Billboard Mentality

The billboard rented in Texas by a guy named Kyle reminds us of the level of emotional drama found in the break-up of a long term romance. After all, the man was passionate enough to pay money to get his urgent message out.

“ABC News: I grew up with you. We are through. The Russians didn’t elect Donald Trump. I did.”

(Sorry, Kyle. You didn’t elect Trump. Even the majority of voters didn’t decide. The electoral college did. And sorry, Kyle. ABC News didn’t say Russians elected Trump, even though you believe the “alternative fact” that they did.)

We appreciate Kyle’s eloquent elaboration in his note  to HuffPost. It’s always a treat to hear a Trumpist explaining his loyalty to Trump. As expected, resentments, baseless accusations, falsehoods and Republican talking points (alright, I’m being redundant.) constitute a YOOOOGE portion of his beliefs.

This is what Kyle had to say, including my commentary:

“ABC News was the only channel I watched as a child growing up in Texas but I think they have lost touch with America and forgotten the working man. (He means "Republican America, aka "real America". Hmm. I wonder who really forgot the working man? Not the guy who opposes minimum wage, opposes unions, and opposes worker safety regulations? Not the guy who wants tax cuts for the rich while de-regulating Wall Street? Not that guy, eh? )

They don’t represent our voice anymore. (So this guy thinks the news media was supposed to represent his voice, loaded with the misinformation, lies and memes of far Right positions? Wherever shall he go for his alternative facts?)

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was funded by the Clinton Foundation in close coordination with the media, (No, and no. Sounds like someone isn’t listening to any news other than just FOX. You know, because FOX “represents our voices”, meaning the Republican Party.)

..and now we’re seeing them try to fix what they couldn’t fix during the election. They are doing everything they can, night after night, to create narratives and sway people’s direction to impeach Donald Trump. (Darn ABC for reporting those darn non-alternative-facts again. Trump tried to shut down the investigation that began with Trump loyalists getting caught telling lies about contacts with Russians. And then Trump contradicted intelligence agencies who reported Putin actively attempted to aid Trump. I wonder why? “Alternative facts” from FOX and Trump are all he needs.)

Our democracy is at stake when a major political party and the media are in bed together.(And this brilliant doofus isn’t talking about FOX(R), which would make his point quite nicely. What kind of democracy is he talking about? Not the one where the candidate with the most votes wins, obviously. )

I’m not asking anyone to boycott the Democratic Party. (He gets a point here, for not regurgitating the fictitious “Democrat Party. Well done, Kyle!)

I’m not in the brainwashing business, but the liberal media is.” (Right. Except that the term “liberal media” is a far right/Republican/ Trump brainwashing meme intended to get the cult to believe only them. But don’t expect to learn this from the corporatist ratings whores at ABC.)

“This was not an easy decision. For 35 years I have watched how their agenda has changed. (What agenda was that , Kyle? Representing your voice, or reporting the news? Not an easy decision? You bought into the Right's propaganda and agenda long ago, Kyle.)

This didn’t just start with Donald Trump, I watched them systematically destroy George Bush and hand us Barack Obama on a silver platter.” (Kyle seems blissfully ignorant of Bush's bloody and unpopular war based on lies, that ultimately spawned ISIS. This is obviously entirely the fault of the "liberal media". Kyle also seems blissfully unaware of the financial collapse under Ol' Honest George.  Kyle’s been blaming the “liberal media” for a long time, showing us how much he really is a true believer in the C.R.A.P. (Cult of Right-wing Authoritarian Personalities).

“I grew up in America where we were not afraid to say who we are and what we stand for, as witnessed by my billboard,” (That’s right. Especially now in Trump America. Kyle is not afraid to say who he is and what he stands for. He is a low-information, far Right, true believer of C.R.A.P., and he's an ideologue who stands for the most malevolent liar, greatest narcissist, and least informed authoritarian ever to sit in the Oval Office.)

“I’m considering starting a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to buy up vacant billboards for various Trump supporters who otherwise couldn’t afford it to make their voices known,” he told HuffPost by email. (“Trump supporters who otherwise couldn’t afford it” will be even less able to afford it soon enough. They will be the ones losing out on health care and public services so the rich can get tax cuts. But that's OK. You're never too poor to buy the C.R.A.P.)

So apart from these minor details, Kyle has it all figured out.

Heirs

Another Muslim is murdered in Republikanistan... and of course the crime is ignored by the Right.

And in the Georgia special election, repugnant Republicans are demonizing and blaming liberals for the baseball shooting.

The Washington Post reports one particularly hateful ad on FOX.

-- One conservative outside group, Principled PAC, is even trying to link Ossoff with the shooting in a particularly foul commercial that is airing today on Fox News. A narrator claims, without citing any evidence, that “the unhinged left is endorsing and applauding shooting Republicans.” Over grainy footage of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) being wheeled in a stretcher to an ambulance, a narrator says: “When will it stop? It won’t if Jon Ossoff wins on Tuesday, because the same unhinged leftists cheering last week’s shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff. And if he wins, they win.” The ad, backed up by a five-figure buy, concludes by urging people to vote for Handel: “Stop them. Stop them now.”

This is who they are, people. This is con-servatism.

Goebbels would be proud of his neo-fascist heirs. Just replace "leftists" with "Jews" to see their source of inspiration.

The con-servative Right is fueling hate and tearing our country apart... and blaming liberals... of course. It is what they do and who they are.

Global Village Idiots Or "How To Think Like A Con-servative"

For years con-servatives have made quite a wild, scattered and crazy case for denying and muddying the climate change issue.

For the longest time they declared climate change was “not happening” and “not settled science”, and my favorite, “just a theory”.

I suppose the theory of gravity is also debatable. Unlike the sun, I have never seen gravity. I will therefore debate its existence. It cannot be settled science if I can't see it. That just makes common sense to me.

When cornered by facts supporting actual climate change, they then insisted “climate change is always happening”. Or not, because we have winter storms and it snows in Antarctica.

They like to suggest global warming is caused by sunspots, moonbeams, "liberal thermometers", all sorts of wacked out debris of detached discourse. 

Although the same silly science tells me CO2 is heavier than air. And it doesn't come from the sun, it turns out.

Here is what else I know. Thanks to peer reviewed science.

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades is nearly double that of the last century.  CO2 levels have gone up drastically. Average temperatures have risen. 

Coral reefs are bleaching. Permafrost is thawing (releasing methane and more greenhouse gasses).  Plant species are migrating north. Glaciers have disappeared and shrunk. Arctic Sea ice is vanishing, state-sized ice flows are separating from Antarctica,...you know, observable reality.

There is a certain political party, and certain corporate interests, that don't want us to know these facts. In fact, their political mission is to deny, demean, distract, deflect and deceive on the issue of climate change. 

Could this all be in the name of political power, and profit over people, profit over planet and profit Uber Alles?

Could it have something to do with their not wanting to slow the upward distribution of wealth to the already wealthiest persons and entities on the planet? Can't be having that. Not in America, anyway.

The fossil-fueled, corporate-funded denial industry has duped so many Americans that we are the leading nation in the world in climate change denial. USA! USA! We're number One!

We are the global village idiots who pulled out of the Paris Accords. It's almost like we are puppets of Putin's puppet.

Putin or not, we are under the corrupt rule of the Cult of the Right-wing Authoritarian Personalities. (C.R.A.P.) Bad things happen when they run the show. Last time they were in charge they collapsed the economy and started a war that spawned ISIS.

But, hey. “Priorities”. “Values”. 

These are the lessons I have learned in studying “How To Think Like A Con-servative”.

First we demean “loonie liberals”, accuse them of hating America and having no values. Then we blame them for anything we don’t like, and accuse them of causing everything bad.

Then we undermine climate science by framing researchers as a Global Conspiracy of Evil Climate Scientists. (Unlike oil corporations, they will LIE just to get more money! Grrr. That makes me very angry.)

Then we crank up the hate and demonize journalism as the enemy of the people, just to level the playing field. A Republican grabbing a reporter named Jacobs by the neck and throwing him to the ground was something to be cheered and joked about.

Just a few samples of far Right civility and basic human decency:

Rush called Jacobs “a pajama boy journalist” who was “insolent … disrespectful … whiny and moany.”

CNN correspondent Kyung Lah went to a polling place to interview voters and reported that nearly everyone she talked with said they weren’t changing their vote:

She tweeted: MT GOP voter, upon learning we're from @CNN: "You're lucky someone doesn't pop one of you."

And:

"That audio made me cheer." A woman told CNN as she smiled and walked in to vote for Gianforte.

Fox contributor: Rachel Campos-Duffy: This guy was not a reporter looking for a fair story. He was obviously doing a take down on him. And this guy got his back up -- he got a little bit of Montana Justice.

Rob O'Neill: I am from Montana. The guy he is running against is all about the environment and all of this stuff all of a sudden. What happened there in Montana, apparently the snowflake reporter invaded Gianforte's safe space. We have a saying up there, "you mess around, you mess around, you might not be around...granted I'm not condoning the body slam. I think it's kind of funny based on my history. “

Dana Loesch: First off, you can believe two things simultaneously. That Gianforte behaved wrongly. You can believe that, But you can also, Tucker, believe that the media in some respects is culpable. The violent progressive left is in some respects, culpable... . I had so many people who called in to my radio program today, Tucker, who said you know what? Maybe the media deserves it.

The Con-servative Sinclair Broadcasting Montana NBC Affiliate reportedly refused to cover the Gianforte story.

A Texas Tribune reporter snapped a photo of Republican Governor Abbott showing off his target sheet on Friday, after which the governor “jokingly” pointed to the bullet holes and said, “I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” according to reporter Patrick Svitek.

Are we clear where we stand here, my fellow Real Americans? 

We’re on to a great formula for success here! All we have to do is believe we are right. 

The secret to how to think like a con-servative is this: 

Believe the C.R.A.P. 

Believe Republicans and Breitbart, and believe FOX and Limbaugh. Believe anything and anyone that tells us to hate and blame liberals, to distrust and resent minorities, to demonize journalism, public education, and politically incorrect science. It's so simple. Just believe; no need to think.

Now let's deregulate polluters, and let Wall Street do as it pleases. Let’s gut public education. Corporate schools and FOX will make sure is our children learning.

Let’s cut taxes for the rich and let their brats inherit billions tax free. (Here’s looking at you Ivanka, Eric and Don Jr. We know you deserve every dime.) 

It’s high time to slash corporate tax rates, eliminate minimum wages, destroy unions, privatize infrastructure, privatize prisons, privatize national parks, privatize Social Security, cut Medicare and food stamps for the poor, let them drink lead... 

And before you know it, America will be great again. 

Yee haw!

Who's Laughing Now?

The Great American Tragedy proclaimed:

"At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won't be. They won't be. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." 

Hmm...Seems Pittsburgh feels differently.

Mayor Peduto said, "The city of Pittsburgh voted for Hillary Clinton with nearly 80% of the vote". 

80%. Musta been all those illegals voting for Hillary, no doubt.

This is from Australia's The Age.

Something tells me they’re not laughing at “us” at all.

This Is Your Brain On Con-servatism

Montana Republican House candidate Greg Gianforte is a thug.

The authoritarian Republican thug was annoyed by the questions from a journalist, and apparently grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground.

The extreme Right’s war on journalism is getting violent. Let's be clear. Journalism-hating thugs with a political agenda are fascists.

An editorial in the Helena Independent Record described the paper as “sick and tired of Gianforte’s incessant attacks on the free press.”

“In the past, he has encouraged his supporters to boycott certain newspapers, singled out a reporter in a room to point out that he was outnumbered, and even made a joke out of the notion of choking a news writer, and these are not things we can continue to brush off,” the paper’s editorial staff wrote Thursday.

Last month, a voter at a Gianforte town hall pointed out a journalist in the room, called the media “the enemy” and mimed the act of wringing a neck.

Gianforte smiled and pointed at the reporter.

“We have someone right here,” he said, according to the Ravalli Republic. “It seems like there are more of us than there is of him.” 

Fascists are bullies. Fascists body slam journalists. Liberals do not.

The difference is as clear as it is between Trump and Obama. And Obama wasn’t even that liberal.

One is a decent human being. The other is not. One is well-informed and educated. The other is not. One was demonized as a foreign Muslim. The other is our gift from the Republican Party and conservatives.

The ugly monster of “Lügenpresse” has returned. “Lügenpresse” was a Nazi slur shouted at a Trump rally.

Critics of Hitler’s regime were frequently referred to as members of the “Lügenpresse apparatus.”… “Lügenpresse” (lying press) was an important component under propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

And yes, it is reasonable to invoke similarities to Nazis when noting fascist behavior. Look at the open hate at Trump rallies. “Lock her up!” was chanted by the liar and Russian tool Flynn. Kremlin Don has cozied up to Russia and  called American journalism the “enemy of the people”.

The Nazis were defeated. Fascism survives, and Republican fascists are coming out of the woodwork.

Other Republican thugs rallied to Gianforte’s defense.

Trent Franks: “The left has precipitated this tense, confrontational approach…”

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) : “It’s not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it.” 

Brent Bozell: “Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk. I'm not surprised he got smacked.”

This is your brain on American con-servatism folks. This is fascism.

Resist and persist. 

Kremlin Don

We have a tyrant, an ignorant, corrupt, whiny, childish, victim-playing tyrant. 

Our electoral system failed us, but we are lucky to have a legal system that deters him from greater destruction. But will it?

After FIRING James Comey, the man running the investigation of his gang’s Russian contacts, Kremlin Don openly GAVE Russia highly top secret code word information. In the OVAL Office. With RUSSIAN media there. And he insultingly EXCLUDED American journalists. 

Adding further insult to injury, our Asshole in Chief bragged about shaking the investigation by purging "nut case" Comey.

America has fallen, and this is what it looks like.

This story used to be the stuff of Pravda fantasies and Putin’s dreams.

“No puppet! No puppet!”, Kremlin Don assured us.  

Now Putin laughs at the television as he pours drinks for his henchmen. “To our new asset,  Secret Agent Dim Bulb!”

Of course Hillary is still the real villain for having low level classified content on a private server, which wasn’t passed on to foreign governments. 

If Kremlin Don cannot be held legally accountable, then his party must hold him politically, if not morally, accountable. That won't happen soon will it? Not unless something drastic occurs.

It's unlikely by now that the Republicans can make a credible stand for decency, so nothing will happen on their initiative. Maybe when the country is rallying to defeat them at the polls they may finally remove Trump by means of the 25th Amendment.

Anyone who still thinks Secret Agent Dim Bulb is competent and qualified for office is a cultist and utter fool. None of them deserve to run our country or even be allowed to operate a motor vehicle.

We shall see how far they follow their Dear Leader into infamy. Remember, as nasty, infantile, and sociopathic as he is, Republicans and conservatives largely agree with his agenda. (That should tell them something, but it doesn't.)

Pence, a loyal Trumpist with theocratic leanings, cannot be trusted since he parrots many of Dear Leader's lies, and abets the behavior that desecrates our White House. It's not hard to imagine Pence would pardon Kremlin Don and his thugs if given the opportunity. He would be our second worst president at best.

But that's what we may as well expect. Democrats won’t save us. Republicans certainly won’t save, or even serve us. Consequences, rather than accountability, will ensue.

It's going to be a long, long future, kids. Reverberations from this Great American Tragedy may well outlast us all. 

The Purge Continues

Every Dictator loves it. Every authoritarian craves it. They want power, especially power to purge adversaries. Hitler and Stalin industrialized the purging of opposition and undesirables. 

Over here, and now, it has been more refined. 

Republican demonization of educators, liberals, union workers, and journalism, in effect, purges opposition. Their voter suppression is another example of this principle in action. Authoritarians chanting "Lock her up!" is what this desire to purge sounds like.

And here we are, living with Trump and the Republican Party running our government. 

There's nothing quite like the power to not only eliminate people who oppose you, but to remove anyone who may have an undesired inclination to tell or expose the truth.

In Nixon's dark image, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. THAT should put an end to this pesky fake news about Russia, right? (Besides, it served him right for not imprisoning Hillary. This was always the burr in the butt of Trumpists and con-servatives.)

Trump's banana Republican act prompts us to remember and paraphrase the classic Doonesbury take on Nixon:

“It would be a disservice to Mr. Trump and his character to prejudge the man, but everything known to date could lead one to conclude he’s guilty.

That’s GUILTY! Guilty, guilty, guilty!"

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was purged for doing her job, asking questions about Trump's Muslim ban being constitutional. She also had the gall to warn Trump about his crony Flynn being compromised by his dealings with Russia. 

The woman was doing her job. Obviously Yates was the one who had to go.

Now James Comey has been purged. This was to be expected, especially in light of Comey testifying before Congress. You know, doing his job. And worse yet, sworn to tell the truth.

Comey was fired because he wasn't working only for Dear Leader anymore. 

Never mind the fact that Comey gave Trump the best possible October Surprise. That last bit of nothing from an unrelated case tilted enough undecided voters, that even Putin was impressed. Ironically it was Comey's letter that would eventually get Comey purged.

Comey's final treason against Kim Jong Don was working for the American people. He had the nerve to request funding and staffing for the ongoing FBI investigation of Russia's influence on our election and the Trump campaign's collusion with Russians. (Hint: Start with, "Russia, if you're listening..".)

Merely doing one's duty is enough an offense to get one purged in Trumpistan. One pays a price for enraging an authoritarian leader, even for the man who handed him the keys to the White House. 

And what happens next? Trump welcomes Russians with their media into the Oval Office while excluding American journalists. 

Smelling the borscht yet, komrads?

I have to wonder, how soon before law enforcement and government employees are required to swear loyalty oaths?