Weep For America

OMFG! This man is insane! Donald J. Trump has no perceivable grounding in Reality. He starts off with a lie about the Empire State Building. Now, you might say I’m quibbling (and I would congratulate you on your extensive, if slightly misused, vocabulary) but there’s a reason Donald did it. He’s setting up a contrast between how long it took to build the Empire State Building (*) and how long it takes to build new “highways” (I wasn’t aware the Interstate Highway System was expanding so much), a difference he blames entirely on regulations. No other reasons, just regulations. Never mind, Donald, that the REASON for all those regulations was one word – experience. We learned what could go wrong if you didn’t make people follow certain codes. (Good example by an American company overseas: KBR and the electrocuting showers. That’s what no regulations gets you. Also see: Somalia.) He claims he could have built the latest new highway he saw in a state he wouldn’t name for less money and faster. Those of us who know of him and his history know it’s because he doesn’t follow regulations. BTW, if you haven’t already checked, Donald claimed the Empire State Building was built in eleven months. If you do the Google search suggested below, you’ll see it clearly says it took one year and forty-five days to complete. Donald wanted to minimize how long it took (without any mention of the lives lost) to build it. Just because he likes to exaggerate and make himself seem more important, knowledgeable, and useful than he really is.

Near the end, when asked how race relations can be improved, he answers that things will get better once jobs come back, good-paying jobs, and everyone is making more money, then we’ll see race relations improve. Yes. Seriously. He said that. He thinks money solves all problems, even centuries of institutional racism in America. It’s as if suddenly all the managers are going to be black and making more money, and then they’ll be happier and they won’t complain about the fact their local bank still won’t give them a fucking mortgage.

Then he brags about his winery in Charlottesville.

There are several times during the presser when he says “Excuse me. Excuse me.”, usually following some “chatter”. If you’ve ever seen The President Show with Anthony Atamuniak (that’s close to his name) as Donald Trump, you will hear his impersonation. And you’ll laugh to yourself. And if you’re in public at the time, it could get you some strange looks. I’m just sayin’.
So enjoy the interview. Then curl up with a nice bottle somewhere and weep gently for this country.
Then go out and fucking VOTE!

(*) If you start to type “How long did it take” into Google, the first option on the list is “…to build the Empire State Building”. I’m guessing a lot of people did what I did and fact-checked Donald and instantly found him wrong. Again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/15/trumps-off-the-rails-news-conference-on-charlottesville-the-alt-left-and-infrastructure-annotated/?utm_term=.335966271167

Daily Gnuz

Good morning, and now for the Gnuz…

Trump attorney won’t rule out firing Mueller h/t Politico
Somebody’s very, very worried that the game is afoot.

And

Gingrich: Time to rethink special counsel Mueller h/t The Hill
This, after The Amphipian’s unequivocal praise for the SC “a “superb choice” with an “impeccable” reputation for honesty and integrity”…Something’s changed, like his hiring of qualified investigators…

Finally

Trump is likely to get much, much worse. Here are a few big things to watch for. h/t Greg Sargent’s Plum Line

Open Thread, whaddya think?

RUCerious @ TPZoo

Daily Gnuz – HumpDay

Mornin’ critters, here’s some gnuz to munch on

The Man Who Kept Chris Christie Out Of Jail Nominated As New FBI Chief h/t C&L
He’s got experience at keeping top leadership chrome braceletless…

When will Trump voters realize they’ve been had? This historian has some answers h/t RawStory
My best guess is when they realize THE JOBS AREN’T COMING BACK

And, finality wise,
Moscow says ‘zero’ proof Russian hackers involved in Qatar crisis h/t MSN
Anytime Moscow says, ‘we didn’t do it’, you can be certain they did…

Open Thread, have at it.

RUCerious @TPZoo

The Daily Gnuz

It’s Monday.

Yes, I know, that’s not gnuz, that’s just depressing.

However, here are a few tidbits to chew on…

NSA Chief Mike Rogers ‘May have his own bomb to drop’ Wednesday   –ht/ C&L

Which brings up the question, would the orange jumpsuit go better with gold or chrome bracelets?

 

And

Filed under ‘do as I say, not as I doo(sic)

 After Calls To ‘Get Down’ To Business, Trump Goes On 23rd Trip To Golf Course –h/t TPM

23 Golf Excursions in 19 weeks of feebly Preziduncing. Some kind of record.

 

Finally,

 Trump: I am calling it a ‘TRAVEL BAN!’ –h/t The Hill

Almost tragicomical that this Prezidunce doesn’t get it. Yes, Mr. Prezidunce, it is a travel ban…applied only to predominantly Muslim nations. Nations whose citizens have no record of committing terrorist acts here in the USA. Your intent is abundantly clear, dumbkoff.

 

Open Thread (300 count), Have At It.

RUCerious @ TPZoo

The Watering Hole, Monday, January 23rd, 2017: Freedom of the Press

We’ve all ripped both network and cable news organizations for their role in aiding and abetting this abomination of a Presidential election. But since the Orange Shitgibbon has won, and he and his spokesgoblins are taking more active steps to label any accurate and unflattering reporting of their words and activities as “fake news” by the “dishonest press”, this should be considered a very serious attack on the First Amendment right of Freedom of the Press. After having previously, in a fit of pique, revoked The Washington Post’s press credentials during the campaign, now the new Trump administration has shut down access to and from CNN.

According to a MediaMatters article:

President Donald Trump and his team continued their unprecedented attempts to delegitimize and blacklist CNN by refusing to have a representative appear on CNN’s Sunday political talk show, State of the Union, while booking appearances on the other major political talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co.
At the top of the January 22 edition of CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper said that his show “asked the Trump White House for a member of the new administration to join us this morning, but they declined.”

 

During Trump’s first press conference as president-elect on January 11, Trump refused to take a question from CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, calling his network “fake news” and “terrible.” Following the event, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer admitted to threatening to remove Acosta from the press conference and later demanded an apology. Trump ally and Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich responded to the incident by asserting that Trump should use the altercation to “shrink and isolate” CNN and eventually “close down the elite press.” Acosta and his colleagues from across the media condemned Trump’s treatment of CNN.

 

The Trump team’s refusal to appear on CNN came one day after it declined to air the live feed of Spicer’s first press conference after the inauguration, where Spicer blatantly lied about the size of inauguration crowds. According to Variety’s Brian Steinberg, “CNN’s refusal to take the live feed suggests executives there are reluctant to put false statements on air, and, what’s more, do not think the new White House press representative is entirely credible.” From the January 21 report:

 

“CNN’s decision to not air the press conference live illustrates a recognition that the role of the press must be different under Trump. When the White House holds press briefings to promote demonstrably false information and refuses to take questions, then press ‘access’ becomes meaningless at best and complicit at worst,” said Danna Young, an associate professor at the University of Delaware who studies politics and the media. “Democracy works best when journalists have access to the executive branch, of course. But that holds true if and only if that access leads to verifiable, accurate information. The decision on behalf of CNN to wait and verify before airing it live suggests that the media are adapting quickly to this new era.”

 

To be certain, news outlets routinely make decisions about whether to air press events live, usually based on projections about news value. But this press conference, held just a day after the President’s inauguration, would have been a hot prospect for a cable-news outlet, and could have sparked hours of debate and follow-up on CNN’s schedule. In an unusual and aggressive maneuver, CNN aired its regular weekday lineup this Saturday, underscoring heavy interest in breaking news of a series of massive protests by women across the nation in response to Trump’s presidency as well as the new President’s first few days in office.

While I am still outraged by the fact that CNN had hired Corey Lewandowski fresh from the Trump team campaign, and paid the lying POS good money to NOT say anything bad about Trump, maybe, just maybe, CNN can redeem itself by employing real investigative journalism. There’s a lot to dig into in all aspects of Trump’s life/taxes/business practices/Russian connections/conflicts of interest, and a 24-hour news network is what’s needed to get to the bottom of Trump’s “alternate facts” swamp.

What do you say, CNN? Do the right thing, or cave to a tyrant?

This is our Open Thread–comments welcome.

LIVE-BLOGGING the Final “debate” in the 2016 Presidential Race…thank goodness

I expect this is what my face will look like by the end of the debate, minus the drool, I hope.

So yeah, do whatever floats your boat here.  You can live-blog, heckle, poke fun, tell jokes, or have a complete mental breakdown, but please NO DRINKING GAMES!!

Am I giving this political debate the respect and seriousness it deserves?  Fuck no, I am not.  This entire election has turned into a shameful mockery of itself, so pfffttttt!

The thing starts at 6 PT, and you can watch it here:

 

Sunday Roast: 1968

In 1968, my family was living outside of the U.S., in a little place no one has heard of since, namely Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  I was nine years old and only beginning to become aware of the world outside family, neighborhood, and school.

I was the kind of kid who was outside from morning ’til the street lights came on, so television — especially the news — was way down my list of interesting things to do.  Dad turned on the six o’clock news every night, and I began to realize that the world (the U.S., my world) was burning — literally.

By the time we left Gitmo, I was going on eleven years old, and I knew two things for sure:

1.  War is bloody and horrible and fucked up, and we need to find a better way to deal with our disagreements.
2.  People need to be able to stand up for themselves and their rights — civil or otherwise — and speak their minds, without being beaten, fire hosed, or killed.

I was a naive child who thought we’d have these things figured out by the time I had children.  Ha!  Said children are 28 and 33 years old, and just look at what we’ve done to this country…hell, the world.

I am ashamed.

This is our daily open thread.