Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Let them eat Manolo Blahniks
Posted on: August 30, 2017
- In: Current Events | Donald Trump | Environment | Media Tripe | Politics | Uncategorized | Weather | Zombie Apocalypse
- 98 Comments
Good morning Widdershins,
Hurricane Harvey has been a massive catastrophe. As I was writing this on Tuesday evening, a levee in a county south of Houston has breached. “NOTICE: The levee at Columbia Lakes has been breached!! GET OUT NOW!!!” Brazoria County said on Twitter on Tuesday morning. Many trillions of gallons of water have fallen. The entire Texas National Guard has been deployed. Meanwhile president Dump and his wife (wearing 4” heels) went to visit and Dump wondered at the size of the crowd assembled. “What a crowd, what a turnout,” he declared in Corpus Cristi. Meanwhile Glenn Thrush of the New York Times declared that Dump “used the dulcet, reassuring and uplifting language of prior presidents” when speaking of the disaster, in an article with the headline: “Harvey Gives Trump A Chance to Reclaim Power to Unify.” I assume that’s when Dump wasn’t wearing his $40 hats his company sells while making appearances in Texas. The New York Times has reached peak dumpster fire in their apologia and legitimization of Dump. Just a few days ago their reporters (you know the ones) were screaming on twitter that everything is Hillary’s fault. (I’m sure I’m wrong about it being peak. Bigger dumpster fires are yet to come.) The only person at the Times with any sense of decency is Paul Krugman who sent out a series of tweets pointing out the media screwed up. Sadly the political desk at the Times, headed by Dean Baquet, doesn’t listen to Krugman.
Speaking of Dean Baquet, read this remarkable article about Baquet, the media, Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech, and Meredith McIver, who took responsibility for stealing Michelle Obama’s words. Is McIver an actual person? Who knows! Even though the Times, among others, wrote glowingly about her, nobody seems to have met this woman in at least 10 years. And Baquet thinks the reporter who asked to confirm that someone at the Times actually has met this woman is a “moron.”
…we really don’t know if Meredith McIver is real, alive, and well, or not — she may very well be. But I know the explanations from Team Trump for what happened at the time were completely ridiculous — one involved Sean Spicer and a My Little Pony box (please, Google it); I know that other people searching for Meredith have received anonymous threats; I know that a phone conversation I had with Meredith’s alleged ex-boyfriend, Stephen Palitz, led to far more questions than answers; I know that fake social media accounts for Meredith popped up immediatley after she accepted blame…and suddenly and inexplicably began communicating in Russian before disappearing again.
A few months ago, Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the NYTimes, fired the paper’s public editor. The public editor was originally hired after the paper’s disastrous coverage leading up to the Iraq War. Now Sulzberger declared the role was no longer necessary because the public would keep his reporters honest. On Tuesday evening Peter Daou, a former Clinton staffer who is very vocal in his defense of Clinton on twitter, announced he has now been blocked by 3 major Times reporters, including Thrush and Haberman. How does one keep reporters honest – when reporters block you?
What’s on your minds Widdershins? This is an open thread.
Lazy weekend~Weekend cartoons
Posted on: August 26, 2017
Good weekend to you Widdershins!
I hope that you are having a good weekend. Let’s pause for a few moments and send some kind thoughts to those people on the Texas Gulf Coast. According to some of the latest model runs at the time I’m writing this, they could be dealing with this for several days.
I thought today I would share some political cartoons I came across. The sad part is that while we probably indeed need to laugh at some of these, it is indeed…well sad because some of these are actual things. And I still find it hard to believe that while the nation is concerned with Harvey in the Gulf, the orange turd decided it’s a good day to pull his stunts.
(Sigh) We used to be able to look forward to Fridays as the start of the weekend. Now we’re going to start dreading each and every end of the week – not knowing what the hell the talking yam is going to do to ruin it for us.
I hope you enjoy the cartoons and they are in no particular order.
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Take the comments and conversation in any direction you wish.
Acts of Randomness
Posted on: August 23, 2017
Hello Widdershins,
We have survived another week without a nuclear apocalypse. Yay? Doesn’t mean another one won’t come tomorrow. The 45h Dump is escalating the war in Afghanistan (hey, remember when Rita Skeeter Maureen Dowd wrote a whole column arguing that Dump was a “dove” and Hillary was the “hawk?” LOL yeah.) John McCain and Lady Graham couldn’t be happier about more war. And a twitter war broke out between the NYTimes Twins (Thrush and Haberman) and people with a brain, many of whom happened to be Clinton supporters, but not exclusively, after Thrush went on a sexist tirade listing all the things Hillary did wrong during the election. This is after a Harvard study showed that “her emails” was the single most covered story in the media, which perhaps was unwise of the media. But Times Twins found other reasons for the 2016 disaster, among them that Hillary flew home for dinner every night of the campaign (some have disputed that), that she spoke too much (he actually said that) during the campaign, waged a silly war on the media, and should have listened to people more, and that Huma Abedin should have fired. These are things Glenn Thrush tweeted and Haberman backed up, and then Jonathan Martin jumped in too. I’ll just leave the topic right there because I’m getting palpitations right now.
We are also learning that the DNC is having a hard time raising money. Liberal organizations are not having difficulties. Individual political campaigns, like Jon Ossoff’s for example, and organizations like ACLU. So liberals are giving away a lot of money – they’re just steering clear of the DNC. Perhaps, possibly, just maybe the reason is Bernie Sanders? The disastrous “Unity Tour” and endless screaming by Sanders proxies like Nina Turner, as well as DNC’s attempts to reach white people, at the expense of its actual base (women and people of color) is not going to bring out the donations. And Sanders supporters are not going to start sending their $27 to the DNC. So Tom Perez has some decisions to make. Stick with Bernie and his Bros, and starve DNC of its base money, or throw Bernie into the trash where he belongs.
New Republic also notes that
“Obama and Clinton are both high-profile Democrats and neither have been helping the DNC raise much money,” Beckel said. There is a finite amount of resources, and it’s possible that Obama and Clinton are pulling the deep donor networks that they have cultivated away from the party itself. (Obama, however, has reportedly been privately advising Tom Perez.)
And in really fun news: there’s a state of war between Dump and McTurtle.
It seems that the President personally berated McConnell the last time they did talk, on August 9, repeating his complaints about the Senate and about the mild criticism its leader aimed at him. And the two pols have been carrying out a proxy war via Trump’s attacks on, and McConnell’s vigorous support for, Republican senators who have disrespected POTUS, notably Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who recently published a book that rejected Trump’s claim to be a legitimate conservative.
Per the failing NY Times, the Dump/McTurtle conversation on August 9th turned into a cursing shouting match. Lordy I hope there are tapes!
What’s on your mind Widdershins?
Weekend Post~Not So Lazy
Posted on: August 19, 2017
- In: Class Warfare | Domestic Violence | Open Thread | Politicians | Politics | racism | Terrorism
- 76 Comments
*Not* a Mardi Gras float. From Bellingham Wa. 1926*
GOOD WEEKEND WIDDERSHINS!
Not having Prolix writing his fantastic, informing and erudite Fridays posts anymore has played havoc with our posting schedule, but I know we all understand. We just miss his posts. Since DYB normally writes his posts for Wednesday I’ll now try to have mine ready for Saturday. Naturally none of this is guaranteed.
During this past tumultuous week I was watching one of the news shows someplace and saw a mention of the time when the Ku Klux Klan had a mindbogglingly huge march in our nation’s capital. In fact there were two such marches, and from what I could gather they were in 1925 and 1928.
It appears that back then the guys (and kids and gals) didn’t feel the need to hide their faces. I suppose that came about in later years.
From the Washington Post:
The Ku Klux Klan was at the height of its popularity when more than 30,000 members — racists and anti-Semites marching 22 abreast and 14 rows deep – paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on Aug. 8, 1925.
“White-robed Klan cheered on march in nation’s capital,” read the front-page headline in The Washington Post the next day.
The Washington Post almost waxed rhapsodic over the march in D.C. which was still segregated at the time.
Nearly a century ago, the Klan was welcomed to segregated Washington by its white residents, as the breathless coverage in The Post demonstrated.
“Phantom-like hosts of the Ku Klux Klan spread their white robe over the most historic thoroughfare yesterday in one of the greatest demonstrations this city has ever known,” read The Post’s account.
“the Ku Klux Klan booked 18 trains for their march and rally. Hotels filled with the hooded men. Lunch stands and tobacco shops quickly sold out. The Klan even brought their own ambulances to escort those felled by the August heat.”
Sounds like business was good for the city!
The Kluxers marched for over three hours and ended at the Washington Monument where speeches were supposed to be given. The event got rained out.
The evening of the next day the Klan had a gathering at Arlington Park horse grounds and lit up a huge 80 foot cross.
More from the Post article:
Many of the hooded marchers showed their faces — a rather telling indication that the group, responsible for lynchings and other acts of terror, could operate with impunity. At the time, the Klan boasted a national dues-paying membership of nearly 5 million men and 500,000 women. The shedding of the masks was a subject of internal debate for the group, a move that some felt would grant their organization added legitimacy and respectability. (bolding mine)
[snip]
“You had many members of the KKK who were politicians — senators, congressmen, statehouse representatives,” said Kendi, “and that only encouraged the members to appear publicly without their hoods.”
Indeed, the 1924 Democratic convention was known as “the Klanbake,” because the party by a razor-thin margin voted against an anti-Klan plank in its platform.
OMG – the Klanbake!
All of this made me kind of curious so I went out looking for images of those marches and downloaded a bunch of them. I’ve created a slideshow of them for you to view some of these images. I also got a pic of the newspaper report of tRump’s dad Fred being arrested.
I won’t say I hope you enjoy viewing these images but I hope you consider it as something that happened before and in these times, something similar could happen again. Click the middle button to start the slideshow.
Open thread of course.
Good Monday Widdershins!
Our blogmistress had some real life issues come up so I’m covering here at sort of the last minute. Because of that and not having a lot of time this is mainly going to be a link dump post.
From this WaPo piece, it seems like the “ugly American” tourist is making a resurgence. Only this tourist was in Germany and thought it would be cute to do a Nazi salute. Color him clueless since he seemed not to know that the salute is a crime in Germany and he got busted-literally. Someone saw him do it and beat the crap out of him.
An American tourist gave the Nazi salute in Germany — so a stranger beat him up, police say
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Peter Cvjetanovic would like you to know that he’s really, really not a racist mkay. No, 
seriously.
You can read that HERE. By the way he’s also a precious 20 years old. Whatcha wanna bet he’s still on mom and dad’s health insurance?
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There is a new hashtag that is going viral, #ThisIsNotUS and you can check out a HuffPost article on it.
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From Business Insider here is an article with some background info, on the hit and run driver in Charlottesville, James Fields, again a 20 year old.
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David Frum in The Atlantic says it’s time for Republicans to “leap from the boat” that is the S.S. Trump. And I thought they were all so comfortable there.
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The occupant of the White House, appeared to be his usual clueless self when he made his statement after the events in Charlottesville happened and it took his staff making the rounds of the news shows the following day to attempt some damage control.
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The last link I have for you today is to an article about the photographer who captured the image of the car slamming into the counter-protesters. That was his last day working for the newspaper.
Welp, that’s all I have for you today. Hope you check out the links. Of course this is an open thread.
Don’t Dream It’s Over
Posted on: June 6, 2017
In light of You-Know-Who’s election to the White House we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in Democrats registering to run for office. This is true particularly of women. Enraged by how Dump and the media treated Hillary Clinton, women are ready to fight back. One of the brightest stars of those already running was Kim Weaver for Iowa 4th Congressional District. That’s the seat currently held by one of the most vile people in America, racist/misogynistic/homophobic scum-pig Steve King. The district covers 39 counties, including Ames, Fort Dodge and Sioux City. Weaver’s campaign was getting a lot of attention on social media. Then suddenly, on June 3rd, Weaver dropped out of the race. This was a surprising development. But Weaver’s announcement was more shocking still.
Over the last several weeks, I have been evaluating personal circumstances along with the political climate regarding this campaign. After much deliberation, I have determined that the best decision for me is to withdraw my candidacy for the U.S. House race in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.
One consideration has been raised again by recent events at my home. Beginning during my 2016 campaign, I have received very alarming acts of intimidation, including death threats. While some may say enduring threats are just a part of running for office, my personal safety has increasingly become a concern.
But there is actually more to Weaver dropping out of the campaign than death threats. As reported by Shareblue writer Matthew Chapman on Twitter, Weaver also revealed that Republicans conspired to punish her as a civil servant. Weaver works at the Iowa Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman, an agency that investigates problems in nursing homes. This year the Iowa General Assembly cut funding to this agency. Weaver’s supervisor relayed a message to her from a state legislator that the cuts were intended to punish her for challenging King. This placed the agency and its other employees in danger.
The Republican has become the mob, but without an honor code. They feel untouchable. And let’s face it, they have been. McConnell has bullied Democrats into obedience for 8 years. As we learn more and more about Russian hacking of our elections (the newest documents leaked to The Intercept raise the stakes significantly… I won’t link to The Intercept just like I won’t link to Breitbart), but as we learn more and more about how much Russia did to steal the election for Trump, we must remember that one of the things that stopped Obama from announcing what they already knew in the summer of 2016 was Mitch McConnell telling him to keep his mouth shut. And Obama kept his mouth shut. This is the sort of behavior that inspires Iowa legislature to punish anyone having the gall to run against Steve fucking King. When and how will this stop?
As a side note, after Weaver announced she was leaving the race, she received a phone call from Hillary Clinton. Weaver tweeted: “She was very sweet and wanted me to know she was thinking about me.”
On an unrelated note, Newsweek reports that last year Bernie Sanders made $1,000,000. We already know he owns 3 homes and Jane Sanders is under FBI investigation for shenanigans at Burlington College. These are the socialists from Vermont who were 2016 election’s original sin. I don’t think any of us have problems with Bernie making money. We just have a problem with Sanders being hypocrite who doesn’t want anyone else to make money.
Do you know who else makes money – as a special speaker? Cornell West. That paragon 
of… I don’t even know. What the hell is he a paragon of? He certainly thought Hillary was corrupt for giving speeches and he didn’t want Obama making any money speaking post-White House either. And here’s Dr. West, making money…speaking. West earned $25,000 to speak at Coastal Carolina University. One might argue that $25,000 pales in comparison to what Clinton and Obama earned. But one would also argue that Dr. West is a far less significant figure than either Clinton or Obama. And the real kicker to West’s speaking fees is…
The records obtained by the newspaper revealed something about CCU’s priciest orator: West did not want the public to know how much he was paid for his Sept. 16 keynote address.
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The speaking contract included a confidentiality clause.
And there you have it folks. The honorable Bernie Sanders and Dr. Cornell West, mere mortals who like new things; just like everyone else after all.
After the May 22nd attack on young women leaving Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, Grande vowed to hold a benefit concert for the families impacted by the attack. On June 4th she did (before the concert she visited survivors of the blast in hospitals.) She managed to convince several of her friends who were available to sing with her. Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas, Pharrell Williams, and others. There was a roughness to the concert, obviously not a lot of rehearsal took place. But that made it all the more real. Here Grande sings with Miley Cyrus a cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”
- In: Current Events | dis 'n dat | Open Thread | Politicians | Politics
- 102 Comments
Happy Hump Day Widdershins!
I believe we at TW are in a state of flux or something like that. Is it due to something astrological? Perhaps. Maybe something to do with Mercury retrograde or perhaps Pluto doing the same. Honestly, I have no idea. I do good to check my horoscope on a daily basis. But what I do have are some articles and pieces that I came across on the internet that I’ll share with you.
We tend not to do current events type posts here at TW but these are some items that have been in the news lately and so I’ll pass them along with a few thoughts of mine to go with them.
The Golden Boy of New York Real Estate is in for a rude awakening
We’re going to see soon how much that Harvard education (courtesy of dad’s $2.5 million donation to Harvard?) will help him now that he’s going to be under the microscope with the F.B.I.
Perhaps Jared Kushner really believed that his New York real estate skills set him up to bring peace to the Middle East, solve the opioid crisis, run a government Swat team of business experts and protect his father-in-law from disloyal White House advisers. And that he could do it all while observing the Sabbath and reserving enough time for family ski vacations with Ivanka and their three children.
We know these folks had no idea of what they were walking in to when they started getting appointed to areas of government where they had no previous knowledge or experience. And the idea that they were clueless was evident when Jared’s sister went to China to hawk investor visas to buy into a Kushner real estate development and thought nothing of mentioning her brother’s association with Trump.
Let’s put the most charitable interpretation possible on the facts that have emerged about Kushner.
The bizarre suggestion to use the Russian communications system to secretly link the Trump transition team and the Kremlin could have come from Michael Flynn, the star-crossed former national security adviser who was also at the meeting.
Kushner, in his naivete about government, may also not have remembered that Barack Obama was still president and in charge of all negotiations with Russia. And it was an innocent oversight that Kushner failed to mention his talk with Kislyak on his government security clearance form.
Once again Flynn rears his ugly head with something involving the Russians.
Again from The Guardian:
Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy.
[snip]
Kushner may have once thought that he established his tough-guy credentials when he stared down angry creditors and impatient bankers over his ill-timed 2007 purchase of a $1.8bn Fifth Avenue office building. But the worst thing that can happen to an over-leveraged real estate investor (as Trump himself
knows well) is bankruptcy. When the FBI and special prosecutor Robert Mueller get involved, the penalties can theoretically involve steel bars locking behind you.
Yep, Jared is about to find out what it really means to play with the big boys. And he really, really should be familiar with the consequences after what happened with his father .
Can they (the Trump clan) really be that clueless?
Yes, it appears they can be. Memorial Day is a day to honor those members of the military who died for our country. For Ivanka it’s an excuse to make champagne popsicles.
I’ve had enough of them already.
With six you get eggroll arrested
Now this…this really takes some nerve (I wanted to use another word).
So you are going to Sava’s, a restaurant in Ann Arbor Michigan. The food there must be really, really good because a cadre of ICE agents went there, had breakfast, and then arrested three of the workers employed there! As they say, I shit you not.
In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office arrested more than 40,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally, nearly a 40% increase from the same period of time last year. They are acting on President Trump’s Executive Orders to crack down on illegal immigration — but some critics believe their methods occasionally go too far.
This week, ICE arrested three employees at Sava’s, a restaurant in Ann Arbor, MI, after learning of their immigration status. Restaurant owner Sava Lelcaj says the officers ate breakfast at the restaurant before they stopped, questioned, and eventually charged the staffers.
When asked directly about whether or not the ICE officers ate food served by the illegal immigrants before arresting them, spokesperson Lou Martinez would not comment. Instead, he sent a statement to Delish: “Aliens who illegally enter the United States and those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas have violated our nation’s laws and can pose a threat to national security and public safety. Aliens in violation of the immigration laws are subject to immigration arrest, detention, and placement in removal proceedings.” (bolding/italics mine)
Finally I’ll leave you with Randy Rainbow’s latest:
Dump Trump
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