Sunday Reads: Believe it or not.

Say what?

Don’t worry, it didn’t permanently change their belief systems…as you will read from the link, the FoxNews people went back to their old ways soon enough.

Cartoon time, via Cagle website:

Gonna miss him👇🏼:

On the Covid news:

Take a look at this clip from Jimmy Kimmel:

The power of yolk compels you:

And you all have a good Sunday, this is an open thread.


Wednesday Reads: Designed in the USA

 

If anyone saw the Rep. Pramila Jayapal interview last night on Chris Hayes…you know the absolute terror and disgust that can make an actual pain in your chest.

If you have not seen this interview, stop what you are doing right now, and watch it.

Rep. Jayapal: Mothers didn’t even get to say bye to kids

It will be very difficult, and the word difficult is not used lightly…but work your way through it. Feel the bitter pain, that chokes up and taste foul in the back of your throat. For that is the essence of a hateful authoritarian dictatorship rule, and when Hannah Arendt spoke of the Banality of Evil….let me tell you, it starts here….

More from Rep. Jayapal:

 

The situation is only getting worse….

 

I don’t know what the fuck the United States is anymore, it sure as hell isn’t a democracy…it has moved on past the point of the “breakdown” period. I truly think we are now at the beginning of the Totalitarian Regime of Trump.

… Arendt notes that loneliness can become both the seedbed and the perilous consequence of the isolation effected by tyrannical regimes:

In isolation, man remains in contact with the world as the human artifice; only when the most elementary form of human creativity, which is the capacity to add something of one’s own to the common world, is destroyed, isolation becomes altogether unbearable… Isolation then becomes loneliness.

[…]

While isolation concerns only the political realm of life, loneliness concerns human life as a whole. Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities. But totalitarian domination as a form of government is new in that it is not content with this isolation and destroys private life as well. It bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is among the most radical and desperate experiences of man.

This is why our insistence on belonging, community, and human connection is one of the greatest acts of courage and resistance in the face of oppression…

 

And let’s not forget the fiasco with Canada and our other allies….the isolation that has been the cornerstone of tRump’s rule in office:

What perpetuates such tyrannical regimes, Arendt argues, is manipulation by isolation — something most effectively accomplished by the divisiveness of “us vs. them” narratives. She writes:

Terror can rule absolutely only over men who are isolated against each other… Therefore, one of the primary concerns of all tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from men acting together…; isolated men are powerless by definition.

 

tRump has aligned the US with ruthless dictators and powerful authoritarian governments…because that is what the US as become.

Some updates on the North Korea Summit:

North Korea state media says Trump agreed to lift sanctions against North | Reuters

North Korean state media said on Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to lift sanctions against the North in addition to providing security guarantees in the summit with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, the previous day.

North Korea state media reporting Trump agreed to lift sanctions | TheHill

Both leaders signed an agreement committing the United States to unspecified “security guarantees” in exchange for denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.

Trump reportedly offered to lift sanctions on the cash-strapped country in addition to those security guarantees, according to Reuters.

North Korea’s KCNA news agency cites Trump making the pledge to lift the economic barriers after saying the U.S. would end joint military exercises with South Korea.

Following the summit, Trump had indicated that sanctions would remainuntil North Korea began the denuclearization process saying of easing sanctions, “I hope it’s going to be soon. At a certain point, I actually look forward to taking them off.”

Reuters did not receive immediate comment from U.S. officials.

The Hill has also reached out to the White House for comment.

Ugh…

In other news, Steve King retweeted a Nazi: GOP lawmaker retweets prominent British neo-Nazi | TheHill

There seems to be a new Fox News/ tRump family connection in the “house” ….STASI: Fox should fire reporter Kimberly Guilfoyle, who can’t possibly stay neutral while dating a Trump kid – NY Daily News

And, tRump is keen on building a tRump Tower in North Korea:

North Korea ‘Could Have The Best Hotels’ On Its Beaches, Trump Raves To Kim | HuffPost

“They have great beaches,” Trump said at a news conference following the talks between the two leaders. “You see that whenever they’re exploding the canons into the ocean. I said look at that view. Wouldn’t that make a great condo beyond that?”

“You could have the best hotels in the world right there. Think of it from a real estate perspective,” Trump continued. “You have South Korea, you have China, and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that? Right? It’s great.”

Despite Trump’s grandiose suggestions, the U.S. State Department recommends against travel to North Korea. Federal authorities advise travelers to draft a will and “funeral wishes” before going.

I think that part about drafting a will and making funeral wishes is a dramatically different message to what the tRump admin is pushing.

Going back to the #Wherearethechildren and #FamiliesBelongTogether issue…

After the Chris Hayes interview, Rep. Jayapal posted this on her Twitter account:

 

Now the funnies…starting with this shit…no it ain’t no joke. This is fucking real:

Why Donald Trump showed Kim Jong-un a movie trailer at the North Korea summit – Axios

 

President Trump’s wooing of Kim Jong-un at the Singapore summit included the iPad showing (in English and Korean) of a “Destiny Pictures” movie trailer, made by the White House’s National Security Council, starring themselves saving the world.

Show less
  • There are dunked basketballs, exploding bombs, flourishing labs and cities — all designed to show Kim what’s possible if he engages with the West, and to warn him darkly of the alternative.
  • From the voiceover: “Only the very few will make decisions or take actions that renew their homeland and change the course of history … Two men. Two leaders. One destiny. … A story about a special moment in time when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated. What will he choose?”
  • From Trump’s presser: “I showed it to him … toward the end of the meeting. And I think he loved it. … [W]e had it on a cassette … an iPad.  … [A]bout eight of their representatives were watching it, and I thought they were fascinated.”

Jonathan Swan’s sources help illuminate Trump’s thinking:

  • Trump thinks of his presidency in cinematic terms — with himself as star, producer, director, writer and critic. Now, backed by the resources of the United States government, he’s a studio, too.
  • The president is very aware of his celebrity and how people view him.
  • Kim is a young tyrant obsessed with pop culture.
  • So by literally casting the two of them in a movie, Trump’s was celebritizing the summit, and aiming at Kim’s sweet spot.

The White House is very proud of the video: Vice President Pence showed it at yesterday’s weekly Senate Republican luncheon.

  • Garrett Marquis, National Security Council spokesman: “The video was created by the NSC to help the President demonstrate the benefits of complete denuclearization, and a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Korean Peninsula.”

And if you want to see the video…just go to the White House facebook page..yeah, can you believe this shit?

 

06/13/2018 Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Cartoon by Nick Anderson -

Exactly….yes to this one Nick Anderson!

 

06/13/2018 Cartoon by Nate Beeler

Cartoon by Nate Beeler -

06/12/2018 Cartoon by Nate Beeler

Cartoon by Nate Beeler -

06/12/2018 Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson

Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson -

Uh, that one from Signe is spot on.

 

Nick Anderson cartoon: 06/12/2018 Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Cartoon by Nick Anderson - Nick Anderson cartoon

The Handshake: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis - The Handshake

Neighbors to the North: 06/12/2018 Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis - Neighbors to the North

G-7 Summit: 06/10/2018 Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis - G-7 Summit

06/13/2018 Cartoon by Steve Artley

Cartoon by Steve Artley -

Bruce Plante Cartoon: Trump and Kim Jong Un meet: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by Bruce Plante

Cartoon by Bruce Plante - Bruce Plante Cartoon: Trump and Kim Jong Un meet

Clay Bennett editorial cartoon: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by Clay Bennett

Cartoon by Clay Bennett - Clay Bennett editorial cartoon

06/13/2018 Cartoon by MStreeter

Cartoon by MStreeter -

06/13/2018 Cartoon by Kevin Siers

Cartoon by Kevin Siers -

06/12/2018 Cartoon by Joe Heller

Cartoon by Joe Heller -

06/12/2018 Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez

Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez -

Allies of Evil: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by Jen Sorensen

Cartoon by Jen Sorensen - Allies of Evil

Rudy: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by James Silk

Cartoon by James Silk - Rudy

The best deals: 06/13/2018 Cartoon by James Silk

Cartoon by James Silk - The best deals

06/12/2018 Cartoon by Matt Wuerker

Cartoon by Matt Wuerker -

U.S.-N.K. SUMMIT: 06/12/2018 Cartoon by Deb Milbrath

Cartoon by Deb Milbrath - U.S.-N.K. SUMMIT

G7 2018: 06/11/2018 Cartoon by Deb Milbrath

Cartoon by Deb Milbrath - G7 2018

Statue of Cruelty: 06/12/2018 Cartoon by Steve Greenberg

Cartoon by Steve Greenberg - Statue of Cruelty

I think the kid should be younger in that cartoon…but that is only my opinion.

 

 

 

And that will about do it for me…

 

One more thing before we go:

See this?

It is from a water bottle I bought at Walmart…see what it says…”Designed in the USA.”  What a fucking joke…

You know what else is funny…Walmart bicycles say they are assembled in the USA…you what to know what that means?

It means that some store employee puts the bike together in the back room, cute? Yeah, all the parts come from somewhere overseas…innit funny?

“Assembled in the USA.”

“Designed in the USA.”

The mutthafukkin joke is on us.

This is an open thread.


Monday Reads: One Hundred Days of Shame

Good Morning Sky Dancers!

I’m a little slow getting started today as I deal with my ongoing shell shock.  I admit to waking up each morning and being quite surprised that nothing has been completely blown up yet. This includes our home planet, Earth.  Then, I head to twitter to see if something is likely to be blown up today.  That gets a little wearing after three months. Kremlin Caligula gave an interview to AP and it should convince every one that his frontal lobe is seriously damaged. I’m not going to be stopping that ritual for some time it seems.

This series of lined threads punctuated by excerpts from the interview transcript offered by Joy Reid says it succinctly.  The man operates at nursery school levels of thinking at best.  I’m still going for a combination of dementia with a huge dollop of personality disorders. I’m also waiting for the mother ship to take me to my home planet where these things don’t happen.  So, excuse me, I’m a little spaced today.

“Watch Trump’s mind wander from subject to subject with no apparent charted course, but always stumbling back to how cable news treats him…”

“He’s like a babbling brook of incoherence and obsession…”

“It’s not even funny. Trump clearly doesn’t know anything about the policies he’s trying to explain. He just recalls who likes him/is nice …”

There is so much crap in that interview that it’s a work fit for flies. Who is going to believe that the Russian Hacks of the election is the fault of Democrats? Bueller?

President Trump blamed Democratic officials for having weak cyber defenses that allowed hackers to compromise their email systems ahead of the 2016 election in a recent interview.

Trump faulted the Democratic National Committee for lacking  “the proper defensive devices” to safeguard against cyber intrusions in an interview with the Associated Press, according to a transcript published over the weekend.

Trump also indicated that his praise for WikiLeaks on the campaign trail last year did not actually mean he supports the organization, which was involved in publishing hacked emails from the DNC and former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

The U.S. intelligence community said in January that the Russian government had ordered an influence campaign during the election to undermine democracy and damage Clinton. The GRU, Russia’s main intelligence agency, targeted the DNC and high-level Democratic officials and passed hacked material to WikiLeaks, the intelligence community assessed.

On Friday, Trump took aim at the DNC when asked about WikiLeaks’ involvement in the influence campaign, arguing that the DNC did not have the same defenses as the Republican National Committee.

“You know, they tried to hack the Republican, the RNC, but we had good defenses. They didn’t have defenses, which is pretty bad management,” Trump said, referring to the DNC. “But we had good defenses, they tried to hack both of them. They weren’t able to get through to Republicans.”

There is so much wrong with the facts in this that it’s hard to even know where to start but, hey, grab them by the pussy!  It’s always the victim’s fault!

Meanwhile, this week’s trauma is the likely shut down of government of what’s functional in the government. Oh, and 100 days will be celebrated with another flurry of Executive Orders.  This is what happens when you really, truly, can’t figure out how to get the system to work for you.  Or, perhaps a crisis … 

To see how Trump changes the normal calculation, consider what the appropriations process would look like in a more generic case, where Republicans enjoyed identical congressional majorities but under a president who behaved rationally.

In that case, we would expect the president and GOP leaders to work backwards from a desire to avoid a shutdown, toward an optimal outcome in which appropriations did not lapse and Congress funded as many of their priorities as possible. The hard fact that funding the government almost always requires a measure of bipartisanship places a fairly firm limit on what’s possible in that context. The minority party has a disproportionate amount of power over annual appropriations, but you go to the spending fight with the army you have, not the army you might want, or wish to have at a later time. If Democrats were horribly recalcitrant, they could reject every single Republican bid, leaving Republicans a choice between simply extending existing funds or shutting down the government—in which case a rational party would harrumph and agree to extend the funds.

The fact that Democrats are not horribly recalcitrant creates room for limited dealmaking. Republicans want to spend more money on defense and immigration enforcement, Democrats want to fund other priorities, and to the extent that these different points of emphasis don’t cross any ideological redlines, the parties can accommodate one another. But Democrats won’t persuade Republicans to agree to adequately fund the IRS, just as Republicans won’t convince Democrats to help them gut the EPA. The construction of a wall along the southern border, meanwhile, is a non-starter for Democrats and many Republicans. A rational GOP president would accept this reality and move on. Trump has made its inclusion in the funding bill a top priority.

It’s fund the wall or we’re all gonna die!!  So, what is it with Trump and ratings and cable? Does every one obsessively tune in?

During a small working lunch at the White House last month, the question of job security in President Trump’s tumultuous White House came up, and one of the attendees wondered whether press secretary Sean Spicer might be the first to go.

The president’s response was swift and unequivocal. “I’m not firing Sean Spicer,” he said, according to someone familiar with the encounter. “That guy gets great ratings. Everyone tunes in.”

Trump even likened Spicer’s daily news briefings to a daytime soap opera, noting proudly that his press secretary attracted nearly as many viewers.

For Trump — a reality TV star who parlayed his blustery-yet-knowing on-air persona into a winning political brand — television is often the guiding force of his day, both weapon and scalpel, megaphone and news feed. And the president’s obsession with the tube — as a governing tool, a metric for staff evaluation, and a two-way conduit with lawmakers and aides — has upended the traditional rhythms of the White House, influencing many spheres, including policy, his burgeoning relationship with Congress, and whether he taps out a late-night or early-morning tweet.

Those Trump tweet-storms, which contain some of his most controversial utterances, are usually prompted by something he has seen on television just moments before. The president, advisers said, also uses details gleaned from cable news as a starting point for policy discussions or a request for more information, and appears on TV himself when he wants to appeal directly to the public.

Some White House officials — who early on would appear on TV to emphasize points to their boss, who was likely to be watching just steps away in his residence — have started tuning into Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” because they know the president habitually clicks it on after waking near dawn.

Here’s a fact check list of what Candidate Caligula said he would do and what President (sic) Kremlin Caligula has done via NPR.

Back in October, before his election, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump laid out a 100-Day Action Plan. He called it his “Contract With The American Voter.” Among other things, it called for the full repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, suspension of immigration from certain “terror-prone regions” and the lifting of “roadblocks” to let “infrastructure projects like the Keystone Pipeline move forward.”

The 100-day mark is not an official milestone, but in roughly the last century it has been a traditional point to take stock of a new administration. Throughout President Trump’s first 100 days, there have been both flurries of action and some setbacks. In many cases, the status of some of these efforts is not clear-cut — often with substantial talk but less action. In other areas, progress is clearer.

Charlie Pierce has nailed it on our 100 days of shame: ” The 100 Days: Who Can Stop an Unfit President*? Troubling signs in Trump’s Associated Press interview.”

The word for the 95th day of the presidency* of Donald Trump is “unintelligible.” As nearly as I can recall, the word first came to political prominence on April 29, 1974, when President Richard M. Nixon, in one of his last desperate attempts to throw the hounds of Watergate off his tracks, released to the nation edited transcripts of carefully selected White House tape recordings. (The president* will celebrate his 100th day in office with a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the 43rd anniversary of the release of these transcripts. History rhymes.) More famously, the transcripts injected the phrase, “Expletive deleted” into the political jargon.

 But “unintelligible” had its day, too. Given what they already knew about Nixon, many people around the country suspected that what was “unintelligible” probably had something to do with a crime or two. Over the weekend, “unintelligible” came back into our politics in a new and terrifying way.

The presidential elections in France took an interesting turn as the usual suspect party got eliminated and the moderate and the nationalist head to a run off. Statistically, it looks like the moderate will win. However, we do know that story here and this horrible sweep of white nationalism sweeping the west is like a plague with no end.  It looks like there will be no more socialist France for some time. But, what will they opt for?  The middle path or the path to destruction?

Emmanuel Macron will be almost certainly be the next French president. And the relief is immense. The much anticipated domino effect following the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election has not, so far, materialised. And the European project has won – at least for now. At Macron’s headquarters in Paris, a euphoric crowd was waving French flags, as well as many European ones. “C’est magnifique!”, his supporters kept saying. Being in the second round is a huge achievement, being the frontrunner even more so.

This result is a relief but it also represents a shock – not because of Marine Le Pen’s presence in the second round, which the polls prepared us for. But because the next president will come from neither of the two traditional main parties, the conservatives and socialists, the first time since the beginning of the fifth Republic, founded in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle.

François Fillon, who surprisingly won the conservative primaries last November, and was initially considered the frontrunner, has suffered badly as a result of allegations of corruption. He refused to stand down and even managed to make up some of his early losses, but not sufficiently to overcome Macron.

Benoît Hamon scored nearly the worst result of any socialist presidential candidate in the history of the fifth Republic. With just 6% of the votes, he comes just ahead of Gaston Defferre who scored just 5.01% in 1969, against Charles de Gaulle. Hamon’s lack of charisma failed to convince the socialist electorate, already badly disappointed by the Hollande presidency.

So, we’re hoping France does not go the way we went which basically is straight to crazy land.

I’m still loving the pictures and stories of the scientists who showed up to protest the Republican attack on Scientific findings and fundings. I adores seeing the number of women and girls fighting for science.  Doctor Daughter ran the Tutoring Center for the Science Department at LSU for a number of years. She was the only undergraduate who had done so at the time.  I always filled her room up with microscopes, rocks, shells, crystals and Sci Fi Books.  It’s easy to get kids interested in science!

From across the fields of science they came, marching to show that women in science have a lot to say.

Biologists and ecologists, medical researchers and EMTs, doctors and nurses, biomedical engineers and neuroscientists came with stories of why they fell in love with science.

They ranged from little girls to seasoned science veterans, all carrying a message of what they’d like to tell other women.

“It’s important for women scientists to be here because there are still too few of us,” said neuroscientist Sharri Zamore.

She drove from Blacksburg, Virginia, to support the cause, but also to “encourage more diversity” in the sciences, she told CNN.

There were many who stood up and marched for the first time in their lives.

Follow the link to read Sharri’s and other women scientists’ stories below.  It goes to a series of CNN interviews.

So, I’m going to go get lost in space for awhile in my particular form of science and grade some papers.   However,  I will not be drinking Starbuck’s Unicorn Frappucino.  It sounds horrible and it’s terrifically unhealthy.  What’s the big deal with it anyway?

Although Starbucks’ new Unicorn Frappuccino has garnered national attention for its whimsical name and and enchanting, pink-and-blue color scheme, at least one local group is cautioning people about its oh-so-sweet content.

On Friday, the Stratford Health Department succinctly called out the drink’s high sugar content on its Facebook page. “While the Unicorn Frappuccino may be pretty to look at, it’s loaded with 59 grams of sugar! That is over two times the amount of sugar recommended by the American Heart Association!”

That statement likely shocked few fans, as the Unicorn Frappuccino contains four kinds of syrup, according to its ingredients label — Frappuccino syrup (Water, Sugar, Salt, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid); Mango Syrup (Sugar, Water, Mango Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavor, Passion Fruit Juice Concentrate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Turmeric, Gum Arabic); Vanilla Syrup (Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid) and Classic Syrup (Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid). The calorie count is also high, at 410 per 16 fluid-ounce serving.

Blech!!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today? 


Sunday Afternoon: What a difference 48 hours makes.

9 103 114 NewsBlurIt is an afternoon on Sunday. I have not checked online since early Friday Morning, (Wait, do I have the times right?) Oh well, whatever the hell the time frame is…I can always tell the passing of the hours by my Newsblur reader.

<———– See, all the big numbers of articles I have to go through. And yes, I do name all my folders “Minx Crap” because that is my way. I have a sense of humor that some would get offended by, but who gives a fuck right? It is my personal way to deal with things. (For fucks sake…)

Quick example, one of my friends got a kick out of the name of the town I was in this weekend, for my daughter’s State Honor Choir…Cumming, GA. “Was I joking?” he asked…nope, would you believe I was not…joking.

He then said to me, that a friend just told him of an Intercourse, PA. Which I replied, yup…there is a Bird-in-Hand and a Tickle-me-Balls, Pennsylvania too! (The first one is a real town, the second one is something I made up.) I wonder if he believes both are somewhere on a road map of PA? Gawd, I hope I don’t offend those folks who live in the State of Pennsylvania. Eeesh….

Anyway, you see the numbers by the folders…those are the unread articles within the feeds I subscribe to.

It says a lot without even looking at the stuff behind the folders. Ah, shit went down alright, but not shit that the right wing was too excited about. Per the 3 Minx Crap RWN (aka Right Wing Nuts) folder after all that time, the 25+ sites I follow were relatively quiet.

My main crap blogs were busy, but not scandalously busy. These are the left wing blogs…

And a shitload of Main Stream Media news…(BTW, no Fox News Feed in any of my folders, the only right leaning news feeds I have in my main stream folder are NYTs, CNN, and WaPo…uh…The Hill. A few border main stream, right leaning…Politico, FiveThirtyEight, Memeorandum etc.)

The point I am making here is that I have no clue what the fuck happened this weekend. Looks like something big, which the right did not want to get involved in, and the left was fine touching with a 25 foot pole.

As far as my Medieval/Science/History folder and my “Other” folder, which is mostly Classic Movies, technical movie stuff and fine art, photography, music, ballet etc. Seems to me that it was a busy weekend for the Humanities.

So due to this extreme situation, and my extreme laziness…tiredness. This will be an open thread. Otherwise it will be another 48 hours to get a proper post up here.

Dumpage of links:

French police ask for help identifying third stadium bomber

Police in France are asking the public for help in identifying a man they say was involved in the Nov. 13 assault on the national stadium in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris.

 

What Do Ben Carson and Bruschetta Have In Common? – The Daily Banter

 

They’re both basically toast.

Carson toast

The few polls that have trickled out since the last Republican debate have shown somesoftening of support for the good doctor, but as long as Ben Carson is doing well in Iowa, there’s no real reason to panic. Within the past month, Carson has opened up leads over Donald Trump as wide as 14 points in the state, while dancing around the national lead. The surest sign that Carson’s fade might show some durability came Sunday morning with therelease of a CBS News poll that shows Carson not only falling well behind Trump in Iowa, but also now trailing Senator Ted Cruz:

Donald Trump has returned to the lead in Iowa while Ted Cruz has now surged past Ben Carson into second place. Carson has slipped from a first-place tie into third.

While Iowa’s Republicans generally feel Trump is ready to be commander-in-chief, Cruz scores even better on this measure, boosted by support from very conservative and Tea Party Iowans who feel he is ready to assume the post. That’s more than say so about Trump, Carson, Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Trump gets 30% in the new poll (up from 27% in October), Cruz gets 21% (up from just 12% last month), while Carson’s support has slipped to 19% after tying Trump at 27% in the lastCBS/Yougov poll.

 

Donald Trump: Black protester at my rally was ‘disgusting’ and ‘maybe he should have been roughed up’

Donald Trump Approves Of Supporters Who ‘Roughed Up’ Protester

 

Look at the expressions on the faces of the host....

Look at the expressions on the faces of the host….as Trump telling them, “Maybe he should have been roughed up,” Trump said during a Sunday morning call-inappearance on “Fox & Friends.” “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”

 

A CNN reporter captured video of the Saturday incident in which a protester was reportedlypunched and kicked after he was tackled to the ground by attendees or security at Trump’s rally. At least one onlooker yelled, “Don’t choke him! Don’t choke him!” according to The Washington Post.

Trump is heard in the video yelling, “Get him the hell out of here!”

 

Donald Trump: I Would ‘Absolutely’ Bring Back Waterboarding | Mediaite

 

Donald Trump: My Fans Were Right To Beat Up Black Protester | ThinkProgress

 

Trump Still Leading Republican Presidential Field

 

If that isn’t enough to ruin your appetite.

 

Ted Cruz Seeks To Cast Himself As The Electable Conservative

 

In other news:

 

French aircraft carrier sent to target ISIL in Syria – Al Jazeera English

Schools closed as Belgium extends Brussels lockdown – Al Jazeera English

Growing number of MPs signal they will back more airstrikes on Syria | UK news | The Guardian

Brown University Will Spend $100 Million To Improve Race Relations

Starbucks launches national diversity initiative in Ferguson | theGrio

 

A few links from Mediaite:

‘Chuck, You Need to Calm Down’: Kasich Explains Plan for Judeo-Christian Department | Mediaite

Greenwald Blasts CNN on CNN: Anchors Get Away With ‘Despicable’ Anti-Muslim Comments | Mediaite

#BlackLivesMatter Protester at Trump Rally Speaks Out on Brawl: Like a ‘Lynch Mob’ | Mediaite

Stephanopoulos Confronts Trump on Muslim Database and Surveilling Mosques | Mediaite

Tapper Presses Christie: Would You ‘Oust’ Refugees Already in Your State? | Mediaite

SNL Cold Open Savages Fox & Friends and Ben Carson | Mediaite

 

All that above…wow…just wow….this has truly been a hellish weekend. And to see the shit these candidates are saying, makes me so ill. To know I had to stand up, against the GOP candidates positions, and lost a troubled friendship for good over it, it still is bothersome.  But I feel a relief.

I can’t take the crazy talk from those bigoted/right-wing  politicians, blowhards, talk show/radio host and “religious” leaders…and it hurt to see someone I know who used to be so caring and considerate of all persons, totally become changed over the years, to the point where they out right tell me, no amount of cited sources/articles/commentary/direct quotes from right or left leaning news/media/etc could change their mind or make any difference to them.

Onward, because I am done with all that other stuff.

Argentines set to choose new president – BBC News

Colombia to free 30 jailed FARC rebels as peace talk gesture | Reuters

November 22, 2015 Day in photos via VOA

And this last link, is a bit frightening: Apple CarPlay Corvette review – Business Insider

CarPlay 1

 

 

Oh…..that is just the comparison to finish on, don’t ya think?

 

This is an open thread.


Wednesday Reads: Intolerant of the Intolerant Bigoted Hypocritical Christian Conservatives

01a98a13bf2ee5d8aa820372bbe484ca6ceeb457d8

Am I…..intolerant?

Nigel Powers: There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the Dutch.

Goldmember: What?

Yes, I am intolerant.

Of the Intolerant Bigoted Hypocritical Christian Conservatives.

The ones who play the victim when someone confronts them about their “beliefs” or as I did recently, what and who they support in the political arena.

I don’t know, maybe I took it too far, but as you saw yesterday…even Boston Boomer was using the “F” word in her post 😉 .

This entire scene regarding the Syrian immigration has us all very upset. I went from discussing the refugee situation in an intelligent manner with my old friend of 35 years, Jose, who is the brother-in-law of Aasif Mandvi….to being patronized and having my words twisted to play into the conservative Christian victimization routine by another old friend of 22 years, who now lives among the cornfields of Iowa.

It is all so depressing.

In response, all I can muster today is a heavy cartoon post.

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Joe Heller

Cartoon by Joe Heller -

 

11/15/2015 Cartoon by Joe Heller

Cartoon by Joe Heller -

This next cartoon is also from Heller, but from October 7th of this year:

10/07/2015 Cartoon by Joe Heller

Cartoon by Joe Heller -

 

I am a little behind on this one:

Free Speech vs. Safe Space: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by J.D. Crowe

Cartoon by J.D. Crowe - Free Speech vs. Safe Space

More of these Safe Space cartoons later.

A message to ISIS: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Deb Milbrath

Cartoon by Deb Milbrath - A message to ISIS

 

11/17/2015 Cartoon by Charlie Daniel

Cartoon by Charlie Daniel -

 

11/17/2015 Cartoon by David Horsey

Cartoon by David Horsey -

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Joel Pett

Cartoon by Joel Pett -

 

Digital Threat: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Cartoon by Rob Rogers - Digital Threat

 

Clay Bennett editorial cartoon: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Clay Bennett

Cartoon by Clay Bennett - Clay Bennett editorial cartoon

Clay Bennett editorial cartoon: 11/18/2015 Cartoon by Clay Bennett

 

Cartoon by Clay Bennett - Clay Bennett editorial cartoon

 

11/17/2015 Cartoon by MStreeter

Cartoon by MStreeter -

 

11/18/2015 Cartoon by MStreeter

Cartoon by MStreeter -

11/17/2015 Cartoon by Jimmy Margulies

Cartoon by Jimmy Margulies -

 

How to tell the difference between ISIS and Muslims: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Jen Sorensen

Cartoon by Jen Sorensen - How to tell the difference between ISIS and Muslims

11/17/2015 Cartoon by Phil Hands

Cartoon by Phil Hands -

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Scott Stantis

Cartoon by Scott Stantis -

 

11/18/2015 Cartoon by John Cole

Cartoon by John Cole -

 

Je Suis Paris: 11/16/2015 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Cartoon by Rob Rogers - Je Suis Paris

 

The Pinata: 11/15/2015 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Cartoon by Rob Rogers - The Pinata

A Call to Harams: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Steve Artley

Cartoon by Steve Artley - A Call to Harams

Prince of Darkness Roast: 11/13/2015 Cartoon by Steve Artley

Cartoon by Steve Artley - Prince of Darkness Roast

 

From Cagle Cartoons:

 

Critical Thinking Needed by Tom Purcell

Anchor Baby Battle by Will Durst

Donald Trump dropping by Political Cartoonist Dave Granlund

Stuff Happens by Political Cartoonist Kevin Siers

ISISsssss by Political Cartoonist Bill Day

Strategy to destroy ISIS by Political Cartoonist Paresh Nath

Russian Doping Scandal by Political Cartoonist Jimmy Margulies

Syrian refugees and Rep King by Political Cartoonist Dave Granlund

Jumpstarting the Jeb! Bush Campaign by Political Cartoonist R.J. Matson

Refugees by Political Cartoonist David Fitzsimmons

Muslim Refugees by Political Cartoonist John Darkow

Terror in Paris by Political Cartoonist Christo Komarnitski

Paris Terror by Political Cartoonist Bob Englehart

Daesh Target by Political Cartoonist Stavro Jabra

Terror in Paris by Political Cartoonist Mike Keefe

ViVe La France by Political Cartoonist Milt Priggee

France Weeps | DarylCagle.com

Paris Attack by Political Cartoonist Nate Beeler

Signe Wilkinson: City of Darkness – Signe Wilkinson – Truthdig

Nick Anderson: Safe Space – Nick Anderson – Truthdig

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Chan Lowe

Cartoon by Chan Lowe -

Relax?: 11/18/2015 Cartoon by Eric J Garcia

Cartoon by Eric J Garcia - Relax?

 

11/18/2015 Cartoon by John Branch

Cartoon by John Branch -

War Near Christmas: 11/18/2015 Cartoon by Steve Artley

Cartoon by Steve Artley - War Near Christmas

Radical Islam Death Wish: 11/18/2015 Cartoon by Monte Wolverton

Cartoon by Monte Wolverton - Radical Islam Death Wish

 

Bruce Plante Cartoon: Syrian refugees: 11/18/2015 Cartoon by Bruce Plante

Cartoon by Bruce Plante - Bruce Plante Cartoon: Syrian refugees

Bruce Plante Cartoon: Wages are too high?: 11/17/2015 Cartoon by Bruce Plante

Cartoon by Bruce Plante - Bruce Plante Cartoon: Wages are too high?

 

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez

Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez -

 

11/18/2015 Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Cartoon by Nick Anderson -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s end it with a cartoon that is from October 6th:

 

Exhibition by Political Cartoonist Pavel Constantin

169683_600And that is all folks…this is an open thread.