#SOTU

   I just listened to president trump's address to congress, and while he has gotten a little better at reading his teleprompter, it was still a pretty pathetic display by all objective standards. It was full of nationalistic tones with zero substance, and it was confusing to boot. (Cut corporate  and middle class taxes AND spend on infrastructure??)

He did not tell us how he was going to implement any of the grand policies that he was prattling on about; he demonized immigrants over and over again; and, once again, he equated poverty to black folks (and as my twitter fam observed), "tied it into violence". 

There were black people serving as props throughout the audience, and he called on them, time and time again, to show the rest of America that he is not a racist. (Good luck with that.)

The worst part of the speech, though, was when he called on the widow of a slain Navy Seal, Carryn Owens,  *Benghazi*  and when the audience gave her a long standing ovation. He couldn't help himself, so he had to make it all about him.

The speech was almost an hour long.
Unfortunately it is an hour out of my life that I will never get back.

Profiling the son of the GOAT.

* I have flown into  Fort Lauderdale  airport a time or two from Jamaica, and the last time I did (about two years ago) I got the business from a Cuban American customs agent who questioned me for about 20 minutes about my background, profession, and my stay in Jamaica, etc. I was pissed at this secondary inspection, but I endured.

To be fair, I had left my cousins recording studio in Vineyard Town (shout out to Grafton Road Studios) about four hours earlier, and I am sure that the good collie weed smelling up my clothes was causing the drug sniffing dogs to act up just a bit. (I personally don't smoke the stuff, it was in my clothes from  others smoking.)

Anywhoo, my point is that it's not a good feeling being singled out by customs agents, but in this particular instance, I will give the agent a pass.

Fast forward two years later under the rule of Fuhrer trump.

The son of Muhammad Ali was also traveling into the Fort Lauderdale airport from Jamaica, and sadly, he was profiled, held, and questioned; not because the dogs smelled the Jamaican national plant on his clothes, but because of his religion.

"The namesake son of the Greatest of All Time was detained at a Florida airport earlier this month and asked about his religion in the wake of President Trump’s executive order on immigration, according to reports.

Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, was traveling from Jamaica with his mother Khalilah Ali when immigration officers stopped him at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and repeatedly questioned him on Feb. 7, Ali’s lawyer told the Miami New Times.

Khalilah Ali, who had given a speech about black history in Jamaica, showed officers a picture of herself with her ex-husband, who died last June, and was not detained.

The stop came a week after Trump issued an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.

Ali Jr., an American citizen, was carrying a U.S. passport." [Source]

We better get used to this kind of stuff happening. This is the new normal in trumpland.  Pretty soon they will be taking folks off domestic flights and checking up on them.

 Wait.....oh never mind, it already happened.

Memo to travelers in America: If you have a Muslim sounding name you might want to change it, and if you visit a recording studio where lots of ganga is being smoked, you just might want to stay outside.

*Pic from AOL.com
 

Defining terrorism.

*Acts of terror continue across the country, and sadly, the alleged perpetrators didn't need visas or passports to get here. They were all made in America.

Here in my hometown of Philly, a Jewish cemetery was once again vandalized by folks who obviously feel emboldened after the latest elections in America.

It's sad, really, but this is what we have become as a country.

In Kansas, the guy who shot up a bar wanted to know if the three Indian men sitting there had visas and were in the country legally, before he shot up the place, killing one of them and putting the other two in the hospital.

(For the record, they did. )

We know one thing, the trump administration will not be calling the families of these men or apologizing to the immigrant community for his actions, because, to them, what they did is not really terrorism. Terrorism only happens when an atrocious act is committed by a brown person of a certain religion.

Still, maybe it's better that the administration doesn't reach out.

I mean we see what happened when they tried to reach out to the Jewish people.

"Vice President Mike Pence stands with Israel — but flies flags for Nicaragua.

As Pence declared his unequivocal support for Israel during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Friday night, one of his staffers tweeted out Nicaraguan flags from the official Vice Presidential account — twice.

"Under @POTUS Trump, we will stand with Israel," somebody tweeted out minutes before Pence's speech, followed by a Nicaraguan flag emoji.

The Israeli and Nicaraguan flags both feature blue horizontal banners. But the Israeli flag's banners are much thinner and enclose the six-pointed Star of David, while the Nicaraguan flag's banners enclose a triangle comprised of volcanoes, a rising sun and a rainbow."

Whoops!

*Pic from cbsnews.com

CAPTION SATURDAY. (A TWOFER.)

I need a captions for these pics.

Example: "Donald, aren't you forgetting something?"

*Pic from metrouk.com

 

Example: "Come on girl, I got you."

 

*Pic from virtantiq.com

Night off.

No post tonight, field hands. Catch you tomorrow.

OPEN THREAD THURSDAY.

It's open thread Thursday, and there is so much to talk about.

It looks like Mr. trump is embracing mass incarceration, he is clamping down on the good collie weed, and he is calling for more state's rights  here in America. (Y'all remember how that worked out? )

To top it all off, he wants more powerful nukes at his finger tips.

Thoughts?

Susan Collins, tax returns, and Felix Sater. Day 33 in trumpland.

* I tried to tell you all a couple of nights ago that this Russian connection with trump and his people could be a "big deal".

We are now learning that Herr trump might have to finally release those pesky tax returns he has tried so hard over the past few months to hide from the American people. He claims that he is under an audit, and that his lawyers won't allow him to show them, but he has refused to  show us the letter from the IRS that shows that they are auditing him in the first place. My guess (and I am sure yours is as well) is that there is no such letter.

But I digress.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, said today, that she would subpoena trump's tax returns if the Russia probe leads in that direction.   She is a republican, albeit a moderate one, but there are others like her, and this might be a crack in trump's wall of protection around his swamp in Washington.

They are seeing what we all see: that there is just too much smoke surrounding this entire Russian connection for there not to be a fire.

I am telling you people, this Russian cloud over team trump is like a bad hangover after a night of drinking vodka; it just won't go away.

"Asked whether that could include issuing a subpoena for the tax returns that Trump has refused to release, Collins said it could if that is what is required to find out if the president had undisclosed connections to the Russians.
 

“I don’t know whether we will need to do that,” Collins said. “If it is necessary to get to the answers, then I suspect that we would.”
 

But she also suggested she hoped it would not come to that. 
 

“My hope is that we’ll have a lot of voluntary cooperation,” Collins said."

Senator, you are wasting your time, there will be no cooperation from this administration.  We have learned over the first thirty days or so (seems like 30 years already) of this administration that they are just not built that way.

But there will be a reckoning, and I am sure that trump and his people know it.

I bet Felix Sater knows it. (You can read about him and his history with trump here.)

Across the pond in London, the bookmakers are already taking bets on how much longer trump will last in the White House. Just a hint for you: You won't make a whole lot of money betting that he will be impeached, because a lot of folks are already placing that bet.

"There needs to be a full-blown congressional investigation of the Trump-Russia connection, and there needs to be an independent prosecutor (and not Trump campaign supporter Jeff Sessions, the new attorney general) probing every aspect of a scandal that has all the potential of being worse than Watergate. And the first witness should be Felix Sater."

Yes it does. At least Watergate involved another domestic political party trying to influence our politics. We are talking about a foreign government with this one, and potential collaborators in very powerful positions. 

Donald, it might be time to call your accountant. We are going to need to see those returns.

*Pic from bbc.com














 

A day in the life of Joe Wingnut.

The following is from a friend's facebook page. (h/t Steve) And it sums up, perfectly, the farcical and absurd nature of the right-wingnut mind.

"A day in the life of Joe Wingnut:

Joe gets up at 6:00 A.M., and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee.
The water is clean and good  because some 'tree-hugging liberal' fought for minimum water quality standards.

With his first swallow of coffee he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 worth of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some 'liberal union workers' fought their employers for paid medical insurance--now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast of bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some 'girly man liberal' fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some 'crybaby liberal' fought for his right t know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside, and he takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist 'wacko liberal' fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some 'fancy-pants liberal' fought for affordable public transportation.

Joe now begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent benefits, retirement paid holidays, and vacation because some 'lazy union members' fight and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because he doesn't want his employees (such as Joe) to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some 'stupid liberal' didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It's noontime, and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so that he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some 'godless liberal'  wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the great depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some 'elitist liberal' decided that Joe and the government would be better if he was educated and earned  more money over his lifetime.

Joe is now home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country
He gets in the car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some 'America hating liberal' fought for car safety standards.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmer's Home Administration.

Joe is happy to see his father , who is now retired . His father lives on social security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese eating liberal, made sure that he could take care of himself  so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on talk radio show, The radio host keeps saying that  for the on then way home and   liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that that the beloved Republicans fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

Joe, of course, agrees. 'We don't need those 'big government liberals' running our lives!'After all. I'm a self-made man who believes that everyone should take care of themselves, just like I do.

These liberal snowflakes just want to spend other people's money.'"  

Got it!


   
.

Stay away from "shiny objects".

To quote Uncle Joe Biden, this Russian story with the trump administration is "kind of a big deal".

Now comes word that the president's lawyer, Michael Cohen, hand delivered a peace plan for Russia and Ukraine to former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. and in it he outlined a plan to ease the sanctions against Russia. It's scary stuff. From all accounts the twitter in chief did not even know about this "plan".

Throw in the fact that James Comey, the FBI director, delivered a classified briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday, and now there is a call for a bipartisan investigation into the administration's Russian problem.

Still don't think it's a "big deal"?

Well on Friday that same Senate Intelligence Committeee sent letters to a dozen agencies and individuals and they directed them to preserve records related to the investigation of Russia trying to influence the 2016 elections.  (In other words, do not delete the e-mails.)

I am hoping that we won't continue to get caught up with the "shiny object" strategy of Herr trump. His constant screeching and twitter outbursts about things such as crowd sizes and who is--- or isn't showing him love shouldn't let us lose sight of the real serious issues facing his administration.

They are issues that could derail this presidency and put the I word on the table.

It's President's Day, so it's a good time to remind ourselves that not all presidents are created equal, and that some of them, history will now show, were not even meant for the job.

Terror in Sweden?

   * I am not sure how many of you ever had the pleasure of shopping at one of those IKEA stores. It can be a very pleasurable experience. They actually have a nice little cafe with some good things to eat, and if you happen to have a small child, they will provide free day- care while you shop.

The furniture they sell, for the most part, looks pretty good as well. The problem is, though, that you don't but them already assembled, and you have to assemble them when you get home. That is when the nightmare begins. Believe me people, putting IKEA furniture together can be a terrifying experience.

I wonder if this is what was on the president's mind when he  was referring  to a terror attack in Sweden, yesterday. I say that because no one (including the Swedish authorities) knows just what the hell president trump was talking about when he made reference to that attack.    

"We've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden," Trump told the crowd at his campaign-like rally in Florida on Saturday, critiquing Europe's refugee policies and complaining that his travel ban had been temporarily blocked by the courts. "Sweden, who would believe this?"

Of course there were no attacks or terror coming out of Sweden. (Well, there was the group *ABBA; they were kind of terrifying, but they are no longer a thing.) Just another lie told by the liar in chief.

And, of course, as is always the case, his supporters will try to minimize the lie by saying that the poor guy is just misunderstood, or that we are taking him too literally. I swear, there will soon come a time in this country when trump supporters will believe that two plus twp equals five, and that the main stream media and those on the left are only saying it equals four to distract from the good work that president trump is doing.

But this lie was too large and obvious to go unchecked, and trump did his best to address it today.

"Trump took to his Twitter account Sunday evening to explain that he was referring to a Tucker Carlson segment that appeared on Fox News Friday. In the segment, Carlson interviewed right-wing filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who had recently made a documentary about Sweden's refugee policy. The segment did not contain breaking news.

'My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.'

A White House spokesperson had attempted to explain what Trump had been referring to prior to Trump's tweet.

"He was talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general — not referring to a specific incident," White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
The country had spent the day baffled, however, because the president had said "last night" and nothing appeared to have happened." [Source]

Of course nothing happened, But thousands of his loyal and faithful fans went home thinking that something did.

I can hear them now.

"We have got to do something about those Muslims coming into our country. They just attacked Sweden.

 I sure hope  that they put extra guards around them IKEA stores and Volvo dealerships. These Muslims  mean war."  

*Pic from en.wikipedia.org

CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

Example: " How about a fist bump?"

*Pic from nymag.com  

Presidential vacations.

Remember when wingnuts got upset if the Obama's went on a date or on vacation on our dime? I do.

Well, consider.....

"President Donald Trump may have been elected as the nominee of a party that prides itself on fiscal conservatism, but he and his family are preparing to blow taxpayers out of the water as they continue with their posh lifestyle.

From the president’s frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and his sons’ upcoming trip to the United Arab Emirates to open a golf course in Dubai to the First Lady’s decision to reside at Trump Tower in New York City, the lifestyle choices of Trump and family are running up taxpayers’ tab in an unprecedented manner, according to a report from The Washington Post.

Although the agencies which handle most of these expenses did not reply to the Post’s request for specific figures, the newspaper was able to estimate that the president’s three trips to Mar-a-Lago probably cost roughly $10 million, that New York City spends $500,000 every day to guard Trump Tower (which could reach over $730 million by the end of Trump’s first term), and that Eric Trump’s trip to Uruguay for a Trump-brand condo tower cost nearly $100,000 in hotel bills.

“This is an expensive way to conduct business, and the president should recognize that,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, when speaking to The Post. “The unique thing about President Trump is that he knows what it costs to run a plane.”
By contrast, although Judicial Watch regularly criticized President Obama for forcing taxpayers to cover his vacation costs, they estimated that his expenses only equaled roughly $97 million during his eight-year presidency — a fraction of what is anticipated for Trump". [Source] 

The president will be in Mar-a-Lago again this weekend, That's three weekends in a row. Look,  I know that his wife is not there with him, but it would be nice if our president could stay in Washington at least once in a while.

Anyway, I think that the people are getting tired of it.

This might explain why his approval rating is only at 38%.

*Pic from politico.com

  

Was that press conference real or fake?

  I just watched a bizarre,wacky, and rambling press conference, where the leader of the free world pretty much confirmed that  he is not fit to hold the office.

Journalists were actually heard whispering that it was "insane".

Honestly, it was  surreal. (Mr Michaels, you can stop laughing now.) The man pretty much spent the first half hour lashing out at the press and declaring how great he was and what a "mess 'president Obama left him. It got so bad that we actually got to watch the president lie and try to correct the lie in real time. And,we were left with a quote that is sure to push "alternative facts" off  the top of the trump top hits list.

"The leaks are real. The news is fake"  

But that wasn't the only one. Take your pick.

 “Sit down. So here’s the story. Number one I am the least anti-Semitic person you’ll ever see in your entire life.”

“I’ve been briefed and I can tell you one thing about a briefing that we’re allowed to say because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it—nuclear holocaust would be like no other.”

“The public doesn’t believe you people anymore. Now, maybe I had something to do with that. I don’t know.”

“We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 percent of the uranium in our country. You know what uranium is, right? This thing called nuclear weapons like lots of things are done with uranium including some bad things.”

You get the idea. There were other quotes that were just as bad and worse.

Then there is the way he called out April Ryan.

"When you say the inner cities, are you going to include the (Congressional Black Caucus), Mr. President, in your conversations with your urban agenda, inner city agenda?" Ryan asked, referring to an organization that represents the black Congressional members.

“I’ll tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting?” Trump asked.

Ryan replied that she is a reporter, implying her goal is simply to gather information.

“Are they friends of yours? Let's go set up a meeting,” Trump said. “I would love to meet with the black caucus. I think it’s great.”

The CBC responded on Twitter that Trump has failed to respond to its earlier request for a meeting.


“Hi, @realDonaldTrump. We’re the CBC. We sent you a letter on January 19, but you never wrote us back. Sad!,” it wrote.

In case you didn't get that, April Ryan is black, so, in trump's mind, she has to know the black folks in the CBC.

But not racist. Nooooo.

*Pic from time.com


  

OPEN THREAD WEDNESDAY.

Happy hump-day field hands.

No post tonight.

But I would love to read your thoughts about this,and this, and this and....damn it, just tell me whatever you want.

Peace.

Things I love.

It's Valentines Day, so this post is going to take on an entirely different tone.

The Field Negro has nothing but love in his heart tonight.

And, with this in mind, here are 10 things that I love. (Not necessarily in order of of importance.)

1.  
Emayatzy, I patiently await your next movie.



2.
No country does breakfast like Jamaica. (Ackee, saltfish, and breadfruits beats pancakes every time.)



3.
Owned one. Maybe it's because I was still new to driving at the time, but it's still the sweetest handling car I ever drove.  



4.
The greatest reggae vocalist ever. (Sorry Bob Marley) Don't believe me? Google Dennis Brown on You Tube and listen.



5.
The most underrated city in America.



6.
The most underrated city in the world.



7.
These days, more than ever, it's important to read a good book when you get a chance.

 
8.
4.0 and rising.



9.
Duh!



10.
Still the best beaches in the world.



Oh wait, I think we already covered her.

And Mrs Field of course.

Happy Valentine's Day!