Rude Mood

Is it me, or this town, or is it getting irretrievably ruder across the country?

Last week I took my sweetie out to see one of her favorite artists, John Mellencamp, play the Lyric Theater in Baltimore. It was her birthday present and we’ve been looking forward to this night out since last October.

The Lyric is a cozy little venue, holding just over 2500 people. I used to like these small venues because they made for such a personal show. But not anymore.

Why can’t people just shut the hell up?

Right off the bat, Mellencamp told us there would be some rockin’ parts of the show and some quiet parts, and if anyone felt like yelling and screaming during the quiet parts, they should go out in the hallway.

Cut to a quiet part, where he was trying to tell a story to introduce a song, and people start yelling out songs they want to hear. He says, “Didn’t I tell you to go out in the fuckin’ hallway?”

Big laugh line. He obviously set that up on purpose. So then what happened?

He tried to backtrack and continue with his story and again, he had to stop because of some people talking up front. That’s the thing with these small venues… if you’re yapping or yelling in an arena or stadium, the artist barely knows it. But here, they hear everything.

He told them again to knock it off. He said, “I’ve played over 70 shows on this tour and this is the first time this has happened to me.”

Again, he had to pick up the thread of his story, and eventually, it led right into a song. That’s the thing about performances like this… there’s a rhythm and timing to it. When it gets messed up, it ruins the intended effect.

Not that anyone in Baltimore cared… They were too busy yelling out for Pink Houses.

We were sitting in the upper tier, first row on the side, so we basically had to spend the night looking to our right to see the stage.

Unfortunately for Sweetpea, she was sitting next to a drunken spider monkey. The guy was leaning forward, leaning backward, standing up, sitting down, and thrashing about on his “air drums.”

No one else in the section was standing or dancing and given that he was in the front row, it’s not like he couldn’t see. It’s like I say in the Book of Bluz 3:24: “Whether it's at a ballgame, a concert, or whatnot, if you're the only one standing up, you're an asshole.  A complete, self-centered, self-absorbed, inconsiderate, flaming asshole.  Everyone else who bought a ticket didn't pay to see your back all night.”

This was our view all night. Thanks, Asshole.

At least he took a couple of long trips to get more beer. We were hoping he’d get lost on the way back.

  

***

My working theory is that Baltimore is filled with the rudest, most self-involved people in the country. It’s not just this show that makes me think so, but two others of which I have first or second-hand knowledge.

Exhibit B

In 2014, I went to see comic folk singer, Todd Snider, play the Baltimore Soundstage, another small venue, like dinner theater without the dinner. I’d been looking forward to seeing this guy for years.

I wrote a more in-depth post about my experience, but in a nutshell, he had the same problem that Mellencamp had. But Snider was just a one-man act, with no band to help barrel through the noise.

A table up front kept calling out songs for him to play. He handled it deftly at first… “I appreciate the energy but I got this…”

Then he tried reasoning. “I can sit here and talk to you, but then I wouldn’t be able to play some of the songs you all came to hear me play.”

Shortly after that, ushers came down to remove some people from the front of the stage. Snider took a short break at that point, saying, “I can’t be a part of this…”

Even after that, people still didn’t get the message.

I had it on good authority (from a waitress) that he was going to play until 11:30 PM.  But around 10:25, he said, “This just isn’t working out very well, so I’ll just leave you with a couple more.” Which he did, and then left, with about an hour of music left unplayed and stories left untold.

I’d seen setlists from previous dates on the tour posted on Facebook. He only played about two-thirds of the songs on this night.

Now, should he have manned up and not been such a sensitive artiste? Hell yes. But how about if the crowd takes a freakin’ hint, shuts their yapping pie holes and just enjoys the show?

Exhibit C

My brother and his wife went to see James Taylor a couple years ago, in another small theater in town. Every time Taylor spoke to the crowd to tell stories or introduce a song, people in the crowd yelled out for what they wanted to hear.

My brother said he could see Taylor getting annoyed. Soon, he stopped trying to talk at all and just played the rest of his set, one after another, without further comment.

So, is it just Baltimore, is this going on at other venues across the country? Maybe it’s a local thing, or maybe it’s just a sign of a new era.

I’ve been to over a hundred concerts in my life, many at smaller venues. But until the Snider show, I’d never seen a crowd acting so rude. Usually, when a performer told a story, the place went silent, not wanting to miss a word. Now, no one seems to care about any words but their own.

Have you seen this behavior at small venues? Something to the point of distracting/upsetting/ interrupting the performer? People talking over the people they just paid $150 to listen to?

Is this a national thing, or just a sad symptom of “Charm City?”

Emergency

Our feckless “leader” has gone and done it; he’s decided to get his wall money by declaring the border situation an “emergency” and then raiding funds meant for other uses.

In no rational way is this a legitimate emergency, not unless you’re one of those ‘Murcans burrowed deep into fallout shelters, scared to death of the caravans of brown people, who in seeking a better life, want jobs picking crops, landscaping and cleaning hotel rooms. You know… the scary people.

This is a “wink and a nod” emergency. It’s just a way for the Dotard in Chief to circumvent Congress and his vanity wall.

“It’s an emerrrgency, ay? Emerrrrrrgency, ay ay? Wink wink, nudge nudge, say n’more!”

Mr. Cheeky has already admitted it out loud, on camera, saying, “I didn’t need to do this. But I’d rather do it (build the wall) much faster.”

Did you see from where he wants to pull the money? Among other things, he’s targeting funds earmarked to upgrade soldiers’ housing. Apparently, there are significant numbers of servicemen and their families living in moldy, rat-infested houses. Sure, everybody gets all weepy and patriotic about military men and women, but let’s divert the money meant to keep them from living in squalor.

He’s also moving funds from border patrol units who manage ports of entry… you know, the places where undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs most frequently cross the border. He’s taking money from units that keep us safe to build a wall which is far less effective in keeping us safe… for safety’s sake.

So far, Republicans in Congress seem to begrudgingly go along with it, but I’m not surprised. I’d be flabbergasted if these Republicans actually put the constitution and the good of the country ahead of their fears of not getting reelected.

I’m surprised that more of them aren’t bringing up their nightmare scenario of a Democrat getting elected president and then using the same executive power to address some actual emergencies.

If I were running for president, it would be part of my campaign promises… “If this emergency end-around gains court approval, on Day One I will declare national emergencies on climate change, gun-related deaths, health care, and opiate overdoses.”

Guaranteed that Mitch McConnell develops a massive case of selective amnesia and decries the unprecedented massive power grab. Guaranteed that he will NOT say: “Yeah, I should have seen that coming.”

On the surface, it looks like conservative hate-monger Ann Coulter has seen the light. She recently said, “The only national emergency is that the president is an idiot.”

She’s right, of course, but for all the wrong reasons. She thinks he should have kept the shutdown going, leaving millions without paychecks, rather than caving and using the “emergency” maneuver. It’s not like she suddenly developed a conscience or sense of empathy. Or human decency.

Trump is sure his power grab will ultimately be found constitutional by the Supreme Court. After all, he packed it himself!

I think the wild card here is John Roberts. He’s the only conservative who appears to give a shit about keeping the court from becoming a partisan joke. If the lower courts all line up behind calling foul, I don’t think he’ll reverse them.

Best case scenario… the whole thing takes up the next two years so we can elect a new president and he or she can shitcan the whole operation.

That’s going to be a full-time job for the next Democratic president: undoing all the atrocities performed by the current swampers.

Homeless Thoughts

This is the stuff I was going to write about last week before I decided to touch the third rail and suggest we shouldn’t judge people by what they may or may not have done 35 years ago. (And thank you to Infidel 753 for posting a link to it, even though we don’t see eye to eye on this issue.)

So forgive me if this is a wee bit past its freshness date.

Pitch a Mitch

In shooting down the idea of a federal holiday of Election Day, Mitch McConnell basically admitted that his party’s platform has insufficient support nation-wide to win elections. He called the proposition “a power-grab by Democrats.”

Well, that’s the Republican election strategy right there, isn’t it? Do whatever possible to prevent working people from voting. They know that if people ever voted for their own financial self-interest, nary another Republican would ever be elected. Hence the constant focus on wedge issues like immigration, gay marriage, and abortion.

This isn’t to say that I agree about making Election Day a national holiday. I don’t think it will have the effect intended. I mean, look at other national holidays, like MLK day or Columbus Day. How many people really get the day off? No one in the service industries, that’s for sure. Hell, they can barely get Thanksgiving off.

Best I can see, state and federal workers would be off, as well as some in the banking industry. And in many office environments, there are workplace rules in effect which allows people to take time to vote.

We also know now that Mitch received $3.5 million in campaign contributions from a Russian oligarch, who is a business associate of two other Russian oligarchs, who have ties to Putin. Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham received hefty donations as well.

So is there any wonder why those sanctions against Russian oligarchs were allowed to be rescinded last month? Not only is Individual One under the sway of the Russians, so are his right-hand men.

This story smells worse with every passing day. Like two-week-old borscht.

And speaking of foul smells, did you see what Mitch tweeted last week?

“As I’ve said time and time again: Mindless obstruction is unacceptable. The only way this divided Congress will be able to choose greatness and deliver significant legislation is by focusing on, as President Trump put it, “cooperation, compromise, and the common good.” 2/6/19

Are you fucking kidding me? This is the guy who practically invented mindless obstruction. Anything President Obama wanted was rejected, just because Obama wanted it. They obstructed every Democratic bill offered, from foreign policy to infrastructure repair. He held up a Supreme Court nomination just because it was Obama’s, AND was willing to hold up any Clinton nominee as well!

Mitch, do NOT lecture us on obstruction. You, my man, are the poster-boy for obstruction, like a triple-decker cork and cheese sandwich.

Fox on the Run

A couple weeks back, a reporter for Fox “News” tweeted out a return-fire slam on their deity, President Trump, after he criticized a couple of their reporters for not understanding his handling of The Wall.

“By going on Twitter and insulting two of our journalists, @realDonaldTrump is putting a target on their backs. In turn, his followers will then attack @johnrobertsFox and @GillianHTurner in support on Twitter. Bullying journalists is not Presidential. Period.”  Julie Banderas 1/28/19

That’s all well and good, but where the hell has she been for the last two years, as reporters from CNN, NBC, CBS and the rest have been getting lambasted from the presidential pulpit?

I guess the fun and games are over once der Trumper turns his wrath on you, huh? Up until then, it’s just evening the score against the “liberal media.”

Journalists should stick together in the face of presidential devaluation of the fourth estate. It’s just too bad Fox waited 2 years to start and acted only after their own self-interest was threatened.

Threatened Self-Interest Part 2

Speaking of threats to the status quo, you can probably expect the full-on Fox media assault on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to last until the next election. Seems she’s even passed Elizabeth Warren as Republican Enemy Number One. Why? Besides the fact that she’s a Latina and a woman? Because her economic populism scares them.

She has the charisma and intelligence to ask the questions about why so few have so much. And she asks why we don’t assess higher taxes to the rich. I mean, that’s where the money is, isn’t it?

That scares the shit out of the rich, who want to keep their tax rates right where they are… either low or non-existent (after all the loopholes and tax shelters are used.) The only way to head off this class warfare revolution is to have their lapdogs at Fox “News” and talk radio to throw as much shade on AOC as possible, questioning her intelligence, her background, and going through every statement with a fine-tooth comb to look for inconsistencies.

The knives are out for her, big time, and that’s not going to change any time soon.

Reefer Madness

Here in Baltimore, state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby announced last week that she would no longer pursue charges for marijuana possession, regardless of the amount one is found holding. The reasoning, “We need to get serious about prioritizing what actually makes us safe and no one who is serious about public safety can honestly say that spending resources to jail people for marijuana use is a smart way to use our limited time and money.”

I completely agree. Now if only they could get the Baltimore police to stop arresting people for pot possession. That’s right, the cops say they’re going to continue to enforce the laws as written. I’m sure they want to be able to use pot possession as leverage or as an excuse to look for more incriminating evidence.

But that’s how it goes in Baltimore…one step forward, then two steps sideways.

Rather Interesting

Back during the Great Shutdown of 2019 (Part 1), I saw a post by Dan Rather that made tremendous sense. I don’t know if it was on Twitter or Facebook… I searched both but can’t find the original post.

The gist of it was him wondering why they can’t address the border wall issue the way these issues used to be handled. Draft a bill, send it to Congress, hold hearings, bring in witnesses, look at the evidence, lobby for votes and then hold the vote. It either passes or it doesn’t.

Demanding money for a wall and holding the government hostage is not the way to get grand things done.

Staff of Life

Have you read the latest book from inside the White House? Cliff Sims’s book “Team of Vipers” came out a while back with lots of sneak peeks from advance copies. I haven’t read this one yet, but from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t paint any different of a picture than the last two books, “Fire and Fury,” and “Fear.”

The reaction I saw from the White House was low key… just painting the author as a nobody… some low-level staffer.

From the Washington Post excerpts, this “low-level staffer” was writing copy for Sean Spicer, helping the president with his hair products, and generally spending a lot of personal time with Trump.

Here’s the thing: I trust the word of a low-level staffer more than some of the other heavy hitters in the administration. These are the guys that get overlooked in a crowded room. They’re ignored by the upper-level staff, but that doesn’t mean they don’t see what’s going on. I’d trust the gofers to have a better handle on the general atmosphere than the big shots because they’ve got less skin in the game… or at least less ego on the line. John Q Public doesn’t know who they are.

I mean, had you ever heard of Cliff Sims before he wrote the book?

Touching the Third Rail

I had a bunch of other stuff I was going to write about but the lingering story about Virginia governor Ralph Northam has me in a stew.

First of all, the story is all over the map. Is it him? Is it not? Is it not, but he appeared in blackface at some other point?

His med school roommate doesn’t think it’s him at all, per USA Today.

The Governor’s ever-changing story/apology is not filling anyone with confidence or forgiveness.

Now, I agree that appearing in a picture like that is pretty loathsome. It’s not something I would have done in 1984 (when I was one year out of college). (I did plenty of other offensive stuff.)

It bothers me that we're trying to end someone’s career for doing something culturally insensitive thirty-five years ago, that wasn’t widely perceived as culturally insensitive at the time. Do you know how to tell it was a culturally insensitive time? Because they put a photo like that in the goddamn high school yearbook!

You can’t judge 35-year-old actions by the standards that apply today. That’s not a fair beef. If that was a picture from last year, or three years ago, or ten years ago, I’d also join the chorus calling for his resignation.

Was the action stupid? Absolutely. White-privileged? Absolutely.

But Jesus Christ, we all did stupid shit in the 80s. I remember my college self and my friends as desperately trying to break conventions and be as irreverent as we could. Our knowledge of the world was a mile wide and an inch deep. We just wanted to stick it any public convention that was standing in the way of our having fun.

Shortly after 1984, Sam Kinison and Andrew “Dice” Clay set the landscape on fire with their outrageous and offensive stand-up comedy shows and albums. It’s just the way things were back then.

My friends and I rarely thought about race. In fact, out in the sticks where I grew up, we were pretty isolated from any other cultures, aside from a smattering of Mexicans. We told jokes that would be offensive to pretty much every ethnic category, but we didn’t mean anything by it. They were just jokes.

To us.

In our early 20s, we were not yet fully developed people. I would hate to be judged today by the things I did when I was a boy.

For instance, I used to have a rebel flag. My dad brought it home for me from the Atlanta airport. I had it tacked up in our barn where we partied, and then on my apartment wall when I moved out. To me, all it meant was Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Charlie Daniels Band, and southern rock. That was it.

I know it’s in the background of some old pictures laying around in dusty desk drawers and I’m disturbed to think that if one of those went public, it would probably disqualify me from holding for public office today. All because I loved “Gimme Three Steps,” and the sound of a southern drawl.

Thirty-five years is a lot of time to grow up. You learn more about the world and about other people who aren’t like you. You mature. You empathize. And the culture changes to become more inclusive.

When judging Governor Northam’s situation, I think the important thing to know is who the guy is now and what he is trying to accomplish. We have outright racists in government, saying offensive things and pushing racist policies today. Those are far more important targets for our cultural wrath.

Republicans never kick their own people out over stuff like this. They just demand that we do, then laugh as we follow through while they just consolidate their power.

If we continue down this path, who are we going to get to run for office? The talent pool of good candidates for top (or lower) government offices is thin enough as it is, without requiring that they have to have been perfect throughout their entire lives. And not just perfect at the time; perfect in retrospect.

And what about 30 years from now? What kind of stupid shit are we doing now that’s going to be offensive then? (Besides wearing MAGA hats.) Maybe in 30 years, we’ll have decided that staring at your phone while in the presence of others is a high insult.

If that happens, the robots will have to govern themselves.

In this country, we prize the ability to learn and grow. Governor Northam should apologize and take ownership of whatever it was he did in 1984, photographed or not. And then we should judge him by his actions as governor, not for failing to live up to standards that didn’t exist yet.

DVD Director’s Commentary: I have no actual plans to run for office. I’m just sayin… the flag thing would be a problem if I did. It’s not like I’m bulletproof like Mitch McConnell.

Venting Steam

After 35 days of building pressure, Individual 1 finally agreed to turn down the heat and let some steam escape by reopening the government without any wall money.

Collectively, America took a breath.

Unfortunately, the pot has gone right back on the stove because the resolution only bought three weeks’ time before there’s another impasse. Republicans and Democrats can sit down and solve a simple problem like stemming illegal immigration in three weeks, right?

Right?

Yeah, probably not. These guys can’t agree on lunch without a continuing resolution.

But for the time being, at least we can get some people paid, (assuming it doesn’t take three weeks to get Payroll functioning again). I bet this won’t help those who are suffering from the downstream effect… you know, retailers and contractors who rely on federal employees to spend money with them.

I know if I were a federal employee, I would have all projects on hold until there was certainty on the “getting paid” front. Nobody’s talking about this crowd though. I don’t see any programs designed to make these people whole again.

Poor Donald ran afoul of his puppet-masters, though, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. They were not amused by their guy caving in. But for the life of me, I don’t understand why anyone gives a fig about what those two ghouls have to say. Obama never gave Rachael Maddow veto power over his decisions.

It's easy to screech at people from the sidelines, without having to actually DO anything.  I guarantee you this though. If some major disaster were to befall the country because of the shutdown, like a plane crash due to insufficient traffic control personnel or a terrorist who got a bomb on board due to the TSA sick-out, these two clowns would be out there going, “Not my fault… I’m not the President. I don’t have a vote in Congress.”

Buck-passing motherfuckers... They stir up a mountain of shit and then point fingers at everyone else. Of course, they’ll be the first to take a bow should anything (they consider) good happen. They’re just like Trump, now that you think about it.

The fact that Trump didn’t get the one thing for which he was holding out makes you wonder what it finally took. I mean, he obviously didn’t care about forcing 800,000 people to go without their paychecks.

“Leadership” my ass.

The horror stories abounded, which makes one wonder, how good can this economy possibly be if missing one paycheck causes so much strife? Even people with “good jobs,” like those who work for the federal government, are barely making ends meet, let alone saving for the future and/or retirement.

But it seems that temporarily shutting down New York’s Laguardia Airport plus the one in Newark got his attention. That was his turf and now his friends were being inconvenienced.

I say that if they try another shutdown, the first thing we do is have the air traffic controllers at Dulles and Reagan International start calling out. Let Congress stew in their own juices for a while.

Or maybe the cynics are right and Trump opened the government to get the Roger Stone indictments off the front page. He does seem to be a master of misdirection, doesn’t he? That’s the thing with this guy. There are so many outrages, no single event can fully play out before the next one is unleashed. And the next and the next. Who knows how many atrocities are taking place without anyone noticing?

Speaking of atrocities, or at least giant bumble-fucks, I have one observation about the Covington Catholic Boys. That “sneer” everyone was talking about? There’s a reason that look sets people on edge.

That’s the look of a bully when he knows there are lots of his friends around and only one target. He knew he was 100% safe because he was surrounded by his boys. He could be as obnoxious as he wanted to, so he chose to crowd the old guy and try to make him uncomfortable. Same with the rest of the punks in the crew.

I know there were layers of this story that spooled out over time, but none of them change my opinion that these were entitled little pricks bent on mocking a lone Native American man. Hell, they were already on film mocking female passersby.

Please spare me the apologies that the poor children were all unnerved by the Black Israelites, who taunted them. I guarantee they’ve taunted others in even more graphic terms. The only thing that shook them up was being called out on a national stage for their Asshole-ish behavior.

And what did the parents do? Made excuses for them, of course, making damned sure that they learned not a single lesson from their sudden notoriety.

They can sleep in comfort knowing that even entitled obnoxious bastards can grow up to be anything.

Like a Supreme Court justice.

Odd Bits - The Cherry-Picked Edition

I’m Offended That You Think I Offended You by Banning you from School

Word came out last week that VP Mike Pence’s wife is working for a Christian school who denies entry to LGBT students and employment to LGBT job candidates, which produced the expected uproar.

The funny part was how upset the VEEP got, claiming the press was attacking Christian education.

He’s giving the students a tremendous “Christian education” right now, by showing them how to claim offense whenever they are called out for their discriminatory beliefs. Always the claim of “religious freedom” whenever the “holy” people want to put the screws to the minority of choice. They did it with African-Americans in the 50s and 60s and they’re doing it now with gays.

What I want to know is when this school is going to ban shrimp eaters, money borrowers, horoscope readers, football players and those who wear multi-fabric clothes. All those (and more ridiculous stuff) are banned under Leviticus, the same source they go to banish or deny service to gays.

Funny how it’s only the gay stuff that gets pulled out to demonstrate one’s deeply held religious beliefs?

Or maybe they just cherry pick the parts of the Bible that back up their own prejudices, to take seriously.

If your deeply held faith entails discriminating against anyone on the basis of qualities or traits with which they were born, your religion is neither righteous nor honorable and no one should cut you any slack for it.

Buzzfeed Buzz

What looked like a cut and dried slam dunk on Trump last week has started to unravel this week.

Buzzfeed reported, to much uproar, that Trump directed his attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie about his plans to build a large hotel in Moscow.

Then a Mueller spokesman released a statement saying that the report was not correct. (It did not specify what was incorrect.)

That naturally led to Trump claiming exoneration for the eleven-thousandth time. And on the surface, it looks like he’s right.

BUT.

There are other possibilities here. Maybe Mueller and his team aren’t ready to make this case right now or have Congressional inquiries sidetrack the investigation.

Maybe it’s a minor point of contention among larger, more incriminating points. Like it’s just one piece of a bigger puzzle that he doesn’t want to be singled out right now.

Or maybe a Republican operative intentionally fed Buzzfeed false information to prevent anyone else from looking at that issue.

The one thing I take away is to pay no attention to Trump’s claims about Michael Cohen lying about it. If true, the report notes that there were emails and texts that the investigation has, which makes anything Cohen has to say irrelevant. Authenticated documents don’t lie. That makes a disgruntled, lying, ex-attorney a non-factor.

Same thing goes with new Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani (or anyone else) saying he hasn’t seen any emails or texts. Doesn’t matter. Mueller is under no obligation to turn over any incriminating documents to a suspect’s attorney at this time. Just because Rudy hasn’t seen them doesn’t mean Mueller doesn’t have them.

And that goes for all the other commenters and writers in the press and otherwise who talk about, “There is no proof” that Trump did whatever.

There’s no proof that they know of. The Mueller investigation has been very good about keeping a lid on what they have and showing us only what they want us to see. (Like in filing papers and whatnot.) We don’t know jack shit right now.

Mueller’s investigation can have veritable bombs for evidence and no one outside his team knows otherwise. Once he releases his report, then, Attorney General Barr permitting, we’ll know the truth.

And I’m guessing that even if Barr suppresses the most incriminating parts of the Mueller Report, someone in or around Congress will leak it. A secret like that will never stay secret.

Winging It

Trump might have had a leg to stand on when he kiboshed Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Europe and Afghanistan on military aircraft, but it didn’t last long. Sure, it was childish tit for tat after she suggested postponing his State of the Union address. She used security as a reason to postpone, he did the same regarding her trip.

But then he took it to a new level when his Administration leaked the travel plans they made to fly commercial. Besides vindictive, that’s just plain reckless. It’s a boy-king, jeopardizing the lives of everyone on that plane just because they displeased him, and because he can.

And then, of course, he has his wife use a military jet to go to Mir-a-Lago on vacation. That’s the rubbing of salt into the wound.

Personally, if the SOTU is postponed for real, I’d like to thank Speaker Pelosi for sparing me from hearing (or reading about) how this blowhard is going to blame everyone else for the mess he made. The fewer speeches he makes, the better.

I, for one, am glad he only spent two minutes at the MLK shrine. Did you really think he’d be capable of making a statement that was sensitive to the time and place? Donald Trump doesn’t pay tribute to anyone other than himself. If he were to speak more expansively, he would have ended up claiming his marches got better ratings.

If only he could spend MORE time not speaking. This country would be better for it.

Continental Drift

Republicans have found themselves a new boogieman this winter, in the name of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC” for short. I’m not sure if it’s because of her politics or that her name is so long (and Latin). They should consider themselves lucky because it could be worse. Both Ocasio and Cortez are relatively short. What if her last name was something like Rodriguez-Dominguez de Jesus?

Sorry, I don’t mean to lead with a tangent…

Ever since she won her House of Representative’s race, the knives have been out for her more than anyone else, even the Muslim woman who called Trump a motherfucker. She won by campaigning on income inequality and representing the needs of the middle and lower classes. For real, not just lip service, and that’s why conservatives are scared.

Source

The last thing they want is for the country to start coalescing around a charismatic populist, then turning out in numbers to vote for their own financial interest. That would spell the end of Republican control of anything.

So naturally, anything she does becomes fodder for attack, from clips of her in high school dancing to what clothes she wears, to where she used to live.

Now, I don’t know that all of her ideas should be adopted right away. She campaigned as a Socialist and has a lot of grand ideas for how to reshape the country.

The country will not move easily or without a fight from those vested in the status quo. But hard-left politicians like AOC (and Bernie Sanders in the Senate) are necessary if we are to move to the left at all. (And by “moving to the left,” I mean focusing the government’s interest finding ways to benefit the many rather than the richest few.)

Like a seasoned negotiator, one doesn’t “open” with their final demand. There will always be push-back, and in this case, by those with the most resources. If progress is to be made, we have to accept that it might be one step at a time. No one is going to be allowed to sweep in and institute single-payer health care, free college, and a ban on coal mining.

For example, we may not be able to create, a single-payer health care system this term, but we can at least start moving incrementally to a more equitable system. The monied few are not going to give up their influence without a bloody fight so they will oppose any efforts to repair the ACA. And the better the ACA works, the less distance there is to jump to single-payer.

I think she’s going to be the more effective force for change in the long run, because she is a candidate of these times. She’s young, proficient with social media, and able to relate to other Millennials and Gen-Xers. She’s been handling the Twitter trolls with class, wit, facts, and a biting edge. If she can draw out more candidates like herself, then we have the basis of a movement.

And we all know how nice it feels after a good movement!

She is the living embodiment of what Trump pretends to be; with apologies to Coke, she’s the Real Thing. He poses as a populist but every significant action he’s taken has been to benefit the rich. (Or racists or religious zealots.) He acts like he’s a “man of the people,” while having his silver spoon gilded in Trumpian gold.

Speaking of the Current Occupant, did you see how he claimed that the Democrats “could solve the shutdown in 15 minutes” if they’d “come back from their vacations and get back to work.”

Yes, HE, of all people, is complaining about other politicians’ vacations. [massive eye roll]

Anyway, do you see how easy he’s making it for the Democrats? All they have to do is give in to his demands and the shutdown is over. What a dealmaker!

As Stephen Colbert once characterized the Republican negotiating philosophy, “You scratch my back… and I get my back scratched.”

He doesn’t want a deal, he wants the fight, so he can be seen as a fighter by his base (and Fox “News”). I think having the longest shutdown on record occur on his watch is a goal of his, not a problem… that way he can go on about how his shutdown (that’s totally the Democrats’ fault) is the biggest and longest of all time.

And the Democrats can’t cave; they’ve got significant leverage for the first time in 2 years. They can’t just roll over, even to get everyone paid. Or else this will become the new normal.

That’s why I think we better buckle in because it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Meet the New Year, Same as the Old Year

Nope, not much different yet in 2019, still chaos. Let’s look at a couple of points of agitation.

A Couple of Pitches from the On-Deck Batters

I’m sure everyone knows about Mitt Romney’s op-ed in the Washington Post last week. Romney leveled pointed criticism at the president’s foreign policy and general character. It’s unusual that you’d hear that from an incoming senator; that’s more likely heard from legislators who are heading out the door. Yes, they were hard words, followed by falling in line with Trump’s wall, conservative judges and the rest.

The Salt Lake Tribune thinks it was because according to their poll, 64% of Utah voters and half of Romney voters wanted to see him stand up to the President. Romney is nothing if not a consummate wind direction checker, but I wonder if there’s more.

I think he might be thinking of running for President again. Now that Americans elected a crass silver-spoon baby, maybe he thinks he would do better as a smoother, more genteel silver-spoon baby. (Except where it comes to canine transport. I don’t think he’ll ever live that down.) But maybe he’s thinking, “I’ll give you all the upper-crust aura without the bothersome boastfulness and porn-star shagging.”

It would be a real pisser of a thing to do to his constituency though. Utah just elected him for a 6-year Senate term. He’d have to start running for president almost immediately, thus shortchanging everyone who voted for him. Maybe he’s hoping they’ll forgive if he makes it to the White House.

On the other side of the country, Lindsey Graham is suddenly frothing at the mouth and going all hardcore on the wall issue. He used to be one of the few level heads on the right, but hell, he’s been barking it up ever since the Kavanaugh hearing.

Maybe he’s having presidential aspirations again as well. Sounds to me like he knows Trump may not finish this term and is trying to commandeer his base racists, isolationists, and gun nuts for a run of his own.

I think he should turn his attention to his own state. Doesn’t he know he’s got 187 miles of unfenced coastline right under his nose?

Shutdown

The partial government shutdown really could go on for months, if the Democrats don’t cave. Trump and the Republicans? They live for this shit. A shut down government is a conservative pipe dream. They just needed some people who are impervious to public pressure, like Trump and McConnell.

They probably think that if things get bad enough, the private sector will take over some areas and rid the government of having to maintain national parks and such.

Forget Yellowstone, sell the land rights to the Koch Brothers, let them rebrand the place and turn it into a giant canned-hunt facility… at least in the parts they’re not digging up or using to store toxic waste. Hire one of those Haliburton defense contractors to run the TSA. With fewer active wars going on, they should have some spare mercenary personnel to scan bags. And anyone caught smuggling contraband can be shot on the spot.

The thing is, Republicans have demonstrated over and over that they don’t recognize empathy, especially the president. (Exceptions: Anti-rich sentiment and reverse racism. There’s plenty of empathy for that!)

Trump even thinks federal workers are happy to forego their paychecks in exchange for leverage on a wall. He has no idea about the hardship he’s applying to these Americans. He hasn’t had to want for a single thing during his entire life. He doesn’t understand not getting what he wants immediately.

So Democrats are caught in a bind. They want to end this thing and help federal employees get back in the game. But if they do, they only empower Trump to shut down the government again and again. Plus, we waste $5 billion on a vanity wall that doesn’t solve the problem it’s designed to address.

I’m hoping cooler heads can prevail with some kind of work-around and reopen parts of the government bit by bit via narrow legislation. I’m not optimistic, though. Any such action would have to be blessed by Mitch McConnell, who takes his orders direct from GOP donors. Maybe if the Koch Brothers start missing their social security checks, they’ll prevail upon Mitch to break the logjam.

In addition to empathy, the Kochs also fail to recognize the concept of “enough.”

Strictly Redistricting

The Supreme Court agreed to take on redistricting cases from North Carolina and (right here in) Maryland. I have extremely mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I would love to see the districting process be taken out of partisan hands, (if that’s even possible.) Just draw the lines straight up, without political factors. And as a resident, I realize that Maryland is heavily gerrymandered in the Democrats’ favor, which is rare. I would be happy to give that up, under one condition…

Which brings us to the other hand… it has to be everyone, not just Maryland. That’s how you’ll know if the fix is in… if the court somehow finds that Maryland has to be ungerrymandered but North Carolina doesn’t. And that could be a likely result if they find narrowly in each case. I think that’s more likely than finding broadly and invalidating district maps all across the country. I don’t think you’ll see this court vote against the benefactors who installed them on the court for this express purpose in the first place.

A couple of years ago, the justices split 4-4 on the legality of North Carolina’s repressive voter ID law, which was found to have been drawn up with surgical precision to suppress minority voting. Now take away Kennedy and add Gorsuch and the frat boy, and what do you think we’ll get?

A Republican death-grip on power-consolidating dirty tricks.

Better Than a Sleeping Pill

Welcome to the last post of 2018! We’re sliding one in right under the wire to make it 52 posts in 52 weeks. (This last 5-Monday month lets me make up for the post I skipped in June.)

I’ve been off work since the 21^st, so I’ve had a lot of time to hang around the house with my Sweetpea and occasionally talk about current events (that don’t involve the dog or household maintenance). One of the things she mentioned was wondering how Sarah Huckabee Sanders can sleep at night after a day of lying through her teeth.

Good question. How does one, who comes from solid evangelical religious stock, square her faith (or at least the Ten Commandments) with her job description of repeating and supporting her boss’s obvious, provable falsehood?

Then it dawned on me… It’s got to be the C-Street House doctrine.

Have you heard of the C-Street House? It made some waves back in 2009 when the reporter, Jeff Sharlet, emerged from years undercover in the C-Street House and wrote an expose. The group who runs the C-Street House has been around for 84 years and they’re basically a collection of religious fundamentalists who help other Republicans get themselves out of trouble. You know… hookers, mistresses, domestic violence, financial crimes, the usual. They provide shelter, moral support, money, and strategy to make the problems disappear.

The operating principle with these people is that they are in power because of God’s will; therefore anything they do while in power is His will as well and therefore excused. They feel they can get away with anything, no matter how depraved.

I know, creepy, right? In the Evil, Scary Power-Mad Maniac You See in the Movies kind of way.

Now I don’t know if they allow women into this den of thieves, but I’ll bet Mike Huckabee knows a thing or two from the C-Street House. And I bet that “knowledge” is passed right down to his daughter Sarah.

What are a few thousand lies when believe you have God Almighty backing you up and telling you that you’re doing the right thing? The lies are just Tinker Toys used in building the Lord’s favored domain.

I bet she sleeps like a baby, knowing that she serves a higher purpose than leveling with unwashed heathens in the press and the rest of the country.

I’m just not sure that’s going to work for the rest of us. Somebody pass me the Ambien…

Actually, I sleep pretty well, as long as I remember to turn my brain off before bed… which isn’t that hard now at my age.  I’ll be lucky to see midnight tonight. I probably ought to set my alarm for 11:45.

Here’s to a happy and progressively liberating new year!

Merry Christmas to All Ye Godless Heathens!

I sometimes get asked, "if you're such a non-believer, why do you even celebrate Christmas?"

Fair question, with a simple answer: Because it's fun! I have great memories of Christmases past, of giving and receiving presents, decorating trees, baking cookies and having fun times with friends and family.

When I was young, it was just what you did... what everyone did. Now, to me, it's just tradition. I'm not going to be the one sitting on the side, throwing poop at those who celebrate in earnest.

So let me take this time to wish you a happy Christmas, a happy holiday, and happy "whatever-you-celebrate." Just be happy.

And thank you for your visits this year, especially to those who found me recently through blogs like Infidel753, Crooks and Liars, and Hackwhackers. Your visits have put a jolt in my motivation to continue recording my observations on the cultural mess we have on our hands.

Now, I'd like to take this opportunity to run a few of the graphics I've been sitting on, which I've never gotten around to posting, or whose story has already run its course.

Cheers!

Civility, like respect and restraint, is just something Republicans expect others to provide:

Amen!:

If the UAW functioned like the NRA:

Yes, maybe "both sides do it," but Republicans have run up the score on criminality 271 (and counting) to 11. Maybe it was that extra year and a half. Yeah, that's it!:

Fox "News," the unpaid communications arm of the GOP since 1996:

Yet another freakin' hypocrite who thinks "morals and values" are merely tools with which to beat your opponent, not things to live up to themselves.

They really could have made that bottom circle into just one piece made up of both sides:

An Ode to Wisconsin:

They should just put in on our license plates: "Me First."

Um, Merry Christmas?

In other words, everyone has the religious freedom to be Christian.

I can't see how anyone who's not in the 1% goes along with this scheme:

Who knew it was the salamander who was most favored by God?

Actually, the more days he's on vacation, the fewer days he's working against us:

Hallelujah! Maybe we should celebrate the day August Busch was born...

I've had this one in the vault for four years. Pretty much hits blogging right on the head.

And to all, a good night!