Stay classy…
Posted on: September 27, 2016
Good afternoon Widdershins.
It’s a great day in Hillary World. Hillary looked great wearing red. As Sady Doyle tweeted, “I see Hillary has come dressed in the blood of men who have underestimated her.”
The clamoring Yam told us he was smart just like Billy Madison because he doesn’t pay taxes.
Time and again, the orange hemorrhoid of know-nothingness told us just like Daffy Duck he was rich.
Just like Mike Donnelly from Black Sheep, although Mango Mongo wanted to score some votes, he found himself in an uncontrollable freefall of lies, fantasy, and suspicious sniffing.
I’m sure there were fact checkers having breakdowns last night. Here is a wonderful fact-checked transcript by NPR. As I was reviewing it, the most amazing factoid is this:
Trump lied about having a fact checker actively fact-checking on his website last night!
You read that right. Trump lied about fact-checking! Beat that would if you can.
Well, the Opinion Pages of The New York Times did. The following comes directly from their work. The “he,” of course, is the Trumpaloupe in all his bitter orangeness.
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“You criticize me for preparing for this debate,” she said. “And yes, I did. Do you know what else I prepared for? I also prepared to be president.”
“Well, as soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunity in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina.”
It seems apparent that just like Icarus and Ron Burgundy, the clamoring Yam has flown too close to the sun. His tired desultory lounge act of Don Rickles insults is melting away just like Icarus’s wings. What’s left is a sad, little man who is dangerously close to the wrong side of the sociopathic spectrum. The ride up was fun. The fall is gonna hurt.
Just like Ron Burgundy, stay classy Donnie J.
What’s on your mind today?
Monday Quick Post
Posted on: September 27, 2016
Policy? You want policy? Here’s your policies
Good Monday Widdershins!
This will be a quick post just to get us to the live-blogging which we’ll be doing tonight. Mb is occupied right now with real world things so we’ll just make do with this post until this evening.
So have you ever asked “Gee I wonder if Hillary Clinton has a policy or position paper on (fill in the blank)?”. On most likely any position that a voter might want to know where she stands, there is a position paper for that issue. Paying for college education – check. Something along the lines of helping to pay for childcare or rebuilding our infrastructure? Check and check.
In fact, Hillary probably has more position papers than most of us would truly want to read. You say you haven’t heard about many or any of these policies? Well that could partly be because of this bizarro-world election we’ve had.
Take the education policy she has devised. Hillary came up with what the campaign called “The New College Compact”.
The goal, making public college debt-free, was simple. The mechanics were not. Families would pay “realistic” fees based on income, with poorer families paying nothing at all. Students would contribute directly through work-study programs. Washington would provide most of the money, but states would have to kick in some funds and hold the line on tuition increases. The feds would also crack down on for-profit colleges where too many students were getting substandard degrees and defaulting on their loans. All in all, the proposal would require some $350 billion in new spending over 10 years, which Clinton planned to pay for by raising taxes on the rich. James Kvaal, a former Obama administration adviser who consulted on the initiative, described it in an email as “a once-in-a-century change in the relationship between the federal government and colleges, on par with the Morrill Act (which created land grant colleges in the 19th Century) and the G.I. Bill.”
Hillary’s team of advisers and wonks was so excited about this and knew that when it was released there would be lots and lots of questions.
A few days before Clinton’s speech, O’Leary convened a final conference call to discuss media strategy. Anticipating a lot of attention, she instructed the team to be ready by the phones. Clinton delivered her address at a high school in Exeter, New Hampshire, and afterward, held a press conference in the gym. She got just one query about the plan.
And you know why she got exactly one question? It was because of the talking yam having uttered his infamous comments about Megyn Kelly .
Earlier that week, Trump had described Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly as having “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during a debate, and so Clinton was grilled on whether Trump should apologize to Kelly, whether he had a problem with women, and what Clinton thought of the fact that Trump had retweeted someone who called Kelly a bimbo.
Yes, Trump’s description of Kelly and then what Hillary thought about it was all the media was interested in. Hillary, her wonks, and advisers had come up with a policy and plan to relieve one of the most pressing issues for families trying to figure out how they will pay for their children’s college education. And NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN all wanted to know her thoughts on Megyn Kelly’s degree of being a bimbo.
I mentioned earlier that Hillary had Seven Pillars of things she wanted to work on in her first term and here they are:
- The Economy
- Work and family
- Education
- Criminal Justice
- Health care
- Financial reform
- Immigration
Will she be able to accomplish these things? Will she be able to accomplish even one of these things? Who knows right now. As it’s stated in the article:
Clinton and her team are not delusional—they know that passing her agenda would get very messy, very fast. Even if she manages to pull off a decisive victory, Democrats almost certainly won’t take the House. They may not even regain the Senate.
So we know that she knows that, unlike Obama, she won’t walk into the White House and having eager and willing partners on Capitol Hill. Still, she has made a jobs/infrastructure bill and immigration her two top priorities after she’s elected.
Okay I said this would be short. The article is a great piece to read although it is longish. Go take a look at it and by the time you’re finished we’ll be getting ready for the debate tonight.
One note: It’s a HuffPo piece so save your time and don’t bother with the comments.
See y’all for the debate tonight!
Special Post: Debate Night
Posted on: September 26, 2016
Good evening Widdershins.
It’s here. The night has come. It’s “THE DEBATE” in all its jittery-goodness.
For you history buffs, this, to the day, is the 56th anniversary of the first Kennedy/Nixon debate in 1960. Prior to tonight, it had been the most consequential debate. Most folks feel the consequences of tonight are far more important. An orange hemorrhoid of know-nothingness versus the most qualified person to ever run for President. What could go wrong?
For months people have been navel gazing about tonight. My navel and I claim no special knowledge, but when has that stopped either of us? So here is my best guess.
Dumbbell Nebula
The traffic cone wearing a kangaroo scrotum is possessed of one thing – an ego slightly larger than the Dumbbell Nebula (it’s an actual thing).
The orange creamsicle made a solemn promise to the hordes of adoring troglodytes who now revel in being called “deplorable”. That promise: I will destroy Hillary Clinton in the debates.
No matter how much Chatty Kellyanne has pleaded will stop him from being who and what he is. The Manhattan Meerkat will not be able to contain himself. Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon will have filled him with pithy barbs and one-liners. They will spill out throughout the evening, but filling ninety minutes with that stuff is a bad Las Vegas lounge act, not a presidential debate.
But the bile in his little, tiny fingers will gradually build up. He can’t tweet to flush that bile away. The bile will breach the walls of his brain at about the 45 minute mark. He can’t face his “adoring crowds” without a supposed victory dripping with tweenager insults. It was the one thing in the primary he promised to do. That IOU has now come due. It will be his downfall.
Knowing Hillary, she will have Windex and a roll of paper towels at the ready to clean the camera lens after the clamoring yam explodes.
So sit back and let’s watch our gal Hillary wipe the floor with the itty-bitty tiny-fingered au naturale hazmat suit. I’m anxiously awaiting your comments.
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Good Weekend Widdershins!
The calendar tells me (no it really doesn’t talk) that Thursday was the Autumnal Equinox, i.e. the start of Fall. Now I’m not about to start donning sweaters, thinking of roaring fires, or having anything like pumpkin-spiced coffees or teas just yet when the high temps are still hitting the 90s. And no, not really ever going to go for the pumpkin-spiced beverages. Pie yes, pumpkin beverages no. Still though, it is time
to think of fall because if nothing else, football has started and it is really played best in fall-type weather.
There are many, oh so many, songs about fall and I’ll include mine below. I encourage you to add yours in the comments.
(1) The Flaming Lips ~ My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
(2) September Song ~ Sarah Vaughn
(3) The Vines ~ Autumn Shade II
(4) John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman ~ Autumn Serenade
(5) Ella and Louis ~ Autumn in New York
(6) The Moody Blues ~ Forever Autumn
Alright Widdershins, that should be a break from this week’s political drama. Feel free to add your own contributions below.
Of course it goes without saying that this is an open thread.
* * *
Monday night is the first of the debates. If you are feeling a bit of angst or worry, feel free to post a tune about that. But don’t worry, Hillary’s got this.
Imagine…
Posted on: September 21, 2016
Good morning Widdershinners. Only forty-eight days until this interminable election is over. Try as the cable networks might, my confidence in Hillary’s election is increasing with each day.
Even with this increasing confidence, it doesn’t stop me from imagining certain “what ifs.” Since the political atmosphere is full of cyclonic turd-storms and I can’t think of any better way to organize these racing manic thoughts of mine, let’s just imagine.
Imagine if Hillary Clinton had illegally used $258,000 from the Clinton Foundation for her personal benefit.
Imagine if Trump were elected and the person who is in charge of vetting and selecting the 4,000 political appointees of a Trump Administration was the same man who knowingly endangered lives and property for backwoods, ward-heeling, political payback. The same man who has shoehorned his former cronies into the taxpayer-funded transition office. The same guy who denies Trump continued to spout his birther nonsense after 2011.
Imagine how a President Trump would negotiate a $14 Billion penalty with Deutsche Bank, a bank that happens to hold hundreds of millions in Trump loans.
Imagine a world where the white evangelicals and working class voters were not this gullible:
Trump’s promises to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and to bring back manufacturing jobs are not just appeals to economic wellbeing. These appeals are often coupled with promises to restore power to the Christian churches, although that part of Trump’s appeal is not prominently reported. For many white evangelical Protestant and white working class voters, those appeals are about restoring a sense of place and a lost cultural world. Trump’s promise is that if he is elected, the factory gates will reopen, the boards will come down off the storefront windows, the pews will fill, different races and genders will be clearly defined and will know their place, and America will make sense again.
The emphasis is my own. You can read this long interview here and here.
Imagine a journalistic profession where its loblolly coverage didn’t produce these facts based on over 30,000 interviews:
The type of information getting through to Americans varies significantly depending on whether the candidate in question is Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. Americans’ daily reports about Mr. Trump are directly tied to what he is doing and saying. If Mr. Trump talks about Muslim parents and their son who was killed in action, that’s what the public remembers. If he goes to Mexico or Louisiana, that’s what they recall reading or hearing about him. If Mr. Trump calls President Obama the founder of the Islamic State, “ISIS” moves to the top of the list of what Americans tell us they are hearing about the Republican candidate.
What Americans recall hearing about Mrs. Clinton is significantly less varied. Specifically — and to an extraordinary degree — Americans have consistently told us that they are reading and hearing about her handling of emails while she was secretary of state during President Obama’s first term. In eight of the past 10 weeks, “emails” has been the most frequently recalled word in Americans’ reports of news about Mrs. Clinton — the exceptions being the week of the Democratic convention, when emails fell to second place, and this past week when “pneumonia” and “health” eclipsed emails.
Imagine if young voters, instead of wasting their “protest votes” on Gary “Hand me an atlas” Johnson or Jill “Find someone more bitter than me” Stein, actually knew this about their platforms:
[The Libertarian Platform] calls for abolition of the income tax and the privatization of almost everything the government does, including education. “We would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government.” And if parents don’t want their children educated, or want them indoctrinated in a cult, or put them to work in a sweatshop instead of learning to read? Not our problem.
What really struck me, however, was what the platform says about the environment. It opposes any kind of regulation; instead, it argues that we can rely on the courts. Is a giant corporation poisoning the air you breathe or the water you drink? Just sue: “Where damages can be proven and quantified in a court of law, restitution to the injured parties must be required.” Ordinary citizens against teams of high-priced corporate lawyers — what could go wrong?
But Mr. Johnson and Ms. Stein have received essentially no media scrutiny, so that voters have no idea what they stand for.
Trump’s Oval Office Throne …
Imagine Trump’s first full day in office where twenty-five Obama executive orders are rescinded. Things like immigration, renouncing the Paris Agreement on greenhouse-gas emissions, restarting the Keystone Pipeline, suspending the Syrian refugee program, loosening restrictions on gun purchases, or further relaxing background checks. Dante would add a tenth circle of hell to describe it. (Although long, the link is a must read.)
Imagine a country where the Congress was not so hogtied by the NRA that real research and fact-finding could occur such as:
Around 50% of the guns in the US are owned by only 3% of its adults.
Imagine a Senate controlled by Democrats where the evisceration of the patricians of the corporate privileged class occurred with a little more regularity.
Imagine early morning television without someone sporting an ego so large he wanted the Google algorithm changed so searches would better reflect his awesomeness.
I imagine you have things on your mind today. Please share them.
Good Monday, all! If you read the headlines these days, the press seems to be behaving much better when it comes to Der Trumperer, actually finding, somewhere deep within their ADD-impaired noggins, the capability to focus on his overall awfulness instead of pounding on Hillary incessantly for not paying enough attention to them while dizzy and passing out from pneumonia. (Mommy issues, anyone?) See this “Many Scandals of Donald Trump” article in The Atlantic as an example. Well, see it if you want to experience a degree of boiling rage and nausea you haven’t experienced since you realized that yes, the Republicans were really, truly, f*cking srlsly going to let that mango-colored monkey run against Hillary Clinton. It turns out that Drumpf’s scandals are so numerous, The Atlantic complains it doesn’t have enough space on its pages to write all of them down. Poor babies! If I were a journalist and not a blogger, I might suggest that The Atlantic report on one scandal a day until November 7th. I guess that is just too much Hard Work(TM) for those with journamalism degrees!
In any case, the press is starting to focus its relentlessly negative eye where it belongs, on Dangerous, Despotic, Deplorable Donald. Does this mean they finally get the seriousness of this race? That they have understood the perils of their stunning lack of objectivity and “grading on a curve” when it comes to the pseudo-billionaire who has the overwhelming hubris to think he’s got what it takes to run for President?
Um, no.
If the press “corpse” is to revive itself, it needs to do something it hasn’t yet done, and hasn’t been able to do for the past 40 years: Report objectively on Hillary Clinton. Report on her qualifications, her policies and whether or not they would be good for America; report on what she would do if/when in office. Maybe even cover one of her speeches every once in a while. You know – exactly what they do with Drumpf.
They are showing a few signs of being able to do this. From the article linked above:
The investigation [into his charitable giving] is a new political headache for Trump. The Republican has sought to make hay out of accusations against the Clinton Foundation, but so far that group has no legal troubles. Trump’s charity, however, now finds itself in legal jeopardy.
A truthful and factual comparison! The Clinton Foundation hasn’t done anything illegal, whereas Trump’s Foundation is now under investigation. Could it be The Atlantic has re-discovered what the word “objective” actually means? Not so fast:
The 2016 presidential election could be the most scandal-plagued match-up since James Blaine’s allegedly corrupt business deals squared off against Grover Cleveland’s alleged illegitimate child in 1884. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the nominee, bringing with her a train-car’s worth of baggage. But the Republican candidate is at least as saddled with controversy as Clinton is—and while many of the Clinton cases involve suspicion and shadowy links, many of Trump’s are fully documented in court cases and legal proceedings.
[facepalm]
No, no, NO. Here’s what’s wrong with this allegedly “fair and balanced” paragraph:
- Hillary is not bringing baggage with her. Here’s how I’d write this sentence: “The media is dumping sh*t on her daily, and Hillary has been forced to carry it for the past 40 years.” That is not remotely the same thing. Her worst sin is that she hasn’t found a way to get the media to stop lying about her, for which they, of course, blame her as well. (More on that a bit later.)
- Saying “many of the Clinton cases involve suspicion and shadowy links” does not pass the smell test. In fact, ALL of the Clinton cases are nothing but innuendo. I’m going to say that again. ALL OF THE CLINTON CASES ARE NOTHING BUT INNUENDO. There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton has ever done anything wrong or illegal. Ever. So despite the media’s gleeful daily exercise of picking apart every single participle she’s ever dangled, searching for evil conspiracies, corruption, and most likely a vagina dentata, there’s “no there there.” And I don’t think there ever will be, frankly. Hillary’s just not that kind of girl.
To follow up on #1, here is my favorite thing the media does when it comes to HRC: continue to talk about a non-story that originated out of some malarial Republican’s nightmare every day, no matter whether there are “new developments” or not, and then say something like this: “Why is it that she can’t stop us from talking about this?” For example: the “d*mned emails” Bernie Sanders complained about. She has been tried and convicted in the press for being reckless and careless and not trustworthy with national security because…she had a private email server from which she sent a grand total of zero emails which were correctly marked as classified. How utterly absurd. Yet because she hasn’t said some kind of magic word, given enough press conferences, and/or apologized on bended knee to the press while self-flagellating for being an uppity wimminz, the press feels justified in yammering about this bullsh*t as if it’s real, and comparing it to actual Dangerous, Despotic and Deplorable things The Donald has said and done.
So until the media purges itself of its toxic, misogynistic hatred of Hillary Clinton, they’re still never going to get it. And this pathetic farce of an election will continue to be reported as though two equally despicable candidates are running, with equal negatives, instead of one amazing, inspiring public servant versus a putrid pustule of a human being.
This is an open thread.
Good Saturday and weekend to you Widdershins!
Yes, sadly once again we are going to have to go to our crazy places. Did we really think we would not have to go here again? Just yesterday, Trump suggested that Hillary’s security detail should be disarmed. (Hint, you go first Donald) Then he finally admitted that yes, Barack Obama was “born in the U.S.A.”, but said Clinton stated the birther thing first. Oy vey ist mir!! And to add further to the comic, but sad and pathetic birther speech in DC, (which turned out to be more of an advert for his hotel) the backdrop falls apart after he speaks.
And no, you cannot make this stuff up.
Today we need more than a palate cleanser, we need a big ole honkin’ tongue scraper and plenty of eye bleach. So once again we are going to look at and listen to some crazy songs. They can be songs about being crazy, being crazy in love, being crazy however. A quick use of the googling machine yielded three separate websites with lists of crazy songs so they’re out there folks. I will list a number of them and let’s see what you all can come up with.
(1) Paul Simon ~ Still Crazy After All These Years
(2) Napoleon XIV ~ They’re coming to take me away
(3) Fine Young Cannibals ~ She Drives Me Crazy
(4) Patsy Cline ~ Crazy
(5) Anthrax ~ Mad House
(6) Dave Matthews Band ~ Crush
Okay Widdershins, that’s a variety of musical genres up there. Show me some of your choices below.
While this is football Saturday for me I’ll be around between quarters, at halftime and between games. Have fun!
Dump Trump
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