- This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from CNN where the leader of the free world is upping his game, reaching 22 lies a day.
- driftglass takes a stroll down hypocrisy lane when Obama was President to contrast Mitch McConnell’s standards then with now.
- Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger shows and contrasts two Presidents and how they inspired young Americans.
- Max’s Dad always comes up with the best rants. This time he lets his mind wander along with a road trip through Indiana. He doesn’t much like Notre Dame or anyone who attends, or an irate customer at a Steak N Shake, but does like Presidential candidate Pete Butigieg, going so far as to teach us how to pronounce his name – – sort of. He winds up not much caring for Democratic circular firing squads. Can superior, entertaining writing really be that easy for him?
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit doesn’t much care for on-and-off-and-on independent Presidential candidate Howard Schultz and his blame-both-sides approach to everything. But wow she conducts vivisection on the poor guy. If she ever gets mad at me, I plan to give her a friendly smile, abjectly apologize, then throw myself on the ground and beg for mercy.
- Dave Dubya takes on the Barr non-summary of the Mueller report. Partly through he says my President was exonerated in the same sense O.J. was exonerated. Fair enough.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post runs down 6 controversial members of the Trump cabinet. I did say run down.
- Green Eagle watches unbelievable governmental plans proposed by the executive branch.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz finds many reasons for hope in the age of Trump, and begins with Anne Frank. I had somewhat similar thoughts as my President was about to take office.
- Author Caitlin Starling was nine years old when her mother died. At Whatever, she explains how the intensity of that early grief influenced her writing.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson recounts state election returns and kinda sorta credits the website he runs for the conservative victory for state Supreme Court.
- Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara exposes the environmental conspiracy that is aimed at depriving NJ Residents of reliable energy with dubious tales of climate effects. I remain unenlightened about our sinister motives.
- tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors reminds us that this week was the anniversity of one human’s murder and a great national loss along the arc of the moral universe.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce asks, since Jesus paid our debt for sin, why we still owe God. That strikes me as an interesting technical question that might lead to a worthy discussion of whether we believe and worship because of what we owe. More troubling, it seems to me, would be evil and suffering in the world. Harder still for many Christians would be evil in ourselves. I posted my thoughts on my own belief a couple of years ago.
- The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study that seems to show that the famed placebo effect, in this case relieving pain with a cream that contains no active ingredients, works on subjects who do not use the placebo.
- Infidel753 has a list of comments that range from pithy wit to genuine pearls of wisdom, all entertaining.
Author: Burr Deming
Fox Mueller, Barr Whales, Barr Chant, Trump Unleashed & Weak
- Tommy Christopher watches FoxNews so you don’t have to, tuning in just in time to hear a guest shut down the spin on the Mueller Report: “You saying it on Fox doesn’t make it so’.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit also watches Fox News and notices a remarkable change in opinion about Mueller.
- At the Borowitz Report William Barr has finished Moby-Dick and summarizes for us. There is no evidence of whales.
- Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged seems to feel the partisan summary of an unreleased summary of an unreleased report has met her low expectations. Her phrase was “seething with anticipatory disappointment.” Her reasoning is excellent, as usual.
- Charles Tiefer is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore. At The Moderate Voice, he explains the quasi-legal strategies Attorney General Barr and President Trump are likely to use, keeping the actual Mueller report hidden from view, so they can have a monopoly on telling us what is in it.
- Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass takes a look at the summary’s summary and suggests a new chant.
- News Corpse reports on Trump attempts to bar critics from television appearances. Turns out the case is inadvertently made that Trump surrogates should be banned.
- Jonathan Bernstein says that, even in victory, Donald Trump is showing weakness.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post takes a look at the current cast in political influence and runs down the top Dirty Dozen.
- Frances Langum covers the Pennsylvania House where the first Muslim Representative was to be sworn in. One of my Sisters-In-Christ embarrassed the family by pointedly turning the prayer into a Christian tribal event. The Republican House Leader finally guided her off the stage.
- So legendary musician Scott Walker of Walker Brothers fame has died. Not the former governor. Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is outraged to find lame mournful jokes from fans on Twitter about the wrong Scott having died. Forget the Mueller Report and Obamacare and pre-conditions. This is the sort of issue that keeps me up at night.
- driftglass can rightfully boast of not liking Glenn Greenwald when disliking Greenwald still wasn’t cool. On the other hand, I can make a similar boast. Just sayin’
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce explores the occasional evangelical claim that Jesus was ultra-masculine. I do recall hearing about a preacher arguing against the existance of a “namby-pamby Jesus.” It is an entertaining piece.
- PZ Myers observes reports of yet another public personality characterizing atheism as an undeclared article of faith, this time with the added charge that atheism is inherently unscientific. Naturally, Professor Myers rips the poor devil apart.
- Max’s Dad goes to the theatre. The musical Come From Away is set on 9/11, the day of the attacks, as an unrelated flight is diverted to a small airport in Canada. Max’s Dad loves it.
- John Scalzi at Whatever got started late one day, so he came up with a terrific video from three and a half decades ago, Belly of the Whale by Burning Sensations.
The Uncomplicated Truth About Donald Trump
He is not a lunatic. And he is not a master of strategy.
The explanation for his behavior is surprisingly simple.
Continue reading “The Uncomplicated Truth About Donald Trump”
Trump vs Heroes, Dems Anti-Jewish, Best Anchor Babies, Conway Feminism
- This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from Indiana in The Statehouse File where John Krull dissects the lies in Donald Trump’s attack on war hero John McCain.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post sees a pattern in the number of Trump villains who are American heroes.
- Jon Perr at PERRspectives has a few words of friendly advice to his Republican friends about the temptation to join President Trump in casting Democrats as anti-Jewish.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit finds an immigration scandal about anchor babies that our President is not likely to find objectionable.
- Dana Bash at CNN is awestruck by how Kellyanne Conway has managed to prevail in the male-dominated world of Trump politics. driftglass goes to history books to find a fitting parallel.
- A host of critics have been saying that the White House is currently filled with evil minded, unqualified, simpletons. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors confesses that staffers like Ivanka, Jared, and others are are proving us haters wrong. Okay, so there is a touch of sarcasm at work.
- News Corpse reports on rumblings within Fox News offering the faint possibility that the network might stop functioning as Trump’s private Pravda.
- Jonathan Bernstein explains why a possible promise by Joe Biden to serve only a single term would be a sure loser.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil may have found a distant relative of Beto. Well, everyone is related to Adam, right? Maybe Republicans will find a way to use this free oppo-research.
- Iron Knee at Political Irony educates us on what socialism meant in the 1950s.
- I’m getting to the age where I can relate more and more to correspondence between elderly folk. At Margaret and Helen, Helen Philpot writes to her friend Margaret with some profane and furious wit about the way conservative Republicans think, speak, and vote on abortion rights.
- In Wisconsin, Republicans lost the election for governor, so a lame duck Republican session was convened to strip powers from the incoming governor. Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson sympathetically covers Republican anger as that session is ruled to have been illegal, since it was convened in violation of the Wisconsin Constitution. James also covers, again with sympathy, a campaign for a Wisconsin Supreme Court judge who will preserve the state constitution from rampant liberals. I suppose it’s my demented left-wing bias, but I think I perceive a possible inconsistency.
- Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara tries once more to defend the electoral college with arguments that contemporary documentation tells us did not play a part in the Constitutional Convention debate, at least that part on how to choose the President. It was all about preserving slavery. At least Mr. LaFerrara did not misrepresent James Madison as some have done.
- Dave Dubya points out that the violent threat of ISIS is not even close to its end, since it has taken the form of white nationalism.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz suggests that, of everyone who embraces, rejects, derides, or ignores Christianity, white evangelicals form the the one group that does not get Jesus at all.
- Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has a dream about a woman or ghost or something or someone surrendering herself to an undefined whatever. She morphs into Theresa May trying to deal with Brexit. As lucid an analysis of whatever the hell is happening as any, I suppose.
- In research not at all intended to relate to Brexit, The Journal of Improbable Research takes a look at an actual study involving random folks asked to back way up to take a photo to see if they would look back to keep from tripping.
- Vagabond Scholar celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a bevey of songs from Ireland.
Why Trump Followers Are Devoted to Their Leader: He Is Not Toasted
The most devoted Trump support comes from those impatient with the traditional code words and dog whistles offered by Republicans for the last half century.
A fictional advertising executive explains what they want instead.
Continue reading “Why Trump Followers Are Devoted to Their Leader: He Is Not Toasted”
Trumping the Bible, Dangling a Pardon, Manafort Message, the Wall
- This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from WENY News in Elmira, NY, as President Trump holds a photo-op with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and manages to define his entire presidency in 16 minutes.
- After the tornado outbreak, my President signs the covers of Bibles in Alabama as if he authored them. Andy Borowitz explores the theological event that follows as God offers to replace the Bibles signed by Trump.
- Tommy Christopher reports on the text of an early message from White House folks to Michael Cohen. They now say it was meant only as reassurance that Trump wasn’t mad at him. I dunno. I think Tommy’s right. Message sounds a lot like the promise of a pardon.
- Vixen Strangely takes all the Manafort pleadings, judgments, sentencing, and state level indictments and explains, in her clear careful way, what it all means, what it all signals.
- The Onion tells us of a new campaign pledge to build a 2,500 mile intercontinental riverwalk.
- Columnist Max Boot wants to retire the term “neocon.” driftglass is good with that as long as we come up with a good substitute. He has a suggestion.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson knows what is in our hearts better than do we. As gun safety advocates, we are not at all interested in gun safety. In fairness I have projected the same sort of insight onto gun owners
- Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass is angry at discovering that an embryo, not yet developed into a fetus, can sue a 16 year old girl for wrongful death.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, one time pastor, current atheist Bruce carefully explains to evangelicals why threatening atheists with hell never works. Ever.
- In MadMikesAmerica, Neil Bamforth looks into the case of a young woman who, at age 15, ran away to join ISIS, then came back. Neil suggests she may be the victim of mob mentality.
- How will Michael Jackson be remembered? At The Moderate Voice, Rachel Hope of the University of Victoria seeks an answer in the legacy of a famous author who dominated much of the first half of the 20th century
- Professor PZ Myers posts as poignant a farewell as I have seen for a while. He forever misses his little sister who died as a child.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil finds an interesting instagram ad on a city light pole.
Vladimir Putin’s Magic Eyes
In the last quarter century, the Republican approach to America’s adversaries has gone from “Trust But Verify” to “Trust With No Limit.”
Apt Search, CPAC Rant, Fox Purge, GOP Fake News, Trump Love, Manafort Lite
- Interesting insights can always be found at one of my favorite blog sites. But this is different. Infidel753 has a personal reason for asking readers for any available data on finding a small apartment while working as a temp.
- This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from Newsday as my President attends the CPAC convention and floats past a significant milestone in documented falsehoods.
- Max’s Dad, the best ranter I’ve been reading takes off on CPAC. If I ever do anything horrible that attracts the attention of Max’s Dad, all I ask is a chance to apologize.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil discovers irony amid the tragic cruelty of a Republican operative at the center of a human trafficking ring.
- Mark at News Corpse names names and points out incidents while documenting how Fox News is purging conservatives who criticize Trump.
- It isn’t the just the Russians now. Frances Langum points out local news sites that are fake urls put up by Republican agents intended to look like real news stories. Can you say fake news?
- Green Eagle rolls print-eyes as a young liberal-minded opinion writer suggests that Trump’s love is the reason for the loyalty of his base.
- The Pretty Petty Award goes to… guess. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors chronicles the drama as the White House boldly awards an International Women of Courage Award to a Finnish journalist who exhibited real bravery in the face of physical danger, then withdraws the award after learning she had criticized Donald Trump on Twitter.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post contrasts the party who has elected a diverse group of forward looking office holders with the party that restricts candidates to the old, pampered, and comfortable.
- Jonathan Bernstein says not to worry. The Democratic party is in no danger of being taken over by the far left.
- Iron Knee at Political Irony reflects on the light sentencing of Paul Manafort and accompanying remarks by the Judge that the guilty man should not serve the recommended time because he had “lived an otherwise blameless life.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson seems upset that the new governor not only opposes government funding of private schools, but will not support other items on every conservative wish list. It’s almost as if he’s a Democrat, and elections matter.
Electoral College: The Original Intent Might Not Be What You Think
If you’re going to defend this terrible holdover, defend it for the single reason, the monstrous reason, some delegates demanded it and others acquiesced.
It is documented in the original words of the founders as recorded by those who were there.
Continue reading “Electoral College: The Original Intent Might Not Be What You Think”
GOPers Fight, Jim Jordan Wrestles, Kim Shook, Trump Described
- This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from The Baltimore Sun as Republicans try to shade their way through the Cohen testimony.
- At The Moderate Voice, Deborah Long tells of childhood cruelty with a gentle pet dog. The animal would fly into an aggressive rage when a mirror was placed in front of him. He didn’t know his enemy was an exact image of himself. As Republicans attack Michael Cohen, she suggests they are failing the mirror test. Ivan Pavlov model, perhaps.
- At The Onion, former assistant coach Congressman Jim Jordan spends the Cohen hearing demanding that Cohen accept responsibility for covering up the sexual abuse of Ohio State wrestlers.
- Andy Borowitz reports how Michael Cohen’s televised testimony left Kim Jong Un doubting whether Trump can be trusted.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz seems a bit impatient with diehard Trump supporters. He refuses to entertain a reality that doesn’t require anything objectively real.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post finds a thousand and one words to describe my President.
- driftglass listens to Mitch McConnell blame Democrats for election fraud committed by Republican Mark Harris in North Carolina and reacts with some skepticism. Okay, a lot.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has a few suggestions on what to wear when Trump visits your town.
- News Corpse finds that Fox News obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting creepy.
- Neil Bamforth at MadMikesAmerica takes a close compassionate look at assisted suicide.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is a former pastor and really knows his Bible. He suggests that if Jesus would appear in fundamentalist churches and repeat “Go sell all that you have and follow me” our churches would empty, and fast.
- Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has been hit with cancer and a heart condition for the last couple of years. That gives him a personal perspective as he applies rational standards to a book looking at cancer through a lens of positive thinking.
- I remember decades ago watching a comedian complaining about how he was treated while flying. He told us he could not tell us the name of the airline, but “I can tell you it was an AMERICAN AIRLINE.” The audience cheered him. John Scalzi is bitter and blunt about his internet service provider. If you hate your internet service perhaps you can take comfort you have it better than some. In the movie Hustle & Flow a man explains in grueling detail what he does for a living. A prostitute reacts: I thought MY job sucked. Makes me ashamed for complaining about a few minutes outage. John’s horror story makes us grateful for what connection we have.
- Who needs the Oscars? Max’s Dad paid for a movie pass and really used it. Now he can give us his own 10 best movies of 2018, a few runners up, and some everyone else loves but he doesn’t even like a little.
- Infidel753 invites readers to let loose their travel fantasies. If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go, and why? By the way, I have replayed this exercise in pure creativity every week or so since Infidel linked to it.