CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

Example:  "Soul Train was the only good thing to come out of America."

*Pic from yahoo.com

Welcome to the "unreality show".

More from one of my favorite writers, Will Bunch.

The Field Negro education series continues.

"It was exactly one week ago that President Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airstrip last week and the punditocracy went wild, proclaiming in the never-to-be-forgotten words of CNN's Fareed Zakaria that "Donald Trump became president of the United States." You knew right then that the adulation-starved POTUS was already plotting a bolder second installment, his own "big bang theory."

So what do you get called now by the self-satisfied Beltway elites after dropping "MOAB" — the 11-ton "Mother of All Bombs," the most lethal non-nuclear weapon in America's awesome arsenal? Did he become Emperor of the Air today? King of All Weaponry? Did the Pretty Big One turn the 45th president into the Godfather of Hole? Or does lobbing the "mother" bomb into some Afghanistan caves finally make Trump the daddy, worthy of the respect that icy  Fred Trump never paid his little boy?

(And in a loosely related matter, will MSNBC's Brian "It's All Too Beautiful" Williams turn to his guest tonight and say that "I am reminded of the Springsteen classic, 'Blinded by the light...'")

 

The funny thing — OK, actually not that funny at all — is that just moments before Trump's latest bomb, I'd been fretting about how our new president's gross inexperience, his penchant for blatant dishonesty, lack of coherent policy or moral convictions, horrible approval ratings, and the growing stench of corruption had already made his position in the White House untenable, on just his 84th day in office. And that the only thing that remains solid is Trump's ability to trigger World War III in a blood-red eye blink.

But the news that the Trump-commanded military had now escalated the conflict in Afghanistan — in a place called Nangarhar that no one can find on a map, in a war that's been going on for 16 years and will probably still be happening long after I'm dead and buried — felt like a crossing of the Rubicon. I know you're supposed to rally around the flag and our commander-in-chief when the bombs — even the old-fashioned normal-sized ones — start bursting in air. But Trump's lack of any moral or ethical compass, not to mention his inability to tell the truth, make it impossible to have faith in our military missions — or in him.

I know it's only been 12 weeks, but America has seen enough. It's already past time for sensible Republicans to join with Democrats to start the process of removing Trump from office and making Mike Pence the 46th president. The fate of the earth may hang in the balance." [More]

A very large weapon of "mass distraction."

 I am on the road tonight, field hands.

But this Guardian story as reported in The Slatest got me to thinking.

"Buried in the last paragraph of a Guardian story about British intelligence alerting the U.S. to contact between Trump advisers and Russian officials is this sort-of bombshell

One source suggested the official [American] investigation was making progress. “They now have specific concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion,” the source said. “This is between people in the Trump campaign and agents of [Russian] influence relating to the use of hacked material.”

That's a bombshell because evidence that Trump advisers were involved in any way with the release of hacked Hillary Clinton-related emails would be an impeachment-level smoking gun in a scandal that currently involves a lot of reports about sketchy relationships but no proof of clearly illegal conduct. It's only sort of a bombshell because, well, who is this one random source and why does he/she seem to be the only person anywhere who knows this potentially world-shaking information?

Here's a McClatchy article about what former national intelligence director James Clapper said he knew about collusion when he left office in January:

Clapper ... said he knew of no evidence that members of Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia during the election campaign and that no suggestion that they had was made in a January report on the subject.

“We did not include anything in our report … that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “There was no evidence of that included in our report. We had no evidence of such collusion.”

 

And here's Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, answering CNN anchor Jake Tapper's April 2 question about whether evidence of collusion exists:

I don’t think we can say anything definitively at this point. We are still at the very early stages of the investigation.

 

(Update, 1:40 p.m.: I'm reminded that Schiff also said on March 22 that he'd seen "more than circumstantial evidence" of collusion—but then stopped short of saying that it was "direct" evidence.)

So ... where did the Guardian's source get this information? I guess we'll find out either soon, in a few months, or never!" [Source]

Is it any wonder that trump is dropping weapons of mass distraction in Afghanistan to distract from the more serious issues facing his administration.

Americans, of course, won't care. The fact that trump is dropping big bombs on evil doers (with nothing to show) will hold our attention for awhile
.   

 

HUMP DAY.

*A few stories in the news got my attention today:

It's still not safe to walk while black in America.*

Ben Carson should take the escalator.

Donald trump flip flops again. (Shocking)

Our Secretary Of State gets dressed down in Russia.

What will Melania trump do with almost 3 million dollars that she doesn't need?

And rest in peace Charlie Murphy.

*Pic from nbcnews.com

Sean's bad day.

        I like to joke that "I have never had a bad day in my life". I mean just waking up every day means that you have already had a good day, right? 

But even I have to admit that some of my days have been worse than others.

There was the time (while still a teenager) that I took a date to a fancy restaurant thinking that I had enough to pay for the meal, only to realize, after we were seated at the table and looking at our menus, that I couldn't even afford one of the appetizers.

Other days come to mind. Like that Sunday in 2005 when I watched #5 puke over himself in the fourth quarter costing my Birds their first ever Super Bowl.

Still, those days are nothing like the day that Sean Spicer had today.

"The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, set off an intense backlash on Tuesday when he suggested that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was guilty of acts worse than Hitler and asserted that Hitler had not used chemical weapons, ignoring the use of gas chambers at concentration camps during the Holocaust. Mr. Spicer later apologized.

During his daily briefing for reporters, Mr. Spicer was defending President Trump’s decision to order a missile strike on Syria by trying to lend gravity to the actions of Mr. Assad. American officials accuse the Syrian president of using sarin gas, a lethal chemical weapon, in an attack on a rebel-held area of Idlib Province last week that killed dozens, many of them children.

 

But in misconstruing the facts of the Holocaust — Nazi Germany’s brutally efficient, carefully orchestrated extermination of six million Jews and others — Mr. Spicer instead drew a torrent of criticism and added to the perception that the Trump White House lacks sensitivity and has a tenuous grasp of history.

 

“We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II,” Mr. Spicer said. “You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

 

He continued, “So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself: Is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with?”' [Source]

 

Huh???

 

Dude it's Passover! Stop it!

 

Four corrections and an apology later did not make Spicer's comments any less outrageous  and controversial.

 

But this is part of a bigger pattern with this administration and those on the right. This normalization of all things Nazi . It's actually kind of scary if you think about it, and this might actually explain Spicer's outrageous statement. It just didn't seem that out of the main stream to him to make such a declaration about Hitler.   

 

If I were to take a poll and ask who had a worse week between Pepsi, United, or Sean Spicer, who would you choose?  Personally, I would have to go with Sean. United and Pepsi are corporations and they will bounce back. Folks who like to drink Pepsi products will keep drinking them, and United is one of the airlines with a monopoly in this country. They will take a PR hit, but they will ride it out. Folks won't stop flying.  

 

Sean, on the other hand, is a terrible spokesperson working for a terrible president, who-- you heard it here first-- will soon be out of a job. 

 

"I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that Assad had made against his own people last week, using chemical weapons and gas. Frankly, I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison," Spicer said. "And for that I apologize. It was a mistake to do that."

 

Shake it off, Sean. Tomorrow is another day. For your sake I just hope that our president isn't tweeting tonight. 

 

*Pic from cnn.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When beautiful children of God can help your poll numbers.

I was going to post the images I am linking later on with this post as a caption, but they are way too graphic. I am not cool with just posting the images of little dead children to highlight a blog post. If you are cool with looking at them you can look here.

Anyway, that was the horrific bombing  at Ghouta , when al-Assad proved to the world that he was a depraved maniac to be mentioned in the same breath with some of history's most evil dictators. He slaughtered  hundreds of his own people in a inhuman and sadistic way, and some folks in America were losing their minds because president Obama did not bomb the Syrian leader into another dimension.

Obama's red line problem was born around the same time. Although, let's not forget, republicans in congress would not authorize the bombings and missile strikes that he wanted to carry out.)

Still, do you know who wasn't losing his mind about bombing Syria? Donald trump. The man who is now our president---- even after that horrific event at Ghouta, implored then president Obama to stay out of Syria.  In fact, a series of tweets are now coming back to haunt him after his road to Damascus moment, when he decided to launch almost sixty missiles to take out a few (out of commission) planes.

"Obama must now start focusing on OUR COUNTRY, jobs, healthcare and all of our many problems. Forget Syria and make America great again!"

"Don't attack Syria - an attack that will bring nothing but trouble for the U.S. Focus on making our country strong and great again!"

Donald, there were "beautiful little babies" dying back in 2013 as well.

 But I get it,  these babies are dying when your poll numbers are in the mid-thirties, and you need  distraction from your Russia problem.

You have been in show business long enough to know that nothing gets the American people's attention like a few bright shiny missiles going off into the night.

"...Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror."

No they shouldn't. And the deaths of those children "of God" should never be used to score political points.

"Donald Trump & Mediocrity Of Privilege"

The following opinion piece was written for News One by Joshua Adams.

"Over the last year, it’s been astonishing to see how the bar for basic decorum has been lowered for U.S. President Donald Trump.

Every time Trump––or anyone from his administration for that matter––tweets, I think about how different the reaction would be if any other elected official had peddled the same blatant lies and half-truths that we’ve seen during his brief tenure. What would we hear from vehement right-wing Republicans and ardent “we need to move away from identity politics” liberals?

Consider the following questions: What would Republicans say if, well, President Barack Obama had spent an inordinate amount of his time tweeting? Or if he and Democrats demanded that Ex-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a U.S. citizen whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from India, show his birth certificate?

What would be the reaction if Russians had hacked Republican National Committee computers and engaged in covert political propaganda to––at the most––help Hillary Clinton win, and––at the least––discredit Trump?

What if, say, after Clinton had won, she and her husband ex-President Bill Clinton were cordial toward Russian President Vladimir Putin?

What would the Fox News headline be if Obama had said, “I like people who weren’t captured” about Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain?

Or, wait, imagine a Black congressman asking on national TV, what “sub group” has contributed more to civilization than Black people, à la Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King?

What if pundits in the “liberal” media asserted that we need to call Dylann Roof a “radical white Christian extremist,” and that to avoid doing so was “political correctness?”

If Obama, like Trump, had been caught bragging on camera that he sexually assaulted women (while he was married to Michelle), how many Black folks, let alone Whites, would jump to frame it as “locker-room talk?” Would we support Obama before and after a host of women had accused him of groping them?

What if incoming First Lady Michelle Obama had plagiarized a speech by outgoing First Lady Laura Bush like Melania Trump? What would be the mainstream reaction if First Lady Obama fake-smiled and grimaced while standing behind President Obama?

Would voters call Fox News “biased” if it cited something straight from Bernie Sanders’ mouth? Then how would Fox react if Sanders tweeted, “Dishonest Faux News!”?

What if Hillary won, and bragged about her historic win, even though she lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes? What if Hillary won on a campaign pledge that purportedly championed the working class, and then appointed nothing but millionaires and billionaires to her cabinet? What if her first act as president made it harder for middle-class homeowners to own property?

How would Republicans, who obstructed President Obama to an unprecedented degree for eight straight years, react to even minimal opposition to President Trump, let alone a Democratic House member yelling “You lie!” at him during a speech or a governor wagging a finger in his face?

Building Walls To Hide Mediocrity

I raise these questions to show that bias is part of the human condition. It reifies many assumed binaries––good and evil, weak and strong, right and wrong, winners and losers. But there is much more at work in terms of the leaps and stretches taken to redeem Trump’s inadequacies. Republicans, but also Democrats, are allowing the standards and practices of American politics to devolve in ways in which we can’t afford.

There are a host of cultural structures and strictures that compelled the election results that goes beyond mere “economic anxiety,” anti-elitism, or anti-political correctness. When it comes to oppression, critics tend to think in terms of racism, patriarchy, homophobia, classism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and other structures. But maybe those walls are meant to hide the fact that the emperor, indeed, has no clothes.

A culture that says men are superior to women affords men certain privileges that women are not privy to, including equal pay. As a result, men can outstrip women in achievements, despite their mediocrity. This is a general probability, not a truism, that may explain why Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard than Trump.

And for all of these “isms,” the more people wield the power that socially constructed superiority affords them, the more mediocre they are allowed to be, the harder they will fight to maintain artificial constructs and walls. Writer and scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates said it best:

“To be president, [Obama] had to be scholarly, intelligent, president of the Harvard Law Review, the product of some of our greatest educational institutions, capable of talking to two different worlds … Donald Trump had to be rich and White.”

Obama had to be excellent in virtually every aspect of his presidential campaigns, particularly in 2008, and appeal to the widest, most diverse base as possible. There are several reasons Clinton lost the presidential election––beyond emailgate or her “basket of deplorables” comment. She was one of––if not the most conventionally “qualified”––presidential candidates in American history, but she did not appeal to enough White Americans.

The Truth About Identity Politics

To become the nation’s 45th President, Trump appealed categorically to White people, and peripherally to everyone else.

But there were social forces much bigger than Clinton, ones that she could not account for, and ones that Trump benefited from. One of them is how deeply race is embedded in U.S. politics, and ways in which it can be manipulated in order to win.

We try to avoid it, but regardless of race, class, gender, political ideology, religion, citizenship status, etc., scores of Americans believe in one incredibly powerful logical fallacy: progress for people of color, especially Black people, is achieved by taking something from White people.

That base assumption is central to an array of discourse and stereotypes––welfare recipients, ”job stealing immigrants,” affirmative action, what people think of when they hear diversity, which immigrants should be denigrated, why, and for how long. That is the rocky foundation on which Americans stand anytime race and politics inhabit the same space.

To be clear, I don’t think any reasonable person could dismiss the fact that to win, Trump tapped into the zeitgeist of the 21st century––economic anxiety.

But it’s dangerous to overlook the identity politics embedded in our democracy, especially ones that allowed such a (relative to historical and common standards) demonstratively unqualified person to become president. It’s why the logic of “deserving” and “undeserving” working class exists in the first place. It’s why the rationale about why poor White Americans are poor versus, let’s say, why poor Black or Latino Americans are poor, is different, even when they share the same economic reality.

It’s why Americans who grow up in the most diverse neighborhoods in coastal cities are said to live in “liberal bubbles,” while millions who have never seen a Muslim are “heartland Americans.” It’s why folks can vote for politicians who promise to diminish globalization’s effect in their town, even though the same politicians know for a fact that, due to outsourcing and automation, certain jobs simply do not exist anymore.

It’s why millions can believe our country is perpetually exceptional, express fiery outrage when minorities express anything less than jingoistic love of country, and in the next moment, galvanize around the idea that America “doesn’t win anymore” and needs to be made great “again.”
Mediocrity vs. Hypocrisy

Though all of these are contradictions, I am deliberately using the term “mediocrity” instead of “hypocrisy” because part of what fuels mediocrity is ignoring the fact that standards are applied differently to different groups. It’s one thing to acknowledge contradiction. It’s another thing to not see it as such. It is committing to a bias so fervently that it turns objectivity into a concession.

Trump is our President. And though he comes from a world of reality TV, this is the reality for the next four to eight years. But the logic used to justify his words and actions are diametrically opposed to the standards we set for the majority of this country, politicians or not. Forfeiting those standards should not be a badge of honor, or sign of solidarity. It’s merely a power-grab; posturing and positioning within the new order of the things. In the midst of Black History Month, it’s bitterly ironic that we are shedding light on the exceptional Hidden Figures of America as we watch the beginning of an “alternative facts” presidency.

How low can the bar go?" [Source]

*Pic from cnn.com

CAPTION SATURDAY.

*

 I need a caption for this pic.

Example:

 Trump: "How about that one in the blue dress? 

O'Reilly: "Naw, forget about her, she works at  FOX."

*Pic courtesy of viveremilano.biz

"The fog of war."

I love that tweet from Marcy McGowan. It describes, perfectly, the hypocrisy of one Donald J. trump.

And it's not only Mr. trump, there are quite a few right wing politicians and pundits who now all of a sudden believe that dropping bombs on countries without authorization from congress is a good thing. What a difference an election makes.

Anyway, I wish the press and some in the main stream media would stop acting like this was some huge military victory. I am sorry, all I can think about is Grenada in 1983. Y'all remember how Ronnie played us like a fiddle back then? And I can't help but think that trump is trying to do the same thing now. I mean damn near 60 tomahawk missiles to destroy six planes? As Chris Carter would say: "Come on, maaan".

Obama took out Osama bin Laden from the White House; trump took out some planes and a few buildings from a gold club.  

Anyway, now that trump has started his own personal war, let's hope that it doesn't go the way of his health care plan, or, for that matter, one of his many  failed ventures.  Because contrary to what he would like us all to believe, he has been taking more L's than W's for quite awhile now.