The death throes of Trump's totalitarian tempest

What's just gone down is a very big deal as Frank Dale of Think Progress touches upon in the linked article. He writes that "these latest developments in the Russia probe - which are believed to be the first time in our lives that a President's own DOJ' is saying the commander-in-chief has 'directed a felony' - come a week after Cohen revealed Trump and his family apparently pursued a huge real estate deal in Moscow through the summer of the 2016 campaign.

"Amid the many details in Cohen's latest plea deal with Mueller was the disclosure that Donald Trump Jr., the president's oldest son, likely lied to Congress about his family's business in Russia."

None of Trump's usual defence mechanisms can save him from the gathering storm, or from Stormy and Karen for that matter.

"Republicans in Congress can't save Trump, his attorney general can't save him, and no amount of desperate tweets can save him. Accountability is on its way, and it's arriving very soon," opines Paul Waldman in the Washington Post.

Despite what one of Trump's lawyers famously said, Dana Millbank pointed out back in November that, sadly for the lying fake occupationist president: "the truth still is the truth". And, in a rare political story that should have a happy ending and restore faith that the American system of governance can withstand an oligarchic onslaught as damaging as Trumpism, the truth is finally catching up with [as yet] unindicted co-conspirator Donald Trump.

The Trump Organization and the Trump family empire are being legally battered as we speak.

All hail President Pelosi..... there is such a world [at least, until Bernie takes over]. "The United States presidential line of succession dictates that if the President and Vice President are found unfit for office, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes President." [Sourcepolitics]. Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept asks if this is the Democrat who can beat Trump in the rust belt in 2020?

When it comes to helping residents reach their full potential, a recent report discussed in the Washington Post's Wonkblog ranks the USA as 25th for men and 32nd for women, as measured by World Bank's Human Capital Index. Even Slovenia and Italy rate above the US, as do many others.

Oregon's a total trip

(CNN via KION-TV) - Oregon's Secretary of State has just approved language for a potential ballot initiative that would legalize psychedelic mushrooms.

Now organizers need to get 117,578 signatures to actually put their initiative on the ballot. If they get the requisite number of signatures, Oregonians could vote on the decriminalization of psilocybins, or magic mushrooms, in the 2020 general election.

If Oregonians were to approve the initiative, it would decriminalize psilocybins and allow for the licensed manufacturing and administration of the substances. In recent years, some studies have shown that "magic mushrooms" can have positive effects, especially those undergoing cancer treatments and chemical depression.

Trump now firmly in Mueller's sites

"Trump should be freaked out right about now," says the Washington Post as Michael Cohen strikes a plea deal regarding his lying about the Trump election campaign's Russia project.

Says the TPM website: "It puts Cohen in touch with Trump, Trump's family and high-level Russian government officials about efforts to develop a new project in Moscow just months before Election Day."

"We can expect even bigger bombshells - and White House threats against Mueller - in the coming weeks," says the New York Times: it "ratchets up the pressure on Congress to protect Mr. Mueller."

It is indeed..... Mueller time, as President Trump emerges as "individual 1" a person of interest in the Mueller probe.

Young whites are leaning more & more Democratic

The New York Times cited a study by Catalist that found that between 2014 and 2018 white voters aged 18 to 44 shifted sharply in favor of the Democrats. In 2014, whites 18-29 supported Dems by 1 percentage point; in 2018, these young white voters backed Dems by 26 points, a 25 pt swing.

Whites 30-44 went from voting Rep by 21 points in 2014 to backing Dems by 9 pts in 2018, an even larger 30 pt shift.

The Republican party depends on overwhelming white support to remain competitive.

Batshit Bannonites brokered "Britain breaking" Brexit balls-up

Smug 2016 Brexiteer voter now in minority opinion

Rule Britannia, stiff upper lip as the UK goes under. Sterling getting battered, a land in chaos, predictions that Brexit will hurt what's left of the UK economy even more than thought, turning a second world nation into a third [that's the bottom rung by the way, chaps], the news gets more dismal by the hour.

For those of us who long ago left for brighter shores, we wagged our fingers and exhorted: "Don't **** things up more than they already are." Guess what happened? They ****** things up more than they already were. Bloody marvelous.

But of course the right-wing leaders who "masterminded" it in cahoots with American far-right zealots, alleged including cultist followers of former White House svengali Steve Bannon, duped the people, gots scads of $$$ from dodgy American right-wing sources [several hell-bent Brexiteer politicians including at least one UKipper already under scrutiny, probably more to come], made out like bandits, laughing all the way to the very banks whom, we are now assured, won't actually collapse with all their ill-gotten gains stashed inside.

Bannonites have no particular interest in the United Kingdom's wellbeing. Rather, Bannon's avowed goal is "to drive a stake through the heart of the EU." The American alt-righter is having a much tougher time of that elsewhere in Europe where mechanisms to thwart outside foreign influence are sturdier, but Britain was a pushover [apologies to Scotland, they're collectively as aghast at the suicidal death-wish of Englanders as most everyone else].

That said, the majority of Englanders now say, after the bus ad slogans were proven to be lies, they'd vote to remain in the EU, and not long ago almost half a million people marched on the streets in a massive show of pro-EU solidarity.

In Cali, your vote counted!

November 2018

The Blue Wave happened after all

For the first time ever, over 100 million voters turned out to vote in the mid-term elections. And the message was clear. Other than the 35% hardcore RepugniTrump voters, who actually believed the scum's lies that they were going to protect preexisting conditions when they had actually voted in congress to get rid of it, the great majority of Americans are sick and tired of the Trumpist/1% owned GOP's wholesale self-benefiting rape of our nation.

The biggest story of the mid-terms surely has to be that, with the House results completely in, it was indeed a Blue Wave, with the Democrats [including a pro-Dem Independent] boasting a total of 235* [*corrected to include the Independent] of the 435 total seats, including a whopping 40* [updated] flipped seats, as indicated by Politico election results.

Blue is the new Orange

The new Orange is Blue is perhaps the second biggest story of the post-election results. California's Orange County, long regarded as a GOP bastion, went completely Democratic.

Two new Dem winners: Golden, and Porter
by Rob Francis

Yet more wins for the Dems, many of whom were trailing, including Maine Democrat Jared Golden beating Bruce Poliquin, with Katie Porter [D] over Mimi Walters [R] in previously hardcore Republican Orange county, Calif. Also, a fraction ahead in Orange County Calif is Gil Cisneros [D] leading Young Kim [R] by a whisker, Gilly having trailed and been almost written off a day or two ago. Now even disappointed me [about the Senate] is going "just wowza!" over the house.

Mail-ins and absentees often help the Dems, but in Maine the "ranked choice" state system [considered the most valuable for voters] swung the result in Golden's favor.

So, in the house, at the time of writing, Dems are up to 232, a significant jump from last time I looked [225], so now a big 33 seat advantage over the Repugs. That, and some more likely [D]'s predicted, moves the house into a true Blue Wave, with So Cal's Orange County's Repug house candidates completely wiped out, just as in New England. Both all blue and true.

Not so in the Senate, where the odds were stacked heavily against the Dems, where it's Dems [including 2 independents -- hello Bernie] totalling 47, four seats shy of the 'Pugs who, as expected, already clinched the Senate.

Golden leapfrogs Poliquin in Maine to win for [D]. Sinema [D] defeats McSally [R] for Senate in formerly red Arizona.   The Quake

Also, a note to Florida's anti-democracy Repugs: unlike the bent red states, in California every vote counts, including mail-ins.

A classic case in point is the stunning comeback of super Tony Thurmond, the Dem supported candidate for schools chief, who until recently trailed rightwing financed Republican lackey Marshall Tuck by a whopping 86,000 votes. As the mail-ins and provisionals continue to be aggregated, Super Tone has edged ahead by a few thousand. I was proud to have been a mail-in and this gives me reassurance that, yes, California counts every vote and is a beacon for true democracy in contrast to the rightwing fascistic outrages of the Rick Scotts of this world. We got sunshine AND democracy!

Also fantasmagorical is that Costa Mesa welcomes enthusiastically their new democratic congressman.... Harley Rouda [pictured]. As mentioned below, the Dem House win keeps growing.

It was a heck of battle to weed out the loathsome and smug Republican specimen, Dana Rohrabacher, but it happened. Seriously awesome.Yes, after 17 years, the deeply disliked old boy Dana Rohrabacher was tossed out by the formerly ultra-red Costa Mesa district of California. Known for his yelled racist on-film comments, being proudly pro-Putin and pro-Russian oligarchy, along with a shopping list of other dislikable attributes, he just became the latest casualty of the Blue Wave, another of the despicable hard-right rotters whom Democrats ensured the doors firmly hit their asses on their way out.

Dem House win keeps growing by Big Farmer

Got busy and was out of town for a while, so naturally delighted to see that the Dems victory count in the House grew by three more since I last checked in, up to 225 at the time of writing. Niiiice!

So, like everyone, mixed feelings about the results but the most basic goal was achieved: taking the House. The endangered fabric of American democracy is saved - for now.

In his meltdown after reality set in, Trump glimpsed the delusion of his immortality and impermeability, but like Adolf Hitler, who never surrendered even when the avenging wolves were right on his doorstep, he quickly resumed building back up the walls of his ego. Runaway greed and and self-fabricated delusion, especially in psychopaths or people with psychotic tendencies, are supremely difficult to overcome, even if he wanted to do so based on expediency and the promise of better outcomes.

So the battle rages on and the question of American democracy's ability to survive and recover from the Trumpist onslaught will remain an unanswered one for at least another two years. And then, perhaps something more ominous still - the real danger of a right-wing totalitarian onslaught led by someone who actually knows how to avoid being ultimately sunk by their own psychological flaws, as was the case with Adolf, and probably will be with Herr Trump.

Also: The Guardian's Today in focus looks at what it takes to take on the EU and win or lose, as the case may be, plus a look at US women in the mid-terms.

Will Dems get a bone: the House?

Will this election push back on the collective American psychosis? Even if the Democrats do take back the House, it's just a bone unfortunately [but vote anyway, of course!], and still leaves the nation in a long-term vice grip in which the right-wing is well on the way to permanent rule of the majority by the minority. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, the supreme court, "citizens united", absence of genuinely left major media to challenge the consumerist escapist illusion that keeps America in denial of its civilizational crisis born of its unbridled ultra pro-corporate capitalist consumerism. The right wing show goes on with or without Donald Trump. Like everything else in the utilitarian world of the right, he's expendable when he's no longer useful. Dem bones!

Alcohol's toll on a drunk driving cop

Flashing back to 2016 and a gripping arrest of a drunk driving sheriff's department lieutenant who doesn't get off the hook just because he's a ranking law enforcement officer. Compelling footage for so many reasons at so many levels. This multi-time drunk driving cop is still on the department payroll albeit pushing papers.

Peculiar fusion

Greg Sargent wrote in the Washington Post: "The public has seen Trump's fusion of ethno-nationalism and orthodox GOP plutocracy put into governing practice, and is rejecting it," citing studies by the Economic Innovation Group and CNN.

The GOP efforts to put, at vast advertising expense, the most palatable misrepresentation of this "peculiar fusion" as a last ditch effort to keep the entire Congress "probably won't be enough for Republicans to keep the House. But whatever is to be.... the need to lie so relentlessly about all these matters itself constitutes an admission of failure. The public has seen Trump's fusion of xenophobic ethno-nationalism and orthodox GOP regressive and plutocratic economic priorities, and is rejecting it."

October 2018

So much right wing terrorism, people forgot the Kroger shooting

With so much mayhem, horror, and death being perpetrated by proponents of the divisive Trumpist Republican right, much of the media forgot to mention, or gave only short shrift to, the shooting at the Kentucky Kroger grocery store. It couldn't possibly be that black Americans are less important, could it?

BBC News: "A 51-year-old white man tries to enter a predominantly black church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. But when he can't get in, he goes to a nearby supermarket and shoots dead two elderly black people."

When confronted by another shopper, who was believed to have drawn a gun, the racist murderer chided him to hold his fire because "whites don't kill whites."

Gun slaughter continues as alt-right POS shoots 11 innocent people

"Trump sympathizers have beaten, shot, stabbed, run over, or bombed innocent people. The president is radicalizing a generation of angry men." -- The Intercept.

Words have long since failed to do justice to adequately describe the grief, despair and utter outrage that the United States powers-that-be will not protect their own citizens against the filthy rich lobbyists, gun nuts, and alt-righters who have free reign to shoot up anyone they don't like without even a whimper of response. Tragically, it'll be the same again even after another horrific tragedy this time at a synagogue in Pennsylvania.

This time "the crime" of those slaughtered in the eyes of the Republican loonie murderer, drunk on alt-right and indeed White House manufactured fascist hate propaganda, was to try to help downtrodden people no matter their ethnicity or religion. For the selflessness of this genuinely spiritual and loving community, they paid with mass death.

Utterly disgusting, and every American, myself included, should hang our heads in shame for not doing what even Australia finally could do -- stop the insane gun violence, the mayhem of slaughter and rivers of blood, and make our country a safe place free from right-wing terrorism. How is this a civilized society if the general public is imprisoned by marauding armed hate-fuelled bullies?

POS Repugnicon male in 50's hauled in for domestic terrorism

Cesar Sayoc [left], crazed by Trump stoked hatred

Middle aged racist male stripper and Florida pizza delivery man Cesar Sayoc, who slept either at his mother's house or in his "hate van", the archetypal Trump loser, hauled in for questioning along with his vehicle covered in pro-Trump and anti-left death-threat stickers. Top job by the security forces who showed they're still on the side of safety for the American people. This is the best thing to know right now.

The sick American right-wing, amid the stock market's drunken fluctuations, economic bubble warning signs flashing, their pet allies murdering journalists without strong response from the White House, Putin boasting he manipulated Trump to herald the end of America as a world power [and being invited by Trump to celebrate with him], GOP rigging the election, clearly the Republicans will stop at nothing to bring to an end America as we know it, and an end to American democracy, now with their latest weapon - out and out domestic terrorism stoked by a deeply dysfunctional "president" who has consistently urged violence against fellow Americans and cannot bring himself to confront "this bomb business" and accept his responsibility. We need a real leader. Desperately.

Most important mid-term election in recent history

For many it will be a referendum about the most petty, venal, misogynistic, wannabe dictatorial "president" ever. For others, it was the spineless manner in which the Republican Congress, supposedly representatives of the people, allowed [and indeed indulged themselves in] a wholsale looting of America for the benefit of themselves and the 1%.

Whatever happens, check back as The Quake builds up to the "Super Bowl of Politics: Fight to save America from Amerikkka". The enemy of democracy, the "new" soft fascist Trumpist version of the GOP [Geriatric Oligarchic Pedos], must be utterly destroyed. Let's put an end to the celebration of rank corruption that right-wing ruled Amerikkka has become.

The shite right are rushing to kill the left/liberal vote. US elections are run by partisan actors, some of those bent actors are themselves on the ballot, Florida, Georgia, and Kansas are just three examples [there are several others] where this is occurring. That shouldn't stop us from giving 100% to the cause. Voting is the most basic and important step we can take. Some our votes will be suppressed by the right. But vote anyway.

Unmasking bad guys

The internet researchers unmasking Russian assassins. NPR radio link to audio file.

Donald Trump is, and always has been, a bad businessman, but luckily for him, daddy's unbelievable success and wealth has allowed the orange menace, to this day, to be a massive and destructive pest, ultimately infesting the entire global population's quality of life. Trump University and Trump Vodka are well known disasters of his, but here are many more of his biggest flops, including an airline.

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington [CREW] are among the heroes who brought attention to former ambassador Haley's "personal relationship gifts" received while trogging around and annoying people abroad. Is there anyone on the Trump team that isn't bent? The hollowed out State Dept is spineless to act unless the Dems win Congress and have some clout to get justice for the taxpayers and a non-beholden political leadership.

"The man [Trump] is the arsonist and the fireman. When he's the fireman, he claims he's achieved something. He's put out the fire." -- Sidney Blumenthal.

Self-pitying, hysterical, conjuring up conspiracies, vindictive.

Fight back!

Former Bush official Eliot Cohen wrote recently in the Washington Post that "perhaps the collapse of modern conservatism came out most clearly in Kavanaugh's own testimony - its self-pity, its hysteria, its conjuring up conspiracies, its vindictiveness. No one watching those proceedings could imagine that a Democrat standing before this judge's bench in the future would get a fair hearing. It was, rather, personalized grievance politics."

Tom Nichols: "To those conservatives who are willing to look away from Kavanaugh's bizarre, evasive, immature, intemperate, weaselly, disrespectful answers to the Senate, that's not conservative, that's just tribal loyalty over prudence and principal."

"Instead of acting like the minority and like victims, Dems need to go on the offensive and act like a majority. Investigate, interview, and use the power of the media loudly, with courage and fervor!" -- Allie Katz, as reported by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Angela Calvillo, contributor to Crowdpac: "The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote, now let's amend it to secure a woman's right to her reproductive health."

Let's reward Dems who are progressive, and punish Republicans wherever and whenever possible. Senator Collins voted "yes" on Trump's Supreme Court nominee, the unhinged and blatantly agenda-drunk, booze crazed Brett Kavanaugh.

Support Collins' future challenger in Maine on Crowdpac. The enemy may have most of the billionaire's on their side and unlimited dark money from corporate donors, but ordinary American citizens can fight, and do whatever we can, to take back our nation from the right-wing greedsters and con[servative] artists who have rigged the US political system. Be a hero today.

Jennifer Rubin on Susan Collins: "It's one thing to cast a safe vote; it's another to embarrass oneself and sound gullible about a nominee who revealed his partisan stripes."

The KavanNO Debacle: The sham investigation.
The odds are that the disastrous Kavanaugh nomination will be pushed through but it's unlikely boozy Brett will have a smooth ride even after he achieves his self-interested ultimate career goal. The latest sham investigation's only use is to allow key Senators on both sides to throw an excuse at their electorate for voting whichever way they do. Even after his election to the Supreme court this controversy is likely far from done and dusted, especially if the Dems do well enough in the mid-terms to put some feet to the fire.

Matthew Miller of Politico Magazine asks us to "consider who [was] in charge of the FBI's invesrtigation: Director Chris Wray, who attended Yale Law School with Kavanaugh...and, like Kavanaugh, joined the Federalist Society...Rosenstein's ties to Kavanaugh run even deeper -- they worked together on Ken Starr's investigation of Bill Clinton in the 1990s."

New York Times

Brett Kavanaugh is a willing pawn in the radical right's "stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America, at both the state and national levels, back to the political economy and oligarchic governance of midcentury Virginia, minus the segregation" as historian Nancy MacLean puts it. The billionaire backed originalist libertarian cult's historical inspiration -- James Buchanan -- represents "the true origin story of today's well-heeled radical right."

Dumb gibberish from Dumbald Trump: "Hurricane Florence. One of the wettest we've ever seen, from the standpoint of water."

Trump firing up GOP misogynists

"By mocking Christine Blasey Ford at a campaign rally, Trump is simply following his calculations for his 2020 campaign. He either knows or doesn't care how the Kavanaugh appointment will turn out. Instead, he is simply firing up his misogynistic followers and those who enable them. He doesn't care, really.

Nothing matters to Trump. Not common decency. Not the fears women have of being targeted and assaulted by men like Trump. Nothing. He doesn't care. He knows that speech like what he said at the rally yesterday will get cheers from the people who are like Trump, want to be like him or, in some cases, are afraid of people like him but have to live with them.

Will his calculations work? Possibly. Things have changed. No longer is being a boor and a braggart a cause of failure. If you can reach enough people who are just like yourself, you can win in today's climate. So, Trump plays to his peers and ignores others' fears." -- Mineral Man, Dem Underground

September 2018

Privileged Rage & Lies of the "Right"

Europe 17.5 USA 10.5 in Ryder Cup 2018, HILITES

Saturday night live hearing rendition.

Kavanaugh is lying. His upbringing explains why. [Washington Post article].

"A witness who is not credible lashes out at his accusers and assumes a more reasonable demeanor under neutral questioning. That is exactly what we saw with Kavanaugh. While a falsely accused man has every right to be angry, Kavanaugh's rage - whether he is innocent or not - played poorly in large part because it was infected with self-pity and devoid of insight." [Politico article].

Freak-out Friday

The nomination moved forward but with the bar association, Yale, and the general public calling for an FBI inquiry which we now are getting [one week, though? Surely this will take longer?]. It's hard to believe this completely inappropriate candidate can really get away with hanging in this long. Go. Step down. Never come back.

Cancel Kavanaugh. Brett Kavanaugh showed himself to be irrationally angry, immature, politically motivated, and blinded by self-interest and greed. He places his own self-aggrandizement and selfish agenda-laden career before the good of the country. Horrible, diabolical choice for Supreme Court. Shame on all Republicans.

Thursday or Friday, or one day next week, will likely live in infamy as a battered America looks at how the breakdown of its political mechanisms now leaves us with a nation "led" by people whose goals are the polar opposite of the wishes of the people. At the time of writing, loathsome Brett Kavanaugh is -10pts with registered voters [this from a highly right biased pollster: Fox], and the great majority of Americans want Rod Rosenstein to stay and for the Mueller investigation to keep going to its conclusion. But in the current US, the people's will counts for little and has almost no proper representation.

Vlad Putin will be watching, popcorn and vodka in hand, as the rest of the globe wonders, yet again, "what the **** just happened over there?". There is an explanation, but it won't fit into a sound byte, and there are also solutions, but they have no sufficient avenue of expression or actuation of executive and judicial remedies that could rectify the situation.

In November we have a chance to maybe save the legislative branch from complete capture, but even that's not guaranteed, with voter de-registration, fraud, and suppression being aggressively perpetrated by the corporate and 1% backed right-wing.

Even if the legislative third of the pie is rescued, it may not be enough. But it's crucial for any hope of saving the US from this tailspin into disaster.

US BIG BIZ still dictating the fate of Brexit: Their massive infusion of propaganda money duped sufficient numbers of gullible UK voters into leaving the EU, now they want to make sure it's a hard Brexit, and the greedy and grateful right-wing British politicians are compliantly taking their big bucks. UK = bought and paid for, a long time ago.