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???