Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Sunday, February 28, 2021

SUNDAY TRUTH BLOGGING

 

Every single Republican in Congress opposed sending people relief during the worst pandemic in a hundred years.

 

Every Republican who had the chance voted for a $2.3 trillion tax break for the wealthy four years ago, during the Trump Cultist Administration.





McConnell: "Trump is morally responsible for the January 6th  attack on the Capitol."

Also McConnell:  "I absolutely support Donald Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee for President."






Captured at the Trump Cult Rally in Orlando, Florida.  

LOL!





A TRUMP CULTIST WORSHIPPING HIS IDOL. LOL!







Saturday, February 27, 2021

Saturday Night Dancing

 

Dancing with Sophia:




 





And one of my favorite dance scenes from the movies:


 

Friday, February 26, 2021

The Stage for CPAC Meeting. Look closely.

 UPDATE HERE: 


 The Odal rune on a flag from the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, VA






This is NOT an accident: When a group shows you what they are, BELIEVE THEM!











This is the stage for the current CPAC meeting.  


This is no accident.











They're not trying to hide it anymore:





Neo Nazis prefer the odal rune over the swastika.


"I am stunned. I work with graphics every day as does our team. We drop stuff all day long with images laid in.  

I’ve done event planning. You *always* check and double check that your designs could even remotely resemble something controversial. 

This is not an accident. 

This is in our face. 

WE ARE HERE and, yes, it is what you thought."

The Trumpublican Party and Its Golden Idol!

"You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold." Exodus 20:23



I wonder -- did they make a matching GOLDEN TOILET for their idol? LOL!






A golden statue of Trump is as good a summary of CPAC and the GOP as one could possibly make.


(Former Vice President Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Nikki Haley WILL NOT BE ATTENDING THE IDOL WORSHIPPING CPAC this year!)


This is what the Trumpublican Party has reduced itself to:


Worshipping a golden statue of Trump. 


(Isn't there something in the Bible about this --  worshipping golden idols --? Condemnation of worshipping a graven image?)



Wikipedia:  "According to the Bible, the golden calf was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as or the Sin of the Calf. It is first mentioned in Exodus 32:4."



The former Republican Party has now duplicated what was written in the Bible (Evangelicals! Listen up!) And its lesson about worshipping golden idols.









The Golden Idol, Trump, and his cultists!
















Thursday, February 25, 2021

He believed Donald Trump's Big Lie


Now he's facing prison.











A retired NYPD cop turned on his brothers in blue at the U.S. Capitol riot, assaulting an officer who he called “a commie motherf----r,” prosecutors charged Tuesday. 

 Thomas Webster, who also served in the Marines, exploded in rage on Jan. 6, attacking the Metropolitan Police officer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Gianforti said during a hearing in White Plains Federal Court. 

“This is a man who was going to unleash some kind of violence ... He goes after that cop like a junkyard dog. Like I said, fists bared, teeth clenched,” Gianforti said, describing Webster as one of the most serious cases involving the riot that passed through the Westchester courthouse. 

Webster, 54, was labeled by social media sleuths as the eye gouger due to photos showing him appear to poke his thumb into the eyeball of the uniformed cop. He’s accused of attacking the officer with an aluminum pole that held a Marine Corp flag. Video captured Webster tackling the cop once a protective barrier had been removed during the mayhem. They wrestled and he ripped off the cop’s protective gas mask and helmet, briefly choking him in the process, authorities said. “F--king piece of s--t, commie motherf----r!”  Webster said to the cop in comments caught on video, according to prosecutors. 

 “This is a cop calling another cop that,” Gianforti said, adding that Webster also betrayed his oath as a Marine. A police source said Webster joined the NYPD in 1991 and retired in 2011 after working the security detail at City Hall and the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion. 

The married father of three from Florida, N.Y., in Orange County now runs Semper Fi Landscaping. He faces as much as nine years if he chooses to go to trial — a minimum of roughly five years if he pleads guilty. His attorney, James Monroe, said Webster deserved bail, portraying him as a law abiding citizen — except for on Jan. 6. 

“He went there to protest an event that was urged on by our former president,” Monroe said, alluding to President Donald Trump’s lies that the election was stolen for President Biden.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Congratulations Massachusetts!

 

All 50 States Ranked by Livability:




1. Massachusetts 

Population change; 2010-2019: +5.1% (23rd largest increase)  
2019 unemployment: 2.9% (11th lowest) 
Poverty rate: 9.4% (8th lowest)  
Life expectancy at birth: 80.5 years (6th longest) 

 Based on educational attainment, life expectancy, and the relatively lack of widespread economic hardship, Massachusetts ranks as the best state to live in in the country. 

The best educated state in the country, Massachusetts has a bachelor’s degree attainment rate of 45.0% — well above the comparable rate of 33.1% nationwide. 

 Incomes typically rise with educational attainment, and in Massachusetts, most households earn over $85,000 a year — or about $20,000 more than what the annual income the typical U.S. household earns. 

Additionally, Massachusetts is one of only 11 states where fewer than one in every 10 residents live below the poverty line.




Methodology To identify the best and worst states to live in, 
24/7 Wall St. constructed an index comprising three socioeconomic measures for each state: poverty rate, the percentage of adults (25 and older) who have at least a bachelor’s degree, and life expectancy at birth. The selection of these three measures was modeled on the United Nations’ Human Development Index. 

Poverty rates and bachelor’s degree attainment rates came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. 

Life expectancy at birth is from the 2020 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program, and is based on data from the years 2016-2018. 

Additional data was also reviewed. 

Unemployment rates are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are annual for 2019. 

Crime data came from the FBI’s 2019 Uniform Crime Report. 

Uninsured rates, median household incomes, high school diploma attainment rates, and median home values also came from the ACS. 

Other data on health behaviors and outcomes came from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

And it's only Tuesday...

 


Confirmation hearings for Judge Merrick Garland for President Biden's Attorney General:









This is significant:


Supreme Court won’t halt turnover of Trump’s tax records


WASHINGTON (AP) — In a significant defeat for former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to step in to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York state prosecutor. 

The court’s action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before. 

 Trump’s tax records are not supposed to become public as part of prosecutors’ criminal investigation, but the high court’s action is a blow to Trump because he has long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The ongoing investigation that the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. Trump has called it “a fishing expedition” and “a continuation of the witch hunt — the greatest witch hunt in history.”





Apparently, after the SCOTUS's action, The Former Guy had a tantrum and called the decision "fascist." 

Remember when The Former Guy was running for president and promised, PROMISED!, to turn over his tax records as soon as the IRS was finished auditing him? Yeah. That was a LIE. And then The Former Guy kept telling Americans he would definitely release his returns -- telling Americans that lie for five years.

Now the SCOTUS has made it possible to see if The Former Guy's bragging about his financial prowess and wealth was true, and to see who he owes money to.

Pass the popcorn!


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


Oh my!

This guy was CANCELLED! By CPAC! Apparently Goopers are okay with "cancel culture?" Or are they beginning to understand that words have consequences? Even the present Trumpublicans apparently agree with some form of CANCEL CULTURE! 

So where are the far right bloggers who were recently whining about how the Lefties cancel people whose ideas they disagree with? Is it "cancel culture" only when Liberals do it? 

Anyone?










Monday, February 22, 2021

February is Black History Month

 







Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 - 2000) Today, Brooks is considered to be one of the most revered poets of the 20th century. She was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for Annie Allen, and she served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, becoming the first Black woman to hold that position. 

She was also the poet laureate of the State of Illinois, and many of her works reflected the political and social landscape of the 1960s, including the civil rights movement and the economic climate.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Saturday Night Dancing

 

Far Right Media Lies Again!

FAUX NOOZ hosts have pinned the blame from the power outages in Texas solely or mostly on the frozen wind turbines. 

They have told viewers that Texans are feeling the sting of green energy policies in a state run for decades by Republicans. Some of the most widespread and erroneous claims came from FAUX NOOZ host Tucker Carlson. 

 "Unbeknownst to most people, the Green New Deal came to Texas, the power grid in the state became totally reliant on windmills," Carlson said Feb. 16. "Then it got cold, and the windmills broke, because that’s what happens in the Green New Deal."  Carlson lied about solar panels as well, because he's a hate monger and spreader of false information to his gullible listeners.







Thursday, February 18, 2021

I didn't want to talk about Limbaugh...

but this story in the Washington Post prompted this blogpost.


Limbaugh was never, ever in his life the mensch that Alex Trebek was.

I couldn't help make the comparison between the two men: One, Limbaugh, made his career by vilifying, degrading, and defaming people he disagreed with and was a major contributor in the coarsening of American life.  

The other, Trebek, for 35 years hosted one of the most popular quiz shows on television with his charm, graciousness, and humanity. And with his death, made less fortunate people's lives better by giving away his considerable wardrobe to homeless men and men leaving prison, needing the right clothes to find a job. 

No honest person would ever use the words "charm," "graciousness," or "humanity," to describe Limbaugh, and why would they?

Limbaugh made his fortune and fame by attacking and tearing down anyone or anything he and his fans disagreed with: 

Limbaugh mocked a 12-year old child, Chelsea Clinton, comparing her to a dog, on his radio program. Who the hell admires a creep who attacks a child and makes fun of her looks?  

Limbaugh also mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease. 

Limbaugh made fun of AIDS victims, blowing whistles and honking horns while reading off the names of the dead from AIDS. 

Humane? No. IMO, there's more humanity in a hyena than there was in Limbaugh. 


Here are some of Limbaugh's most famous racist and cruel statements. (Remember, his fans admire this wretchedness in a human being -- they must be just like him.):


“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.” Source 4. 

“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”


[To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

“You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.” 

 “Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.” 

 Limbaugh told his listeners that he’d been asked by The Wall Street Journal to join others in writing 400 words on their hopes for Obama’s next four years. Limbaugh said he only needed four: “I hope he fails.” 

And the above doesn't include his nasty statements about women, feminism, lesbians, etc. If it is insulting and dehumanizing, you can bet that Limbaugh said it, and his fans loved it.




He's gone now. Millions of other Americans and I will not pretend we're sorry.


President Biden...

was encouraged about America becoming more open and welcoming to POC and bi-racial families when he said this at his Wisconsin townhall meeting:



 "I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble...think about it, if you want to know where the American public is, look at the money being spent on advertising. Did you ever 5 years ago think every second or third ad out of 5 or 6 would be biracial couples?" 



But not all Americans see that as progress and an acknowledgement of the reality of our American landscape. There are Americans out there who resent seeing bi-racial, POC, or LGBTQ in tv ads. It irritates them, and it makes them cynical about the reasons this particular demographic is represented at all. 

Those folks are mostly right wingers (Trumpers) who begrudge having to share their representation and presence (white) in American culture with other people. They don't understand why, and they don't like it.

I'll share what those people are saying to each other about this phenomenon President Biden spoke of. 

I visit right wing blogs to read what they're saying. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's better than reading a distillation of their thinking in other media. I find it fascinating to read how they think and feel about cultural changes.

Here they are. In their own words:


bocopro:  "Here’s the problem: Most of the commercials I see on TV today show either (1) black people, (2) mixed-race couples, (3) mixed-race children, (4) gay or lesbian couples, (5) white males who are morons, or (6) women, very often black, in charge of things. 

 These days it’s truly rare to see white couples with white children in commercials, and white males are generally depicted as arrogant, clueless, troublemaking, rudderless knuckledraggers, if not just plain sissies. It’s as if mass-media execs want the world to believe that at least half the US population is African or African mixed with something else and to be white is to be out of touch with reality. 

 Reality is that the US is less than 14% African and nearly 16% Latino with somewhere close to 7% Asian including everything from Tehran to Tokyo and Mumbai to Moscow. . . which means, of course, that the US population is STILL fairly near 66% white European, ancestrally speaking. 

 As for the gays, lesbians, trannies, and so on, the entire LGBT fragment of US population is somewhere around 4.5%, despite the fact that when asked, most people assume it to be well over 20%. 

So what’s the deal? Are we being deliberately misled – AGAIN – by the media as we’ve been on the “pandemic” and Russia! Russia! Russia! collusion and racism and voter fraud and “believe all women who claim sexual abuse”? 

 If so, what’s the goal? How will we be better off with African lesbians running the show for everybody? 

And if old white men truly ARE the source of all our problems, then why did we hire one as CEO again, ignoring a young gay guy, a woman who claims native ancestry, and a dark-skinned mixed-race female?”


kidme37: 

Marketing. When enough people believe something, no matter how absurd, lots of companies hop on so as to not alienate the idiot perceived consumers of their product. Somehow magically overnight, their product contributes to the fight (or support) of the latest pile of nonsense because the kids and way too many adults all believe the crap. This is how moronic concepts grow into monsters. 

Gluten Free ! 
Organic ! 
Supports Black People ! 
Cage Free! 
Combats Toenail Fungus ! 
We Like Homos !


And this:

GeeeZ: "I don’t mind seeing a HUGELY disproportionate amount of minorities on TV Ads (and not just ads, but Hallmark films, QVC, and other places I wouldn’t have expected it), but DID ADVERTISERS GET A MEMO? And could we see it? They say our KIDS are being mind controlled in schools……….Of course they are. But they’re not the only ones." 





This discussion found on Quora would help the folks quoted above to better understand why POC and other minorities are becoming more visible in television ads:



Q: Why are there so many Black people in commercials? They’re 12% of the population but seem to be in 90% of commercials. 

A:   Lacking a citation to affirm your perception (Black people seem to appear in 90% of commercials), I am going to just address why the casting of ads has changed from all-white actors to actors of many races and cultures in the United States. 

 Advertising has two primary goals: To sell products. To make potential customers think of a product or brand first when they need that product. (This is called “branding.”) 

Society has become more integrated, with new immigrants and new cultures changing the demographic mix of advertising audiences. Businesses spend millions researching their customers, with a specific goal of growing their customer base. They are constantly seeking new customers and ways to expand their markets. That means as society changes, advertising changes to take advantage of new markets and growing customer opportunities. 

 There has been a change in brand marketing in recent years, with the broader acceptance of LGBTQ people, the arrival of new immigrant groups, and an awareness that younger Americans in particular are more accepting of interracial and multicultural lifestyles. Messaging has changed to ensure marketing is acceptable to these desirable younger audiences. Mass advertising (TV, radio, and print ads) must reach as many people and audiences as possible, because ads are costly to create and place. 

Companies aim their ads broadly to reflect as many people as they can in their ads. The idea is that if you see people in ads who look like you, you will be more receptive to the ad message, and more easily perceive the product or service on offer as possibly of value to you. 

Yes, there is a certain amount of “virtue-signalling” in ads, as companies and ad agencies try to reflect the aims and beliefs of more activist young people and new communities. This can sometimes be effective, but more often just annoys all demographic groups because it is so blatantly insincere. 

Companies and ad agencies both suffer from a dearth of diversity within their own organizations, which has often led to really bad ads with messaging that is off-tone and even offensive. But they keep trying it. 

If the ads you see seem heavily slanted toward a demographic group that does not look exactly like you, it may simply be that research has shown the programming you are watching has a large audience of Black viewers the advertiser is trying to reach. America is changing. Advertising reflects those changes.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Marion Gerald Hood, M.D. -- Black History Month

 




1959 is not a lifetime ago to many of us. 






Sunday, February 14, 2021

Conservative David Frum




"Thanks to their integrity, a clear majority of the Senate voted to condemn the former president as an insurrectionist against the United States. The 57–43 margin wasn’t enough to convict under the Constitution. It wasn’t enough to formally disqualify Trump from ever again seeking office in the United States. But practically? It will do as a solemn and eternal public repudiation of Trump’s betrayal of his oath of office."

Saturday, February 13, 2021

The Most Corrupt and Mendacious President Was Acquitted For The Second Time Today

 

But Donald J. Trump will be remembered in American history as being the only POTUS who was impeached twice.

Trump was acquitted not on the evidence, but on the politics.

We all know what he did. We saw his betrayal with our own eyes, heard his seditious words with our own ears.

Trump incited his mobs through his Big Lie, the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Even when he lost 60+ court cases challenging the outcome; even when his own AG said there was no fraud; even when his own cyber chief said this was the most secure election in history.

The twice impeached Donald Trump still told his mobs and his cultists that he won -- by a lot.

That is the Big Lie that triggered his insurrectionists to raid, ravage, ransack, and even kill in the US Capitol building.  As the electoral votes were being certified, Donald Trump's savage, blood-thirsty insurrectionists went looking for his vice president to "hang Pence," and searched the Capitol for Nancy to, as one of his thugs put it, "tear her to pieces."

All of that is fact; all of that happened.

And yet, the cowardly, anti-democracy Republican Senators (except for seven brave patriots) told the American people and the world that this was okay with them. That inciting armed mobs -- mobs that killed a Capitol policeman, that maimed Capitol officers, and that caused the deaths of others -- that is okay with them. And they voted to acquit ex-president Donald J. Trump because they're loyal to a tyrant, a liar, a cheat, and a fraud, not to America and her Constitution, her laws. They're cowards -- everyone of them who voted for acquittal.

History will, in the end, have the final say about Donald J. Trump, and history will show his treachery, his disloyalty to America and his Oath of Office, and finally to the American people.

Donald J. Trump's legacy will end in ignominy, which he will so richly deserve.




 BREAKING:

McConnell voted to acquit, but now, he says Trump had a "disgraceful dereliction of duty." "There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day."

FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

 






Friday, February 12, 2021

THE GOP AND TRUMP'S IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

 

From an Facebook friend: 

"This is not the country my parents fought to protect and defend. 

We are watching a coward get away with murder—as he predicted he could. We see betrayal of democratic principles by congressional leaders because their path to reelection glory and pension and benefits depends on turning their eyes away from the horror. 

Our children and grandchildren see bullies and liars get off free —something many parents and schools would not allow. 

The reduction to rubble of the Republican party cannot come soon enough."








Thursday, February 11, 2021

TRUMP BETRAYED PENCE AND AMERICA

IMO, the GOP Senators and other Americans who continue to support this traitor to our Constitution, our country, are not worthy to be called Americans. 


This is just ONE reason. There are hundreds of other examples of Trump's treachery, corruption, and criminality during his four miserable years as POTUS:


[Chris] Wallace explained, “That weekend, some members of the Pence team called — and I know they called other people around town… to make it clear, and this is how angry the Pence team was, that Donald Trump never called Mike Pence when he was in the bunker inside the Capitol to ask him if he was safe, to inquire about his safety, nor did he ever urge the people who were storming the capitol to stand down and not to go after Mike Pence.” 

“They saw that as the ultimate betrayal.” Wallace bluntly described how they felt: “We did everything we could for four years to serve you, to stand by you. You asked us to do something that was a constitutional impossibility. And then you didn’t protect us when the mob came to literally try to find him and to, in the minds of some of them, to execute him.”

Is that a banana in your aquarium...

or are you just happy to see it?









A rare yellow lobster, named Banana, has been caught off the coast of Maine 

 (CNN) — A rare yellow lobster has been caught off the coast of Maine and has been lovingly named Banana. The University of New England (UNE) said in a news release that Banana was caught by lobsterman Marley Babb and donated to the university on Wednesday. 

The yellow color comes from a pigment in the lobster’s shell and the odds of catching one are about one in 30 million, according to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine. Babb contacted the Maine Department of Marine Research (DMR) after his once-in-a-lifetime catch to see if they would be interested in housing the lobster. 

 Lindsey Forrette, a lab coordinator and chemical hygiene officer in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs said Babb drove two hours from his location in Tenant’s Harbor to drop off Banana. 

 “UNE has cultivated strong connections with lobstermen and Maine DMR,” Charles Tilburg, director of the School of Marine and Environmental Programs said in a statement. “It was through those connections that (researchers) learned about Banana and Lindsay was able to coordinate with Marley from there.” 

 The University of New England is sharing an $860,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and Hood College in Maryland to study the impact that a warming Gulf of Maine is having on lobster larvae and their success in growing to adulthood. 

 “Banana is about a pound to a pound and a half and is settling in nicely here,” Forrette said.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

 


Rep. Joe Neguse made the strong point that Trump alone had the power to stop the attack and not only because he was commander-in-chief: The attackers "believed they were following his words...He alone had the power to stop it. And he didn't."

HAMILTON ON TRUMP

According to preeminent Hamilton biographer, Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton was trying to protect the country from someone with demagogic tendencies. "From the outset, Hamilton feared an unholy trinity of traits in a future president — ambition, avarice and vanity,"

Sound like anyone we know? It sounds like Hamilton was reaching into the future and describing the man who disgraced the Office of the Presidency -- the man who instigated a marauding mob with the Big Lie that the election was stolen and who incited that mob to breach the Capitol Building and commit mayhem and murder so that he would be kept in power: Donald J. Trump

 






Tuesday, February 9, 2021

 





GROUNDHOG IMPEACHMENT DAY

BREAKING:   Trump's lawyer, Bruce Castor's concluding statement: "He was removed by the voters." Ruh-roh. That's not what Trump says!!! 








On the morning of Jan. 6, Trump claimed on Twitter that Pence had the power to reject states’ certification, (This is a lie. Pence did NOT have that power. Trump LIED!) thus delaying the process and ultimately giving him the win. 

Wrote Trump, “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”

This is why Trump's violent mob wanted to kill Mike Pence!






Senate Republicans take note: The public is moving in favor of conviction 





This noose was made for Trump's own vice president, Mike Pence. Yet Trump said NOTHING to his mobs to calm them down. Only after the siege did he tell them to go "home in peace" and that he "loved them." 

Trump told the murdering mobs that wanted to HANG HIS OWN VICE PRESIDENT; that breached the Capitol Building and wreaked havoc on our democracy; that he "LOVED THEM!" 






Monday, February 8, 2021

Trump's impeachment trial begins tomorrow.


Let's hope the staggering amount of evidence against this corrupt ex-president brings justice to those who were killed during his incitement to insurrection for the overthrow of the United States government, and that he pays a price for his treachery. 

Trump lied to his gullible cultists about his election loss, telling them that the election was stolen. None of it was true, and Trump needs to be held accountable for what happened as a result of his Big Lie.

Let's hope the coming impeachment trial does that.


Meanwhile...





Breaking With G.O.P., Top Conservative Lawyer Says Trump Can Stand Trial 

Charles J. Cooper, a stalwart of the conservative legal establishment, said that Republicans were wrong to assert that it is unconstitutional for a former president to be tried for impeachable offenses.


In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal’s website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former president. The piece came two days before the Senate was set to start the proceeding, in which Mr. Trump is charged with “incitement of insurrection” in connection with the deadly assault on the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6.


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




And here's Trump at his best, urging his insurrectionist mobs to keep his Big Lie alive and disparage his own vice president for not breaking Constitutional law in his favor so he can hold onto power.







Sunday, February 7, 2021

Friday, February 5, 2021

Friday Night Video

 The Lincoln Project presents...


THE SQUALID






Who's surprised? Raise you hand.

 Once a crook; always a crook.




TRUMP SHIFTED CAMPAIGN DONOR MONEY INTO HIS PRIVATE BUSINESS AFTER LOSING THE ELECTION


Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which never received a cent from the former president, moved an estimated $2.8 million of donor money into the Trump Organization—including at least $81,000 since Trump lost the election.

 





Meanwhile, I've read reports that Don the Con Trump forbids his staff and the GOQ to refer to him as "The Former President."

Okay.

Let's refer to him as "The Recently Rejected by the American People President."

These are NOT my words.

They are the words of a lifelong Conservative/Republican, Michael Gerson, who's worked with Republican presidents and their administration. He's also an Evangelical Christian.

Gerson understands what happened on January 6, even if the Trump cultists refuse to see the insurgency as an unprecedented attack on our republic. Even if the Trumpers refuse to see what happened as an illegal act to overturn a free and fair election and demand Vice President Pence decertify the electoral college vote, inciting the Trumpian mob to kill Pence and the Speaker of the House.

And now we have the curious situation of Trump cultists  calling President Biden "an enemy of the republic." Those deluded and benighted Trumpers are lost and may never find their way back to political sanity.

Am I sorry for them? I try to be. But when they willfully distort, lie, and refuse to see what is in front of their noses, my pity for their stubborn ignorance is limited.

Either one has an allegiance to America and the Constitution or one has an allegiance to the despot, Trump, who tried to destroy our republic. You can't have both.

We know which allegiance the Trumpers have chosen.


This is Gerson's latest column on Trumpism:


Trumpism is American fascism


"Call this civic barbarism. Instead of promoting the values of responsible citizenship, Trump and his media enablers are elevating and blessing the very worst among us. They are making many Americans less suited for self-government and more dangerous to their neighbors. And they are doing so for the reason some of the Founders most feared: To lead the mob against true democracy. 

 How can anyone view the trashing of our founding tradition as evidence of patriotism? Because some have adopted a very different political philosophy than the Founders held. This approach to government promises the recovery of a mythical past. It feeds a sense of White victimhood. It emphasizes emotion over reason. It denigrates experts and expertise. It slanders outsiders and blames them for social and economic ills. It warns of global plots by Jews and shadowy elites. It accepts the lies of a leader as a deeper form of political truth. It revels in anger and dehumanization. It praises law and order while reserving the right to disobey the law and overturn the political order through violence. 

 This is a reality that I have resisted naming. The 45th president and a significant portion of his supporters have embraced American fascism. And Trump’s buffoonery does not disprove the point. Though he probably cannot name the political theory he has embraced, his own recklessness, vanity and authoritarian instincts have led him down fascist grooves. He displays an intuitive affinity for leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. And Trump would have subverted the legitimate result of the 2020 presidential election if he could have, which would have broken a constitutional continuity that has endured over two centuries."