Trump's Border Debacle Keeps Getting Worse

The Federal government remains in partial shutdown as Trump keeps demanding his wall. Maybe if he held his breath...until he dropped dead.

In the meantime another child died in ICE custody; this time a Guatemalan boy whose name has not been released. Over the weekend ICE left 200 migrants at the bus station in El Paso Texas. Taking care of these people has fallen to local charities. It's clear that Trump, or his slimy henchman Stephen Miller, or anyone in his administration knows what the hell they are doing. Trump likes to pose as a "hardass" but he is increasingly looking like a mere dumbass. Ultimately, nothing looks weaker than ineptitude.

Jackelin Caal Maquin Was a Human Being

Jackelin Caal Maquin died in US custody last week, apparently of neglect by American authorities. She was just 7 years old. In fiscal year 2017 some 294 migrants died trying to cross the US border. Rudolph Giuliani, who enjoys defending the indefensible, claims that "nobody died" because Trump became President. Actually, the Trump administration has caused the deaths of many people, the majority of whom never harmed the US in any way.

Nuns On the Run?

The Roman Catholic Church keeps going from low to lower to lowest. Authorities in Southern California say that two nuns, Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, embezzled money from a private school where they worked as Principal and Assistant Principal. The amount stolen appears to be about $500,000. The nuns spent the money on vacations and gambling in casinos. Think of that!

It kind of makes you wonder why anybody believes in roman Catholicism. It's hard to claim that being catholic makes you a better person.

Macron Really Is the French Trump

We live in an age that values style over substance, whose defining slogan declares "Image is everything." If we look at Donald Trump, whose oafishness combines every negative American stereotype, and contrast him with French president Emmanuel Macron, whose debonair demeanor seems to be the opposite. But the contrast is purely superficial. Macron, like Trump, was elected by portraying himself as an "entrepreneur," and touted himself as the enemy of the "political elite." As president, Macron cut taxes for the rich, while he tried to increase fuel taxes. The latter measure sparked widespread protests across France, which turned violent. Macron is a jerkass, like in September when Macron told an unemployed man he could find a job just by "crossing the street."

Trump's Great America Is In the Toilet

We are coming to the end of 2018 and thinks are really fubar.

*Three Americans were killed in Afghanistan. Trump's decision to re-escalate the war is only bringing more death and destruction.

*According to the Minneapolis Star Telegram(Farm Bankruptcies are on the Rise...,11/26//2018) 84 farms in the Midwest have filed for bankruptcy over the past two years. This is the result of Trump's tariff war with China and Canada

*Then there's the horror at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border. The gassing of immigrants, including children, was only the start. It's been revealed that Mariee Juarez, 19 months old, died in ICE custody. A 26 year old woman from Guatemala, whose name has not been revealed, died while trying to scale the border fence, fell, and was impaled on rebar. This is America's worst moment since the Selma riot of 1965.

Go Johnny Go!

Johnny Depp has become a target of the MeToofers because back in 2016 his ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of domestic violence. Accusations of domestic violence and child abuse are common in divorce proceedings. The MeToofers have now launched a campaign against Depp, especially his latest movie "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald." Too no avail, since "Fantastic Beasts" has grossed $265.7 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo. Has anybody noticed that the tactics of the MeToofers resemble those of the McCarthyites? It's time we stopped being intimidated by those morons.

Trump: The Big Chickenshit

Trump's recent trip to Europe was an embarrassment. He refused to visit the American cemetery at Aisne-Marne because he was afraid of the rain. Throughout the entire visit he looked like a guy who crashed a party only to find it was full of people who don't like him. During a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, he stood looking glum with his tie flapping. Maybe his big fat gut doesn't allow him to close his jacket. He only lightened up when Vladimir Putin showed up. Trump's man crush on Putin has gone from weird to creepy.

Trump, instead of restoring American greatness, has made America seem isolated and weak.

The Mountain Labored and Brought Forth a Mouse

The famous aphorism, which dates to Aesop's fables, refers to situations where maximum efforts yield minimal results. That is the best description of the midterm elections where the Democrats barely took control of the White House. The GOP actually gained a seat in the Senate. The Dems couldn't even match their performance in 2006. There are 2 obvious reasons.

1). The Democratic leadership consists of people--Pelosi, Schumer--who came of age of ages in the sixties and seventies and are hopelessly out of touch with the modern world. The accounts for the failures of the Dems; poor messaging, no strategy, etc.

2). The Dems embrace of #MeToo rebounded against them. The MeToofers, by their stupid tactics, did a much better job of riling up the GOP base than even Trump himself.

The Democratic House may be able to thwart Trump's agenda(the Border wall, or his attempt to overthrow the 14th amendment.) At this point divided government is the "best" we can hope for.

The Clinton Party is Going Nowhere

When we consider how the GOP keeps winning in spite of being a bunch of corrupt, incompetent crooks and assholes, it comes down to the fact that Gopers are only focused on winning elections. The Democrats on the other hand, cling to the dead slogan of "bipartisanship." Instead of confronting The GOP, most Demos are running on the slogan "I'll work with anybody." Probably the worst example of a fake Democrat is Joe Donnelly of Indiana, who has jumped on Trump's anti-immigrant bandwagon.

The Democrats are still the Clinton party, which represents nothing more than meaningless moderation.

Will MeToo Sink the Democrats?

The Democrats blind embrace of MeToo has backfired on them. Bob Menendez (D, NJ) is facing a revival of accusations that he had sex with underaged prostitutes. The accusations are old, having been investigated and discredited by the FBI. But the elevation of the false principle of guilt-by-accusation, so dear to the MeToofers, has put the Dems in an impossible position. MeToo represents a radical feminism that is not only misandrist, but heterophobic.

The Mean Girls of Senenca Valley PA

This is a story which has been covered up by the US media, probably to pander to the MeToofers. The sources are mostly from Canada and the UK. IN Seneca Falls High School, PA, five girls falsely accused a boy of sexual assault. The boy lost his job as a lifeguard. He was then arrested at school (dragged out in handcuff and leg irons)
spent time in juvenile detention and was forced to withdraw from school. The girls then recanted their accusations and admitted that they made them up simply because they didn't like the boy they targeted.

This proves the fallacy of MeToo#, ie that "nobody makes up" accusations of sexual assault, or that "almost nobody is falsely accused of sexual assault." The radical feminists are themselves liars, just like the hosebags of Seneca Valley.

GOP Can't Lie Anymore

Mitch McConnell--GOP Senate leader and possible extraterrestrial--now blames the rising federal deficit on "entitlements" and calls for cuts in Social Security and Medicare. This is after the GOPers passed their tax cuts, which are the real cause of the deficit. But McConnell, who has no shame much less integrity, blames Social Security. The asshole has the effrontery to say:

“It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.”

McConnell has been the most odious example of political partisanship and now he wants bipartisanship to fix the mess he and other GOPers made. If the Dems can't make political hay out of this then they are screwed. But so is everybody else.

A Complete and Utter Failure

MeToo# made a lot of noise but couldn't prevent the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. MeToo# has become an example of the kind of self-defeating activism that gains media attention but doesn't work genuine political change. The big problem started when MeToo# went from being a campaign against sexual harassment/assault to a war against heterosexuality itself. Persecuting Louis Ck does nothing to change the structures of power.

For example, Ian Buruma editor of the New York Review of Books was ousted because he published an article by a Canadian radio personality who had been acquitted of sexual assault. What did ousting Buruma accomplish? MeToo has become nothing more than a skunk inside the progressive tent. Though we should ask ourselves whether a movement that combines the ideology of Catharine MacKinnon and the tactics of Josef Stalin really is progressive.

The Trumps: A Family of Crooks

The New York Times has published an article "Trump Engages in Suspect Tax Schemes." It turns out that the entire Trump clan not just "The Donald" has been engaged in shady business deals.

*Trump helped his parents dodge taxes.

*Trump and his siblings set up a sham company to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents.

*Trump helped his father Fred (ex-Ku Kluxer) take improper tax reductions in the millions of dollars

*The Trumps also undervalued their real estate holdings on tax returns.

The unfortunate part about this is that these crimes took place a long time ago and are no longer prosecutable. Nevertheless, it shows that even the sleazy world of New York real estate, the Trumps are down there with the lowest.

Brett Kavanaugh: Monumental Douchebag

Brett Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court. He had been accused of sexual assault by two women--Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. This should be enough to conclude that Kavanaugh is morally unfit to be a Supreme Court justice. Back in the nineties, Kavanaugh was on Kenneth Starr's staff. Kavanaugh wrote that Bill Clinton's "misdeeds" had "disgraced his office." Kavanaugh seems to have engaged in behavior even worse than Clinton, making him the bigger disgrace.

The first incident took place sometime around 1981-1982. Kavanaugh was a student at the Georgetown Preparatory School, which is run by Jesuits. Apparently, the atmosphere at the school recalled an awful teen-exploitation movie from the early eighties; booze, sex, and obnoxious behavior. So much for a Catholic education. The second incident occurred when Kavanaugh and Ramirez were students at Yale. How does an asshole like him get away with it?

MeToo# is Totalitarian Feminism

The recent case of NY University Professor Avita Ronell, who was found to have sexually harassed a male student named Nimrod Reitman, tells us a lot about MeToo# and Radical feminism. Many prominent feminists defended Ronell, which makes us wonder what happened to "believing the victim." Its clear that these feminists believe that only males can be "sexual "predators."

It would be good to remember Daphne Patai's 1998 book "Heterophobia: Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism" that there is a strain of radical feminism--Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin--who are actively opposed to heterosexuality and are using claims of sexual harassment to promote their anti-male, anti-heterosexual agenda.

We should have learned back in the twentieth century, that repressive and intolerant movements that adopt a stance of "the ends justify the means" are not really progressive.

White Female Privilege is Also a Menace

Amber Guyger, a police officer with the Dallas PD, killed a black man named Botham Jean. She entered his apartment and shot him dead. She claims that she entered Jean's apartment by mistake. Some witnesses dispute Guyger's account. But even if true, she must be a very stupid person, someone who shouldn't own guns, let alone work as a police officer. Then again maybe Guyger was asserting her White Privilege: to be able to kill a non-white person and get away with it.

Don't Cry for the Catholic Church

The recent findings from Pennsylvania that Catholic clerics--300 priests--sexually assaulted 1000 victims over 70 years is sickening. The problem of course goes beyond Pennsylvania or even the US. Catholic pedophilia seems to have been a problems everywhere from Europe to Latin America to Australia. It would be a full time job to keep track of all the sexual abuse cases involving the Catholic church.


Let's remember that while this was going on the Catholic Church supporting every reactionary political cause:

*Leading the campaigns against abortion and contraception;

*Campaigning against the Equal Rights Amendment

*Promoting homophobia and transphobia.

The Catholic Church claimed to be some kind of moral arbiter, while engaging in sexual abuse on an almost systemic scale. Even those clerics who did not participate in the abuse must have known about it and participated in the cover up.

The Roman Catholic church didn't have "bad apples" but its entire crop was rotten; "by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:16). The Catholic church is the bad tree, that deserves to be cut down.

Trump's All White White House

Omarosa Manigault Newman, a person who almost doesn't need an introduction, has published just published a book titled Unhinged which promises to be a tell all book about the goings on at the Trump White House. I'm not sure how reliable Omarosa is, that remains to be determined, but that she may be on to something is indicated by how Trump himself is reacting. His tweets have stopped being any attempt at "humor," and descended into personal invective (calling her a "dog.") Omarosa, by the way was briefy Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison at the Trump White House. Many people have noted that she was the only African-American person in Trump's inner circle. With her departure the Trump administration turned into the "All Whites."

But America Doesn't Care

It turns out that the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria was 1,400 people. The GOPer Congress still begrudges any help to Puerto Rico, even though these people are Native Born American citizens. The GOP wants to narrow down the definition of who is American--all whites.

America's Shame, part 2

A federal judge has ordered the Trump admin to stop giving psychotropic drugs to children detained at a detention center in Texas. It also turned out that some 463 parents were forced to give up custody of their children. How can you not hate a country that does something like this?

Trumpers Are the Real Parasites

Trump's tariffs are hurting American farm exports so now he wants to give farmers, most of them GOPers, $12 billion in aid. Many Congressional GOPers don't appear happy, but they'll probably go along with it, for electoral purposes. This raises questions whether the other business that have been hurt by Trump's stupid trade policies are also going to get hand outs. Of course, the GOPers will go on with their bullshit about how the "good hard working" white people are being taxed to support the "lazy no good" minorities, while they find new ways to send pork barrels to their supporters. Which shows how Trump is only the latest example of GOPer's double-talk and bullshit.

Your President Gave Me A Blow Job, Then I Fucked Him in the Ass

The disgraceful "summit" in Helsinki in which Trump dropped is pants and bent over before Putin, wasn't the most important news last week. Or even the indictment of Russian officials, although that does establish that the Russian GRU interfered in the 2016 election. The arrest of Maria Butina, a shady Russian operative and associate of the Putin regime, is filling in the blanks of the Putin regimes scheme to put Trump in the White House. Butina, is a gun nut, whose been setting up links with Putin and the NRA.

That the Putin regime even attempted to interfere in American elections is an aggression in itself. That it is also backing reactionary groups like the NRA shows that Putin is a threat to freedom.

The False Idolatry of Entrepreneur Worship

A very interesting interview appeared in the Washington Post (7/11/2018) with architect Frank Gehry. In it Gehry reveals some information on Trump's business practices.

"I did turn him down for work. Some of my friends accepted projects with him. They said getting paid was horrific. More than one told me he ended up in a room with a bunch of lawyers offering 20 cents on the dollar, “take it or leave it” — a tactic, apparently, that Mr. Trump was known for. I can see that today in how he is dealing with the world around us."

Yet more evidence that Trump is a crook and a sleazeball. It seems that in America a rich asshole how knows how to work the media can get away with just about anything.

This at the same time that were still combing through the Theranos debacle. Theranos, which supposedly was offering some new "revolutionary" blood testing machine turned out to be a fraud. That story is still unfolding but some of the dupes include Henry Kissinger, Betsy DeVos, Rupert Murdoch, and the Waltons of Walmart. Walgreens also got taken in for a time. It seems that the culture of entrepreneur worship has resulted in a widespread fraud and crime.

All Pacifists Are Assholes

I figured as much back in college. There were always self described pacifists who claimed that war was always wrong, and that they would never fight even in self defense. They were always quoting Gandhi and Tolstoy and presenting themselves with a smarmy holier than thou attitude.

One recent example is a certain Gary Leupp, a frequent contributor to counterpunch which also shows how that website has gone down the shithole. Leupp is another one of the "Leftist Trumpers" who thinks that Trump is actually going to bring about "world peace." Anybody with two eyes and a brain should have realized by now that Trump is no more a "pacifist" than he is a "Populist." Is Leupp delusional or is he ignoring the waves of racist violence that Trump has unleashed? How fat hairy Whites are leading a charge to bring back segregation? But then Leupp is a fat hairy white asshole himself so he probably agrees.

All Conservatives Are Racists

I know that title is a bit broad and would require a certain amount of commentary. But for now I would just state that all conservatives are racists, to one degree or another. I concluded after reading Victor Davis Hanson's "Mexico — What Went Wrong?" in national review. It contains an enormous series of lies from beginning to end. No a single factual statement anywhere.

Take this paragraph for instance:
"A supposedly affluent Mexico was supposed to achieve near parity with the U.S., as immigration and trade soon neutralized. Despite Mexico’s economic growth, no such symmetry has followed NAFTA. What did, however, 34 years later, was the establishment of a dysfunctional Mexican state, whose drug cartels all but run the country on the basis of their enormous profits from unfettered dope-running and human-trafficking into the United States. NAFTA certainly did not make Mexico a safer, kinder, and gentler nation."

The implication that those "evil Mexicans" somehow snuck into the US and got innocent Americans hooked on illegal drugs. If you believe that then you could vote for the Orange Baboon for President. Hanson has is neither a Historian or an intellectual, but is part of the same septic tank as Newsmax and Infowars. And that pretty much sums up the Conservative movement.

America's Shame

Trump has signed an order ending the separation of refugee families. The order however doesn't cover children who have already been separated. The children been held are being kept in handcuffs and being fed drugs. This is an atrocity which makes everybody hate America. Every White American is Dylan Roof, the KKK, and the Border Patrol.

On a lighter note DHS Chief Kirstjen Nielsen, the blonde hosebag went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Washington DC. She was heckled by the customers and she ran out like a scared rat. Only thing better would have for Nielsen to choke on jalapenos.

America Hits A New Low

America's has added a new atrocity in its long history of racist violence--from slavery to ethnic cleaning. The Trump administration is now abducting children. AT least 2000 children are being held in cages. They are being forced to sleep on the floor and being mistreated by the guards. Not surprising given that the Border Patrol and ICE is made up of racists and sadistic psychopaths.

On another note it turns out that Harvard University has been discriminating against Asian students. It turns out that the selection process decides that Asians don't have enough "personality." So much for White America telling us minorities "You should be more like Asians--hardworking, law abiding, yadda yadda." It turns out that White Male America whose ultimate product is Donald Trump and his gang of assholes, is racist against everybody.

This Comedy Isn't Funny, It Should Be Cancelled

Last weekend team Trump went to the G7 conference in Canada, where they made fools out of themselves. Trump, Kudlow, and Navarro came across as a trio of snake oil salesmen who crash a medical conference. Trump then went to his much touted summit meeting with Kim Jong Un. The result was nothing much; promises by Kim to denuclearize but nothing of substance. Trump started a confrontation with Kim and is now backing away with nothing to show for it.

THIS JUST IN: A report by the Justice Department Inspector General says that former FBI director James Comey was "insubordinate" in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. But doesn't that undermine Trump's claim that Comey was helping Hillary Clinton?

Private Equity Exposed

An interesting item appeared in BoingBoing.com by Cory Doctorow, titled "Private equity bosses took $200m out of Toys R Us and crashed the company, lifetime employees got $0 in severance." The article outlines how a group of speculators ran the company into the ground, while making a ton of money,

Private equity's favorite shell game is to take over profitable businesses, sell off their assets, con banks into loaning them hundreds of millions of dollars, cash out in the form of bonuses and dividends, then let the businesses fail and default on their debts.

The result is the retail apocalypse, where predatory giants like Walmart and Amazon are able to topple their vulture-capitalist-weakened prey, creating a feedback loop that enriches the shareholder class and destroys American businesses, leaving workers high and dry.

The (current) poster child for this con game is Toys R Us, whose private equity owners borrowed more than $5 billion to buy the company (with a $400 million annual debt service plan). The new owners quickly took the company into bankruptcy, defaulting on that giant debt, after paying themselves $200 million (including tens of millions in performance bonuses to the C-suite in the same year the company declared bankruptcy).

Now the company has announced that it will also default on all severance payouts to the company's 30,000 employees, including employees who worked at the company for decades, skipping Christmas and Thanksgiving with their families to staff the stores, now slated to get literally not one penny."

Of course what happened to Toys R Us is just part of a larger system, in which parasite speculators have destroyed the productive parts of the economy, making things worse for workers and leaving consumers with fewer choices.

Remember Claudia Gomez Gonzalez

Claudia Gonzalez Gomez was 20 years old, a Guatemalan migrant. She was murdered by the border patrol. The brutality of the Border Patrol and ICE, unleashed by Trump's racism, will add another bloody stain on this racist country. We also found out that ICE has lost track of nearly 1,500 children who have been separated from their parents. Truth is they don't have to build a wall. The world now hates American and wants nothing more to do with it.

Some good news: "Roseanne" has been cancelled. It turns out that Beast Barr referred to Valerie Jarrett, an official in the Obama administration, as a "moslem" and an "ape." It turns out that even ABC will only sink so far.

Bernard Lewis: Good Riddance

Bernard Lewis just died at the age of 101 (twice as long as the son of a bitch should have lived.) Lewis was professional Islamophobe, Neo-conservative warmonger, and Likudist mouthpiece. He was a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq, and later kept urging the US to invade Iran. He called himself a historian but he was nothing more than a Zionist-Likudist publicist. To show how fake he was let's look at how he sees the Armenian Genocide:

The meaning of genocide is the planned destruction of a religious and ethnic group, as far as it is known to me, there is no evidence for that in the case of the Armenians. [...] There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. On the contrary, there is considerable evidence of attempts to prevent it, which were not very successful. Yes there were tremendous massacres, the numbers are very uncertain but a million may well be likely...[46] [and] the issue is not whether the massacres happened or not, but rather if these massacres were as a result of a deliberate preconceived decision of the Turkish government... there is no evidence for such a decision.

It is well known that the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians, ethnic Greeks, and Assyrian-Christians. Lewis in his denials, is showing that he was no true historian, but a mere propagandist.

Trump's Bum Deal

One of Trump's selling points was his supposed ability as a "deal maker." But recent events show his deal making skills were oversold. First his highly touted summit with North Korean leader Kim-Jong Un, may or may not be taking place after all. It seems that Kim is balking and demanding more concessions. At the same time the Trump administration is backing off its threat to impose tariffs on China. It seems that Trump is getting hosed by everyone. So much for the "Art of The Deal" in his case more like a Fart of a Deal.

Bonehead Trump Causes Bloodshed in Middle East

Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Middle East has provoked bloodshed. Yesterday Israeli forces killed 58 Palestinians wounded 3000. The violence will probably continue. Trump and Netanyahu may have thought they were going to beat the Palestinians into submission but they were wrong.

The Likudist claque has already started yelling about "Anti-Semitism." The Israeli's by behaving like fascists have made the term "anti-Semitism" meaningless.

Kanye West:"I Wanna Be White"

Kanye West, hiphop megastar and provocateur, has not only embraced Donald Trump but also claims that "slavery was a choice." This has not been well received by most African-Americans. West's statement, is absurd on the face of it: why would people choose to be brutally exploited, beaten, raped, mutilated? West's defenders might try to say he's having a relapse of mental health problems he's had in the past. But is it?

We need to recognize there are 3 separate issues here:

1. Admiring a person's work,

2. Liking that person as a person,

3. Agreeing with every position a person happens to take.

Just because a celebrity meets criterion 1, doesn't entail 2 or 3. We need to get away from the blind worship of wealth and celebrity which led to Donald Trump.

The most powerful critique of West is the article by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic "I'm not Black, I'm Kanye."

I will include this quote by Coates:

West calls his struggle the right to be a “free thinker,” and he is, indeed, championing a kind of freedom—a white freedom, freedom without consequence, freedom without criticism, freedom to be proud and ignorant; freedom to profit off a people in one moment and abandon them in the next; a Stand Your Ground freedom, freedom without responsibility, without hard memory; a Monticello without slavery, a Confederate freedom, the freedom of John C. Calhoun, not the freedom of Harriet Tubman, which calls you to risk your own; not the freedom of Nat Turner, which calls you to give even more, but a conqueror’s freedom, freedom of the strong built on antipathy or indifference to the weak, the freedom of rape buttons, pussy grabbers, and fuck you anyway, bitch; freedom of oil and invisible wars, the freedom of suburbs drawn with red lines, the white freedom of Calabasas."

ICE Acting LIke the Gestapo

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which is supposed to be arresting "illegal aliens" is also arresting US citizens and holding them for months or even years. That shows that ICE personnel are a bunch of racist assholes. Also Trump's campaign is all about "ethnic cleansing" and white supremacy.

Speaking of Trump, who refused to attend the Paralympics because it somehow upsets him. He also refused to attend the Washington Correspondent's dinner because he can't take it, though he like to dish out. Trump is a complete chickenshit but so is everyone who voted for him.

Waffle House Horrors

Over the weekend four people were gunned down at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville Tennessee. The perpetrator was Travis Reinking, another white thug who decided to show off his racial superiority by murdering innocent people. Then at another Waffle House, this one in Saraland Al, an African-American woman was roughed up by White cops who tore off her top leaving her exposed before arresting her. Chikesia Clemonsm the victim in this case, was arrested for getting into an argument with a waitress.
These two incidents show how racism is very much alive in America.

The Micro-War in Syria

Over the weekend the US, UK, and France launched a missile attack on Syria, after alleged use by the Syrians of chemical weapons. This is another example of a microwar; brief bombing/missile campaigns made for the appearance of "toughness." It's no coincidence that the perpetrators--Trump, May, Macron--are facing growing internal opposition to their policies. So launching such a microwar could serve as a distraction.

Mindless America

Last week we remembered the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. The following day Robert Kennedy gave a speech in Cleveland Ohio. The speech has come to be remembered as "On the Mindless Menace of Violence." The speech should be read in its entirety to get his message but he gave a powerful denunciation of the American addiction to violence:

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives."

"Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by his assassin's bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero, and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people."

Ironically, RFK himself was murdered just two months later.

On April 4, 2018 a woman attacked Headquarters of Google in San Bruno CA, wounded 3 employees, and committed suicide. It seems that the mindless violence RFK warned about has become the "normal." Any nutter with a grudge can buy guns and ammunition so of course it follows that this country is destroying itself.

Why Is the Left So Stupid?

A new twist in the tale of Julian Assange, the anarchist leak monger turned Trumper. Consider that I am on the receiving end of Trump's hatred, I hate Trump and anybody who supports him for any reason. Anyway, Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy, claiming to be a "political refugee." Except that now the Ecuadorans have cutoff Assange's internet access. Too bad!

Anyway, in counterpunch.org a group of "activists" including Pamela Anderson, Jacob Appelbaum, Noam Chomsky, etc. Funny thing is that Anderson calls herself a "feminist" yet she sees no contradiction in supporting a Trumper. To be sure Anderson never seemed like the sharpest tool in the shed. But the odd thing is that so many "intelectuals" have jumped on the Assange bandwagon. What's wrong with these people? It turns out that many of these guys are also fans of Carles Puigedemont, a/k/a
the Iberian Jefferson Davis. Could it be that leftists really aren't that smart after all?

How America Coddles White Criminals

People who say there is no sense of "White Privilege" doesn't exist should look at the case of Austin bomber Mark Condit. Condit planted package bombs that targeted African-American and Hispanic people, killing two and injuring five. He then blew himself up when cornered by police. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. "But instead, it is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point." Like Manley actually feels sorry for the scumbag Condit. Even though Condit endangered the lives of police officers too. That shows how White Americans make a pass for white criminals and how white criminals get off easy.

Trump Is Undermining Legality

This weekend Trump fired deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, for reasons which have yet to be clarified. It does fit in with Trumps seeming plan to undermine the Justice Department, and the concept of judicial independence. It is becoming increasingly clear that Trump has something criminal to hide. There's too much smoke and there has to be some fire. Richard Nixon was an overambitious character who went down a slippery slope into illegality. Trump is revealing himself to be utterly criminal.

End Daylight Savings Time Now!

It's strange how strange how the GOP say they are against Big Government and Government Intrusion but they won't do anything to abolish that waste of time and effort, Daylight Savings Time (DST for short.) DST does not save energy or achieve any useful purpose. It just forces people to get up an hour earlier, and for people who have to get up early, it forces them to use more electricity. DST is an attempt to cheat and like other form of cheating it doesn't pay off in the long run.

Bullshit On the "Gig Economy"

From techcrunch.com:

The study, entitled The Economics of Ride-Hailing: Driver Revenue, Expenses and Taxes, and which was carried out by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, surveyed more than 1,100 Uber and Lyft ride-hailing drivers combined with detailed vehicle cost information — factoring in costs such as fuel, insurance, maintenance and repairs — to come up with a median profit per hour worked.

The upshot? The researchers found profit from ride-hail driving to be “very low”. On an hourly basis, the median profit was $3.37 per hour, with 74% of drivers earning less than the minimum wage in the state where they operate.

Just for the record, that was lower than the minimum wage back in the eighties. Under those conditions, you'd be better of unemployed.

Katei Roiphe: "The New Twitter Feminism"

Katie Roiphe's article in the March 2018 issue of Harper's has exposed the twisted agenda and tactics of the #MeToo movement, especially its censorious and underhanded tactics. Roiphe relates how she was attacked by feminists just by daring to question them:

Before the piece was even finished, let alone published, people were calling me “pro-rape,” “human scum,” a “harridan,” a “monster out of Stephen King’s ‘IT,’?” a “ghoul,” a “bitch,” and a “garbage person”—all because of a rumor that I was planning to name the creator of the so-called Shitty Media Men list. The Twitter feminist Jessica Valenti called this prospect “profoundly shitty” and “incredibly dangerous” without having read a single word of my piece. Other tweets were more direct: “man if katie roiphe actually publishes that article she can consider her career over.” “Katie Roiphe can suck my dick.” With this level of thought policing, who in their right mind would try to say anything even mildly provocative or original?

Roiphe then goes on to name how many members of #MeToo are manhating psychopaths. In particular a certain Leah Finnegan who makes Twitter posts like:

i stand by my comments about the need for obamacare to cover castration."

It's interesting because Finnegan herself looks like the living image of vagina dentate.

It's clear that #MeToo, and maybe Feminism itself has been taken over by a nutter fringe. Hopefully, it will blow itself up soon.

Postscript: actress Heather Locklear ("Dynasty" "Melrose Place" "Spin City") was arrested Sunday night after attacking her boyfriend and a police officer. Is there a connection here? I'll have to think about it further.

Trump Is Throwing Away Iraq

The Conservative media has lately begun to tout Trump's "victory" in Iraq. For the record the fight against ISIS was the work of the Obama administration. But moving on the Trump administration says it won't give Iraq any reconstruction aid. Estimates are the Iraq needs around $80 billion to rebuild from the fighting. Iraq has recently had to pass the hat, so to speak, asking for handout from the other Arab States.

Without reconstruction Iraq will probably slide back into chaos. Trump, once again has failed to show leadership, and continues to make bonehead decisions.

Hypocrisy, Duplicity, or Insanity?

Last week the US Congress passed a budget deal that would increase spending by $300 billion dollars over 2 years. Coming after the tax cut plan, this will increase the deficit. At the same time the Trump White House has come up with a new "infrastructure" plan that will among other things allow states to charge tolls on interstate highways, further roll back environment regulations, and sell of the airport in Washington DC. Trump also want to spend $716 billion on defense. Trump and the GOP remain convinced that tax cuts and runaway military spending are the keys to prosperity. More likely, it will run this country right into the ground.

Something Completely Different

For this week's post, instead of the usual gloom and doom, I decided to post something really funny. It seems that Trump went outdoors without his "MAGA" cap and the wind exposed a part of him we don't usually see; his scalp.



This confirms that Trump only has a few patches of hair left. He lets these patches grow long and then he "coifs" them into his unique hair nest.

Strange Case From the UK

Jemma Beale, a 25 year old native of London England, received a 10 year prison sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice. She claimed to have been raped by 9 men over several years. One of these accusations led to the conviction of a man named Mahad Cassim, who was jailed for seven years. Cassim's conviction was subsequently overturned and that led to the revelation of Beale's lies. It seems that Beale, who is a lesbian, started making up the allegations in order to get sympathy from her partner. Beale also received £11,000 in criminal injuries compensation. It seems that a system like that would create incentives for women to make false allegations of rape.

Times Up for Me too

If we consider the history of political movements they usually fall apart when they get taken over by a nutter fringe. It seems there was something problematic about the name Me too which has always meant either mindless conformity or herd Instinct. THE so called movement has turned into a parade of privileged white women. Like we're supposed to care that Michelle Williams didn't get to make an additional million dollars. Then there's Natalie Portman about how she felt violated by getting a dirty letter in the mail. The funny thing is that Portman's net worth is believed to be $60 million. For that kind of money I'd accept a dirty letter once in a while.

The MeToo movement has turned into a shit storm, a distraction that only appeals to a public that has grown jaded on a steady diet of scandal and sleaze. If it were a tv show it would have jumped the shark. The real struggle is the fight against racism, militarism, and plutocracy. It's not about narcissistic celebrities pretending to be activists.

Trump Jumps Down the Hole

Trump referred to African countries as a "shithole." Unfortunate, because sub-Saharan Africa is one of the few regions of the world where the US is still well liked. He wants more immigration from countries like Norway. Let's leave aside the question of why Norwegians aren't coming to the US. Trump is a toxic combination of ignorance, arrogance, and cynicism. Charles Blow writing in the New York Times

"It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.

In an interview in Deadspin Ta-Nehisi Coates points out that slavery persisted in the Northern states as well, and that that impacted how northern whites saw Black people.

American politics have always been about identity.

Making America White Again

The Trump admin. will end the protected status of 200,000 Salvadorans living in the US. This after they ended the protection of 45,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans. The pattern is clear. The Trump administration is trying to remove refugees from the US. Its motives can only be explained by racism.

Conservative Shorts In A Knot

The strange thing about the Trump presidency is that anybody with eyes should have known that Trump himself was a swindler, a liar, and a sleazeball. It was difficult for Conservatives, especially those who claim to uphold some cultural or intellectual tradition, to accept Trump. Judging from the tone of conservative media, they are only united by their hatred of "liberals." Conservative media outlets have lately taken to attacking not only special counsel Robert Muller, but the FBI and the Department of Justice. Odd when you consider that conservatives are supposed to be great supporters of law enforcement.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Putin regime did tamper with the US elections of 2016. If so, this was an attack on American sovereignty on the same level as Pearl Harbor or 9/11/2001. The question for conservatives will then be, how much will the give up to become "Full Trumpers."