Trump Proudly Wears Mask In Public

 Ahhhh.  Perfect.

Self-defense For MAGAs

Most of us have a Republican friend, co-worker or family member. Some of those folks may even be hat wearing MAGAs who we try to deal with as you would deal with a small child wielding a loaded gun. Patience, concern and, if necessary, a restraining order. Still, you don't want to see them injured or maimed during the post election riots. We all know that after Trump declares victory before the polls even close, there are going to be Antifa riots like you've never seen before.

It's possible that some of your Trump supporting acquaintances might get caught unawares and unarmed by a hooded Antifa assassin.  Send them this video so that they can work on a few simple, but effective, self-defense moves.  These should allow them to stay alive until the police can arrive, tear gas several city blocks and shoot anyone who tries to escape.

This video was done in Spanish to avoid the Google censors.

Fox News - "Five Times As Much Hate"

You're five time more likely to be confronted with "hate" if you watch Fox News than on any other television news outlet.  Fox commentators and guests routinely use the construction "they hate" when they refer to anyone who might be critical of Fox's right wing political agenda.  

“We found Fox’s usage of ‘they hate’ has increased over time,” they wrote, “with a clear spike around the polarising 2016 Trump-Clinton election. But Fox’s use of ‘hate’ really took off when Trump’s presidency began. Beginning in January 2017, the mean usage of ‘they hate’ on the network doubled.”

The study found that when Fox News says “they hate”, it most often means “Democrats, liberals, political elites and the media”.

“As for the object of all this hatred, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and other Fox hosts most often name Trump. Anchors also identify their audience – ‘you’, ‘Christians’ and ‘us’ – as the target of animosity … these language patterns construct a coherent but potentially dangerous narrative about the world.”

The incessant use of this sort of adversarial rhetoric is a mechanism to develop an "us vs them" attitude in the Fox audience while providing that audience with a target for their own hate.  By creating this atmosphere of divisive hate, Fox performs a powerful service for the American hard right and builds a loyal audience who feel they are free to demonize and hate those groups that Fox wants targeted.

Fox’s use of the word “hate”, they said, represented a successful if “dangerous business plan when shared crises demand Americans’ empathy, negotiation and compromise. Fox’s talk of hate undermines democratic values like tolerance and reduces Americans’ trust of their fellow citizens.”

The professors said such division “bodes badly for its handling of what seems likely to be a chaotic, divisive presidential election. In pitting its viewers against the rest of the country, Fox News works against potential solutions to the the very crises it covers.”

Trump's primary focus as president has been to divide Americans.  His Americans are the MAGAs.  The rest of us are the "haters".  It's an ugly vision of our country and Fox News is a major purveyor of that vision.

 

"Worst President Ever"

 The critics have spoken.

Plenty of Reasons to Attack Your Daddy

Here's a hint to Trump Junior.  Joe Biden doesn't need your daddy's tax evasion as an attack line at tomorrow's debate.  He can attack over the 205,000 unnecessary Covid-19 deaths, a cratered economy, all of daddy's threats of election violence and many more disasters brought about by the MAGA squatter in the White House.  

“They put out a selective picture of all of these things the day before the debates to try to give someone like Joe Biden an attack line,” he added, seemingly mixing up the dates (the Times published the report on Sunday, the debate is on Tuesday). “They come up with one or two catchy soundbites, and that’s the game.”

Economic Genius

Electing a successful business person as president might make sense if the United States were a business.  Electing a scam artist who poses as a successful businessman was never a good idea. Still, a large block of voters bought into the Trump act on a reality TV show and concluded that despite much evidence to the contrary that Trump was a money making genius.  They bet he would somehow create an economic miracle that would bring back manufacturing jobs, reopen coal mines and stop US corporations from moving jobs to low cost foreign countries.  Here's the bill for that foolish decision.

The U.S. budget deficit tripled this year to $3.3 trillion, by far the highest ever. The U.S. economy shrank at a 31.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, by far the worst ever. The trade deficit is at its highest level in 12 years. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in six years. Unemployment claims, which had never topped 700,000 in a week before March, have topped 700,000 every week since March. Farm bankruptcies are rising, even though government payments to farmers are at an all-time high.

Who Pays For Trump's Lifestyle?

These are the people paying Trump's income taxes.  Not Trump or his businesses.

Teachers paid $7,239
Firefighters paid $5,283
Nurses paid $10,216

Donald Trump paid $750 pic.twitter.com/5YE1cbYsBN

— Team Joe (Text JOE to 30330) (@TeamJoe) September 28, 2020

Millions of People Are Coming to Tulsa

Would it be wrong to speculate that Parscale is another human being that Trump used and tossed away?  It's also possible for Parscale to be a small time grifter who was broken by his association with Trump.  

President Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale was taken from his Fort Lauderdale home by police Sunday afternoon after his wife reported that he was armed and threatening suicide.

The police, called by his wife, went to the house in the Seven Isles community, an affluent area in which houses have access to the water. They made contact, “developed a rapport” and negotiated his exit from the house, the police said in a statement. He was taken to Broward Health Medical Center under the Baker Act, which provides for temporary involuntary commitment.

How Can Anyone Be Undecided in 2020?

 WTF is it with "undecided voters?"  

Waiter at the 2020 Election... pic.twitter.com/IOgFyZbYqw

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 28, 2020

Broke Con Man Runs US Economy Into Ground

Trump's only perceived strength is his "management" of the economy.   He's managed it like he manages everything else - into the red.

#TrumpIsBroke and so are we if he gets another 4 years. In fact, he doesn’t even deserve another week!pic.twitter.com/cAzqejMpKl

— 🇵🇷 Remembering #RBG 🌻🌻 (@MissEssieG) September 28, 2020

Trump's Seven Nobel Peace Prizes

Trump has added a new feature to his routine MAGA rally incoherent rant.  He has an extended riff regarding how the media has completely ignored his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize nomination.   He boasts that this is actually his second different nomination this year and his third overall nomination.  He has apparently decided to not discuss the nomination he begged of former Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.  The begging was real, the nomination - who knows?

Here's the thing about the Nobel Peace Prize.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who can submit a nomination:  

“...university rectors or chancellors, professors of political and social science, history, philosophy, law and theology; leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs; members of national assemblies, governments, and international courts of law; previous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; board members of organizations and institutions that have received the Nobel Peace Prize; present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; and former advisers of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.”

The nomination form is actually available on-line.  There are no other qualifying criteria for the Peace Prize. 

Two of Trump nominations have come from the same far right Norwegian politician.  This year's other nomination came from  a Swedish parliamentarian and security guard.  With these 2021 nominations, Trump joins 317 other candidates for the award.  The key point here is that a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is made by individuals not by the committee that actually determines who will receive the prize.

“Any person or organization can be nominated by anyone eligible to nominate,” the committee states. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has no input into submissions, though it decides who actually wins the prize. “To simply be nominated is therefore not an endorsement or extended honour to imply affiliation with the Nobel Peace Prize or its related institutions,” the committee states.

Trump winds up his MAGA cult with his Nobel grievances, including an obligatory bashing of the media for ignoring his Nobel accomplishment.  He compares the supposed lack of media coverage of his nominations to the media's fawning over Barrack Obama, who was actually awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.  

“And when Barack Obama, Barack Hussein Obama got nominated, now when Barack Hussein Obama got nominated, he didn’t know why he was nominated,” Trump said. “It was like right at the very beginning [of his presidency]. He didn’t do anything. He did nothing and he got nominated. It was the biggest story I’ve ever seen.”

It's hard to imagine how Trump's mind works - assuming it does indeed work.  The finale of his Nobel rant is to boast that he is going to be collecting Nobel prizes at a rate that will only be eclipsed by his growing pile of rape allegations.   

 “And my only complaint is, I should have gotten about seven or eight, because if you knew some of the other things — some of the other things I have done much better,” Trump argued, despite having not won the award a single time. “I should have gotten seven.”

Trump's nomination does put him in good company among the world's sociopathic leaders - mass murderers Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were both nominated for Peace Prizes, as well as Hitler's fascist sidekick, Benito Mussolini.  None of this group took the prize home.  Expect the same result for Trump no matter how many time the same Norwegian right winger nominates him.

Democrats Need to Leave Trump's Corrupt Court Nominee to His Republican Enablers

Over at TPM, Josh Marshall urges Democrats in Congress to refuse to participate in the confirmation of Trump far right wing Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.  Senate Republicans already committed to vote for whoever Trump nominated, so there should be no expectation that any of them will take a principled stand and oppose her nomination or vote against her confirmation.  Why should Democrats give this sham process any oxygen?

President Trump has now, unsurprisingly, chosen to nominate the far right Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. The only sensible approach is for Senate Democrats neither to meet with Barrett nor participate in the confirmation process at all. Even to do so in a critical posture is to add legitimacy to a process that is illegitimate.

You can’t insist a process is illegitimate while granting it legitimacy, while arguing within the questions the process raises. In this context, participation amounts to begging. Begging is weak. Democrats need to make clear that the only answer to Republican court-packing which will toss millions off health care, cripple voting rights, further limit reproductive rights and more important than anything be a decades-long veto over all progressive legislation is to elect Democrats and repair the damage in 2021.

Glory!

Biden/Harris - Look at this people celebrating and wearing masks.  

It’s in these moments that our shared humanity and belief in our own power to bring about change guides us forward. That’s what I saw on the ground in Flint, Oakland Country, and Detroit earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/mayTcWJwG4

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 26, 2020

Voter Outreach at the Strip Club

A group of exotic dancers in Atlanta are working to get out the vote.  It's all about getting to the polls in the end.

#Atlanta strippers have pulled off the best voting #ad campaign I have seen yet. Because... Atlanta #Vote #GetYaBootyToThePolls pic.twitter.com/oMOcGws6Fe

— Lisa Respers France (@LisaFranceCNN) September 23, 2020

Trump Is The Leader of a Minority Party - Just Like Hitler in 1933

It is difficult for many Americans to face the reality of the nation in which we live.  We believe we are a good, just and free country, but in reality the United States has evolved into an oligarchy run by the rich, for the rich.  We are all complicit in our nation's failure to live up to the ideals that its founders set forth, but we are also entrapped in the systems of inequity that they set in motion in the Constitution.  Did they envision the tyranny of the minority that the United States has become?  Did they envision a nation where 1%  of the population controls 40% of the nation's wealth or 10% control nearly 80%?  If the government we have today is the government they had in mind in 1789, then we do not owe the founders our praise.

We are not a democracy. We are not a republic. Our government is run by aging, rich, white overseers who have a stranglehold on the needs of the many to please the wealthy few. To hell with the rest of us. For the GOP, might makes right.

Trump and his acolytes are intent on nominating and confirming a new justice before the November election precisely because the GOP fears Trump will lose. Their goal is the unraveling of all the social progress Ginsburg helped spearhead—even as they nod solemnly and offer prayers upon her death.

For many Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, James Inhofe, John Cornyn, Rob Portman, Thom Tillis, Tom Cotton and Roger Wicker, this is likely their last ride on the great white whale. Their theme song may well be “Ride of the Valkyries.” If they get their way, then Roe v. Wade will be overturned, civil rights will take a back seat and the president will cackle with considerable delight at reversing years of social progress.

Republicans can not win an election based on ideas and in many states they can not win a fair election, one without jerrymandering or voter suppression.  Yet, the party that represents a minority of Americans, determines what decisions are made by the government of all Americans. 

Ready For This?

 

"Vote Him Out!"

When the crowd isn't pre-screened MAGA crazies, the chants and cheers change a bit.  RBG probably would have enjoyed this moment

Trump at the court as crowd chants “vote him out” — it’s rare for this President to see his opposition this up-close and in-person pic.twitter.com/VEVkRHOkjM

— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) September 24, 2020

I expect that Trump will tell us how well he was received by the crowd. 

Nearly 100% Accuracy - The Dogs Have It

 

Covid-19 tests have a wide degree of accuracy.  Dogs on the other hand appear to be able to detect Covid-19 with near 100% accuracy.  In Finland, four Covid-19 "sniffer" dogs started work this week.

Four Covid-19 sniffer dogs have begun work at Helsinki airport in a state-funded pilot scheme that Finnish researchers hope will provide a cheap, fast and effective alternative method of testing people for the virus.

A dog is capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus within 10 seconds and the entire process takes less than a minute to complete, according to Anna Hielm-Björkman of the University of Helsinki, who is overseeing the trial.

Dogs are also able to identify Covid-19 from a much smaller molecular sample than PCR tests, Helsinki airport said, needing only 10-100 molecules to detect the presence of the virus compared with the 18m needed by laboratory equipment.

Trump Has Plans For America

Trump plans to steal the 2020 election.  His Plan A is to demand that mail-in ballots in critical states are tossed out simply for being mail-in ballots.  Along with Trump, the Republican Party has over one thousand lawyers standing by to contest mail-in ballots in states where the loss of a small percentage of Biden votes will impact a close election.

Donald Trump would not commit to peacefully transferring power to Joe Biden if he loses the election in November, instead saying election officials must “get rid” of any illegal ballots.

“We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster,” Mr Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday, a continuation of his repeated attacks on the integrity of expanded mail-in voting programmes states have rolled out amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Do you commit to making sure that there’s a peaceful transferral of power?” the reporter asked.

“We want to get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation,” Mr Trump replied.

“The ballots are out of control. You know it,” he said, to which the reporter objected, “No, I don’t know it.”

Trump's Plan B is to make so much noise about election fraud that states with Republican controlled state legislatures feel empowered to appoint Electors to the Electoral College who will be instructed to vote for Trump, despite the popular vote results in those states.

The Trump campaign is weighing a postelection strategy that would bypass the results in key swing states by installing electors who would vote for the president in the Electoral College even if he loses, The Atlantic reported.

Using a rationale of baseless claims about widespread voter fraud and other irregularities with mail ballots, President Donald Trump "would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly," The Atlantic's Barton Gellman wrote, adding that "the longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires."

A crucial component to both of these plans is a compliant judiciary that will rule in Trump's favor when Democrats attempt to stop this election theft in the Federal courts.  Thus the Republican rush to insure Justice Ginsburg's Trump appointed right wing replacement is installed on the Supreme Court by November 3.

This isn't fantastic speculation.  Trump has been working to  delegitimatize any election outcome that doesn't have him as the winner.  The Republican Party is 100% behind Trump as he works to end our democracy.

Up In Smoke

Remember the Trump fireworks show back in August?  It was... a fireworks show.  We've all seen them and then we move on with our lives, because after all it's just smoke when the explosions are over.  Kind of like Trump - just noxious smoke after some loud noise.  But, Trump loves this kind of stuff.  In fact, he loves spending other people's money on this stuff instead of on the actual hard work of a political campaign.  

During the month of August, the Trump campaign spent nearly half-a-million dollars on fireworks, almost certainly for the display that was put on over the south lawn of the White House during the Republican convention. That display was indisputably ostentatious—a seemingly never ending stream of lights that culminated in the words “Trump” and “2020” bedazzling the sky above the Washington Monument. But the price tag—$477,000—made the company behind the show, Grucci Inc., the campaign’s ninth largest vendor of the entire month. The campaign paid more to the Long Island fireworks company in August than it spent on legal bills for its top firm, Jones Day, or its top pollster, Fabrizio Lee & Associates. It was well more than half of the $762,826.08 the campaign spent on its entire payroll.

Here is a look at one possible future for the Trump reelection campaign.

Fight On!

 

Trump Doesn't Know Anything About Covid-19 Vaccine

When Trump tells you there will be a vaccine by Election Day and that there will enough vaccine for all Americans by April (it was October and then it was the end of 2020), it's a lie.  Trump has no idea of the status of any vaccine trials and he probably has even less information or understanding of the logistics of vaccine production and distribution.   Part of the reason is his ignorance, but the other part is that virtually no one knows the status of the ongoing vaccine trials.  Dr. Fauci explains why.

In fact, no one in the administration has seen it. In an interview with The Daily Beast Monday evening, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is only one individual who has access to the data that would show whether a vaccine is viable.

“These are blind placebo-controlled trials. The only ones who see the data intermittently is the safety data monitoring board…. a single unblinded statistician,” Fauci said. “Those data are not public data, no one can know what those data show. That person looks at the data and says, ‘OK, let's keep the trial going, we don't have enough data to make a decision.’ Or that person can look at the data and say, ‘You know, there really is a very strong signal of efficacy, let's make it known.’ We bring in the company, we tell the company, then the company can make up their mind, whether they want to use that data to go to the [Federal Drug Administration for approval].”

 

Lazy, Incompetent Who Watches Himself on TV All Day

Incompetent and lazy.  Trump is incapable of performing the job of president.  He has left America's government to a group of right wing sycophants and grifters while he hangs out in the White House residence and watches TV.

There’s another problem we tend to overlook as we react to the president’s bombast, wild claims, misogyny, racism, lies, greed, avarice, and abandonment of all the core principles of our country and his party. We overlook it  because it is so common that it is no longer news.

It is this: Donald Trump rarely shows up in the West Wing, and when he does, he is too incompetent to effectively fulfill his oath of office.

The Marine guard posted outside of Trump’s office when he is in it almost never appears before noon and is rarely seen in the afternoon. There have been days when Trump has held press briefings where the guard wasn’t outside of the door even as Trump entered the briefing room—indicating that Trump may have walked straight from the residence to the briefing room. No guard on duty outside of the West Wing after a Trump appearance would indicate he walked straight back to the residence.

It is impossible to conceive the damage this lazy, incompetent, racist asshole will do to our country if he is reelected or steals the election.  And, every Republican in government will support him.

Trump's Plan Was Do Nothing

The evidence keeps building that Trump never intended to implement an organized national government response to the pandemic. At first, that failure may have been due to the fact that the impact of Covid-19 was falling disproportionately on states that Trump considered Democratic controlled. As the disaster grew outside of the blue states, Trump had already abdicated responsibility for any coordinated national response and he decided to heap the blame on state governments and add gasoline to the anti-mask and QAnon driven movements that were willing to align with his "let them die" approach to the pandemic.

...Kushner and Trump’s twisted view was that it “wasn’t government’s job” to step in for a nation in crisis. The shortages, the scrambling over supplies at an ever higher price, the nurses who were forced to wear garbage bags and the patients who were turned away by overtaxed hospitals … that was the plan. Infection and death didn’t happen by accident, and it didn’t happen because Trump and Kushner weren’t warned against the consequences of inaction. Suffering was by design.

No matter how many times Trump and his supporters claim “there was no playbook” for the COVID-19 pandemic, there absolutely was. Plans for a government response to this type of pandemic had been written, revised, war gamed, and practiced for decades.  It wasn’t the lack of a plan that caused disaster. It was refusal to follow the plan.

Raven Brings Light

"And still today, we see the black feathers of the raven, darkened forever because he brought good things to this world."

Photo by Shelley Lewis Photography

The Inuit say that Raven was born out of the darkness. He was weak and lost. As he began traveling aimlessly experiencing the world, he realized that he was the Raven Father, Creator of All Life. Once he realized who he was, he gathered up his strength and flew out of the darkness to a new place which he called earth, but he was still alone, so he decided to create plants. As he flew around exploring this new world, he came upon a man whom the legend claims was the first of the Inuit people. Raven fed the man and taught the man to respect the world around him. Soon after, a woman came to be and Raven taught the both of them how to cloth themselves, build shelter, and make canoes to travel the water. As the two bred and spawned children, Raven cared for their children and educated them as he had done before.  -- Wikipedia

Dogs Know the Truth

You can't trust a man who doesn't have a dog.  Trump doesn't have a dog.  Joe and Jill Biden have two.  Dogs know.

False CDC Documents Produced To Massage Trump's Ego

Trump, Pence and the Republican/fascist enablers now embedded in our government are willing to kill as many Americans as necessary in order to stay in power.  The will kill not only people, but the Constitution itself so that Trump can continue to destroy our country.  Is Trump just operating on his own or is he really a puppet for Putin and Russia?  The damage already done is bad enough, but there is more to come if Trump and his fellow travelers remain in power.   They don't care who dies.

A heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, according to several people familiar with the matter as well as internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

...officials told The Times this week that the health department did the rewriting itself and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.

“That was a doc that came from the top down, from the H.H.S. and the task force,” said a federal official with knowledge of the matter, referring to the White House task force on the coronavirus. “That policy does not reflect what many people at the C.D.C. feel should be the policy.”

Scientific and health guidelines formulated in the White House not by scientists and doctors in order to support Trump's ego.  He said, there was too much testing, so his sycophants formulated guidelines lines that would result in less testing despite the fact that that would lead to increased spread of the virus.

Trump Voter Focus Group

These are the people who will excuse anything Trump says or does and vote for him no matter what.  They are the people who will vote twice for him if he tells them to do so.   It's funny, but it really depresses me. 

Trump Ad Touts Support For Russian Troops

A new Trump reelection ad that exhorts us to "Support Our Troops" actually  pictures what appear to be Russian soldiers and what are definitely Russian MiG-29 jet fighters.  It is possible that the makers of the ad just grabbed stock footage that had soldiers and jets in the same photo, or it's possible that these are the troops Trump has been supporting since his election - Russian troops.

Trump ad asks people to support the troops. But it uses a picture of Russian jets https://t.co/Pbw5KcvdnT via @politico @dlippman @BryanDBender

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) September 15, 2020

Trump Will Let the World Burn Down

Trump wears his ignorance with pride.  At a briefing with California state officials about the historic and horrific wildfires that are burning out of control all along the West Coast, Trump displayed a grotesque level of ignorance.  

President Donald Trump still doesn’t appear to understand the difference between the weather and the climate, a fact frequently explained in elementary school classes. While speaking in California about the overwhelming wildfires up and down the West Coast, Trump dismissed that it was attributed to climate change.

“It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch,” said Trump about the weather.

“I wish science agreed with you,” said California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot.

 “I don’t think science knows, actually,” Trump claimed.

It will get colder in California this winter, but that isn't evidence that the world's climate scientists are wrong about global warming.   

Trump's Failure By The Numbers

It is possible to envision a United States' response to Covid-19 that resulted in substantially fewer deaths.   The leaders of other nations have managed to follow science and rally their citizens to make the sacrifices necessary to deal with the virus.  The US stands as the painful outlier in our national approach and the terrible toll of that approach.  We can lay the blame for hundreds of thousands of dead Americans directly upon Trump, his Republican enablers and fellow far right travelers.
                                                              Table:  Mark Sumner, Daily KOS

LEADER	CASES  /  1M POP.	DEATHS / 1M POP.	U.S. CASES (PROJECTED)	U.S. DEATHS (PROJECTED)	LIVES SAVED (PROJECTED)
DONALD TRUMP	20,065	597	6,649,404	197,675	0
JUSTIN TRUDEAU (CANADA)	3,600	243	1,193,015	80,460	117,215
ANGELA MERKEL (GERMANY)	3,103	112	1,028,313	37,084	160,591
ERNA SOLBERG (NORWAY)	2,219	49	735,361	16,224	181,451
SCOTT MORRISON (AUSTRALIA)	1,041	31	344,980	10,264	187,410
KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS (GREECE)	1,252	29	414,904	9,602	188,072
MOON JAE-IN (SOUTH KOREA)	430	7	142,499	2,317	195,357
JACINDA ARDERN (NEW ZEALAND)	359	5	118,970	1,667	196,008

I Killed (your Covid victim's name ) So You Wouldn't Panic

Will the MAGA crowd accept a confession in Trump's own words and voice, that he lied about the danger posed by Covid-19?  What follows from that should be a MAGA light bulb moment when the Trumpist realize that he wasn't lying to protect them from panic, but because he was in a panic because he does not have the intellect or leadership tools to do his job.

...this week’s wounds are from Trump’s own quivering, liverish lips and the shit sandwich he stuffed between them on Wednesday. It’s not every day that your hubris and dumbfuckery leads you to do 18 on-the-record taped interviews with Bob Woodward confessing to, oh, 200,000 fucking cases of manslaughter because you lied and lied and lied and lied and lied and lied and lied again to the American people about the impact of COVID. It’s not some vague J’Accuse from the resistance now; Trump admitted early on that he knew just how deadly and how dangerous the virus would be, and lied anyway. That’s some killer clown show.

Trump lied, Americans died.

Don't Want To Panic Anyone

Your Tax $ To Defend Trump In A Rape Case

Barr and the United States Justice Department are going to defend Trump against a woman who has accused him of rape.  Yes, your tax dollars will be put to work to defend Trump from the consequences of an event that happened in the 1990s.    If you are on Twitter, help make #TrumpIsARapist continue to trend.

Amazing there are people who believe in a global pedophile conspiracy, but who still deny the overwhelming evidence of Trump's sex crimes.#TrumpIsARapist pic.twitter.com/J6d6D68MUp

— Arrivederci (@PapaGlider) September 9, 2020

Hire A Teenager to Watch TV and Tweet

Trump apparently spends most of his non-golfing time watching TV. Yes, he spouts of to the press every so often, but his real job is apparently watch Fox News and OANN and then Tweeting about what he just watched.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday went off on an angry rant against “thug” Black Lives Matter protesters shortly after “Fox & Friends” aired a segment showing demonstrators harassing diners.

US taxpayers pay for his housing, his golf, his food, his transportation. We provide him with round the clock protection and servants.  We providing the same services to his wife and members of his family - including those not working for the government.  AND, HE SPENDS MOST OF HIS TIME WATCHING TV.  

If that's what the American people want their president to do, we could hire some teenager to cover the TV and social media stuff for a lot less than the price we are paying for the Trump crime family.

Trump's Death Star

Trump's former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, he of the multiple houses and a new Ferrari, bragged that he had turned the Trump re-election campaign into the Death Star.  He apparently never saw any of the Star Wars movies.  But, at least he should have understood that he was dealing with a candidate and family who are some of the world's biggest grifters.  He should have also realized that if you put a pile of money in front of any member of the Trump family and turn your back, the pile will be noticeably smaller when you turn back around.

It appears much of the problem was the way that Trump himself, along with Parscale, the Trump’s family and other associates, treated the campaign as a personal piggybank. Trump paid his family’s enormous legal bills with campaign cash. Money was routinely spent to fluff Trump’s ego, as with the reported $11 million spent on Super Bowl ads. Nearly a third of the cash was routed through “a single limited liability company linked to Trump campaign officials.” The partners of Trump’s two sons are literally on the payroll. Trump’s own incompetence is also a factor, leading to massive losses as he impulsively switched the Republican convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville to and then, effectively, to Washington. And the campaign spent far more money on fundraising than is typical, suggesting that Parscale was more interested in bragging about his Death Star than making it run efficiently.

What makes this entire situation even funnier is that it was entirely predictable: Give Donald Trump a billion dollars and he blows it all. That’s how the man has operated his entire career. Trump’s history of running various businesses into bankruptcy — including Atlantic City casinos — isn’t exactly some big secret. Of course he runs his campaign the same way. Giving the man money is like lighting it on fire, and always has been.

Trump vs Biden - Family Values

Like father, like son.  Biden's served, Trump's steals.

Trump is "a risk to firefighters"

Trump is vociferous in his criticism of California's leaders for failing to keep their forests floors clean.  In his ignorance he claims that failure to clean up the thousands of square miles of forest is the reason for the state's wildfires.  Trump, of course, takes no responsibility for his contributions to global warming or the fact that many of California's wildfires start in national forests, where the US government is responsible for forest management.  

One critical tool in the management of fuel loads (flammable material) in forests and grasslands is the use of controlled burns to reduce those fuel load.  This is a widely used technique, but the US Department of the Interior has lost a key asset in its program of controlled burns.  Of course, Trump is oblivious to the fact that his own policies have grounded Interior's fleet of airborne drones that are invaluable tools in the controlled burn program as well as critical to fire detection and surveillance. 

As wildfires grow in size and frequency, more resources are needed to keep them in check. But experts say a Trump administration directive halting the purchase of new drones jeopardizes the rise of cutting-edge technology, curtailing the ability to manage wildfires and potentially putting more lives in danger.

In October 2019, the US Department of the Interior grounded its fleet of more than 800 drones and put a freeze on buying new ones due to concerns of Chinese spying. Many of the devices were used in wildfire fighting and prevention, including starting prescribed burns, a key tool in controlling wildfire. The interior department carries out more than 10,000 drone flights a year on average, according to federal documents.

This year, a shortage of drones has made it more difficult to contain fires raging across the western United States, insiders at the interior department said in an internal memo obtained by the Financial Times.

As wildfires increase in size and number, the department’s fleet of drones must “expand to meet the demand of preventative measures mandated for the reduction of wildfire via vegetation reduction”, the leaked memo, written by members of the department’s Office of Aviation Services, said.

Trump's petulent war against TicTok may upset teenagers and K-Pop fans, but his indiscriminant bludgeoning of Chinese built technology in many other applications is harming our country and, in this case, putting American lives at risk.

When Trump Says "Believe Me" - Grab Your Wallet

During the 2016 campaign, Trump frequently claimed that, if elected, he wouldn't have time to play golf.  Running the country was too important a job to take time off for a round of golf.  

“If I win I may never see my property — I may never see these places again. But because I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go golfing, believe me. Believe me. Believe me, folks.”

But, with things going so well in the country - Covid-19, massive unemployment, daily demonstrations against racism, armed white supremacist threatening civil war, etc. - Trump has plenty of time for golf.

GOLF UPDATE -- 5 SEPT 2020:

Trump is back at his golf course in Virginia.

He has now spent 274 days on a golf course he owns in his 1,325 days in office.

It is his 94th day on the course at Sterling.

Taxpayer-paid golf tab remains at $142 million.https://t.co/2nZJqTDg1h

— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) September 5, 2020

Make Sure Everyone Has A Life Preserver

Trump boat parade on Texas lake.  Looks like his campaign.

“Multiple 911 calls have been made regarding boats being in distress, some sinking at the ‘Trump Boat Parade’ scheduled for Saturday afternoon on Lake Travis, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. TCSO confirmed with CBS Austin that multiple boats have been sinking and are in distress,” CBS Austin reported Saturday. “The sheriff’s office says calls have been made about boats along the entire route of the parade, some of the locations include: Paradise Cove, Emerald Point and West Beach.”

Trump Would Always Save Himself

I think we all know who would have been the first person onto the life raft had he been on this flight. 



The man who  save the lives of everyone on board this plane has some words for Trump.

For the first time in American history, a president has repeatedly shown utter and vulgar contempt and disrespect for those who have served and died serving our country.

                                          - Captain Sully Sullenberger

Trump Is A Traitor

Vote Biden, if for not other reason, that he is not a traitor.

Video Doorbells See Some S**t

Make up your own back story for this little drama.

Makes You Wonder

This trend seems pretty consistent.

Biden Understands, Trump Never Will

One candidate for president disparages our military while the other embraces them and understand their mission. 

Wow, https://t.co/G7a079VO4w

— Christopher Titus (@TitusNation) September 4, 2020

Trump - Incompetent Even At Telling Lies

Trump has tossed Melania out as a witness to his anguish over not being able to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau, France.  Instead of disparaging the dead Americans, he says he "called home" to express his disappointment at being unable to visit the site.  One problem, Melania wasn't at "home" she was traveling with Trump in France.

Trump told reporters yesterday that he "called home" to Melania Trump at the time and told her how upset he was for not being able to visit the cemetery. At the time, the White House said he was unable to attend and had to cancel the visit because of bad weather.

Trump claims he "called home, I spoke to my wife and I said 'I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony.' And to the one that was the following day which I did go to. I said I feel terribly. And that was the end of it."

Facts First: Melania Trump was on the same trip with the President and was scheduled to attend the cemetery visit. She was not in the US.

Trump routinely gets away with lies about his golf score, but he's struggling to find a viable lie to get out from under his egregious behavior in France.

His Failure Is Our National Disaster

Brave Sir Donald Runs Away

Bullies always run away from a fight.

President Donald Trump has reversed course on his administration’s efforts to end the American military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

 

Trump Respects No One

Trump claims to love our flag, but he clearly has no love or respect for the military that work to protect that nation for which that flag is a symbol.  

Mr. President, if you don’t respect our troops, you can’t lead them. pic.twitter.com/hcX9hGgdm5

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 4, 2020

Trump Kills Stars and Stripes

Photo: U.S. Marine Corps photo by 1st sergeant David K. Dismukes

Anyone who has ever served our country in any branch of the military is familiar with the Stars and Strips - the "hometown" newspaper of American service members on a worldwide basis.  Trump has ordered the Stars and Stripes shut down with  virtually no notice.  

Today Stars and Stripes is printed at sites around the world and delivered daily to troops  — even those on the front lines, where the internet is spotty or inaccessible. As the “local paper” for the military, it provides intensive and critical coverage of issues that are important to members of the nation’s armed services and “cuts through political and military brass BS talking points,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine veteran, told Military.com.

It’s also arguably one of the most powerful weapons our soldiers have carried into battle with them. As a publication that’s underwritten by the military but not answerable to the brass, Stars and Stripes embodies that most American of values: the right to speak truth to power.

Coming on the heels of the totally credible stories of Trump's disrespect for American service members from multiple sources including The Atlantic, the Associated Press and the Washington Post; Trump disdain for Americans in military uniform has become perfectly obvious.  And, this draft dodging coward is the commander in chief of our military.