Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Fraught For The Day

This Just In
October 17, 2018
In case you have been otherwise occupied, I just wanted to let you know that for some reason, Donald Chrump is still prezident.  I am sorry to have to tell you this, but this might be important to know. 
This is how it all started
Do not waste precious time blaming me.  Take all necessary precautions immediately.  There is no telling how long this might last.
In case this has not been corrected in the next three weeks…
This is not a drill
This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.
You're welcome.
What is your thought for the day?

Monday, October 15, 2018

It’s The Fascism, Stupid

Fascism By and For Dummies

October 15, 2018
“In the meantime,  I’m president and you’re not.”
Der Furor to Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes 10/14/18


Donald Chrump stole his “signature” slogan – Make America Great Again – from Ronald Reagan.  He stole one of his most cherished tag-lines – America First – from a group that gained traction before and during World War II and was associated with isolationists, some of whom were openly pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic.  It is also a phrase popular with the KKK.  If Aesop was right in saying, “A man is known by the company he keeps,” there can be no doubt of just who we have in our White House.
High off his Senatorial assault on most American citizens, which resulted in the forcible insertion of Bart Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court, Chrump is back out on the campaign trail looking for all the world like a quintessential fascist.  He is feeling even more invincible than usual now that he has proven that he literally owns the Congress and now the Supreme Court.  Scaring his moronic minions who will believe anything except the truth, with visions of violent, angry mobs (not his of course) and wanton, conniving women running around accusing innocent men of sex crimes. 
Chrump pretends to campaign for his fellow Republican’ts although he is actually campaigning for himself and his dream of finishing his first term and running for a second.  He is telling audiences, “Get out in 2018, because you’re voting for me.”  Chrump is ratcheting up the fear, the divisiveness, the hate and, possibly more than anything else – the stupid.  With every insult he spews, he is literally describing himself.  He projects his behavior onto his opponents almost as often as he lies.  We have seen it all before.  Der Furor’s authoritarian inclinations have been on display every day since he opened his foul face sphincter at the bottom of his golden escalator, in front of his paid audience.  He is getting exponentially worse by the minute.
Der Furor explains the dangers of going against him
Chrump has stomped on one political, democratic, and societal taboo after another.  He could care less what anyone thinks, while simultaneously utterly obsessed with being adored by crowds of mindless devotees.  Is The Don just feeling his authoritarian oats, or maybe he is showing off for his benefactor Vladimir Putin, or maybe his new love – Kim Jong Un. 
No Democracy Zone
Chrump’s National Park Service has proposed a set of "special regulations" designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, to protest near the White House.  Aren’t these the same assholes who are constantly whining about getting rid of all regulations?  I do believe they are.  The proposed regulations would put an end to protesting on much of the sidewalk area north of the White House.  It would also limit the ability of groups to have spontaneous protests without permits near the White House and on the National Mall, as well as opening the door to charging fees and other costs to groups who desire to demonstrate in the area.  This is even worse that the “Free Speech Zones” during the Bush II era.  And that was even worse than the shunting of protesters away from Independence Hall on July 4, 1776 when another appointed president, Gerald Ford paid our nation’s birthplace a visit.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution concludes with the phrase, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  What more appropriate place is there to air such grievances, and make such statements than our nation’s Capital? 
Though not at all surprising, it is nonetheless beyond the pale for the Chrump (or any) administration to limit the ability of citizens to exercise our First Amendment rights – particularly in the very heart of our democracy, where our elected officials, our public servants, do the people’s work.  No doubt Chrump is guiding them down this path.  It is not a democratic path.  It is not an American path.  It is not a Constitutional path.  It is the path followed by authoritarians, fascists and tyrants throughout the ages.
It’s Good To Be The King
Chrump continues to stand up for the Saudis after they killed a reporter in their embassy in Turkey.  Chrump said, “I just spoke with the King of Saudi Arabia.  The King firmly denied any knowledge of it.  He did not say, “it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay?”  Or did he?  How can we ever really know?
Chrump unveils his 2020 campaign slogan
I. Mangrey resisting.  Wake up and smell the fascism.
                                                                                         

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Thought For The Day


Chrump’s First (Third, Actually) Lady Speaks
October 14, 2018
Suddenly Melania Chrump has lots to say.  In a recent interview, she stated, “I am the most bullied person on (sic) the world.”  She also professed that her fascist chic “I don’t really care, do you” jacket was a swing at “the left-wing media.”  Melania was not asked how she felt about the right-wing media.
When questioned about her husband’s infidelities, all the most recent Mrs. Chrump could offer up was, “It is not a concern and focus of mine. I’m a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do.”  One cannot help but wonder what the least visible first lady ever does that is so important.  She just took a very important lengthy photo-op to the places her husband called “shit-hole countries.”  That’s about it so far.  Maybe she was secretly searching for Obama’s birth certificate in Kenya.
The First Lady works to ensure there are plenty
of elephants for her step sons to murder for sport
Melania must surely be grateful that the Democrats have no one like her Donald looking into her shady entry into the United States.  Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if young Barron ended up in one of Chrump’s children’s prisons with all those little brown children and babies.
This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.
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What is your thought for the day?

Thursday, October 11, 2018

America: Suicide Watch Edition

Forget 'American Carnage' It's American Suicide Time

October 11, 2018

America has long been guilty of throwing her weight around.  We talk about countries having questionable human rights records?  One of our arguably less horrible presidents, Barack Obama was droning the hell out of people – including some unknown number of innocent civilians – all over the place.  In our names, in our lifetimes, there have been horrible disruptions across the globe: regime changes, propping up of countless dictators, assassinations of leaders felt to be unfriendly to our (i.e., corporate) interests, nations held economic hostage, outright wars instigated by our elected leaders (and/or those who own them) for bad or no reason, and of course, the only use of nuclear bombs (and depleted-uranium-enhanced projectiles).  This kind of behavior has threatened the body politic, the citizenry, and at times the world.  America is not averse to making herself and those around her very sick.
We are witnessing in the time of Chrump some of the worst self-inflicted injury yet.  After surviving one of the worst administrations in our nation’s history, and then turning things around a bit with the subsequent administration – despite relentless Republican’t obstruction, Tea Party (an angry mob if ever there was one) idiocy and relentless racist douchebaggery, America was clearly in a state of deep depression leading up to the 2016 election.  With a choice between the two most unpopular presidential candidates in the history of polling, the electorate was dangerously on edge.  Add to that the malfeasance of James Comey and the successful interference on behalf of Donald Chrump by a Russian cast of thousands and a Chrumpian cast of who knows how many. 
The guy who “won” did not plan to win, he did not want to win, and ultimately did not, by any reasonable measure, win.  When it turned out that he did prevail – by hook and by crook, he fired everyone who might help do the job.  Then he brought in the most incompetent, corrupt group of egomaniacal psychos conceivable to run the show.  Sure, now many of them are or are about to be convicted felons, but do not forget, we still have Kellyanne Conway, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Wilbur Ross, Jeff Sessions (soon to be replaced by the equally demented Lindsey Graham), and a harrowing host of hapless whores in high places.  And let us not forget Chrump’s second-in-cahoots – the sickeningly translucent and often invisible, though no less dangerous Mike Pence.
Mike Pence
Chrump’s inauguration address/funeral dirge assaulted the nation – over half of whom were still trudging through various stages of grief – with his deeply troubling, psychotic “American Carnage” tableau.  Under the increasingly suffocating weight of Chrump’s abusive administration, America, though struggling to maintain some semblance of sanity, is arguably suicidal.  She tried to drink herself to death, started vomiting before the goal was accomplished, and then put a gun to her own head, was too drunk to shoot straight, and is now in the ICU trying to think of a reason to go on living.  The doctor on call has made clear the change in lifestyle that is necessary if a return to what passes for a healthy democratic nation is in the cards.  There is only one possible cure.  It is the predicted Blue Wave of the 2018 electorate.  Nothing else can save America’s life. 
So, will America decide to dial up the suicide hotline and summon up a reason to stay in the game on November 6th?  Or will she give up and wander off into Death Valley, never to be heard from again after changing her name to Chrumplandia?  The Untied States of Amnesia?
Chrump growled about American Carnage, but it was not made manifest until after his inauguration.  Things were not perfect before January 20, 2017 – not ever.  This nation is as flawed as any, but it has had its moments.  Chrump brought on the carnage with a vengeance.  He deepened the swamp and is perhaps literally strangling the life out of our democratic republic.  For over two years now, we kept thinking he cannot get any worse, and we had to force ourselves to think it every day, as he got worse and worse.  No one thinks he can’t get any worse anymore.
So, I guess if things do not turn around, we can call it assisted suicide.

I. Mangrey resuscitating.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Environmental Prevention Agency Strikes Again

Fuck You and The Planet You Rode in On

October 9, 2018
The agency formerly known as the Environmental Protection Agency is shuttering the Office of Science Advisor, which is charged with considering factors other than short term political gain, profit and greed when analyzing the need for environmental regulations, factors like science and evidence.  Again, it is not difficult to imagine why this Office is dangerous to the Republican’t way of “life”.  You can kiss it good-bye.  You might want to start making a ‘Bon Voyage’ banner for your ass as well.
Given the Toxic Orange Gas Cloud threatening to suffocate us all,
maybe the EPA is unnecessary at this point
Suffer the Little Children
EPA’s Office Of Children’s Health Protection is tasked with keeping kids safe from harmful toxins. Naturally, since this Office is draining literally thousands of dollars that could otherwise be used to give more tax cuts to millionaires, its head, Dr. Ruth Etzel was recently put on leave.  No official reason has been given.  Etzel is extremely knowledgeable and brought an incredibly deep skill set to this position. It is no stretch to assume that this is the reason she was given the heave ho.  The Chrump administration has no taste for competence, let alone expertise. 
Dr. Ruth Etzel is highly competent and looks too much
like Christine Blasey Ford.  So, clearly she had to go.
One particular dagger into the heart of our children, and those yet to be born, is the lifting of restrictions on mercury emissions from coal burning power plants.  First of all, coal burning power plants?  Really?  In 2018?  Really?  Airborne mercury ends up in waterways and brains and pregnant mothers.  Mercury goes right through into the baby and has been well documented to cause brain damage.  It reduces the child's IQ.  It can disrupt the child's behavior.  This can plague a child for years and decades at least.  
Republican’ts are not fooling anyone here.  They are scared to death that they cannot get any votes from anyone other than those the Founding Fathers determined should be allowed to vote – old, rich, white men.  Republican’ts are up to their eyeballs in fear and loathing that somehow these original rules have gone the way of the dinosaurs (which they do not believe actually existed), and that others are permitted to vote.  They need a way to compete in America’s changing demographic, and eliminating these regulations is clearly a plot to expand their voter base.  How else can the party of brain damage, low IQ, racism, misogyny and violence survive in this world?
Oh, and the Chrump administration is trying to convince us that “a little radiation” is good for us.  Maybe we can find a way to let them have all the radiation, mercury and methane they insist needs to be reinserted back into our environment.

Sing along without Mitch
 
Native Americans believed people should consider how their actions effect the world for seven generations after them.  Republican’ts cannot even think seven seconds ahead.  
I. Mangrey, Earthling.                                                                                      
                                                                                           

Monday, October 8, 2018

Thought For The Day

 
Screw Columbus

October 8, 2018

Today, Americans almost nowhere celebrate lost sailor and genocidal maniac Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the “New World.”   Sure, without him none of what we have today would have been possible.  So, I guess I should take back my screw Columbus. 


Stan Freberg - Columbus
This has been your Paying Attention Thought For The Day.
You're welcome.
What is your thought for the day?

Friday, October 5, 2018

Liars and Dickheads and Boors, Oh My!

Strap Yourselves In For Another Dangerously Sharp Turn to The Right

October 5, 2018
As I begin this post, all the votes are not yet in.  Faux-Democrat Joe Manchin (“D”-WV) and soon-to-be ex-Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) seem poised to ignore victims of rape and sexual assault everywhere, in order to temporarily protect their own jobs, and lick their ultra-conservative chops in order to tilt the Supreme Court so drastically far to the right. 
Tin Mitch, Scare-Graham and Cowardly Flake…and
brave Christine, “I don’t think we’re in America anymore Toto.”
Jeff Flake, for his part, has been an unrepentant coward all along.  Once he decided to run away from his job, he found the “courage” to publicly criticize, while voting with his Chrumped-up party at every turn.  Flake now declares that the fake investigation – what everyone is calling Investi-Gate – showed no corroborating evidence of Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Boof Kavanaugh.  He failed to mention that the White Male House’s strangulation of the already truncated fact-hiding exercise only interviewed witnesses friendly to Kavanaugh’s alternative truth.  Countless witnesses offered to provide the FBI with pertinent information regarding Blasey Ford’s and others’ accusations and Kavanaugh’s extensive perjury, and were summarily ignored – at the White Male House’s behest.
In the end, Susan Collins, who loves to pretend she is serious and deliberative, and some kind of swing vote, remained consistent.  Collins clearly never had any intention of voting against Beer Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, and Investi-Gate gave her the fake cover she needed to wash her hands and seal our fate.  No one should ever doubt her gullibility, foolishness and her immovable loyalties.  I hope the people of Maine are ready to move on from her pathetic sniveling and put her out to pasture if she has the guts to run for re-election in 2020…if there is one.
I feel a little like Ned Beatty after his involuntary intercourse scene in Deliverance.
Collins and Manchin prepare to make America squeal like a pig
If the Democrats take the House and/or the Senate next month, I hope they will indeed look back before looking forward.  If you have a life-threatening illness and want to become healthy, you first must deal with what has already happened before simply deciding that you are going to move forward and enjoy the rest of your life.  You have to make changes in what brought you to the brink.  You cannot simply say, as Barack Obama did when deciding not to pursue justice for America being shanghaied down the torture trail, “we must look forward, not backward.”   It is always good to check the rearview mirror, and make sure it is safe to put it in drive and step on the gas.
I. Mangrey recoiling.                                                 
                                                                                                  

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Thought For The Night


It’s The Perjury Stupid
Later that same day, October 4, 2018
Can't decide whether to cry or vomit. I believe that's called a Kavanaugh's Choice.
Pussy Graham
I guess when you own all three branches of government, you can do anything…grab ‘em by the Graham.

Seen on the internets
 
I don’t fault the Dems for trying to take Boof Kavanaugh down by any means necessary.  People bitch about the cruel unfairness of going back to Boof’s high school days, but since they weren’t allowed to see 90 percent of his documentation during his adult years, what else could they do?  Unfortunately, all this palaver has obscured the fact that the nominee perjured himself repeatedly during all phases of his inevitable-confirmation process.
As of now, one Senator, running for re-election in a very red state made the courageous announcement of opposing Boof Kavanaugh.  Unsurprisingly this lone brave Senator is a woman – Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).  Heitkamp said she could not live with herself if she voted for the incredibly unfit, virulently partisan, alleged serial sex offender who lied repeatedly under oath.  Heitkamp wrote, “In addition to the concerns about his past conduct, last Thursday’s hearing called into question Judge Kavanaugh’s current temperament, honesty, and impartiality. These are critical traits for any nominee to serve on the highest court in our country.”  Heitkamp weathered pressure from the accused and admitted Sex-offender-in-chief, who will no doubt start swinging wildly and hatefully to defeat Heitkamp.  Bigly.
There is a chance in hell that this is not a done deal.
This has been your abnormally long Paying Attention Thought For The Night.  It’s been a long day.
What is your thought for the night?
 
Tune in next time to see if America, comfortably in her handbasket (Made in China), has gotten a good bit closer to hell.

All Bretts Are Off…

Well, Certainly This One Is

October 4, 2018
“One of my proudest moments is when I looked at Barack Obama in the eye and I said, “Mr. President, you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy.”
                            Mitch McConnell, August 6, 2016
Mitch McConnell has had his boot on America’s throat for quite some time now.  When Obama was elected, McConnell told everyone that his primary mission was to keep Obama (i.e., America) from achieving anything, and to make sure Obama served only one term.  Mitch fairly well achieved the former, obviously not the latter.  The only thing McConnell did not do, was hire someone, or personally assassinate our 44th president.  Other than that, McConnell consistently stopped Obama from appointing federal judges, worked tirelessly to obstructed every attempt at passing legislation, and finally, would not allow even interviews with Obama’s nominee to replace the partisan hack, Cheney hunting buddy, and delusional, so-called “Constitutional originalist” Antonin Scalia, who at least had the good taste to die early, thereby leaving a seat on the Supreme Court open on Obama’s watch. 
McConnell decided it would be better to leave the seat empty for over a full year, than to let Barack Obama execute his Constitutional duty to fill that seat in a timely fashion.  McConnell then promised to keep the seat open in perpetuity, or maybe lower the number of Supreme Court justices to eight (seriously) should Hillary Clinton win the 2016 election – which she did sort of win.  Her victory was obscured by two extremely un-American institutions: 1) the Electoral College, which was originally an appeasement to the slave-owning states, and 2) the Russian government, who worked diligently to get Donald Chrump into the White House. 
Merrick Garland, who was unanimously respected across party lines and practically unanimously appointed to the federal bench, was as bi-partisan a choice for the Supreme Court as one could hope for.  As Orrin Hatch (R-Ufuckingkiddingme) said in 1997, “To my knowledge no one, absolutely no one disputes the following: Merrick Garland is highly qualified to sit on the DC Circuit.  His intelligence and his scholarship cannot be questioned.” 

Contrast Hatch’s assessment of Garland with over 650 American law school professors who signed an open letter published in the New York Times urging the Senate to reject Kavanaugh’s nomination.  The letter says in part, “[W]e are united as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court or our land.”
On top of that, The National Council of Churches, a huge multi-denominational coalition of Christian churches, has released a statement calling for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn. “Judge Kavanaugh exhibited extreme partisan bias and disrespect towards certain members of the committee and thereby demonstrated that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character essential for a member of the highest court in our nation.”  Churches, bitches!


Suddenly, in early 2016, Garland was persona non grata, and Mitch Fucking McConnell decided that a twice-duly-elected (and not just this Electoral College bullshit), sitting president should not get even the courtesy of putting forth a nominee to fill the empty seat.  Instead, we got hyper-partisan Neil Gorsuch, whose colleagues generally see as an incompetent lightweight.   
Side Note:  Mitch Fucking McConnell stopped the Obama administration from speaking out about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.  He refused to sign on to a bipartisan statement condemning Russia and threatened to blame Democrats for tampering with the 2016 election if the FBI and Obama alerted the American public to the fact that the Russians were credibly suspected of election interference.
Now we are looking at the intemperate, unhinged, brutally dishonest and inarguably partisan Brett Kavanaugh.  Oh, and he is credibly accused of repeated instances of, at the very least, sexual assault.  Kavanaugh put his utter lack of fitness to be any kind of judge on full display with his Jekyll and Godzilla performance, as he fought the allegations against him last week.  We have not seen this kind of disturbing behavior during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing since the last sexual harasser, Clarence Thomas scolded the Senate Judiciary Committee as he lied about his abuse of Anita Hill.
Brett Kavanaugh blows his top and his chunks
 
With any luck, he will be found to have perjured himself under oath, and not only fail to become a Supreme Court justice, but be stripped of his current position.  That would be justice.  Brett (Or should we call him Bart?) Kavanaugh should not be one.  At least he did not black out during the hearing.  At least he can still drink beer.  He really likes beer.  A lot.  Seems like he had quite a few before he testily testified.
I. Mangrey retaliating.  Still trying to black out.

UPDATE:

Apparently, the FBI has “finished” their “investigation”.  Looks like Kavanaugh will be confirmed tomorrow after the full Senate “votes”.