Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

12/11/2024

the big losers

that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's All About The Recounts" and kari lake is big time ugly so let's cover some other uglies tonight like glenneth greenwald and matt taibi.

let's check in on the grotesque glenneth greenwald:

The Bernie-to-Trump voter (like the Obama-to-Trump voter) was always virtually impossible to understand for professional pundits trapped in stale and archaic left/right prisms, but is extremely easy to understand for those who aren't:

that's because bernie and trump are both racists. that's why they attack people who call out racism. they're racists.

and all the lefties who have pimped for bernie over the years make themselves suspect.

in 'Media: An idiot says he'll sue over art evaluation, two other idiots defend Trump's nominees,' ava and c.i. compile bernie's racist moments in public.

glenneth was always the dog s**t that some 1 stepped in. it's amazing to grasp how outrageous and ugly he's become.

his husband david's long in the past and glenneth is left with past glory days and glory holes -- ah, glory days, as bruce springsteen once sang. nobody's plugging glenneth these days. he's gotten so ugly. so very ugly.

but at least he can now be fully behind trump in pubic. he tried to pretend otherwise for the last 4 years. because he's a liar. because he's garbage. because he's trash.

he is so pathetically and dangerously lonely. watch him in a video and when he's not flaming these days, you'll see him stroking his own arms because lonely people tend to touch themselves a lot. (not my original observation - lily tomlin noticed that when she was developing ernestine.)

speaking of ugly, matt taibi. as c.i.'s noted, taibi looks like lurch on 'the adams family.' i always find it hilarious when bald men can deal with the fact that they're bald. like glenneth, matt's planted firmly on trump's anus to eat what ever emerges. he offers:

In 30+ years of reporting the bulk of my stories about the Executive Branch involve obscene waste, unaccountability, secrecy, ineffectuality. Our taxes paid for Iraq and Afghan wars, NSA taps, the F-35, bank bailouts, and other disasters - meanwhile basic infrastructure sucks.

what does that have to do with the massive transfer of wealth that trump is yet again planning to deliver to the oligarchs?

not a damn thing. but that's matt taibi for you. speaking of ugly, jackson hinkle.

before he ran over to the right, i thought he was kind of cute. c.i. said he wasn't. she said he had a fold developing over his nose and that his features were not classical.

she was right. as the years go by, he gets uglier and uglier. and that fold over his nose has reached cissy houston proportions. and his hairline keeps receding.

jude ellison snow day doyle posted this (on bluesky):

Cenk Uygur, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Katie Halper, Anna Redscare, Dasha Redscare, Liz Bruenig, Matt Bruenig, FdB's whole deal is whining about "woke," Connor Kilpatrick said it was "obviously true" trans women weren't women, Emmett Rensin rape allegations, Briahna Joy Gray, and on and on and

good for him. it's good to see transphobe idiot katie halper called out. they usually give her a pass. those people named are all grifters, every last 1.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Satan Trump and the bad people he wants to install in his administration.

That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Mama Hegseth" and it went up yesterday. Mommy Hegseth is on the world stage defending her baby boy because he can't fight his own battles. Grasp that, because the world does. No one has ever seen anything like it. A nearly 50 year old man hiding behind Mommy's skirt.

I think we last noted this issue in Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" but it's only gotten worse.

How much of an adult are you if you're hiding behind your Mommy? And is he on a bender now? He clearly has serious issues with, at best, problem drinking. Being the joke of the entire world, is that pushing him to drink?

Robert McCoy (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

Hegseth is currently facing a raft of scandals: He was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017. (Hegseth was not charged but paid the woman a financial settlement.) His drinking habits as a co-host of Fox & Friends reportedly concerned his Fox News colleagues. The New Yorker recently covered a whistleblower report detailing Hegseth’s excessive drinking and financial mismanagement while running a veterans nonprofit.

“Yeah, look. I think that Pete is a good man,” Marshall said. “He is a man of integrity now. He absolutely has my support. I think that these anonymous character assassinations by the media are way over-reported—”

“But some of them weren’t anonymous,” Roberts cut in. “Well, the ones that I’ve seen are anonymous,” said Marshall, before diverting the topic away from Hegseth’s scandals.

Marshall’s emphasis on the anonymity of the accusations echoes similar defenses of Hegseth by Senators Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott, who last week attempted to minimize the allegations plaguing Hegseth by pointing to their anonymous sources.

Pushing back against this, MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin wrote a blog post last week, noting that anonymous sources are integral to the functioning of the free press. The identities of anonymous sources are, after all, “known to the journalists reporting them,” and the accusations are independently verified or corroborated.

“And, of course,” Rubin wrote, “at least one of the anonymous people featured in reporting about Hegseth isn’t anonymous to Hegseth: The Jane Doe who has accused him of rape and with whom he signed an agreement.”

Not all of the revelations against Hegseth are anonymously sourced, either. As The New York Times reported last month, Hegseth’s mother in 2018 called her son “an abuser of women,” whose “abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out,” in a private email to him that she now disavows.

Lawrence O'Donnell addressed the nomination last night on MSNBC.

Meanwhile how to combat crazy? Supporting free speech. Illinois's legislature and Governor JB Prtizker have already taken steps to protect free speech from book bannings and now another state is stepping up. Lexi Lonas Cochran (THE HILL) reports:

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a law Monday prohibiting book banning in state libraries and schools.

The law says school boards and the governing boards of public libraries need to create standards for how books are removed from shelves and how complaints are addressed.

Books will not be allowed to be removed based on “+the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors,” nor can books be censored based “on a disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, unless they are restricting access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups.”

The governor is also providing legal protections for librarians from civil or criminal lawsuits around book banning.

“The Freedom to Read Act cements New Jersey’s role on the forefront of preventing book bans and protecting the intellectual freedom of our educators and students. Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others. I’m proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely,” Murphy said in a statement.

One of the biggest opponents to free speech is hate merchant Tulsi Gabbard whom Satan Trump has announced he wants to be the Director of National Intelligence -- that would put the unqualified crackpot over 18 agencies and over our national intelligence.

At LGBTQ NATION, Daniel Villarreal does a look at Tulsi Gabbard's record on LGBTQ+ issues. I'm not really impressed. He calls it a "mixed record" and based on his sources it is. Her record is far worse than he grasps. He did a good survey out of existing articles on this topic. Most people have ignored her as she's become nuttier and nuttier. Imane Khelif is the female boxer that the fright-wing spread lies about a few months back. Over a month after the lie was exposed as a lie -- lies that Imane was not born a woman -- Trashy Garbage was Tweeting the lie -- after it was known to be a lie. She does crap like that all the time now, for over two years, while the media has ignored her hatred and her garbage. She's a trashy whore who has spent her life lying about who she is. She lied that she was anti-war. She's not. Iraq Veterans Against the War? An anti-war group. Tulsi throughout 2019 posed as anti-war. And she tricked a lot of people. But someone who's anti-war? They'd take a moment or two to note the Iraqi people and how they suffered in the illegal war. We pointed this out about the liar back in 2019.

She's a trashy liar. And her freaky life includes not just the fact that she's in a cult but also that she keeps sticking her nose into parents' business. She wants to tell parents what they can and can't do. This single woman with no kids. She's obsessed with America's children. Makes me wonder if the cult she's in has a history of sexually abusing children.

Many cults do and you'll usually find members of such cults pretending to want to 'save' children -- but the reality is that they're sexually abusing them.

She's 43 and she has no kids. But she's obsessed with kids. Obsessed. What's going on there, Tulsi?

Lauren Sforza (NEW JERSEY ADVANCED MEDIA) notes Bret Stephen's most recent NYT Column:

Trump has been quickly announcing his picks for his second administration, causing a stir among GOP lawmakers who believe some of his picks are controversial and underqualified. Stephens said in a new column published Monday that the “gold medal” for the worst Trump pick so far goes to Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic lawmaker who was tapped last month to be Trump’s Director of National Security.

In his weekly conversation with The New York Times’ Gail Collins, Stephens labeled Gabbard as the “director of national idiocy” if she is to be confirmed.

“Tulsi Gabbard is my gold medalist. Nominating an apologist for former Syrian dictator and current Russia resident Bashar al-Assad as director of national intelligence means that if confirmed in the job, we’d need to rename her job title “’director of national idiocy,’” he said.

Gabbard has been under fire for weeks after Trump revealed his pick for the top role. She has especially been criticized amid the ongoing conflict in Syria, where the government of Bashar Assad has collapsed in recent days. She has faced backlash for her 2017 meeting with Assad, who is backed by Russian, Iranian and Iranian-allied forces.

VoteVets highlights this statement from retired Maj Gen Paul Eaton:

“Putting Tulsi Gabbard in charge of our intelligence, which keeps Americans safe here and abroad, is dangerous and reckless. In Gabbard, Trump has a complete and total loyalist who will use and wield our intelligence to Trump’s benefit, not to protect America and our Constitution.

“In combination with many of Trump’s other appointments and nominations, we see a picture coming together of an administration made up of unqualified, marginal zealots who will constantly be trying to please their leader rather than fulfill their oath to put the Constitution and the safety of the American people above the president’s ego. Many warned that Trump would dispense of all guardrails in a second term, so every whim of his would be carried out without question or protest. We are now seeing exactly what that looks like.”

She is a security risk. Rhian Lubin (Independent) reports:

Ex-Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger joked that Tulsi Gabbard could offer ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “safe harbor” in her home.

Kinzinger, who made the jibe the day before Assad’s regime fell, has been outspoken about Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence following a 2017 visit to Syria, where she met with the tyrant when she was a Democratic House member.

“Wonder if @TulsiGabbard will offer Assad safe harbor at her house?” the former Illinois representative quipped on X. “They are great friends.”

When Assad’s whereabouts were unknown after he fled, Kinzinger said: “Someone check @TulsiGabbard[’s] house.”

After Assad’s 50-year regime was toppled on Sunday, Kinzinger claimed that it was “Tulsi’s nightmare scenario.” “Her hearing for DNI will be BRUTAL and she won’t get in,” he said in another post.

And then there's Junior. Satan wants to install Junior as the Secretary of Health Human Services. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following regarding that announcement.

Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care who has led hearings on addressing vaccine hesitancy, spoke out forcefully against RFK Jr.’s nomination

***PHOTOS and BROLL of the roundtable HERE**

Seattle, WA —Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a roundtable discussion at UW Medicine on the importance of scientific research and vaccines—especially for children—and spoke about how Trump’s pick of RFK Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would threaten Americans’ health and safety. As Murray made clear, RFK Jr. has expressed countless views that run counter to basic truth, facts, and scientific evidence—and there is much he could do as HHS Secretary to create total chaos and cause real harm to families, from firing top scientists and researchers, to ripping away the approval—or insurance coverage—of all kinds of vaccines and medicines, to ending our focus on infectious disease research, as he has threatened to do.

Participants at the roundtable included: Dr. Beth Ebel, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, attending physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology; Dr. Helen Chu, a UW Medicine physician and professor of Medicine and Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and an adjunct assistant professor of Epidemiology; Dr. Marion Pepper, Chair of UW Medicine’s Department of Immunology; and Samantha Kunze Garcia, a mom and nurse at Intergalactic Pediatrics. Prior to the roundtable, Murray also toured the Cell Analysis Facility at UW Medicine.

“Thanks to vaccines, policies that require insurance to cover vaccines, and programs that make sure children can get vaccinated at no cost, we have saved countless lives. But dangerous misinformation and conspiracies have led to backsliding in recent years,” Senator Murray said. “If we don’t stop the misinformation and ensure people trust vaccines we have used for years, we will see more outbreaks. But in DC, we are seeing trust in vaccines become political—and we are seeing anti-vax conspiracy theorists be nominated to some of our most critical public health posts.”

“Elevating RFK Jr. to Health Secretary won’t just give dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracies an unprecedented platform, it will give him real power to undermine vaccines. He could rip away approval for medicines, including vaccines—and directly influence the board that decides which vaccines must be covered by insurance. He has threatened to end crucial infectious disease research. He plans to fire top scientists and researchers—setting lifesaving cures back decades. And could empower political appointees who share his dangerous views,” Murray continued. “We can’t let the conspiracy theorists drive this debate and undermine public health. That’s why I want to make sure the conversation includes the voices of parents in Washington state who don’t want to see vaccine access undermined, and experts who can speak to how vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving.”

When President-elect Donald J. Trump announced his intention to select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS, Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move. As a longtime appropriator and member of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Over her years as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she has secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. As Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray was also instrumental in crafting the American Rescue Plan including its landmark investments in public health and health care. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. Murray is also the lead sponsor of the Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act (PHISLA), legislation to establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board.

In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

###

Those are three people that Trump wants to see approved. This follows the failure of the Matt Gaetz and Mike pointed out how Gaetz punked Trump on that:

In news of another Trump would be, THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS' editorial board offers:

Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress last month after representing the Florida Panhandle for eight years in order to forestall the House Ethics Committee from publishing a likely damning report about his behavior involving a sexual relationship with an underage girl and for paying for sex. That Donald Trump said he wanted Gaetz to be the U.S. attorney general (a truly horrible idea) was just a convenient way for Gaetz to stop the report.

The ethics panel report still must be published and two failed close votes on the House floor Thursday evening only means we still have to wait.

The explanation of Gaetz’s departure comes from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who went on national TV Wednesday. McCarthy, who Gaetz toppled from power, has no love for Gaetz, but says he’s not alone, as “I don’t know who really likes him.”

The ex-speaker said Gaetz “wanted an excuse to resign” as the bipartisan ethics panel was due to release its findings on Nov. 15, a Friday: “I blame Matt for lying to the president because Matt needed to get out of Congress before the ethics report came out on Friday. I don’t believe he told President Trump that.”

Trump tapped Gaetz two days before, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and Gaetz immediately submitted a letter of resignation. Neither his hasty exit from Congress nor having his AG nomination explode should stop the publication of the report.

I thought the report should have been released. I'm not surprised he managed to trick Donald Trump but the fact that he did means the report should be released. Joanne Haner (THE HILL) adds:

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) of lying to President-elect Trump about an unreleased report about him compiled by the House Ethics Committee.

“No one thought that [the nomination] would pass,” McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News. “I blame Matt Gaetz for lying to the president about his ethics report. People know that. That’s why he made the motion against me. People know.”

Guess MAGA only pretends to care about Trump. Gaez punks Trump and gets Trump off to a bad start and MAGA rolls over like the dog they really are and refuse to demand Gaetz face punishment by Congress releasing the report.

The following sites updated:

the uglies: glenneth greenwald, matt taibi, katie halper and so many more

that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "It's All About The Recounts" and kari lake is big time ugly so let's cover some other uglies tonight like glenneth greenwald and matt taibi.

let's check in on the grotesque glenneth greenwald:

that's because bernie and trump are both racists. that's why they attack people who call out racism. they're racists.

and all the lefties who have pimped for bernie over the years make themselves suspect.

in 'Media: An idiot says he'll sue over art evaluation, two other idiots defend Trump's nominees,' ava and c.i. compile bernie's racist moments in public.

glenneth was always the dog s**t that some 1 stepped in. it's amazing to grasp how outrageous and ugly he's become.

but at least he can now be fully behind trump in pubic. he tried to pretend otherwise for the last 4 years. because he's a liar. because he's garbage. because he's trash.

what does that have to do with the massive transfer of wealth that trump is yet again planning to deliver to the oligarchs?

not a damn thing. but that's matt taibi for you. speaking of ugly, jackson hinkle.

before he ran over to the right, i thought he was kind of cute. c.i. said he wasn't. she said he had a fold developing over his nose and that his features were not classical.

she was right. as the years go by, he gets uglier and uglier. and that fold over his nose has reached cissy houston proportions. and his hairline keeps receding.

jude ellison snow day doyle posted this (on bluesky):

good for him. it's good to see transphobe idiot katie halper called out. they usually give her a pass. those people named are all grifters, every last 1.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Satan Trump and the bad people he wants to install in his administration.

I think we last noted this issue in Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" but it's only gotten worse.

Robert McCoy (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

“But some of them weren’t anonymous,” Roberts cut in. “Well, the ones that I’ve seen are anonymous,” said Marshall, before diverting the topic away from Hegseth’s scandals.

Lawrence O'Donnell addressed the nomination last night on MSNBC.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a law Monday prohibiting book banning in state libraries and schools.

The law says school boards and the governing boards of public libraries need to create standards for how books are removed from shelves and how complaints are addressed.

The governor is also providing legal protections for librarians from civil or criminal lawsuits around book banning.

Many cults do and you'll usually find members of such cults pretending to want to 'save' children -- but the reality is that they're sexually abusing them.

She's 43 and she has no kids. But she's obsessed with kids. Obsessed. What's going on there, Tulsi?

Lauren Sforza (NEW JERSEY ADVANCED MEDIA) notes Bret Stephen's most recent NYT Column:

In his weekly conversation with The New York Times’ Gail Collins, Stephens labeled Gabbard as the “director of national idiocy” if she is to be confirmed.

VoteVets highlights this statement from retired Maj Gen Paul Eaton:

She is a security risk. Rhian Lubin (Independent) reports:

Ex-Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger joked that Tulsi Gabbard could offer ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “safe harbor” in her home.

“Wonder if @TulsiGabbard will offer Assad safe harbor at her house?” the former Illinois representative quipped on X. “They are great friends.”

When Assad’s whereabouts were unknown after he fled, Kinzinger said: “Someone check @TulsiGabbard[’s] house.”

And then there's Junior. Satan wants to install Junior as the Secretary of Health Human Services. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following regarding that announcement.

Murray, a longtime congressional leader on health care who has led hearings on addressing vaccine hesitancy, spoke out forcefully against RFK Jr.’s nomination

***PHOTOS and BROLL of the roundtable HERE**

###

Those are three people that Trump wants to see approved. This follows the failure of the Matt Gaetz and Mike pointed out how Gaetz punked Trump on that:

In news of another Trump would be, THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS' editorial board offers:

The ethics panel report still must be published and two failed close votes on the House floor Thursday evening only means we still have to wait.

I thought the report should have been released. I'm not surprised he managed to trick Donald Trump but the fact that he did means the report should be released. Joanne Haner (THE HILL) adds:

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) of lying to President-elect Trump about an unreleased report about him compiled by the House Ethics Committee.

The following sites updated:

12/10/2024

satan trump is angry and nasty

earlier tonight, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Mama Hegseth" went up.

satan trump was on nbc's 'meet the press' sunday talking his usual hate and crazy. that includes his desire to see liz cheney and adam kinzinger imprisoned for doing their jobs in congress. imprisoned? i wouldn't be at all surprised to see the u.s. military drag trump out of the white house before he completed his 3rd year of this second term. in the meantime, t heo burman ('newsweek') reports:

Adam Kinzinger has told President-elect Donald Trump to "bring it on" after the incoming president said that members of the January 6 investigation committee should face jail time.

The former Illinois congressman, who was one of two Republicans alongside Liz Cheney to serve on the committee, challenged Trump to give him jail time, writing that the president-elect was "rewriting history" and "playing the victim."

The comments came after Trump told NBC on Sunday that the committee had unfairly prosecuted him, saying: "Everybody on that committee ... for what they did, yeah, honestly, they should go to jail."

This was not the first time Trump had taken aim at the January 6 committee. Last year in March, the then-presidential candidate posted on Truth Social that they "should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!"

the only 1 who should be behind bars is satan trump. maybe his 1st 2 sons as well. unlike ivanka, they make excuses for how satan treated his 1st wife (their mother). you have to be a special kind of crazy to chose satan trump over your own mother.

adam did the right thing in congress. he did nothing illegal. i am all for joe biden issuing him and liz and any 1 else who might be targeted by satan trump.

robert reich notes:

When she was a member of Congress, former Representative Liz Cheney took positions on many issues that I abhorred. I suspect you did, too.

But on the transcendent issue of American democracy and Trump’s culpability in trying to destroy it, she’s been a rare voice of clarity and courage — and continues to be.

Yesterday, Cheney called out Trump’s threat, which he made on “Meet the Press,” to imprison her and other members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

She said Trump’s threat was an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” Precisely right.

She went on to say:

“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” she said in a statement. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.

This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

[. . .]

At a time when most current and former Republican officials are mouthing Trump’s lies or keeping quiet — because they’ve sold their souls to their political ambitions or they’re intimidated by potential violence from Trump and his MAGA thugs — Cheney continues to serve the nation with courage and honor by telling the truth about the despicable traitor who will become president six weeks from now.

She doesn’t need a pardon from Biden, because Trump’s claim wouldn’t last an instant in federal court. What she deserves from Biden is a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

he is 100% right.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Monday, December 9, 2024. Satan speaks and none of it is pretty as he plans to ship out entire families from the US (citizens and non-citizens), as his planned tariffs will tank the economy, how he will pursue revenge and much more.

Hearts are worn in these dark agesYou're not alone in this story's pagesThe light has fallen amongst the living and the dyingAnd I'll try to hold it in, yeah I'll try to hold it inThe world is on fire, it's more than I can handleI'll tap into the water, try to bring my shareI'll try to bring more, more than I can handleBring it to the table, bring what I am able

-- "World Is On Fire," written by Sarah McLachlan and Pierre Marchand, first appears on Sarah's AFTERGLOW

Satan is coming. January 20th, he will be sworn in as president again. With all the reasons we already have to expect the worst, Michael Tomasky (THE NEW REPUBLIC) observes another issue:

It’s a fortunate thing that Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed before Tulsi Gabbard became our country’s director of national intelligence. A well-known Assad suck-up, Gabbard might have been able to feed this bloodthirsty tyrant—a man who killed 11,000 or so of his own people with bombs that, upon detonation, indiscriminately released thousands of pieces of metal shrapnel into the air to kill, maim, and disfigure anyone with the bad fortune to be nearby—with all the support he might have needed to stay in power for a few more years.

Assad’s demise is obviously a development to be celebrated. It’s great to see this ruthless authoritarian gone and Iran and Hezbollah weakened, which they are, at least for now. No, we can’t know who or what might fill the vacuum. It’s not like Syria is going to become a peace-loving democracy overnight, but it is nevertheless hoped that the Syrian people, who’ve known nothing but hardship and impunity, might eke out something of a sane and dignified existence. They certainly deserve nothing less.

While we whisper our hopes, however, some caution is definitely in order. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the group that toppled Assad, has been in control of most of Idlib province in recent years, and the 2020 State Department human rights report notes that the UN Commission for the Inquiry of Syria reported that year that HTS “routinely detained and tortured civilians” in territory it controlled. It’s a recurring lesson: One never knows if yesterday’s revolutionaries will round into tomorrow’s statesmen or tomorrow’s tyrants.

The main question here for Americans concerns the fact that in six weeks, Donald Trump is going to be the president of the United States. The surprising events in Syria serve as a harrowing reminder that there’s a big, complicated world out there, and pretty soon, Trump is going to be the single most powerful person in it؅—the
“horse in a hospital” that comedian John Mulaney likened him to, though horses are far less corrupt. And the weird, and worrying, thing is that even though Trump was president before, we don’t really know all that much about his foreign policy instincts because he was never really tested on foreign policy in his first term.

Think about it. There were no major crises during Trump’s term. There were no 9/11 attacks, obviously, but even beyond that, there weren’t any major wars; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came after he lost re-election. There was no big uprising like the 2014 Maidan Revolution, or the Tahrir Square and Arab Spring revolts of 2011. The Middle East was comparatively quiet, especially to those of us who recall to the fraught part of 2006 or the past year’s conflagration that followed in the wake of Hamas’s attacks in Israel. Assad’s butchery was an ongoing affair, but that’s not the same as a new broad regional conflict kicking off, which forces an American president to decide what moral face the United States is going to present to the world. Compared to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump had it pretty easy—it even fell to Biden to keep the commitments to wind down the war in Afghanistan and honor the hideous commitments Trump made to the Taliban, much to Biden’s detriment in public opinion polling.

Imagine, for a moment, how much better the world might be, if topics like the above got serious exploration in the US news media -- newspapers, TV news reports, public affairs programming, blogs, social media and talk shows. Imagine that.

And then think instead about the topic that keeps getting forced down our throats instead: The United Healthcare CEO's death. I don't know his name, I don't care to learn his name. Seems like karma got him. One man, how many house of news?

One man already dead.

There are missing children that don't get this kind of attention on a local level -- children who've been kidnapped and who the clock is ticking on with a limted amount of time to be discovered before they will likely be dead.

What is this really about? Seems to me a bunch of rich owners of media outlets have determined the story of all time out of fear that this isn't an isolated murder but the first in a series of strikes against an oligarchy.

The man was killed. How is the information any different every day as this story consumers way too much time and space in the media? Do we not have trained investigators to work on this case in our country?

He was killed last Wednesday in all the days of nonsense chattering that have followed, no one knows anything else but it's being treated as more important than a missing child.

It clearly is not.

The man remains dead. The killer remains at large. How about we get some real news? As opposed to meaningless distraction?

The economy would be real news. From yesterday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

You never know if President-elect Donald Trump is bluffing, but when you have billions of dollars on the line, you have to take him seriously. So car companies took notice when Trump announced a plan for huge new tariffs in a social media post just before Thanksgiving. A 25% tax on imports from Canada and Mexico would have a major impact on the car industry, which depends heavily on cross border trade. NPR's Camila Domonoske, who covers the auto industry, and Andrea Hsu, who covers labor, have been talking to car companies and workers about the plan and join me now. Hey there.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: Hi.

ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: So Andrea, I'm going to start with you. Getting back to this question, which we asked so many times for a four-year span, can Trump do this because, specifically, doesn't the U.S. have a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada?

HSU: Yeah. Yeah, it's called USMCA. Trump himself signed it into law in 2020. It replaced NAFTA, and under this agreement, goods flow across the borders duty-free as long as they meet certain requirements. So when it comes to cars, those requirements have to do with how much of the vehicle was produced in North America and the wages paid to people building those cars. But there's no outside party like a court that can force a country into compliance. So if Trump issues an executive order imposing a 25% tariff, as he has threatened to do, we would just expect Canada and Mexico to retaliate with tariffs of their own. But I do want to reiterate here - we just don't know if he's actually going to follow through with this.

DETROW: Right. Camila, I want to get to the car companies' perspective on this. What would a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico mean for the car industry?

DOMONOSKE: Well, look, it's an increase in costs, and that's coming at a time when affordability for vehicles is a major concern for the auto industry. The average new vehicle right now costs almost $49,000, which is wild. It's a tremendous amount of money. If you look at how these tariffs would affect prices, one way is on finished vehicles. So that's your Toyota Tacomas that come from Mexico, Chrysler Pacificas that are made in Canada. They would get more expensive as the tariff is applied to them. But bigger than that, it would affect parts, and we have built an entire supply chain in the United States around the U.S., Mexico, and Canada working together to build these vehicles.

DETROW: Can you give me an example to help us understand that supply chain and how important and I guess fragile it is when it comes to all of this?

DOMONOSKE: Yeah, I'll take one example which is talking about wire harnesses.

DETROW: All right.

DOMONOSKE: So this is like the nervous system of a car, the wires that connect all the different electronic bits and bobs. And you don't want a giant spaghetti pile of wires at the bottom of a car like I have on top of my desk right now. So they connect these wires into bundles very precisely and neatly, right? It's a lot of labor. And what happens right now is you might have a wire or clips for those wires made in the U.S., shipped to Mexico to then be tied into these precise bundles and then shipped back into the U.S. to go into, say, a seat or another component before then they also go into the final car. Lots of parts of cars get built up like this in a series of steps that happen on different sides of these borders. So when you have concerns about tariffs and then retaliatory tariffs, the costs could really build. And this affects all car companies, not just ones that have plants in Mexico or Canada.

DETROW: Given all of this, though, Andrea, you know, the UAW has actually pushed for higher tariffs on cars in the past, right? Like, how - help us make sense of all of this.

HSU: Yeah, specifically higher tariffs on cars coming from Mexico and Canada that don't meet the strict requirements for North American-made parts and higher wages that I talked about - and this is all about protecting jobs. So let's say you have a car plant in Mexico that's making cars for the U.S. market, but the engines or the transmissions are not made in North America. Those cars can't come into the U.S. duty-free. The penalty is a 2 1/2% tariff. But the union is saying that's too low to be a deterrent. It might be cheaper for those carmakers to pay that tariff than it would be to source everything in North America. So the union would like tariffs that are high enough to compel companies to make, you know, cars, make parts ideally in the U.S. But, you know, raising that 2 1/2% tariff is very different from imposing a blanket 25% tariff on everything that's coming from Mexico and Canada.

DETROW: Any sense from the conversations you've had how workers think they'll be affected by all of this?

HSU: Well, I talked with Romaine McKinney. He's president of UAW Local 869 outside Detroit. His members work at Warren Stamping. They stamp all kinds of metal parts that are sent to plants in the U.S., but also to Mexico and Canada. And so they would feel the impacts of a trade war immediately. Maybe they'd have to slow production if orders slowed. But beyond that, McKinney stressed it's not just about cars or car parts. A 25% tariff, he says, would run up the prices of all kinds of consumer goods.

ROMAINE MCKINNEY: Whether that's fruit and vegetables or nuts and bolts - a 25% tariff will expeditiously run up the cost of operating your home. That is the bigger problem for us.

HSU: You know, he says autoworkers are middle-class Americans who are price-conscious consumers.

Satan showed up on NBC's MEET THE PRESS. Click here to stream on YOUTUBE -- and that's the extended interview -- both what was shown on TV and what wasn't. David Edwards (ROLLING STONE) notes:

In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC, host Kristen Welker pressed Trump on his campaign promise to do away with birthright citizenship.

"You've promised to end birthright citizenship on day one," Welker noted. "Is that still your plan?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Trump insisted.

"The 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens," Welker pointed out. "Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action?"

"Well, we're going to have to get a change," Trump remarked. "We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it."

"Through an executive action?" the NBC host asked.

"Well, if we can, through executive action," Trump replied. "I was going to do it through executive action, but then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you. We have to end it."

So the thinks he can alter the Constitution by executive action? That may be the scariest thing he's said in some time. There is a process for altering the Constitution and it is not executive action nor has it ever been. But Satan thinks no rules apply to him. Jude Sheerin (BBC NEWS) adds:

On the subject of immigration, Trump told NBC he would seek through executive action to end so-called birthright citizenship, which entitles anyone born in the US to an American passport, even if their parents were born elsewhere.

Birthright citizenship stems from the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that "all persons born" in the United States "are citizens of the United States".

"We're going to have to get it changed," Trump said. "We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it."

Trump also said he would follow through on his campaign pledge to deport undocumented immigrants, including those with family members who are US citizens.

"I don't want to be breaking up families," he said, "so the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back."

Rebecca Falconer and Russell Contreras (AXIOS) note:

Stephen Miller, the incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy, on Sunday gave new details on the Trump administration's plan for what he called "the largest deportation operation in American history."

Why it matters: Miller made clear during his interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that deportations would be Trump's no.1 priority ahead of issues including making reforms to tax and trade and the debt ceiling.

President-elect Trump has vowed to crack down on immigration and start mass deportations on Day 1 of his presidency, though the operation would be hard to achieve without major structural overhauls.

What they're saying: Miller said on Fox News that first, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have "promised that they can get a full funding package for the border, the most significant board of security investment in American history ... to the president's desk in January or early February."

That would mean a "massive increase" in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers working on Trump's deportation operation and a "historic increase in border agents," with both getting a pay rise, Miller told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.
There would be "full funding for ICE beds, full funding for air and marine operations, full funding for all of the barriers and technology that you need to ensure there's never another got-away entering this country," Miller added.

Worth noting: Trump aides have previously said the president-elect would prioritize deporting dangerous criminals — something the federal government already does.

An Axios review of the most recent immigration court records found that less than .5% of over 1 million cases last year resulted in deportation orders for alleged crimes other than illegal entry into the U.S.

Zoom in: After Trump has signed executive orders to "seal the border shut" and begin deportations, the senators would "move immediately" in the same timeframe "to the comprehensive tax reform package," Miller said.

January 20th, he will again take an oath to uphold the Constitution but clearly he won't mean it. He's too stupid to even understand the Constitution let alone uphold it.

He doesn't respect the rule of law -- or understand it. Bill Barrow and Will Weissert (AP) report on another aspect of the interview:

“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power.

The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump’s role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office.

As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: “I have the absolute right. I’m the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I’m the president. But I’m not interested in that."

At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who had investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

“Cheney was behind it ... so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” Trump said.

Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, “No,” and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies.

But at another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. “I want her to do what she wants to do,” he said.

Such threats, regardless of Trump's inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration.

On the threat he keeps floating, Yasmeen Hamadeh (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney has clapped back at President-elect Donald Trump after he threatened to imprison her and other members on the congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press that aired Sunday morning, Trump claimed that Cheney, along with a “committee of political thugs” deleted all the evidence from their investigation.

“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” the President-elect said, referring to Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (the committee’s chairman). “They deleted and destroyed all evidence.”

[. . .]

“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” Cheney said. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”

Like Rebecca ("i support a pardon for liz cheney"), I support a pardon for Liz Cheney or anyone else that Satan might go after when he returns to the White House. He is a convicted criminal, a rageaholic, a raving idiot, and someone in the throes of early onset dementia.

Jonathan Capehart addressed Satan's vengeance in an MSNBC roundtable yesterday.

Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:

Washington, D.C. – Today, in response to the news that President-elect Donald Trump has named Billy Long to serve as Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) Commissioner, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the incoming top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, released the following statement:

“Billy Long’s nomination to lead the I.R.S is bad news for middle-class taxpayers and a win for ultra-wealthy tax cheats. He has zero relevant experience for this critical management role and this pick — along with the unprecedented firing of the current commissioner — should set off alarm bells about the weaponization of the tax agency. If he’s confirmed, taxpayers can expect longer wait times for customer service, a more complicated process to file taxes, and free rein for the rich and powerful to continue rigging the system at the expense of everyone else.”

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The following sites updated: