They Can Write Books, But They Cannot Govern

Posted on August 11, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2024, History, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

Cartoonist Scott Stantis writes that …

“When I started working in Republican campaigns, the party I signed up for had allegiance to a set of principles and ideals. Lower taxes, fewer regulations and, mostly, adherence to the rule of law. Now we see a bizarro party where right is wrong, wrong is right and a strictly enforced allegiance, not to principles, but to a deeply flawed individual.”

He is, I believe, spot-on. The ‘GOP’ perhaps should be re-named the ‘DOP’ — Decayed Old Party. Frank Bruni’s newsletter today further cements Stantis’ view of today’s Republican Party …

Josh Hawley’s manhood, Mike Pompeo’s midriff and other 2024 teases

By Frank Bruni

11 August 2022

Josh Hawley has a book about manhood coming out next year. Nikki Haley has a book about womanhood coming out in two months.

Mike Pompeo has lost so much weight that he’s barely recognizable. Mike Pence has grown so much spine that he’s almost a vertebrate.

Don’t tell them Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s inevitable 2024 presidential nominee. If that’s foreordained, then a whole lot of literary, cardiovascular and orthopedic effort has gone to waste.

The news media is lousy of late with articles about the various Democrats potentially waiting in the wings if President Biden decides against a second term, to the point where he’s sometimes treated as more of a 2024 question mark than Trump is.

Maybe that’s right. In a straw poll of Republicans at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend, Trump was the top choice to run for president, winning 69 percent of the vote. Second place went to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, with just 24 percent, and third went to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with a measly 2 percent.

But Trump is no spring chicken, and by the looks of things, he pays much less heed to his health than Biden does. A year from now he could be unfit for office in more ways than he already is.

He could be in handcuffs! OK, that’s probably just a happy fantasy. But maybe less of one since the F.B.I. raided Mar-a-Lago on Monday? He’s the subject of investigations civil and criminal, federal and state.

Or he could finally wear out his Republican welcome. “It is a sign of weakness, not strength, that Team Trump has been reduced to touting straw-poll results from events that most Americans, and indeed the vast majority of Republicans, know nothing about,” Isaac Schorr wrote in National Review early this week, adding that CPAC had in fact “been repurposed into an appeal to the former president’s vanity.”

The Republicans eager to take his place at the helm of the party know all that. And they don’t have to be quite as discreet and demure in their positioning as Democrats interested in standing in for Biden do. Trump’s not the incumbent president, at least not in the world beyond his and his supplicants’ delusions.

That positioning, once you recognize it, is a hoot. Everyone’s after a kind of branding that rivals won’t copy, a moment in the spotlight that competitors can’t match, an angle, an edge.

DeSantis’s action-figure approach to his role as governor of Florida is in part about the fact that Cruz, Hawley and others don’t have the executive authority that he does and can’t make things happen as unilaterally or as quickly. They’re would-be MAGA superheroes bereft of their red capes.

So a week ago, DeSantis didn’t merely suspend the top Tampa Bay area prosecutor, who said that he would never consider abortion a crime. DeSantis also peacocked to that part of the state and, surrounded by a flock of law enforcement officials, crowed about his decision during a news conference.

Cruz and Hawley were such hams during the confirmation hearings for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson because, as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, they had a stage that DeSantis, Pence, Pompeo and others didn’t. Might as well pig out on the opportunity.

Haley’s forthcoming book, “If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons From Bold Women,” is one that Cruz, Hawley, Pence and Pompeo would have an awkward time pulling off, and it beats voters over the head with the fact that she’s a trailblazer in ways that they can’t be.

But does she or any other Republican love the Lord with Pence’s ardor? That’s a question he obviously wants to put in voters’ minds with his memoir, “So Help Me God,” to be released about a month after “If You Want Something Done.”

Pompeo is doing a prep-for-the-presidency twofer. According to The New York Post, he shed 90 pounds in six months after his stint as Trump’s secretary of state was over. And he’s apparently putting the finishing touches on a memoir of his own, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” which Broadside Books is scheduled to publish in January.

Its crowded company includes not only Haley’s and Pence’s books but also one by Cruz, “Justice Corrupted: How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System,” which is due in late October, and, of course, Hawley’s testosterone treatise, “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,” which has surely become a more risible sell in the wake of those images of him sprinting for the Capitol exit on Jan. 6, 2021.

Here, for your delectation, is a snippet of the promotional copy for Hawley’s book: “No republic has ever survived without men of character to defend what is just and true. Starting with the wisdom of the ancients, from the Greek and Roman philosophers to Jesus of Nazareth, and drawing on the lessons of American history, Hawley identifies the defining strengths of men, including responsibility, bravery, fidelity and leadership.” I have goose bumps.

Lest “Manhood” fail to persuade you of Hawley’s nonpareil virility, he summoned boundless courage last week to stand up to … Finland and Sweden. He was the only senator to vote against their admission to NATO.

David Von Drehle sized it up correctly in a column in The Washington Post: “In search of a position that would set him apart from his rivals among the Senate’s young conservatives, Hawley arrived at the cockeyed notion that adding two robust military powers with vibrant economies would somehow increase NATO’s burden on U.S. resources.”

Cockeyed? No! Cocksure — and undoubtedly weighing which fearsome and dastardly global actor he’ll unleash the full force of his manliness on next. The citizens of New Zealand tremble. The people of Andorra quiver.

Snarky Snippets From A Bouncing Mind

Posted on August 5, 2021 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, guns, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Today’s snippets cover a wide … and I do mean wide … range of topics, from making fun of Mike Pompeo to cursing Andrew Cuomo. So, fasten your seatbelts and come along for the ride!

Thanks a lot, anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers!

Worldwide, the number of new cases of COVID increased last week by 11% over the preceding week. In the United States, cases increased by 41% … almost four times the worldwide average. Need I tell you the reason? Surely you understand that the refusal of some 30% of the people in this nation to be vaccinated plays a role, but perhaps even more importantly is the happy-go-lucky, not-a-care-in-the-world attitude of those who congregate on beaches, at music festivals, in theaters, shops, restaurants and bars, and refuse to wear a damned mask. Oh yes, the U.S. claims to have a position as a world leader … we’re a world leader, alright … in spreading a lethal virus intentionally!

Canada and Turkey are the only other western nations with increase rates higher than our own … 59% and 71% respectively.

President Biden has done as much as any president could be expected to in encouraging sensible behaviour, encouraging mask-wearing by example, encouraging vaccination, but there is only so much the president can do … he cannot sign an executive order to eradicate stupidity. I’ll report on the numbers again next week … I wonder how long it will be before we are back to 1,000 or more deaths a day?

I dunno where it {burp} went

Mike Pompeo was Secretary of State under the former guy. I had many issues with Mike – his ‘diplomacy’, the fact that he was loyal to the madman, the useless trips he made on our dime, his slavish devotion to Benjamin Netanyahu, misuse by both he and his wifey of government resources, his bringing his religion into his job, and more. So, I am taking this opportunity to have a laugh at his expense.

Turns out that on June 24^th, 2019, the Japanese government gave Pompeo a bottle of whiskey valued at $5,800. Now, I may be but a peon who knows nothing whatsoever about expensive wine & spirits, but I think there’s no bottle of whiskey worth nearly six thousand dollars. None. Sheesh, you drink it, it’s gone, and what do you have to show for it but a massive headache the next morning.

Now, allegedly the bottle was given to an aide, since Pompeo was actually in Saudi Arabia, not Japan on that day, and the aide was to give it to Pompeo. Presumably he or she did just that. First problem here is that diplomats and other oversees workers are only allowed to keep gifts that are valued at less than $390. I’m an accountant, so I know that $5,800 is way more than $390!

The second problem is that now the booze has done a runner, it seems. It’s gone. Probably gone into Pompeo’s rather massive belly, but … who knows? At any rate, the State Department is investigating the whereabouts of the missing booze. Apparently, they have nothing better to do? Pompeo’s lawyer, William A. Burck, says that “He has no idea what the disposition was of this bottle of whiskey.” And most likely he doesn’t recall, for he may have been a bit too … um … inebriated … to remember drinking it.

Okay, I’ve had my fun … in the grand scheme of everything happening today, this is such a minor story that it has little relevance, however every major news outlet seems to have carried it, so I couldn’t resist jumping on that bandwagon. Now, on to other things …

Mexico is suing us … rightly so

The Mexican government is suing several U.S.-based gun manufacturers including Smith & Wesson Brands, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Beretta USA, Glock and Colt’s Manufacturing Co.

The lawsuit maintains that the U.S. arms manufacturers “are conscious of the fact that their products are trafficked and used in illicit activities against the civilian population and authorities of Mexico,” according to a document from the Foreign Ministry. “Nonetheless, they continue to prioritize their economic benefit, and use marketing strategies to promote weapons that are ever more lethal, without mechanisms of security or traceability,” it continued.

In addition to financial damages sought — which Mexican officials estimated could run to $10 billion if the lawsuit is successful — it also seeks tighter controls on sales and better security features on weapons. It calls on the companies to undertake studies and media campaigns to prevent arms trafficking.

In the past, gun manufacturers have denied responsibility for crimes in which their weapons were used, claiming that they try to ensure that guns can be purchased only by those legally allowed to own them. Bullshit! As long as they’re making those huge profits from the sale of killing machines, they don’t give a royal hoot who uses them or for what purpose!

And they have profited greatly from the pandemic. Smith & Wesson, for example, saw net profit of $243.6 million in 2020 as compared to only $27.7 million the prior year. Profiting from other people’s death and pain. The ‘American Dream’, eh?

I would like to see Mexico win this suit and the gun manufacturers have to pay until they are twisted in knots! Unfortunately, a federal law that took effect in 2005 shields gun manufacturers from most civil liability claims, making it difficult for lawsuits like Mexico’s to succeed. This case should be tried under international law, perhaps by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to be ruled on fairly. Yeah, I know … not a snowball’s chance in hell. Sigh. I can dream, can’t I?

Resign, Andrew!

I will only briefly touch on the report released on Tuesday saying that Governor Andrew Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women. Now, as a native New Yorker, I must admit I’ve always liked Cuomo, thought he did a good job and cared, truly cared, about the people of his state. However, in light of the charges, I have no choice but to join the masses calling for his resignation, for contrary to what our friend Scott believes of me, I am no hypocrite. Women’s rights … damn, why do we keep having to fight for them??? WHY the hell can’t men just understand that we don’t WANT their uninvited lecherous passes? We are … listen to me … WE ARE every bit as deserving of respect as you guys are! WE ARE NOT sex objects for you to toy with as you please, grabbing our boobs or other body parts. WE ARE PEOPLE TOO!

Whew … I didn’t realize quite how angry I was about this until I started writing! 🤬 I’m a firm believer of that old adage, “Where there’s so much smoke, there’s bound to be a fire somewhere.” Yes, I firmly believe that Governor Cuomo is an abuser of women and I join in the calls for his resignation. That said, he’s a stubborn ass and unlikely to resign, thus impeachment is the next likely step. My heart breaks for the people of New York that have stood behind Governor Cuomo, only to be slapped in the face by him.

Missing Words …

Posted on November 16, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I simply cannot find my words today. I don’t remember where I left them when I went to bed last night … er, this morning … and I’ve called and whistled for them, but no words are forthcoming. However, John Oliver does not have any problem finding his, and he has graciously agreed to fill in for Filosofa today with words that are wiser and more informed than mine would have been, even if they had come out of hiding.

Seriously, though … this clip, while it is nearly 18 minutes long, is well worth watching as he assesses the current situation here in the U.S. and quite effectively puts to rest the rumours and conspiracy theories that are being spread by Trump and his nasty cohorts even faster than the coronavirus pandemic. I do hope you’ll take the time to watch this from start to finish … it is well worth the time … plus there is a glint of much-needed humour.

Presidential Vandalism

Posted on November 13, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Political commentary

Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat graciously is certainly no surprise. The ‘man’ does not know the meaning of the word gracious. Still, though I am not surprised by his antics over the past week since it became clear that Joe Biden has won the presidential election, I find it deeply disturbing. That so many people in and out of government are playing along with his little game, either out of fear or because they have no respect for the founding principles of this nation, is even more disturbing. Never before in the history of this nation have We the People been treated with more disdain and disrespect by the top elected official than we are today.

Yesterday, I came across the following OpEd by Nickholas Kristof reminding us how other presidents have accepted their defeat. No matter what you thought of Hillary Clinton, you have to admit her response to her loss was far more dignified and professional than any we’ve seen since then.

When Trump Vandalizes Our Country

The president should grit his teeth and repeat Hillary Clinton’s line from 2016: “We must accept this result.”

By Nicholas Kristof

Opinion Columnist

Nov. 11, 2020

As it became clear that she would lose the 2016 election and news organizations called the race for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton spoke to her supporters.

“We must accept this result,” she declared. “Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”

She did not boast that she had won 2.9 million more votes than Trump. She did not file lawsuits to try to reverse thin margins. And she did not offer evidence-free allegations of voter fraud — as Trump did, even though he had won. Rather, she buttressed the norm in American electoral politics of the loser acknowledging the winner.

This norm is as traditional as it is wrenching for the losers. In conceding the presidential race in 1952 and sharing how he felt, Adlai Stevenson recalled what Lincoln supposedly said after losing an election: “He said he felt like a little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark. He was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh.” Still, Stevenson resolutely called on his backers to support Dwight Eisenhower in the presidency.

In 2000, after the Supreme Court effectively ended Al Gore’s quest for the presidency, Gore likewise admitted his heartache but urged voters: “I call on all Americans — I particularly urge all who stood with us — to unite behind our next president.”

Trump might study the particularly eloquent speech by John McCain as he conceded to Barack Obama in 2008. McCain said: “I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together.”

President Trump’s pattern instead has been to scrape the wounds opened during campaigns, for he has been a sore loser as well as a sore winner. In 2016, when Trump lost the Iowa caucuses, he claimed that “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.”

Today Trump is not simply saying that we should wait for every vote to be counted in the 2020 election. Rather, he is fabricating election fraud and falsely claiming that he won, sowing doubts within his base about American democracy itself. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 70 percent of Republicans don’t believe the election was free and fair.

Republican officials have, with some noble exceptions, joined Trump in this dangerous charade, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserting — perhaps jokingly — that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”

The blunt truth is that there is zero evidence of widespread fraud or impropriety, and in any case, the average statewide recount over 20 years has resulted in a shift of just 430 votes. There is no realistic chance for recounts to shift enough votes for Trump to win a second term.

Yet Trump is denying reality and impeding a lawful transition in ways that diminish the United States before the world, that make our country less governable and that risk inciting violence. This is presidential vandalism.

Can America heal?

The most likely course ahead, I believe, is that reality will gradually take hold: Trump’s litigation will fail, voting results will be certified and the Trump administration will grumpily accept the inevitable and cooperate with a transition.

But I may be wrong. If Republicans egg Trump on, rather than try to rein him in, might he try to block the transition in ways that would be comparable to an attempted coup d’état?

Sean Wilentz, the historian, told my colleague Thomas B. Edsall that if Trump were to deny the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election, “It would be an act of disloyalty unsurpassed in American history except by the Southern secession in 1860-61.”

One impediment to healing is that we now all have our own news ecosystems to feed our selection bias, reinforce our prejudices and dial up our outrage. In recent days I’ve been tuning to the conservative outlet One America News, and it’s the simplest way to travel to another planet: On that planet, Democrats are engaging in massive election fraud and trying to steal the election. If you live on that planet, with Facebook feeds that reinforce that fiction, you’re not inclined to sing “Kumbaya.”

Yet we have to try to heal and reassert norms of civility that are the lubricant that make democracy work. Biden has modeled those norms in his outreach to Trump voters, in empathizing with their disappointment, in quoting the Bible in his call for Americans to unite and heal. But it will take all of us, on both sides of this divide, to join him.

Republicans scoff that Democrats, after delegitimizing Trump for four years, now preach harmony. I take their point. But for the most part Democrats protested that Trump was a bad president, not that he wasn’t president at all. It is possible, imperfectly, to uphold norms both of acknowledging losses and of pushing accountability.

The day after the 2016 election I wrote a column saying that “having lost, we owe it to our nation to grit our teeth and give President-elect Trump a chance.” I now invite Republicans, having lost, to grit their teeth and give President-elect Biden a chance.

A Sorry Tale Of Two Men …

Posted on July 19, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

With Donald Trump’s purge of many immigrants from this country, and what amounts to essentially closing our southern border, there are many low-paid, menial jobs in the agricultural industry that are left unfilled, and farmers large and small are crying for people to harvest crops and pick fruit. Perhaps it is fortuitous, then, that so many people in the current administration will find themselves out of work come January. I delight at the vision of Mike Pompeo, Betsy DeVos, Kellyanne Conway and others on a ladder under a tree picking oranges! Yes, yes, I know these arseholes are all independently wealthy and don’t need to find other jobs, but still … give me my moment of pleasure here.

Now that I’ve had my moment of joy, there are two people on the snark radar today … Sebastian Gorka and Mike Pompeo.

In January 2017, Sebastian Gorka was appointed Deputy Assistant to the “President” and Strategist in the Trump White House. He was a member of a White House team known as the Strategic Initiatives Group, which was set up by White House advisors Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. The Strategic Initiatives Group never got off the ground, and Gorka failed to obtain the security clearance necessary for work on national security issues.

Gorka is a radical whose background and education are questionable, and who has ties to a Nazi-allied group in Hungary known as Vitézi Rend. Congress, as well as the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Gorka’s firing, along with a number of Jewish groups.

On August 25, 2017, Gorka left the administration, one week after Steve Bannon’s departure. Gorka claimed that he had resigned because White House officials were “undermining” the Make America Great Again (MAGA) platform. The White House disputed his claim that he resigned and confirmed he was no longer employed there and did not have further access to the White House grounds.

Okay, gone, good riddance, right? Let him show up on Fox every month or so to rant and opine, and on his own radio show, as long as he isn’t in our government, yes? But wait … on Tuesday, it was announced that Donald Trump plans to appoint Gorka to be a member of the National Security Education Board! Like a bad penny, he keeps coming back!

If you’re like me, right about now you’re scratching your head and wondering just what the Sam Heck the “National Security Education Board” does. The 14-member board oversees a government program that awards scholarships and fellowships to students and offers grants to colleges and universities to address “the national need for experts in critical languages and regions.” In its mission statement, NSEP says one of its goals is to “produce an increased pool of applicants for work in the departments and agencies of the United States Government with national security responsibilities.”

Sorry, folks, but I don’t want Gorka within our government in any capacity, let alone one that pertains in any way, shape or form to education! Thankfully, he can join the others in January looking for jobs picking fruit!

A year ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched the “Commission on Unalienable Rights”, a panel tasked with reviewing “the role of human rights in American public policy”. At the time, I questioned the need and intent of such a panel, for knowing Pompeo’s evangelical religious views, I did not trust that it wouldn’t be more exclusionary than not. I wasn’t alone, as advocates warned it could imperil LGBTQ and women’s reproductive freedoms.

Said Pompeo at that time …

“As human rights claims have proliferated, some claims have come into tension with one another provoking questions and clashes about which rights are entitled to gain respect. Nation states and international institutions remain confused about the respective responsibilities concerning human rights. We must, therefore, be vigilant that human rights discourse not be corrupted or hijacked or used for dubious or malignant purposes.”

Odd that, for I never felt any confusion as to what ‘human rights’ are. I promptly forgot about it, in light of other more immediate concerns, until this weekend. On Thursday, Pompeo and the panel released a draft version of their past year’s work, and it concludes that the two highest human rights are property ownership and religious freedom. Property ownership??? Quite frankly, people who cannot afford sufficient food to feed their families, who cannot pay their rent, and who cannot afford to take their sick child to the doctor don’t give a tinker’s damn about owning property! And just how consoling does Pompeo think it is to tell a starving person that, “Oh well, at least you have religious freedom”? This reminds me of the “thoughts and prayers” they send when somebody’s child is the victim of a school shooting!

This nation and its government have many massive problems that need to be addressed … defining human rights might be a start if the people doing the defining weren’t wealthy bigots who have never missed a meal in their lives, or had to decide between paying the rent and buying food. It might have had seriousness of purpose if they considered such things as equality for all, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. But rather, the entire purpose seems to have been to continue to oppress the oppressed and give legitimacy to the wealthy and the evangelicals.

Pompeo acknowledged historical US failings, including slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans, but he argued that those wrongs had been remedied and was scornful of those who argued that they represented enduring flaws. Pompeo, and apparently the rest of his panel, are so out of touch with the 99% of us who live in the real world that it’s pathetic. This panel is naught but an attempt to deny women’s rights, to deny the rights of blacks and Native Americans, and to deny the rights of the LGBT community. If you’ve got the stomach for it, you can read his draft here.

In his draft, he condemns the New York Times’ 1619 project … an excellent project I have mentioned on two separate occasions and that I strongly recommend. According to the Times …

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

Links:

Really Snarky Snippets!

Posted on May 19, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary

My last snarky snippets post failed the snark test … not quite snarky enough. So, you’ll be happy to hear that tonight I am loaded with snark … it is oozing from my pores! Mondays are rather always like that, though … Trump & Co kick back into high gear after the weekend and give Filosofa much fodder for the gristmill. So, sit back and be prepared for … S-N-A-R-K (all caps!).

Say ‘Goodbye’, Sue …

Good ol’ Susan Collins is back in the news. This time, as she has on rare occasions, she found a shred of conscience and called out Trump (very mildly) for his firing of yet another Inspector General, Steve Linick, the latest in his Stalinistic purge.

“I have long been a strong advocate for the Inspectors General. They are vital partners in Congress’s effort to identify inefficient or ineffective government programs and to root out fraud and other wrongdoing. The investigations and reports of IGs throughout the government help Congress shape legislation and oversight activities – improving government performance, providing important transparency into programs, and giving Americans better value for their tax dollar. The President has not provided the kind of justification for the removal of IG Linick required by this law.”

Well said, Susan … a day late and dollar short, but thanks for finding your voice and your conscience. Turns out that in addition to investigating Mike Pompeo for having staff run personal errands such as picking up the dry cleaning, and walking the dogs for Mike and his wife, Linick was also investigating a highly questionable sale of arms to Saudi Arabia in their quest to overtake Yemen and kill as many Yemenis as possible. Trump’s administration has admitted that he fired Linick as per a request by Pompeo.Ms. Collins is trailing behind her Democratic opponent, Sara Gideon, in the polls by 2.5%. It’s hard to say whether this will give her a boost or bring her even lower, but it is well past time for Susan Collins to retire. She has been in the Senate since 1997, twenty-three years, and while she has done some good things, of late she seems to be more of a Trump bootlicker than not. She was, of course, one of the Republican senators who voted not to convict Trump on the impeachment charges, thereby handing him the keys to the castle, giving him carte blanche to do such things as purge all oversight via the Inspectors General.

Do you know where your tax dollars are going?

It comes with the job … Secret Service protection for the president, his wife, and immediate family members. Nobody argues with it, for we surely don’t wish to see a member of the president’s family kidnapped or gunned down, but there are limits. Since Donald Trump took office, those limits seem to have been repeatedly broken, as We the Taxpayers are funding Secret Service protection for Trump’s grown children while they flit about the globe conducting Trump Organization business … nothing to do with the nation or its people … the only beneficiaries carry the surname ‘Trump’.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look at this one …

Source: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)

Yes, my friends … those last three super tall bars represent the number of trips Trump or his family have taken that required protection that WE paid for. On average, Obama’s family took 133.3 protected trips per year, while the Trump family has taken an average of 1,625 annually. More than twelve times as many! Much of the Trump family’s known travel has been to promote Trump Organization businesses, which Trump still owns and profits from. But does he use some of those profits to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the protection Junior and Eric were afforded? NO, he does not. Next time somebody tells you that Trump doesn’t take a salary (which is not true, either), remind them that he is spending more money protecting his grotesque sons than the past three presidents combined! This, my friends, are what you and I are paying millions of dollars to protect. WHY???

Oh, the irony!!!

You’ll remember that last week, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr stepped down as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee because he is under investigation for insider trading, among other things. Well, of course a replacement had to be chosen … now, before I tell you who it is, remember the name of the committee … the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that … wait for it … Senator Marco Rubio would replace Burr! I nearly choked on my coffee, for when I think of Rubio, ‘intelligence’ is the furthest thing from my mind.

First, he is the 17^th most conservative republican in Congress, leaving no room for negotiation, no compromise whatsoever. Second, he is in the pockets of the NRA, and in February 2018, after the Parkland school shooting, he made a virtual ass of himself when he was questioned by a survivor of the shooting about the more than $3 million he had received in donations from the NRA. Rubio replied, “I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda.”

He has been dead-set against ACA, is dead-set against women’s rights, immigrant’s rights, and has vacillated on LGBT rights, depending on which side of the coin seemed most popular at the moment. And, of course his most recent crime in my book came in February of this year, when he refused to stand for justice and instead voted “not guilty” in the Trump impeachment trial. That one is unforgivable, for look at the consequences. Intelligence??? I think NOT.

Doctoring the numbers?

The headline in The Washington Post caught my eye …

By order of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp: The day after Thursday is now Sunday

So naturally, I had to take a quick glance. Turns out that, eager to prove his decision to be among the first to ‘re-open’ his state, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp played fast and loose with the statistics regarding new cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to coronavirus in his state. The graph looked real nice … that ‘curve’ the experts keep talking about appeared to represent a steady decline in the new cases and deaths.

But on further investigation … the dates on the chart showed a curious ordering: April 30 was followed by May 4; May 5 was followed by May 2, which was followed by May 7 — which in turn was followed by April 26. The dates had been re-sorted to create the illusion of a decline. I ask, of nobody in particular, why a governor’s office should be the ones reporting these statistics anyway? Especially one of the most appallingly corrupt governors in the state’s history!

More importantly, however, is this makes us wonder if ANY statistic we have been given is true, or if the numbers, bad as they are, are being manipulated and hundreds of thousands of new cases, as well as thousands more deaths are being hidden from the public. I’ve long said that I do not believe a single word that comes out of the Trump administration, and this only confirms what I’ve been saying all along. Over the past month, I have seen numerous articles positing that the death toll in the U.S. has been under-reported by tens of thousands. Perhaps even more? Perhaps we’ve already hit the 200,000 mark, while the statistics say we will hit 100,000 by the end of this week. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could TRUST the government that our hard-earned tax dollars support???

Saturday’s Snarky Snippets

Posted on February 1, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary

First, I must apologize that there is no Saturday Surprise post today … Saturday showed up, but Surprise didn’t. Hopefully it will return next week.

I suppose it goes without saying that I have enough snark buildup this morning to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, and I imagine most of you do, too. I shall try hard not to mention the cause of it all, since I cannot do so without smoke emitting from my ears. Twice already the neighbors have called the fire department.

Why is Kellyanne even allowed to speak?

Ms. Kellyanne Conway has opened her mouth once again and as always, it came out stupid. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the life expectancy rate in the U.S. had risen from 78.6 years to 78.7 years. whoopee. 36 days. Thing is, it’s likely untrue. The CDC is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We quite literally cannot trust any information that comes from any federal agency at this time. Not to mention the fact that with the elevated stress levels in this nation, we are all at greater risk of dropping dead any day. And, the suicide rate, which must be factored into any such equation as life expectancy, has increased over the last three years. And … far more people currently have no insurance, thanks to the chipping away at ACA in the past three years. Prescription medications are ridiculously overpriced. All things considered, I would say it’s far more likely that the life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased. And … in 2014, when the nation had an intelligent human being for a president, the life expectancy was 78.9 … higher than the one reported today.But, Ms. Kellyanne Conway has decided that we should all sent ‘thank-you’ notes to Donald Trump and his family …

“This has not happened through coincidence, it’s happened through causation. It’s owing in large part to a whole-of-government approach to treat the whole person led by President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and really the entire administration.”

Bullshit.

According to the report, the slight uptick is due to a decrease in heroin overdoses … not a damn thing to do with Trump or Melania or anybody else in the administration.

Meanwhile, Kellyanne’s better half, George …

Tweeted a response to House Democrat Adam Schiff …Don’t you just wonder what dinner table conversation at the Conway house is like?

The wall came tumbling down

Trump has bragged about his “big, beautiful wall” … that is actually just more of a fence, and there is only, at last reckoning, about 75 miles of it built.

“What I do best in life, I build. … I want it to be so beautiful because maybe someday they’ll call it ‘The Trump Wall.’ Maybe. If they call this ‘The Trump Wall,’ it has to be beautiful.”

Believe me, there is nothing beautiful about a structure designed to keep people out, but apparently there’s nothing very strong about it, either. In Mexicali, Baja California, it got a little windy on Wednesday morning. Turns out, Trump’s wall can’t stand up to the wind, for a 130-foot section blew right over.Let’s see … so far, men have proven it can be cut through with cheap saws, mother nature has proven a bit of a wind gust can knock it down … oh yeah, Donnie, that’s about a wall, alright. Personally, I’m giving some thought to going to the border and setting fire to it … I’d probably only need my zippo lighter and a little help from the wind.

Pompeo the Pompous …

Remember a few days back when I told you about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo being rude and hyper-critical of NPR host Mary Louise Kelly because he didn’t like the questions she was asking him during an interview? Well, it has turned into somewhat of a feud, for the next day, Pompeo issued a statement wherein he did not even deny his disrespect and verbal abuse toward Ms. Kelly, but claimed she had lied to him and told him their “post-interview” conversation would be off the record. Well, buddy, when you curse and berate a reporter, make a blatant attempt to belittle her, I think you get what you deserve.

Ms. Kelly wrote an excellent OpEd in the New York Times explaining the interview and her stance — I highly recommend you read it. Then, Pompeo barred another NPR reporter from accompanying him on his trip this week to … where else … the Ukraine … presumably as “punishment” for Ms. Kelly’s interview. But here’s the kicker … since the feud started, NPR (National Public Radio) has seen a major increase in donations from listeners among the 1,000-plus NPR member stations. Put that one in your pipe and smoke it, Mikey!

Two of my favourite late-night comedians, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, did a great job with this … it’s a short one (2:24 minutes) and guaranteed to make you laugh.

The Little Boy Who Cried 🐺

Posted on January 25, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Law and justice, Political commentary

Remember the story about the little shepherd boy who cried wolf? You don’t? Aw, c’mon … you’re not so old you’ve forgotten that one. Well, the story goes that the little boy got bored while tending his master’s sheep, and I suppose to get attention, kept crying “Wolf!!!”, even though there was no wolf after him (not to mention that wolves aren’t bad guys anyway). The townspeople all ran to his rescue, only to find there was no wolf, no threat, the kid was just bored. Then one day, a wolf really was after the kid, or more likely the sheep, and though he kept crying “Wolf!!!”, nobody came to his rescue, for they were all onto his tricks. Thus, the wolf ate all the sheep and the little boy, mostly to get him to shut up (poor wolf had a severe case of heartburn for days after). And the moral, according to Aesop, is “this shows how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them”.So why, you ask, do I tell you a fairy tale on this Saturday afternoon? I wish I could remember! I know I had a purpose … but I cannot remember it just now. So, I shall just proceed with a few snippets and perhaps it will come back to me, eh?

The impeachment trial, for those who might not know, is in its fourth day. Funny, the senators haven’t done a bit of work all year, but they are so eager to get this trial out of their way, supposedly so they can, as one senator claimed, “get back to doing the work of the people”. What work??? What “people”? They haven’t passed a piece of meaningful legislation in the Senate in over a year now! They don’t even discuss meaningful legislation. Oh wait … they voted to re-name a few federal buildings … that was pretty important to us all, wasn’t it?

Anyway, one Senator, Roger Wicker from Mississippi, responded to the impeachment charges that Trump had acted inappropriately, had abused the power of his office, in attempting to withhold aid to the Ukraine in exchange for personal gain …

“I do things every week that are inappropriate. So no, I’m not going to go down that road.”

Yo! Mississippi voters … are you listening here? Your ‘esteemed’ Senator does things that are inappropriate every week! Now, I might make mistakes on a near-daily basis, but … ‘inappropriate’ carries a connotation of corruption, of a lack of morals, of values. I think you Mississippians better be keeping a closer eye on ol’ Senator Wicker!

He looks a little confused, don’t you think?

Funny, but the republicans seem a mite on edge these days, don’t you think? For example, yesterday Mike Pompeo apparently didn’t like some of the questions asked of him by NPR radio host Mary Louise Kelly. His answers were brief non-answers, but it was what happened after the interview that is telling. As he walked out of the room, he stopped at her desk, leaned in and silently glared at Kelly for several seconds before leaving the room. Within a minute, an aide asked Kelly to follow her into Pompeo’s private living room at the State Department without a recorder.

She would have been wise to decline, but curiosity got the better of her, I suppose, and she went. According to Ms. Kelly, Pompeo shouted his displeasure at being questioned about Ukraine. He used repeated expletives, according to Kelly, and asked, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” Either the republicans are nervous about something and on a short fuse these days, else they are trying to win brownie points by emulating their idol, King Trump.

And then there was the freshman senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn – a real nasty piece of work in my book. It seems almost as if each republican picks his or her own target to vilify, and Ms. Blackburn’s target is Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Vindman, you’ll remember, testified to House impeachment investigators about Trump’s July 25^th phone call to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and concluded that he considered it to be inappropriate.

Notice anything about the mouth … the exaggerated contortions … reminds me of??? And didn’t women stop teasing their hair in the ’70s?

Blackburn has been busily tweeting, appearing on television and social media that she considers Vindman to be vindictive and a coward. A coward? Excuse me, but Vindman is a combat veteran of the Iraq War. He served in Iraq from September 2004 to September 2005. In October 2004, he sustained an injury from a roadside bomb in Iraq, for which he received a Purple Heart. He was promoted to the rank of major in 2008, and to lieutenant colonel in September 2015. That, to me, is not the career path a ‘coward’ would take.

During his Army career, Vindman earned the Ranger Tab, Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, and Parachutist Badge, as well as four Army Commendation Medals and two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, yet Ms. Blackburn writes …

“Alexander Vindman broke the chain of command and leaked the contents of the President’s July 25th phone call to his pal, the “whistleblower.” Over a policy dispute with the President! How is that not vindictive?”

“Vindictive Vindman is the “whistleblower’s” handler.”

“Adam Schiff is hailing Alexander Vindman as an American patriot. How patriotic is it to badmouth and ridicule our great nation in front of Russia, America’s greatest enemy?”

There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support any of her claims.

I think Tennesseans, like Mississippians, need to re-think their choice of people to represent them in Congress!

I still don’t remember quite where I was going with the ‘little boy who cried wolf’ story, but perhaps you guys can come up with something? Ah well, it’s a good story anyway. And now, I shall return you to your weekend activities!

True Believer Pompeo Drives Iran Policy

Posted on January 9, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, religion, Social commentary

The United States is a secular nation, one that welcomes people of all or no religions, but does not govern based on the beliefs or principles of any religion. At least, that’s the intent as laid forth by the U.S. Constitution. Today’s “leaders”, the people driving public policy, seem painfully unaware of this principle. Our friend Jeff over at On the Fence Voters has written an excellent post about this, the greatest hypocrisy. Thank you, Jeff …

On The Fence Voters

It’s an open secret that the evangelical community has forged a somewhat uneasy alliance with the current president of the United States. He gives them the judges they want, gives them lip service supporting ‘religious liberty,’ and does a travel ban on Muslims. All of this overrides the fact he’s perhaps the most un-Christian president in history who’s a pathological liar and who publicly bullies people he doesn’t like.

To them, while he’s an imperfect leader, he’s the ‘chosen one’ who might get them the ‘end days’ they so desperately crave. And while that’s enough to make me grab a shot of whiskey (even though I’m a beer drinker), even more frightening is that the two men driving his Iran policy are Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both consider themselves proud members of the evangelical community.

I’ve known about Pence for sometime now. He’s a pretty…

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Pompeo Speaks … Sometimes Silence Is Golden

Posted on January 5, 2020 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

And so it begins. Iraq’s parliament voted to expel U.S. troops from the country. This move is understandably for the safety of their own citizens. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised retaliation for the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani, and one likely target for such retaliation would be U.S. military bases in Iraq and elsewhere. According to Ammar al-Shibli, a member of the Iraqi parliamentary legal committee …

“There is no need for the presence of American forces after defeating Daesh (Isis). We have our own armed forces which are capable of protecting the country.”

Mike-Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows, hitting NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s State of the Union, CBS’s Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday. On one show he was asked whether the U.S. will leave Iraq, given that they have been asked to, and Pompeo replied …

“We’ll have to take a look at what we do when the Iraqi leadership and government makes a decision. But the American people should know we’ll make the right decision …”

How the Sam Heck should the people of this nation “know” that Trump and/or Pompeo will make the “right” decision when they have made so many wrong ones just in the past week alone, not to mention the past three years? Trust? No way, Josè! Trust and respect are earned … neither Trump nor Pompeo have earned either. Oh, and by the way, where was Trump while Pompeo was making the rounds trying to convince people that this administration has some clue what they’re doing? In the Oval Office meeting with advisors? No … in sunny Florida … on the golf course … of course.

Pompeo went on to say that …

“We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counterterror campaign. And we’ll continue to do all the things we need to do to keep America safe.”

Now wait just a minute … the “counterterror campaign” was against Daesh, aka ISIS, and didn’t Trump say he had defeated ISIS? Most of us knew he was tooting a fake horn when he said it, and now Pompeo just admitted it.

And speaking of the madman at the helm, yesterday evening he tweeted …

“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”

Since when do world leaders use Twitter as a venue for communicating with other world leaders? But more to the point … this is basically a declaration of war at a time when tensions are already very high in the region, thanks to Trump’s idiocy. And, by the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war. This is equivalent to a foreign power threatening to obliterate the Golden Gate Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial, and the White House itself, and dozens of other significant places. This is the rhetoric of a spoiled brat, a juvenile delinquent … these are not the words of a ‘man’ who leads a nation of some 330 million people!

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, tweeted back …

“Having committed grave breaches of int’l law in Friday’s cowardly assassinations, realdonaldtrump threatens to commit again new breaches. Targeting cultural sites is a war crime; – Whether kicking or screaming, end of US malign presence in West Asia has begun.”

The assassination has placed European nations in danger as well. Now, I don’t know if Pompeo is truly just stupid, or if he’s continuing to play the little games on behalf of Trump, but apparently he expected the EU and UK to jump up and applaud the foolishness of the United States …

“Frankly, the Europeans haven’t been as helpful as I wish that they could be. The Brits, the French, the Germans all need to understand that what we did, what the Americans did, saved lives in Europe as well. This was a good thing for the entire world, and we are urging everyone in the world to get behind what the United States is trying to do to get the Islamic Republic of Iran to simply behave like a normal nation.”

Perhaps Mr. Pompeo doesn’t actually understand foreign policy at all, in which case I call for his immediate resignation from the State Department, for he is highly unqualified. The other alternative is that he is on drugs and is delusional much of the time.

It is my humble opinion that the UK and the EU would be well advised to request that the U.S. close their embassies in those countries and send their ambassadors and diplomats back to the U.S., at least until the tensions ease, for those embassies may well be targeted by Iran at some point, thereby placing innocent citizens in danger.

And all of this, my friends, because of the people in this nation who voted an ignorant madman into the highest office in the land. Way to go … just way to go.

Just as I finished this post, I received breaking news that Iran has announced it is suspending all commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Filosofa's Word

Cogito Ergo Sum

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