Category Archives: The Darnold

Jul 28 2021
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Adrastos, Big Damn Heroes, Bigotry, Congress, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, Race, Terrorism, The Darnold, Twitter

Who Hired The Hitman?

I usually hate Congressional hearings. The members talk too much. Most of them have no idea how to pose or frame a question. The first day of the House Dipshit Insurrection Select Committee hearings was different: solemn, dignified, and focused.

Speaker Pelosi should thank feckless House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy for boycotting the committee. There are no wingnuts determined to speak over others and put on a show for the cameras. The committee is small: only 9 members. The two Republicans are willing to face the scorn of their idiot leader who denounced them as Pelosi Republicans. Nobody cares what KMac thinks. He maneuvered himself into oblivion last week.

The four police officers who testified were great witnesses and deserve a shout-out: Aquillo Gonnell, Michael Fanone, Daniel Hodges, and Harry Dunn. They epitomize the sort of people who *should* be in law enforcement. During the Dipshit Insurrection, they protected and served. As Adam Kinzinger said, “You guys won. You guys held.”

They were all impressive, but Capitol copper Harry Dunn stood out: both literally and figuratively. Dunn is a big dude. He’s 6’7″ and built like an old school NBA power forward such as the late Wes Unseld who played his entire career for the Baltimore/Capitol/Washington Bullets.

Officer Dunn was denounced before the hearing by that entitled little shit Tucker Carlson as “an angry left-wing activist.”

Harry Dunn *is* angry and with good reason:

Dunn, a 13-year-veteran of the force, testified that as rioters were nearing the a room directly off the House floor, they shouted about having been invited by Trump to “stop the steal” — prevent the congressional affirmation of Joe Biden’s victory. He said those rioters said “nobody voted” for Biden.

“I’m a law enforcement officer, and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance, I responded: ‘Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?'” said Dunn, who is Black. “That prompted a torrent of racial epithets. One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled: ‘Did you hear that, guys? This n—– voted for Joe Biden.’ Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, joined in screaming, ‘Booo, f—— n—–.’

“No one had ever, ever called me a n—– while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer,” Dunn continued, adding that after the riot he heard from other Black officers who faced racial abuse from the mob. “One officer told me he had never, in his 40 years of life, had been called a n—– to his face, and that streak ended on January 6th. Yet another Black officer later told me he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol who told him to ‘put your gun down, and we’ll show you what kind of n—– you really are.'”

The Trump mob showed what kind of cowards they are. There’s safety in numbers. None of them would have dared to abuse Harry Dunn one-on-one.

The sub-text of the hearing was ingratitude. The ingratitude of Republican lawmakers whose lives were saved by the cops who risked their own lives to protect them. The Trumpers are lionizing Ashli Babbitt and calling her fellow rioters political prisoners. I know what to call them: Terrorists.

Congressional loons Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and Louis Gohmert Piles (hereinafter the Four Gs) showed what they were made of yesterday. They staged a “protest” outside the Justice Department. They demanded the release of insurrectionists who they claim are political prisoners. So the QAnon Shaman is the new Andrey Sakharov? Who knew?

It was a disgusting display of cosplay courage: they were run off by a guy with a whistle. I am not making this up. Here’s the proof:

One more note, make that Tweet, about the freak show surrounding yesterday’s hearing:

Holy Cosplay Tough Guy, Batman.

Back to the main event: the hearing.

The officers made it clear that they want those behind the insurrection held accountable. It was Harry Dunn who inspired the post title: “If a hitman is hired, and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to the jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hired him does.”

We all know who he’s talking about: former President* Pennywise. He’s incapable of planning anything but capable of inciting a riot. That’s what he did on Twelfth Night, 2021.

The last word is inspired by the Four Gs DOJ Mishigas and the guy who made them look ridiculous:

Jul 26 2021
4 Comments
Adrastos, British Politics, Film, The Darnold

Quote Of The Day: Boris Johnson’s Hair

Boris Johnson governing style is getting Trumpier and Trumpier by the day. He mishandled the pandemic, made the Brexit mess even messier, and allows headlines to change his mind on a daily basis. There’s never a plan, he just wings it. Sound familiar?

Unlike Trump, Johnson won an election fair and square but he’s pissing away that advantage as I write this.

One thing that Boris has always had in common with the Kaiser of Chaos is weird and silly hair.

Here’s ace Guardian satirist Marina Hyde latest salvo about the prime ministerial hairdo:

Johnson’s hair, always ridiculous, now seems to have reached animal rescue stage. The PM resembles one of those old English sheepdogs that charities put on sad-music fundraising adverts, with a voice saying: “When Boris came to us, his coat was so matted he was effectively blind … ” Or maybe he’s the star of an 80-minute Netflix movie in which the sheepdog somehow becomes president, and we end up learning a lot – if not about politics or ourselves, then definitely about the Netflix commissioning process.

Boris spends much of his time feuding with former aides. His former right hand man, Dominic Cummings, is now a sworn enemy of the man he made PM.

Cummings’ testimony before a parliamentary committee two months ago was a laugh riot:

Dominic Cummings has laid bare the “surreal” chaos in Downing Street in March last year as the government grappled with the Covid pandemic, portraying the prime minister as obsessed with the media and making constant U-turns, “like a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”.

During an extraordinary evidence session to MPs at Westminster on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s former chief aide targeted the prime minister for personal criticism, accusing him of being “unfit for the job”.

He claimed that Johnson regretted the first lockdown and held out against imposing later restrictions, despite the advice of many people inside Downing Street, and that overall, “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die”.

Cummings told MPs the prime minister had repeatedly said in respect of the first lockdown, “I should have been the mayor of Jaws and kept the beaches open,” and confirmed reports that in October, Johnson said he would see “bodies pile high” rather than order a third lockdown.

Imagine wanting to be like Mayor Vaughn in Jaws who thwarted the efforts of Chief Brody to protect the town from sharks. Does Boris realize that Murray Hamilton who played the Jaws mayor was cuckolded by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate? Playing the movie analogy game is tricky.

Dominic Cummings is a professional asshole, but I wish more of Trump’s former aides would feud with him publicly. They prefer to be quoted without attribution like John Kelly. Better a brave asshole than a cowardly one

The last word goes to Split Enz with a song about sharks, not hair:

Jul 16 2021
2 Comments
Adrastos, Books, Diary, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, The Darnold

Run Through The Milley

I’m debuting a new featured image meme today. I’ve used the above image with the Fog of Scandal, but the ultimate scandal of the Trump Regime deserves its own meme.

Books about the disastrous final year of the Impeached Insult Comedian’s reign of error are flying off the shelves. As my mother used to say, it was “uglier than boiled sin” in public and even worse in private. I asked Mom to explain this Midwesternism. She told me to try boiling sin to see what it looked like. It was a non-answer but a funny one, so I let it slide. I guess she had a feeling inside that she couldn’t explain:

Mom never did Roger’s mike toss or Pete’s windmill. I would have paid to see either…

Back to the Dipshit Insurrection. General Mark Milley is a central figure in I Alone Can Fix It by the WaPo’s Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. (The book should really be called I Alone Can Wreck It.) We’re going to focus on the General’s reaction to the Trump regime’s end game and my reaction to Milley’s reactions. Sounds reactive…

As he showed in responding to Matt Gaetz’s CRT question, Mark Milley is an erudite and well-read man. I was appalled when he joined the Kaiser of Chaos on his bible waving jaunt but pleased when he apologized. It takes a big man to take responsibility for their mistakes. Something Donald Trump has never done in his Lilliputian life.

General Milley’s antennae began tingling right after the election:

… the general’s worries grew rapidly as the president plunged the nation into chaos following Election Day. Seven days later, Milley got a call from “an old friend” with an explicit warning that Trump and his allies were trying to “overturn the government.” Milley was confident that any attempts by Trump to hold on to power would be thwarted, because the military wouldn’t go along. “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed,” he told aides. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns.”

That is, of course, the classic definition of a coup. A definition I agree with. What happened on 1/6/2021 was a riotous insurrection. Whatever word you use, it was some serious shit that should never be forgotten.

I long ago discarded Godwin’s Law in discussing Trumpism. So too did General Milley.

…Milley was disturbed by the sight of Trump supporters rallying to his cause in November, calling them “Brownshirts in the streets.” Leonnig and Rucker wrote that Milley “believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military.” The general likened the U.S. to Germany’s fragile Weimar Republic in the early 1930s. “This is a Reichstag moment,” he said, referring to the arson attack on Germany’s Parliament that Hitler used as a pretext to assume absolute power and destroy democracy.

And that was before the Dipshit Insurrection. The aftermath of 1/6 is where the Reichstag Fire analogy works best. They’re trying to whitewash the event and pretend that, in Trump’s recent phrase, “it was a love fest.” Oy just oy.

This was Milley’s reaction to the crowd watching Trump’s 1/6 screed:

“These guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II.”

I’ve said the same thing myself: my uncle died fighting Fascism. The shame of the thing and its follow-up are staggering. Of course, former President* Pennywise’s picture is in the dictionary next to shameless.

There’s been a controversy as to whether General Milley should have done more to counter Trump. I understand those who think he should have, at the very least, testified at the second impeachment trial or spoken out publicly. It’s a close call, but I think it’s more important to preserve the principle of civilian control of the military.

If Milley had spoken out, he would have had to resign. I’m glad a General who understood that Trump was “preaching the gospel of the Fuhrer” was in place. Unlike Trump, Milley has heard of the Nuremberg Principles and would have refused to obey illegal orders to involve the military in a coup.

As a young man. I heard stories from my Greek relatives of tanks rolling through the streets of Athens in 1967. Thanks to General Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and other senior military commanders, it didn’t happen here. It was, however, a close call.

I chose a punny title for this post because Mark Milley was indeed run through the mill by the Trump regime. I’m glad someone who knows history and understands the nature of Fascism had a seat at the table during the bleak final days of the Trump administration. Besides, what’s not to love about a guy who told Stephen Miller to “shut the fuck up” during the BLM protest season?

The last word is inspired by a punny title I discarded, Walk A Milley In My Shoes. That’s why it goes to an unlikely trio: Joe South, Bryan Ferry, and Billy Eckstein.

 

 

Jul 12 2021
2 Comments
Adrastos, Books, Diary, Dipshit Insurrection, Film, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Language, Political Crack, The Darnold

Ashli Babbittry

Sinclair Lewis is back in fashion because of his parable of American fascism, It Can’t Happen Here. I’m not sure how many people have read the novel as opposed to posting pictures of the cover on social media. That’s more common than you might think. It’s gotten to the point where I ask errant social media commenters if they’ve read the post of mine they’re attacking. They usually have not.

I had a high school English teacher who was kin to Sinclair Lewis. I don’t recall the consanguinity, but her stock line was “Sinclair Lewis, not Upton Sinclair.”

People were just as easily confused in the 20th Century as they are now. I wish I could say that Twitter birthed mass stupidity, but its been with us forever. Hell, when I ran a Google search for Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair’s name came up almost as often.

That brings me to another Sinclair Lewis novel Babbitt, which is a fine example of satire circa 1922. It was the story of a Midwestern real estate developer named George Babbitt. He was the epitome of vapid conformity and banal boosterism.

It’s every writer’s dream to coin a word or phrase that makes the dictionary. That happened with Babbitt, which is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as:

“a person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards.”

A mini essay at Merriam-Webster.com adds this thought about Babbittry:

The values, attitudes, and mores associated with the American middle class in the 1920s can be summed up in the word Babbitry. It derives from the protagonist of Babbitt, a satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis published in 1922. George F. Babbitt epitomizes the unimaginative and self-important businessmen that Lewis found typical of the provincial cities and towns of America. Despite his evident prosperity and status, he remains vaguely dissatisfied with life and makes tentative attempts at rebellion; however, in the end, he finds his need for social acceptance greater than his desire for escape.

To a great extent that describes the conformism that is Trumpism. Trumpers tend to trumpet the cliches they’ve heard on Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart, and other wingnutty web sites. Trumpism is a conformist creed that relies on talking points instead of independent thought hence the anti-intellectual attacks on science and education. Who among us isn’t tired of hearing about cancel culture?

The anti-intellectualism of Trumpism is nothing new. George Wallace was fond of attacking “damn pointy-headed intellectuals who can’t park their bicycle straight.”

The Impeached Insult Comedian was never that witty.

Continue reading →

Jul 09 2021
5 Comments
Adrastos, Diary, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Malakatude, Political Crack, The Darnold, The Kavanaugh Mess

Malaka Of The Week: Michael Avenatti

Glory Days: Stormy Daniels & Michael Avenatti.

As a satirist I have a firm rule. I always kick up, never down. Kicking down isn’t funny, which is one reason my original nickname for Donald Trump, the Insult Comedian, is ironic. He always kicks down, never up. As a result, he’s not funny.

As a human being I have an analogous rule. My father taught me never kick a man when he’s down. There are exceptions to every rule. And that is why Michael Avenatti is malaka of the week.

I never cared for or wrote favorably about Malaka Michael. The MSM was madly in love with him because he was colorful and quotable. Besides, he represented a porn star going after then President* Pennywise. What’s more colorful than that?

I was struck by the man’s high regard for himself. He reminded me of a law school classmate who was my friend until he made law review. Then he dropped all his 1L friends. It was a classic kick down. It was no great loss; he was an asshole anyway. There’s a character based on him in my law school novel. Tongue In The Mail. He wasn’t the murderer just your basic malaka mouthpiece wannabe.

I began to detest Avenatti when he intervened in the Kavanaugh Mess. He made an easy target for Republicans who were able to paint him as a hyper partisan jerk who was only interested in himself not SCOTUS. Malaka Michael’s posturing made it harder for undecided GOP senators to vote Kavanaugh down. Thanks, dude.

Avenatti decided that being a porn star lawyer and cable news rock star qualified him to be president:

I wrote about this creep’s brief foray into Democratic presidential politics in a post with an apt title, The Ego Has Landed: Why Not Me Avenatti 2020?

His campaign slogan was ironic given his current circumstances: Restore Integrity.

The malakatude it burns.

Stephanie Clifford DBA Stormy Daniels made Malaka Michael a celebrity. Representing her turned out to be his undoing. His ego exploded to the point that he attempted to extort money from Nike. Pro-tip: never shake down a corporation that’s worth between 15 and 25 billion dollars.

Cue Carl Sagan meme:

Avenatti called it negotiating for a client, Nike called it extortion. A Manhattan jury agreed with Nike and found him guilty of extortion last year. Yesterday, Avenatti was sentenced to 30 months in jail by a federal judge who called him “drunk with power.”

Avenatti goes on trial in Los Angeles next week for stealing money from his clients.

In his future is another federal trial for stealing Stormy Daniels’ $300K book advance. Stormy giveth and Stormy taketh away.

Avenatti is a walking cautionary tale of the perils of believing your own publicity. A bit of humility never hurt anyone. And that is why Michael Avenatti is malaka of the week.

The last word goes to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers:

Jul 08 2021
Adrastos, Bigotry, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, Race, Sports, The Darnold

Taking A Schott At Trump

Here we go again. The Kaiser of Chaos is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. It’s the only way he makes news, after all.

The Guardian scored an early copy of a book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender. The source of the story is obviously John Kelly who is willing to tell the truth about his former boss privately but never publicly.

Here we go again:

On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.”

<SNIP>

But Bender says unnamed sources reported that Kelly “told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred”, emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s.

“Kelly pushed back again,” Bender writes, “and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”

Bender adds that Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis after 1933 were true, “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”

Unnamed sources? Only Kelly and Trump were in that room. I understand Bender not wanting to burn his sources, but John Kelly is a coward. I don’t usually say that about generals, but I’ll say it again: John Kelly is a coward. He’s retired from the military so he can speak freely about the Kaiser of Chaos. The same goes for General Mattis. At least he doesn’t leak stories, so he’s not quite as bad as Kelly but he’s guilty of the same moral cowardice.

The incident took place on the same European trip that Pennywise made the infamous suckers and losers remark. John Kelly heard all of this hateful shit but remains silent in public.

Repeat after me: John Kelly is a coward.

Here we go again. Nobody is surprised when Trump says something nice about Nazis. He’s done it before, and he’ll do it again.  It’s probably something Donald heard his father Fred say. Before World War II, Hitler was popular among conservative German Americans because he “fixed” the German economy. Money is all that matters to Trumps past present and future.

That brings me to the post title and featured image. The minute I heard about Trump’s remarks, I thought of former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott. She’s been out of baseball since 1999 and dead since 2004, but she made some unforgettable comments about Hitler in 1996:

“Everything you read, when he [Hitler] came in he was good,” the Reds owner said in an interview aired by ESPN last night. “They built tremendous highways and got all the factories going. He went nuts, he went berserk. I think his own generals tried to kill him, didn’t they? Everybody knows he was good at the beginning but he just went too far.”

Oy just oy.

Like Donald Trump, Marge Schott was German American.

Like Donald Trump, Marge Schott only cared about money.

Unlike Donald Trump, Marge Schott loved dogs, St. Bernards in particular. It was her redeeming characteristic. Donald Trump has none.

I have no doubt that Marge Schott would be an ardent Trumper if she were still alive. Praising Hitler wasn’t her only racist outburst. She called two of her star players Eric Davis and Dave Parker “million dollar n*****s.”

Schott wasn’t crazy about Jews or Asians either. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Marge Schott was suspended by Major League Baseball several times for her bigoted comments and eventually run out of the game. I suspect contemporary “conservatives” would claim that she was a victim of cancel culture. Her wounds like those of the Impeached Insult Comedian were self-inflicted but the worst thing she could do was ruin a ball club, not a country.

About the featured image. I somehow missed the 2017 Stern cover and the Politico story about it when it ran in the wake of the Charlottesville mishigas. I remember the Sports Illustrated cover of Schott who was a heavy smoker as well as a bigot and poor excuse for a human being.

About the title. In addition to Schott and Trump, I kicked around several ideas. Then I thought of the old song Taking A Chance On Love, which begins with “Here I go again.”

Somehow Taking A Chance On Love became Taking A Schott At Trump.

It’s an odd inspiration for this punny post title but I’m an odd guy. Ironically, the song debuted in a musical about Black folks, Cabin In The Sky. I shudder to think what Donald and Marge would say about that.

Here I go again, the last word goes to Ella Fitzgerald:

Jul 02 2021
Adrastos, Diary, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack, Television, The Darnold

Trump Family Values

As I luxuriated in the Indictment Thursday coverage I found myself asking: what does Mary Trump think? I reviewed her book last year for Bayou Brief. Too Much and Never Enough made me respect her judgment and her take on her kin folks.

The most interesting moment of Mary’s interview with Rachel Maddow last night was this:

RM: Allen Weisselberg is being charged for benefitting from that scheme. The indictment says, other executives also benefitted from that scheme. And now, we`ve got solid reporting that the investigation continues. That raises the prospect that further charges could be brought against his children.

MT: Yeah, it does. And I — again, I think they should be quite anxious right now. Donald, on the other hand, will expect the same kind and level of loyalty from them, as he expects from Allen. You know, as far as Donald`s concerned, they have what they have because of him. And they should be willing to take whatever hit they are going to take.

He doesn`t understand, I guess, how these things work. Prosecutors won`t stop at my cousins. They will be going for the bigger fish, which would be Donald, who`s been running this organization for over 30 years, now.

So I think he would be surprised to learn that I don`t believe my cousins would exert that kind of — exercise that kind of loyalty towards him because his relationship with them and their relationship with him is entirely transactional. So — and conditional, I should say.

So, they`re not going to risk anything for him, just as he wouldn`t risk anything for them. So, it could get really, really interesting as these things unfold, because there are so many more documents that New York prosecutors have at their disposal.

RM: So, you have more confidence that Allen Weisselberg would — wouldn`t cooperate, than you do that the president`s — former president`s children wouldn`t cooperate?

MT: Yeah. I think, as far as I understand it, and, you know, I`m not a lawyer. But it seems that, as — as serious as these charges are, they may not end up with jail time or any significant amount of jail time. And the downside of cooperating with prosecutors, for Allen Weisselberg might be larger than the downside of going to jail if it`s for a short enough period of time.

So, again, it`s going to be very interesting to see just the — the case that can be made. And the sentencing, if it comes to that, because I think that will factor in, for sure. But I`m much less sanguine about my cousins` loyalty to their father.

Sorry for the long quote, but I wanted everything to be put in context. Mary Trump might be wrong about her cousins but the mere possibility they *could* flip on former President* Pennywise is fascinating. We all have fickle and untrustworthy relatives, but this takes the cake.

Speaking of cake and relatives who work together, I feel a musical interlude coming on.

The current edition of Crowded House has three Finns. I don’t think Liam or Elroy would flip on papa Neil. Their Uncle Tim never did. There’s more Eighties music to come at the end of the post. It was the decade in which Donald Trump became famous, after all.

Now that we’ve had dessert, back to the main course: the Trumps. There have long been rumors of discord between the Two Donalds. Junior rebelled against his father after his mother was so publicly dumped. That’s one of the few good things I’ve ever heard about Junior.

Don Junior seems to think he can be the next John Quincy Adams or George W Bush: son of a president who becomes one himself. Adams set the bar high, but W lowered it considerably; making even grandson of a president Benjamin Harrison look good. Ratting out the Kaiser of Chaos would be bad for Junior politically, so I think he’ll stay on the sinking ship.

Continue reading →

Jul 01 2021
Adrastos, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack, The Darnold

Like A Summer Thursday

There’s a lot going on in the legal world today. Make that too much. My head is spinning and glistening with sweat because it’s summer. That was almost melodramatic enough to score a gig as a cable news host. I can hype things with the best of them, but I choose not to. I value my sanity. I’ll never be able to sigh as much as Rachel Maddow…

I did a search for songs with Thursday in the title. I was surprised at how many there are. I picked this Townes Van Zandt song because it’s summer and it’s Thursday:

It has nothing to do with the law, but I like it. We need something mellow on such a frantic news day.

I’m not writing this in order of importance. The SCOTUS stuff and the Trump Org indictment are clearly the top stories for this edition of the Legal Docket, but we begin in Pennsylvania.

Castor Oiled: Cassandra wrote a swell post about the Cosby case and I’m following up with a few notes on the law. While the ruling by the Pennsylvania supremes is bizarre in its reliance on a Bruce Castor press release, the Cosby prosecution fucked up.

Prosecutors should have done a better job insulating their case from Castor’s promise not to prosecute Cosby. They’re only partially to blame for this clusterfuck. The bulk of the blame goes to Bruce Castor.

We all remember Castor as the faux folksy lawyer who worked on the second Trump impeachment.  He wasn’t any more competent as District Attorney of Montgomery County, PA.

I don’t agree with the court ruling but it’s not baseless since Castor made such a mess of everything. The good news is that it didn’t exonerate Cosby. The bad news is that it freed him so he can pontificate and lecture the rest of the country. He’ll always be a convicted sex offender to me. Fat Albert can fuck off too.

There are some fine instant analysis pieces by sharper legal minds than mine:

Daniel Joseph Stern at Slate.

Harry Litman at the WaPo

Barbara McQuade at the NYT.

SCOTUS: There was a major decision in an Arizona voting rights case. Plaintiffs said the laws discriminated against minorities. The majority opinion by Justice Alito dismissed those concerns. It’s genuinely frightening that Sam Alito created a new test to be applied to voting rights cases. Shorter Alito: Republicans good, Democrats bad. I oversimplify but that’s the end result.

California had a law that forced non-profit donors to disclose their identity. Transparency is good, right? Not according to 6 supremes who struck the law down. They even compared Americans for Prosperity to the NAACP during Jim Crow. AFP is a Koch brothers group. Oy just oy.

There’s been a lot of speculation that Justice Breyer *might* retire today but nothing has happened as of this writing. I remain concerned that the pressure campaign might have backfired. As I wrote a few weeks ago: “These tactics didn’t work with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, why would they work with Justice Breyer?”

Watch this space.

Manhattan Melodrama: I wrote this segment in bits and pieces before and after the arraignment hearing. Here we go.

I wish I could augment my original nickname for Donald Trump and make it the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian, but his head is not on the chopping block today. Since he never thinks ahead, he’s apparently celebrating that fact. The indictment of the Trump Org could doom it as a business enterprise. It owes hundreds of millions to lenders who may call in the loans. Spiking the ball prematurely is never a good idea.

I was hoping that Allen Weisselberg would flip but there’s still time. Why does he think that Trump will reciprocate his loyalty? Beats the hell out of me. Perhaps he sold his soul to the elder Trump long ago.

The indictment makes it clear that the charges involve a long-running scam to avoid taxes on the part of Weisselberg personally and the company. The amount listed is substantial: $1.5 million but the crime is not as sexy as insurance or bank fraud.

Prosecutors made it clear that the investigation continues. My hunch is that the indictment is a club to hang over Weisselberg’s head. They’re hoping he’ll flip now that he’s been cuffed and charged. If he doesn’t, it makes it less likely that Trump will be a defendant in this case.

A reminder that the law is slow.

Stay tuned.

I’ll be back if anything major happens today, but I’d rather focus on the Top Chef finale.

The last word goes to David Bowie:

 

Jun 28 2021
1 Comment
Adrastos, Diary, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, The Darnold

Trumper Tittle-Tattle

It was a long night. I woke up at 3:30 and couldn’t find my iPhone, which I use as an alarm clock. I felt like an overage millennial zombie as I searched. I found it but the search made me wakeful. Oh well, I came up with the idea for Arriving UAP while tossing and turning.

I’m not feeling perky right now so I’m just going to throw some links at you and see what sticks. I worked the morning shift for Tommy T and those are big shoes to fill. I skipped the clown shoes jokes because he doesn’t wear them, he just writes about them.

Trump On Dipshit Insurrection Day: There’s a smashing excerpt from Michael Woolf’s upcoming book at nymag.com. It’s a blow-by-blow account of how the Impeached Insult Comedian spent Twelfth Night, 2021.

Trump spent the day wallowing in his delusions and Rudy was drunk off his ass. Most teetotalers I know are uncomfortable with drunkenness. I guess Pennywise thinks it makes them easier marks or some such shit.

This is my favorite passage:

But it was also a pretty good insight into Trump’s relationship to his army of supporters. The president often expressed puzzlement over who these people were with their low-rent “trailer camp” bearing and their “get-ups,” once joking that he should have invested in a chain of tattoo parlors and shaking his head about “the great unwashed.”

Yet they still admire the nasty son-of-a-bitch. Go figure.

Barr Bites Back: The former AG is trying to salvage his reputation. It’s unlikely to work but he sat down with anti-Trump conservative Jonathan Karl to discuss the White House meeting wherein he broke with Trump.

I love Karl’s description of the meeting:

Barr, Levi, and Cipollone walked to the president’s personal dining room near the Oval Office. Trump was sitting at the table. Meadows was sitting next to him with his arms crossed; the White House adviser Eric Herschmann stood off to the side. The details of this meeting were described to me by several people present. One told me that Trump had “the eyes and mannerism of a madman.”

He went off on Barr.

“I think you’ve noticed I haven’t been talking to you much,” Trump said to him. “I’ve been leaving you alone.”

Barr later told others that the comment was reminiscent of a line in the movie Dr. Strangelove, in which the main character, Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, says, “I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.” Trump, Barr thought, was saying that he had been denying him his essence.

Trump brought up Barr’s AP interview.

“Did you say that?”

“Yes,” Barr responded.

“How the fuck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?”

“Because it’s true.”

The president, livid, responded by referring to himself in the third person: “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”

I’ve always hated people who refer to themselves in the third person. It’s the sign of a weak disordered mind even when it’s true as it is here. Who among us doesn’t hate Trump? Adrastos does…

Javanka On The Run: The funniest story of last week came from the good people at Vanity Fair’s The Hive. It certainly had me buzzing.

Ivanka and Jared continue to be as deluded as her father. They seem to somehow think they can separate themselves from Papa Bear.

In a move right out of the same playbook they used during their time at the White House—wherein they would literally flee the scene any time Trump did something extra bad, and hope people would think they had nothing to do with it despite being senior advisers to the president, Jared and Ivanka are now reportedly trying to convince people who don’t know any better that they’ve all but cut ties with the 45th president over his erratic behavior and insistence that he won the 2020 election. Naturally, sources “familiar with the matter” have shared the couple’s alleged chilliness with Trump…

Their porridge must be spiked with some hallucinogens, y’all.

That’s it for this groggy edition of First Draft Potpourri. The last word goes to The Kinks:

Jun 23 2021
Adrastos, COVID-19, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks, The Darnold

Welcome To Trumptanamo

Paint By Numbers Pinocchio.

As a child, I was obsessed with the 1940 Disney movie Pinocchio. I was haunted by Pinocchio’s trip to Pleasure Island. He was conned into going by Honest John the fox seen above. Instead of paradise, it was hell as wayward boys were transformed into donkeys. Holy Cautionary tail, Batman.

I thought of Pleasure Island when I heard about Nightmare Scenario. It’s a new book by two WaPo reporters about Team Trump’s handling of the pandemic. It has a passage that reminded me of the time then President* Pennywise suggested that people ingest bleach to deal with COVID. This is just as stupid:

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as White House officials debated whether to bring infected Americans home for care, President Donald Trump suggested his own plan for where to send them, eager to suppress the numbers on U.S. soil.

“Don’t we have an island that we own?” the president reportedly asked those assembled in the Situation Room in February 2020, before the U.S. outbreak would explode. “What about Guantánamo?”

“We import goods,” Trump specified, lecturing his staff. “We are not going to import a virus.”

Aides were stunned, and when Trump brought it up a second time, they quickly scuttled the idea, worried about a backlash over quarantining American tourists on the same Caribbean base where the United States holds terrorism suspects.

It’s Pleasure Island all over again with then President* Pennywise in the role of Honest John and Slumlord Jared as his smarmy sidekick, Gideon the cat. Like everything else about the Trump regime, the idea was a con, a variation on the cup and ball trick. Instead of hiding the ball, Trump hoped to hide the virus. The stupid burns like bleach.  Oy just oy.

We all knew that the Impeached Insult Comedian was an ignorant idiot, but this is stupid even by his standards. Guantánamo is a naval base, not an island. It’s a piece of Cuba that the second Bush Administration transformed into a prison for terrorists in 2002. It’s a relic of the age of gunboat diplomacy: the US Navy “leased” it in 1903.

Since the Kaiser of Chaos knows nothing about history, he was oblivious to the other image this would have evoked to the sentient public: Leper Colonies. Leprosy is now called Hansen’s Disease to reduce the stigma associated with the original term. It was once believed to be highly contagious and was a huge problem during the Dark Ages. That resulted in a primitive and cruel form of social distancing: Leper Colonies, which were often islands. Hence the original post title: Welcome To The Trumptanamo Leper Colony.

Just imagine if then President* Pennywise had been shipped off to the Trumptanamo instead of Walter Reed Medical Center when he was stricken with COVID. It’s a good thing that some of his aides had sense enough not to drink that version of the Trumper Kool-Aide. The stupid burns like bleach. Oy just oy.

The last word goes to The Who with a song in which Tommy serenades his cult members:

Jun 21 2021
3 Comments
Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s obsession with the Freeperati – “World’s Biggest Loser” edition

Yeah, I know I said I was going to take a week off, but this was too good to ignore :

Trump Says He ‘Didn’t Win’ The 2020 Election And Wants Biden To ‘Do Well’
forbes.com ^ | June 17, 2021 | Andrew Solender

Posted on 6/17/2021, 10:22:07 PM by Berlin_Freeper

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday came as close as he’s ever been to conceding his 2020 election loss in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, also claiming he is rooting for President Joe Biden’s success on the world stage.

Trump said that although he did “much better” in 2020 than he did in 2016 in terms of total votes, “we didn’t win,” adding that the result was “shocking.”

1 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:22:07 PM by Berlin_Freeper
.
Let’s examine that for a moment, shall we?
.
Trump Says He ‘Didn’t Win’ The 2020 Election.
.
.
Hmmm.
To: Berlin_Freeper
What ?
4 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:23:51 PM by libh8er
He said :  Trump Says He ‘Didn’t Win’ The 2020 Election.
To: Berlin_Freeper

lol. this thread will be fun to watch.

5 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:24:37 PM by JohnBrowdie

.
.
To: JohnBrowdie

Indeed. Folks will be on here soon to say that President Trump meant to say that he did not win his battle in court regarding election fraud.

Whatever and however. A spin is a spin.

32 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:45:49 PM by Responsibility2nd (I love my country. It’s my government that I hate.)

Aaaand – GO!!!
To: libh8er
Trump doesn’t say/do things randomly. There’s a strategy behind it.. but what ?
7 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:25:03 PM by libh8er
To: LastDayz
I need to see the video before I believe this.
9 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:26:30 PM by CaptainK (“If life’s really hard, at least its short”)
To: Berlin_Freeper
This is classic Trump pys-ops folks
13 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:28:40 PM by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Free Republic: The Internet’s 1st social media platform. Since 1996.)
To: Berlin_Freeper
Had no idea Forbes was ran by rabid leftists
18 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:32:12 PM by Smellin Salt
Yeah – those commies over at Forbes never speak up for the millionaires among us.  Bastards.
To: Responsibility2nd
it’s pay-ops! it’s 9-d chess! it’s fake news! it’s strategery!
this thread is comedy gold.
34 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:48:48 PM by JohnBrowdie
Ssshhhh.
To: FreeReign
it’s over. it has been over for months.
38 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:56:42 PM by JohnBrowdie
.
Come on – where’s that indomitable Freeper spirit?
.
To: mrsmith

After approval by the states and the Congress the election is over. So says the Constitution (which many here hate obviously). Constitution says nothing about cheating or fairness. But it says it’s over.If the states base their certifications on fraud, then no it isn’t over, or at least no it shouldn’t be over.

Fraud vitiates all contracts, documents and judgements.

Fraud taints everything resulting from it. If a tree is poisonous, so too is its fruit.

That all said, our cowardly SC most likely won’t get involved, but they should.

36 posted on 6/17/2021, 10:54:40 PM by FreeReign
Rebuttal?
To: FreeReign
So says the Constitution (which many here hate obviously).

Hate it all you want.
Hate it over and over.

Of course our Founders understood nothing- at least compared to a genius like you…

39 posted on 6/17/2021, 11:02:46 PM by mrsmith (US MEDIA: ” Every ‘White’ cop is a criminal! And all the ‘non-white’ criminals saints!”)

Ouchie.
.
We will now hear from Senator Blutarski :

I can’t think of
One thing,
Not one.
Except
Crushing a Beer can
on my Head.
A Full One.

51 posted on 6/17/2021, 11:13:37 PM by Big Red Badger (Be Still and Know that I Am God. Rev 19)

.
To: FreeReign
trump did nothing more than admit what he can no longer deny; that he didn’t win. there is no context you can create that changes the meaning of “we didn’t win”. it means that he didn’t win.

ok, what are you going to do when the AZ audit turns out to be a dry hole — which it inevitably will?

declare the auditors to be part of the conspiracy? call people rinos, and bravely type away on your lethal keyboard that republicans should be voted out of office because democrats are destroying the country?

57 posted on 6/17/2021, 11:24:58 PM by JohnBrowdie

.
Why not? It’s what Freepers do each and every time they lose an election.
.
And now – the post of the thread!
To: Berlin_Freeper
Hey Trump, stop talking and play golf. We don’t need you.
43 posted on 6/17/2021, 11:06:40 PM by Percy Quattro
.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
.
Going to try for that mental health break again – wish me luck.
.
.
Jun 10 2021
2 Comments
Adrastos, Congress, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack, The Darnold

The Ghost Of Roy Cohn

The Don McGahn quest finally succeeded last week. The right-wing former White House counsel who looks like a liberal was subpoenaed two years ago but fought it and kicked the can down the road until it was seriously dented.

The transcript was released this week. It’s all over the interweb but I checked it out at the Lawfare blog because it’s searchable.

Most of McGahn’s testimony confirms what was written about him in the Mueller Report. No surprise there, he was one of the primary sources for Team Mueller, which is why he’s about as popular at Mar-a-Doorn as Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler.

The most interesting bits of the transcript to me at least are the parts about Roy Cohn who Trump considered a great man and I consider one of the worst people to come out of New York City. Something he has in common with the Kaiser of Chaos, but Donald never worked for Tailgunner Joe McCarthy. They were both, however, Democrats when it aided whatever grift they were running at a given time.

I hereby present the passages about Roy Cohn with some commentary. Somebody had to do it, so why not me? I still have my lawyer hat on, after all.

It turns out that McGahn’s father was a lawyer who attended NYU Law School. Guess who one of his profs was:

McGahn:  My dad also had Roy Cohn as a professor in law school, if you must know, but that’s a separate issue.

I wonder what Cohn taught: Redbaiting 101 or Mob Lawyering? Enquiring minds want to know even if David Pecker does not. If that were my last name, I’d change it in a heartbeat just like Peter Marshall of Hollywood Squares fame changed his last name from La Cock. Imagine the fun Paul Lynde would have had with that.

McGahn: And then as the report indicates, his response is in the report, and he invoked, you know, Roy Cohn apparently didn’t take notes.

Q:  So was it your understanding that he thought great lawyers like Roy Cohn did not take notes?

McGahn:  He said that, yes. Not only did I think that, I heard him say that, yes.

Q: And what was your reaction to that?

McGahn: I didn’t really have one. My recollection is I didn’t really respond. And this was not the first time that Roy Cohn has sort of — the ghost of Roy had come into the Oval Office, so it didn’t seem to be a point worth responding to and, you know, he’s the President, he gets the last word.

The Ghost of Roy Cohn? A genuinely terrifying thought. As far as I know the only president who allowed Cohn to darken the White House door was Ronald Reagan. He was a redbaiting witch hunter himself in his Hollywood days. I wonder if Cohn ate any jellybeans. Ronnie had a sense of humor so maybe he gave Cohn some red ones. Oh, sweet mysteries of life.

Continue reading →

Jun 09 2021
Adrastos, Law/Justice, Legal Docket, Political Crack, The Darnold

Of Scams, Perfect Phone Calls & Nomenclature

It’s time to put on my lawyer hat.  It’s too hot to wear a fedora and I’ll skip Rudy’s favorite tinfoil hat. I don’t want to attract lightning.

The Lesser Trump Scam: This is one of my favorite stories in quite some time. It combines Trumper gullibility and avarice:

A 22-year old Pennsylvania man raked in thousands of dollars by impersonating various members of the Trump family, Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Joshua Hall is facing charges of wire fraud and identity theft after allegedly creating fake social media accounts of lower-profile Trump family members like Barron Trump, Robert Trump, and Elizabeth Trump Grau to collect money.

<SNIP>

Hall allegedly created a fake political organization to receive funds. The plot allegedly started off in September 2019, with Hall creating several social media accounts impersonating famous people who then endorsed what prosecutors describe as Hall’s political organization.

Hall allegedly did this through a crowdfunding platform that media reports have identified as GoFundMe, used to send money to Hall’s group Gay Voices for Trump.

Gay Voices For Trump? Really? Somebody fell for that? Of course, they did. There are thousands of idiots who think Trump is the real president. They’re ripe for the taking.

Hall had to drop Robert Trump after he died but Barron lives. The other name belongs to Trump’s shy sister. Yes, I said shy. Somebody in that family has to be.

Rudy’s Perfect Phone Call: What’s a news cycle without a Rudy story? This time, CNN scored the recordings of Giuliani’s call to the right-hand man of the Ukrainian president. It laid the groundwork for the call that caused the first impeachment. Heckuva job, Rudy.

If you want to hear Rudy extorting Andiry Yermak, CLICK HERE.

More and more Rudy resembles a turd swirling about the terlet bowl on its way to the sewer. Correction: Rudy was already in the sewer. In any event, he’s in deep shit and sinking fast.

I eagerly await to see who flips first on Trump: Rudy or Allen Weisselberg. The latter at least has the good sense to say, “No comment.” Rudy never met a camera he didn’t try to hump.

Nomenclature: Here’s the deal. I too disagree with some of the early decisions made by the Department of Justice, but it’s NOT the Biden DOJ. If the MSM must append a name to it, call it the Garland DOJ. The administration is trying to remove DOJ from politics after the previous president treated it as his personal plaything.

I’m withholding judgment on Merrick Garland. It’s too early to say where the DOJ is headed. I prefer not to get lost in the weeds over individual issues. On balance, I thought Eric Holder and Janet Reno were good Attorneys General but I had substantial areas of disagreement with both.

Hot takes are for the birds as is allowing former President* Pennywise to live rent-free in one’s head.

I opened talking hats, let’s circle back and give Lyle Lovett the last word.

Jun 08 2021
Adrastos, Film, Political Crack, The Darnold

The Devil Made Me Review It

Five years of writing about former President* Pennywise have made me something of an expert on demonic possession. It’s a plausible explanation for the behavior of Republicans who should know better. The GOP’s political house is haunted. It needs an exorcism. Who you gonna call? Not the Ghostbusters, but Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Ed and Lorraine Warren are the real life paranormal researchers whose exploits inspired all three Conjuring movies. The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It is the latest installment of 8 movies in the Conjuring Universe. It’s something of a marketing ploy that mimics the dread Marvel Universe but the movies are good so who am I to balk?

I like intelligent character driven horror movies, but I don’t believe in ghosts, demons, or other things that go bump in the night. I don’t exactly disbelieve either: some things defy rational explanation such as the Impeached Insult Comedian’s appeal to voters. What’s more irrational than that?

The Conjuring 3 is inspired by a “true story” in the Hollywood manner. There *was* a case in which defendant Arnie Johnson claimed the “devil made me do it” but that argument never got before the jury. The movie implies that it did.

I only care about strict adherence to the facts in movies when history is involved. The story told in The Conjuring 3 is insignificant. It’s not like Oliver Stone polluting the national dialogue with every cockamamie conspiracy theory in JFK. If you’re interested in the real not the reel story get thee to ScreenRant.com.

The Conjuring 3 deviates from the formula of the first two movies: there’s nary a haunted house in sight. The villain is an androgynous creature called The Occultist whose specialty is placing curses on people. The details don’t matter that much in a horror movie if it delivers a compelling story and the requisite number of scary moments.

The movie works because of the performances of Patrick Wilson and Vera Famigia as Ed and Lorraine Warren. They’re fine actors who bring plausibility to the series There’s some extra drama involving an exorcism induced heart attack suffered by Ed who gimps about for the rest of the movie much to Lorraine’s frustration.

It’s time for a musical interlude:

I’m not sure who Martha is but I love the carnival style organ on that song.

You’re probably wondering if I ventured out to see The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It on the big screen. I did not. Vaccination rates in the Gret Stet of Louisiana are depressingly low and I’d rather not share recirculated air with the unvaccinated. Shorter Adrastos, we watched it on HBO Max. The best part of that is that I rewatched it in broad daylight, which was almost as weird as the movie itself.

I’m a sucker for The Conjuring movies. They’re best described as intelligent escapism that provides some thrills, chills, and may even cause you to spill, especially if you’re drinking one of those big ass theatre sodas.

Here’s the trailer:

I give The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+.

The last word goes to Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson with another Lorraine song:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Oscar Peterson? That goes for Louis too.

Jun 07 2021
1 Comment
Adrastos, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, The Darnold

Ignoring The Loser

Trump Grotesque by Michael F.

I woke up feeling uninspired this morning. Mercifully, Cassandra was ready with her latest piece on her Senator. I hesitate to call her our Manchin whisperer but if she writes about him I don’t have to. Thanks, C.

The filibuster remains a salient topic. Angus King the mustachioed Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats stated that he favored dealing with filibuster reform on an issue-by-issue basis. He *would* abolish it on voting rights issues. I’d blow the pernicious thing up, but the votes aren’t there.

The first two paragraphs are an attempt to live up to the post title. The Kaiser of Chaos left Mar-a-Doorn to speak to North Carolina Republicans last Saturday. There was good news for those of us with terminal Trump fatigue:

Fox News and CNN both decided not to broadcast Trump’s speech live. MSNBC did end up airing portions of the speech but only as background while correspondents commented on the event. The right-wing networks that are vying for Trump supporters, Newsmax and One America News, did air the former president’s speech.

CNN even devoted a bit more attention to the speech than Fox News. While Fox News decided to air a pre-taped Watters World show while the former president was speaking, CNN did have a segment in which guests discussed Trump’s speech and talked about how the former president seemed to be losing power. “The fact that CNN is not covering him live tonight with his speech. This is the first time—he hasn’t been out in three months,” David Gergen, a former presidential adviser to several administrations, said, according to Mediaite. “Fans are eager to know how he is evolving. CNN decided not to cover it. I think it is exactly the right decision. But it’s because he’s become less relevant to the future. He spent so much time trying to win arguments about the past, he is now losing the future.”

That’s the first time David Gergen has said anything noteworthy since the Clinton administration. His picture is in the dictionary next to the phrase Conventional Wisdom.

It is, of course, more significant than Fox passed on the latest epic 90-minute rant by the Impeached Insult Comedian. In the clips I’ve seen, he looked washed-out and low energy to use his own epithet; not that he knows what an epithet is..

It’s ironic that someone who attacks his enemies as socialists gives speeches as long as such past luminaries as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Republicans keep name dropping Chavez as part of one of their election conspiracies without mentioning that he’s been dead since 2013. Apparently, Zombie Hugo is a busy boy.

Trump himself may be fading out but Trumpism is alive. I almost said well but that’s not a word I’d apply to a movement that’s based on lies, fantasies, nativism, racism, and outright stupidity.

As much as I hate to agree with David Gergen on anything, Trump is the past. The future remains unclear but any speech by former President* Pennywise is a blast from a grotesque recent past. I stole that image as well as the featured image from my colleague Michael F. I only steal from the best.

Speaking of the best, the last word goes to The Beatles:

 

Jun 07 2021
1 Comment
Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Suspension of disbelief edition

Did someone say “suspended”?

Facebook suspends former U.S. President Trump’s account for two years
Reuters ^ | June 4, 2021

lPosted on 6/4/2021, 11:45:31 AM by Coronal

Facebook on Friday suspended former U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform for two years, a decision that has been watched closely for signals on how the company will treat rule-breaking world leaders in the future.

1 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:45:31 AM by Coronal
One…two…three…
To: Coronal

Hey ZUCK….they WILL get you!!! eventually GOD will get you.

5 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:48:01 AM by Ann Archy (Abortion……. The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)

God is now a “they”?
To: Coronal

TechnoTotalitarianism is what we are under.

Facebok is simply a way to communicate, as was the phone when it came out.

Imagine if a political ideology had controlled who could use a phone and who couldn’t based on phone conversations beginning in 1900.

11 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:51:00 AM by ifinnegan ( Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)

To: Coronal

What right does Facebook or other websites have to ban, prohibit or suspend people from its website?

14 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:51:29 AM by Meatspace

.
I guess that only applies to bakers who don’t want to put teh gay on their wedding cakes, huh?
.
To: Coronal

so he can’t talk  spew bullshit conspiracy theories, disinformation, and hatred  to the US

21 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:54:00 AM by butlerweave

FIFY.
To: Meatspace

They’re a private company, they can choose whether or not they want to allow individual persons or organizations to use their platform. They have that right.

25 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:54:22 AM by Coronal

And of course, dozens and dozens of posts about Freepers cancelling the Facebook accounts they never had, in protest…
To: Coronal

I will never be on Facebook.

39 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:59:23 AM by webheart (I already had COVID disease and 2 vaccine shots Can I take the mask off now?)

The world thanks you.
To: Coronal

Oh the horrors! Meanwhile, Trump is happily creating his own social media platform, from what I’ve read.

15 posted on 6/4/2021, 11:51:36 AM by Lucky2 (Biden or Harris are NOT my presidents.)

Yeah – about that….

Trump scraps short-lived blogNBC News ^ | June 2, 2021 | Jonathan Allen Posted on 6/2/2021, 10:48:10 AM by deport

Former President Donald Trump has discontinued his short-lived blog.

“It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have [been] and are working on,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said in confirming the decision to scrap “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.” The news was first reported by CNBC.

The move comes as Trump is set to return to the campaign trail in an effort to help Republicans win control of the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms as he considers whether to mount a third presidential campaign.

“He’s pretty consistently said that he’ll make a decision after the midterms,” Miller told NBC News last week. “I wouldn’t hedge it one way or the other.”

1 posted on 6/2/2021, 10:48:10 AM by deport
To: deport

Is he scrapping Brad Parscale again too?

2 posted on 6/2/2021, 10:49:46 AM by 9YearLurker

Hopefully.
To: deport

President Trump is a people to people talker.I don’t think anyone would mind a monthly rally in a different major city leading up to his 2023 nomination

3 posted on 6/2/2021, 10:51:03 AM by knarf (I say things that are true, I have no proof, but they’re true !)
To: deport
I was not interested in it because it asked for money right off.

 

 

There has to be a better way.

8 posted on 6/2/2021, 11:02:20 AM by madison10

How about this :
To: knarf

It looks like PDJT be at a rally

 

Be he? fo sho?

 

Jun 12, 11:30 AM – 4:00 PM CDT, put on by FrankSpeech.

https://home.frankspeech.com/event/maga-frank-rally-somerset-wisconsin-june-12-2021

Trump,

He’ll be phoning it in, of course.

 

Diamond and Silk, Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D’Souza …

26 posted on 6/2/2021, 7:45:09 PM by MayflowerMadam (Faith, not fear. Faith, not faintheartedness.)

Wow – all the biggies. Will Gallagher be there?  And don’t forget El Rushbo, (via a Sidney Powell seance)!
.
More after the thingy…

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Jun 03 2021
1 Comment
Adrastos, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, Television, The Darnold

Trump’s Epic Blog Fail & Other Bad Jokes

Things have been much too serious around here of late. Writing about massacres and insurrections isn’t a lot of fun. I’d rather tell the odd joke. That’s my goal today, to just let it rip and see where it leads.

Let’s cut this tangerine into segments Odds & Sods style.

From The Dreck of Donald Trump: We begin with the Trump Blog Fail. It’s hard to be a blogger in 2021. Building and sustaining an audience isn’t easy. It takes patience and maturity two qualities that are in short supply for an elderly toddler such as the Kaiser of Chaos. It also requires self-awareness and a sense of humor. He hasn’t got either of those either. That’s what made him a decent reality teevee host and a rotten blogger. Besides, it helps if you can write. The Impeached Insult Comedian cannot.

Perhaps it would have made it if he’d called it From The Dreck of Donald Trump and dropped the desk shtick. We’ll never know now.

It’s time for a marginally relevant musical interlude:

Tangerines are orange and so is Donald Trump. First Draft contributor Ryne Hancock calls him “The Orange Menace.”

I wonder if any prog rock types flip the name of the venerable German band and call the Darnold the Tangerine Nightmare? Beats the hell outta me.

Enough with the citrus jokes. In our next segment, I won’t squeeze the Don Lemon references dry since I usually watch MSNBC, not CNN.

Continue reading →

Jun 02 2021
Adrastos, Bigotry, Congress, COVID-19, Dipshit Insurrection, Fog Of History, Fog Of Scandal, Political Crack, Race, Terrorism, The Darnold

Of Hatred, Spite & Envy

President Biden tours the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa.

President Biden traveled to Tulsa and gave one of the best speeches of his life:

For much too long the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness. But just because history is silent, it doesn’t mean that it did not take place. And while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing, it erases nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can’t be buried no matter how hard people try. And so it is here, and so it is here only, only with truth can come healing, and justice, and repair, only with truth, facing it. But that isn’t enough.

There was a decades long cover-up of the extent of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. I was aware of it through my reading, but the extent of the carnage remains shocking. A mob attempted to erase a vibrant Black community, wipe out a culture out of hatred, spite, and envy. Hatred, spite, and envy are powerful emotions.

The context of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre feels ripped from the headlines. It took place after a pandemic when demagogues were stirring up hatred against minorities and immigrants. People were angry and looking for scapegoats.

Biden understands the parallels between now and then:

And finally, we must address what remains the stain on the soul of America. What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and domestic terrorism with a through line that exists today still. Just close your eyes, remember what you saw in Charlottesville four years ago on television. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the KKK coming out of those fields at night with lighted torches, the veins bulging as they were screaming. Remember? Just close your eyes and picture what it was. Well, Mother Fletcher said, when she saw the insurrection at the capital on January 9th, it broke her heart. A mob of violent white extremists, thugs, said reminded her of what happened in Greenwood 100 years ago. Look around at the various hate crimes against Asian Americans and Jewish Americans. Hate that never goes away. Hate only hides.

Hate as personified by the Kaiser of Chaos is in hiding at Mar-a-Dorn. He’s about to emerge from his cocoon like an evil moth and resume spewing hate at MAGA rallies. Hatred, spite, and envy are his jam.

While former President* Pennywise has been dormant, his minions have been busy spreading disinformation:

The anti-democratic conspiracy theory [that Trump will be “reinstated” as president] has been bubbling up in fringe conservative media for several months. It has no basis under the Constitution or any legitimate legal framework. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has been a prominent proponent of the theory. The former Trump attorney Sidney Powell also floated the idea at a QAnon conference over the weekend.

The anticipation of a Trump reinstatement on a certain date could spread further among the most dedicated Trump supporters. The calls to help overturn the 2020 election on January 6, for example, gained steam through a pro-Trump bus tour by a fringe group and led to the insurrection at the Capitol. Lindell has said August is when he would go to the Supreme Court to present evidence he’s acquired that would be so convincing that the justices would be forced to reject the 2020 election result.

The My Pillow Guy to the rescue? Oy just oy.

Disgraced General and 22-day National Security adviser Mike Flynn has been showing gratitude for his pardon by muttering about coups then claiming he said no such thing. It’s a classic reality show trope: lie then deny.

Trump and his trolls are driven by hatred, spite, and envy. They had their way with the federal government and left a mess behind. Once again, a Democratic president is cleaning a Republican’s mess. This is by far the worst: the defeated president* remains a threat to democracy itself.

It’s easy to laugh at the ridiculous counter-factual narrative being woven by the Trumpers. There is no such thing as “reinstatement.” It’s another lie spun by the Trump/QAnon wing of the GOP to depict Trump as a Christ-like figure who will be resurrected in August. We have no choice but to take this nonsense seriously. There are some seriously delusional people out there many of whom are dangerous, especially those driven by hatred, spite, and envy.

Hatred, spite, and envy are infecting our body politic much like COVID infected our bodies. Brain fog is a common symptom of COVID survivors. The Republican party is suffering from Trump induced brain fog driven by hatred, spite, and envy.

After a series of electoral defeats, Republicans have concluded that the only way they can retake Congress and the White House is by suppressing the votes of the “wrong people.” The whole “stop the steal” movement is a smokescreen to justify their actions, which are driven by-you guessed it-hatred, spite, and envy.

It won’t be easy for the Senate to pass the For The People voting rights act, but it is imperative. The only realistic path forward is filibuster reform. The vote on the Dipshit Insurrection Commission filibuster proved that there are at best only a handful of “good patriots” among senate GOPers. It’s time to bring majority rule to the senate.

I nearly used the title of a Neville Brothers song as the post title: “Fear, hate, envy, and jealousy is [sic] like a fire all over the world.”

So are hatred, spite, and envy.

The last word goes to my 13th Ward homeys:

 

May 31 2021
3 Comments
Free Republic, JOEY B SHARK, Q, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – “Big Dumb Idiot” edition

Yet another quiet week in Freeperville, y’all. It’s like reading a transcript of the conversation on a Dallas Cowboys transport bus after they’ve lost yet another game – mostly quiet sulking.

Except, of course, for this –

FANATICS: THE DEEP END (Guess who the fanatics are)
Vice TV ^ | 5/29/2021 | ViceTV

Posted on 5/28/2021, 7:36:34 PM by Oshkalaboomboom

Alice Hines goes all in on a journey to the outer limits of obsession.

Season 1 Episode 1: “QAnon”

Alice investigates what causes people to think that storming the U.S. Capitol seemed like a good idea. What draws people to the cult of QAnon?

************************************************

Alice works for Vice TV and the New York Times. This is TV in the Biden Era. If it makes Trump supporters look bad, it’s gotta be good.
1 posted on 5/28/2021, 7:36:34 PM by Oshkalaboomboom
Of course, pretty much everything about Trump supporters makes them look bad, so that’s some low-hanging fruit for sure.
To: Oshkalaboomboom
Some who appear to support President Trump are also trying their hardest to drive rational supporters away from him with crazy conspiracy theories, wrong medical advice, name calling, false accusations and demands for sane people to go away.

Or in other words, any day on Free Republic ending in an “y”

The left is taking that gift and running with it.

2 posted on 5/28/2021, 7:44:20 PM by familyop (Natural born slaves are easily led to distrust and hate their intellectual benefactors.)

Why, thenk yew. I do my best.
And then :
To: familyop
I think Trump is a big, dumb idiot,

.

.

How dare you insult big dumb idiots by comparing them to The Darnold?  And here, especially. Prepare for incoming fire!

 

but 95% percent of the Crazy conspiracies, bad Medical advice, false accusations and other things he never said were Rupars, taken or edited out of context by a dishonest media.

Bush/Romney republicans are even BIGGER idiots, because they think the media is their friend.

4 posted on 5/28/2021, 7:53:59 PM by UNGN

Sight!  Range! FIRE!!
To: UNGN
I think Trump is a big, dumb idiot
So, you’re a bigger billionaire

….who declares bankruptcy six times, and is working on his seventh.  And does that mean that Bill Gates would make a better President?

and you’ve been a better President than him?

Chester A. Arthur was a fucking better President than him.  He lost his second-term bid, too.

 

Any other lifetime achievements you’ve beat him at?

16 posted on 5/28/2021, 9:45:39 PM by BipolarBob (This is my chainsaw. There are many like it but this one is mine.)

Depends on how many women he’s grabbed by the pussy, I guess.
I’ve been watching Freepers slowly awaken to the fact that they were conned.  It’s like Orange Julius realizing he lost the election, but in ultra slow-motion.
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More after the break!

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May 24 2021
3 Comments
Elections, Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – old gold edition

Not much new in Freeperville this week, kiddies, so let’s look at some stuff from a few weeks ago, shall we?

First up – It’s gonna be YUGE!

‘It’s All Gonna Come Out’: Bannon Drops Major News About Election Case
Conservative Brief ^ | 5/10 | Carmine Sabia

Posted on 5/10/2021, 12:39:23 PM by TrumpianRepublican

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon revealed some massive news on Monday about Rudy Giuliani and his upcoming efforts.

During a segment on his podcast War Room, Bannon said it is “not by accident” that the deep state announced a probe on Giuliani for “FARA violations just as the investigations into the theft of the 2020 election are about to hit pay dirt.”

1 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:39:23 PM by TrumpianRepublican
When you think you’ve hit “pay dirt”, but you’ve actually just hit a septic tank….of course, when you go to the toilet, you usually hope “it’s all gonna come out”.
To: TrumpianRepublican

yeah……yeah…….yeah……

4 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:41:34 PM by wny ( )

They hate you, yeah yeah yeah!
To: TrumpianRepublican

I have nothing against Bannon specifically, but I’m tired of having my chain jerked with more “now its all gonna come out” or “this is where it all collapses” type statements.

5 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:42:03 PM by PGR88

The only thing more entertaining than a Trump-humper being convinced that The Darnold is going to be put in office is a Trump-humper tired of having his chain yanked about it.  Never gets old.
To: TrumpianRepublican

it didn’t all come out the last time he said it was about to all come out. I think it probably all stays in.

7 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:43:18 PM by JohnBrowdie

Heh.
To: PGR88

Yep. “Once one falls, they all fall” and “This is huge” is getting old.

8 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:46:12 PM by albie

Not for me, angel drawers – not for me. Keep slipping on that banana peel forever and ever.
To: TrumpianRepublican

Suicide watch for Bannon.

22 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:58:34 PM by Vaquero ( Don’t pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you. )

.
I’m on it!
.
To: TrumpianRepublican
24 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:58:53 PM by Sans-Culotte (11/3-11/4/2020 – The USA became a banana republic.)
.
Dude – dud.
.
To: TrumpianRepublican
This hearkens back to Hannity’s “bombshells”. Tick tock.I’m bombshelled out with anemic “revelations”.

26 posted on 5/10/2021, 12:59:20 PM by Governor Dinwiddie (Working like Crazy to support the Lazy.)

 

To: TrumpianRepublican

Jim, please change this website to FEyore Republic.

32 posted on 5/10/2021, 1:02:17 PM by bray (Hating Whites is racist)

If only….
To: TrumpianRepublican

“Trust the plan” – “Q”Lmao!!!!!

36 posted on 5/10/2021, 1:13:11 PM by dware (Americans prefer peaceful slavery over dangerous freedom)
And, of course….
To: TrumpianRepublican

Free beer tomorrow…

56 posted on 5/10/2021, 1:55:26 PM by gov_bean_ counter (Lift the rim. You’re not that good a shot.)

More old stuff below the folderino.

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