April 1, 2023

Matt Lewis gives me my quote of the day: No offense to actual pigs but Trump is a belligerent pig

 By Hal Brown

I previously attributed this quote to Tom Boggioni. It was from Matt Lewis in a Daily Beast article and republished in Raw Story+.


By juxtaposing a picture of Ivanka with one of a pig
 I am not comparing her with the actual animal.
The insert applies to the Matt Lewis quote.

Link to article about pigs eating people here.


I like the following description from anti-Trump conservative columnist Matt Lewis which was in a Daily Beast (subscription) article titled "Ivanka Had Plenty of Chances to Break With Daddy Trump—It’s Too Late Now".



 He is quoted by Tom Boggioni in his Raw Story+ (subscription) article this morning (here):

 'Trump’s not such a belligerent pig as his four decades as a public figure would make you think' propaganda push."

Of course it maligns actual pigs. The poor animal, which happens to have the reputation of liking to roll around in excrement filled mud, has entered the lexicon of slang with numerous unflattering meanings. 


As fans of "Deadwood" who are familiar with the character Mr. Wu and wanted to confirm pig's dietary preferences and who looked it up know, they will eat human remains.

The bad reputation of pigs goes back to the Biblical prohibition about eating them and the fact that eating pork isn't kosher. Pigs are featured in Leviticus:

And the pig, because it has a cloven hoof that is completely split, but will not regurgitate its cud; it is unclean for you. You shall not eat of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
Ivanka, it should be noted, converted to Judiasm when she married Jared who is an Orthodox Jew. The couple do keep a kosher household. 

Take the very worst slang definitions of pig and modify them with the word belligerent and it is an apt definition of Donald Trump

Even Trump's ardent fans wouldn't dispute the fact that he's belligerent, in fact the more belligerent the avenger out for retribution gets the more they admire him. 

The MAGA's wouldn't appreciate Matt and me calling him a pig, i.e., that is a repulsive person who also happens to be a glutton. 

Addendum:

Trivia Quiz

How many of these fictional pigs can you identify: 

Update:

This is the No. 1 trending story on Raw Story.




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March 31, 2023

DeSantis on Trump extradiction, it's all about me, me, me, me...

 By Hal Brown

Caricatures by DonkeyHotey

If the reporting is correct Trump will present himself for arraignment  in New York and not hole up at Mar-a-Lago making himself the most famous fugitive since Julian Assange . Notwithstanding this Ron DeSantis, made a play for publicity minutes after the Trump indictment was announced:

Ignoring the antisemitic dog whistle about George Soros, the key words in his tweet are that Florida will not assist in an extradition request

The procedure and process for extradition is spelled out in detail here. It is in the US Constitution:

Extradition Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV Section 2) requires that:

A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

This is how Business Insider addresses what DeSantis tweeted: 

There are two ways that someone can be extradited from Florida to another state. These are described below.

Excerpt from Business Insider:

In the more common method — which DeSantis appeared to refer to — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul would send an extradition demand to the Florida governor. The governor's only role is making sure the demand meets all the legal requirements before ordering the extradition, legal experts told Insider. The demand would have to include a copy of the indictment, proving there's a warrant out for Trump's arrest.

If DeSantis wanted to slow the process he could ask his legal affairs office or a prosecutor to review Hochul's extradition demand and write a report before signing off on it. If the extradition demand is legitimate, however, he'll have to sign it within 60 days, legal experts said. He could also delegate and let another member of the Florida executive branch sign off on Hochul's extradition demand.

In the second extradition method, Manhattan prosecutors could bypass the governors entirely and ask a Florida court to order Trump to show up in New York court.

This Newsweek article also explains why DeSantis couldn't block an extradition request.

I can't imagine Donald Trump doing anything that might make it appear to his supporters that he is in any way, shape, or form accepting a favor from Ron "DeSanticomious". As I write this someone on MSNBC just agreed with me saying that there's no way Trump would want to make DeSantis look like the alpha dog. Jonathan Lemire just called it political theater coming from DeSantis. The MSNBC panel is agreeing that this matter has become a clown show.

None of this matters to DeSantis. He is competing with Kevin McCarthy for headlines:

DeSantis is threatening to do something that won't happen. McCarthy is threatening to do something, absurd as it is, which he can actually do. Still, DeSantis with his rhetorical flourishes has the more buzzy tweet.

Of course nobody's tweets can compete with the often all caps "truths" coming from Trump on his Truth Social platform.  

Unless the judge in Manhattan restricts what he can post or say about his indictment, or his lawyers convince him to put one sock over his fingers and another into his mouth, I expect Trump will continue to rant and rave. 

I predict that this posturing about horrors of Trump's indictment by DeSantis will pass since in his black heart I am certain he wants nothing but a shitload of bad for Trump.

Update: 

"Empty posturing": Experts rip DeSantis' "cheap and performative" threat to block Trump extradition

"It shows a real contempt for the rule of law in this country"

PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2023 1:21PM (EDT)

Addendum:

Watch Rachel Maddox discussing what DeSantis tweeted:

At the end of her show when she did the handoff to Lawrence O'Donnell she invited Stormy Daniels to appear on her show and wished her the best in making money off of this new development..
More:

It seem as if all the pundits predict that DeSantis is biding his time before announcing that he's going to run against Trump. Heather "Digby" Parton is the first person I've read who questions the inevitability of this:

Count me among those who think it's quite likely that instead of harming his chances of winning the Republican nomination, this indictment and any that follow, will almost guarantee it. As we can see by the reaction from the elected officials, it's not just the MAGA hardcore who feel compelled to rush to defend him. This is an organizing tool and a fundraising vehicle for the whole party and it may just vault him to the nomination without much competition. It's even possible that DeSantis might decide not to run after all. Article

---------------------------------------------------

On an only slightly related subject, yesterday I was wondering what the covers of the New York City tabloids would look like this morning. The New York Daily News has had a number of snarky covers featuring Trump so I was hoping to see one today. However they played it straight. It was the Murdoch NY Post which went with a snarky cover.

Click above to enlarge. Old Trump and Stormy cover upper right.

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March 30, 2023

You ain't seen nothin' yet 'til you've seen the J6th Prison Choir video

 By Hal Brown

Above, screen grabs from the first two seconds of the J6 Prison Choir video with a somber musical background.
Click above to enlarge these screen grabs from the J6 Prison Choir video
Watch the entire video, with the last frame shown below, here:
Click above to watch video

Republished on MSN the following is from Snopes. 

The J6 Prisoners Choir is a real group, but they did not perform live at the rally. A recording of the group singing the song was played as screens indeed showed footage of the Jan. 6 capitol attack. Video evidence from the event also showed the former president put his hand over his heart during the presentation, and the audience was asked to rise and place their hands over their hearts as well.

The J6 Prisoners Choir consists of approximately 20 men who are currently incarcerated in Washington, D.C., for crimes associated with the Jan. 6 capitol riots. 

The recording played at the rally was called "Justice for All." It cut between the choir singing the Star-Spangled Banner and Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. At the end of the recording, the men chanted, "USA! USA!" There were no original lyrics in the song, and no explicit references to the insurrection in the song itself. 

The elevation of a choir of talentless imprisoned insurrectionists to national prominence is wack-a-tune (pun intended). 

Now to my review of the video, the short version:

Holy freaking shit!

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Insert:

I wrote the above before using the J6 choir was mocked on Morning Joe. Their reaction pretty much mirrored mine without the expletive.
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The video features clips of supposed prisoners - although it isn't clear whether these are real J6 prisoners which I doubt it is - with lots of clips of Trump's greatest hits, insurrection videos clips, and Trump looking like the ruler of the world. Without any sense of irony there's a video clip of the widely mocked flag hugging.

There is no substitute for actually watching the video which I bet many of you have resisted doing until now. Here's one more opportunity to do so. 

Okay, okay, even though it is less than two and a half minutes out of your life my hunch is most of you won't watch it. Therefore here are a few more images. Note that the video also includes his also ridiculed upside down Bible photo op and a clip of his inauguration crowd.
Click above to enlarge.
Here's Trump bragging about this and praising the choir to Sean Hannity.


Trump supporters' obsession with making Ashli Babbitt an innocent 'martyr' explained by author

Babbitt being shot is featured, albeit very briefly but nobody can miss it, in the J6 Prison Choir video (screen grabs below)




You read it here.

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March 29, 2023

On Fox News former GOP House member was horrified by Trump's Hannity performance

 By Hal Brown

This article (missing my illustration) was in The Hill (read article here): 

Trumpian vengeful word salad: Click image to enlarge.

Above is an article about comments made by a man whose name was familiar to me but I knew nothing about him. 
Click above for Wikipedia profile

It turns out that Chaffetz also made the news for these comments in other media:
Click above to enlarge image

Here's the Salon article.

I thought that it wasn't really worth writing an entire blog about since the media was covering it and I had nothing original to say. 

The real reason thought to write this was that I made the illustration yesterday and tweeted it here:

No other president has been referred to in headlines as often as Trump with words like bizarre and unhinged when describing his words whether in spoken rants or on his Truth Social posts ("truths"). Therapists like me and others note he speaks in word salad.

I wanted to use my illustration again. I hadn't thought of anything else to write about so I figured I use this as my topic for the day, at least unless I later think of something else to use as my primary blog post.

 Here's an excerpt from the article in The Hill:

“I watched that and I thought, ‘Where is Donald Trump?'” Chaffetz said on “Fox and Friends,” adding, “I voted for Donald Trump twice. I have defended him countless times. I thought he was horrific. I think that was the worst interview I’ve seen the president do.”

Chaffetz further criticized Trump for “whining,” “playing the victim card” and complaining that someone he endorsed, like DeSantis, may be running against him in the GOP primary in 2024.

“I thought he was absolutely horrific,” he said. “He’s a former president of the United States. Act like it. He didn’t in that interview.”

This depiction of Chaffetz came to mind:

There's really nothing much more to write. In fact this drawing should say it all, but on the off chance that someone doesn't get it, my reaction is "in what world has this guy been living?" He's horrified by Trump now!
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Related
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Addendum
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On a somewhat related matter, yesterday I wrote about how Sean Hannty scored a coup over Tucker Carlson by snagging this interview with Trump. Meanwhile over at the nothing-of-a station Newsmax, Greta VanSusteren managed to get, wait for it... Mike Pence... beating out Sean Spicer who is the only really well known of the hosts at the station. Even so, her interview also made the national news.
Click above for link



You read it here.

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March 28, 2023

Sean Hannity scores bigly against Tucker Carlson getting interview of rabid Trump

 Trump is a foxy rabid fox appearing as it happens on a phony news network called Fox.

Trump wasn't in rant mode. He was decidedly subdued. But consider this from WikiHow about animals who have rabies and whose bite can kill you:


Beware if an animal seems overly friendly.
 While infected animals may appear aggressive or anxious, others show signs of being friendly. Ultimately, friendliness in infected animals is one of the biggest dangers to humans or other uninfected animals, as contact with an infected animal can lead to infection.

  • Stay away from stray or feral animals that seem friendly. A friendly animal can turn aggressive very quickly, especially if they are infected with rabies.
  • Avoid approaching a wild animal because it shows signs that it is friendly.
  • Some infected wild animals may seem unusually calm or even docile.

 By Hal Brown


Trump finally realized that despite his feud with Fox News he needed their audience to spew his venomous lies so he ended up granting the network an hour long interview, if one could call a one-sided exposition of grievances lathered with a generous helping of self-serving lies an interview. You can watch the "interview" here. 

Not only were Hannity's queries the very definition of softball questions but his facial expressions and head nodding showing agreement with everything Trump said were downright lovey-dovey. Not having watched much of Tucker Carlson I would venture to suggest he isn't capable to that kind of sycophancy.


Above, just one of many articles about this, not that there was anything significantly new in this. 
Here's another article:

5 things Donald Trump said in his interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity


Trump didn't make new news in this appearance.I think his allowing  Fox back into his good graces may portend his doing the same with Twitter. If he returns to posting there he'd probably ignore his contract with Truth Social where he agreed to wait six hours before posting anything political on other social media after posting there. After all, what are they going to do, sue him?

This would assure Truth Social went kaput.

What then did I find interesting in this appearance? 

Well, you read my title. 

Trump had two choices about whose show he'd grace with his divine presence and give the show a rating bonanza. 

Ruling out appearing on The Five because it really isn't an interview show, Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters beats out Hannity.

For reasons incompressible to me the caustic lacking in charisma Jesse Watters beats out Hannity. He's not particularly well known outside of the Fox News universe.  However, compared to Carlson and Watters, Hannity is dull.

I figure that if the choice was up to Trump, and I assume it was, it would be between Hannity and Carlson.

I think the reason he chose Hannity is because he considers him to be as close to a friend as Trump is capable of having. Hannity, as these stories show, has had an actual relationship with Trump:


Friendship or not, everything is transactional with Trump when it comes to relationships and who he decides to do favors for.

I have a hunch as to another reason why Trump decided to go on Hannity's show rather than on Tucker's show.

I think it is because of Tucker's massive ego and how he tries to make all of his shows about himself. He could have Jesus Christ himself on the show and try to make it about himself. Hannity for his part, from what I can tell since I only watch clips of both shows on MSNBC, is a better interviewer who knows when to keep his mouth shut.

Addendum:

The beleaguered bastion of blowhard bloviators is bleeding but not dead yet:



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March 27, 2023

Methinks Trump protests too much in "horse face" Stormy WACO rant

 By Hal Brown

Horse Face (link) was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015. I wonder if this comes up on Truth Social when Trump types it. It should.

When I read this part of Trump's speech...

Not a crime. Not an affair. I never liked horse face. Terrible. That would not be the one. There is no one we have a great First Lady.

... I thought this was the quote of the day.

I wasn't the only one:


In fact, looking up the line I found it was highlighted in numerous articles:

Click above to enlarge


Link above

In order to fully appreciate the looseness of Trump's rambling verbiage as he utters the above words you have to hear him say them as they come out of his mouth in a kind of stream of consciousness. Or not... I'd never urge my readers to inflict watching and hearing Trump on themselves, though since most of you are news junkies like me and  watch MSNBC or CNN you've probably heard bits of his WACA speech already. 

Unpacking just the quote of the day about two women not using their actual names, on the face of it is an unfiltered string of words showing a psychological pressure to express something without putting his words together in a sensible way. In psychology this is called pressure of speech (link).

There are certainly better and more believable ways he could have said this. For example, while still denying having had a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels, he could have admitted he met her and said that while he thought she was attractive he would never cheat on his beautiful wife. 

Once again a famous Shakespeare quote applies to Trump:


Of course Trump is no lady, but then again, he's not a gentleman. He's not a queen, but he believes he's a king. 

On the surface what Trump is saying about having such a great wife is that he'd never mess around with another woman is hogwash. Note what he didn't say. He refers to Stormy Daniels' appearance but doesn't refer to Melania as being beautiful.

The serial womanizer and p-grabber wants to make you believe that unlike all the men who have "great" wives who still cheat on them he would never do such a thing. We're supposed to believe this? If he does end up in DA Bragg's court and sticks to this claim does he think a jury is going to believe this? 

Going back to calling Stormy Daniels horse face, it would be just about impossible to find a potential juror who doesn't know about his using this term to refer to her. 

No man, whether he preferred slim brunettes or buxom blonds, would compare Stormy Daniels' face to a horse's. Neither would a woman. Despite posters like this one, last I knew juries were composed of men and women.

Besides, I would wager that the majority of Americans like way horses look. 

Hopalong Cassidy and Topper, Roy Rogers and Trigger, Gene Autry and Champion, Lone Ranger and Silver

Trivia quiz: What was the name of Tonto's horse? Answer here. Double bonus, name the horse Dale Evans rode. Answer here.
Gold star award: Name the horses of the Cisco Kid, Tom Mix, Tex Ritter, Andy Devine, or any of the horses of any charters in old TV shows or movies. List here.


Mercieca* judges that porn star Stormy Daniels has bested Trump over the course of her five-year public battle with him. Daniels refused to be intimidated by Trump’s threats (ad baculum) and shrugged off his lawyer’s attempts at coercion. She didn’t let Trump reduce her to an object (reification) of scorn or hatred. And when she retaliated against him, it was with the artillery of humor, insulting his manhood. “In addition to his...umm...shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women, and lack of self-control on Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny,” Daniels tweeted.
Maybe Daniels should be running against Trump instead of DeSantis.
(The bestiality refers to his calling Stormy horse face.)

*Jennifer Mercieca, whose 2020 book, Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, throws bright light on his dark rhetorical skills.


Addendum: 

Although highly unlikely, I wonder whether Melania will ever see that it is in her best interest to abandon Trump. Married to him she gets to live a lifestyle she no doubt is addicted to, but then again after her husband died Jackie Kennedy did alright. Emotionally I don't believe she or Barron are getting anything resembling love from a man incapable of empathy. She could certainly do better. It remains to be seen whether this enigmatic woman could turn her back on lover boy despite what's in the prenup.


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I posted this blog story on Booksie where this was the only comment. He has made similar comments on some of my other posts there. Troll or not I have at least one regular reader there.
Click above to enlarge image

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