And I Used to Think it was Bad When Teachers Hit You with Rulers…

Have you seen how conservatives and gun “enthusiasts” are bending over backward to assign blame for the Florida school shooting everywhere but with the easy availability of semi-automatic rifles?

The kids didn’t report their suspicions. The FBI dropped the ball because they were distracted by the Russia investigation. The Deputy waited outside too long. Unarmed teachers/Gun-Free Zones.

Each and every excuse there is bogus, except maybe for the Deputy waiting too long to go in. But I have doubts that he could have gotten into position in time to stop any of the killings. “Best” case, they shoot the kid inside rather than take him into custody outside, like they did. And who knows how many innocent kids get shot in the crossfire?

The one that’s getting the most traction is the most ludicrous; that we should be arming our teachers with guns so they can return fire. The Republicans are searching for their own gun-wielding Sister Mary Elephant.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had teachers I wouldn’t trust with the TV remote, let alone a lethal weapon. But even allowing that you’d have to make it an optional thing, I can’t believe that there’s anyone that thinks having more guns in school is a good idea.

I call this the Die Hard Theory, wherein some average Joe Teacher can wield lethal firepower in a high-pressure, chaotic, life and death situation and not only shoot the bad guy(s) but not hit anyone else, like Bruce Willis does in the Die Hard movies.

I saw a blurb that said that in live-fire activities, the NYPD hits their intended targets with only 18% of their shots. Now I don’t know if that’s true, but even if it’s 50%, these guys have gone through rigorous training with realistic simulations.

And we’re to expect that we can train teachers to do better than professional law enforcement officers, in the most chaotic and emotionally fraught situation imaginable? This is not target shooting on a range or in the woods. This is children running and hiding and your pulse is pounding and a shooter with rapid-fire capability is roaming the hallways.

And that’s just the obvious stuff. Think about some of the other scenarios.

What happens when a teacher pulls a gun on a student who’s misbehaving?

What happens when a student gets ahold of the teacher’s gun?

What happens if the gun gets stolen?

Who is responsible if a teacher hits an innocent student while defending against an active shooter?

What happens if a first responder sees a teacher with a gun and shoots him? If I were a black, male teacher, I wouldn’t want to come near a gun, lest I get accidentally shot by the police.

Then there’s financial stuff… Who’s going to pay for these guns, (while teachers often have to buy their own school supplies to give to kids who don’t have them?)

Who’s going to pay for that training? (Again, this can’t be range training, it would have to be a high-level program.)

Who’s going to pay for substitute teach for teachers who are off getting gun training, (assuming the teacher doesn’t give up time in the summer?)

Who’s going to pay for these “little bonuses” President 45 mentioned?

Teachers already have enough to deal with, fixing all the damage done to kids by their parents.

No, this is a bad idea and it just goes to show the lengths the gun nuts will go to keep any tinge of culpability away from the gun industry. Just look at the obvious flaws in the latest crop of Facebook gun memes.

No, killers don’t need guns to kill. But when McVeigh blew up a building with fertilizer, we banned or restricted large-quantity sales of fertilizer and the Sudafed chemicals. We can no longer take knives or box cutters on planes. The Nazis were a governmental entity and totally don’t have any logical place on this list, but even so, we banned the use of nerve gas. And don't even get me started on the atrocities committed by dedicated "children of God."

Guns are the only lethal weapons we don’t rein in when they’re used to commit crimes. And that’s because the NRA, whose only constituency is the gun manufacturers, convinced people that any regulation on guns is an assault on the 2^nd Amendment, which much remains sacrosanct. In other words, they don’t care how many bodies pile up as long a gun sales don’t drop.

Then there’s this piece of willful ignorance:

The NRA knows full well that the problem America has with them isn’t what their members do, it’s what the organization does. They aggressively fund candidates to the point that they own them on gun issues. And if anyone casts a hinky vote, not only do they start funding competing candidates, they fire up the smear machine by unleashing Fox “News” on TV and the bots and trolls onto social media.

That is why you’re watching conservative politicians twisting themselves into knots to avoid casting aspersions onto the gun industry; they’re protecting their own jobs at the expense of schoolchildren and anyone else with a pulse and the will to live. But the blame has to go somewhere, doesn’t it?

And Trump? NRA or not, he will always come down on the side of appearing “Strong.”  That’s his favorite descriptor. He wants to be strong. His opponents are weak on this and weak on that, but he’s always stroooong. He wants more guns and more bombs and a stronger military with bigger planes and I have never seen a bigger example of “compensating!”

He even said that if he were at the school, he would have stopped the shooter with his bare hands.

Seriously. Cadet Bone Spur wants hand-to-hand combat.

This guy doesn’t even want to shake hands without hand sanitizer. Purell should have sponsored his campaign.

Notice how he and the rest of the Republican leadership) want other people and other places armed, but when it comes to places that Republicans gather?

“Except where it could affect ME…”

How messed up do you have to be to attack high school-aged survivors of a mass shooting? Have you seen the attack dogs sharpening their fangs for these kids? One kid is getting death threats. Another is being ridiculed for her haircut. One minute they’re dodging bullets, the next they’re getting flamed online for having the nerve to want to do something about it.

The argument about keeping arms to go up against the government is ridiculous too. Ask the semi-automatic rifle-wielding Taliban how they fared against the US military. They were squashed like bugs. No band of local yokels is going to go to war against the US of A, even if we DO elect another black man. “Red Dawn” was another movie unpinned from reality.

I really hope the kids’ movement grows legs and they can transform speeches and demonstrations into voter registration and then VOTES. Because nothing will ever change with gun laws until politicians who are beholden to the NRA are voted out of office.

Voters have the power to do that. We all do. We can ignore the threats from the gun fondlers and ignore the smears against decent people and point out the nonsense spewing from the NRA about the sanctity of the 2^nd Amendment and elect people who want to end the carnage. Because there’s one inescapable fact:

No civilian needs a semi-automatic rifle or high-capacity clip. Not for hunting, not for home defense, not for personal protection in the streets and not for the overthrow of a government who happens to represent the will of the country, if not their own.

And once you strip away all their bullshit, all that’s left is, “But I wanna gun that goes boom-boom-boom.”

No, a ban on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity clips won’t eliminate killing or violence. But it will make it harder to kill so many people in so little time. Maybe not today, or next year, or within this generation. But the difference will come.

The lack of immediate gratification is no reason to delay a necessary action. Even the kids can see that.

Bang Bang Redoux

Oh, look, another “active shooter” incident.  Go figure.

Yesterday, 12 17 people were killed when yet another gunman went into a building and randomly shot a bunch of innocent people. 

We Americans have already expressed the opinion that we don’t care.  I mean; we've been expressing it for the last 20 years and even more loudly in the last several.  Sure, a few people try to do something to change the gun-lust nature of our culture, but they are quickly and loudly beaten back into the margins.

We the People have spoken loud and clear: “Keep your Commie hands off our guns.  We don’t care how many people are slaughtered on a daily, monthly or yearly basis.  We don’t care if they’re military men, high school students, moviegoers or first graders.  If you want to prevent more killing, give us more guns.”

And so it goes.

So spare us the weepy eulogies.  Spare us the press pool footage from the gravesites.  Spare us the interviews from neighbors who say the shooter was a good boy.  Our unfettered right to play with guns far outweighs the loss of life and limb, because no one tells US what to do. 

So no background checks, no waiting lists, no restrictions on ammo clips or armor-piercing bullets.  We wanna buy a Bushmaster AR 15 on credit at WalMart and start shooting stuff before we make the first payment.  We want it all because it’s cool and it says we can have them in the 2^nd Amendment.  That’s the only Amendment that counts, right?

Fuck you, we’re Americans.  We just don’t care. 

Because if we did, we’d do something about it.

***

I wrote those words on this site about four and a half years ago and obviously, not a damned thing has changed. We are in the same endless cycle. 

As soon as the tragedy hits, conservatives and gun nuts are out in force, saying “This is not the time to discuss the guns.” And that buys them time for the furor to blow over and the public to move on to the next outrage. And then the next mass killing happens and it’s “Not the time” again. At no time have I ever heard them say, “OK, it’s time,” which is by design.

And then they push the “good guys with guns” fallacy, which is good for the NRA’s business, but never takes into account this part:

Republicans have no intention of addressing the slaughter committed with semi-automatic weapons for two reasons:

1)      The gun fetishism entrenched in their “base,”

2)      The absolute power to remove them from office wielded by the NRA.

And thus do we find ourselves in the perpetual state of “Now is not the time,” and “Not enough guns.”

This is also the only time Republicans pay any attention to the issue of mental health. People with Mental Health Issues are much in demand by the right, as convenient scapegoats for the shootings, so to take the heat of the guns. They rail against how we have to do better in addressing mental health problems, but not so much that they won’t eliminate policies that actually address mental health like the one President 45 revoked last February.

When a president tweets about how the violence problem comes from mental health issues but just personally eliminated a policy that restores the ability of mentally ill people to buy guns, he is basically saying “it’s my fault,” but isn’t smart enough to realize it.

Now, I don’t think it’s directly the president’s fault that some twitchy dipstick shot up his school. I blame all the Republicans who took money from the NRA and the Democrats who are too spineless to stand up to them. These are the people that overturned the assault weapons ban and made semi-automatic rifles easier to get than a six-pack.

That’s outrageous. A nineteen-year-old can go to the local gun shop or Wal-Mart or Target and walk out with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle. But not a bottle of wine, because he’s too immature and that would be dangerous. That is the extent of the perversion that is our current gun legislation.

Of course, this was a white kid.

You want to get some gun laws changed? Let every black man in America line up to purchase a semi-automatic rifle. Laws will be changed within the hour.

I’ve said it before but there is no rational purpose for any civilian to own a semi-automatic rifle or high-capacity magazine. None. The zombie apocalypse isn’t real. A civilian can hunt or defend his home with a handgun, shotgun or standard rifle. This is real life here, not the movies. But the carnage in our schools and public places is very real.

If we remain a culture that values the rights of a bunch of gun nuts to play with lethal weaponry over the rights of schoolkids not to get shot for sport, then we deserve what we get.

And I know the old tired “gun defenses.” Like this one:

No one in their right mind ever said no one would get shot anymore. That’s a classic straw-man argument. Any changes in gun legislation would take years, if not generations, to show an effect, solely because of the resistance to giving up guns that are already in homes. We must have the patience to let new regulations work. This isn’t a problem to be solved over a long weekend; there is already far too much firepower in the country’s collective gun closet.

But do you notice how we still have drug laws? And you know why? That’s because they make it harder to get the goddamn drugs. You have to be covert. You have to take precautions. You have to have cash. You don’t just walk down to the fucking big-box store with a charge card and walk out with heroin.

There should be hoops and there should be rigorous background checks for any gun sale because at each stage, there’s an opportunity for a plot to be snuffed out.

I think the kids have it right. This time around, the kids who just went through hell witnessing the murder of their teachers and classmates are asking very hard questions of their representatives. And if they can’t now, these kids will be able to vote very soon. We’ll see if this outpouring of outrage has any legs. I hope so.

And I think the first order of business must be to neuter the power of the NRA.

The polls always say that people are generally in favor of common-sense gun regulation. It’s only the hard right and gun fetishists who demand the Second Amendment be tantamount and absolute.

So we should make a pledge… we won’t vote for any politician who receives funding from the NRA. (Which basically means, “Just vote Democratic.”) (I know, not always.)

This won’t be easy. I mean, I’m sure the NRA can find ways to funnel money, quietly and anonymously, to any politician they please, thanks to Citizens United. (Thanks, Koch Brothers!) But as constituents, we can ask for politicians’ stances on gun legislation, vote for those who pledge to pass meaningful gun regulation and then see that they follow through. This is especially true in the House of Representatives, where they have to run for re-election every two years. They are, by design, supposed to bend with a rapidly changing culture, as expressed by their constituents. If they renege on their word, we vote them the hell out and put in someone else.

The NRA can’t force us to vote for their guys; all they can do is run smear ads against their opponents.  (Well, and buy their own Russians to hack the election process.)  But it’s up to us to decide who is going to do something about the mass killings in this country. We already have enough martyrs; we need to do something to stop creating more of them.

As for the current batch of gun-buggering politicians, they can shove their mealy-mouthed Thoughts and Prayers right up the same hole they keep their trigger fingers.

Memo Wars

Last week I wrote about the “Nunes Memo,” where the staff of Congressman Nunes went through the FBI surveillance requests on some Trump campaign staff and picked out all the parts they could spin into nefarious intentions, and wrote up a memo about them. President 45 decided to release it, over the national security objections of the whole of the federal law enforcement community.

Now the Democrats have created their own memo that provides information that was omitted from the Nunes memo, that counters the assertions contained therein.

And to the surprise of exactly no one, Trump decided not to authorize the release of that memo, due to national security concerns.

Hmmmm. I bet you that each of those national security concerns coincides with points that debunk charges from the Nunes memo. To release a redacted memo may basically neuter the entire response.  Which is exactly what the Republicans intend. Remember, Trump thinks the Nunes memo exonerates him. We’ll see how much valuable deflection is left after these redactions. I’m not optimistic.

You have to take that with a grain of salt. He thinks that the sun coming up in the east exonerates him. You can’t take that stuff at face value. It’s just one more example of yelling a lie over and over until it becomes accepted as the truth. The Republicans are masters at it, Trump in particular.

Speaking of repeated lies, let’s look at some more bogus Republican memes captured from the wild.

Let’s go line by line:

“If we get nuked, it’ll be by…

Right off the bat… regardless how who nukes us, these SOBs know who to blame. Of course, that’s a given. When has a modern Republican taken the blame for anything? Just look how Sean Hannity is furiously tap-dancing to credit Trump with the flush stock market and Obama for the recent downturn. They’re shameless.

“Missiles built with technology given to China by Bill Clinton…

China has had nuclear tech since the 60s. They could have blown us up any time they wanted ever since.

“Funded by Iran with money Obama gave them…

So is it the Chinese engineering our demise or is it Iran? Doesn’t matter when you’re smearing with a broad brush. And not to pick nits, we didn’t give Iran any money; we unfroze their assets, giving them access to their own money, in return for standing down on weaponizing nuclear energy and permitting inspections, (which is the opposite of arming them).

“With warheads developed from uranium sold to Russia by Hillary.”

Complete bullshit. This has already been thoroughly debunked. Hillary did not have control of this uranium and her state department was one of nine departments that provided approval. (There are more areas of exoneration here, but I don’t want to dwell. You can click on the Snopes link above, for more details.) The uranium deal, as it applies to some nefarious plot between Russia and Hillary, is a complete fabrication. Not that you can tell by watching Fox “News” though.

“But Trump is the traitor? Got it.”

Finally, something based in fact. Trump is the only one who benefitted from Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump is the one who defers to Russia and Putin at every turn. Trump is the one desperately scrambling to try to derail the special prosecutor’s investigation into his Russia ties. Two of his staff have already pled guilty to federal offenses as it pertains to having ties to Russia, and more are on the way.

You know that saying that “if it looks like a duck and waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck?” Our president is one duck-tailed, waddling, quacking MFer.

The second half of this should say, “except all the stuff we made up for political purposes.”

Fast and Furious scandal: A police op gone wrong, no doubt. It was the same tactic police forces use all over the country… follow the guns/drugs from the street level dealers up to the bigwigs and take down the whole organization.  Unfortunately, this one went balls-up when they lost track of the guns sent to the cartels.  Oops. 

While a total embarrassment for law enforcement, I don’t see how it can be used to smear the presidency. Unless it’s a Democrat, because obviously, nothing that’s gone wrong in the country since January of 2017 has been Trump’s fault. Just ask him…

Uranium One Deal: See above. A complete fabrication promoted for political purposes.

Benghazi scandal: Ditto. It certainly wasn’t a high point, but not once have I ever heard a reason, convincing or otherwise, why this embassy attack was any different than the 11 fatal embassy attacks that took place during the Bush administration. Multiple congressional investigations uncovered not a single crime or anything that could even be charged. But because Hillary was seen as likely to run for president, the GOP smear campaign came out in force, with the objective of getting the word “scandal” and her name in the same sentence, over and over.

IRS Targeting scandal: More BS. IT was shown that the IRS went after liberal organizations too, for not being eligible for tax exemptions. And the ones Republicans always point to were based out of a single office in Cincinnati.

It’s kind of like those FBI texts. Just because a couple of employees might have partisan leanings doesn’t contaminate the entire organization. Nor does it qualify as a presidential scandal.

NSA Spying scandal: I’m not sure what they even mean with this one. The NSA was let loose to spy on Americans by the PATRIOT Act, in the wake of 9/11. There has been no political will on either side to put the genie back in the bottle since then.

Or they might mean the spying on Trump’s campaign people. Which is still BS. There was plenty of evidence pointing to shady behavior involving the Russians. And it turned out to be a valid concern. Look at the guilty pleas.

Also, in some instances, they weren’t surveilling Trump or his people; they were surveilling the Russians. And guess who happens to get caught on tape talking with them? Trump and his people. That’s just a case of the fly walking into the web.

Should I continue? No, you’re just embarrassing yourself.

The Obama administration was free of meaningful scandal, once you eliminate all the fake stuff, smears, political maneuvering and wishful thinking. There was no womanizing, no shady business deals, no tax evasion, no selling influence for profit, no un-presidential tweeting, no insulting or undermining our allies… The current guy steps on his own dick three times a week and twice on Sunday. There is no valid comparison.

  

This meme tells me the Republicans are now believing their own bullshit.

The Nunes Memo is Just Another Con Job

This “Nunes Memo” is the latest in a line of Republican con jobs being actively pushed by the GOP and their media propaganda machines. They make it seem like it’s a lot more important than it really is.

In a nutshell, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the FBI warrants requesting surveillance on a couple of Trump campaign operatives. Then Rep. Nunes’s staffers went through it and picked out all the things they could spin as FBI bias, corruption, or just plain tawdriness, leaving out context or anything that would legitimize the behavior they were using to cry foul.

Basically, they were doing to this memo what those crooks were doing with Planned Parenthood “sting” videos.

By using this dishonest methodology, you could argue that the Batman movies were about nothing but a cross-dresser trying to bring capes back into fashion. You’d do that by leaving out the background of Bruce Wayne, the reasons why he dresses as a bat, and the greater problem of a crime-riddled city, run by crime figures with the first name of “The.”

The Nunes memo is a sham, a political hit piece designed to provide cover for the president to fire Rod Rosenstein, who, not coincidentally, is the only one who can fire Robert Mueller. And the only reason anyone wants to fire Robert Mueller is that they are terrified of what he is likely to find. (Or has already found.) The GOP doesn’t want the gravy train to come to an end so they’re mortgaging their alleged values and ethics so to ensure that criminals who are helpful to big business will remain in power.

And the scary thing about Mueller is that his process does not require the cooperation of Congress. He’s after criminal activity and federal or state charges.

Congress would prefer to conduct their own investigation, so that the Republicans who run it can, with their heads placed somewhere from which there is no clear view other than through their navels, declare that there was no wrong-doing, claim victory and kibosh the whole affair. Obviously, the GOP Congress is not going to file impeachment charges against 45 no matter what he does.

But Mueller can derail the whole thing, so they’re trying to derail him first. Doesn’t that make you proud to be an American? That’s our government in action… at least when it’s run by Republicans.

It’s laughable that they are trying to claim the investigation is being run by left-leaning ideologues…

Yep, just a bunch of hippie radicals, huh?

This is one more symptom of the blight that is Fox “News;” emboldening our elected officials to lie, repeatedly, right to our collective face. Yell a lie enough times and it becomes the truth, especially to people who want to believe it.

Debunkery

While I’m all worked up, I might as well take a look at a couple recent conservative memes I harvested from Facebook.

Dear Republicans,

We will never forget your propensity to wrap yourself in the flag and military at every chance you get, especially when it gets you out of addressing any actual problems. Other people seem able to maintain more than one idea at a time. At this particular time, immigration is dominating the news cycles so a point about immigration is to be made.

Also, please explain how you have so many rules that only Democrats have to follow. Is there some kind of veteran quota? Is there a particular number of vets we have to showcase before we’re allowed to address another issue? I haven’t seen this kind of outrage since President Obama wore a tan suit jacket.

And by the way, what has this administration done for veterans, besides reducing their access to health care? You guys complained to high heaven about the VA under Obama. What have you done to fix the problems you were yelling about?

You love to position every social issue as a zero-sum game regarding veterans.

·        How can we afford welfare when there are homeless veterans?

·        How can we afford SNAP when there are homeless veterans?

·        Why would we pay for birth control when there are homeless veterans?

·        How can we take in war refugees when there are homeless veterans?

OK, you’ve been in charge for a year, with complete authority. What have you done for homeless veterans? Or any veterans? I think you just like using veterans to browbeat others into not helping someone else… usually a “brown” someone else.

All we see is lip service… a whole lot of flag lapel pins and not a hell of a lot of anything that would help. Like in the new budget proposals… the military gets a fuck-ton more money. How much of it goes to pay for the troops? (Answer: Jack Shit, compared to the money spent with defense contractors.)

You are more interested in using the military or homeless vets as a cultural bludgeon rather than solving their problems, so, forgive me if our shallow optics diverge from yours. Talk to me when you have a solution. Until then, go fuck yourselves.

Signed,

We the People Without a Military Fetish

More Debunkery

Are you freaking kidding me. You WISH all we had was Trump hate. But first, let’s look at your platform/alleged accomplishments.

·        Border security. Borders are reasonably secure. Illegal immigration was down before Trump even ran for office. Walls are the least effective ways of securing a border. Most illegal immigrants flew here on a valid visa and then over-stayed. You’re proposing a $25 billion vanity project for the country’s leading narcissist. (I bet you could buy a lot of housing for homeless vets with that dough.)

·        Boom economy. Are you kidding? Only for major stockholders. The rest of us? Meh. This big stock bubble (it’s been solid for a while, but plummeting now, as I write,) only helps if you have major stock holdings. Are YOU rich now? Can YOU take it easy because of your flush stock portfolio? I can’t. Because the Trump economy only benefits those who can afford to plunk millions into the market. Big business is booming. The rest of us wait for the crumbs.

·        Better Trade Deals. Who’s he gonna deal with? Everyone hates us. He’s alienated all of our allies, none of whom are eager to do us any favors any longer, nor give us any better deals. Why don’t we ask the former employees at Carrier, who just lost their jobs to Mexico after one of Trump’s highly self-publicized “deals.”

·        Infrastructure. It’s falling apart, just like it was when the Republicans bottled up all infrastructure bills during the prior administration. Reducing the deficit was too important to spend money on fixing our crumbling roads, rails, and bridges. But not too important to refuse the massive tax giveaway to big business, though, right? That’s a demonstration of Republican priorities right there. They should be embarrassed to even list it here.  Where is the Republican infrastructure bill? (Hint: The Wall doesn’t count.)

You think all we have is hating Trump? Here’s what Democrats want to actually run on:

·        Creating workable health care system (again).

·        Securing reproductive rights, especially the right for women to reproduce whenever they damned well want to. Reinstating insurance coverage for birth control is a part of it.

·        Instituting a sane, non-bigoted immigration policy.

·        Doing something about automatic and semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity clips, including background checks referenced against the terrorist watch list.

·        Safeguarding same-sex marriage, or in other words, Equal Rights for All.

·        Repairing the separation of church and state.

·        Voting safeguards. The GOP is reinstituting the poll tax. We need to make it easier for everyone to vote, not harder for one party’s opponents. This is not Russia. (Yet.  They’re working on it.) Address racial and political gerrymandering.

·        Overturning Citizens United, which begat the whole mess we have now, where anyone with enough money can buy their own politicians right off the rack, without anyone being the wiser. And appointing judges who aren’t in the pocket of big business or the religious right.

·        Instituting a tax structure that gives the breaks to the lower and middle classes, and penalizes companies for moving businesses (and profits) offshore. End the loopholes. We will spend the money on goods and services and “trickle UP” to Corporate America, rather than the other way around. Let the corporate tax breaks sunset and let the rest of us keep ours. That’s what moves an economy.

·        Using real science when formulating policy, rather than political expediency, where the end is a done deal and the “science” is designed from the start to back it up.

·        Funding and strengthening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and ensure its independence.

·        Ensuring Net Neutrality. Internet service in 2018 is a public utility, to be treated as such.

·        Raising fuel efficiency standards.

·        Investing in wind and solar power. Fossil fuels exist in a finite amount and they’re damaging the habitability of this planet. It’s time to recognize that and act accordingly.

I could go on. There are tons of issues the Democrats can promote. Hating Trump is just a bonus.

In fact, he’s not much different than any of the rest of them. Pence, Ryan, McConnell, none of them would differ from the policies of the Trump Administration if he were gone. If the Republicans are to remain in charge, I’d prefer that Trump remain. The other guys would accomplish more of their destructive agenda without sitting on their ball-sacks every week. The fact that Dolt 45 is incompetent is the only thing that stops them from activating a full-on sci-fi movie dystopia in the here and now.

Without Trump, our only hope would be Jennifer Lawrence.

Thoughts on Fire and Fury

Last week I finished up reading Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff (iBooks version).

People have been quoting it and talking about it ever since it was published, but I wanted to join in, BUT I also wanted to finish it first, which I’m not sure all the pundits and commentators actually did.

First reaction?

HOLY SHIT-TUH

The book paints a picture of the most grossly unqualified, unprofessional, and unethical White House this country has ever seen. It’s almost enough to make me believe in God because it can only be because of Divine Providence that the government hasn’t collapsed yet.

Of course, that’s only if it’s all true.  But here’s the thing… even if it’s only, say, 15% true, nothing changes in the seriousness of degree in which this country is screwed. The White House is that messed up. (Or at least it was, during the time frame covered by the book. It ended shortly after John Kelly took over as Chief of Staff.)

First, let’s address a couple of the negative points about the book, and get them out of the way.

It’s not exactly an elegantly-written book. The author uses a lot of unnecessarily big words as if to say, “Look at my dazzling vocabulary! Aren’t I smart?” He rarely passes up a $20 word when a $1.50 word is available.

It’s also plain to see which stories are likeliest to be true; those are the ones where specific people are quoted. Other stores, the author says, are cobbled together from multiple sources who sometimes vary in their recollections, which really isn’t surprising with a White House who lies so frequently and casually, when pursuing their own ends.

Where he has conflicting versions, he said he went with the ones provided by those whose stories were most often corroborated by others or rang the truest based on what he’d seen himself.

Unfortunately, that leaves wiggle room for critics who have been nitpicking over individual snippets… Things like, “this event didn’t happen on this date, it happened that date,” or “so-and-so didn’t say that before an event, he said it later.”

None of these criticisms take away from the basic thrust of the book though, which is that this administration did not expect to win, did not want to win, carried on their ethically corrupt business practices because they did not expect to win and was fully unprepared to govern once elected. Plus, they wouldn’t listen to those who knew how to navigate the Executive Branch.

Donald Trump refused to put any money into his own campaign, even at the behest of party leaders. He couldn’t, for the life of him, see why anyone would dump money into a losing campaign.

No one from his inner circle had any idea of the scope of the job it took to hire all the appointees necessary to run the government.

There was zero order or hierarchy in the West Wing. Anyone and everyone could pop by the Oval and see the President. Trump wouldn’t institute any structure because he liked to have an audience around at all times and liked having people compete for his attention and favor.

That was another major point of the book: the ever-warring factions of the White House. You had Steve Bannon on one side and young power-couple Jared and Ivanka on the other. (Or as the author usually called them, “Jarvanka,” after hearing the term from Bannon.) Chief of Staff, (in-name-only) Reince Priebus began as united with Jarvanka before migrating over Bannon’s side.

Both blocks were preoccupied with promoting themselves and making the others look bad, through leaks to the press and direct bad-mouthing to the President. Remember how Trump was always complaining about leaks? His own inner circle was providing the juiciest ones.

Bannon is quoted directly and extensively in the book. It was obvious that he gave the author plenty of time and energy. It’s no wonder he was sent packing. He had opinions on everyone (usually derisive ones) and they hit hard.

It’s really a wonder he survived as long as he did. I mean, he criticized Ivanka directly to her face, in front of her father. If someone did that to a hypothetical daughter of mine, there would be a significant problem. But Trump? He seemed to like it. He told her she’d have to toughen up for Washington.

Bannon was especially gleeful in deriding Jarvanka’s bad advice. Firing Comey? Their idea. Hiring Scaramucci? Their idea. And then while on Air Force One, Trump writing the alternative account of the infamous Russia meeting, to absolve Jared and Don Jr.? That’s obstruction, right there.

All parties, (especially Bannon), manipulated the President like he was a child. During times Bannon was on the outs, he’d plant his ideas in Breitbart, where he knew Fox News would pick them up and run. Then Trump would see them on Fox and pick it up himself. (And take credit.)

But then they had to take such steps. Trump doesn’t read anything, doesn’t listen to anyone, and will fill up a meeting with his own repetitive stories. To Trump, if he doesn’t already know it, it’s not worth knowing. As far as being uninquisitive, Trump makes W. Bush look like a Rhodes scholar.

It would all make a great comedy if it weren’t so terrifying.

Anyway, there’s far more meat to the book than I can cover here. I do recommend it as a good read, and while there may be individual nits to pick, I believe the overall thrust the author is trying to make…

The inmates are running the governmental asylum.

If we’re lucky, Robert Mueller will thin the herd. But unfortunately, that will just leave more seasoned hands to prop up big business, rob the electorate and eviscerate the scientific method.

It’s only the gross incompetence of this Administration that keeps it from inflicting even more damage.

Debunkery - The Racist Edition

You can tell how badly the year is going by the quality of the conservative memes on Facebook. Lately, they’ve been getting desperate.

Did you see the ones comparing DACA kids to the offspring of bank robbers? I should have grabbed it when I saw it but the logic went like, “If a guy robs a bank, do we let the kids keep the money?” Similarly, “If a guy gets caught sneaking his family into Disneyland, do the kids get to stay?”

The concise response it, “No, but we don’t then send them to a country of which they’re barely familiar, either.”

There are several important points to remember about DACA kids, who had no choice in their illegally entering America:

·        They have to jump through a number of hoops just to qualify, like staying in school, holding a job, not being arrested.

·        They have to re-apply every year and pay a $500 fee.

·        Like any other “illegal immigrants,” if they get a paycheck, they pay taxes. PLUS, they do not qualify for financial assistance like SNAP or welfare.

These are the kind of immigrants we want here, educated, skilled, law-abiding non-terrorists. To pursue kicking these people out of the country is a purge of brown people, under the star-spangled pretext of “law and order.”

Is that really what a civilized, God-fearing Christian country does?

(We’re not actually a God-fearing Christian country, but conservatives claim we are.)

Score “1” for that Jefferson dude.

It’s also funny to see all these people wanting to crack down on immigration, both legal and illegal, furiously tap-dancing to avoid being seen as racists.

No, you’re a racist bigot for wanting to crack down on immigrants from Haiti, Africa, and other “S-hole countries” (meaning black) but roll out the red carpet for those from Norway (meaning: white). As if we have anything worth offering to Norwegians but geography and climate that don’t involve glaciers.

If you support the policies and positions of a man whose policies and positions garner enthusiastic support from Nazis, skinheads and the KKK, then take a good hard look at yourself, because you support racism. By default, you’re racist, no matter what you think about Ashley Judd.

Blaming it all on smug celebrities is just dodging an uncomfortable point.

Speaking of the “Shithole country” controversy, did you see the comparison memes about that one?

I found this one by searching, but the first one I saw on FaceBook tried to claim that the media never reported it. And that was funny because when looking up the quote, the first things you see are various news headlines on the story, which by definition, is the opposite of not reporting a story.

But the real debunking is in the context. It’s the logical fallacy of false equivalency. The only thing the two statements have in common is the shit.

Obama was talking about the state of the country, in which there were protests, riots, and the overthrow of the government. (I’m unsure whether the quote occurred before or after our embassy was attacked.) He was talking about a specific situation in time (which was the very essence of a Shit-show) and not making a general statement.

What President 45 was doing was painting an entire region, if not continent, with a broad, derogatory brush. The word “shit” was never the issue; it was the simmering ignorance and bigotry that lay beneath.

The fact is, Republicans and conservatives have an abysmal record on racism and civil rights.

All Republicans can point to is Abraham Lincoln, which, while historically accurate, is quite misleading in current context. Southern Democrats turned Republican en masse in 1964, following the Civil Rights Act. That’s a veritable stampede from the party of Lincoln. Modern Republicans don’t get to claim the legacy of Lincoln when 50 years ago, they actively abandoned all he for which he stood.

But that’s not the last time Republicans get bit by things they’ve said and done in the past.

I guess I’m a little late with this one though… Just heard that the shutdown is ending after a mere three days. Chuck Schumer seems to be taking the heat/blame/ridicule, but Chuck is a pragmatist. The Republicans have a better media ground game than he does, and a lot of red-state Democrats were feeling the heat of creeping blame.

So he extracted a promise that the Republicans would bring up DACA and immigration before this temporary funding expires. If the GOP reneges, that will give Schumer a free pass to jam up funding again while assigning blame to Republicans.

I have mixed feelings about it. I’m disappointed the Democrats didn’t get anything tangible (yet) for their cooperation, but I’m glad the shutdown is over. A lot of people get hurt when the paychecks stop coming and the wheels stop turning. And we have to face it; we’re the minority party so there’s only so much leverage to be used. We did have them in a spot because they needed some Democratic votes to pass the funding bill.

I say as long as that promise is good and they bargain in good faith, it’s a win.

Not that I’m optimistic though. It’s not like Republicans would never say one thing and do another…

The Best Year of my Life

I’m sorry I didn’t have a post up yesterday on my usual Monday night; I was still celebrating the long weekend with Sweetpea. And we had more than MLK Day to celebrate… Yesterday was the first anniversary of the day we met.

I was in my favorite sports bar watching a Steelers playoff game when she came over to my side of the bar and chatted me up. We went out for lunch the next day and we’ve been together ever since.

From there, it’s been an amazing year, probably the best of my adult life. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy for so many days in a row. And even when I’m alone at my place, it’s amazing to me when think that I love someone out there and she loves me too.

I’d spent the last three years in a decent place. I wasn’t miserable, I was content. I had the means so I went to ballgames or the movies and just did whatever I felt like doing. Alone. Which was fine… I can make my own fun. I try to have fun wherever I go.

But now this year? Whole different thing. I don’t see as many ballgames, but that’s OK. In 2016 I went to 26 Orioles games, which was a personal record. It was something to do that I enjoyed. In 2017, I saw 10, half of them with Sweetpea. And that was enough because now I had other things to do and someone to do them with.

Here is this year’s Ticket Collage. 10 Orioles games, 1 Ravens game, 1 Penguins game, 6 movies and a couple odds and end.

Over the last year, I don’t think we’ve had one fight. We’ve had some minor disagreements from time to time, but they never blow up into something larger, which I credit to her. After all, she’s an elementary school teacher so she’s been trained in how to handle children (of all sizes).

On occasions where I’ve said something particularly stupid, she never mentions it at the time. Then the next day or next time we’re together, she’ll tell me what was bothering her and it will be something meaningful, not just picking nits.  I’ll admit/retract/apologize as the situation calls for, and learn from it. No stewing, no escalation, no fight. It’s beautiful.

I would say that it works the same the other way around, but she’s never given me reason to be mad at her. But I’d like to think I’d handle it like she does.

Most of the time, our mutual minor screw-ups just become running jokes.

Here in the Age of Texting, we send each other messages constantly, at minimum a “good morning” and good night.” And with texting comes typos. The good ones, we just work into our everyday vocabulary.

For example, “vaby” and “fumny” get regular recurrence. Like I’ll say, “Hiya doin’ vaby?” To which she’ll respond, “Just fine, fumny man.”

Then there’s the stuff she says when she’s asleep.

See, her dog comes in at least once per night, to be let out. He’ll come sit by her side of the bed and let out a continuing sequence of whines and groans. She hears him and gets up, but she isn’t always awake. She’ll talk to him in a barrage of jibberish, her “dog” dialect, and occasionally recognizable words.

Last weekend, she told the dog that the “1^st graders don’t know anything.” I’m sure he was puzzled to hear that.

Several months ago, I woke up to see her standing beside the bed and slapping down on the mattress. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “Making pee bread.”

Neither of us has any idea what that was all about, but now I always make sure I know where my toast is coming from.

But my point is that rather than her getting defensive about it, we laugh and bring it up at the funniest opportunities. We just roll with it.

I should probably expand on what I meant earlier by “her ‘dog’ dialect.” She and her siblings have this strange dialect they use when they’re talking to or about their dogs. It was something their mother used to do. To me, it sounds kind of like a coon-ass Cajun accent. But at least I know why the dog doesn’t listen to me. I don’t have the dialect down yet.

It occurred to me last weekend, as we were celebrating our first big landmark, that this could actually be part of some elaborate prank concocted by her and a girlfriend. I’m thinking something out of the movie “Trading Places,” where her friend bets her she can’t bewitch that poor sap of a Steelers fan over there and keep him around for a full year.

All weekend, I kept asking her what time we actually met so I would know when it was a year, exactly. I told her I expected that any minute, her oldest girlfriend would appear, proclaim that Sweetpea won the bet and hand her a dollar.

But no one ever showed up, so I could only assume that the term of the bet is longer.  I told her that my last request was that she at least clue me in before I sell my washer and dryer.

We plan to move in together this summer after she’s out of school. This will be the first time I’ve moved into someone else’s house so it will be an adjustment. I haven’t had a day-in-day-out roommate since the 90s, when I was married, so the prospect is a bit daunting. And just getting all of my stuff in there… well, have you ever heard of stuffing 10 pounds of shit into a 5-pound bag? That’ll be us. I’d better start getting rid of some shit…

But I haven’t been this freakin’ happy since I can remember, so I have no doubts that we can make it work. If I blow it with this sweet, beautiful, tiny little teacher, I might as well just hang it up.

I’m optimistic about it though. We’re past the “every occasion we’re together is a date” portion of the relationship and are getting close to day-to-day life. We’ve traveled, had vacations, spent almost two weeks together over the holidays, and there hasn’t been anything to worry about. We see each other a minimum of 3 days a week. I can’t believe she’s not sick of me.

I’m happy, with a happiness that comes from knowing I’m with the one I’m supposed to be with; the Love of my Life. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Happy anniversary, Sweetpea. I love you, vaby.