They don't call Donald Trump Twitler for nothing eh? And yesterday the deranged demagogue's tiny fingers were busy trying to live up to that reputation. By first pecking out this proclamation.
In the manner of Big Brother. Before proceeding to ignore his own advice, and attack Saturday Night Live...
I watched the bloated fascist's victory speech, I heard his pathetic plea for unity. Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me. And I almost died. Laughing. The Great Divider now posing as the Great Uniter? When there can be no unity or reconciliation with a fascist predator, only mass resistance.
Well I have to admit that I never thought Americans would be so crazy to vote to bring down their own country. Or that so many were so dumb to believe any of Donald Trump's promises...
But I guess they were, and now they've got what they wanted.
When I last left Donald Trump he was crowing about making America great again, while seeming to take his orders from Vladimir Putin. But somehow still managing to enjoy a slim lead over Hillary Clinton. But what a difference a week makes. For now I'm in Edinburgh attending the world's largest art festival.
And he might as well be one of it's more than 3,000 acts.
The last thing I wanted to do was write about the violent horror show that is Crazy America. Because I was so traumatized by the Orlando massacre, I've had trouble writing about ANYTHING. But with two more black men being shot dead, for nothing. And after this latest explosion of violence. I feel I need to force myself to say something.
Donald Trump has claimed that he could shoot a person in the middle of a crowded street and his supporters would still vote for him. And despite that statement it seems he's right. But what also seems obvious is that with every passing day he is becoming even more of a dangerous demagogue. And what happened when a demonstrator held up an anti-Trump sign at one of his recent rallies couldn't be a clearer warning.
I haven't written a post about Sarah Palin, the redneck from Wasilla, for about eight years. Back when the one they called The Barracuda was running for Vice President of the United States. Back in the days when people were taking her candidacy seriously. And even Maureen Dowd was calling her My Fair Veep.
It's been a living nightmare. The dirtiest election I've ever seen. An election corrupted by Big Money, two billion dollars worth of attack ads, and more Big Lies than you can count. A frightening spectacle of a country so bitterly divided, it's eating itself alive.
Holy prayerpalooza Batman !!! I see that brother Rick Perry, the Governator of Texas, did gather his flock around him and pray for the salvation of these United States.
Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.”
And no doubt for his slim chances of becoming God's bubbah in the White House. After they kick the black Mooslim out. Or lynch him.
While his screeching wingnuts raised their arms to the sky, and prayed for the destruction of their many enemies. Especially the wicked women of the world, all other false religions, and of course, Satan's little gay helpers...
But then why should we be surprised eh? With this hellish line-up of religious extremists and bigots.
Homosexuality is kind of Engle's core issue: He helped organize a huge rally in support of California's Proposition 8, which affirmed that marriage was between one man and one woman. He called gay marriage "a sexual insanity" that would "release a spirit" in California "more demonic than Islam."
Most recently, Engle has been in the hot seat again for saying that the Joplin, Missouri tornado was the beginning of "God's redemptive judgment" against abortion.
Gawd. I mean Jebeebebus. The good news? The stadium was half empty. And it might have been billed as a Day of Prayer and Fasting.
Because can you IMAGINE what might have happened if it wasn't? In Amerika? Praise the Lord, and pass the cheeseburgers !!!!!
And my absolutely fave part? The wingnuts from the International House of Prayer (IHOP) are apparently embroiled in an ugly legal dispute with The International House of Pancakes.
(In case you're wondering, yes, the International House of Pancakes did sue IHOP-KC for trademark dilution and infringement last September. The case was settled out of court in December. Correction: The trademark infringement lawsuit filed in California has been dropped; a new suit against International House of Prayer was filed in the U.S. District Court in Western Missouri and is ongoing.)
Because somehow that seems so fitting.
You know...people keep telling me that America isn't collapsing under the weight of bad economics and crazy religion.
Well I see the ghastly game is finally over, and many progressives are accusing Obama of caving in to the fanatical teabaggers. Settling for a Satan Sandwich.
Now I love Orwell. And after reading Krugman's column I'm seriously considering stocking up on food, water, and video games to prepare for the darkness ahead.
I understand their disappointment. It's not easy to see The Great Black Hope Captain America looking so diminished...
But here's the thing eh? Obama had no choice but to give in to the teabaggers on the question of spending cuts and taxing the rich. He couldn't play Russian roulette with the global economy. But he hasn't lost yet.
When the time comes to decide what to cut, and more Americans realize that the pound of flesh they were screaming for is being carved out of their buttocks, Obama can make his case for raising taxes by asking the American people to decide between Mary in her wheelchair, or her hospital bed, and Bernie in his corporate jet.
Politics is the art of the possible. Timing is everything. And the teabaggers just made his job easier by sticking it to the Republican hawks.
So I wouldn't be too hard on Obama eh? Because those progressives who call him a Republican are underestimating him. And those who would abandon him are living in a fantasy world.
I am not blind to Obama's shortcomings, or to the group of Democratic Senators beholden to corporate America...
But those people are not our problem right now. The real issue is simple: you can not negotiate with sociopaths. All you can do is minimize the damage before you vote them out of office.
Angry at Obama? Fine. Glowing with the white hot hatred of a thousand suns at what the GOP is doing to our country?
No?
Then you're part of the problem.
The good news? This was only one battle, and the only thing that counts is who wins The War.
The teabaggers have shown their ugly face, and are sure to further divide their party
Boehner got boned. Obama lives to fight again.
It may be a Satan Sandwich, with a sideorder of "Satan Fries" as la Pelosi said. But in the end the RepubliCons will EAT IT.
And best of all, Stephen Harper's Cons and Rob Ford's gang will now more easily be seen by even the dumbest Canadians as Canada's very own teabaggers.
The Canadian chapter of the tax cut fairies...
And hopefully one day be driven swatted from power, by the power of almighty reason.
It's a scary and surrealistic spectacle. The most powerful nation on earth being held hostage by a group of fanatical teabaggers, who are dragging the President, the country, and the global economy towards the abyss. And acting like the Taliban.
"We now have a group of US politicians seeking political purity, who seem to have much in common with the Taliban. They are Tea Party members; and because of blind adherence to smaller government, they seem intent on risking destroying what American political leaders have constructed in more than two centuries of hard, often painful work..."
And the scariest thing is when you read the latest so-called compromise.
Officials close to the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both Republican and Democratic sides were now discussing a plan to raise the debt limit by about $2.4 trillion, as well as enact slightly larger cuts in spending, to be carried over two stages.
It's pretty clear that the Teabagger Taliban are winning. And that Obama has surrendered to the tyranny of simple solutions, and political expediency. Agreed to savage cuts that will hurt the poor and the elderly. And failed to make the argument that taxation is the foundation of a civilized society. And that the rich can and should pay more taxes.
The world is watching in fearful —and sometimes gleeful — fascination as the Tea Party drives a Thunderbird off the cliff with the president and speaker of the House strapped in the back. The Dow is hiding under the bed with a glass of single malt. Can it get more excruciating? Apple has more cash than the U.S. government.
Because that's so true you could die laughing. And this needs to be said:
Democratic lawmakers worry that the Tea Party freshmen have already “neutered” the president, as one told me. They fret that Obama is an inept negotiator. They worry that he should have been out in the country selling a concrete plan, rather than once more kowtowing to Republicans and, as with the stimulus plan, health care and Libya, leading from behind.
As one Democratic senator complained: “The president veers between talking like a peevish professor and a scolding parent.” (Not to mention a jilted lover.) Another moaned: “We are watching him turn into Jimmy Carter right before our eyes.”
Now I don't want to be too harsh on Obama because nobody can reason with fanatics who take their instructions directly from their God.
“Where’s the chapel?” Rep. Tim Scott (S.C.) asked as he emerged from an arm-twisting session with Majority Leader Eric Cantor Thursday night. The freshman lawmaker explained that he wanted to “go to the divine source.
”As it happens, the Lord gave Scott the wisdom to oppose Boehner. “I think divine inspiration already happened,” Scott said. “I was a ‘lean no’ and now I’m a ‘no.’ ” And he’s not much worried about default, saying: “I hope the Lord blesses our nation in a way that is measurable.”
And Obama must surely know that these Teabagger Taliban also believe that they have a divine mission to destroy the first black President, by whatever means necessary.
Which is why I find this blast from the past so chilling.
Mix rabid ideology, crazy religion, guns, a weak President, a decaying empire, a naked class war, and you have all the elements for a real disaster.
So how bad will this movie get?
Gawd. I don't know eh?
But at least as bad as this one...
But one way or the other be very afraid.
Because the Teabagger Taliban are torching America. The craziness is out of control.
A few months ago I wrote a post about an amusement park in New Orleans that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and then abandoned.
And I said it made me think about America. After the dream died.
Then a reader wrote to me and said he found the example of Detroit far more distressing, because it wasn't ruined by a flood, or a hurricane, or any other natural disaster.
Cumulatively, the photographs are a powerful and disturbing testament to the glory and the destructive cost of American capitalism: the centre of a once-thriving metropolis in the most powerful nation on earth has become a ghost town of decaying buildings and streets.
"A place where the boundaries between the American dream and the American nightmare, between prosperity and poverty, between the permanent and the ephemeral are powerfully and painfully visible."
A city destroyed not by natural disaster, but by greed, racism, and an economic system that values profits over people.
But here's the thing eh? In a society so corrupted it accepts this as normal.
Where the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer, and the suburbs decide the fate of the inner city...like they now do in Toronto.
Detroit may be the first ruined post industrial city in North America.
Imagine you were a female sailor or a gay one, and you were setting out for a mission on this U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.
When the second in command comes on the blower, and says welcome to my sex show.
Honors is shown cursing along with other members of his staff in an attempt to demonstrate humor, according to videos. There are also anti-gay slurs, simulated sex acts, and what appear to be two female sailors in a shower together.
And now he's the CAPTAIN?
As one of the officers on the U.S.S. Enterprise was quoted as saying:
"When the ship pulls away from that pier, he's it.To me, that's scary."
On a ship with enough firepower to turn any country into a smoking ruin.
And they said gay sailors would disgrace the Navy?
Oh boy. I always knew that homophobia was a disgusting and dangerous heterosexual disease.
The WikiLeaks Twitter account (@WikiLeaks) took a while to respond to the outage, but finally spoke up, stating "WikiLeaks,org domain killed by US everydns.net after claimed mass attacks."
They say British police are going to arrest Julian Assange later today. For the crime of not wearing a condom.
Golly. And Interpol put out a RED ALERT. Somebody must really hate him.
The actually-existing structure and strategy of the American empire remains a near-total mystery to those who foot the bill and whose children fight its wars. And that is the way the elite of America's unelected permanent state, perhaps the most powerful class of people on Earth, like it.
Some folks ask, "Who elected Julian Assange?" The answer is nobody did, which is, ironically, why WikiLeaks is able to improve the quality of our democracy. Of course, those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can't.
Yup. That's why it's a war. That's why the Empire is striking back. And that's why I agree with Digby.
My personal feeling is that any allegedly democratic government that is so hubristic that it will lie blatantly to the entire world in order to invade a country it has long wanted to invade probably needs a self-correcting mechanism. There are times when it's necessary that the powerful be shown that there are checks on its behavior, particularly when the systems normally designed to do that are breaking down. Now is one of those times.
They had it coming.
And besides, I've learned more in three days about what's really happening in this dangerous world, than I've learned in three years of reading or watching the MSM.
Gawd. Don't they know that the truth will set us free? The useful idiots.
The bad news? I'm afraid those who would keep us in the darkness of ignorance may use the Wikileaks furor as an excuse, to go after the internet.
To attempt to take a site like WikiLeaks down is to engage in a pointless game of whack-a-mole; no matter how many times you shut the site down, it will always pop up again elsewhere. And yet, WikiLeaks and sites like it do have another point of vulnerability, one that is increasingly being targeted by governments: their web addresses or urls.
The good news? We have been WARNED. So hopefully we won't let them take our freedoms away.
The even better news? Wikileaks is still alive. Somewhere.
The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.
For the first time in American history, then, social mobility has been replaced with class struggle. Europeans have always been mystified that poor people in this country don't rise up and throw potatoes at Donald Trump – instead, they make him a reality TV star. But that's because everyone here us sure they are going to be rich like him someday, too. Maybe tomorrow.
Which like Elvis, has left the building.
If the news outlets were actually reporting, they would tell us the honest and awful truth: the United States is a post-industrial empire in decline, like England or Belgium or worse (is there worse?). There is no next. We are at next.
These uninformed lost souls vehemently shout for "small government" and "less government handouts," but ask them if they'd like to lose their Social Security and Medicare and they smile and say, "Oh no, that stuff I like!" They don't know what the hell they want, yet that hasn't stopped them from being really, really angry anyway.
They're still looking for it.
In the 1950s...
So they're bound to be disappointed.
And the day they realize that they've been manipulated by the REAL elites.
Will be the day the second American revolution starts.
I could say a lot about last night's teabagger tidal wave, about the madness and the racism.
But right now all I want to say is that this right-wing freak is the new governor of Florida.
Despite his sordid background.
Scott's victory came despite relentless attacks from Sink over massive fraud at the hospital chain Scott founded, which led to his ouster and the company's payment of a record $1.7 billion fine. His supporters overlooked that history, accepting Scott's promise that he was guilty of no wrongdoing other than his failure to hire more auditors.
Scott was ousted by Columbia/HCA's board in 1997, days after FBI agents served warrants to search company facilities in six states and federal officials warned executives could face criminal charges.
You know...the guy who financed these ads...
And as if that wasn't bad enough, in Louisiana David Vitter was re-elected to another term in the Senate.
Despite his sordid record...
A Senator who paid hookers to dress him up in diapers, while attacking gay people in the name of "family values" is re-elected.
Oh boy. What more can you say eh?
Except that Stephen Harper and his foul Cons are Canada's teabaggers.
Harper wants to kill medicare more than he wants to do ANYTHING.
Obama was too soft on these evil reactionaries, and we cannot afford to make the same mistake.
They say it’s time to sell off and privatize schools, hospitals and public services. We should say there are some important things best done together – like good public education for our kids and good health care no matter how big your wallet is.
The United States is a corrupt and dying nation, Canada must LIVE.
Sometimes when I look at what's going on in the United States these days it looks like a klown show. And I howl with laughter.
I mean really? A deranged radio talk show host, with a history of substance abuse, who believes the black President is a racist, takes over a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, declares himself the reincarnation of Martin Luther King Jr, and pleads for a religious rebirth?
While the crass redneck Sarah Palin tells the crowd of white and crazy-looking tea baggers, they have been called to restore the honour of America. And screeches "Look around. You're not alone. You are Americans !!!"
But then I remember that almost twenty per cent of those Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim. The Great Black Hope is on the ropes. The economy is sagging...like the Hindenburg.
I'm reminded of those who are pulling the strings of this "grass roots" movement.
There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer.
The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might.
And I fear for America and I fear for us. Because the same forces that are trying to turn that country into a jungle are at work in ours.
Which is why when I look at the Glenn Beck klown show I'm with this guy.
Beware the Anti-King, a howling wolf that shreds truth like so much floss on a werewolf's fang. And do repent. For the end is near.
Because when you add it all up this is what it says eh?
The United States is imploding. The madness is growing. Just like it is here.
Caramba. I have to say I saw this one coming. When one of the WTOP anchors joked that pundits were floating the crazy idea of the immigration-fixated Dobbs running for president, he shot back: "What's so crazy about that?" — and disclosed that he's talking to advisers to suss out his political options. Because as I watched this ridiculous old racist blame Hispanics for just about EVERYTHING...from leprosy to acid rain... I couldn't help but notice that his ego was growing bigger than a Mexican sombrero...or a Jesus in a tortilla.
And that the chi hua hua on his shoulder was looking ever more menacing.
But Viva Dobbs eh?
What with Dobby and Sarah Palin and the Teabagger Party candidate all running after the right-wing vote, the Republicans will be lucky if in the next election they end up in sixth place.
After Ralph Nader.
So I just want to say...Lou....you are not just the American Messiah. Halle-LOU-jah!!! And the voice of Amerikan independent idiot voters.
You are my cucaracha mariachi Presidente. So let the campaign fiesta BEGIN !!!!
As you know I believe that we are witnessing nothing less than the Collapse of the American Empire. So the racism, the hysteria, the death threats, and the screeching insanity don't really surprise me. I mean how would you expect it to end eh? But who knew that those ridiculous old white rednecks known as teabaggers would make a movie? About THEMSELVES...
And confuse freedom with FASCISM. And patriotism with parody. Golly. I always KNEW that fascism would come to Amerika, in the shape of an ignorant rabble waving crosses, and talking in tongues. But I thought they'd be dressed in black and wearing Nazi helmets.
Instead of being dressed like bellboys at a swanky hotel, with funny pirate hats.
AAAAAARGH !!!! Oh well. They're clearly insane, and since they're probably armed they should be considered dangerous. I just hope that Obammy is building lots of concentration maroon camps and insane asylums. Because as Amerika continues to crumble. I'm pretty sure he's going to need them...
