Inauguration Daze

I’m in a New Jerk State of Mind

January 20, 2017 – The First Day of the Last Throes of Your Life

I was out for my morning constitutional (nothing will ever be constitutional again I fear) and was pleasantly surprised to see there is still breathable air, and one would assume - somewhere behind the gathering clouds - the Sun. I will not assume the same come tomorrow, but or the moment I will remain hopeful. I have never tried writing while in a cold sweat, convulsing, with my head buried under the covers, but that is probably how I will be spending my day (if not the next four years) so here goes nothing. And nothing going sounds like a damn good idea right about now.

Heeeere’s Donny

Starting at one past noon today we will finally get to see just what-the-hell-we’ve-got-to-lose. For the majority of us it will be the ability to sleep or keep our food down. For many millions of us it will be health care and you know…the ability to be alive. For fewer millions of us it will be our freedom, our homes and/or families. For a sizeable minority it will be the ability to look at ourselves in the mirror because we voted for the most ignorant, incompetent, hateful, vengeful, narcissistic douchebag ever to dis-grace our nation’s highest office. The good news is that the shitstorm will not begin exactly at one past noon because as Der Furor told the Times of London, “… [D]ay one – which I will consider to be Monday as opposed to Friday or Saturday. Right? I mean my day one is going to be Monday because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration.”(actual quote) Hang on to your whatevers folks, I expect a good bit of turbulence before we land. Make sure you know where your hair-sick bag is and as always be sure your Orange-gas mask is in place before you try to help anyone else put on theirs. Fortunately I managed to finish the piece below yesterday before total paralysis set in…

Press to Open

January 19, 2017

Chrump’s recent press conference tantrum showed off his unique (i.e., fascist) ability to intimidate the press. Don’t get me wrong, corporate media has been disgraceful in their coverage of Chrump throughout the campaign era. They let him get away with everything short of murder – Chrump, after all, only threatened murder (as far as we know). It remains critical to the very fabric of democracy that a free and independent press do the people’s work and call out the establishment when it flies in the face of the people’s best interests. Such behavior is already rampant as Chrump prepares to take our government as his own in order to demolish life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

During his first real press availability in almost six months. The Orange Gas Cloud shouted down a CNN reporter trying to ask a question, calling CNN fake news and refusing to let the reporter speak. The man with the fake hair, fake skin coloring, fake populism, fake wealth that he is putting into a fake blind trust, perpetual fake outrage, fake election victory, the man who is fake news personified, is all bent out of shape over any fake news that dare not emanate from his mouth, thumbs or wrong end of the feeding tube, or from his spokesmutants.

You’re a loser! And you’re a loser! You’re all losers! Sad!
I want all of you dishonest medias out of here now!

Chrump paraded out his lawyer to ‘splain how the very-well-sighted trust will work as the new Con-artist-in-chief divests the American public of any right to question His Hairiness and his business dealings. The attorney works for a prestigious law firm – the best law firm ever – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius – won the 2016 “Russia Law Firm of the Year” award. This is not fake news. Chrump is fake news. Real fake news. Or the new fake real.

Self portrait, painted by someone else

The prop du jour for this farce was an absurdly conspicuous pile of what to the low-IQ viewer appeared to be file folders. Reporters were not allowed to inspect the documents, which appeared to all present to be empty (like Chrump himself) and in mint condition (completely unlike Chrump).

Rene Magritte’s Fake Man with Fake Folders

Beyond Breaking

Broken News

It will be interesting to see if corporate media will continue to let Chrump crap all over it. Maybe reporters will decide that they might as well do their damn jobs. Chrump already hates their guts and nothing short of them going Full Conway and sugar coating every single vowel movement, blatant lie and dastardly deed will keep Chrump from treating the media like something he stepped in while fixing his “hair” on a windy day.

Naturally, Republican’ts believe the federal government is nothing more than a nuisance that interferes with corporate profits, while helping people who do not deserve help. They think much less of journalists, especially those who insist on fact finding and challenging the powerful as they attempt to run roughshod over the hoi polloi. In reality the façade of governments and nations is wearing thinner and thinner and has significantly less chance of survival as we move further into Alt-reality. This type of thinking is not new. It came up in the great 1976 Paddy Chayefsky movie Network. Although it’s been said many times, many ways...

The forces of nature do not stand a chance

Lest we imagine that this distaste for the press belongs solely to The Chrump, Paul Ryan wants to outlaw the First Amendment from Congress. Our founders obviously never intended the public to be privy to what they were doing. No photos or videos allowed on the House Floor since no photos or videos were allowed in 1776. Ayn Rand would be proud. George Washington’s teeth would burst into flames.

Donald Tinyhands cannot cope with a free and independent press – including what passes for such here in Amerika. As much as the press was the K-Y Jelly that eased Chrump’s penetration into the White House, they are still not submissive enough to placate his unquenchable thirst for attention and subservience. Unless they bow, scrape and massage his ever-wounded bloated ego, he will not be mollified. No one dare question the great and powerful Don. There is a plan afoot to banish the press from the White House press briefing room. They are to be moved off-site. Chrump referred to the press as, “among the most dishonest people in the world.” He harassed them, he threatened them, he caused his minions to verbally assault them to the point where one female reporter required armed protection lest the verbal assaults morphed into physical violence. Frank Zappa ironically, warningly told us many years ago, “It can’t happen here.” It is happening. Here. Now.

As always every word he utters is actually about himself

I. Mangrey reporting. Resist and replace.
If you see something, do something.
                                                                                                    Mad in USA

And now, how about a moment of Zen…

Charles Mingus - Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi U.S.A.

Inauguration Eve

The Day in Pictures

Chrumpington, DC
January 19, 2017

Here Comes The Chrump…

 

Chrump pretends to read, in preparation to pretend to be president

Chrump pretends to write inauguration speech
that he hired someone else to write.
His people say it is obviously a joke.
Many other people are saying the he is obviously a joke.

Chrump’s cabinet lands in Washington…

…and gets right to work

Unpresidented

An Amerikan Precedent

Chrumpington, DC
January 17, 2017

Unfortunately Newt is able to speak despite his foot-in-mouth disease

Newt Gingrich (who was booted as Speaker of the House - by his own party - for ethics violations) does not think Chrump should change the way he does things in order to comport with the laws of the land, but that the United States should change the way it has been doing things to suit the Chrump family. Good timing Newt the Kuwaiti embassy abruptly canceled its reservation for an event regularly held at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. Members of the Chrump Organization pressured the Kuwaiti ambassador to hold the event at a Chrumpier hotel owned by the soon-to-be Conflict-of-interest-in-chief. Not to worry though it will all be legal soon enough. Just ask disgraced scumbag Gingrich.

The Orange Gas Cloud pays a visit to
an unsuspecting town near you.

Precedent Chrump

The Constitution – if you have a copy, keep it secret, keep it safe – makes it very clear that the presidency of the United States is not meant to enrich the public servant at the head of the government, particularly by receiving favors or stuff from foreign countries who might hope to influence said public servant. The Emoluments Clause of Article I, Section 9 prohibits any “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States]” from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” There are three important points that I am sure are paramount in Chrump’s “mind”: 1) if the foreign country in question simply takes it upon itself to give a present or emolument – even if that country is ‘persuaded’ by some unnamed party associated with the office holder – then surely the office holder has no choice but to accept such an unsolicited gift; anything else would surely be an insult, 2) rules are too politically correct and meant for losers, and 3) if the president does it then it is not illegal. I made up point number one, but I am sure we will hear something similar very soon. Point number two is obviously the way Chrump thinks about everything. Point number three was provided by the criminal madman known as Richard Nixon.

Speaking of precedents, a recent Gallup poll found that Chrump has a historically low approval rating for his transition to the White House, with 51 percent of Americans saying they disapprove of his performance, and only 44 (a CNN poll has this number at 40) percent approving of the oncoming presIDent. This is surprising for two reasons, neither of which explains though might be related to Chrump being the world’s sorest “winner”. First, that is a much larger number than the percent of voters who actually voted for the guy who lost the popular vote in a landslide. Second, these numbers set him apart from his predecessors bigly. What a surprise. A week before Inauguration Day in 2009, 83 percent of Americans said they approved of the way Barack Obama was managing his transition, with only 12 percent saying they disapproved. Even the similarly clueless George W. Bush, who, like Trump, lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College after the Supreme Court stopped the vote counting in Florida, had 61 percent approval to 25 percent disapproval a week out from Inauguration Day in 2001. Orange Julius Ceasar of course calls the polls “rigged”. We knew Chrump was unique, but who knew he was this special? Is the hornymoon over already?

In light of this information, Paying Attention has decided to leak the text of Chrump’s inaugural address, obtained from a group of hookers our intrepid rookie reporter B.N. Formd encountered while undercover outside Chrump Tower:

Soon-to-be iconic photo of "I am not a Chrump" moment
as King Don prepares to deface the White House

In case you have not seen this (I gave it a standing ovation)…

Key & Peele - Obama and Luther's Farewell Address

Speaking of Leaks

Der Furor was beside himself over a leak that did not come from his mouth. The fact-averse leak machine reprimanded the intelligence community of leaking and made his wittle feewings known immediately. He lied forcefully in defense of previous lies in the only way he knows how. First he tweeted it as the final bit of yet another electronic hot air tweetnado:

When you know nothing, you can say anything

 

Later that day, during the press conference to which Chrump brought a cheering section that did in fact cheer and applaud at the appropriate times, he had to say it aloud, in public, with other people present, reporters in fact, “I think it’s a disgrace. And I say that and I say that (sic). And that’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. I think it’s a disgrace. That information that was false and fake and never happened, got released to the public.” That is simply unbelievable. Nothing like that has ever happened before.

A Chinese take on Chrump
Let’s hope China can keep a sense of humor

Asshole/Asset

Reporter: On that intelligence report, the second part of the conclusion was that Vladimir Putin ordered it because he aspired to help you on the election. Do you accept that part of the finding?

Chrump Thing: Well if, if Putin likes Donald Chrump…I consider that an asset not a liability.

Vladimir Putin considers Chrump an asset as well.

I. Mangrey (more than ever) reporting. Resist and Replace.
                                                                                                    Mad in USA

John Lewis v. The Blob

This Really Sucks, But Don't Worry I’m Sure It Will Get Worse

Washington, DC
January 15, 2017

I understand the desire to put on a good face and show the world that we are a strong nation regardless of the fact that our presidential election was hacked, rigged, altered, fixed (more accurately the complete opposite of fixed), neutered, choose your own adverb. We are expected to show those sneaky Russians (and the head of the FBI) that despite their meddling and despite their having achieved the goal of putting the most absurd, incompetent, ignorant, dangerous and delusional nutbag in the White House, and rally behind our “president” and move forward. Make the best of what the majority of the citizenry believes is a very, very bad situation. But what would this really show the rest of the world? That we are gutless toadies who will just put our tails between our legs and put up with a potentially apocalyptic situation. I say NO. Actually, I say something much more colorful than that, but I am trying to keep this a family show...today. This is total unmitigated bullshit – well that didn’t last very long did it? Anyway, use whatever words you like, but I think it is a big mistake just to go along to get along. I am all in with John Lewis, an objectively verifiable man of courage, honor and forgiveness. Chuck Todd asked Lewis if he would be able to forge a relationship with the racist, fascist, pretender-in-chief. Not in those exact words unfortunately. The civil rights icon responded quietly, "It's going to be very difficult. I don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president." He added, "I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected, and they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton." Lewis gently and earnestly added, "I believe it was a conspiracy on the part of Russians and others to help him get elected. That's not right. That's not fair. That's not the open democratic process."

I know this is no surprise, given my penchant for spewing invective and my unabashed distaste for the Fetid Orange Gas Cloud, but I think we will all be much better off hounding his sorry ass every moment he continues the charade of being president. Chrump is neither a legitimate president nor a legitimate human being.

After having his skull fractured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by racist cops as he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965, John Lewis has been in Congress for 30 years and has never missed a presidential inauguration. He is planning to miss this one. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something. You cannot afford to be quiet.”

John Lewis (far right)

 



All too predictably, the Orange One lashed out on Twitter, somehow taking 17 minutes to finish his 280-character/44-word “thought”:

We cannot, for one single moment, allow this brutish moron to feel comfortable. If not for the antiquated Electoral College, the Russians and a meddling FBI chief Chrump would already be in history’s dustbin where he belongs. Now he will surely make history. And as Dick Smothers said to his brother many times, “That was not a compliment.”

There is little humor to be found at the moment. I hope to return you to your regularly scheduled laugh-a-minute sarcasm shortly.

I. Mangrey reporting. March. Fight back. No surrender.
                                                                                                    Mad in USA

Eight Days Before We All Get Chrumpled to Death

Can You Say AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH?

January 12, 2017

The reality-challenged sociopath in the Orange Asshole suit who has more faith in Moscow than he does in America and whose only interaction with computers is limited to tweeting, and who said, “Now, I don't know. What do I know about it? All I know is what's on the Internet,” now tells us, “I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly (sic). The whole Age of Computer has made it so nobody knows exactly what’s going on…” WTFF

The trouble we are about to be in is simply Chrumpian in proportions. Don’t know what that means? How could you? The words, the very possibilities cannot be imagined. We are in uncharted territory. Alt-reality is unfathomable to actual reality-based thinking. Imagine Christopher Columbus suddenly transported onto the Starship Enterprise. You think he was lost, in over his head sailing to "India"? Imagine him hurtling through space light years from Earth. How do you say, “What the fuck is a light year?” in Italian? We think we have some idea how stunningly cataclysmic Chrump can be. Uh uh folks. Sure there are checks and balances. Sure there are. Like Paul Ryan. Like Mitch McConnell. They will keep things on the straight and narrow-minded. Is this helping yet?

Do not worry, though these guys are technically in charge of much of what is about to happen, they too have no earthly way to predict the effects of the Chrumpstorm that is about to swallow them up and spit them out like Columbus on the Enterprise. They will not know what hit them. They will have immense trouble remembering their own names, let alone what their jobs are. Calling Chrump a psycho is a slap-in-the-face to mentally ill people everywhere.

Team Chrump is apoplectic that the intelligence community and President-still Obama, called out Chrump’s beloved Mother Russia for cyber warfare against – what is that called again – oh yeah, Amerika and dared to retaliate against Chrump and the Republicants’ new benefactor. A Chrump spokesman fretted that this was nothing more than an attempt to delegitimize the Chrump (GULP!) presIDency. My word! It is simply unthinkable that someone would try to delegitimize another man’s presidency. Imagine if someone started saying that the president of the United States needed to show his birth certificate because he was hiding the fact that he was not born in this country even though that president had already proven such and even though one need not be born in this country if one of one’s parents is an American citizen. Then imagine if that same person continued to disbelieve said president and then demanded his college transcripts as well. Then imagine that disgrace of a man accusing the president he spent years sliming of trying to delegitimize him after he got “elected” president thanks to help from the FBI and Vladimir Putin. It is all obviously very greatly hypothetical, but what a fun thought experiment.

He Read a Book?

Some years ago when pressed on awkward topics—such as whether or not he regularly read Adolf Hitler’s speeches - Chrump turned “skittish and, perhaps, inventive” according to Marie Brenner’s September 1990 Vanity Fair article:

In April 1989, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

“Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?” I asked Trump.

Trump hesitated. “Who told you that?”

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” (“I did give him a book about Hitler,” Marty Davis said. “But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”)

Later, Trump returned to this subject. “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

In his open letter to the incoming Republican’t dictatorship Ed Venture said, he was “not saying that Chrump loves Putin because he owes Putin untold amounts of money or because Putin is blackmailing him, but many people are saying this.” Since then we have learned that even more people are saying this, and those people are leaders of the American intelligence community. Although FBI director James Comey was more than willing to publicize, just a few days before the election, bogus innuendo to help the Russians sabotage Hillary Clinton (As I write this the Department of Justice announced it is investigating Comey for this incident.), he is remaining tight lipped about the latest information implicating Chrump and Moscow in a potential blackmail scheme. And guess who the chrump, I mean chump is and who is holding the winning hand in this scenario. I will give you a hint – it is not the guy who bankrupted four casinos. He would not know a winning hand if it was fondling his tiny man bits.

I. Mangrey reporting. Turn your head and scoff.
                                                                                                    Mad in USA

Wretched Whackos Wrap-up

How the Hell Did We Get Here and Where the Fuck Are We and When Can We Leave?

January 11, 2017

I have been thinking far too much about who, how, what and where we are right now. But you knew that. It is possible that I might have hurt myself covering The Cabinet of Contemptables being put forward by the president-(der)elect we see materializing in front of us. The cavalcade of creeps, con artists and kooks that prospective conflict-of-interest-in-chief Chrump is assembling is not his dream team. This is the dream team of billionaires, generals, anti-science and anti-government freaks long preferred by the Republican’t party writ large. Chrump couldn’t care less about any of this and dreams only of himself. Whether asleep or awake. The only interruptions arise when he is dreaming about banging his daughter.

Is my daughter Ivanka hot or what?

The female-parent-fornicators in the Republican’t party, after voting to kill the Affordable Care Act 60 times over a period of six years, crying “repeal and replace” all the way home, still do not have a plan to replace. They are saying that the replace part might take a few years; the repeal however will take but a minute now that they control the House, the Senate and the White House. Republican’ts couldn’t care less about replacing anything – they all have medical insurance. And they keep getting elected over and over. This time they are going to help 30 million people, many of whom keep voting for them, get rid of their oppressive medical insurance, which Ben Carson compared to slavery.

Republican’ts are also poised to mutilate Social Security. Republican’ts despise the government, social safety nets (except when it benefits them), and they cherish Wall Street, war, hatred and white people. The rest of it is just collateral detritus to them. The purpose of everything they do is to put more money in the hands of those who already have most of the money. Period. Remember, a rising tide lifts all yachts.

Female-Parent-Fornicators All

Maybe I am getting old, but I have already lost count of the number of at-best-shaky deals being done by the Chrump family in their never ending efforts to con everyone within earshot and pad their bank accounts, now with the blessing of the full faith and credit full farce and incredulity of the Amerikan presidency. First we had the Bid Big Bucks for Coffee With Ivanka scam that her brother put the kibosh on once everyone became aware of it, then there was the strong-arming of the Kuwaiti ambassador to change the venue of an event to Chrump International in DC, we also have an inaugural fundraiser (not sure exactly what the funds are for) to go a hunting with big game hunters Eric and Don Jr. – "Camouflage & Cufflinks" is the preferred attire at the event, to be held one day after the inauguration in downtown Washington, and now we have this: the Center for Public Integrity reported Monday that Eric and Don Jr. just created a new “non-profit” that will be hosting a charity event over inauguration weekend offering top-tier donors access to the President-elect and themselves. The old Chrump “non-profit”, which was shut down by New York’s attorney general for failure to file the proper paperwork, was used to buy paintings of Chrump and to pay off court settlements for the man who never settles court cases. I need to start me one of them non-profit thingies myself.

I cannot quite see who is wearing the cufflinks from here.

The Orange Roughy Stinks From the Head Down

Chrump continues to unceasingly pommel us with ignorant, dangerous, excruciating words and deeds every five minutes, so much so that it is hard to focus on any one thing sufficiently. Similarly with each successive cabinet pick our heads come a little closer to exploding. However let us not lose sight of the fact that no matter how horrifying each member of Team Chrump may seem, after all is said and done the Orange Roughy has Stephen Bannon, known as Chrump’s brain, – a neo-Nazi, Ku Kux Klan, white nationalist sympathizer – as his number one advisor. Never forget.

I. Mangrey and B.N. Formd reporting.
Hound your senators and congress people relentlessly.

 

 

Bonus stuff:

Loyal reader Cucamonga has requested…demanded really, that these overly flattering pictures of Der Furor be posted here at Paying Attention. How could I resist?

One of these birdbrained freaks of nature
is about to become leader of the “free” world

A face that only a motherf*#ker could love
My respect for Chrump knows no existence

An Open Letter to Republican'ts

The Party of Lincoln Reagan Putin

I am back from my brief escape from alt-reality. I see that I. Mangrey kept things moving quite well in my absence. Since he had no intention of leaving his keyboard I was able to borrow his shades to protect my bloodshot eyes. I am tanned, rested and “ready” for the shitshow that 2017 promises to be. It probably is not possible to be ready, but I’m here, I’m severe and I ain’t going anywhere. For now I have a little something to get off my chest: A few words to the not-so-loyal opposition as they prepare to make America hate again.

I’m back, I’m black (not really) and I’m on the attack

An Open Letter to Republican’ts

January 9, 2017

Please stop referring to yourselves as the party of Lincoln. You never were, and to the extent that you can even pretend you once were (you were not) you surely have not been, in any way whatsoever, for over half a century. That was when most Democrats emerged from the swamps of racism and white supremacy and most of you began your still ongoing war on integration, civil rights and voting rights. There are numerous other hateful pursuits to which you cling, but they are not pertinent to the present context. Perhaps some other time.

In a similar vein to your preposterous Lincoln fetish you must stop quoting and publicly fondling the memory of Ronald Reagan. You are no more the party of Reagan than you are the party of Lincoln. Just stop talking about him altogether. At least in Reagan’s case there was a time when he was your party. Those days are also long gone though I can understand why you still cling to his memory – or at least the parts of it you care to remember – however diluted and deluded it may be. Today’s Republican’ts have next to nothing in common with Reagan. He was once a Democrat. And worse than that, a union rep. And more worser than that, he was a union rep for the Screen Actors Guild. You know what that means – Hollywood…actors…liberals – and you hate actors and Hollywood, and unions and Democrats. And don’t even get you started on liberals. Reagan wanted to rid the world of all nuclear weapons, and your new lord and master Putin – well, not him but his representative in the US, Chrump – does not even know what nuclear weapons are though he thinks everybody should have some. Chrump does not understand why if we have them we don’t use them and he wants Rick Perry to be responsible for them.

Coming soon to the skies near you.

Your once beloved St. Ronnie raised taxes like nobody’s business, bloated the federal government and had amnesty for immigrants. One thing you probably still like about Reagan was the way he interfered with the freeing of the Iranian hostages before he was president in order to make Carter look bad and increase his chances of defeating him. Talk about obstruction. All you guys did was stop Obama from getting anything done while in office. You have also conveniently forgotten that Reagan negotiated with terrorists and bailed on the Marines in Lebanon, which was much worse than Benghazi (You conveniently managed to forget that one without batting an eye.)

Oh, And That Whole Iran-Contra Thingie

Then there was that unpleasant little Iran-Contra affair, where the Reagan administration was trading arms with Iran to funnel money to the brutal Contras in Nicaragua. That sordid mess helped Reagan achieve historic status as the president with the greatest number of convicted felons of any administration.

"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever." from Sleep-Walking Through History: America in the Reagan Years, by Haynes Johnson, (1991, Doubleday)

Yet you still pretend to love him. You do not. You would not give someone like him the time of day in the new regime. And not just because you have Chrump now. You have been anti-Reagan since the Tea Party took control of what passes for your soul. At least he never hid any emails. Just his rapidly accelerating Alzheimer’s…and Nancy’s astrologer, who played a pivotal role in all planning and decision making.

Back in the USSA

Maybe you have been so busy desperately trying to dismantle the New Deal, civil rights, voting rights, the federal government and democracy in general, that you have forgotten that one of the things Reagan was most proud of – his part in defeating the Soviet Union and “ending” the Cold War. I won’t bother you with the nuances of how big a part St. Ronnie did or did not play in this. But I must ask a question to see if we are all on the same page planet: What country emerged as the most powerful entity after the collapse of the USSR? No, it was not California…or New York, it was  a little place called Russia. Funny thing – Russia, heir to the Soviet Union (including all their nukes) just happened to give your child candidate its shoulders to stand on.

Well before that however, many of you and your right wing media whores began yearning for a leader like Putin. You preferred a “commie” dictator to a duly elected (not that you really care about a thing like that) American (not that you ever admitted he was an American)president. This bizarre turn of the coat began, as I recall, around 2009. I’m sure it had nothing to do with America having a black president. Although one could not be faulted for thinking that since you do not really want black people to vote, you probably do not want them becoming president, so at least you get points for consistency. I know that not all Republican’ts are racists, but all racists are Republican’ts (or so-called independents, who would never vote for a Democrat).

Your and your party’s new figurehead Putin’s presidential candidate – whose top advisors and many cabinet picks – either have direct dealings with Putin or simply adore him from afar, ramped up the Putin envy at every turn. That includes the candidate himself who has waffled on every single issue except his adoration of Putin. I am not saying that Chrump loves Putin because he owes Putin untold amounts of money or because Putin is blackmailing him, but many people are saying this. “Now, I don't know. What do I know about it? All I know is what's on the Internet.” (actual March 13, 2016 Chrump quote that seemed appropriate for his occasion)

Now that the Republican’t party has sold its “soul” to Putin and his Manchurian Idiot Chrump, you have forfeited any relationship whatsoever to Reagan just as you long ago surrendered any connection to Lincoln thanks to your steadfast work during the Civil Rights Era. Go find someone else as the target of your necrophilia. You cannot claim to be the political progeny of Lincoln, Reagan or even Nixon, who you never seem to mention for some reason – and not, I am guessing, because he is now seen as too liberal. Neither can you claim to love America since you only love the America you see in your fevered minds or the Americans you deem worthy simply because they agree with you because they are so damn ignorant of the facts. You do not own America, the flag, or patriotism. You do own jingoism, lots of racism, a healthy dose of fascism and the House of Representatives thanks to your (brilliant, though I hate to admit it) gerrymandering. And you surely own Chrump and Putin. American intelligence agencies intercepted communications between senior Russian government officials celebrating Chrump’s victory over Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow. You are all Russians now.

Yours Truly (look it up),

Ed Venture
Editor, Paying Attention

More Foxes in More Hen Houses, Part 3

Hope you are having a great new year, but don’t get too comfortable. There is a major Chrump on the horizon. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mayhem…

Wait There’s More More

Chest-deep in the swamp
January 3, 2017

First a quick update on Secretary of State nominee Wrecks Tillerson: his most powerful advocate on Capitol Hill is none other than fellow oil company exec, killer of small defenseless animals, drunk shooter of his friend’s face, ex-Secretary of Defense under Bush the First and vice president “under” Bush the Second – Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney. Even though Chrump trashed Cheney’s beloved Iraq v. Halliburton war and called Bush and Cheney liars throughout the campaign, it is all oil under the bridge, leaching into the water supply, killing untold numbers of birds, fish and people, now that Cheney can smell power again.

Next a quick update on incoming national security adviser Gen. Mike Flynn :  According to the New York Times Chrump’s bull-goose loony had a meeting at Chrump Tower a few weeks ago with the leader (who signed a so-called "cooperation agreement" with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political party) of a far-right Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis. Better get busy making those armbands folks. I wonder what color our shirts will be – my guess is orange; brown is so passé. I am making myself a lovely gold star to pin to my face. I think it will go nicely with my cold dead hands.

It’s probably just a euphemism.

Flynn responds to reporter’s question about his IQ score.

A Chrump transition official boycotted a meeting with Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister because she would not allow the attendance of a Swedish representative described as "a member of a party with neo-Nazi tendencies." So rather than shun a neo-Nazi, the Chrumpians decided to dis Israel. Well played Mr. Chrump; it is all becoming clearer and clearer. Not that it was ever blurry to me.

As Donald Trump prepares to abuse…I mean assume the presidency on January 20, a slew of hate crimes targeting Muslims, people of color, and immigrants (wonder how different this would be if Chrump’s daughter was not a Jewish convert) has been steadily increasing. Most of the incidents have been attributed to ardent supporters of the presIDent-elect. The museum dedicated to honoring the memory of the roughly 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust felt compelled to issue a statement condemning the growing proliferation of white nationalist and neo-Nazi ideology, particularly in the wake of neo-Nazi leader Richard Spencer’s conference hosted at the Ronald Reagan federal building in Washington, DC shortly after Chrump’s “election”. Washington, DC’s Holocaust Memorial Museum is urging Americans to remember their history with a chilling reminder of how the Holocaust began. “The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words. The Museum calls on all American citizens, our religious and civic leaders, and the leadership of all branches of the government to confront racist thinking and divisive hateful speech.”

Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis/Secretary of Defense – as a Marine major general, he gave the order in May 2004 to strike a "suspected foreign fighter safe house" in a small Iraqi village, but the target turned to be a wedding venue, with the bombs killing some 42 men, women and children. Some of his quotes:

“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
“You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people.”

Well at least one of them does not sound psychotic. Close enough for government work. Mattis is known as eccentric but is revered in military circles, and well read. Ironically, Mad Dog might be one of the less horrifying nominees. Only alt-time will tell.

Rick Perry/Department of Energy – idiot ex-governor of Texas (replacing fellow idiot George W. Bush once Bush was appointed president by the Supreme Court after losing the election to Al Gore), pushed for secession, wants to suck every last drop of oil, coal, whatever from every square inch of the planet, but will settle for what is beneath Amerikan soil (for now). Perry sits (or dances or drools) on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners, they of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they intent to continue building. Perry received $6 million from the company for his presidential run. The only hope is that Perry will again forget that he wants to eliminate the Department of Energy as he did during his unrememberable performance in the 2012 “Oops” debate when he could only manage to remember two out of three things that were very important to him. Perry is replacing a Stanford-educated, nuclear physicist – it’s a no-brainer…literally.

Who will ever forget Perry’s immortal words on July 22, 2016, “Let no one be mistaken. Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.” Oops.

John Kelly/Department of Homeland Security – retired Marine General, ran Gitmo, loves torture, believes immigration is an “existential threat” to Amerika, and wants an escalated war on drugs. I’m sure Kelly is thrilled about joining the ultimate military-industrial complex Dwight Eisenhower vigorously and eloquently (especially for a general) warned us about in his farewell address.

Monica Crowley/director of strategic communications for the National Security Council –  best quote: “Now, he was not born in Africa, but the father was from Kenya, the father was from Africa. And according to this genealogy — and again, because I haven’t done the research, I can’t verify this — but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African. And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist. I mean, that is — it is the biggest con I think I’ve ever seen.” I assume she is some kind of moron, or blind, or both. I am fairly certain she is not blind.

Ryan Zinke/Department of the Interior – ex-Navy Seal commander, avid Chrump supporter, proud Montana public lands rapist, chosen because Don Jr. reportedly "hit it off" with Zinke, a fellow "avid outdoorsman" who supports preserving – and drilling on – public lands. I suppose he wants to preserve them for the oil companies. According to the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, “Ryan Zinke has a dismal 3 percent lifetime environmental voting record. His brief political career has been substantially devoted to attacking endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. He led efforts to strip federal protections for endangered wolves, lynx and sage grouse, voted to exempt massive agribusiness and water developers from Endangered Species Act limitations, and opposed efforts to crack down on the international black market ivory trade." Just be glad you do not have tusks.

David Friedman/Ambassador to Israel – long-time Chrump friend and bankruptcy lawyer with absolutely zero diplomatic experience, conspiracy theorist, holds views to the right of Netanyahu, claims Obama engages in “blatant anti-Semitism”, compared J Street – pro-Israel, pro-peace DC lobby – to Nazi collaborators. According to Israel’s Haaretz, “For some of his articles and statements, Friedman could get arrested by the Israeli police on suspicion of incitement.”

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)/Office of Management and Budget – spoke in July to the John Birch Society, has called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme” and said in 2011, “We have to end Medicare as we know it.”

Have a nice day.

I. Mangrey reporting. Protect your precious bodily fluids.
                                                                                                    Mad in USA