Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Trump in Wonderland: 'Off With Their Heads!'

Good Day World!

America went down the "rabbit hole" in 2016, and is struggling to get back out into "the real world," after Trump's emergence as our first wannabee dictator.

In Alice in Wonderland, a classic novel by Lewis Carroll, there was a character, the Queen of Hearts, whose trademark phrase was "Off with his head!" which she uttered at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.

Which quickly brings to mind Trump's version of Wonderland; a swampy world where he rules like a King, and can silence his detractors using the president's bully pulpit and ignoring laws.

In his world, Trump can call for his perceived enemies heads without rebuke. Without consequences. When courts go against his draconian attempts to divide this country he lashes out like the Queen of Hearts.


In the book, the Queen is so cold-hearted at one point she orders her Cheshire Cat to be beheaded. When the executioner complained that it was impossible to behead the cat when all that could be seen of him was his head, the Queen was furious.

When Trump realized he couldn't get away with stopping the Russian investigation, under special counsel Robert Mueller, with threats and intimidation, he became furious. His tweet storms have increased in intensity in recent weeks. 


One of the highlights of Trump's swamp world was when he visited Saudi Arabia and was literally treated like visiting royalty. If there's one country on the planet Trump really likes it's Saudi Arabia.

Beyond the corrupt business ties Trump established with the Saudis, and with the help of his son-in-law Jared Kuskner, he has turned his head away from the human rights violations that the "Kingdom" constantly flouts. 

The most recent example is the possible beheading of a female political activist, Israa al-Ghomgham, who goes on trial in October. Trump and King Salman bin Abdulaziz bromance was no accident.

Trump's admiration for complete power and the King's methods of beheading detractors, fits nicely in his swampy wonderland.

Saudi Arabia remains “one of the most prolific executioners in the world”, beheading at least 100 people in 2017 alone, according to Amnesty International.

Trump continues to bide his time with verbal attacks, hoping the day will come when he can get away with calling for Mueller's head, and it's carried out by his minions in the swamp.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Sociopaths in Politics: Grabbing Pussy's and Promoting Racism

Good Day World!

Politics have always been the unruly child of America's Republic. 

Democracy demands organization. Therefore leaders emerge from the masses to represent the majority.

Unfortunately, we have a leader who doesn't represent the majority because of the trickery in our Electoral College.

Laws have brought some accountability into our system of government, but they are challenged constantly. The arena of politics involves, deceit, lies, rhetoric, hyperbole,and broken promises. Liars and con men go back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

What is new, is that we now have sociopaths in high places that are breaking laws and societal norms who were voted into office.

Trump of course is the most obvious example. 

He's cold, callus, and calculating. He lies daily. He's irresponsible, and manipulates people like puppets. His lack of emotion and his ability to look into a camera and lie without batting an eye, are textbook examples of a sociopath.

So how did he become our president? There were others like Trump in the past who fell short of the presidency because the timing wasn't right.

But Trump road a wave of "Birtherism," racism, conspiracies and fear after eight years of an African-American president. Whites in America never felt more threatened before. 

When Trump, the ultra con man and sociopath, stepped up to the fore for the alt-right, he found a base of believers who follow him like the disciples of Jim Jones

We live in pivotal times. Our free press is under assault by the nation's leader and his minions. The alternate press is media platforms like Fox News, InfoWars, and Brietbart, that are bringing in converts daily.

Political pundits look into cameras with a steady gaze, as lies drip off their tongues like honey. Most Americans are horrified at how polarized the country is during these dark times with a sociopath holding their future ransom.

Historians aren't going to be kind to Trump and his enablers in congress. It's just a matter of time before justice will prevail and, hopefully, we'll move on to a better administration that doesn't worship a sociopath who brags about grabbing women's pussies!

Time for me to walk on down the road...  

Monday, August 20, 2018

In The Future Will People Know What Truth Is?

Good Day World!

The war against reality, and what's true and what's a lie, began the day Trump was sworn in as our president.

I, like millions of Americans my age,was raised with a clear understanding of what a lie was. The opposite of truth. Lies were bad. Truth was good. There was no in-between. No such thing as alternate truths or realities. 

That's no longer the case. Point in fact; Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was on TV yesterday and told the host "Truth isn't truth," when it comes to Trump talking with special counsel Robert Mueller.

I'll let you digest that for a moment. " Here's the video.

This is just another milestone in the decline of truth under Trump. His daily lies, via tweets and in public, have been growing like a cancer on democracy, justice, and free speech since Putin helped him get elected.

Trump has finally earned the coveted "Biggest Liar on the Planet" award after other world leaders have had to deal with his lies. He went from a national to an international liar in spectacular fashion.

U.S. Image Suffers As Publics Around the World Question Trump's Leadership

Looking beyond Trump right now, and into the future, I fear there will be a whole generation that no longer distinguishes between the truth, and a lie. 

They will have no foundation to build on, unless our current congress stops enabling Trump, and recognizes the danger he poses for all Americans. His all-out assault on truth is not the legacy any sane person would want their children,or grandchildren to have.

One of the ways a dictator stops truth from being spread is to attack the free press, like Trump does. Another way dictators assault truth is to stop those who are speaking it. 

Leon Panetta Warns Security Clearances Could Be Used As A 'Political Tool' By Trump  

I want to leave you with some positive thoughts.

Two-thirds of Americans don't like Trump. That's a majority. 

As for congress, I expect we'll see the Democrats take back the House in November. Then Trump will be taken to task for obstructing justice and abusing his power, among a host of other high crimes.

Trump and his minions can say the sky is green and the land is blue, all they want. As Americans who believe in this great country, we just don't have to believe them.

The clock is ticking...

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Trump's End Game: When Cornered Start a War

Good Day World!

Trump's latest attack against our democracy involves retaliation against retired intelligence officials who have criticized him, by putting them on an "enemies list." 

By taking away security clearances from people like former CIA Director John Brennan, Trump has made another desperate (and stupid) move to stop the groundswell of evidence coming out against him in the Russian/Trump campaign investigation.

Trump lied and said his "enemies list" was in fact made up for the sake of national security violations, without offering a shred of evidence.

Make no mistake, Trump's legal problems are closing in and it's just a matter of time before he's going to end up in a court to answer for his corruption and treason.

Criminal profilers suggest that when a megalomaniac and egotist in power is cornered, there's nothing they won't do to save themselves.

When Brennan warned that Trump may use a "wag the dog" strategy to distract from his legal troubles, my blood froze. Is it possible? If an ex-CIA Director thinks so, then I'm afraid the worst is yet to come.

It wouldn't be hard for Trump to start a war with Iran. He's already laid the foundation for future hostilities.

Trump's supporters like to say that when you hit Trump,"he'll hit back ten times harder." It's not hard to picture Trump when cornered by his crimes, going for his biggest defensive diversion since he slunk into the White House. War.

Time for me to walk on down the road...


Saturday, August 18, 2018

Trump Plays Political Dodge Ball To Divert Critics

Good Day World!

Here's Captain Bone Spurs (aka Trump's) rules of engagement for his version of dodge ball.

Rule one: dodge, divert, distract when under fire from critics for corrupt behavior.

Rule two: lie with impunity and call the press the enemy of the people.

Rule three: attack his critics at every opportunity by throwing raw meat to his extreme base. 

Examples:

1) Taking away ex-CIA Director Brenna's security clearance for criticizing him. Trump also has a hit list of 9 other former Obama employees that he plans of stripping security clearances because they too have been publicly criticizing him, and he blames them all for starting the Russian/Trump Campaign investigation.

2) Trump's mouthpiece, Sarah Sanders got caught lying about black support for the president when she cited some pie-in-the-sky statistics based on faulty information. Trump claims that blacks really like him despite the fact that every credible poll in the nation disputes that.

3) Trump and his Interior Secretary puppet, Ryan Zinke, claim wildfires are caused by environmentalists and there's no such thing as global warming. 

Oh yeah, Donny's still saying California's wildfire problem is because of rivers running out to the sea, so there's not enough water to fight fires. Sad and stupid.

This whole presidential thing is a game to Trump. It's about personally winning and tearing down and disgracing government agencies and the intelligence community if they're not in lock-step with his desires.


One last thought:

Trump had to cancel his military parade because the cost was outlandish, $92 million. So who does he blame? Washington DC for not making his dream parade less expensive. Those real world facts keep biting Trump's fat ass.

Time for me to walk on down the road... 



Friday, August 17, 2018

Profile of a Trump 'Mini-Me' Reflects Where the GOP is Today

Good Day World!

Those Republicans that have chosen to become Trump-Mini Me's for the midterms are a snapshot of where the party is under our Liar-In-Chief.

Here's a brief profile of one of the leading mini-me's, Bobby Wilson:


1) He's running for the Arizona State Senate and hoping his adulation for Trump gets him more votes.

2) He was initially charged, at the age of 18, with homicide after confessing to murdering his own mother and sister, then setting the house on fire.

3) His lawyer, after the murders were exposed, convinced the court Wilson had amnesia and didn't know what he was saying when he confessed.

4) On the campaign trail he brags about killing his mother in self-defense, after claiming his memory returned years later, and she was going to kill him with a semi-automatic weapon. 

According to his story his 49-year-old mother was standing over him one night with a locked and loaded rifle and shot at him six times before he dived under the bed, retrieved his single-shot rifle and shot her between the eyes... from underneath the bed(?) 

Then his sister rushed him and he used his rifle to bash her head in. A fire was started by a stray bullet hitting a gas can inside the house and he managed to get outside before being overwhelmed by smoke inhalation.  

Note: Anyone who believes that story is probably a QAnon follower.

5) The local newspaper account at the time reported the charred bodies of his mother and sister were found lying together in bed 'in a perfectly relaxed' position, indicating they died in their sleep.

6) During his campaign he often talks about the murder and claims it's an example of "a good guy killing a bad guy."

7) Wilson is not his real name. According to court records his last name is listed as Wiste. The family was living under an assumed name.

8) After dodging authorities for years with his amnesia story, he came up with his own version of what happened when he suddenly got his memory back. After the courts gave up on his seven-year-old investigation, he went on to write a book that made him look like hero for killing his mother and sister.

9) There's still local investigators that believe he murdered his family and got away with it.

10) The murders were never solved thanks to the court's acceptance of his amnesia ploy, suspending the proceedings for nearly a decade, before the case was thrown out.

Time for me to walk on down the road...


Thursday, August 16, 2018

A United Press Strikes Back: Will It Hurt Trump, or Help Him?

Good Day World!

Today, in case you haven't heard or read, over 350 newspaper editorial boards across America are united on one central theme; opposing Trump's constant press-bashing.

As a former newspaper editor, and publisher, I have mixed feelings about what this day will accomplish. It will certainly show that America's mainstream press will not be pushed around by Trump's attacks. But aren't they already doing that?

It will also demonstrate something else, an entirely different message to Trump's base. It'll be proof, in their small brains, that there is a "Fake News" and that the press is corrupt, and that's why Trump gets so harshly critiqued by the Fourth Estate.

It will be a compelling agreement for Trump supporters, and Trump himself will probably feel vindicated for attacking the press from his first day in office.

Consider this, Trump supporters don't read or watch mainstream articles. They're too busy watching Fox News and reading Breitbart's daily conspiracies online.

That fact alone makes me wonder if this is just all about "singing to the choir?" Two-thirds of Americans think he's a moron, and degrading the office of the president. When they read or listen to today's backlash against our deeply unpopular president, it will only ensure the validity of their feelings.

No minds are going to be changed. No Trump supporters are going to miraculously "see the light" after reading or listening to the potpourri of resistance being offered today.

While I support the journalistic community, I have to question if this is the way to start changing hearts or minds. When most of America's press suddenly starts playing the same tune, I get nervous. 

Maybe it's because I'm an independent thinker, and having everyone write about the same subject on a certain day seems like a homework assignment to me.

I believe that every newspaper should have independent editorial boards. When I see over 200 newspapers rally around one subject, it seems to me they're all ignoring their own diverse readers on the county and state level they publish in.

I'm not particularly worried about galvanizing Trump's base. They're already on board the crazy train. I'm more concerned about our independent free press coordinating their messages to the people. It smacks of something un- American, and is a road I hope my colleagues don't take again.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Fear and Loathing 2018: If Hunter S. Thompson Covered the White House

Good Day World!

Imagine a young and vibrant Hunter S. Thompson driving his "Red Shark" down 1100 Pennsylvania avenue and stopping at Trump's monument to emoluments, Trump Hotel and checking in as a guest.

He's there on behalf of Rolling Stone, and it's his job to write about Trump and his corrupt minions in power. Like his famous novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson's narrative will delve into the surreal (only to later find it is real) atmosphere surrounding Trump in the West Wing.    

The original story was seen through a drug-induced haze. This follow-up won't disappoint Thompson fans, because their hero will once again be reporting through a rabbit-hole maze of designer drugs that weren't available back in 1971.

Here a couple of scenes from Fear and Loathing 2018.

Scene: 
Thompson roars up to the front of the White House in his Red Shark and throws open the passenger door for Omarosa Manigault Newman, one-time top African in the White House, to get in.

He offers her a handful of pills while secret services agents swarm toward them, takes a hit from a bong, then slams his foot down on the gas pedal and plows through everyone, and out the gate while singing God Bless America!

Omarosa can be heard shouting, "I have the tapes!"

Fade out.

Scene:
Hunter S. Thompson can be seen prowling around the White House grounds in the middle of the night after taking LSD, Ecstasy, Meth, and drinking a bottle of tequila. It's a dream-like sequence where Trump is seen skipping naked on the West Lawn as Thompson follows behind trying to get an interview.

It becomes hard for the viewer to tell what's really happening as other members of the West Wing join the frolicking Liar-In-Chief in a Congo line that snakes halfway around the White House.

In a moment of lucidity, Thompson turns toward the audience and shakes his head in disbelief. 

"This is crazier than anything I ever dreamed of during my lifetime of illegal drugs and alcohol. WTF! You actually elected this lying gasbag racist, misogynist to lead the country?" 

Fade out.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

How A Defense Bill Payed for Trump's Parade and Backdoor Deal With China

Good Day World!

With the help of the spineless GOP members in congress, a $716 billion defense policy bill was recently passed and signed into law yesterday by Trump... who got some goodies for himself rolled into the package.

For starters, he got his parade funded in the bill. Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Of course, no one knows exactly what it's going to cost - estimates have gone north of $30 million - but he finally got the funding to appease his enormous ego.

That a parade would fall under funding for a defense bill displays the depths Trump will go - and get away with when no one has the guts to stand up to him. 

Every since he went to France last year and watched a parade there, he's been openly envious of such a display of power. So how did he finally get his way?

Easy, he intimidated the cowards in congress and forced them to put the funding for his ego-drenched display of military might into a bill that would get bi-partisan support. It worked. The Democrats didn't want to be seen opposing a defense bill. Especially one that came with a pay raise.

But Trump's duplicity didn't end there.

He also got those same GOP ostriches to bury their heads and ignore a national security risk by taking sanctions off of a Chinese telecom company, ZTE. The very same company our national intelligence agencies have been warning against for spying on Americans with their devices.

That's why the sanctions were put there in the first place. Yet, Trump has turned the tables against our intelligence community and forged through with this addition to the funding bill.

We all know what Trump thinks about America's intelligence agencies. He makes it perfectly clear in his hateful and inaccurate tweets. 

So, we have a funding bill - by the way Trump wouldn't say the name of the bill - The John McCain Defense Funding Bill - that allows Trump to indulge in a meaningless parade and make back-door deals with one of our international rivals, China.

To top off his dog and pony show at Ft. Drum, N.Y., he attacked the media covering the event. He winked and tried to play the men and women sitting in their uniforms. 

Yes, he got a polite applause. After all that was their commander-in-chief, and they would have clapped if he brought a trained duck on the stage to perform tricks.

It wasn't his usual rally crowd. It was a group of professional soldiers, so there were no cries for building walls or locking up Hillary Clinton.

Instead, the audience sat there respectfully and watched their commander-in-chief spew rhetoric and radiate insincerity, as he treated the whole event like it was a reality show.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Monday, August 13, 2018

Donny and the Bikers Have a Blast


                                            Good Day World!

Background music playing Bennie and the Jets.

The scenario:

There's pouring rain outside Trump's Bedminster Golf Course and he's feeling gloomy on Sunday. As his little fingers send out hateful tweets he hears a sound outside...

It's the roar of 180 motorcycles just outside his window! He's so exciting that he stops mid tweet and opens up the curtains and sees the Bikers For Trump motorcycle club waving at him.

He skips about in glee and tells his security people to bring them inside to the ballroom. In one of Donny's wet dreams come true moment, the bikers burst in chanting "Four more Years!" and "USA."

What followed was a perverse love fest as Donny posed for selfies with the excited bikers. At one point he got them chanting, "Tell the truth!" to the few reporters in the room covering the event. It was classic Trump.

His mood improved considerably after having his boots licked by the slavish bikers who came to save his day. 

One of the highlights of the visit came when Donny led them in the Pledge of Allegiance outside - during a break in the rain. It was such a touching moment I'm told, that two members of the press puked so hard they had to leave.

There was hardly a dry eye among the Trump cronies lingering around as he said, "Let's hear those engines!" and the roar filled the air with a sense of freedom and patriotism as they burnt rubber, screeching away into the New Jersey night.

Time for me to walk on down the road...








Sunday, August 12, 2018

A Conversation Between Mueller and Trump

Good Day World!

I'm going to ask you to suspend reality today, and to pretend we're in the near future.

Somewhere in Washington DC...
Trump has agreed (despite his lawyers advise) to talk with Robert Mueller.

Mueller: "Thank you for agreeing to talk today, Mr. President."

Trump: "Is that why I'm sitting in this room? Ha! Ha! Just joking with you horse-face."

Mueller: "Why did you fire FBI Director, Jim Comey?"

Trump: "Because he made up bad stories about me and Putin. It was my right as president to bitch slap him for claiming Russia helped me get elected."

Mueller: "Well...they did Mr. President. All of our intelligence agencies agree."

Trump: "What are you? A wise ass?"

Mueller: "No, sir. Just stating facts. Can we get on with this interview now?"

Trump: "Interview? This feels more like a grilling. When is this witch hunt going to stop?"

Mueller: "My best guess is we're going to wrap the investigation up shortly after our conversation. My next question has to do with Michael Flynn. When did you know he lied to the FBI?"

Trump: "Michael Flynn eh? Give me a moment, I'm trying to remember who he is. Off hand, I'd guess he was a bit player under my administration."

Mueller: "He was more than that, sir. He was your first national security advisor."

Trump: "Oh yeah! I fired the bum didn't I? I pulled an Apprentice and said, 'You're fired!'" 

Mueller: "Actually he resigned, sir."

Trump: "What is it with you Bob? Don't you like me?"

Mueller: "It has nothing to do with that, sir. Just stating facts."

Trump: "Facts! More like liberal attacks against America's favorite president...me! You, and your 17 Angry Democrats, are part of the Deep State that has been trying to get me out of office. " 

Mueller: "You realize that these proceedings are being recoded, sir?"   

Trump: "Rudy! WTF! I  thought there weren't going to be any tapes! You know how I hate tapes!"

Time for me to walk on down the road...






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