September 29, 2018

Will the FBI try to confirm/invalidate Kavanaugh's Testimony? Bad for Kav if they try or don't.

I was just thinking Kavanaugh has said a whole lot of things under oath in the last couple of weeks. If the FBI were to try to confirm or impeach his testimony he's going to be in a world of hurt.

Actually, they don't even have to try to attack his testimony directly in an investigation. The heart of any investigation they do of him should really either confirm his testimony or give good cause for him to be referred for charges of perjury.

September 22, 2018

What Kompromat does GOP have on Kavanaugh?

The thought just occurred to me. The GOP probably has blackmail documents on Kavanaugh. Things that are worse than what we already know. That would make him an even more perfect pick for them.

It seems pretty clear he's a sexual predator. His taste for model-like interns is well known. His need to know and expose the most lurid details of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair were unnecessary to the case but perhaps quite titillating to him and others in private.

All this makes me wonder just how big a predator and pervert he might really be. If the GOP has information on him they have to worry even less about him being a solid vote. They have not only his ideology but his blackmail documents.

September 19, 2018

SCOTUS orders disclosure of dark money donors

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/648722358/supreme-court-orders-disclosure-for-dark-money-as-new-report-unveils-some-donors

The Supreme Court on Tuesday insisted that many donations to predominantly conservative political nonprofit groups — what's often called dark money — be disclosed, seven weeks ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

The ruling closes, at least for now, a loophole that has allowed wealthy donors to finance aggressive ads while staying anonymous. Crafted by the Federal Election Commission nearly 40 years ago, the loophole flourished after the 2010 Citizens United ruling.


Sorry if this is a duplicate, but I didn't see it.

September 1, 2018

Can we be honest about McCain for a minute? If it weren't for Trump...

If it were not for Trump, I doubt people would be doing so much to defend a Republican Senator. Let's be very clear here. McCain was a Republican Senator who voted the party line the majority of the time.

- McCain was very much part of the "Pro-Life" fetus-worship cult
- McCain voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
- McCain was against ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell
- McCain voted against adding federal protections based on sexual orientation
- McCain was for repealing the ACA until the very end and that last vote to screw Trump. Like most Republicans, he campaigned in his last Senate race on a promise to repeal and replace the law with something better.
- McCain voted against giving DC representation in congress
- McCain voted for Chamber of Commerce legislation almost all the time
- McCain voted AGAINST Sonia Sotamayor for SCOTUS
- McCain voted for repealing the Estate Tax

McCain gets a lot of credit for that one time he defended Obama during the Presidential campaign. But people have forgotten the rest of his campaign stoked the meme that Obama was a Muslim. McCain propped up Sarah Palin who said "Barack Hussein Obama" with an emphasis on "Hussein" as often as she could. Hell, he gave us that deplorable Sarah Palin in the first place.

So, let's be honest about McCain. He was a Republican who voted like a Republican. If he hadn't been such a thorn in Trump's side we'd be saying respectful things and not dancing on his grave. Because that is type of people we are.

I don't think we'd be doing all this hero-worship I'm seeing though. I really don't think his overall record bears out any reason he deserves that. When we look at his vote that "saved" the ACA I don't really believe it mattered as much as people would like to think. Frankly, I think he saved the GOP from shooting itself in the foot on that one more than anything. All they've done now, is to go about dismantling the ACA by more covert methods.

No, I don't wish ill for his family. I've lost both of my parents so I have sympathy for his family. I just don't think he deserves the hero-worship he's getting here.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it knowing lots of people disagree.

August 26, 2018

Horrible realization

I just checked. McCain's death made me think about it. Presidents are automatically granted the honor of lying in state when they die. That means Trump will be entitled to that if he's not impeached and removed. You know he'll leave instructions for his family to do it.

Nixon's family had the good sense to decline that apparently. But as far as I can tell Nixon could have lain in state.

August 24, 2018

We'd Better Hope Trump Doesn't Get Impeached, Convicted and Removed.

I don't want Trump impeached or removed from office. Shocked to hear that? I'll tell you why. If Trump leaves office then we have Pence. After Trump's insanity Pence will look like a miracle to people. The news media will fawn over him and how he "cleaned up Trump's mess." How things are so much better now that the insane orange man is gone. Pence would be the savior.

That could easily put him in the lead for 2020. That would mean another 4 to 6 years of Pence, Sessions and their Religious Freedom Task force style of government. Which really means concerted efforts to put into place their Christian Sharia law. In their version of Christianity Corporations are just as holy as a fetus.

That's a more frightening thought to me than riding out the Trump nuttiness right now.

August 22, 2018

The spin will be "They forced him to do it."

I'm sure the immediate lie will be Trump knew nothing. Of course, the recordings will tell a different story. So then, they will spin it as something he HAD to do. It wasn't a choice. The Dems/Hillary/Obama/Media/Deep State/anyone backed him and his campaign into a corner over things that they will say didn't matter in the first place. That will be the PR spin for his base.

The legal spin for court will be:

They will say everyone already knew about the pussy tape and that he cheated on his fist two wives. So why would he need to pay off women in the first place to affect the election? No, he just did it to save his family the embarrassment. Had nothing to do with the campaign.

July 22, 2018

This is why religion is such a dangerous thing. WaPo article. "Judgment days"

They twist themselves into any sort of unnatural position to support the authority (in this case 45). These Southern Baptists, of whom I used to be one, are the worst hypocrites and most judgemental people I know. Racists, bigots and very happily ignorant. Getting more of an education than a high school diploma to them is "putting on airs" and getting into bed with Satan because you start to question things. Of trying to be "intellectually superior" for simply making a logical argument and then backing it up with links to the supporting facts. I have been accused of all these recently by some of my old classmates from home.

(sorry for the paywall link. Right-click and open in a private/incognito window to open the link)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/07/21/feature/god-trump-and-the-meaning-of-morality/?utm_term=.653b5371e5b3

“Oh, I feel like the Lord heard our prayers and gave us a second chance before the end times,” she had said a few days before, when she was working at the food pantry of the Alabama Crenshaw Baptist Association.

“I think they are trying to frame him,” she said, referring to the unflattering stories about the president.

It was a binary world, not just for Jewell Killough but for everyone sitting inside the sanctuary of First Baptist Church, who prayed all the time about how to navigate it.

There is no grey in their world. There is only what they are told to believe. They are to read the Bible but not question it when it contradicts itself or the things they do not understand. Not to try to interpret "God's" word on their own. They are to go to their pastor for all the answers. Thinking on one's own is just temptation from the devil.

These people display the problem with every fundamentalist in every religion.

June 23, 2018

We need to stop taking the Melania bait.

I feel very certain 45 sent her out in that coat on purpose. Full well hoping everyone would jump on the tone deaf story and change the headlines. It worked. At least for a while. Had the real issue of separating families been less emotional and less offensive it would have gone away.

We have to stop letting him drive the news his way. That is one thing he is really good at.

June 3, 2018

One argument against self-pardons - Noblity Prohibited

If I were arguing the case against Ghouliani on the thought that Presidents can pardon themselves one of the arguments I'd put forth to the court is that the Constitution forbids the awarding of titles of nobility. The intent there is not just that the President should not be called a king but that the President is NOT a king or monarch of any sort.

It should be embarrassing for an actual, licensed, attorney to make the argument the Ghouliani is making. But, since we've dumbed down US citizens they can count on the 45 cultists just going along without critical thought.

If Ghouliani's logic held, then it would be perfectly fine for Trump to murder Ruth Bader Ginsberg on 5th Avenue so he could appoint a new justice, then pardon himself of the Federal Crime for murdering a person appointed to a federal position. Then NY, as it currently stands, cannot prosecute him for the same crime.

That is so absurd that I cannot believe that even the most right-wing justices would want to set that sort of precedent. Where would this end? The President would, effectively, become a monarch.