amount of financial debt or it was sexual, and either way, it was hardcore. In the case of a video, I maintained it had to be egregious, like having sex with a minor. Something he could never get away from if it was made public. In light of his ordering intelligence to move on from investigating Russia and to instead concentrate on China, I believe this to be another smoking gun, telling of the level of corruption in the White House. Barr taking on Trump’s defense? More corruption of our government.
I started this post this morning. It’s almost midnight. Time to publish without any ending thoughts, but I’m not sure I even have any. We’re in big trouble. Microsoft published a report on Russian and Chinese interference in the election. I need to read up…
This article is deeply disturbing. Go ahead and click the link. I’ll have a cup of coffee and meet you back here.
OUR LEADERS
I’ve never read a story like that. I never dreamt I would.
I served under CICs Reagan, Bush and Clinton. I’d have gone anywhere they told me to.
We loved our Commander(s)-in-Chief. We volunteered for different reasons, some to learn a new skill for a better job when we were discharged, some because we just wanted to serve, some because we were gung-ho and went Eleven Bravo and on to Ranger school and Special Forces. Some enlisted didn’t finish basic training and wore sergeant’s chevrons and wound up at West Point. Not a single man or woman recruit I ever met was serving because they were suckers, losers or morons. Not one. All were patriots, ready to salute the Colors and learn everything they could learn to properly serve our country.
HISPANIC RECRUITS, NOT “AMERICAN” RECRUITS?
But it was not Hispanic recruits who spoke no or little English who were treated like patriotic volunteers. They were kept somewhat aside, mostly ignored by sergeants at the Reception unit. Even Hispanic sergeants treated them like cattle. I never forgot that. I wonder how many of them went career, then wound up deported by the Trump administration. How many veterans did that really happen to?
That still bothers me. At reception there was such a group, and they liked me. With crude high school Spanish, I at least tried to make friends with them. Great guys, every one of them. They would greet me with, “Hey, Spanish!” and smile. I silently felt very bad for them. One time a sergeant yelled at them to keep their place and the pain was clear in each man’s eyes. I couldn’t tell them how I felt. I just put my hand over my heart and said “Mis amigos” and they knew what I meant. I guess the pain showed in my eyes, too.
They were willing, they were eager to prove their loyalty to their country. It was shameful how they were treated. Even back then, or especially so, because we were supposed to be better than that.
But we weren’t better than that and now, all past commanders in chief look like gods next to The Donald.
HONORABLE
I met some recruits who couldn’t hack it and were discharged. But at least they tried. That’s more than Donald Trump ever did.
Chain of command is an integral part of our military. On the wall of any training CQ there was always a group of photographic portraiture with officers, lowest rank at the bottom, and the president at the top. We were required to memorize those names and faces.
In training, especially basic, you’re not getting around much. All of your treks are hikes or company runs to lonely roads and back. One day I saw a General, saluted and said, Good afternoon, sir!” And it was cool! With my background, I never thought I would get to do that.
UNIMAGINABLE
I could never have pictured a president denigrating us. All of us. Nobody could, not us and no one in our chain of command. Donald Trump has done that since he was sworn in. What president ever called their entiremilitary command “dopes” fighting in a loser’s war, and where the hell did he get off, saying “I wouldn’t go to war with you.”?
Well, I know the answer to that. So do you. Who pulls his strings? The people he praises instead of our Americans. The ones every responsible news agency has already reported as interfering in the current (and 2016) election.
This is not unfounded, unverified or fake news. And aside from the above-linked article, the insults that recently came to light have also been verified. He called an allvolunteerservice a bunch of suckers and those killed in action “losers”. He once told a woman that her dead soldier “knew what he was getting into” and never bothered to thank her for his service or to offer his condolences. He was mean and impossibly cold.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN’S MOST DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
While campaigning, Trump said McCain was no hero because he was captured. Sadly, this is still showing up in places on the internet, especially social media, and it’s disgusting. It isn’t pertinent to the election except for Trumpsters who back up every single thing Trump’s ever said or tweeted, which includes some 20,000 lies.
For the record, John McCain was already acquainted with danger. When he served as a pilot on USS Forrestal, the Douglas Skyhawk he was in was hit, or the one next to him was hit, by a rocket accidentally fired from another jet.
McCain was surrounded by the first flames to rise up and was trapped in his cockpit. He tried to help another pilot when a bomb on the underside of another aircraft cooked off, detonating and nearly killing him. Wounded by shrapnel, he was damn lucky he wasn’t instantly killed.
He only escaped climbing along the nose and projecting refueling probe which extended beyond the danger.
A Preserved Skyhawk with the forward-extending refueling probe coming from starboard fuselage. McCain had to cling to this probe to get out of harm’s way.
McCain survived that disastrous fire. He could have remained aboard while the wounded ship put in for repairs, but he asked for another ship, and was transferred, to USS Oriskany. That was a noteworthy vessel in her own right; the last Essex-(Ticonderoga) class carrier whose keel was laid down in World War Two, but her construction ceased in 1946, then resumed. She underwent a long series of refitting and designation changes and served in combat operations in Korea and again in Vietnam. Ironically, she had been through a serious accidental fire of her own just before assisting Forrestal during that vessel’s disastrous fire. It was this ship from which Lt. Commander John McCain sortied in 1967 for a bombing mission over Hanoi. He was shot down and during ejection broke a leg and both arms. His parachute put him in a lake and he nearly drowned.
His capture in the area as civilians dragged him from the water assured the nature of his treatment as a POW. He was not treated medically. From the civilians he incurred additional injuries until a rifle butt and bayonet smashed his shoulder and pierced him. He would be permanently impaired and in pain for the rest of his life.
Under severe torture he finally broke and gave insignificant overall information because there was only so much he knew; of future plans there was nothing he could say. He was however able to give the names of the Green Bay Packers when his tormentors wanted specific names of personnel. He would regret giving any information at all long into the future, and it is this point, some argue, that made him a confessed traitor.
Let’s look at that for a minute. Both arms broken, not set. One leg broken, also not set. No pain medication given. Such minute rations that he rapidly lost a considerable amount of weight. Constantly tortured. Then questioned again and again.
Perhaps those who consider him a traitor dont know what that must feel like, what must go through a battered mind, a traumatized mind constantly being traumatized even more.
Perhaps no one judging him then or now ever had a shattered shoulder or even a separated shoulder, which is so painful that grown men sob from the agony.
And they dont know what it’s like, being mentally played with night and day, which reinforces physical pain and promises much more to come.
This is to say nothing of the fact that McCain knew where he was, and must have been terrified that he would not see home again.
Only when it was learned that their prisoner’s father was an admiral did they begin to treat him, and that isn’t saying much. Mostly they just barely kept him alive, giving him one aspirin for pain and botching a surgery attempt.
While his captors did clean him up and give him a cigarette for an interview by a French reporter, as soon as the interview was over, he was beaten for not thanking his “hosts” for their “humane” treatment of him.
The story of the Hanoi Hilton is well known. It’s also known that he refused an early, out-of-order release because his father was an admiral. John McCain wasn’t going home until everyone else did. That’s a hero.
No matter what you think of the man, the harmless overall nature of information he gave, or his later political career, you cannot call him a traitor. He was faithful through things you and I can’t even imagine, because knowing about something isn’t even close to enduring it. John McCain endured it.
Donald Trump said McCain wasn’t a hero because he was captured, and “I like people who weren’t captured”. But Donald Trump kept out of the draft by getting a medical doctor to write in “bone spurs” under the excuse box. Where I come from, that’s not patriotic and we would have called him a sissy or a pansy. Oddly, some of “us” are now supporting the man, turning from Republican party to the CoT (Cult of Trump) faction.
2020: BACKLASH
Even though the “suckers” and “losers” remarks have only just been made public, military leaders were well aware of them as soon as he said them. Then came the Russian bounty story. By that point every soldier, sailor, airman and marine knew about it. It’s unfortunate that their ears had to hear it or their eyes to see the coverage. I can’t imagine being in uniform and knowing that my Commander-in-Chief tried to deny it by claiming “…it never crossed my desk…”
Because that’s pathetically lame. It’s so bad that it isn’t even a proper denial. It’s just a lie made by a liar who doesn’t care about the truth, treats it with contempt and grinds it beneath his heel.
To any lie he tells and for every truth known by the press, he counters with insane bullshit like Antifa and Deep State conspiracy theories, and he doesn’t care where they come from. If even Laura Ingraham tells him to his face that something he said sounds like a conspiracy theory, you’re really sorry. You really suck at lying.
Joe Biden has the words I needed to hear after the outrage of the breaking news.
I think back on my military experience with the US Army and remember the pride I felt marching in front of civilians to a cadence that went, “Give me a hatchet and I’ll chop my way to Hell…” because we were sharp.
I remember the pushups. The mountain climbers. Command inspection. Ironing T-shirts. Starching collars. Spit shining. How normal it became to sit at a row of toilets without partitions, read your mail and talk shit to your buddies while taking a shit.
Our men and women in uniform are special. Everything about their training breaks down barriers and makes them ready to fight as a unit and not a bunch of individuals. They changed during training, advanced training and their service afterward. I always hate seeing them in harm’s way but I am always grateful for their service.
They are not “suckers”.
Our fallen are not “losers”.
TWO REASONS WHY
There can be only two reasons for what Trump has done to undermine the military, Judicial Branch, postal system, the rule of law and the simple truth.
After all, he’s the one talking about people in the shadows, “people you never heard of” behind Biden’s campaign when there’s no evidence of such people.
The first is, he’s a nut.
He’s the one who said you need a photo ID to buy a box of cereal.
He’s the one who gets nauseous when talking about women and blood, obviously in reference to menstrual periods.
He’s the one who thinks Africa is a country.
He’s the one who complimented a dead man (Frederick Douglass) on doing good work.
He’s the one who called Mexicans “rapists”.
That list goes on and on. 20,000 lies and counting.
The other reason is that Vladimir Putin has put him in place to weaken this country. The once mighty USA cant even trust their mail service, has run out on Allies, leaving some to almost instant death (Kurds) and now is a laughingstock instead of a refuge against oppression and a light to the rest of the world.
Four more years will not matter. He will only need one to finish the job.
Between now and 3 November, nothing he does, including starting a war, would surprise me. If he loses, he’ll fight the decision and embark a scorched earth process.
I’d like to call on you to look back. Not so much at the things we’ve done wrong; we’re still here and still fighting to make things right.
No, I’d like you to think back on our best moments, what we’ve done that set this country apart. We stood up for friends, fought for what was right. We’ve braved the worst that nature could dish out, rebuilt and went onward. We fought a civil war and came away not perfect, but better. We sent men to the Moon and back, sent men and women into space, learned things that made the world more understood than ever, proved that the impossible was possible. We fought overwhelming odds to become a sovereign nation.
If it wasn’t perfect, we have no reason not to keep trying to do better.
We have no excuse not to try to do better.
You think about those things.
And on the third of November, you’ll know what to do.
Memoirs of an American Christian 