December 2018 – Page 5 – Politics Plus

Squatch’s Open Thread 17 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 11:13 am Open Thread, Politics

Dec 172018

It’s Monday morning — OGIM!!! — and I tried to get this OT out yesterday but couldn’t. It rained here yesterday like there was no tomorrow. We could have floated Noah’s Ark in some places. I see Puddy Tat has been in already so people have their reading set for Monday. I will likely not be posting for a few days at least since the news cycle will thin out during Christmas and I need to explore our new Word Press updates. Have a good week as you prepare for all the festivities ahead!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:31 (average 6:03). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — In a ruling that was quickly dubbed as “insane” by critics, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act — also known as “Obamacare” — was unconstitutional.

It appears the law will still technically be in place while the case goes through appeals, however.

Judge Reed O’Connor had been expected to rule against the law, brought by Republican states attorneys general, but the scope of his ruling Friday night still shocked many observers. The lawsuit he heard targeted the law’s individual mandate, which sets a tax penalty for every who American who doesn’t sign up for health insurance.

The mandate had already been upheld by the Supreme Court, so it would have seemed that the lawsuit was pointless. It seems even more pointless because last year the Republicans voted to set the cost of the individual mandate to zero, effectively nullifying it.

Click through . . . it gets even more insane. Judge O’Connor is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and was nominated by George W. Bush in 2007. If this was a lifetime appointment, he has a long way to go before retirement since he is only 53 years old. Think Progress had this to say about O’Connor:

The Republican officials filed their case in Fort Worth, Texas, where the only active federal district judge is Reed O’Connor, a highly partisan judge with a long history of striking down Democratic policies on spurious legal reasoning.

Of course, this morning, Trump has jumped in on this decision with his usual plethora of lies with his tweets. Responses to his tweets can be seen HERE and they are good! A sac of hammers would appear to have more brains than O’Connor.

Think Progress — Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Democrat who takes over chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee next month, called Sunday for the overhaul of legal guidelines that currently protect presidents from criminal prosecution.

“I think we should always reconsider laws and regulations, and this is one we definitely should reconsider,” Cummings told CNN’s State of the Union. …

As The Washington Post reported this weekend, nearly every organization touched by Donald Trump over the past decade — both civil and governmental — is currently under investigation. And as ThinkProgress has reported, the administration has been beset by an unending parade of scandals. …

Cummings also echoed remarks by fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (CA), who is poised to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff told CNN last week that the Office of Legal Counsel in the DOJ should revisit the policy against indicting presidents.

“I think the Justice Department needs to reexamine that Office of Legal Counsel opinion, that you cannot indict a sitting president under circumstances in which the failure to do so may mean that person escapes justice,” the California Democrat said.

It seems that it is going to be a fish fry starting in January and I can already hear the sizzling from the pan and the gnashing of Republican teeth!

AlterNet — Republicans are executing shameless power grabs in Wisconsin and Michigan, passing laws stripping newly-elected Democrats and liberal activists of power on their way out the door and transferring them to the GOP legislatures. But some in the political pundit class, like NBC’s Chuck Todd, are pushing a narrative that rewriting the law to lock the other party out of electoral power is a common tactic that both parties use.

In fact it isn’t. And this weekend, America saw the ultimate test of this false equivalence in New Jersey. Democratic activists in the state and around the country revolted against a plan that would have essentially been a Democratic version of the Wisconsin and Michigan power grabs — and forced lawmakers to abandon their attack on fair elections.

Democrats in the New Jersey legislature were moving forward with a plan that would have effectively written Democratic gerrymandering into the state constitution forever. Under this plan, half of legislative districts would be drawn to lean more Democratic, half to lean more Republican, and 25 percent of the total would be “competitive.” That sounds fair on paper, but the plan actually defined “competitive” as any district that comes within 5 points of the statewide vote for president, Senate, and governor — which is 7 points more Democratic than the national average. So the legislature could theoretically have called a district where Democrats win by 56 percent “Republican leaning” and a district where Democrats win by 62 percent “competitive”. …

As it turned out, the fiercest voices in opposition to this scheme came from Democrats. …

it ran contrary to the party’s ideals of fair elections and representative, accountable democracy — and everyone from high-ranking leaders to grassroots organizers drew the line at compromising those values.

Click through for more details of the errant plan. Good on those who thwarted this piece of garbage legislation! Makes me wonder if state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin will have enough votes to get themselves re-elected next time around after trying to use Republican tactics.

My Universe

Good Riddance Upchuckabee

Posted by TomCat at 10:21 am Politics

Dec 172018

Since he summer of 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been Press Secretary and Liar in Chief for President Donald Trump, aka Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten. I call her Upchuckabee, because it best describes what comes out of her mouth, whenever she lies on behalf of her Fuhrer. I look forward to her departure.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that she would be leaving the White House at the end of 2018 after serving for two years in the administration. She leaves behind a legacy of lying to such a degree it’s become a farce.

Credibility from the press podium has spent the better part of her term falling to 30 percent approval rating, lower than even her boss. According to YouGov surveys, her approval rating among the Millennial Generation is an embarrassing 21 percent.

The survey doesn’t breakdown trustworthiness, but throughout 2018, Huckabee Sanders’ lies from the podium couldn’t have helped with respectability. As we close out the year and the White House career of the staffer Stephen Colbert likes calling HuckaSand, these are the most egregious lies from her podium.

1. Family Separation lies.

During her third daily press briefing in June, Sanders sparred with the press over the children being pulled from their families when they tried to enter the United States and declare asylum. The policy has “been on the books for over a decade,” Sanders said. It hasn’t. The “policy” was enacted as a result of President Donald Trump’s “no-tolerance policy” he wrote into an executive order.

“These people have nothing. They come to the border with nothing, and they throw children in cages,” reporter Brian Karem said to Sanders. “You’re a parent; you’re a parent of young children. Don’t you have any empathy for what they go through?”

Sanders told Karem to “settle down” and accused him of wanted to get on camera.

Reporter Brian Karem repeatedly asks Sarah Sanders about the Trump policy of separating undocumented children from their parents: “Come on, Sarah, you’re a parent. Don’t you have any empathy?”

She says he’s trying to get more TV time. pic.twitter.com/NGVPnh1ISv

— David Mack (@davidmackau) June 14, 2018

“Credibility issues are just getting more obvious, and reporters are getting really frustrated with it, and it’s causing tension,” a White House reporter told Politico. “It’s sort of coming to a head. The statements are more disprovable, more obvious.”

Inserted from <Alternet>

I shared only the first lie out of six. Please click through for the other five.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 12/17/2018

Posted by TomCat at 10:20 am Open Thread, Politics, Religion

Dec 172018

I’m very busy and very tired, so please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Serena Williams, and the women who changed 2018

I grew up in the sugar and spice era, but I like these new feminists. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Just days before a deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, President Trump, Democratic leaders and the Republican-controlled Congress are at a stalemate over the president’s treasured border wall. But House Republican leaders are also confronting a more mundane and awkward problem: Their vanquished and retiring members are sick and tired of Washington and don’t want to show up anymore to vote.

Call it the revenge of the lame ducks. Many lawmakers, relegated to cubicles as incoming members take their offices, have been skipping votes in the weeks since House Republicans were swept from power in the midterm elections, and Republican leaders are unsure whether they will ever return.

It is perhaps a fitting end to a Congress that has showcased the untidy politics of the Trump era: Even if the president ultimately embraces a solution that avoids a shutdown, House Republican leaders do not know whether they will have the votes to pass it.

The uncertainty does not end there. With funding for parts of the government like the Department of Homeland Security set to lapse at midnight on Friday, Mr. Trump and top Republicans appear to have no definite plan to keep the doors open. It is clear that as Democrats uniformly oppose the president’s demand for $5 billion for his border wall, any bill that includes that funding cannot pass the Senate, and might face defeat in the House, too.

How typical. Republicans are just too lazy to finish doing their jobs! RESIST!!

From John Pavlovitz: Christian Friend,

I’ve been meaning to talk to you.

I’m trying to reconcile the things I see right now.

I see your house, carefully strewn with glowing lights, fragrant boughs of holly decking your photo-covered hallways.

I see your ceiling-scraping tree, limbs weighed down with the carefully curated collection of fragile keepsakes and handcrafted mementos acquired over decades.

I see you donning your gay apparel, while making your list and checking it twice, and declaring yourself exceedingly nice.

I see your overflowing shopping cart, packed to bursting with goodness that you plan to soon indulge in, nestled in an abundance that cascades in every direction.

I see the outward displays of reverent religion in needlepoints you make and in cards you’ve sent me and in filtered Instagram posts that arrive from you on my timeline every day.

But I’ve also seen something else.

I’ve also seen your Twitter feed.

I’ve read your Facebook rants.

I’ve watched you watching the news.

I’ve witnessed you tossing-off cruel comments at the dinner table.

I’ve seen your cruelty, your selfishness, your anger.

I’ve heard you declare your contempt for those trying to find refuge here.

And all the while I’ve heard you singing Christmas songs,

With all due respect, I’m not sure you should be singing right now.

Amen John! Please click through. There is so much more to read there. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

My Tutorial WRT the Updated WordPress Posting

Posted by SoINeedAName at 5:01 pm Politics

Dec 162018

As I suspect for you guys, having done a few posts you get a feel for how long it will take you to get it done. But I was in for a surprise with the newWordPress posting format. Added at least an hour!

Looks like you guys are getting up to speed, and I hope I am, too. But the biggest change is everythingis done in “Blocks”.

Probably like you do, I write my article’s draft as a Word document, and when I want to insert a photo, GIF, video, etc. I just put the title of it on the next line. And I learned that every new paragraph or “Enter” is like adding a “Block”.

So in a new “Block” I click the “+” sign off to the left, and then select from the options what kind of Block I want to add:

And where the graphic is to come from. (I should note I’ve not had good luck on directly uploading it from my hard drive, so I select “Media Library” and that process is like the old way.)

Then when I’m done with the draft, I just copy/paste it into WordPress. Easy-Peasy.

The first thing I learned with the new WordPress 5.0 (Gutenberg) edition is that it automatically puts each paragraph in a “Block”.

It took me forever to figure out how to enter graphics – and you know how I love to use graphics.

The good news is that it does provide an Option to use the old format, called “Classic Editor”. But it requires that a plugin (amazingly enough, called “Classic Editor”) be added.

Classic Editor

And here is a Tutorial on how to install plugins:

I checked, and at this point it is not installed, so we’ll be using 5.0 (Gutenberg) unless TC installs it – or agrees to let one of us install it.

It actually had a steeper learning curve than I had anticipated – at leastfor me. And if you read the Comments about it, it does NOT appear to be a popular transition.

But I found two tutorials that are pretty good.

Tutorial

This one is pretty good:

WordPress 5.0 Is Out! This Ultimate Cheat Sheet Has All You Need to Know About It

This one is good and not too detailed:

Gutenberg Blocks: What They Are and How to Use Them in WordPress

This is also a pretty straightforward one:

WordPress Gutenberg Tutorial: How To Use The New Block Editor In WordPress 5.0

The next one is a little funkier to follow – but has some solid info:

WordPress Gutenberg: A Step-by-Step Tutorial (for Bloggers)

Samantha Bee from 12/12

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 3:39 pm Politics

Dec 162018

I have been quite distracted lately and shamefully forgot to even look for Sam this week. I hope this will help make it up to everyone. I do remember she has a Christmas special coming, called “Christmas on I.C.E.” on the 19th and I promise not to forget that (of course TC has first dibs.)

Act I – Fox Nation – “Resentertainment” – excellent description

Act II – From the Future – She is absolutely correct in her analysis. I have to believe that at least some of this will not stand up in court, but that doesn’t make it less dangerous (not to mention the waste of taxpayer funds to fight it.)

Act III – Voter Suppression – Nothing here we aren’t aware of, but it needs to be fought – to the death.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE

Open Thread – 12/16/1018

Posted by TomCat at 2:28 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 162018

I’m waiting for Wendy to arrive so I can freeze my kitty dingles testing the shower again. ARGH! This is today’s only article from me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Agony:

1215-Broncos16-Browns17

The freaking Browns?!!? I’m wearing a bag over my head!

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a key figure in President Trump’s sweeping plan to reshape the nation’s environmental framework, resigned under pressure on Saturday as he faces numerous ethics investigations into his business dealings, travel and policy decisions.

“Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter [Fuhrer delinked]. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.” The president said he would name a replacement this coming week.

Mr. Zinke is the latest Trump official to exit an administration plagued by questions of ethical conflict. And his departure comes as Mr. Trump has begun a shake-up in his administration. In early November, the president fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and last weekend he announced that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was leaving.

Good riddance Stinky! RESIST!!

From YouTube (SNL Channel): It’s a Wonderful Trump Cold Open

If Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten had never been President… What a blessed Christmas gift that would be. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): White Congress Parody

White Congress? The Republican Reich dreams of a white country! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Everyday Erinyes #148

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 3:51 pm Politics

Dec 152018

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

I have been moving away from stories of things happening to individuals and towards stories of trends and policies (which represent situations in which we need to fight for what is right, individually and politically. Today I am going back to a story of a single individual, because it is a story over multiple years, it is reflected in the experiences of classmates of the individual (and in so many others who are nameless), and it definitely represents a trend and a pattern of trends which we would do well to oppose.

Because it was originally told in a tweet thread, and those are public domain, I will mostly be quoting it directly. It was shared on Daily Kos by Frank Vyan Walton under the title “If this thread doesn’t make you cry…” It’s from the Twitter account of Gregory McKelvey (@GregoryMcKelvey). All emphasis is mine.

I had a police officer stationed in my high school. At one point he got a warrant to investigate me for a stolen calculator, that I didn’t steal. He kicked down my door after school one day with 8 other cops in riot gear with guns drawn on my Grandma.

I ran upstairs and hid under the bed because I thought he was there to kill me. He took my computer, phone, and trashed my entire room as an officer held me and my grandmother in my kitchen at gun point.

I was expected to go to school the next day with him there. I had to hold it all in. I had nightmares about it for years. I couldn’t focus in class, I was always terrified. The white kids were getting stickers from him as I feared for my life.

I couldn’t get school work done the same as the other kids because I had no computer so I fell behind. This impacted which colleges I could go to.

At one point he finally returned my items. I was obviously not charged. But he would constantly pull me out of class in a public manner and question me about the calculator. He would do so with my vice principle [sic] in the room.

He took me to jail where I sat for hours. My parents were on vacation, there was no one I could call. He then told me I was not under arrest but that he was trying to teach me a lesson.

After that the coaches would not let me become captain, again impacting my college options. It also impacted which kids would risk associating with me. For some kids this means hanging out with kids who are actually committing crimes and falling into that life.

I cannot state enough how terrified I was in school at all times. Every morning I wondered if he would arrest me at school. I saw him everyday. Every night when I was supposed to do homework, I was worried he would kick my door in again.

Every knock on the door terrified me my entire life, up until this day. The funny thing is, I was not political at all before this. But this and other experiences I had with police throughout my life pushed me into fighting for justice.

The police didn’t just harass me and my high school friends at school. It was just part of life being black in a white neighborhood. Being stopped at the age of 14 and asked why I’m in my own neighborhood…

Or walking my dog and police pulling up and saying I was reported as a potential drug dealer by my own neighbors.

Being thrown to the ground at 13 because I matched the description of someone who got in a fist fight.

Being with my friend who was a recent rape victim when she saw her abuser and called the cops because she had a restraining order and police showing up and handcuffing me for their protection even though I wasn’t involved. I was 14. He Didn’t cuff the white kids around.

Being stopped at 15 while walking down the street and drinking a water bottle because police said it looked like vodka. At 15…

Being stopped at 16 while crossing the street because my pants were sagged and my backpack looked heavy so they thought I had a gun.

This is just the life of a black kid. It’s just expected to be normal. It was the life of all my friends. We thought that was just life. We knew it didn’t happen to our white peers but we just thought it’s how it was. We thought we were flawed.

So I say all this because these white school board members voting for more cops just don’t know what this all feels like. I will have this trauma for the rest of my life. It permanently messed me up. It ruined high school and narrowed my opportunities.

I was just a kid. People of color already have the entire deck stacked against us but to then throw salt in the wound and have those officers sit in the room next to us and expect us to learn? The same ones who harass us all day in and out of school?

And I didn’t even steal the damn calculator. I wasn’t the best kid. I smoked pot and cussed with my friends. But I knew white kids doing cocaine at 16. They had never had an interaction with police except when they got their damn stickers.

Our white students feared detention, I feared arrest. To hear white people tell me that Officer was there for my protection is laughable. He was there to oppress people of color.

And before you say I just had a bad cop, he quit being a police officer. He told me through a mutual friend that he quit because of me. He was horrified looking back at what he was forced to do to me. Idk what forced means in this context. Just what he said.

Anyways, just writing this thread really fucking hurts. I am one of the lucky ones. This isn’t about safety this is about trauma that you are giving little kids. Just please don’t.

Fuck I’m literally still crying I can’t believe writing that shit was so hard for me. I’m so used to talking about whatever even personal stuff and never being nervous but this really cuts deep. I was so damn young. I was good. They really fucked me up y’all. I don’t even cry lol

didn’t expect this to blow up but since it did, there are things you can do.
– pressure your local officials to remove officers from schools
– uplift stories like these
– support PoC activists and businesses we need y’all to use your privilege to help offset these stories.

And when I say support I don’t just mean tweets. Buy from black owned businesses, donate to black and PoC orgs, compensate people for the work they are doing to change the world. My cash is [redacted] but there are people in your town too. Support them.

We have to jump ten times higher to get to the same place. Help us with a boost.

Gregory was a Sanders delegate to the DNC in 2016. He has since organized anti-Trump protests. He is (as he says) one of the lucky ones (those who are less lucky never get heard.)

Why now? Because last Tuesday the Portland (OR) school board voted $1 million to put nine more officers in the public schools. The question now goes to the Portland City Council. That Council is really the entity to whom the thread is addressed. But – as he says – “[T]here are people in your town too. Support them.”

Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, stay on us. Don’t let us do nothing.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Squatch’s Open Thread 15 December 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 2:24 pm Open Thread, Politics

Dec 152018

It is late Saturday morning and I am finishing up today’s post. Unfortunately I was late to rise but the kids are fed and lounging on the floor around my chair so here we go. I emailed TC last night and his reply is below. He has also posted an OT and another article for your enjoyment and comments. We had a rain warning on Thursday followed by a severe wind warning on Friday. Where I am north of the Fraser River, we definitely had the rain but the wind seemed to knock out power etc south of the Fraser and on Vancouver Island. Even the ferries to Vancouver Island were shut down because of the wind. Today is cloudy but dry but I may have to wear my swimsuit to church tomorrow!

TC Update: I’m OK. The place they dumped me is 1/3 smaller, and I am skewed half sideways to type. I lost Comcast and had to change to Century Link DSL, so I had to move over a dozen companies to a different email account. Organizing has kept me busy full time since I moved. I hope to start posting soon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:14 (average 5:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

The Nation — What the hell is wrong with Paul Ryan? At a point when the whole world is demanding urgent action to end the Saudi-led bombardment and starvation of Yemen, the Speaker of the House has been scheming to prevent congressional debate on a resolution to get the United States out of a humanitarian crisis.

This is not about partisanship or ideology. As Ryan was blocking action in the House this week, 11 Senate Republicans—including some of the chamber’s most conservative members—voted with Democrats to open the Senate debate on ending US military support for the Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen.

The 60-39 vote to advance the bipartisan effort by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to invoke the war-powers authority of the Congress to constrain military interventions and engagements by the Executive Branch, cleared that way for a 56-41 vote on Thursday in favor of the S.J.Res. 54: “A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.”

“Today we tell the despotic regime in Saudi Arabia that we will not be a part of their military adventurism,” declared Sanders, who has for months made the case for congressional action on Yemen, waging a two-pronged campaign for the resolution. First, he made a moral argument, telling his colleagues they have a duty to end US support for Saudi abuses that have fostered a “humanitarian and strategic disaster” in Yemen—a crisis so severe that United Nations officials say it could lead to the worst famine in a century. Second, the senator made a constitutional argument, explaining that “The Senate must reassert its constitutional authority and end our support of this unauthorized and unconstitutional war.”

Unfortunately, Ryan continues to do the bidding of the Trump administration and the Saudi regime with which the president is so closely aligned. Ryan refuses to concern himself with reports on what United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund describes as “a war on children.”

“Yemen has become a hell on earth for millions of children. Today every single boy, every single girl in Yemen is facing extremely dire need,” says UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere, who reports that, on average, a child is dying every 10 minutes in Yemen—a country where more than 400,000 children are starving and an additional 1.5 million are acutely malnourished.

Some images of Yemen that Ryan is ignoring. Are these children still alive? Not likely.

These are some of the voices that Paul Ryan is ignoring as he fails to allow debate and a vote in the House. Shame on Paul Ryan! The Saudi régime, and the complicit US régime must be held accountable. War is not a one sided affair, but when such as these are the target, I have a problem with it and so should the world. MbS’s children (if he has any), indeed Saudi children are not being targeted, only Yemeni children. And what of the current US régime? Could these be US children if Trump continues to abuse the rule of law and set the US as an authoritarian state? Trump, Ryan and any others that fail to act to rein in Saudi Arabia are complicit in these murders.

Washington Monthly — On June 3, 1973, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein signaled the end of Richard Nixon’s presidency with a big scoop in the Washington Post. They reported that ex-White House counsel John Dean had “told Senate investigators and federal prosecutors that he discussed aspects of the Watergate cover-up with President Nixon or in Mr. Nixon’s presence on at least 35 occasions” and that he was planning “to testify under oath at the Senate’s Watergate hearings, regardless of whether he is granted full immunity from prosecution.” …

People can be forgiven for not knowing what the future would bring, but we have this precedent now to help imagine our near future.

When Robert Mueller brings his case, however he brings it, it will not be the end of the story. He has built his case by interviewing nearly everyone in Trump’s inner circle, many of whom have become cooperating witnesses and many others of whom have doubtlessly opted to tell the truth rather than risk perjury or obstruction of justice charges. Their information is locked in FBI transcripts and grand jury testimony, and the individuals can be called before Congress to testify.

When the time comes, the witnesses against Trump won’t be members of the special counsel’s office. The witnesses will be people like former White House counsel Don McGahn and firsthand witnesses like Rick Gates and Michael Flynn. …

They’ll watch the president’s lies fall like dominoes based on the say-so not of Fake News reporters and a biased Deep State, but based on the testimony of former right-wing heroes.

And all of that is before we get into the actual meat of the story, which is the degree to which Trump lied about his business ties with Russia and the extent to which his campaign coordinated with the Russians to exploit the hacked emails.

The idea many have is that the Republicans will have little trouble brushing all of this off, but I don’t see that as a sustainable position for them. What brought Nixon down was the testimony of his own people, and that’s what ultimately will bring Trump down, too. [emphasis added]

The article in AlterNet this week, The coming parade of witnesses against Trump, really is an extension of this Washington Weekly article from 06 December 2018. Trump is a fool who thinks he is untouchable. I hope the law shows him that nobody, not even him, is above the law. May it be so!

Billboard — If you watched the recent Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, you know that Jim Carrey is way more than just a rubbery faced funnyman. The Mr. Popper’s Penguinsstar is also a deep, philosophical thinker and spiritual seeker, and, as viewers learned, an avid painter.

While the canvases in the movie were mostly giant abstract works, Carrey has been focusing his attention lately on portraits of real-life figures, most of them related to Pres. Trump and Republican/right-leaning figures.

Please click through this short article. This picture, 50 Shades of Decay, is one of 13 contained in the article. You might not get excited by Carrey’s work in movies etc, but he certainly does know how to represent political characters like Trump in paint.

Canadian Press — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest, will be leaving the administration at year’s end, President Donald Trump said Saturday. In his resignation letter, obtained by The Associated Press, Zinke said “vicious and politically motivated attacks” against him had “created an unfortunate distraction” in fulfilling the agency’s mission.

Trump, in tweeting Zinke’s departure, said the former Montana congressman “accomplished much during his tenure” and that a replacement would be announced next week. The Cabinet post requires Senate confirmation. …

Zinke, 57, played a leading part in Trump’s efforts to roll back federal environmental regulations and promote domestic energy development. He drew attention from his first day on the job, when he mounted a roan gelding to ride across Washington’s National Mall to the Department of Interior. …

As interior secretary, Zinke pushed to develop oil, natural gas and coal beneath public lands in line with the administration’s business-friendly aims. But he has been dogged by ethics probes, including one centred on a Montana land deal involving a foundation he created and the chairman of an energy services company, Halliburton, that does business with the Interior Department.

Click through for what Zinke’s future might look like. I wonder if he’ll ride Tonto off into the sunset on 02 January 2019.

My Universe

Dude! Why don’t you come out to play?

I’ll share my nuts!

Older Entries Newer Entries