Month: May 2017

 
From The Borowitz Report:

RIYADH (The Borowitz Report)—In a notable shift of public opinion, a substantial majority of Americans now favor a travel ban on a person who has recently visited a Muslim country, a new poll shows.

According to the poll, if such a person travelled to a country in the Middle East, for example, he should be subjected to extreme vetting before he is allowed to return to the United States.

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From E.A. Blair at MadMikesAmerica:

Thanks to an exclusive leak, a confidential source on Air Force One has supplied me with advance notes from Donald Trump’s travel diary. In true Trumpish fashion, each entry appears to be 140 characters or less. I can only attribute the fact that these have not shown up in the presidential twitter feed to the secure communications environment on board the plane.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

 
From Dorian de Wind, Military Affairs Columnist at The Moderate Voice:

My dear sister, who is a faithful reader and critic of both my political rants and of my more sedate human interest writings, often has some good advice for me, especially when I use the Spanish word “pend***” to describe the present occupant of the people’s house.

She tells me that one can be just as persuasive and passionate – perhaps even more effective — without being uncivil.

Reflecting on her advice, I re-read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham City Jail, written by a man who had every reason to be angry, combative and “inelegant.”

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From The Onion:

PALM BEACH, FL—Clawing over each other and gasping for air as they emerged, hundreds of miniature Sean Hannitys reportedly burst from Roger Ailes’ corpse Thursday shortly after the former Fox News CEO’s death.

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From Jonathan Bernstein:

Donald Trump has amply demonstrated he is not fit for the office he holds. But it would be a grave mistake to use the mechanism of the 25th Amendment to get rid of him, as a wide group of liberals have urged for a while, now joined by conservatives such as Ross Douthat.

Sorry, Congress: If you believe Trump needs to go, you’re going to have to do it yourselves.

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From Green Eagle:

Do you remember the last eight years of right wing smear merchants screaming about Obama bowing to the Saudi King, because the much taller Obama leaned over to shake hands with him? Well, I hope to hell that we see this picture every day until Trump is dead:

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

• Is there a way to defend Trump from criminal charges? nojo at Stinque thinks that, when it comes to the wrongdoing going on around him, you would have to be totally adorable to think that President Trump could not be stupidly unaware.
   
• On the other hand, Green Eagle has watched The Godfather, has read this week’s papers, and has determined that, one night, my President placed the bloody head of a horse in Michael Flynn’s bed.
   
• Michael John Scott suggests national Republicans are becoming increasingly unnerved by President Trump.
   
• John Scalzi at Whatever writes about why, as a practical matter, it’s hard to write about our national Trump trip.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony has a way to predict President Trump’s behavior. Just look to internet tweets from years ago and find what he accused others of doing.
   
• driftglass finds it hard to blame Democrats for Donald Trump, difficult to sympathize with those who voted for him, and impossible to find any patience with those who do both.
   
• Dave Dubya sees a failure of our system of electoral college Russian roulette as a candidate is imposed upon us after being rejected on election day by the American people. Dave wonders if our system of laws will deter further destruction. Dave does not seem fully confident.
   
• Jonathan Bernstein is okay with a special counsel, but argues the move doesn’t go far enough.
   
• Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass watches as Attorney General Jeff Sessions is uninterested in a police shooting of a black man while he is held down on the ground but decides to prosecute a protester for laughing at … well … Jeff Sessions. Yellow dog suggests a disparity in … you know … justice.
   
• Last Of The Millenniums has a way guaranteed to get Mexico to pay after all.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post names names and amounts in his analysis of the flow of political money and has conclusions about whom representative government represents.
   
• Wow. You think national Republicans are bad? David Robertson at The Moderate Voice takes us to the GOP horror show in Oklahoma.
   
• The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study, conducted jointly by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India, and the University of Texas at Austin, on whether hot and spicy food leads to political anger.
   
• Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives uses a letter written in support of health care as a jumping off point in his support of the libertarian ideal. As Michael sees it, forcing anyone to pay for bridges, sidewalks, libraries, flowers, parks, or art that person chooses not to drive on, walk on, read, smell, or view is immoral. Classic Ayn Rand stuff. I don’t know if police, fire departments or anti-ballistic missiles are included in his formulation. That depends on which strain of objectivism is followed.
   
• We’ve been concerned at his health problems, but Vincent returns this week to A Wayfarer’s Notes. He conducts an exploration of happiness, a sort of living in the moment, not needing anything to change, a bit of deliberate aimlessness. He takes a look at the ancient Tao Te Ching for the associated art of not doing. He seems to have the not needing change part down, but still has trouble with not doing.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, former pastor and current atheist Bruce hits hard, discussing the difficulty confronted by thoughtful people of faith: hardship inflicted on innocents.
   
• My friend T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense, argues that non-Christians must necessarily embrace moral relativism. My friend defines this as 9.5 billion people acknowledging 9.5 billion separate, equally valid, truths.
   
  I dunno. I expect a lot of those 9.5 billion folks would disagree. And many of my brothers and sisters in Christ see Truth as: Jesus loves you and shares your hatred of Obama, Hillary, Gays, and Muslims.
   
  Still, it is good finally to see my friend turn away, however unconsciously, from the Fox News we-report-you-decide inclusion of rumor and spin, explaining to conservatives that truth is whatever they want it to be.
   
• This Week In Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’, The Washington Post helpfully compiles 586 false and misleading claims Donald Trump has made in 17 weeks as President. That assumes, of course, that we don’t just make up our own factual truth. See my friend, Mr. Paine, for guidance.
   

The Delicate Art of Turning a Patriot into a Traitor

How does an enemy agent turn a decorated General, a patriot, an authentic American hero, into a traitor?

Little by little, leak by leak, we’re finding out just how it was done.

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