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Nov. 14, 2019
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Good article but I had to look one name up in the subtitle up:
It's Atticus Finch vs. Cthulhu in the showdown of the century. GOP's bold defense of Trump: LOL, nothing matters
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Describing the “irregular channel” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his team of “amigos” used to coerce Ukraine’s president to announce investigations into Trump’s political opponents, Castor asked Taylor: “In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it’s not as outlandish as it could be — is that correct?”
Taylor seemed to think Castor was telling a joke. “It’s not as outlandish as it could be,” he said with a laugh. “I agree.”
True! Giuliani could have conducted the entire scheme in drag. Or they could have threatened the Ukrainian president with a Nerf gun instead of merely withholding military aid. But Castor wasn’t kidding. He defended his point at length, then asked again: “It may be irregular, but it’s certainly not outlandish?”
Taylor smiled, shook his head and nodded, as if to convey: Whatever you say.
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Nov. 13, 2019
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Viewers of the hearing who watch MSNBC will recognize the Democrat's prosecutor. Read about him here.
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Trump talked to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then told the US military to withdraw from Syria. Overnight, without warning, he destabilized an entire region.
JOHN GARTNER, STEVEN BUSER AND DAVID REISS | OPINION
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Nov. 12, 2019 -
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It would take just three Republican senators to turn the impeachment vote into a secret ballot. It’s not hard to imagine what would happen then.... and McConnell might go for it...
“Trump and those around him seem confident that he won’t lose the 20 Republican senators needed to block a guilty verdict. But it’s not hard to imagine three senators supporting a secret ballot. Five sitting Republican senators have already announced their retirements; four of those are in their mid-70s or older and will never run for office again. They might well be willing to demand secrecy in order to give cover to their colleagues who would like to convict Trump but are afraid to do so because of politics in their home districts,” she continued, before adding, “There’s already been some public speculation that, should the Senate choose to proceed with a secret ballot, Trump would be found guilty.”
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"And also, if you cared about the environment, which I personally do, emphatically care ― I actually go outside once in a while unlike most people on the left ― why would you want a crowded country? Isn’t crowding your country the fastest way to despoil it, to pollute it, to make it, you know, a place you wouldn’t want to live?"
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You probably heard that Donald Junior was heckled on his book tour. Did you know that the hecklers were members of the group whose mascot is this frog? Learn the whole story here.
Nov. 11, 2019
This story was recommended and was online all day. 131 good comments like the one below ( I added the illustration). 3,140 people took the poll.
Nov. 10, 2019
Wash. Post: Police in Tuscaloosa, Ala., said they arrested a man who slashed open a giant “Baby Trump” balloon during the president’s trip Saturday to the football game between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University.
A group protesting President Trump’s visit set up the 20-foot inflatable caricature in a park near Bryant-Denny Stadium ahead of the match between the top-ranked college teams. It was looming among the crowds outside when someone ran up with a knife and cut an eight-foot gash in the side, organizers said.
Police identified the suspect as 32-year-old Hoyt Hutchinson of Tuscaloosa. They said officers arrested him after he sliced into the balloon and tried to flee.
Hutchinson was charged with first degree criminal mischief, a felony, and held on a $2,500 bond. It was not clear if he had retained an attorney.
The appearance of the Baby Trump balloon marked the third time in recent weeks that the president has faced conspicuous opposition at sporting events.
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I don't know where this was taken:
Nov. 9, 2019
Here's my afternoon tweet. It's all in the right hashtags. This morning only a few people viewed my tweet but in two minutes this one had over 50 impressions.
Maybe my morning tweet for today. Check it out. Related to this, My father was a virulent anti-communist, and he railed about what he called "the fellow travelers" when I was a kid and I remember his saying their motto was "I have a sty in my eye when the flag goes by." So will Trump salute when the Russian national anthem is played? Listen to it here.
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A companion piece to my Daily Kos story:
From The Washington Post editorial board:
Excerpt:
IT WOULD be wrong to overinterpret the results of Tuesday’s elections, especially with regard to what they might portend for 2020. There’s no reason to underinterpret them, either. The vote counts from Kentucky, Virginia and elsewhere represent the latest hard data about voter tendencies and, on the whole, they imply that, even in longtime Southern bastions of Republican conservatism, people support a pragmatic, progressive direction in policy — and a decent, inclusive style of leadership.
Yes, yes: Virginia has been trending blue for years; Democrat Andy Beshear’s declared gubernatorial win in the Bluegrass State reflected the epic unpopularity of incumbent Republican Matt Bevin, and did not radiate downballot. Still, it’s a major turn of events when Democrats take control of Richmond for the first time in a quarter-century, with gun control as their signature issue; and the same goes for deep-red Kentucky’s rejection of President Trump’s appeal for Mr. Bevin, in favor of a 41-year-old who promised “together we can change the tone, restore decency . . . and do so much for the people.”
We’re not in the business of political advice, but Mr. Beshear’s formulation, similar as it was to the Democrats’ winning message in 2018, strikes us as one that the men and women running to replace Mr. Trump might usefully take on board. The other big political news this week was a New York Times-Siena College poll that showed the leading Democrats struggling to beat the president in key swing states, though former vice president Joe Biden polls better than rivals Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). To the extent this is because Mr. Biden has become associated with step-by-step policy reform and consensus-seeking leadership, the findings are probably not accidental. There is a hunger in the country — especially in pivotal formerly GOP-leaning suburbs — not only for change, substantive and stylistic, at the top, but also for stability and sanity. A candidate, and a party, that convincingly offers to achieve the former without sacrificing the latter might well beat Mr. Trump next November.
From The New York Times editorial board:
Fined $2 million after admitting his foundation was his piggy bank, the president shows he always comes first.
Excerpt:
Despite his admissions of misconduct, Mr. Trump made clear who he thought was the victim in the case — himself.
“I am the only person I know, perhaps the only person in history, who can give money to charity ($19M), charge no expense, and be attacked by the political hacks in New York State,” he tweetedThursday evening in a statement about the settlement. Of course, a foundation with no employees, according to the attorney general, and a board that rarely met was unlikely to have many expenses.
He then rolled smoothly into an attack on the three New York attorneys general who pursued the case over the past three years.
In closing, he characterized the $2 million in damages that he has been ordered to pay as a contribution that he is “happy” to donate to worthy groups.
To be sure, $2 million seems unlikely to break the president’s bank. It is, however, a rare instance in which someone is finally holding Mr. Trump accountable for his misbehavior.
More than that, he has been compelled to publicly admit to having misled the public — and all those veterans for whom he professes to hold such respect.
My comment: Using "Trump," the malignant narcissist who suffers from a mix of personality disorders marked by lack of introspection, and "self-aware" together is the ultimate oxymoron. His humor, such as it is, is vicious and there is no self-mockery intended. Next you will suggest he has empathy. Hal Brown, MSW, Duty to Warn therapist
You need to be a subscriber to read this (I'm not) but the part you can see tells the whole story.
Some presidents get nailed over money. Some over lust for power. Others over sex. But only one has disgraced the office on all three fronts.
It is now likely that President Trump will be impeached by the House of Representatives on the grounds that he has abused his power. But history teaches that there are three kinds of corruption in national politics: money, power, and sex. Amazingly, in less than one term, Trump has racked up ample material for impeachment on all three.
Money is at the root of the standard political scandal. Using high office to line his own pockets is what brought down Vice President Spiro Agnew, who took kickbacks as governor of Maryland on government contracts.
And the two great presidential scandals before Watergate involved money. The Crédit Mobilier matter rocked the Ulysses Grant administration in the 1870s, when government officials accepted bribes in return for providing land grants to railroad barons. And Warren Harding’s Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s involved Cabinet members who made a fortune using their authority to enrich oil magnates and others. Unlike Agnew, neither Presidents Grant nor Harding profited in these sordid affairs, but their ineptitude allowed the wrongdoing.
As an aside, for those who read the article which covers the first Thanksgiving with the Pilrgrims and the Wampanoag, I knew a dozen of the tribe members very well from when I lived near Plymouth and helped them fight to get land into trust for a casino. Read my 2007 story: The prospect of Wampanoag resort casino in Middleboro exposes the underbelly of racism.
My comment to this story was short: "So much for empathy and Christian values."
Politics and Religion
Arts and Entertainment Relief From Trump
Nov. 8, 2019
My comment to the New York Times review of "A Warning" by Anonymous was a "Times Pick."
As one of the duty to warn therapists who has been writing for three years about Trump’s being a dangerous malignant narcissist who made decisions on impulse often based on no information or misinformation and on paranoia I hadn’t known how people described in the book as the “steady state” or “the adults in the room” tried desperately to thwart his worst impulsive decisions. I knew it was bad; however until learning about these excerpts I hadn’t realized just how badly bad it was. Psychiatric diagnosis aside, many of the excerpts are consistent with what we know from observation about Trump’s behavior as demonstrated by his decisions, actions, tweets, and behavior at his rallies and in front of reporters. The author doesn’t venture a psychiatric assessment. He or she writes: “I am not qualified to diagnose the president’s mental acuity. All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity. Those who would claim otherwise are lying to themselves or to the country.” In 2018 reportedly "Fire and Fury" describing similar things, the Baby Balloon, and the Mario mushroom genital comparison in Stormy Daniel's book sent him into a rage spiral. I can imagine what this will do.
Below: Still trying to make a tweet that will trend:
Nov. 7, 2019
Nov. 6, 2019
My friend since we were toddlers and my neighbor, best-selling author Gay Courter lives in this now infamous Florida county. I made this for her. She wrote about it on her Facebook page and I made this photoshop for her and also tweeted it. Here's the MSNBC video about the story.
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Citrus County commissioners unanimously denied a request from their local library to spend $2,700 annually on digital subscriptions to the New York Times, because the paper is “fake news” and they “agree with Donald Trump.”
During an Oct. 24 discussion, all five members of the commission agreed to reject the funding request, which, coincidentally, was also the same day the Trump Administration announced that it was canceling federal agencies’ subscriptions to the Times and the Washington Post.
“Do we really need to subscribe to the New York Times?” asked Commissioner Ron Kitchen Jr., while the others laughed. “I actually was going to say that,” said Scott Carnahan, who added, “Fake news, I agree with President Trump.” Orlando Weekly
Over 1,200 people saw this tweet, a record for me.
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If TRUMP actually read books he could say this. I doubt he even knows who or what Harry Potter is, a hairy potter perhaps?
Banned at The White House:
Democrats’ claim of victory Tuesday in Kentucky’s gubernatorial race, as well as the Democratic takeover of the Virginia state legislature, left Republicans stumbling and increasingly uncertain about their own political fates next year tied to an embattled and unpopular president.
Many allies of President Trump rushed to explain away the poor performance of incumbent Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) as an anomaly, while other GOP veterans expressed alarm about the party’s failure in a state where Trump won by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016 — and where he just campaigned this week.
Although Bevin was controversial and widely disliked, he was also a devotee of the president, embracing Trump’s agenda and his anti-establishment persona. And in the contest’s final days, Bevin sought to cast his candidacy as a bulwark against House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry of Trump.
But Bevin’s attempt to nationalize his cause by stoking conservative grievances about the impeachment process was not enough to overcome his problems nor was Trump’s raucous rally for the governor on Monday — raising questions about Trump’s political strength as he faces a barrage of challenges and a difficult path to reelection.
Nov. 5, 2019
She's no lady, she's Trump's wife department:
Published 9 PM EST
on
November 5, 2019
I'll leave it to our friends in the fake news media to read the transcripts and tell me what is the most important, for example among the revelations: Sondland significantly altered his original story in an update to his testimony submitted Monday, in which he acknowledged he was involved in Trump’s attempted quid pro quo with Ukraine’s government, after previously claiming he could not recall the details. Volker told House investigators that he was not “fully in the loop” about the call. However, subsequently released text messages revealed he was much more involved than he let on.
From The NY Times:
A critical witness in the impeachment inquiry offered Congress substantial new testimony this week, revealing that he told a top Ukrainian official that the country likely would not receive American military aid unless it publicly committed to investigations President Trump wanted.
The disclosure from Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, in four new pages of sworn testimony released on Tuesday, confirmed his involvement in essentially laying out a quid pro quo to Ukraine that he had previously not acknowledged.
The testimony offered several major new details beyond the account he gave the inquiry in a 10-hour interview last month. Mr. Sondland provided a more robust description of his own role in alerting the Ukrainians that they needed to go along with investigative requests being demanded by the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. By early September, Mr. Sondland said, he had become convinced that military aid and a White House meeting were conditioned on Ukraine committing to those investigations.
Nov. 4, 2019
My tweet comment to Trump:
Nobody knows what, if anything, can push Trump over the edge (so to speak) and lead to a psychiatric decompensation so blatant that it would manifest in ways that only one of his most brainwashed supporters (or those who are actually delusional themselves) can deny he is unfit not only to be president but to take out the laundry. Talking gibberish? — He’s already close to that so it would really have to utter incomprehensible word salad.
We can hope each new incident that would sent a normal person into a conniption fit will push him over the precipice into undeniualazble madness.
Could it be this? I do my best making and tweeting him photoshops, but he will never see them.
Nov. 3, 2019
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Halloween Horror:
How many of this kids didn't know why the Halloween Hell they were actually doing this?
Speaking of the generation that may yet save us:
"Freudian manias" in this title "‘Republicans have become a cult run by crooks’: Former GOP congressional staffer explains why the party ‘has become a creepy mashup of grade B totalitarianism’ and ‘Freudian manias’" got my attention:
Republicans have now become seriously deranged, and even more cult-like. Louie Gohmert, once a comical outlier, but now the heart and soul of his party, is invoking civil war as a remedy to the potential impeachment of his beloved Führer. And for sheer cringe-inducing weirdness, nothing matches the GOP’s fixation with abortion once they achieve power, which has now reached an almost unbelievable stage of sick obsession in Missouri. Today’s GOP has become a creepy mashup of grade B totalitarianism and perverted Freudian manias disguised as family values.
Once, I called them an apocalyptic cult, which they were and are. But in those relatively naïve days, even I underestimated their growing appetite for crime, betrayal, and certifiable lunacy.
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Gotta Say Department: Jennifer Rubin what will you title the next OpEd when the GOP comes up with an even sillier defense?
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In a nutshell, or case of nuts:
The latest “strategy” amounts to: “So what if he extorted Ukraine?” No really. The Post reports:
A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo.
In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe.
To put it mildly, this about-face could “complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival.”
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Nov. 2, 2019
Ian Hughes, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork in Ireland. His writing on personality disorders has appeared on Psychology Today and Open Democracy. His successful blog disorderedworld.com focuses on dangerous personality disorders and their consequences.
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Nov. 1, 2019
