American suckers.

Like other people who watch politics for fun, and view it as something akin to the National Football League, I am really enjoying this summer of Donald Trump right now.

 I bet he can't even believe what a ride he is having. Dude must pinch himself every time he wakes up in his gaudy gold crusted bed.  The guy puts his foot deeper in his mouth, and his lead in the polls widen. Go figure. (What was that P.T. Barnum said? Oh yea, something about a sucker.)

All of this is causing the GOP establishment and the also- rans who make up their field of presidential contenders some serious consternation.

And journalists can't write enough about his unlikely and incredible lead in the polls. It's like a college football team leading the New England Patriots at half time.

"I feel like I've written this post four or five times now. But I just cannot get over or even fully get my head around the way that Donald Trump's mere presence in the race has this power to drive everyone on the Republican side of the aisle insane. I don't mean just that they don't like that he's in the lead and creating campaign havoc. I mean forgetting who they are, getting into fights with each other, and just generally losing their minds.

It's like one of these classic Star Trek episodes where some malevolent non-corporeal force is driving everyone mad or putting everyone at each other's throats for some unknown reason. But it's not non-corporeal at all. It's extremely corporeal, more than you and me. It's Donald Trump.

The latest example - actually the second that involves him, the first being the Trump-triggered feud with Bristol Palin - is with Erick Erickson.

Erickson has posted a series of rage- and expletive-filled emails he got from Trump supporters after he tried to knock Trump when Erickson thought he was done - just after the Fox GOP debate when he thought Trump was on the ropes and conservatives were turning on him. As we know, Trump wasn't down at all. He was only getting stronger, about to successfully pocket an abject surrender from Fox News and perhaps even force Fox to turn over hostages for good behavior.

This has inspired Erickson to opine about the toxicity of public rhetoric today and importance of civility and being "happy warriors." My point here isn't to bash Erickson. He's a friendly enough guy in person. But he is not a civility guy. No way, no how, not even remotely. But now he's come into the Trump harmonic convergence field and apparently forgotten who he is and lost his mind.

Like I said, I don't know how Trump does it. He may have superpowers that require him to be President." [Source]

Poor John Marshall cant figure it out, either.

The folks over at FOX  are losing their minds as they count their money. (I saw those debate ratings)
This time, though, they might have sold their souls to the wrong devil. Unlike other right wing political candidates, this one cannot be controlled. So Megyn took an unsuspected vacation, Trump is bragging about beating them, and deep within the bowels of the wingnut echo chamber there are different sounds coming from different places.

This has been fun to watch, but I am almost out of popcorn. Honestly, I thought that this freak show would have been over by now.

*Pic from youtube.com

"Ugly" thoughts.

So I am looking at this conservative writer, and, from the looks of things, his parents doomed him to a life of failure. (This dude ain't dating no super models anytime soon. Just sayin.)


Honestly, if this guy had a billion dollars sitting in the bank it wouldn't help his lot in life, because, at the end of the day, he would still be him.


This might explain why he hates poor and downtrodden people so much.


"Conservative blogger and author Erick Erickson said Thursday that some minimum wage workers have simply “failed at life.”


Erickson made the comment while guest hosting for Rush Limbaugh‘s radio program.


“The minimum wage is mostly people who failed at life and high school kids,” Erickson said. “Seriously, look. I don’t mean to be ugly with you people. … If you’re a 30-something-year-old person and you’re making minimum wage you probably failed at life.”


Erickson dismissed the idea that some of those people may have just been down on their luck. “It is not that life dealt you a bad hand,” he said. “Life does not deal you cards. It’s that you failed at life.”' [Source]


You don't mean to be ugly, but you are. Literally.


This guy better not eat out for the rest of his life. (Spit sauce with just about every meal.) Who does he think is serving him, parking his car, and making his food in some of those fancy restaurants that I am sure he likes to frequent?


Personally, I applaud people who have been down on their luck (for whatever reason) and who are willing to take a minimum wage job --or two--- to try and pull themselves up again by putting in an honest day's work. Operative word being work. That is more than I can say for Erickson and his right- wing buddies who are here on earth sucking up the air that us decent people have to breathe.


But this is where we are with the class war currently going on in America. On one side we have people like Erick Erickson and his buddies. And on the other side we have hard working Americans who are just trying to make it and take care of themselves and their families.


The dope boys are listening to folks like Erick Erickson who demonize hard work for little pay. In fact, like Erickson, they make fun of minimum wage workers all the time. "Man I ain't flipping no burgers for a living. I can make in an hour slinging on the corner what it takes me a week to make working at Mickey D's."


You would think conservatives would encourage hard work. Start off at minimum wage and work your way up. If you work hard you will be rewarded. Isn't that the American way?


That's certainly what Jason Riley seems to be saying in a typical house Negro pull yourself up the bootstrap screed he penned, recently. (Yo Jason, your ideological soul-mate doesn't want anyone to pull themselves up; he says that they are all failures.)


"The minimum wage is mostly people who failed at life and high school kids.... Seriously, look. I don’t mean to be ugly with you people.."


Too late.
  

The political truce is over.

"The reheated Benghazi "scandal" and other two aimless "scandals" are nothing but political junkie fodder. Neither will end in anything substantial. Collective yawns from the public as the tea party queens flog themselves with their laminated copies of the constitution that they can't read."

~Comment left on Mediaite~

Ouch!

I think we are far enough away from the tragedy in Oklahoma to declare an end to the cease fire when it comes to political s*** talking.

Of course the wingnuts couldn't even wait until the wind stopped swirling to start with their political cheap shots.

"That’s exactly the premise of a tweet that Fox News contributor Erick Erickson sent in the aftermath of the devastation. “I wonder when President Obama will find out about Oklahoma,” ...Erickson went on to scold his critics as humorless and “self-righteous,” even as he tweeted “Confession: I often hesitate to retweet pastors because of the unbridled hate from the hell bound that might then get directed at them.” [Source]

Erickson is a moron and a racist, so his very inappropriate and ill- timed tweet is not all that surprising. 

Bill Bennett, on the other hand, surprised me a bit. I expected a  little more from him. But there he was on his radio show this morning belittling and making fun of the poor people who suffered during Katrina and praising the folks from Oklahoma for their "fighting spirit" and their "patriotic American can- do attitude". [No links, but if I am lying, Bill Bennett is free to try and to sue me.] Bill Bennett, like all those of his ilk, is a sanctimonious dope.

And, as if this wasn't enough,a wingnut politrickster found it necessary to play political games with a national tragedy.

"As of this morning, at least 51 people, including 20 children, are dead in the suburbs of Oklahoma City, following one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Rescue teams worked through the night, especially in the devastated city of Moore, and local officials fear the death toll may yet rise significantly. [Update: as of this afternoon, the death toll had been revised down to 24, not 51.]

Ordinarily, so soon after a disaster of this magnitude, discussions about political agendas and ideologies are put on hold, which is why it came as a surprise when one of Oklahoma's U.S. senators staked out a far-right position on federal disaster relief just five hours after the storm hit.

The tornado damage near Oklahoma City is still being assessed and the death toll is expected to rise, but already Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he will insist that any federal disaster aid be paid for with cuts elsewhere. 

CQ Roll Call reporter Jennifer Scholtes wrote for CQ.com Monday evening that Coburn said he would "absolutely" demand offsets for any federal aid that Congress provides. 

Coburn added, Scholtes wrote, that it is too early to guess at a damage toll but that he knows for certain he will fight to make sure disaster funding that the federal government contributes is paid for.

I've seen many note overnight that Coburn is at least consistent -- there are plenty of politicians who've balked at disaster-relief funds when there's a devastating storm, only to change their minds when their constituents are among the casualties. Coburn, however, has routinely questioned emergency funding for everyone, and apparently wants to apply the same standards to his own home state.

But while consistently is welcome, it doesn't change the questions about unnecessary callousness.

---

For many years, federal disaster relief was effectively automatic -- there was bipartisan support for quickly responding to American communities in their time of need. It was a reflection of who we are as a people -- when disaster strikes, we're there for the people in affected areas, regardless of politics.

But in recent years, many Republican lawmakers have decided to change the standards. Under the new approach, they'll consider emergency resources, but only if Democrats agree to cut a comparable amount from the budget elsewhere. There's no real economic rationale for this, but for much of the right, the ideological rationale is sufficient."' [Source]

Overheard in the Fox newsroom: "Is it safe to talk about Benghazi and the IRS now?" 

Yes wingnut, the truce is over.

 





 

Barack Truman?

O was in a fighting mood tonight. He tried to go all Harry Truman while laying out a plan for jobs jobs jobs here in A-merry-ca. I think he called his latest project the "American Jobs Act". Payroll tax cuts for small businesses who hire people. Build schools. Build roads and bridges.(An infrastructure bank that would pool billions of dollars and could lead to a million construction jobs?Bold.)  Hire veterans when they come home. Hire teachers....and on and on it goes. "Pass this jobs bill!" He kept saying.

He said it would be all paid for. "But how will we pay for all of this without  further raising the deficit Mr. President?" Close tax loopholes, restructuring certain entitlement programs like Medicare, and raising personal income taxes for those who can afford it in our country. (Memo to O, next time put someone else in the box next to the wonderful first lady besides the CEO of the main culprit for sending A-merry-can money and jobs oversees.) 

"I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It's called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans – including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

"This isn't political grandstanding. This isn't class warfare. This is simple math. These are real choices that we have to make."

Okay, this all sounds great, but here is the reality: we are just a few months away from a national election, and the folks who are trying to get the White House back are going to do nothing to help you turn the economy around. They want you to fail, Mr. President. Which part of that don't you understand? It's not in their best interest to turn this economy around.

Half of these committees in Washington that will be responsible for moving this bill and various aspects of it will be led by republicans. Good look with getting any cooperation from wingnuts. Sorry, I think that your "American Jobs Act" will be dead on arrival in wingnuts circles.

"It will provide a jolt to the American economy ... you should pass this jobs plan right away."

Well, let's see what the wingnuts are saying, shall we?

RedState's Erick Erickson isn't happy, via Twitter: "Instead of yelling 'you lie' at him, I wish they'd loudly laugh at this farce. This speech is a rehashed joke."

Oh my! Mr. Erickson, that isn't nice. His O ness is trying to reach out to you folks, and this is the kind of response he gets?

I guess Mr. Erickson and others can't help put push back when there are powerful forces on the right demanding a change from the beige man by any means necessary:

"We have Saddam Hussein," declared billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, apparently referring to President Barack Obama as he welcomed hundreds of wealthy guests to the latest of the secret fundraising and strategy seminars he and his brother host twice a year. The 2012 elections, he warned, will be "the mother of all wars."

Charles Koch would probably not publicly compare the president of the United States to a murderous dictator. (As a general rule, he and his brother don't do much politicking or speechifying in public at all.) But Mother Jones has obtained exclusive audio recordings from the Koch seminar, a private event that took place in June at a resort near Vail, Colorado.

These unprecedented recordings provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the Koch brothers and their comrades talk when they gather. They include a pair of keynote speeches and remarks by brothers Charles and David Koch, who spell out their political aims and name some of the "great partners" who have contributed millions of dollars to their causes. (The audio was provided by a source who approached the author after the event was over and was not seeking compensation.)

Security was tight at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch on opening night of the weekend conference, which drew an estimated 300 guests. (Past attendees have included prominent politicians, right-wing media luminaries, corporate titans, and wealthy political donors.) Audio technicians even set up outward-pointing speakers around the perimeter of the outdoor dining pavilion, according to sources, emitting static to frustrate would-be eavesdroppers.

"There is anonymity that we can protect," noted emcee "Kevin"—likely Kevin Gentry, a VP for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation—as he gently urged guests to open their wallets in support of the brothers' causes. Indeed, Charles Koch named 32 individuals and families who had donated more than $1 million over the previous 12 months, yet because of loopholes in federal campaign law, their donations do not exist in the public record.

Charles and David Koch are co-owners of Koch Industries, an energy and chemical conglomerate inherited from their father that is currently America's second-largest privately held company. To date, the brothers have spent more than $100 million supporting hard-right political campaigns and institutions. They are key funders of the movement to discredit climate science and sow doubt on the scientific consensus that human activities contribute to global warming.

The Kochs also bankrolled the fledgling tea party by making massive investments in right-wing political advocacy groups such as Americans for Prosperity, as detailed by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker last year. More generally, the brothers have dedicated a portion of their vast wealth—and that of their benefactors—to influencing elections across the nation and swaying public opinion on everything from health care and fracking to labor policy and government spending.
The brothers have held their twice-yearly seminars since at least 2003,

endeavoring to keep almost everything about them a secret—not just the content but also the identities of attendees and speakers, and even the locations and dates. They've succeeded until recently. Last October, a leaked invite for the Kochs' January 2011 seminar was first obtained and published by the New York Times.* In response, groups including Common Cause and Greenpeace organized a massive protest outside the gates of the resort near Palm Springs where the gathering was held.

According to an agenda (PDF) for an earlier Koch seminar (Aspen, 2010) that accompanied the leaked invitation, previous Koch seminars have featured "such notable leaders" as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also have attended.

Several GOP governors made it to the Vail seminar in June, among them Florida's Rick Scott, Virginia's Robert McDonnell, and White House hopeful Rick Perry of Texas. News of the event slipped out after McDonnell put the trip on his weekend schedule; neither Perry nor Scott initially disclosed the trip to their constituents. A Perry spokesman acknowledged his attendance only after the Austin American-Statesman tracked the tail number of a plane belonging to one of the governor's top donors from Texas to Colorado. He described the summit as a "private gathering of business leaders."

I contacted the Kochs numerous times with questions about the seminar, requesting clarification, for example, on Charles' Saddam Hussein reference. Without addressing the specifics, a spokeswoman for the Kochs merely pointed me to a Koch Industries web page describing the conference. (UPDATE: A Koch spokesman gave ABC News' Jake Tapper a statement claiming that Koch was "not referring to President Obama in his remarks." [Source]

So you have a wingnut billionaire referring to the President of these divided states as a murderous dictator who was hung by his own people, and one of the candidates for president flying off to one of his retreats in secret on a private jet. Nice.  

Yep, good luck with that jobs act O, you are going to have to overcome a heck of a lot more than a bunch of ideological politicians in Washington.