Month: March 2017

The Perfect Spokesman

It is nothing new that hypocrisy runs rampant in Foggy Bottom…..it just has to after all it is a town dedicated to the subject.

Americans live and breath hypocrisy all this back and forth about fake news or alternative facts is just an extension of this.

Then there are those purveyors of this are everywhere but the its use has hit the popularity chart with the election of the new man in DC and to spread this hypocrisy he has hired the perfect person as Press Secretary, Sean Spicer.

He is the perfect spokesman……for example…….the idiots on the Right gave Obama grief for doing what every president has done since the invention of TV…play golf and guess what Trump plays golf and he is taking time away from DC to do so…..but now it is not a problem….why?

Amid a plethora of headlines like the Washington Post‘s recent “How much is Donald Trump’s travel and protection costing, anyway?” Sean Spicer Monday defended President Trump’s golf habits. Responding to a question from Yahoo White House correspondent Hunter Walker about the 10 golf trips Trump has taken to Florida since becoming president—specifically, how they are any different from the golf games then-President Obama played, which were often criticized by Trump before he became president—Spicer explained that Trump himself has talked about “how you use the game of golf” for diplomatic purposes, Politico reports.

“You saw him utilize this as an opportunity with [Japanese] Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to help foster a deeper relationship in southeast Asia … and have a growing relationship that’s going to help US interests,” Spicer said. He added, per the Washington Post, that Trump isn’t necessarily always playing golf when he heads to the golf course; sometimes he’s just having meetings. Walker followed up by asking why, then, the media is not hearing details from these meetings, to which Spicer replied by saying, multiple times, that Trump is “entitled to a bit of privacy.”

Stolid Crier Of  The “Ignorati”…….

That is only one example…there are so many more and only been on job for 60 days……

Wanna add anything?

Are You A Collectivist?

Anybody here ever watch Star Trek–The Next Generation?

If so then you will recall the Borg….the nemesis of the Federation.  But what were the Borg?

……Their existence is in the Collective where each drone was part of the collective consciousness……they all received the same thoughts and information from those that were assimilated…..

And that got me thinking about “collectivism”……

Scratch your head and repeat after me…..HUH?

These days someone is always labeling others with some insulting tag or another…..such as “globalist”, “socialist”, “Fascist”, “apologist”…..so why not “collectivist”?

So onto a definition…..trying not to confuse too many at one time…..

Collectivism is a form of anthropomorphism. It attempts to see a group of individuals as having a single identity similar to a person. The collective is claimed to have ideas, and can think. It has purpose, and it acts to achieve goals. It even has a personality, called culture. It claims to have moral rules the collective should follow. It claims to have collective rights, as well.

Since the collective is actually just individuals interacting, the collectivists have to change their views of individuals. They morally evaluate people according to the results of the collective. If the collective manages to accomplish something great like land on the moon, every individual is given equal credit. If a nation goes to war, everyone is to blame. And if an individual refuses to acknowledge the superiority of his collective, than he is a traitor and is eliminated. This is the result of collectivism.

Collectivism demands that the group be more important than the individual. It requires the individual to sacrifice himself for the alleged good of the group. Although different from altruism, collectivism complements it well. Altruism demands sacrifice for others, collectivism demands sacrifice for the group. Collectivism leads to altruism.

Now that you have a handle on what collectivism is all about…..we will move onto what brought about the thought process that gave you this post.

We have a new way of thinking about our place in this society…..first of all….America has always been great and these days it needs to find itself again

Those involved with the America First revival and the campaign to “make America great again” seem to be forgetting that America was made great in the first place with freedom. Personal freedom and civil liberties, and economic freedom with the protection of private property rights, freedom of contract and association, and especially free markets.

It was the philosophy of individualism upon which America was founded and in which the people had real freedom — and thus, prosperity.

unfortunately, Donald Trump’s collectivist agenda involves a mystical nationalism with policies of authoritarian governmental controls, certainly not promoting individualism and inviolable free markets.

Source: Are You A Collectivist?

I have noticed that some bloggers fall into this trap….they just repeat the lousy info they have assimilated….in essence they are part of the “hive”…the collective.

“Resistance is futile….You will be assimilated”……..would make a great slogan for Breibart and other hate filled sites.

Closing Thought–22Mar17

Enter The Religious Police!

In countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran there is a group called the religious police….they make sure that everyone follows the religious laws of the land.

There is a growing concern by those with no brains about the establishment of sharia law here in the USA…..first only a moron would believe such bullshit and second…looks like a church in Alabama wants its own police force….

A bill designed to allow a church to have its own police force is moving forward. Alabama’s Senate judiciary panel has passed a measure that would let Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham create the force, reports NBC News. The force would coordinate with local police to protect the 4,100-member church, which has 2,000 students and teachers at two K-12 schools and a seminary on its sprawling campus, says the church’s administrator. He cited the recent attacks on churches and schools as the motivation for the move, while a concerned member tells the AP, “Anyone can wander in here unchallenged at any time.” The bill now moves on to the full Senate.

“Officer presence is the No. 1 line of defense,” says longtime Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, who introduced the bill and whose wife and daughter work at Briarwood Christian School. The ACLU of Alabama is among those opposing the bill on constitutional grounds, along with another that would allow churches in the state to appoint armed congregants to provide security with legal protections: “These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations.” The AP notes that the police-force bill passed the Legislature last year, but Gov. Robert Bentley did not sign it. Bentley has not said what he would do this year.

Why not hire security guards if security is truly their only concern?

Now if a church has its own police force does that not make them the religious police?

If this is successful where will it lead or where will it end?  If successful this needs to be challenged in court.

Maybe these mental midgets should worry about their own backyard and stop making shit up just to push their agenda of hate.

Just a thought.

That does it for me for the day….I shall return tomorrow with more stuff.

A Well Deserved Homecoming

With little fanfare a US soldier has come home…..

The Korean War has been over for 60+ years and yet not everyone has come home….one more causality of that war has made a much deserved homecoming……

The remains of an Army medic from Massachusetts who was reported missing in action during the Korean War in 1950 are returning home for burial, military officials said Tuesday.

Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr. is scheduled to be buried in Holyoke on March 31 with full military honors, according to the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Hauterman, of Hampden, will be buried in the family plot with his parents and sister, said David Stuntz, whose 94-year-old mother is Hauterman’s cousin.

Hauterman was 19 years old when he was reported missing in action during the fighting withdrawal of the 31st Regimental Combat Team from the Chosin Reservoir in December 1950, military officials said.

More than 1,300 Americans, pursued by the Chinese army, were captured or killed.

Neither the Chinese nor the North Korean armies listed Hauterman as a prisoner, and no returning American POWs reported any information about him, so he was declared dead.

Remains recovered from the reservoir area in 1954 were declared unidentifiable and buried the next year in Hawaii.

Those remains were disinterred last June and were sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s lab for analysis.

Dental and anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence matched Hauterman’s records.

The Accounting Agency said 7,757 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.

(yahoo news)

Welcome home soldier….may you Rest in Peace…..

Wanted Dead Or Alive

Josh Randall hunts the Wild West for those dastards that have broken the law and are wanted so they may pay for their sins…..so goes the story line of a 60’s TV show.  But this time we are not talking the Old West where men were men and sheep ran scared.

This time we are looking for the leader, the caliph, of ISIS…aL-Baghdadi.  As troops zero in on Mosul and the home of ISIS leader it appears that the coward has tucked tale and ran.  He left town dressed as an elderly nun (my assertion not fact).

Did he run to the capital of ISIS, Raqqa?  Does not look as if he did…..for it is being attacked as I type.   He went where all good terrorists go when they are pursued by the US…Afghanistan.

ISIL Caliphate, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, is said to have fled Mosul. ISIL says this is not true and it makes everyone believe he is still there. Though we have never thought of killing individuals, or terrorist leaders, as important compared to refuting their ideas, it is always tempting to see the head of this criminal gang behind bars or being beheaded by one of his many victims.

But the question is: Where did Baghdadi go?

Naturally, a group like ISIL will think of securing its symbol where it has some infrastructure capable of providing a safe refuge to him. The only place that comes to mind is Afghanistan or any geographically inaccessible region in Central Asia.

This should raise again the more important issue of the expansion of terrorist Jihadism in that region. This issue is steadily growing and it is likely that in a decade or two, and so long as global cooperation does not move to this ground fast, we will be talking less about the Middle East and more about Central Asia.

Source: ISIL’s Caliph Left Mosul. Is he Now in Afghanistan? | Middle East Briefing

This could be good news….we have al-Baghdadi cornered like we had AQ’s master mind bin Laden in Afghanistan….oh wait…..we fucked up that gimme.

Al-Baghdadi could be anywhere….he could be a yak herder in southern Uzbekistan or a poppy grower in Afghanistan….no one knows just yet.

So what are the chances that we will get our man?  Or will this be a replay of the bin Laden affair in 2001?  Will it take another decade to “get our man”?

Did anyone notice?

All In The Family

I wish I was reviewing the old sitcom from the 70’s….but not this time….this time I am talking about nepotism.  Does that term confuse you?

Nepotism is a favoritism that is based on kinship. Nepotism is usually seen to be a negative practice because it implies that the person getting the job, promotion, college admittance, or property is usually not otherwise qualified enough to have it. There are no uniform laws regarding nepotism, but there are many different ways to approach a legal case where nepotism is suspected.

Nepotism can take place in politics where a person with a political position either passes on their position or gets employment for a member of their family.

Pres. Trump seems to appreciate keeping important positions in the family both personal and extended family.

Huh?

His lordship appointed his son-in-law and his sons and daughter have a run of the White House while still doing business under the “Trump” name…..now his “sister” Conway has her hubby in a position of power……

Life around the Conway family dinner table is about to get a little more exciting: CNN reports that George Conway, husband of top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is set to be named to a key Justice Department position by the president. George Conway would head up the civil division, which would put him in line to defend legal challenges to White House policies, which could interestingly include the travel ban. Conway is a longtime lawyer and has a client list that includes the NFL, Philip Morris, and Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against former President Clinton.

Putting a “family member” in the DOJ is a sound decision…it is called….Covering Your Ass” (CYA)

This position will be able to keep the prez abreast of the lawsuits and such….and even can be used to make some of the more inconvenient ones go away….plus it will be a great place for anyone that needs to be around when Kellyanne inserts her foot in her mouth.

Another nomination that is for his benefit….not the nation’s.

(Should I Tweet this out?)

One Last Gong

A sad day for us old farts

Back in the day the country tuned on their TV to watch the Gong Show with Gene-Gene the Dancing Machine and the Unknown Comic and the “sex” that was Jaye P. Morgan…..good times.

The Creator and host of the Gong Show, Chuck Barris, has died at age 87……

Chuck Barris, who tapped into Americans’ hunger to be on television by creating game shows such as “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game” and his showcase for the acutely untalented, “The Gong Show,” died on Tuesday, media outlets reported.

Barris died of natural causes at age 87 in Palisades, New York, Variety.com said, citing his publicist.

Decades before television talent shows such as “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent” came along, Barris was putting everyday people before the cameras in what was more of a reverse talent show with everyday people who did not mind exposing their vulnerabilities or answering embarrassing questions.

Source: ‘Gong Show’ Host Chuck Barris Dead At 87 | The Huffington Post

Thank you for your genius and your time….you will be missed…..

Bang The Gong One Last Time.

Chuck Barris Rest in Peace……chuq

The Republican Brain

No that is not an oxymoron!  (Although if it were it would be a damn good one)

These days the actual conservs do not think for themselves instead they out source that function to a think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

Most of my regulars know that I do not think much of so-called think tanks…..the reason is that most of them have a conclusion and then set about making stats and such fit what they want to report to say.

The worst among these fake intellectual endeavors is the Heritage Foundation……this group decides what the GOP will offer as way of policy and they, the politicians, do as they are told…..but to get a better grip on how this “foundation” works…….

The mood was jubilant two days after the November 2016 election at a Washington, D.C., panel co-hosted by two powerhouse conservative thinktanks—the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

In his opening remarks, Heritage president Jim DeMint rejoiced that Donald Trump’s election had “preserved our constitutional republic.” Panelist John Yoo, a Berkeley law professor best known as the architect of George W. Bush’s justification for torture, drew laughs with feigned surprise at the audience size. “I thought everyone at Heritage was working over at transition head quarters,” Yoo quipped. “I asked the taxi cab driver to take me to Trump transition headquarters, and he dropped me off here.”

Source: The Right-Wing Machine Behind the Curtain

The radical conservative Heritage Foundation has spent 40 years trying to gut the federal budget. Now Trump is proving to be the perfect tool.

Many of its proposals are lifted straight from the recommendations of an elite ultra-conservative D.C. think tank: the Heritage Foundation.

Trump’s Budget proposal, released on Thursday, echoes none of the populist, anti-establishment themes of candidate Trump’s campaign for higher office. Instead, it calls for a large increase in defense spending while reducing spending for a variety of popular domestic programs.

That’s not surprising considering where those ideas came from. Rather than bringing in new ideas from outside of the Beltway, many of its proposals are lifted straight from the recommendations of an elite ultra-conservative D.C. think tank: the Heritage Foundation.

Source: Trump the Outsider Outsources His Budget to Insider Think Tank

It is disgusting to out source your policies, policies that are not anything promised while luring idiots to his cause, but that is how you do it when a bunch of screaming amateurs are running the Greatest country on the planet.

All the American people can do now is bend over and wait for the insertion….sans Vaseline.

Closing Thought–21Mar17

“There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

 We all have seen the massive protests in the last couple of months….of course the “Ignorati” would have us believe that all these protesters are being paid and that they all are violent…..silly but what can you expect from people with shoe size and IQ the same?
Now that the Right has a new puppet master all this protesting will come to an end……right?

A new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence wing has likened certain types of political protests to “domestic terrorism,” and specifically outlined anger at President Donald Trump’s election as a driving force.

The document, obtained by the Intercept, was prepared by the North Carolina Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAAC) and DHS’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) with a particular focus on North Carolina. The document comes as Republicans in at least 18 different states have proposed anti-protest bills that seek to criminalize protesters engaging in property destruction and blocking highways, among other forms of protest.

Source: Homeland Security report likens anti-Trump protests to ‘domestic terrorist violence’

This should come as NO surprise after all the Tweets and lip service the Master has given on this subject that his DHS would label this as “terrorism”….

Source: Anti-Trump Riots are Domestic Terrorism | MediaBent

I was wondering how long it would take for the state GOPs to flex their little brains….when they would start trying to ban ALL protests….did not have to wait too long…….

Georgia has become the latest state to take up legislation seemingly designed to have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights. Georgia’s State Senate passed SB1 earlier this month and the bill is now before the lower house of the state’s General Assembly. It goes further than many of the other so-called ‘anti-protest bills’ introduced in other states, by expanding the legal definition of domestic terrorism and creating a state-level Department of Homeland Security with surveillance and intelligence sharing capabilities.
This from the party that wraps itself in the Constitution every chance that get…..I believe that is a part of that document that says protests are okay…..but that never stopped the GOP from ignoring it when it suits their aims.
 For your musical enjoyment…Buffalo Springfield

Living And Dying In 140 Characters

This week started off with a bang….the health care replacement is in trouble …the budget is being questioned….North Korea is flexing its muscle…..airstrikes in the Middle East have expanded…..and the crap keeps rolling.

With all the problems in search of solutions the Lord High Trumpy decides to put everything on hold so he could go onto a immature egocentric live Tweet during the “wiretap” hearings……

President Donald Trump produced a running commentary Monday on FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to Congress, the AP reports. Thanks to the length of the hearing and the immediacy of Twitter, Comey was able to comment on the president’s commentary without leaving his seat. It was a nearly real-time exchange that circled back on itself, like a cat chasing its tail. The AP runs through a few tweets, which were posted from the official @POTUS account:

  • TRUMP tweet: “The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process.”
  • THE FACTS: No such assurance was offered by Comey or his fellow witness at the hearing, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. They did not offer any conclusions about whether Russia succeeded in influencing the election.
  • COMEY, asked about the tweet while he was still testifying: “I’m sorry, I haven’t been following anybody on Twitter while I’ve been sitting here.” He went on: “We’ve offered no opinion, have no view, have no information on potential impact because it’s never something that we looked at.” He confirmed, though, that the FBI is investigating whether and how Russia tried to shape the election, a probe he says includes any potential coordination between Trump campaign associates and Russia’s government.
  • TRUMP tweet: “FBI Director Comey: fmr. DNI Clapper ‘right’ to say no evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump Campaign.”
  • THE FACTS: Trump leaves out an important nuance in this tweet about the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper. Comey agreed there was no evidence of collusion in a report prepared by the US intelligence community under Clapper, but that’s different than saying no such evidence has been discovered. The Jan. 6 report does not take up the question of contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Instead it focuses on Russia’s actions, via cyber operations and propaganda, to try to help Trump’s election chances and hurt Hillary Clinton’s. Clapper indeed said he had seen no evidence of collusion at the time he left government. But he updated that comment Monday with a statement from spokesman Shawn Turner, saying Clapper “could not account for intelligence or evidence that may have been gathered since the inauguration on January 20th.”
  • COMEY, when asked if he was aware of collusion between Trump associates and Russia, beyond the findings of the report: “It’s not something I can comment on.”

Click for more.

I was trying to put this issue to bed….but Trump got all butt hurt and did what is always does….took to Twitter.

It is about time for this person to start acting like the leader of the “free world” and not some juvenile vindictive twat.