Quick Holiday Edition: Not Exactly Trump Free
September 4, 2017
Lazy without justification
Happy Labor Day
Got no time to think today
Summer’s nearly gone
All I got’s a fantasy
Conviction of the con
Hope springs eternal
It’s been three-hundred days since the hacked election and the republic still stands.
Good job,
osv
In a Nuclear Family Way
September 3, 2017
Scared Shitless
Last night, while the Donald was busy using Harvey as a political prop and hammering the media for not cooperating, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set off another nuclear device. This latest play for attention by the despot (the Korean, not the American) was five to six times larger than the test blast he featured last September. Great.
North Korea claims the device was a hydrogen bomb which is far worse than the atom bomb they tested last year. American analysts have expressed skepticism about that claim, but, frankly, the exact technical nature of the device seems irrelevant to those of us who stand target to the ongoing madness.
Trump reacted on Twitter by calling NK a rogue nation and shaming China.
Good fucking grief, he responded to a nuclear threat on FUCKING Twitter – not through diplomatic channels, not through the State Department or through an embassy, but on god-damned Twitter!
Then again, the Donald has let diplomatic staff numbers dwindle to record lows, appointed a CEO with no actual diplomatic experience as Secretary of State and hasn’t bothered to appoint a South Korean ambassador. So perhaps, Twitter is his most viable option. Great, again.
So now, we’re conducting international diplomatic communication about nuclear proliferation over the mass-com device people use to follow Kardashian fashion blunders and actress alcoholism. Quite the step forward in modern communication.
…
Back a million years ago, when I attended grade-school, we practiced bomb alerts. A siren would blare, we’d stop whatever we were doing and hide under our desks until the all-clear siren sounded. It was an exercise in futility since grade school desks (even the desks in the nicer private schools) offered no protection from a nuclear blast. No, the practice was about theater, the government acting as if it were doing something. And even as children we knew it.
Growing up knowing it all could be ended by men we didn’t know for reasons we couldn’t understand, of course, seriously affected my generation. It shaped our attitudes – made us a lot crazier than the previous, Greatest, generation. But, we got lucky and managed to avoid terminal conflict. And over time the number of death devices was reduced as was the risk. Hence, following generations didn’t find the prospect of nuclear war quite so overwhelming. On that front, things got better.
But now with Trump on the button and claiming we’ve upgraded nuclear capability since he was elected two-hundred-ninety-nine days ago (which is bullshit), we again find ourselves facing that dark ugly potential.
Back during the first nuclear threat many responded by dropping LSD and dancing naked in the streets – if this was the end, why the fuck not.
Unfortunately, now, some fifty years later, my body is not suitable for dancing bare assed nor resilient enough for chemical escape. Though, fleeing reality seems easy enough – just read @realDonaldTrump on fucking twitter.
The republic, the world, needs the Donald gone,
osv
PS- Fuck it, I’m dancing naked right now!
Oh, Please
September 2, 2017
Glib
Right, so early in the week the Donald promised to donate a million bucks towards Harvey aid – a cool million of the Donald’s personal stash. Then on Thursday the current presidential mouth piece, Sarah Sanders, walked back the personal money part. So now, the donation may come from the Trump Foundation, which is a tax shelter vehicle that contains other people’s money. (The Donald hasn’t funded the foundation in years.)
Oh, and the White House has yet to identify an organization to receive Trump’s generous donation; though it would come as no surprise if the Trump Foundation directs the cash to some other Trump owned nonprofit that could then disperse the money any fucking way it chose. Kind of like the Eric Trump Foundation Kids-Cancer scam.
After watching this huckster for the last two-hundred-ninety-eight post-election days, we would be damn fools to not suspect a con. The republic fears the Donald’s donation might cost us more than it’s worth.
But more likely, the promise will be forgotten – swallowed by the next crisis, as usual.
Low expectations rarely disappoint,
osv
Not About Training
September 1, 2017
Wary
This won’t be about the Donald, more about Donald symptoms.
Back in July there was a car wreck in Salt Lake City; a badly hurt driver was taken to the hospital, unconscious. Once the patient arrived in the ER receiving area, a cop approached the attending nurse and asked her to take a blood sample; the nurse, following procedure, asked if the patient was under arrest. He wasn’t, so she asked for a warrant. (By law, she needs consent or a warrant if there’s no arrest. The patient was unconscious, so couldn’t grant permission. Hence, need warrant.)
The cop insisted. So, she called her supervisor – who also told the cop no. So, the cop physically assaulted and arrested the nurse. He claimed to have “implied consent” (there’s no such thing) and said she was obstructing. He roughly seized her, spun her around, cuffed her and took her to the cop shop. The whole thing’s recorded and on the web.
The nurse, of course, was later released without charges. She did nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, she tried to adhere to the law, while the cop wanted to ignore the law because it was inconvenient. (Sound like anyone we know?)
In keeping with Trump’s America, the cop’s still working, though his blood sample duties have been suspended, pending investigation. Apparently, he was trained for special blood gathering duties, but must have missed the part about not assaulting nurses.
So much for training…
A couple days ago we heard a cop assure a frightened woman, who he had pulled over on a traffic violation, not to worry because, “We only shoot black people.” Later, his police department took him off duty and promised to consider better training.
Going back a month or so, we were treated to the story of a cop shooting and killing the woman who called him to report a possible sexual assault. Once again, his police department took him off duty and promised to consider better training.
Yeah, I know. If I look up and take notice, I find that black people get gunned down by police all the time – it’s SOP. And every time it gets noticed some police chief, mayor, or candidate talks “training”.
But the tough guy who pushed around the nurse was trained and certified to collect blood. The trigger-happy patrolman who shot the unarmed woman who called him for help was the result of training. The officer who offered “we only shoot blacks” as assurance, probably requires more than sensitivity training.
Perhaps, before we pay to train anyone to police us it would be prudent to test for psychological suitability – some people should not be allowed to wield power over others. (Just look at the Donald.)
Additionally, perhaps intelligence testing would be good. Let’s face it, some people aren’t smart enough to wield power. (Once again, the Donald is an excellent example.)
Moving forward, we’re going to need a smart well intended police force – not soldiers (and certainly not the Donald).
Over these last two-hundred-ninety-seven post-election days it seems like some war on the population has escalated. Perhaps at one time they only targeted black people, but lately, under Trump, white women have been added to the list. The republic wonders: who next?
First they came for the Socialists,
osv
Out of Focus Groups
August 31, 2017
Baffled
Oh great, as if covering the Donald’s zany antics weren’t enough, the media are back to running focus groups of Trump voters, asking weighty questions like, “Are you satisfied with the job Trump’s doing?” or “Are we great again?” Just great.
Of course, the garden variety Trump voter is not satisfied with the Trumpster’s performance, mostly because we’ve made no progress on the path to greatness (whatever the fuck that means). So, they’re complaining about the Donald’s tweeting, lack of professionalism, his confrontational behavior and his divisiveness. Who would have guessed?
But, they all continue to say they would not change their vote and hope the Donald experiences an epiphany and “turns the ship around”. “He just needs to stop tweeting,” they chant, like religious zealots. (Or, maybe, political robots.)
Hmm…
You know, way back when the Donald first took the election, back two-hundred-ninety-six days ago, our shocked media ran a similar bunch of Trump voter focus groups and asked, “Why did you vote for Trump?”. Back then, I was interested in the answer to that question. And while, the answers, ranging from “to make America great again” to “just to piss off the libtards” always sound vague and without substance, kind of like a Trump promise, I tried to understand their point of view. Needed to understand their point of view.
Now, frankly, I don’t give a shit. After seeing Trump demonstrate his lack of ability, lack of empathy and pro-Nazi temperament, people awaiting an epiphany are no better than the Donald and deserve him. The rest of the republic does not.
We need to stop asking Trump supporters how they feel (we know how, they feel like victims of their own choices – poor babies) and, instead, ask our damn congress why they’re not impeaching the tyrant.
Trump snowflakes are the flakiest,
osv
PS-
Okay, I started out baffled, but now I’m more pissed.
Twitter Storm Donald, the Unifier
August 30, 2017
Astounded
Yesterday, after hurricane Harvey took to sea and gave battered Texans a break from the driving rain, another disaster blew into town: Twitter Storm Donald. The Donald arrived in Corpus Christi sporting a white “45/USA” hat that’s available for $40 at shop.donaldjtrump.com. The closely covered arrival was the third time Trump’s worn for-sale merchandise during Harvey related events. Product placement during a natural disaster – that’s our boy Donald.
At the same time, what passes for the press these days, took the opportunity to promote their own product by suggesting that Trump might take this “opportunity” to “unify” the country with a presidential response to Hurricane Harvey. I wonder if these people have been watching over the last two-hundred-ninety-five days since the man-made disaster election. Any fool can see, the Donald’s not interested in unification, that’s not his thing. He’s into sales and marketing. The notion that Trump would use the disaster for anything other than self-promotion is silly.
Just look at the Trump – Harvey timeline…
Early on, the Donald used Harvey as cover for pardoning sheriff Joe and signing his military transgender ban. He then took his road show to Camp David on Friday, just as Harvey made landfall – leaving Mike Pence to man the Situation Room. So, Pence was handling disaster communication from the White House while Trump sat alone in Maryland tweeting as if the storm were a reality show.
During that first landfall, Trump spent his time tweeting about “highest crime” Mexico, promoting Sheriff David Clarke’s book (I live just north of Clark’s jurisdiction, where he’s about as popular as sewer flood.) and lying about President Obama pardoning Chelsea Manning.
How the media got from that, frankly shitty, Friday start to expectations of unification during his Tuesday trip to Texas is nearly as mysterious as why so many unprecedented storms continue to occur when climate change is such an obvious Chinese hoax. (Oh yeah, the Donald further unified us by tweeting outrage over scientists suggesting that Harvey could be the result of climate change. Sad.)
Today, the Donald’s moved on to promoting products outside of Texas, but Harvey is back. So, FEMA and volunteers from around the country continue their work – saving lives and comforting those displaced. Unified because of Harvey and in spite of Trump.
What a pompous ass,
osv
Meanwhile
August 29, 2017
Skeptical
Front pages everywhere have been heavy with rain as hurricane Harvey settles over Texas. Originally a cat 4, over the weekend the storm hit the coast then eased to a category one, trading one-hundred-mile-an-hour winds for pounding pervasive rain. As a result, the lone star state is getting unprecedented flooding with Huston taking the brunt of it. Like all hurricane encounters, it’s not pretty.
Stories of heroism and of cowardice abound as people act like they always do when confronted with disaster – lots help as they can with boats, shelter, money. A few, of course, take advantage while the police are busy with rescue.
Some loot, others exploit a confused frightened population with other, more creative, ways. No doubt, there are get-out-of-town-quick and shelter scams going down – some of us will always try to sell what’s in demand, even during cataclysm. Some of us will always think buying the sure path to fulfillment, so a customer base is assured. So it goes.
Now, the Donald, always on the lookout for new ways to promote the Donald, saw hurricane landfall differently than the rest of us. While we saw cold wet disaster, Trump envisioned a huge media tidal wave, hopped on board, and pardoned sheriff Joe while the winds were still whipping south Texas.
Now that rain and flooding have taken over, the Trumpster’s been bragging about how clever his timing was. When asked about why he pardoned Joe when he did, he responded with, “I assumed the ratings would be far higher.”
Odd, one would think that when pulling off something as potentially unpopular as pardoning a well know racist, one would try to keep it on the down low. Getting higher rating is usually not the plan.
Even odder, Trump’s assumption that announcing during the hurricane would drive higher ratings seems counter-intuitive, just the opposite of what most would expect, what with the all focus on Harvey. Yeah, Trump logic remains a mystery.
Most likely he’s just fucking with us and his implied assumption is meaningless. After all, during these two-hundred-ninety-four days since Trump tricked the all those people into voting for him, Trump’s words have rarely held any meaning beyond the obvious.
The obvious in this case being that Harvey was assaulting Texas, Huston was flooding and people were dying. Meanwhile, the Donald was trying to hide an unpopular decision amid the squalor.
Yeah, the republic’s learning that when tragedy occurs, we mustn’t forget to always check and see what the Donald’s up to, meanwhile.
Resist,
osv
Trump’s the New Tedious
August 28, 2017
Bored to Distraction
I’m in that place again where it all looks the same, just a blur of Trump snark, Republican positioning and Democrats too thin to achieve wishy-washy.
You’d think headlines like “Judges remain silent as Trump pardons Arpaio” or “TRUMP ARMS THE COPS” could gain some interest, but, alas, no. It’s been two-hundred-ninety-three days since the election and the future with the Donald is clear. He’s going to do and say whatever strikes his fancy regardless of propriety or rule of law. We gave a criminal a get out of jail free card; what the fuck did we expect?
Sure, pardoning Arpaio was controversial, but was anyone surprised when Trump skipped the paperwork (and the history) and gave sheriff Joe a free pass, with no further ado? Please, we knew it was coming. And it’s just the beginning; Trump’s gonna be handing out pardons like Oprah at season’s end – a pardon for you, and a pardon for you. Hell, pardons for everyone – they were just doing their jobs.
Great.
Hope, for those of us who choose hope, comes mostly from a Republican special prosecutor who’s investigating Trump-Russian stuff and whatever else he finds along the way. Which is promising, but federal investigations take time (Watergate took 2 years) and even if Trump’s people get indicted, he could just pardon them. Whether he can pardon himself is a different question, but if pressed, expect him to try. Yeah, the near future looks just as blurry as the present.
Fuck.
Asking, “How did we get here?” doesn’t help. We been asking that question since last November. There’ve been no good answers. Though, I suspect that something’s hiding, out in the open, in those hard-core Trump Rallies – the campaign rallies the Donald keeps repeating, even now. They’re all reruns. He keeps repeating the same messages to the same people. Over and over.
Tedious.
The republic suspects the tedium is intentional. Not so much to bore us, but to make the information more easily assimilated by the slow-whitted.
There, I said it,
osv
San Francisco sans Tyrant Speech
Protesters wearing red and pink singing This Land Is Your Land, SF Beach 2017 – Photo: Eline Gordts, Huffington Post
August 27, 2017
Delighted
I left San Francisco several hundred years ago – or so it seems. Memories of The City, now more impressions than specifics, reveal like a Monet viewed through a sweet fog of daily burnt weed. Heavy on the feeling, light on detail – gee, that was one wife, two children and three career changes ago. Funny how detail like the scent of bay remains while the color of her eyes, her from back then, has faded. (I think blue, but picture brown or hazel – as usual, could have paid closer attention.)
Yeah, bay leaves in the air, fog in the morning, hills and tunnels everywhere – but, mostly all the smiling, delightfully different, crazy, faces. One of the few native Californians I knew once explained San Francisco with, “This is the last stop for those on the run.” The Pacific seemed dark and dangerous, but with seals making it on the offshore rocks. Beautifully contradictory, fond, impressions of a place left behind – a gentle recollection.
So, I have always been grateful to San Francisco for contributing to my story and for existing as an idea. A really good idea. And it’s heartening to see, even in the midst of the Tyrant’s reign, SF continues to exist as that idea. Yeah, and that idea prevented a pro-Trump, white supremacist, Nazi rally just by organizing a party in response. No violence was threatened, but a dozen or so drag queens did announce plans to confront the Nazi leadership in evening gowns and heels – which may have been too much for the master race leadership.
So anyway, the specter of a large counter-party, along with vastly negative national attention, persuaded the organizers of the Patriot Prayer rally to cancel their action on Saturday. Instead, hundreds showed up to protest intolerance. They brandished signs saying, “What would Mr. Rogers do?”, “Queer Resistance” and “Not on my watch”. They came in costume, they came wearing red and pink. They partied in the streets, then waked to the ocean and sang “This Land is Your Land” and “Imagine”. An American idea realized, as flamboyantly as required. Or maybe just a little more – love that place.
Over the last two-hundred-ninety-two post-election days we’ve heard so much bad, fascist revealing news. And while free speech is important and the republic is reluctant to tell anyone, even Nazis, to shut up, sometimes, for the common good, we just gotta drown the ugly voices out with gay colors, dance and childlike frivolity. Thanks San Francisco for reminding us.
Boogie on,
osv
What a Field Day for the Heat
August 26, 2017
Disgusted
Late yesterday, as hurricane Harvey bore down on Texas, the Donald pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. Joe, known for parading inmates around in pink underwear in his concentration camp (his words) during 100-degree heat , was convicted of criminal contempt last month for violating a court order barring his unlawful policing and racial profiling. Sheriff Joe was scheduled to be sentenced on October 5th, but I guess that won’t be happening here.
The Donald’s pardon, the first of many to come, amounts to a stamp of approval for Joe’s hideous practices and a favor to a political ally. The pardon didn’t even go through the review process, which is usually performed by the Justice Department. So, there are legal questions as to propriety of the pardon, but it will likely stand legal challenge. Given the spineless congress now in office, any political consequences to Trump’s Racist-Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free policy ain’t exactly clear.
More concerning than the pardon itself is the signal Trump’s sent to the overzealous (or just racist) law enforcement community. The “do want you want, I got your back” message is dangerous and encourages further abuse as battle lines are being drawn.
On the other hand, the pardon further identifies Trump as a racist fascist who feels entitled to ignore inconvenient laws. Though, after two-hundred-ninety-one post-election days of observing Trump’s behavior and words we know something’s happening here.
The sheriff Joe pardon strikes deep into the republic’s paranoia. We gotta stop Trump, shutdown his sound, everybody knows what’s going down.
Hooray for our side,
osv
PS-
Yes, I seem to have a song stuck in my head.
WetDogProductions 