Happy Weekend Widdershins!
Suspicion and paranoia (?) seem to be ruling the W.H. these days.
Trump, according to Comey, was fixated on the “pee-pee tape” thing to the point of asking Comey to investigate it so that Melania would be reassured it didn’t happen. Personally I could see it happening despite tRump’s protestations that he’s a “germophobe”. His hatred of Obama is so strong that I could see him wanting to watch two hookers urinate on the bed that Obama and Michelle slept on in that room.
There’s his fixation on the 2016 election and the electoral college. It’s been more than a year since he
Trust no one
became (ahem) President yet he keeps babbling on and on about it. And then of course there is “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “no collusion”. Add in his fixations with Sessions, Rosenstein and Mueller, plus the possibility that Michael Cohen might flip and the guy truly trusts no one.
So…let’s take a look at some songs about suspicions and add in a dash or two of paranoia. Of course your contributions are welcomed.
(1) Suspicious Look In Your Eyes~The Hollies
(2) Gonna Be More Suspicious~Robin Trower
(3) Different Finger~Elvis Costello
(4) P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)~George Harrison
(5) Another Town~Keith Whitley
“Somehow I’m a little bit suspicious in my mind”
(6) Paranoid~Black Sabbath
There ya go Widdershins – six songs of suspicion and paranoia.
Open thread and your contributions are welcomed and appreciated.
I’d like to speak to the manager!
Posted on: April 19, 2018
I suppose there are many games of 3D chess one can play, but I often wonder what kind of game Democrats are playing. As the country continues to spiral out of control with full cooperation of the Republican party (Mitch McConnell will not allow a vote on a bipartisan bill to protect Bob Mueller’s investigation), and the institutions are taking on more and more water, virtually all Resistance to Electoral College Baboon has been grassroots driven. (Real grassroots, not astroturfed like the Tea Party 10 years ago. Kochs literally paid for the Tea Party; Soros has not cut any checks.) So while the public is engaging in resistance, organizing massive marches and voting in special elections to kick Dumpists out (in Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke is within margin of error against Rafael Cruz), I have seen so very little Resistance from our elected officials. If we have one name politician leader it may be Maxine Waters. Maybe add Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff. (Not counting HRC because she is a private citizen.) But almost everyone else is very careful not to rock any boats. Mark Warner told Democrats that if Rosenstein is fired they shouldn’t do anything.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, told a group of Democratic colleagues on Wednesday that they should adhere to a one- or two-day cooling-off period if Trump fires Rosenstein, according to three congressional sources. Rosenstein met Thursday with Trump amid reportsthat the White House is preparing an effort to undermine the deputy attorney general’s credibility.
“The first 24 to 48 hours, if and when that happens, we should stay calm; we should do our best to reach out across the aisle and talk to our colleagues and say, ‘Seriously, we cannot allow this to happen.’ Just don’t go immediately to DEFCON-1,” said a member of Congress who attended the meeting but asked for anonymity to discuss it candidly. “We should not say anything—let the dust settle for a minute. What I took from it is it’s better to build a coalition across the aisle than just to come out guns a-blazing saying, ‘We’ve got to impeach him now.’”
I don’t know what Mark Warner is smoking, but it’s almost like he has been in a coma for the last 20 years and hasn’t seen Republican behavior going back to Newt Gingrich. “Cooling-off period” is something Democrats have been doing for a long long time and look where it’s got us. And Warner he is far from alone. Chuck Schumer went to Kentucky to yuck it up with Mitch McConnell because:
“Actually, the Senate is a pretty collegial place. We don’t dislike each other,” McConnell said. “We have to work together.”
The problem with this is Schumer goes to yuck it up with McConnell while McConnell has virtually single-handedly destroyed the Senate and bipartisanship. But “we don’t dislike each other.” Actually I’d say Republicans have shown nothing but contempt for Democrats for about 20 years and Democrats continue to yuck it up as if we were all just playing a friendly game of Charades. The word “impeachment” has not entered elected Democrats’ lexicon. Many Democrats actually fear that impeaching Trump would just make Republicans really mad and will mean Republicans will try to impeach the next Democrat president. It’s as if none of these people know that Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about infidelity, Republicans spent 8 years trying to impeach Obama, and that President Hillary would have been impeached by March 2016. Meanwhile Republican Pres commits treason, profits off presidency – and “Let’s not overreact because we don’t want to make Republicans mad.” I am so so so disappointed and angry at our political leaders. There are actually no leaders. The Democratic base is angry and afraid of the insanity coming out of DC. And Democratic officials are Treebearding their voters to death. I don’t know what kind of rose-colored glasses they are wearing, but they truly don’t seem to recognize the seriousness of situation we are in, and they are not recognizing the anger of their voters. They think they can harness the grassroots led anger to win at the polls, but they may find themselves consumed by the fire, just like Republicans got scalded by the Tea Party in 2009 and beyond.
Good Tax Tuesday, all. Today, no activism, because all of my thoughts are about Russia. Michael Cohen? Stormy Daniels and Sean Hannity are distractions from the fact that he very likely went to Prague to pay off Russian hackers to steal emails from the DNC. Collusion is a mild word for behavior that criminal and traitorous. Syria bombings? Russia was warned first, and no real damage was done. Sanctions? First yes, then no. Sorry, Nikki Haley – maybe the Mango Moron doesn’t love you as much as you think he does.
And then, of course, there is the sanctimonious partisan hack, James Comey, going around the media circuit trying (and succeeding) to sell his self-serving version of why he felt so honorably honor-bound to honorably leak the non-story of #ButHerEmails on October 28th. He’s given quite a few reasons for this, none of which hold water. Clearly the present danger in 2016 was the Russians, not a private email server from which a few classified emails may have escaped, several years before!
My opinion is that Comey wanted to damage Hillary. Honestly, what other explanation is there? He said he thought she would win, and he didn’t want her to be “illegitimate.” What in the world does that mean, when you know the guy running against her IS CHEATING with the help of RUSSIA?! Remember, the FBI had Christopher Steele yelling and screaming in their ears…and they didn’t listen or act on the information. In fact, according to “Russian Roulette,” the FBI knew in 2014 that Russia was launching a cyber war on us. Here’s an excerpt from an excellent WaPo article about Steele and the FBI – check the out the last sentence:
Steele’s last report for Fusion was submitted on Oct. 20. The Post reported that the FBI had reached an agreement with Steele to pay him to continue his work after the election but that the arrangement fell apart after his research became public. He may have been reimbursed for some travel expenses. [Update: In his testimony, Simpson revealed that Steele at one point broke off communications with the FBI after the New York Times published an article saying the agency had found little evidence of ties between Trump and Russia.]
Steele also provided a copy of his dossier to a national security official in Britain and to an associate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who in turn gave it to Comey. Presumably it was not newsworthy at that point to the FBI director. [bolding mine]
So let me get this straight. A guy with an impeccable reputation for knowing what’s up with Pooty-Poot and Russia shows up at your doorstep and says, “Yoohoooooo, Mr. Comey! Did you know the Republican nominee for President is compromised by Russia?”…and it’s not newsworthy to you? On what planet is that likely?
Of course it was newsworthy, and of course it should have been disclosed. The American people deserved to know, and because Comey is, indeed, a Republican partisan hack, he instead decided what we REALLY needed to know was that there were three new emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop (out of 49,000, not hundreds of thousands), none of which indicated the slightest bit of wrongdoing. No one needed to know anything was going on at all, UNLESS THEY FOUND SOMETHING!
Now, do I believe that Comey is telling the truth about Drumpf? Yes, I do, partly because he’s done it under oath already, and I see no reason to think he would be so brazen as to lie in that circumstance. In the main, though, his story deeply fits Donnie’s (lack of) character. I also think Comey is a model of rectitude in his own mind, so he is unlikely to lie in general. But it’s a huge mistake to think that he isn’t a Republican. He is, and as a Republican, I believe he wanted to cripple Hillary’s presidency from Day 1, giving new life into a non-scandal that the Republican Senate and House could then use as an excuse to impeach her. No more uppity Clinton female in the White House! Bonus for Comey, because ya know, TJSAHIDL (from Jennifer Palmieri’s book, this acronym stands for “There’s just something about her I don’t like,” code for the understanding that powerful women are always disliked because of that whole vajayjay thing). Yup, he did it because he’s a Republican, and he would do it again in a heartbeat, even though he knew he helped Drumpf get elected. Can you believe this f*ckwad?!
One interesting thing came out about Jimmie’s Great Adventure in the past few days…Comey has claimed that Drumpf won’t criticize Putin even in private. He certainly hasn’t said anything critical about the suspicious death of yet another Russian journalist, now, has he? Maybe that’s because, Lordy, he knows there are tapes…and Michael Cohen has them! And now, the FBI has them too. They seem to think it’s newsworthy now, don’t they?
Scout’s honor, Widdershins: this is an open thread.
Busy Weekend/Short Post
Posted on: April 15, 2018
- In: lazy weekend | Odd News | Open Thread | You Tube
- 89 Comments
GOOD SUNDAY TO YOU WIDDERSHINS!
As I said in the comments to DYB’s post, I’ll be busy this weekend doing my taxes and getting ready to send the forms and money to the I.R.S.
Nevertheless, I have a couple of funny or amusing, or sad stories for y’all.
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This first one comes from…Floriduh and concerns a new high-speed rail line that runs between Miami through Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach. This is a private rail line that provides the service. It seems however that people there can’t seem to be able to…well…stay away from the tracks. (It appears that one of these cases may have been a suicide)
Sunday’s victim was the fourth person to be struck and killed by a high-speed train since service began in January. Among the other deaths: a 51-year-old man on a bicycle, and a 32-year-old woman, both of whom tried and failed to beat oncoming trains after the gates had lowered, police told the Palm Beach Post.
Honestly, I have never understood this “trying to beat the gates” thing that folks do around trains.
Patrick Goddard, Brightline’s COO and president, said in January that the company was working with transportation officials to raise awareness about the train/
“We implore the public to be patient and not circumvent the safety devices in place to keep you safe,” Goddard said. “Your life is worth more than waiting a few extra seconds for a train to pass.”
As I said, I don’t get it with the awareness thing. It’s a train. Those are tracks. In this case the train goes real fast. Don’t argue with the train.
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Okay this next one is truly amusing.
So you think you’re being a whole lot safer and “cleaner” by using those hand air dryers in the restrooms? Well, think again.
A study done by the University of Connecticut School of Medicine found that nope, that’s not true.
It turns out that those dryers in the bathrooms will help to spread around bacteria in those bathrooms.
Scientists comparing normal bathroom air to that blasted from hand dryer nozzles have found far more bacterial colonies develop in samples exposed to the latter. The results were published this month in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
And what type of bacteria do we find in bathrooms? (Need you really ask?)
“Bacteria in bathrooms will come from feces, which can be aerosolized a bit when toilets, especially lidless toilets, are flushed,” study author Peter Setlow told Newsweek. The simple movement of lots of people in and out of the bathroom, shedding microbes from their skin, he said, adds to the messy picture.
Hand dryers suck up bathroom air and spew it out at speed. So, in the brief moments your hands rest below the nozzle, they’ll be exposed to far more air than usual—and far more bacteria.
So what’s the solution?
For now, Setlow (the study’s author) is sticking to paper towels—as is the University of Connecticut, which has added them to all 36 bathrooms surveyed in the study.
Lastly, since I’m working on taxes, here’s a very old Top Ten List from David Letterman on Top Ten Ways To Annoy An IRS Agent.
Open thread for this, of course.
Mood: More Than Mild Nausea
Posted on: April 13, 2018
Hello Widdershins,
My apologies for a short post. It’s difficult to type with one hand after my bagel-slicing injury. Who would have thought something like a bagel would send someone to the ER? (And I don’t mean blocked arteries.)
Two stories I wanted to highlight from the last few days.
James Comey published his memoir in which he tells us how awesome he is. The most relevant part might be the one where he says Trump and his entire cabinet expressed zero interest in learning more about Russian hacking and influence on the election. But the part we are all probably most interested in is: what does Sanctimonious Jim think about throwing the election for Trump? Turns out – not much. While he admits that perhaps he should have been less abrasive in his press conference over the summer 2016, Comey does not regret the content of his presentation which violated department rules. As people pointed out, if he truly thought Loretta Lynch was somehow compromised (something he repeats in the book), then his next course of action should have been to speak to Deputy AG, Sally Yates – not to throw everything into chaos with the press conference. And the Comey Letter to Jason Chaffetz which changed the outcome of the election? From the NY Times:
You see, Comey was just trying to help Hillary! And she went and screwed it all up by not winning. Lame! Comey (who did not reveal that Trump was under investigation while revealing that Hillary was because reasons) then goes into detail of how Obama told him he was not mad at him and how honorable he – Comey – is. Comey says he was quite overcome with emotion. And he claimed other Democrats in private meetings absolved him too. So he’s happy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The other story that caught my eye is Ronan Farrow’s new piece in the New Yorker about how the National Enquirer squashed stories about Trump. Included there is a tidbit that one story was squashed with the help of Lanny Davis. Farrow made sure to connect Davis to the Clintons; he called him their “confidant.” While I question Farrow’s motives for making the connection – and the response of some twitter people now making it all about the Clintons (Jon Favreau nastily tweeted “The Clintons have some top-notch friends”), it is worth noting that Lanny Davis was working with the National Enquirer to squash negative stories about Trump even as the National Enquirer and Trump were conspiring to destroy HRC. With friends like these, who needs friends?
What are the odds on Mueller getting canned?
- In: Open Thread | Politicians | Politics | Republicans | Trump
- 122 Comments
Good Wednesday Widdershins!
(NOTE: It’s difficult as hell to write a post a few days ahead and attempt to have the topic be timely. Ya just can’t keep up with this stuff)
Our madamab is once again traveling and as they say on the teevee “on assignment” so I’m stepping here to lend a hand.
In some of my online readings a few days ago I stumbled upon this piece in Politico which, as the saying goes, left me gobsmacked. In essence the piece says that according to a poll conducted by Monmouth University, more than three fourths of the respondents contacted said they believe that the “major news outlets” report “fake news”. Heavens-to-Betsy! I am so sick of hearing that phrase fake news.
From the Politico piece concerning the poll respondents said:
they believe that major traditional television and newspaper media outlets report “fake news,” according to a Monmouth University poll released Monday, marking a sharp increase in distrust of those news organizations from a year ago, when 63 percent registered concerns about the spread of misinformation.
And further, of those folks:
31 percent said they believe those media outlets spread “fake news” regularly, and 46 percent said it happens occasionally.
And guess what? It’s not just the Trumpsters and Repubs who believe this about fake news. From Monmouth:
The belief that major media outlets disseminate fake news at least occasionally has increased
among every partisan group over the past year, including Republicans (89% up from 79% in
2017), independents (82% up from 66%), and Democrats (61% up from 43%). In addition to the fact that a clear majority of Democrats now believe that traditional media outlets report fake news at least occasionally, the poll also finds that a majority of Republicans (53%) feel this happens on a regular basis (up from 37% in 2017).
I also found this information from Monmouth interesting:
Attention has also focused on the role of social media platforms in the propagation of fake news. Nearly 9-in-10 Americans (87%) believe that outside groups are trying to plant fake news stories on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. More than two-thirds (71%) say this is a serious problem – including 81% of Republicans, 69% of independents, and 67% of Democrats.
I found that number of Repubs interesting since we all know now that a good bit of that fake news was generated to benefit the Repubs and the talking yam in particular. So I wonder if those Repubs who were polled know that yes there’s fake news because their supporters, backers and dark money sources were responsible for it? Perhaps not and it’s just typical Republican paranoia because the Monmouth piece also said:
[Note: the interviews for this poll were conducted prior to recent stories about Cambridge Analytica’s data mining of Facebook user profiles, which, while not directly a “fake news” issue, is related to the topic.]
So there’s that, I guess.
But further, what the hell even is “fake news”? Margaret Sullivan from Wapo attempts to answer that.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”
Sullivan contends (and I agree with her) that the original idea of “fake news” has been twisted and turned around from its original meaning.
I’ve been arguing for more than a year that the term should be shunned because its original meaning — that is, fabricated stories intended to fool you — has been so purposely blurred and tainted.
Sullivan explains the difference (and btw, I think that some of the “fake news” stories can also fall into the category of clickbait ).
Are we talking about factual journalism that a politician doesn’t like (for example, The Washington Post’s reporting on the sexual misconduct of former Alabama judge Roy Moore, which his wife labeled “fake news”)? Or about flat-out lies such as “the pope has endorsed Donald Trump” that circulated on social media during the presidential campaign?
Altogether, this poll is not good news for the Fourth Estate. Let’s face it, the number of folks out there who fall into the category of Republican and paranoid is large. As the image at the top says, ignorance can be educated and crazy (paranoid) medicated, but that damned stupid…nope ya can’t fix that.
Open thread of course and also what’s on your minds today?
About the video below: Just because there’s a sign that reads “live music” doesn’t necessarily mean live music = good music. 
Weekend Light Fare
Posted on: April 8, 2018
Good Weekend Widdershins!
Once again, this is going to be a short post. But, I’ll be doing the Tuesday post for m.b. as she is covered up with work issues.
Still sore where I believe the oral surgeon gave me the injections and also still having pain in my forehead and around eyes (at the time I’m writing this post). The oral surgeon told me that the roots to the tooth were awfully close to my sinuses so I’ll attribute that pain to the forehead/eyes thing.
So here’s a quick youtube video to laugh at. I’ve set this to start right when Fields gets back to his dental office. I know some of the comedy and terms are rather dated but this was from the 1930s. Hope you enjoy!
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Edited to add:
Open Thread of course.
Comments