A Short Honeymoon

It was a historic fling; albeit short. I showed up as the appetizers were being trotted out. John King’s CNN big board tracking Alabama’s senatorial election was all knotted up; 0 - 0.  That wasn’t stopping the exit poll analyses by a multitude of pundits. It looked great at the beginning with Doug Jones jumping out in front of Roy Moore. There was the small detail that only a couple thousand votes had been counted but I was screaming at the T.V., “Call the fucking thing now.”

And then Moore took a lead that grew into the mid-twenty thousands; “Ugh.”  And then the urban votes started coming in and Moore’s lead shrank - and shrank - and shrank. Dead even. And by God there was Jones; he’d rounded the final turn and heading into the homestretch he was in the lead - and pulling away. Finally Wolf Blitzer called it for Jones. “Yes, yes, yes!!!,” I screamed at the TV. The only reason I wasn’t jumping was the cast on my leg. It’s three days later and I have a post-election hangover. Back to reality.

Pontius McConnell (or pin it on the people)

“I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it.”

                                                                                                                        ~ Pontius Pilate

The Republicans want to have their cake and eat it too. It was about a month ago that accusations started surfacing that Judge Roy Moore, the GOP candidate for an open Senate seat in Alabama, had a hankerin’ sometime back for teenage girls. I suppose that’s alright if you’re a teenage boy. Problem was he was allegedly trolling for youngsters when he was in his thirties. Dirty business.

Pilate - The original McConnell

When the allegations surfaced some prominent Republicans howled in outrage that Moore "should remove himself from the race and the RNC pulled it’s support. As for Trump, he kept mum on the whole thing. After all you can’t condemn sexual predation when you’ve been caught bragging about your own predatory behavior.  As for Moore, he not only stood his ground but has been downright defiant about the whole affair.

Now we’re four days from the election and the tone has been changing.  Some prominent Republicans and the RNC are falling in line behind Moore because it’s apparently better to keep your majority than to take the moral high ground.  Gotta keep that agenda alive no matter what it says about your integrity. When it’s all done the Republicans will keep trumpeting themselves as the Christian, family values party because they figure that a few months down the road the electorate will have forgotten all of this and they’ll have moved on to other issues of the day - “but, but her emails.”

What I find particularly onerous (and there’s plenty of indecency all around) is Mitch McConnell’s tactic of setting up a scenario whereby the GOP absolves itself of any dishonor.  Last Sunday on ABC News’ This Week McConnell said, “I’m going to let the people of Alabama make the call.”

What else can you say about this other than it’s a perfect example of the Republican Party’s self-proclaimed association with the teachings of The Bible.  McConnell essentially went to the Pontius Pilate playbook and washed his hands of the issue.

Latter day Pilate?

So now if Moore loses McConnell has an opening to lament that the GOP lost a Senate seat while blathering some hollow bullshit about the prestige of the Senate being kept intact. And if Moore wins then it’s all on the people of Alabama.  

Party On!!

I’d like to say that I’m stunned; but I’m not.  There is no shame anymore and once again I find myself drowning in the disappointment that’s become America. I expected it but hoped against hope that it wouldn’t come to pass. Ethics in this country have been sacrificed to the tribal gods. Morality is now a matter of convenience. Take a moral stance unless morality becomes a liability.

There was actually some measure of initial surprise when the Republican National Committee endorsed and decided to fund Judge Roy Moore’s candidacy. This would be the Roy Moore who has been accused by several women of sexual harassment when they were teens and he was a grown man. The accusations were corroborated by accounts of Moore cruising malls and bothering young women. But I don’t need to go on. If you’re into politics you know what’s what and if you’re not then you’ve already left this blog for a food blog. And about those who’ve left; well if they don’t start paying attention they’re going to wonder what happened to America while they were watching Game of Thrones and worrying about Steph Curry’s ankle.

My surprise over the endorsement comes from the fact that now every Republican candidate has been emblazoned with Roy Moore’s brand. Every candidate from Hawaii to Alaska to Florida is now in some way touched by Moore. I imagine that the hierarchy gathered in their smoke filled room and over a couple of Scotches decided it was a calculated risk.  I suspect that the gamble can be found in the words of Will Rogers, “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” Nine months from now Roy Moore will be as forgotten as last week’s leftover meatloaf.

There was no surprise when Trump endorsed Moore. He does whatever the fuck he wants to and lets the chips fall where they may. Trump’s tactics (and I use that word loosely) are scorched Earth and he will bulldoze anyone who gets in his way. Just ask his very own daughter, Ivanka who, as Moore’s pot came to a boil, said "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I've yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts." And then daddy stepped in and endorsed the predator. I wonder if the Spray and Wash managed to get those bus tracks off her dress.

In the end his backers, the GOP Congress the business interests, the science deniers, the religious right will all fall in line - and he knows it - and they know it.  Oh there will be a few like Jeff Flake and Mitt Romney who won’t toe the party line because they can’t stand to wear the Trump stench. But their political careers are dead. The rest are fighting for their political lives and the favor of their donors.  

The questions to ask of Trump’s congressional and political groupies; his donors and his base are now, “Just how heinous an act does Donald J. Trump have to commit for the GOP Congress to say ‘enough’?” What will constitute rock bottom? Collusion? Treason? Murder? Or nothing at all? Is anything fair now as long as the party in power stays in power?  Do the ends justify the means no matter what those means are?  But haven’t those been the questions for a couple of years now?

Roy Moore might very well win Alabama’s Senate seat. My prediction is that when he does there will be howls of outrage and Mitch McConnell will prattle something about the Ethics Committee and they’ll talk about parliamentary procedure and equivocate for weeks or months or how ever long it takes for something else in the news cycle to make everyone forget about Moore. And then he’ll just be another Republican crackpot in the Senate politicking for the Ten Commandments to be emblazoned on the Supreme Court or for prayer in school or for Merry Christmas to be the official government greeting every December.

Every day brings more of a hopelessness and with it a greater recognition that the tribe has superseded country and basic morality. The whole notion of Republican party over country was made crystal clear the moment the GOP lined up behind Trump, back when the joke of his candidacy started to become the imminence of his election. But let’s not fool ourselves that Republican party over country is a recent phenomenon that was made manifest with the ascendance of a scam artist to the White House.

That the GOP puts party over country is nothing new. It has a sinister and perfidious lineage that goes back to the 1960’s with the John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater and a particularly malignant creep by the name of Paul Weyrich, a conservative activist who helped found the Heritage Society and the Moral Majority. It’s a filthy plague that has been passed forward from crackpot to knave to scoundrel leading to the present day disease that’s infecting America.

Moore will win and the Democrats, who’ve jettisoned Conyers and Franken in order to claim the high ground will say that the Republican Party will have forever forfeited any claim to being the moral party, the family values party and the party of God. It’s something of a political gamble for the Dems.

because it’s highly likely that the Republicans won’t give a good goddamn. Then what?  Well they’ll continue to call themselves the moral party, the family values party and the party of God while they do the bidding of Wall Street, big business, and the wealthy. And America will just party on.

Until the party comes to an end. And with it...America.

~ Posted by Paulie

Taxation Without Representation

In the wee morning hours of Saturday December 2nd, 2017 the nation reenacted Colonial America. We did it without setting aside any of our 21st Century comforts. We did it without putting on tri-cornered hats or waistcoats or powdered wigs. The ladies didn’t need to don stays or petticoats. We didn’t talk in faux British accents and mimic the king’s subjects. We the people weren’t invited to participate. We were dragged there forcibly in the dead of night by a body of 51 individuals who took America back to the days of King George when it was the government’s prerogative to impose taxation without representation.

Mike, Don and Dick

Yesterday was a work at home day and I put CNN on in the background. I had to look up occasionally to make certain I hadn’t accidentally turned on an episode of House of Cards. The big news was that retired general Michael Flynn had pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI. This was the kickoff of the “who is he going to drop a dime on” game. I saw a lot of glee on social media; “Maybe it’s going to be an early Christmas.”

The House Divided

It’s been one year and 18 days since the presidential election of 2016.  It’s been over 11 months since the inauguration and it’s been more than 7 months since I abandoned this blog. And now I’m going to take a deep breath and try to blow some life back into this thing..

President Janus

Saying one thing on the campaign trail and doing the opposite after being elected is nothing new.  It has been going on ever since there were campaigns, nationally and internationally.  It doesn’t have to equate to lying or intent to deceive.  Bill Clinton, during a post-presidency interview, said that until he became president he didn’t realize how difficult it is to get things done at the federal level in Washington.

Sean Spicer: To Quote Bugs Bunny, "What a Maroon."

I was going to write this entry about the two biggest stories from the White Madhouse of the previous week, the U.S. attack on a Syrian airfield and the possibility of placing U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea.  Then Sean Spicer makes his biggest WTF gaffe to date, comparing Bashar al-Assad and Adolf Hitler.

Dormant and Discombobulated

If you thought that I’ve been in hibernation for the last couple of weeks, well you’d be wrong.  My co-conspirator in Oregon has been keeping our little blog breathing and I’m thankful for that.  But I have been dormant for far too long for a blog to remain relevant.  And relevance is part of the problem.  I’m finding it hard to keep up with the little Trump engine that can’t.  Things change so quickly in that insane asylum, once known proudly as the White House, that it’s damn nigh impossible to write a post that’s up to date before Trump or one of his stooges changes direction.

Climate Change vs. Alfred E. Neuman

Those of us who read Mad magazine in our youth each had our favorite regular feature (mine was “Snappy answers to stupid questions”).   The editor and writers referred to themselves as the “usual gang of idiots”.  That title should now be bestowed on the advisors to and cabinet of the Dark Lord in the Oval Office.  They respond to any questions about climate change with the equivalent of Neuman’s famous “What, me worry?”

Credibility Gap

Before addressing the main topic of this post, an explanation of why I have frequently called Donald Trump “He who must not be named”.  For those unfamiliar with the Harry Potter books, it is a term applied throughout that series to Lord Voldemort, a somewhat shadowy antagonist to Harry Potter and most others in the wizarding world.  The series creator, J.K. Rowling, described Voldemort as a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He appears to have no conscience or feelings of remorse.

Darkness and Rage in the Days of Trump

The 1461 days of Trump. They’re pervasive, loathsome and relentless.  They disturb what would otherwise be our quiet times.  They inflame us with a heretofore unknown rage. They spawn the worst in us and they bleed us dry of hope, aspiration and our expectations of prosperity and basic comforts. They rob us of security and leech our souls of optimism. They’re deathless zombies that foment our rage, haunt our nights and pillage our dreams.  As Americans they leave us fearful about rights and justice and mortified as citizens of the world. These are the days of Trump.

Affordable Care Act Replaced By ??

"We're going to have insurance for everybody"— the current inhabitant of the Oval Office, Washington Post interview, Jan.15 2017

The administration in the White House is racing to get the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repealed and replaced by end of April.   More than a few Republicans in Congress are not in favor of the plan being pushed at the American people.  Many demonstrations in town hall meetings have erupted from people who don’t want to see the ACA scrapped for something inferior and have their health care coverage put at risk.  Why rush?  Get it right.  Other countries have done it well with national health care systems that are derided by some as “socialism”

Clueless

I have a real dilemma here.  Sometimes I'm baffled,  And sometimes I'm righteously pissed off.  Sometimes I can't figure out how they can exist in such a blissful vacuum. And sometimes I want to slap the shit out of them for being in that vacuum.  How? Why?  What's their secret?  What's their motivation? Okay that last question was the stupid question that puts to rest the notion that there are no stupid questions.  

Some weeks ago we posted about the people who choose to remain detached from life beyond fluff.  We opined that while doing so might very well make one feel comfortable it's this sort of detachment that's the very ally of Donald Trump. If a fair segment of the adult population is in full on “what me worry,” then Trump and his stooges can also be in full on "what me worry."  It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship; the clueless and indifferent blindly collaborating with the clueless and incompetent.

Oh What a Week

One thing is certain when doing a blog about the current presidential administration from a liberal perspective.  There will never be a shortage of material.  Consider the weirdness within the past week or so.

Good Ol' Donnie - A Wild and Crazy Guy

It’s all been cleared up for me. The President of the United States is a different guy. He’s a breath of fresh air who’s just a little eccentric. He’s just wacky Donnie.  Don’t take him too seriously.  It’s just the way he is.  He's a harmless cross between the weird uncle who farts and tells ethnic jokes at the Thanksgiving table and an exaggerating salesman.

 

It’s Party Time (or The Disunited States of The GOP)

“…the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

George Washington – 1^st President of the United States and one of the founders

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

John Adams – 2^nd President of the United States and one of the founders

“I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party,” We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing Obamacare if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense.”

Rand Paul – A United States Senator

I’m going to draw up a petition.  Draw up a petition and then go stand in front of the local supermarket with a copy on each of about a dozen clipboards.  You’ve seen those guys.  They camp out at one of the store entrances and you do one of two things.  You either take a detour to another entrance or, and this is the option you often regret, you walk slowly past the guy so that he’ll engage you and you can find out what all the hubbub is about.

My petition is going to propose changing the name of our country from The United States of America to, The  Disunited States of GOP.  Seriously folks, let’s stop pretending.  That gang of knaves from the Republican Party doesn’t really give a shit about America.  America, the country and people that the Republicans are supposed to be serving is located somewhere in the deep dark bowels of the GOP priority list. There’s a lot of lip service paid to “the American people” and what “we will leave for our grandchildren” but the only American people they’re interested in are the ones that feather their nests.  And as for the grandchildren; unless they turn out to be large donors or CEO’s the GOP won’t leave them a pot to piss in.  

The Logan Act, Nixon, and the Current President

The Logan Act, in place since 1799, is a federal law intended to prevent unauthorized individuals from meddling with foreign governments which are having a dispute with the United States. The Act was passed following unauthorized negotiations by George Logan, a Pennsylvania legislator, with France in 1798 during the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France. The Logan Act was signed into law by President John Adams the following year. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony.  To date, nobody has been prosecuted for violations of this law.

The Nightmare in Number One Observatory Circle

Since 1977, Number One Observatory Circle in Washington has been the official residence of the vice president.  Besides being the Presiding Officer of the U.S. Senate, the V.P. (or Veep) is often thought of mainly as the person who would ascend to the presidency if the president died, resigned, or was removed from office.  John Nance Garner was FDR’s V.P. for 8 years and is most remembered for saying that the vice presidency was not worth a bucket of warm piss.

In our country’s early years, the V.P. was the person who lost the presidential election.  The selection process then evolved into what we currently have.  Too often, the Veep has lived up to Garner’s statement.  Here’s a test of that.  List the presidents of the 20th century.  Now list the vice presidents.  Unless you’re a scholar of political history, you’ll probably miss at least a few of the Veeps.  Lyndon Johnson, arguably one of the most qualified because of his tenure in the Senate, was not well-known by most Americans until he took the oath of office as president on Air Force One in Dallas in 1963.  

 

Nuclear Don

“I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power. It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack”   ~ Donald Trump, February 24^th, 2017.

Trump’s recent comment about nuclear weapons wasn’t his only foray into that topic.

 There was the December 2015 interview with Hugh Hewitt in which Trump was asked about the nuclear triad.  Trump’s answer was sheer gobbledygook because he had no idea what the triad is and so he sounded like the high school kid who is called on to describe the previous night’s homework assignment when he didn’t even crack the book.  (For the sake of clarification, the triad includes ground based ICBMs, submarine launched ICBMs and strategic bombers).

There was the suggestion, made several times by Trump that he wants to be “unpredictable” as regards a first strike.

In March of 2016 he suggested that he wouldn’t rule out the use of nukes against ISIS.

Two months later Trump declared that he would see no problem with a nuclear arms race in Asia. 

Trump has made other statements about nuclear weapons and suffice to say that they all fluctuated between nonsense and terrifying. 

Trump’s proclamation may have been lost on many Americans.  After all every day presents a new chore of sorting through another one of Trump’s toxic spills. It’s easy to lose track of one of Trump’s turds floating by when you have to deal with his daily massive release of crap.

It didn’t get by me though.  You see I lived through much of the Cold War. Many, many Americans either have forgotten about or never experienced those years when the world was on a razor’s edge of destruction.  I lived through that period in history of brinkmanship; of nations (particularly The United States and The Soviet Union) contending for the biggest arsenal with the most potent yields. 

The Cesspool that is Trumpistan

As I sit here fighting the flu for the first time in years, I’m struggling to sit upright while doing a short post commenting on “A journey to the center of Trumpistan”.  I have lived in a conservative county in Oregon for two years and am looking for work elsewhere so I can leave this area populated by dimwits.  My experience with supporters of the Tweeting Twit is similar to the examples given about Trumpistan.  Most of them are so stupid that they couldn’t spell God even if you spotted them the g & d.  They are convinced that the Tweeting Twit is already a much better president than Obama.  They are convinced that all Muslims are evil.  They are proud of their Christianity, even though they espouse ideas and values that would make Jesus want to slam down a fifth of tequila in frustration.  The Bill of Rights for them is only about the Second Amendment, which is frightening given that Oregon is an open carry state.

Reading the examples of idiocy mentioned in the Trumpistan post is making me feel more physically ill than I already am.  As is the case with my collaborator, I have lost patience with the morons who think that the Tweeting Twit is going to be good for America.  I have a good friend who I haven’t spoken with in a few months.  The last time I was in his presence, he labeled Bernie Sanders a “Commie Jew bastard”.  I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even want to engage in a political discussion with supporters of the Tweeting Twit.  They are generally stupid, ill-informed, and would have fit in well in George Wallace’s Alabama and Lester Maddox’s Georgia.

~ Posted by Exile in Oregon - Medford OR

A Journey to the Center of Trumpistan (With apologies to Jules Verne)

Have you ever watched one of those movies in which a brave protagonist risks taking a new, untested potion or goes into the unfinished time machine against the warnings of colleagues?

“You can’t!  It hasn’t been tested.  You could die or come out of it horribly damaged.”

But the hero proceeds, despite entreaties and comes out of the experience exhausted and dazed with a profound change in his personality. 

Recently I had just such an experience.  A fellow on a liberal Facebook page had posted that he was going to troll a pro-Trump page and correct spelling errors.  Right off I concluded that the task would be like fishing with sticks of dynamite.  I mean really, where is the sport?

But his post did inspire me to explore the page myself.  I knew that there would be inherent dangers in this kind of a mission.  I could conceivably return from my journey a changed man; an evangelist perhaps; or maybe suspicious of foreign headgear like the dreaded hijab.  I might emerge with a belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old – and flat as a billiard table.  And I might return with a hatred for the Chinese for hatching that global warming hooey.

And then there would be the physical risks.  There was always the chance of my sides being completely split asunder from laughter or permanent neck damage from repetitive head shaking.  But I damned those risks and determined that I would take A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TRUMPISTAN!

The Press is the Enemy - redux

We’ve heard that paranoid line before, those of us who lived through the Nixon years.  Richard Nixon was probably the most paranoid president in American history up to now.  In one of his taped Oval Office conversations with Henry Kissinger in December 1972, Nixon told Kissinger “Never forget, the press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy.”  

Nixon went so far as to create an enemies list in 1971.  In a memo of that year from John Dean, White House Counsel, Dean stated “This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”  The plan was to accomplish this by means of tax audits from the IRS and by manipulating grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, and prosecution.  Paul Newman was on that enemies list and often said that being on the list was one of his proudest accomplishments.

The ICE Man Cometh

The Latino workers who drive the forklifts, do the shipping, receiving, clerical work and run our production line walked off the job last Thursday.  I wasn’t there (the office that I work in is a 30 minute drive away) but I imagine you could’ve heard a pin drop.  That is, I imagine, when a manager wasn’t having a fit.  The news trickled into our office building around mid-morning and there were varying reactions. I was in the break room when one of my co-workers walked in and said jokingly to another sitting at a table, “See what happens when you voted for Trump?”

I turned to the seated man, “You voted for Trump?  Howabout if I  come over there and kick your ass.” And yeah I was joking – sort of.

Seated man said, “You heard what happened?  That’s not right.”  I told him that I supported the warehouse workers.  ‘ Fuck that!” I’m right on board with ‘em.”

There were varied reactions in our office. I can guess what the managers in that building thought but they were more or less hamstrung for the short term; can’t fire the entire crew on each shift. But I’m not ruling out some reprisal down the road.  The warehouse manager isn’t exactly a sweetheart and the company lost a full day of receiving, producing and shipping; and of course, revenue. Because that’s what it’s all about - money, money and more money.  The cause of human rights and compassion are fine but do it on your own time and don’t get in the way of revenue. Thursday was the Day Without Immigrants protest and it hit our company right in the bank account which was of course part of the overall goal; show the nation and most importantly the Trump regime that immigrants help keep the machine moving.

That Was the Week That Was

Since I last did a post about the rampant insanity surrounding the administration of He Who Must Not Be Named (HWMNBN), I decided to observe the never ending looney happenings for about a week and reflect on them.  Here’s what happened in a big ugly nutshell.

The Three R's

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How Can We Miss Him If He Won't Go Away?

I didn’t get home from work in time this evening to watch the network news, so I didn’t see what latest daft release came from the White House or El Presidente’s Twitter account.  He Who Must Not Be Named (HWMNBN) hasn’t yet been in office for a month and I’m already almost completely worn down mentally from the constant stream of absurdities from him and from his staff.  I’m 61 and, in the immortal words of Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove, “Well I've been to one World (sic) Fair, a picnic and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I even heard come over a set of earphones.”  Come to think of it, I’ve done all three of those.  The ’64 World’s Fair was so cool it took at least a couple of visits.

Hope is...

Our last post was about the Trump triggered gloom that so many of us are waking up to every morning.  We get up in the morning with a case of the heebie-jeebies wondering what Trumpian mischief we’ll be greeted with.  And then we continue through the day to learn that the President of the United States actually tweeted another inanity or vomited more vengeful bile. It's a routine that's become demoralizing and physically tiring.   

We’re less than three weeks into what’s already seemed like a blackish eternity and hope has been a rarity; a little flicker in a dark dank cavern of tyranny.  But it’s made its presence known, hope has.  And when it does we smile, pump a fist and exclaim, “Yes!”  In any resistance even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant little victory is cause for hope. It serves to bolster the notion that we’re keeping at bay the degradation of our democracy and all that America is supposed to stand for.  Every victory is a promise to repair the damage to America’s reputation that’s being done by the charlatan squatter currently occupying the White House.    

Hope started the very first day with the Women’s Marches where legions of like-minded men and women in all 50 states and 60 countries told Trump and his minions that no, we are not going to go gentle into your dark night.  And since that first day we’ve seen what hope can be and what hope is.

Disgust, Despair and Fear (Or, Donald Trump is a Dick)

“Donald Trump is a dick.”  That’s now become my walk into the house after work greeting.  “Donald Trump is a dick.”  And that’s when I’m feeling charitable.  It’s not unusual for the adjective to be a vulgarity.  Maybe I shouldn’t Google the news at work.  Maybe I shouldn’t peek at Facebook at work.  Maybe I shouldn’t listen to the news in the car on the way home.  Then I might come home with a cheery, “Hi.”  Of course Donald Trump would still be a dick.  

Chaos

Well what should we call it?  Over the last couple days I’ve heard; shit show, train wreck, a mess, chaos, turmoil and unprepared.  How about fucked up?  The first week of the Donnie Trump roadshow was rocky to say the least. And then last Friday things really got screwy.  But maybe we should cut our POTUS a little slack.  After all, Trump is used to starring in television shows.  Getting the lead role in the whole world isn’t something you master overnight.  Maybe Trump and cast just need a few takes.  There’s only one problem here, the Presidency isn’t a TV show.  In this job you don’t get dress rehearsals.  In this job when take one goes in the toilet a lot of other things get caught up in the vortex of crap and go down the sewer with it. You don’t get to say “Cut,” and then do take two.  

Sorry. We're Closed

Trumptrocities of Note

* More assaults on the First Amendment

                The Trump Administration, in the form of attack dog and white supremacist Steve Bannon, issues a statement calling the media the “opposition party,” and warning that the media should “keep its mouth shut.”

                Donald Trump turned to Twitter (again) to denounce the New York Times and The Washington Post.  “Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its dwindling subscribers and readers.”

“FAKE NEWS!” 

It would be a little less embarrassing if this guy would use spell check. 

There doesn’t seem to be any specific event or article that set him off this time.  I suppose he was sitting on the shitter with nothing else to do and…well…had a little extra shit to get rid of.

* Endangered Species Act and endangered species.  While no specific action has yet been taken, The Endangered Species Act is in the crosshairs of the GOP. Why you ask? Because, silly rabbit, those pesky animals are getting in the way of big business making money.  This is a Trumptrocity to look for in the near future.

*The Trumptrocity piece de resistance however is:

Sorry. We’re Closed.

Remember the date Friday, January 27^th 2017.

On that date Donald Trump signed an executive order banning nationals of 7 Muslim countries from entering the United States.  Those countries are; Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

This ban will last at least 90 days. 

On that date in the same executive order Donald Trump banned indefinitely, the entry of those fleeing from war-torn Syria.

On that date America turned off the beacon of hope and plunged America further into a bleak blackness of hate and bigotry and Islamophobia. 

On that date America took another step backward in a new retreat back to the bad old days. 

Detaching

Trumptrocities of Note

* Donald Trump calls for an investigation of voter fraud in the election.  Not only is he convinced that 3 – 5 million votes were fraudulent, he’s also certain that he was 100% on the short end of the electoral chicanery. Said Trump, "Of those votes cast, none of them come to me. None of them come to me. They would all be to the other side. None of them come to me.”  This is all a couple of months after Trump insisted that there was no voter fraud when Jill Stein funded recounts.  Sort of reminds me of the old song lyric, “Is you is or is you ain’t my baby.” 

* We’re building a wall folks.  While Mike Pence and an assortment of knaves and cronies looked on in white privileged glee Trump signed a directive ordering the commencement of the wall.  In keeping his promise that Mexico would pay for the wall he cooked up the brilliant idea of slapping Mexico with a 20% tariff – take that Mexico.  Oh wait, that 20% is eventually going to come out of the wallets of Americans. Well, we’ve sure been snookered haven’t we.

* Trump is looking into renewing the use of torture in interrogations. On the use of torture Trump said, “do I feel it works? Absolutely I feel it works." He might be right. After less than a week he’s been torturing the shit out of the entire thinking world.  I know I’m ready to cry “uncle.” 

* Trump signed an executive order authorizing the resumption of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines.  Once again Native Americans get screwed but I don’t imagine that Trump is at all phased.  He probably learned the history of the American West by watching John Wayne movies. 

We March

January 21^st, 2017

Trumptrocities of Note

* The Spanish language version of the White House website is taken down.  Why not?  Why limit yourself to that concrete wall when you can put up a communications wall?

* Donald Trump speaks to the CIA in front of the memorial wall that honors CIA officers killed in the line of duty.  Most of his speech veers off topic to the crowd size at his inauguration.  His fictitious account claims up to 1.5 million people even though the actual estimates hovered around 250,000.  In the same speech, Trump vilifies journalists as “among the most dishonest people on Earth.” The remark drew laughs; apparently from the studio audience that Trump hired to be at the speech. 

* Former CIA director John Brennan later criticizes Trump for disrespecting the fallen agents.

* Later in the day Sean Spicer lambastes the press for dishonest reporting about the inaugural crowd size.  His rant includes some statements that are easily revealed as lies.  Spicer ends by threatening to “hold the press accountable.” 

First Amendment? We don’t got to show you no stinkin’ First Amendment.

We March

Walnut Creek is a small middle class town in the shadow of Mount Diablo in the East Bay region of The San Francisco Bay Area.  It’s where you go in the East Bay if you want go shopping for the elegant, the frou frou and the overpriced and then head to a chic little bistro for some sort of ‘tini drink.  

Day One - Inauguration

January 20^th 2017 – Inauguration Day.

Dow 19,819

NASDAQ 5560.7

Unemployment 4.7% (Not 42%)

Was there ever a more appropriate morning to fling your alarm clock out the window than January 20^th 2017?  Launch it, curse the day and roll over and go to sleep – for four years.  Hell I’m willing to bet that even the sun itself was trying to figure out a way to bail.  That day was, as we are all so painfully aware, Inauguration Day for the 45^th President of the United States – Donald J. Trump. 

It was the beginning of the next stage of a journey that’s lasted a good (or bad) 20 months.  Or as Jerome J. Garcia and his band mates once put it “a long strange trip.”  Yes the Trump stage show has been held over. "We're playing this lounge for 4 years folks. It's gonna be really great. Like nothing you've ever seen."