Trump again colludes

Donald Trump pressured the government of Ukraine to find or manufacture dirt on the son of former VP Joe Biden in an attempt to interfere with the United States Presidential election. This sort of thing is a crime, as well as a major ethical issue.

Looking for collusion? Well, there it is.

I take your question

I shall respond to dumb things with "I take your question" from now on.

Brett Kavanaugh

Is Brett Kavanaugh  a rapist?

It seems possible. At least one woman is reporting that he held her down and assaulted her.

The New Yorker has more

Ronan Farrow is cementing his cred as an investigative journalist.

This is your Republican party Continued

Bigfoot Erotica? Yes, Bigfoot Erotica! But also, Nazis, Neo-Confederates and goons. This is what it has come to, folks.

Russian Nesting Doll seems like too obvious as a metaphor . . .

I have been saying (here and elsewhere) for quite some time that the GOP as a whole is at least complicit in the Russian program to subvert and undermine American Democracy. There are obvious moles (Dana Rohrbacher, anyone?) within the Republican Party, to be sure. But now it looks like the entire structure of the GOP may be wholly owned by Putin and his cronies.

I'm not alone in seeing this

Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Your Republican Party!

Today's Republican Party is BOLD, FRESH, EXCITING . . . CORRUPT, RACIST, ANTI-AMERICAN.  It is truly a "Big Tent". It encompasses Holocaust deniers, and Neo-Confederates, and Nazis, and Russian Stooges and people who cover up child molestation.

The party even has room for serial abusers, conspiracy nuts and Paul Ryan.

Truly a big tent!

Updates and additions:

Wife Beating

Sexual harrassment

Roy Moore

Not really surprised that Roy Moore is a kiddie diddler. I always expect it from the overly pious sorts. Anyway, Senate Candidate Roy Moore, everyone.

The End of America

Historians of the future may well ask when American democracy ended. The answer that they are likely to settle on is that democracy ended when one party refused to debate or vote on a Supreme Court nominee simply because he was chosen by a president of the other party. That was the moment when Republicans finally fully signaled that they had no belief in American democracy, its norms or processes. That was the moment when it became clear that their agenda was to dismantle the United States by any means necessary.

It's Russians all the way down . . .

The mess that Donald Trump has gotten this nation into isn't his mess alone. Mitch the Turtle was in on it. It seems that Paul Ryan may have been complicit as well. The Entire Republican party was complicit - they allowed themselves to be hijacked by a foreign nation in service of carrying out their odious agenda. The GOP has betrayed our nation.

This must not stand.

All current Republican members of the House and Senate must leave office. Trump and pence must leave office. We must reset by holding a new election in which these miscreants are barred from competing. Then and only then can Americans trust their government again.

Gianforte, another GOP Thug

Greg Gianforte Assaulted a reporter from The Guardian. Montana politics normally isn't this insane, but this does seem to be where today's GOP is heading.
Alana Levinson of Buzzfeed witnessed it. Gianforte's office is lying about it, because of course they are.



http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/big-crazy-news-out-of-montana

Trump on Cruz

I'm just going to block quote the whole thing, and give the attribution to VOX. I don't want to link to the other places that this is available. Here is what Trump had to say about Ted Cruz after the RNC.

If you turn on the television, if you turn on some of the dishonest media, you’ll see, "Oh well, this happened and this happened." What happened?

Somebody [Cruz] got booed the hell out a place by thousands and thousands of people. There wasn’t one person in the room. Not one. And then they said, "there may not be unity!" Unity? There wasn’t one person in the room who wasn’t — including the Texas delegation, right?

Honestly he may have ruined his political career. I feel so bad. I feel so bad.

And you know, he’ll come and endorse over the next little while. He’ll come and endorse. But I don’t want his endorsement! What difference does it make? I don’t want his endorsement. I have such great endors — I don’t want his endorsement. Just, Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

Just a couple of things: I knew his speech. They gave me his speech. I knew exactly what his speech was, because when you go up to speak, you have to give your speech. You know, we don’t want surprises, right? So they gave it, they came to me, they said, "It’s a boring speech, Mr. Trump. Nothing good, nothing bad. He just congratulates you on the victory and here’s the speech."

Well he got up, and in the first two sentences, he added a sentence. In other words, he got up, and he added a sentence. Which could have been viewed as a nasty thing in terms of what he said because it was implying something which is wrong, but that’s okay.

So he took his speech — and you’re bound by that speech, just like you’re bound by the pledge. You’re bound by the pledge. So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done — was on the teleprompter — said hello, then made a statement that wasn’t on the speech and went back to his speech.

See, to me, that’s dishonorable. To me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable, okay? It’s dishonorable. Not a nice thing to do. And I talk this way because we’re all together. We created the one of the most successful conventions in the history of conventions. And the television ratings for this convention were through the roof.

[Trump then spends a couple of minutes talking about ratings, his wife and children's speeches, and the length of his own speech before returning back to Cruz.]

Two other things.

Two other things, just to finish with Ted because I like Ted. He’s fine.

Again, I don’t want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it. Just so you understand. I will not accept it. It won’t matter. Honestly, he should have done it because nobody cares and he would have been in better shape for four years from now if he’s gonna — I don’t see him winning anyway, frankly. But if he did, it’s fine.

Although maybe I’ll set up a Super PAC if he decides to run. Are you allowed to set up a Super PAC, Mike, if you are the president, to fight somebody?

[Mike Pence shakes his head and mouths the word "no."]

But there were two things that he said yesterday that were lies. Ready?

I didn’t start anything with the wife. A PAC, which he’s very friendly with, released a cover story on my wife, who’s this tremendously successful and elegant model, and she was on the cover of GQ magazine. I think it was GQ, right? And GQ magazine is not exactly Penthouse. But she was on the cover of GQ magazine. An artsy picture, but you know, she was a model. Really successful.

She didn’t need to marry me. She was making a lot of money. Believe me. In fact, I had to work hard to get her to marry me. It wasn’t that easy. It’s true. It’s so true. You think I’m kidding.

So they released this picture, which was — to the people of the state of Utah. I love Utah. I love the people of Utah. But that’s not necessarily where you want to send a risqué photo and everybody in Utah got a picture. And I don’t think they showed that it was GQ. I think they took the GQ off, they cut all the stuff out so you couldn’t see it was a magazine cover from, you know, a reasonably respected magazine. And it was Melania Trump. Now, and I’m saying this just to clear it up because Ted says "he took adv —" I didn’t do anything.

Then when I saw somebody tweeted a picture of Melania and a picture of Heidi [Cruz] — who I think, by the way, is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman, I have to tell you. I think Heidi Cruz is a great person. I think it’s the best thing he’s got going and his kids, if you wanna know the truth. In a certain way, although he’s got good intellect but he doesn’t know how to use it. And he was a good debater but he didn’t do well in the debates against me, according to every poll. I mean every poll. Just a great debater except he lost in every single poll in every single debate.

So that takes care of the Heidi thing because Heidi is a terrific woman but they sent out — Now he said, "That was a PAC. We had nothing to do —" Folks, most of us are political people, right? We’re not babies. His people were on the PAC. So he said, "We had nothing to do —, we had to —" Now, probably, you could trace it down with emails, but they’re pretty smart, probably just used phone calls. But look, it was a PAC with many of his friends. It was a Cruz Super PAC. I think he even said, "Well it wasn’t really meant for us." It was a Cruz PAC. It was his people.

Okay so they sent out the first picture. Please remember.

Okay. Number two.

His father. I don't know his father, I met him once. I think he's a lovely guy. I think he's a lovely guy. All I did was point out that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now, Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead he said, "Donald Trump!" — I had nothing to do with it!

This was a magazine that frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got OJ, they got Edwards. If that was the New York Times, they would've gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. I've always said, "Why didn't the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards, and OJ Simpson, and all of these things?"

But anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture, having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, I’m not saying anything. Here’s how the press takes that story. This had nothing to do with me. Except I might have pointed it out, but it had nothing to do with me, I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But nobody ever denied — did anyone ever deny that it was his father? It’s a little hard to do, because it looks like him.

So here’s the story, they say, "Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories, he went out and said his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald, and he assassinated the president." What’d I do?

So two things. Those were the two points.

So on those two points, he said about the endorsement — And I just cleared up, I think I’m doing the right thing in doing it but I have to do it. Number one: The Heidi thing you understand now. Number two: I know nothing about his father, I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. But there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer which does have credibility, and they’re not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong. Okay? A lot of money. And there was a picture, and that’s the only thing I know. So now they use the two things as the reason he won’t support me.

-VOX

First they came for the porn . . .

From the Republican platform:

Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions. We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children’s safety and well-being.

Nothing about gun violence. Nothing about racism. Nothing about climate change. But, they will fight the porn. 

Trump's racist Friends

Well this is beautiful! After years of courting religious extremists, racists, sovereign citizen weirdos, and assorted crazies the Republican party is now faced with the stark reality that those people are in fact their base. It isn't pretty, but boy is it fun!

Trump wins another debate with clowns

HuffPo has the best analysis of the most recent "debate":

Thursday night's Republican debate reached circus levels of absurdity. Wolf Blitzer lost control. Donald Trump took over. Marco Rubio dripped in sweat. Ted Cruz looked lost at home. Ben Carson seldom spoke but produced the wittiest zinger of the night. "Can someone please attack me," he begged, in an effort to be noticed amidst the massacre.

Chaos

Rubio looks more and more like a small child lost and out of his depth. Cruz may actually be the The Zodiac Killer. 
And, poor Ben Carson seems to be drugged. All in all, a wonderful look into the modern Republican party.

Marco Rubio is a Scandal 'Bot

It seems that Marco Rubio wants to Unseat The TRUMP and become the Republican Nominee in order to face either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. I hope he does. He is an oppo researcher's wet dream. Here are a few links, just for fun!


Marco Rubio has some issues that

should hurt his whitehouse bid.

There's this

and drug lords

and such

and real estate

which isn't going away

and the credit cards

and his arest record

which does not look good for a "values" Republican.

and these are the tip of the Marco Rubio Scandal iceberg

Kanye West for SCOTUS

Supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia died (no doubt murdered by Donald Trump is a rage over competing comb overs).   Scalia was a dim bulb and an ideologue of the worst sort.A Twitter Egg.   I man who could barely string together a coherent series of ideas, and instead parroted talk radio bromides peppered with anachronistic slang in an attempt to sound interesting. He was a man with no ethical center, and no true judicial core. He ranted about originialism and textualism, then created, out of whole cloth, an individual right to own machine guns. He loved the original text of the constitution in it was useful in oppressing the poor and minorities and ignored it when it got in the way of his corporate gods. None of that I really important here, though.

Scalia’s replacement is what we must be interested in. The Repulicans had an easy path before them:

1.       Pretend to play ball

2.       Go slow

3.       Vote down every nominee that Obama offered.

That is all they needed to do. They would get what they wanted, and it would cost them nothing. Instead, in what can only be called an unforced error, they began (within minutes of Scalia’s demise) screaming that they would defy the constitution, shut down the system and fuck everyone. They threw a tantrum. Now they have to pay the price.

The price will likely be a Democratic Senate.

And, as for Scalia’s replacement? The possibilities are (in Descending order):

Hillary Clinton picks a liberal

Bernie Sanders picks a Super-Liberal

Donald Trump picks Kanye West

Have at it

Trump v Cruz

Vox discusses why some of the GOP elite seem to prefer Trump to Cruz. They get it dead wrong. The reason the Bob Dole wing of the Republican party prefers Donald Trump over Ted Cruz is simple. Trump can't win, Cruz possibly could.

The calculation is this: Trump on the top of the ballot guarantees that Hillary Clinton (or Berni Sanders) becomes president and likely gives control of congress back to the Democrats. Dole et al think that the Republican party can survive that over the long term.

On the other hand, a Cruz candidacy is likely to create the same effect, but there is a small chance that Cruz could win. A Cruz presidency would wreck the economy for a generation. It would be a disaster of diplomacy. The nation would almost certainly enter into at least one new war. Our allies would possibly abandon us. We would come very close to becoming a failed state. And no other Republican could be elected president in generations.
\

That is their fear. It is a rational fear.

Dog Whistle Through a Loudspeaker

"These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty … these types of guys … they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. […] Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road."

That's Maine Governor Paul LePage. He actually said that, in public on the record. Doesn't he know that you are supposed to save the KKK rhetoric for closed door meetings with supporters?

here's more on this

YeeHawd

These are all on the Twitter:

#YallQueda #YeeHawd #VanillaISIS #YokelHaram #CowTippingTerrorists #FailQueda #Infantada #WhiteSIS #SaturdayNightTreason 

Why? Because redneck gunhumpers decided to commit arson on a federal wildlife reserve and when that sociopathic behavior led to legal consequences, more redneck idiots with guns decided to stage an armed insurrection. In an act of terrorism / stupidity they have invaded government buildings. This is low rent terrorism at its dumbest.

Wants some links to the story? Here ya go:

one 

two 

buckle my shoe 

Bigots

This sentence sums it up:

But living in a country where supporting and encouraging hate is part of political discourse is a grind.

Lawyers, guns and money