A Mueller sighting.

Donald trump tweeted something that was actually true today: he admitted that the Russians helped him win the 2016 elections.  Of course most of us knew this all along, and I am quite sure that if you were to ask some of these trump sycophants after they swallowed some truth serum they would say the same thing.

If anyone had any doubts what the Russians did (and tried to do) to help trump, those doubts should be removed after listening to what Robert Mueller said in his f**k you Bill Barr press conference yesterday. Mueller finally came out from hiding and told America that if Mr. trump (AKA Individual Number One)  wasn't the president of the United States he would have prosecuted his ass just like he did all the other crooks who surrounded him. He told us that prosecuting the president was never an option, though, because under the rules he was playing by he was not allowed to.

Mr. Mueller is not alone. There are over a thousand federal prosecutors who said that there was enough there to charge trump as well. It's sad that we didn't hear from Mr. Mueller before  Barr jumped out and tried to spin things in trump's favor, because Americans have such a short attention span when it comes to these things.

Trump, of course, was not pleased with Mr. Mueller's presser, and he has been tweeting up a storm ever since. He even called Bill O'Liely in the middle of the night to complain that Mueller didn't like him because he (trump) wouldn't give him his money back after a golf club experience went wrong.
I don;t think innocent people act this way, do you?

Sadly, none of this will make any of the trumpbots change their feelings about Mr. trump, because they are just too vested in being a part of MAGA world. Hopefully the independents in the country who determine the outcome of elections will look at this and see that the emperor has no clothes, and that he is nothing more than just a two bit conman.   

 

Swamp people of a feather flock together.

What Mr.trump just did in Japan was disgusting and reprehensible, even for him.

Can you imagine the president of the United States siding with one of the most evil and despotic regimes in the world's history, over your fellow countryman-and a former Vice President to boot-while on foreign soil? And yet that is exactly what Mr. trump did. It has not hit high enough on the outrage meter as far as I am concerned, but I guess when it comes to this guy nothing can shock us anymore. Breaking News: The president just shot a man to death on a busy New York street. Trump Supporter: He did it for us... . Unbelievable!

Anyway, I am not surprised that Mr. trump admires how they do things in North Korea. Based on a new report from the UN that country is riddled with graft and corruption.

"The United Nations human rights report also accuses Kim Jong-un's government of economic mismanagement, leaving its people fighting to get the basics.
Everyday survival is further hampered by officials demanding bribes, it adds.
North Korea has rejected the report as being "politically motivated for sinister purposes".
The report, entitled The Price is Right is based on interviews carried out with 214 defectors in 2017 and 2018." 

Mr. trump and the people in his circle are right  there with Kim Jong-un when it comes to this subject.

Today it was revealed that transportation secretary Elaine Chow still owned stocks that she promised to divest and it netted her a $40,000 gain.    We have also come to learn that Ivanka and Jared Kushner earned over $80 million dollars last year while working in the White House. But wait, as they say on the game shows, it gets better. Kushner's  family owned construction company also got a $800 million federally backed loan to build apartments in Maryland. Now throw in Scott Pruitt's unauthorized use of government funds, and the likes of Zinke, Carson, and Ross playing fast and loose with government ethics rules, and you can see why the king of the swamp admires how the North Koreans do things.

"'I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong UnKim Jong UnPence honors fallen US service members at Arlington National CemeteryBremmer apologizes after Trump tweet on 'completely ludicrous' quoteTrump knocks Ian Bremmer for 'completely ludicrous quote'MORE called him a ‘low IQ idiot,’ and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer “low IQ individual.’ Who could possibly be upset with that?”'

Well your supporters certainly won't be upset Mr. trump. But then nothing you do would upset them.They are cool with letting the swamp people take them for all they have. 

Today we honor those who served to protect what we might be losing.

Today is Memorial Day here in America. It's the day we honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms and the democracy that we claim to cherish.

Most of us have loved ones or know of someone who has served and some of us, sadly, know ---or have relationships with---- those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. This is the day that we honor their memories, and we should never forget their bravery and sacrifice. 

Now, more than ever, those freedoms that these brave men and women gave their lives for are being threatened. And they are being threatened by a con man who has no sense of  duty and honer, and who could care less about things such as the Constitution and the rule of law which drives our democracy. Some of his law breaking  minions are now being glamorized in the American paper of record, and she is being given a choice whether to break the law or not.   

It is particularly sad, because there is no one who is willing to stand up to him and put a check on the madness. The members of his party are all now cult members who are willing to do anything and everything to please him. The members of the opposition are too weak and cowardly to challenge him with something meaningful, and so all we get are threats of subpoenas and more talk. Where I am from, talk without action means nothing. I suspect that a lot of Americans feel this way, and that we are way past the talking phase at this point. 

Just remember, people, history has a way of repeating itself. I mention that because of the following article I read, recently.

"Look, I know what you’re thinking. Putting Hitler in a book about the terrible mistakes we’ve made as a species isn’t exactly the boldest move ever. "Oh wow, never heard of him, what a fascinating historical nugget" is something you’re probably not saying right now.

But beyond him being (obviously) a genocidal maniac, there’s an aspect to Hitler’s rule that kind of gets missed in our standard view of him. Even if popular culture has long enjoyed turning him into an object of mockery, we still tend to believe that the Nazi machine was ruthlessly efficient, and that the great dictator spent most of his time…well, dictating things.

So it’s worth remembering that Hitler was actually an incompetent, lazy egomaniac and his government was an absolute clown show.

In fact, this may even have helped his rise to power, as he was consistently underestimated by the German elite. Before he became chancellor, many of his opponents had dismissed him as a joke for his crude speeches and tacky rallies. Even after elections had made the Nazis the largest party in the Reichstag, people still kept thinking that Hitler was an easy mark, a blustering idiot who could easily be controlled by smart people.

Why did the elites of Germany so consistently underestimate Hitler? Possibly because they weren’t actually wrong in their assessment of his competency—they just failed to realise that this wasn’t enough to stand in the way of his ambition. As it would turn out, Hitler was really bad at running a government. As his own press chief Otto Dietrich later wrote in his memoir The Hitler I Knew, "In the twelve years of his rule in Germany Hitler produced the biggest confusion in government that has ever existed in a civilized state."

His government was constantly in chaos, with officials having no idea what he wanted them to do, and nobody was entirely clear who was actually in charge of what. He procrastinated wildly when asked to make difficult decisions, and would often end up relying on gut feeling, leaving even close allies in the dark about his plans. His "unreliability had those who worked with him pulling out their hair," as his confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl later wrote in his memoir Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus. This meant that rather than carrying out the duties of state, they spent most of their time in-fighting and back-stabbing each other in an attempt to either win his approval or avoid his attention altogether, depending on what mood he was in that day.

There’s a bit of an argument among historians about whether this was a deliberate ploy on Hitler’s part to get his own way, or whether he was just really, really bad at being in charge of stuff. Dietrich himself came down on the side of it being a cunning tactic to sow division and chaos—and it’s undeniable that he was very effective at that. But when you look at Hitler’s personal habits, it’s hard to shake the feeling that it was just a natural result of putting a workshy narcissist in charge of a country.

Hitler was incredibly lazy. According to his aide Fritz Wiedemann, even when he was in Berlin he wouldn’t get out of bed until after 11 a.m., and wouldn’t do much before lunch other than read what the newspapers had to say about him, the press cuttings being dutifully delivered to him by Dietrich.
He was obsessed with the media and celebrity, and often seems to have viewed himself through that lens. He once described himself as "the greatest actor in Europe," and wrote to a friend, "I believe my life is the greatest novel in world history." In many of his personal habits he came across as strange or even childish—he would have regular naps during the day, he would bite his fingernails at the dinner table, and he had a remarkably sweet tooth that led him to eat "prodigious amounts of cake" and "put so many lumps of sugar in his cup that there was hardly any room for the tea."

He was deeply insecure about his own lack of knowledge, preferring to either ignore information that contradicted his preconceptions, or to lash out at the expertise of others. He hated being laughed at, but enjoyed it when other people were the butt of the joke (he would perform mocking impressions of people he disliked). But he also craved the approval of those he disdained, and his mood would quickly improve if a newspaper wrote something complimentary about him." [More]

Does that all seem familiar? If it doesn't, you might need to get your head out of the sand. 

Enjoy Memorial Day. 

Caption Saturday.

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I need a caption for this pic.


Example: trump administration's version of a government owned property. 

The "cover up".

"     I don't do cover-ups". 

That's what Mr. trump told a room full of politicians who were meeting with him to map out a plan to fix America's serious infrastructure problem.

In what has to be one of the dumbest political moves in history, Mr. trump threw a fit in front of a room full of democrats who wanted to find some common ground with him and get some things done. He walked out to a carefully choreographed press conference to declare that he is sick of being investigated, and that the only way he will come together with the democrats for the common good of the country is if congress gives up their oversight of the executive branch.

Clearly the president has very thin skin, and if he is going to be a true leader he has to put on his big boy pants and get over the fact that he is being investigated (and rightfully so) for all of his alleged misdeeds.

Throw in the fact that another court ruled against him today, and you can see why he probably feels like the walls (pun intended) are closing in.

"I don't do cover-ups". 

Actually, you do Mr. trump. Or did you forget about the money you paid to your side chick/porn star to silence her and cover up your sexcapades?

If you did, I am here to remind: you.Covering up (and lying) is your thing. 






  

What we all should be talking about.

• 

Dear America, please ease up off the Game Of Thrones water cooler talk for just a minute and start talking about stories like the following: 

"Financial transactions by legal entities controlled by Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in 2016 and 2017 were flagged as suspicious by anti-money laundering specialists inside Deutsche Bank. But bank executives repeatedly discouraged the staffers from raising the concerns and filing a formal report with the Treasury Department, according to the New York Times.

The Times talked to five current and former bank employees who said transactions involving Trump’s and Kushner’s firms set off alerts in the computer system that detects potentially suspicious activity. Staff members then prepared what are known as suspicious activity reports but executives at the bank put a stop to them and they were never submitted to the Treasury Department. 

  

Deutsche Bank has been in the spotlight because it has lent billions to the Trump and Kushner companies even as other financial institutions refused to do business with them. Although it isn’t clear what the transactions were about, at least some of them had to do with money going from Kushner’s firms to Russian individuals. Concerns were also raised regarding Trump’s firms and at least one transaction was related to the now-dissolved Donald Trump Foundation.

The Times makes clear that suspicious activity reports by themselves don’t prove any wrongdoing. And regular transactions involving real estate can raise red flags because they can involve all-cash deals. The bank, the Trump Organization and Kushner Companies all denied wrongdoing. But the Times’ sources say the failure to report the transactions is part of a wider culture inside Deutsche Bank in which executives reject reports in order to protect their relationship with wealthy clients.

Congressional investigators have been looking into the long relationship between Deutsche Bank and Trump as well as his family members. Two House committees have filed subpoenas for documents relating to suspicious activities involving Trump’s accounts since 2010 but the president and his family have sued Deutsche Bank to try to block it from complying." [Source]

All these subpoenas being filed by democrats don't mean a thing. Mr. trump and his pals will continue blocking and obstructing until the clock runs out. 

Sadly, Americans don't seem to care. We are all too busy waiting for the next hot HBO series.  

Caption Saturday.

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I need a caption for this pic.

*Pic from yardbarker.com

Give me your most educated and wealthiest of the masses yearning to be free.

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I don't have much to say tonight, although I would like your feedback on this new trump immigration proposal.

Your president has laid out his "merit based immigration plan", and yes, it's as bad as it sounds.

"Under the new plan, 57% of green cards would be awarded on merit as opposed to the current 12%. Immigrants would be expected to be financially self-sufficient, learn English and pass a civics exam. The diversity visa lottery, which offers green cards to citizens of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US, would be terminated.

“If adopted, our plan will transform America’s immigration system into the pride of our nation and the envy of the modern world,” 

This is rich coming from a man who hires undocumented workers, and who could not meet the standard he set for others himself.

Let's see now, he can't speak English, we know that he would flunk the civics exam, and he damn sure isn't  "financially self-sufficient". --How could he be when he lost over a billion dollars?--  And he was still trying to borrow millions of dollars since being elected president. Heck two of his three wives couldn't meet the standard he set for other immigrants who want to come to this country. I am quite sure that Mr. trump's current in- laws would not have been granted green card status under this plan. I guess they got in just in time.     

On its face this doesn't even look like a serious proposal around policy. Sadly, it looks just like another one of his cheap political stunts to fire up his base.

Thoughts?
 

A killing in Texas.

   This past Monday night a police officer in Texas shot and killed a black woman (who screamed that she was pregnant) in her apartment complex.

I am posting this tonight because I don't ever want this type of story to become just another dog bites man news item. 

 "A woman was shot and killed during an altercation with a police officer Monday night in Baytown, Texas, after she resisted arrest and grabbed the officer’s taser, police said.
An officer in the city east of Houston was patrolling an apartment complex when he recognized a woman who lived there who he knew had prior warrants, police said.

When police tried to arrest the woman, 45, whose name they are not releasing at this time, she resisted arrest, said Steve Dorris, a Baytown police lieutenant and public information officer.
The officer was “forced to deploy his taser” on the woman, but it wasn’t “effective,” Dorris said. The woman grabbed the taser and used it on the officer who was trying to arrest her.

The woman’s actions “forced the officer to draw his duty weapon and fire multiple rounds at the suspect who was struck at least one time," Dorris said.

The woman was declared dead at the scene and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office is now assisting in the investigation, police said.
The fatal incident was recorded on social media and went viral, with some commentators questioning why the incident ended in the woman's death.

In a Snapchat video of the incident, the woman told the officer she was pregnant. Police and family members were not able to confirm whether the woman was pregnant, but her family told NBC’s Houston affiliate KPRC-TV that she had two children, both in their 20s.

Witnesses at the apartment complex told KPRC that the woman was "not a bad person," and that she would “just walk around, smoke her cigarettes and walk her dogs.”

Another neighbor, Taylin Inniss, said she heard the shots, and when she learned that someone had been killed at her apartment complex, she didn't believe it.

"They must’ve had a couple of words. Things went a whole different way, and he shot her, and I really feel for the family and I hope they get some type of justice," Inniss said. "I just pray for them honestly because life is short nowadays."

Baytown police are not naming the officer who shot the woman, but said he has worked as an officer for 11 years." [Source]

Incredibly, the police department issued a statement saying that they do not believe that the woman was pregnant as she screamed before being killed. As if it's alright to shoot and kill an unarmed woman. 

Also, the police want the person who video taped the killing to come forward. They were not pleased with a citizen exposing their behavior for all the world to see. 

 "It’s unfortunate that somebody take a tragic incident like this and start posting it on social media. That’s extremely disrespectful for everybody involved,” 

No chief, what's "unfortunate" is that one of your officers is so poorly trained that they have to take the life of a woman in this manner. I will take being alive over being disrespected all day long. 

Had that been a dog, Fido would be alive tonight. Because sadly the lives of some people are not worth as much as our pets. 

It's clearly a sad state of affairs here in America, and it seems that more and more of these types of incidents are happening every day.   

The police officer involved has now been placed on a paid administrative leave, and it will be interesting to see what becomes of his career.

 Personally, I have some strong feelings about how this will all turn out, and I can assure you that they are not good.  

The midnight train to Georgia might have to leave without me.

Most black folks in America consider Atlanta to be the place to be because of its level of hippness, culture, and educational and job opportunities. Most connected and upwardly mobile black folks would rather send their children to Spelman and Morehouse than to Harvard and Yale. Atlanta bills itself as "the city too busy to hate", and if you visit The A you will see why.

Atlanta has a problem, though, it is located in the state of Georgia. And while they might be too busy to hate in the city of Martin Luther King, their neighbors in the state of Georgia do not have the best record when it comes to tolerance and being progressive on issues.

The latest stain on the state's legacy comes courtesy of a bunch of old white men who want to create a type of Handmaid's Tale dystopian society.  They have decided that a  woman's body should be controlled by the state, and if she tries to take control of it, it's punishable by imprisonment.

Georgia's draconian anti-choice law punishes women for trying to take control of their bodies six weeks after their last menstrual period ("Before many women even realize that they are pregnant.") It also criminalizes doctors and other professionals who might help to induce abortions.

It gets worse. If the woman goes to another sate where these laws do not apply, it could apply to her because she is a resident of the state.

If some of these fanatics have their way we will soon find ourselves going back to the days of coat hangers and back room abortions. These right-wingnuts are emboldened because Mr. grab em by the pussy has stacked the courts with conservative Justices who have a very negative view of the female body.

Now, predictably, the backlash has begun  And for that I am thankful. Movie production companies are threatening to pull out of the state.

 "Georgia has been the location for the filming of multiple television shows and blockbuster films, including one of Such films and the production of wildly popular TV series including "The Walking Dead" and "Stranger Things" have resulted in an estimated $2.7 billion pouring into the Southern state from direct spending via 455 productions, the governor's office announced last year.

Filmmakers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele released a joint statement Friday stating they'd stand "shoulder to shoulder with the women of Georgia" as their new show "Lovecraft Country" begins shooting in the state. They promised to donate 100% of their episodic fees to the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia, an election reform organization.

"Governor Kemp's 'Fetal Heartbeat' Abortion Law is an unconstitutional effort to further restrict women and their health providers from making private medical decisions on their terms. Make no mistake, this is an attack aimed squarely and purposely at women," the joint statement read. "We encourage those who are able to funnel any and all resources to these organizations."

On Thursday, Vachon, whose company has been behind such films as "Carol" and "Vox Lux," made her stand known on Twitter.

'Killer Films will no longer consider Georgia as a viable shooting location until this ridiculous law is overturned,' she said. '''  

Good for these companies. Maybe if Georgia feels the monetary pressure that comes with a boycott they will come to their senses. 

Alyssa Milano called for a sex strike against men, but that might be a step too far. I mean why punish all of us men for the acts of a bunch of zealots? Plus, women like sex as well. This type of protest assumes that only men enjoy sex. 

Still, I dig her passion. And this is the kind of passion that will be needed to vote out the people who are making these types of laws and taking our country back to some very dark days. 

Caption Saturday.

I need a caption for this pic.

*Pic from atlanticbb.net

Rudy goes on a mission.

• 

OK, the following story is just nuts.

"President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani dismissed suggestions he is encouraging a foreign government to impact the upcoming US election with his trip to Ukraine, telling CNN on Friday that it is not meddling because the 2020 general election is a year and a half away.

Giuliani tells CNN he intends to travel soon to Ukraine to meet with President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to push the country to investigate matters connected to the release of negative information about Paul Manafort, the then campaign chairman for Trump's 2016 campaign. The former New York mayor also said he will continue to pursue questions about Vice President Joe Biden's call in 2016 to remove the top Ukrainian prosecutor, who at one point had been investigating a Ukrainian natural gas company connected to Biden's son.

 That prosecutor's ouster was called for by many Western governments and donors who criticized him for failing to tackle the country's problems with corruption. There's never been any evidence that Biden acted improperly.

"I don't want any favors, I just want this investigated," Giuliani said in a phone interview.

A week ago, Giuliani told CNN that he was done looking into the Ukraine matters regarding Biden, but in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday he first said he was going to travel to Kiev to press the matter. Giuliani told the Times in defense of the effort.

RELATED: Giuliani previews potential 2020 attack dog role with Biden-Ukraine story

Giuliani said he's meeting in his capacity as the President's personal lawyer and helping to defend his client. He has called on the US Justice Department to investigate both his questions about a supposed conflict for Biden as well as what Giuliani claims may be the corrupt beginnings of the FBI investigation into Trump.

Giuliani had previously told CNN that a "well-regarded investigator" he's known for years put him in touch last November with current and former Ukrainian officials, who he says he's interviewed over Skype and in person. (In 2017, both the Democratic National Committee and a contractor denied working with Ukrainians.)

While searching for evidence, Giuliani says he also stumbled on what he claims is a damaging story about Biden.

In 2016, while then-Vice President Biden was pressuring the Ukrainian government to oust its top prosecutor as part of a broad anti-corruption push by the US, his son Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian company under investigation by that same prosecutor.

Within a year of the prosecutor's removal, Ukraine's new prosecutor general dismissed the case against the company, Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company controlled by one of Ukraine's top oligarchs.

Giuliani's story is littered with holes. According to a report from Bloomberg, the Ukrainian government's case against Burisma had been "dormant" since 2014, two years before Biden successfully pushed to remove the prosecutor general. Biden was also joined in his anti-corruption push against the prosecutor by numerous leaders in Europe as well as the International Monetary Fund -- none of whom had any family ties to Burisma.

Giuliani has been shopping the story to journalists around Washington. The story floated around right-wing circles for a few weeks until May 1, when the Times reported that State Department officials at the time were concerned "that the connection could complicate" Biden's diplomacy.

The Biden campaign declined to comment further and referred CNN to a statement a spokeswoman provided to the Times claiming Biden acted on Ukraine "without any regard for how it would or would not impact" Hunter's business interests." [Source]

 

This is taking muddying the waters and gas lighting to a whole different level. 

Of course he is taking orders from a guy (Mr trump) who has no problem ordering the top law enforcement official in the country to go after his political opponent. 

President Donald Trump told POLITICO on Friday that it would be “appropriate” for him to speak to Attorney General Bill Barr about launching an investigation into his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, or his son, Hunter.

The question of whether Trump could pressure Barr to probe Biden is coming under scrutiny after Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, said he would be traveling to Ukraine to urge the incoming government there to look at Hunter Biden’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company that has reportedly been in prosecutors’ crosshairs. The efforts appear to be part of a broader campaign by Trump’s allies to damage the former Democratic vice president’s White House campaign and have raised questions about whether Trump’s team is trying to enlist a foreign government to aid the president’s re-election bid.

“Certainly it would be an appropriate thing to speak to him about, but I have not done that as of yet. … It could be a very big situation,” Trump said in a 15-minute telephone interview on Friday afternoon, which stemmed from POLITICO’s inquiries for a separate story." [Source]

"Appropriate" to use the power of the presidency to go after a political rival?

That is never alright. Unless, of course, you live in Russia. 

*Pic from huffingtonpost.com