Thought for the Day

[filghy2]

Even though Trump has the Oval Office and Majorities in the Senate, House, Supreme Court, State Governors, .....he continues to operate in campaign mode and paint himself, his base, and the USA as victims. The first house I ever lived in was a couple blocks from the baseball field where House members were shot last year, so watch out Maxine Waters, don't scream fire in a burning building just yet. In the USA we have this sanity clause in our Constitution called IMPEACHMENT, and it's been in the Conversation since two seconds after Trump was elected.

They do it because "us vs them" grievances are the primary motivation of the Trump administration and most of its supporters.

How does the sanity clause work when the lunatics are in charge of all branches of the asylum?

[filghy2]

Free speech must apply to all if it is to work, so I wonder about the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington Virginia asking Sarah H. Sanders to leave.

I feel uneasy about the restaurant's actions - not because we owe decency to people who show no decency towards others but because this sort of thing is probably counterproductive. It does nothing to convince anyone who is not already anti-Trump and it just plays into the 'us vs them' mentality, which is exactly what Trump wants.

[buttslinger]

How does the sanity clause work when the lunatics are in charge of all branches of the asylum?

It doesn't. That's why we had elections today. Are LAZY DEMOCRATS the cause of all this? Only if we want to win.
Where's my HANNITY BOYCOTT list?

[bluesoul]

so- yesterday milo yiannopoulos "joked" that death squads should start murdering journalists. today, there was just a shooting at capital gazette in annapolis.

that my was thought of the day

[buttslinger]

I hope Mueller catches Putin in his net, two birds with one stone would be nice.
It certainly would be a nice ending to this ugliest of tales.

[Stavros]

Here is a thought that has occurred to me recently but has strengthened in the last two days: under the guise of its leader's attack on Political Correctness, the Republican PoT has declared war on women, and not just American women.

It began in the 2016 campaign with the candidate's relentless, and often tasteless and disgusting attacks on women, from the journalist Megyn Kelly, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Nancy Pelosi, to the vitriol reserved for the number one enemy, Hillary Clinton. But the President, who does not hide his view that the purpose of women is to cook, clean and breed, and has behind him a coterie of religious freaks determined to control women's bodies with all the zeal of the Taliban and Daesh, has extended his and his party's venom to two of the most powerful women in world politics -Angela Merkel and Theresa May.

When the Man walks into a room, he expects everyone to stand up, to praise him, to recognise him as the leader. When he walks into the room at a summit, be it G20, G7 or NATO he is just one of many leaders, and he can't stand it. He hates multilateral bodies because the USA has to negotiate in partnership with numerous parties, and thus prefers to destroy them -the EU, NATO, WTO, NAFTA, the UN- so the US can negotiate bi-lateral deals from a position of strength. But it goes further than this.

When he has talked to Angela Merkel, she cannot hide the fact that she is talking to someone not really interested in politics who is not, and will never get used to being denied, and told he is wrong, as she has done many times. He dislikes Theresa May because when he was rabbiting on about his gold handicap, she wanted to talk about the details of policy in which he has no interest, and of which he has little knowledge. But even more than this, Merkel represents the EU which he loathes and despises, and May represents a weak leader who may not deliver the deal the US wants.

When John Bolton met the 'European Research Group' of Tory MPs over the weekend, I believe he encouraged them to agitate against Theresa May to prepare the way for an internal party revolt that would see her face a leadership competition later this year, but that her perceived vacillating over the details of Brexit is just one aspect of the broader point: the President can't stand women in positions of power, and will do whatever he can to end the political careers of Merkel and May.

A President of spite and revenge, misogyny and chaos; unfit to be the President of the USA; unfit for public office of any description; unfit to be called a man.

[buttslinger]

My thought lately is that if Trump legalizes pot he's got my vote.
It's getting hot in DC, hot and sweaty, like rubbing your face in the uncleavage of Sarah Sanders Huckabee.
While we're talking about what a buffoon he is, he's picking up Supreme Court Judges like diamonds on the sidewalk. Better to be lucky than good, eh, Donald?
I think Donald's bad with women for the same reason his Dad sent him to Military School: he's bad period. bad apple.
Let's ask his former two wives...oops, they were paid not to talk.
better to be rich than lucky.

If you don't believe in God you should believe in Money, man, that stuff can take you places you've never dreamed about!

[Stavros]

Meanwhile, hot on the trail of his buddy in Europe, Steve Bannon is to establish a neo-Fascist 'Foundation' in Europe to rival the Open Society Foundation which Bannon loathes and detests:

“Soros is brilliant,” Bannon told the website. “He’s evil, but he’s brilliant.”

The irony is that Bannon thinks it is possible because politics in Europe appears to be so cheap, thus:

He appears optimistic, however, about his potential impact on the European stage, buoyed by the knowledge that the leave campaign’s victory in the Brexit referendum was achieved on a £7m budget.
He told the Daily Beast: “When they told me the spending cap was £7m, I go: ‘You mean £70m? What the fuck?!’ £7m doesn’t buy anything. It doesn’t buy you Facebook data, it doesn’t buy you ads, it doesn’t do anything. Dude! You just took the fifth-largest economy in the world out of the EU for £7m!”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ight-in-europe

Indeed, Mr Bannon. Next question: how much of that £7 Million originated in the Russian Federation?

[buttslinger]

One of the revelations for me in all this is how much MONEY there is in......what's the word, LOBBYING or PAYOFFS?...
All these people sending huge checks to Michael Cohen for ...his input. Manafort and Flynn raking in millions because they're connected. Buttslinger had to eat shit for all the money he made, that guy deserves a medal. Oh wait, I forgot about the thousands I embezzled.

These guys may be the scum of the earth, but it sure seems like the sun rains cash on them.


One time at work I read an article in a magazine right after the AIDS epidemic began in the eighties, it was the story of a Murder. It seems that a couple guys put ads in all the gay publications of the time, ads in the misery section. They wove a real sob story about a man and his gay lover who came down with AIDS and it was a heartbreaking story, and all these people just started sending them checks! I can't remember how much they were making, but I do remember this one little scam was netting these bozos several times what I was making at my square job. The ad was such a cash cow, that when a third party found out about and tried to muscle in, they killed him!

[Stavros]

A thought-provoking article in today's Financial Times by Philip Stephens on the way that Nostalgia has been used, abused and manipulated to create a sense of loss/crisis in the present that can only be remedies by a return to the past. Here are the concluding paragraphs-

Nostalgia has always had its place in politics. Respect for tradition is at the heart of Burkean conservatism. The deep irony about the now mythologised postwar decades, however, is that these were times when citizens looked unambiguously to the future. Technological advance was seen as progress, liberalism promised emancipation. The age of Sputnik, colour television and The Beatles was all about shedding the past. Its confidence flowed from the embrace of modernity. The emotions were progressive, welcoming of new technology and newcomers alike.

And now? A fascinating report by the London-based think-tank Demos observes that recent elections in France and Germany, as well as the British referendum, show the “pervasive extent” that language that plays up the status, security and simplicity of the past has infiltrated political culture. People who have lost faith in the future are seeking solace in old, imagined, certainties.

The lesson for mainstream politicians should be evident. The nationalists will always win when the argument is framed by nostalgia. Progressive politics need a message about the future powerful enough to reclaim the voters’ collective gaze. They could make a start by explaining how to ensure our children are better off than their parents.
https://www.ft.com/content/78f1984e-...f-a6a2f7bca546