Trump is right: it isn’t a “guns problem”

It’s a mental health problem. Anyone who wants to own automatic weapons is mentally ill. So is anyone who believes the second amendment affords the individual a right to own such weapons.

Trump is right. It isn’t a guns problem. It’s a political corruption problem, starting with a bought-off GOP that was in the process of legalizing bump stocks when the Las Vegas Asshole killed 60 plus people using bump stocks.

Trump is right. It isn’t a guns problem. It’s a gun manufacture and gun access problem. Ban the manufacture and sale of most kinds of guns and the problem will go away. Eventually. America is saturated in guns and blood. It will take decades for our collective insanity to be cleansed.

Trump is right. It isn’t a guns problem. It’s an asshole problem. Assholes in the White House. Assholes in Congress. Assholes in red states who think their “right” to fuck around with big loud guns supersedes the right of innocent young children to live without terror. Simply to live.

Trump is right. It isn’t a guns problem. It’s a values problems. And American values have hit bottom. I hope there is a God so He or She can help us. We clearly can’t help ourselves.

The Look of Love

Something happened inside his head. When he took his TV act on the road in the Republican primaries. Something unexpected. When, instead of ratings and reviews, he started getting cheers and votes. He hadn’t anticipated how great it would make him feel.

WHAT it would make him feel.

He felt loved.

Not feared, respected, merely tolerated because money could hopefully be made. Not used.

Donald Trump felt loved. Maybe for the first time in his life.

“They love me, Melania,” he told his wife as she packed her bag to get away. “Did you see them, hear the way they cheered?” Melania was gone and he looked for his pills. Reached for his phone.

Too bad his father wasn’t here to see this.

Donald Trump isn’t the first entertainer to mistake applause for love. To become addicted to that feeling. To think it’s real.

He isn’t even the first entertainer to occupy the White House. Bonzo’s scene partner preceded him. But Ronald Reagan had a square kind of cool. He never came across as craven.

This can’t end well.

Donald practices his reading

Well, at least now we know how he’s going to pay the Secret Service … he’ll make Pakistan pay them and foot the bill for his next dozen golf outings. Maybe he can also get them to pay for the Wall.

Wait, maybe corporate advertising could pay for the Wall. “This mile of beautiful concrete is brought to you” by Nascar or Koch Brothers Industries or Mountain Dew. Commercials could be projected twenty feet high from a Border Patrol van that plays them on an endless loop. We could install point of purchase displays in the middle of nowhere.  Hey, I’m thinking private sector! That’s good, right?

Is last night’s speech the longest piece of writing that Donald has ever read in one place at one time? Without going off script or getting so bored he just quits? I think he got about twenty minutes in before he did that repeaty thing he does and threw in an ad lib or two. But he caught himself and got back to the grueling business of reading.

Good job, Donald. Give yourself a soda and a candy bar. 

I don’t believe Donald Trump can find Afghanistan on a map. And the only parts of the speech that he wrote – or suggested – were statements like “As I’ve said before,” so he could pretend he’d had input on both the speech and the policy.  I also don’t believe that his prepared statement disclosed anything of importance regarding U.S. plans there. The military has decided that we need to stay awhile longer. They put the kabosh on the War by Voucher Eric Prince thing at the same time they put the kabosh on its principal sponsor, Steve Bannon. The only thing I know for sure is that Pakistan will be pissed both by Trump’s demand that they pick up the check and his praise of India.

The speech was classic Don Draper “change the subject” stuff and, from Trump’s somber demeanor, it looks like they also changed his meds. Switched out the adderall for a mild sedative, which they probably tucked inside raw hamburger and then massaged Donald’s throat until he swallowed.

I dislike this man so intensely that it’s increasingly hard for me to watch him and listen to him. I wish Fred Trump had followed HIS original instinct and pulled out 72 years ago.

But Fred finished what he started in Queens that night. And here we all are.

Coming this Fall … Alt-Confederate Clothes!

Or should we say returning this Fall, since the alt-right has generated such interest in all things Johnny Reb that the fashions of the Old Confederacy are back by popular demand. But it’s 2017, not 1861, and we’ve gone way beyond basic gray.

Be brave, Richard Spencer, and dare to wear yellow. David Duke has yellow bellbottoms most Klan consider de rigeur.

Yes, macho dudes, it’s a lot of buttons to button, but you’ll look so sharp in your alt Confederate uni that you won’t have to button them alone for long. The alt-girls will swoon!

We at Johnny Reb Fashion know that not everyone can live in a Southern state. That’s why we’ve designed a sash that can double as a scarf in winter weather.

Your alt-sword is purely decorative, unfortunately, but there is ample room in your Johnny Reb jacket for a concealed firearm and color-coordinated holsters for you lucky alt-studs who reside in an Open Carry state.

Come on, white people, you can do it. Make America Two Countries Again! Buy Johnny Reb!

What Trump added today and why he added it …

A word, first, about Trump’s demeanor. No sadness, no remorse at his own inadequacy from the day before, no apology for not being “clearer,” some obvious impatience that he had to speak about this – again – and not matters he considers more important. Nearly everything was discussed in general terms. A raised voice toward the end – when he condemned the list of groups he was given to condemn – which some might mistake for passion or at least sincerity, but it was just loud rote.

In his small-handed way, Trump was again trying to act the Tough Guy. The Strong Man. Doing his puffed-up Mussolini impersonation, minus the sash. Letting us know that the nation is in good hands (which look less small when you face the palm out and spread the fingers) and, hey, I’m on this, k?

There was lots of talk about the law and having legal authorities handle this. Trumpolini dreams at night that the country’s various law enforcement agencies all work for him. Remember that one cop group endorsement he got during the campaign? And kept mentioning with such pride?

Trump spoke most – among his advisors – to Fire and Fury Bannon and White Supremacy Gang Sign Miller before the first speech, when he didn’t manage to condemn any group by name, spread the blame wide and far back in history, and presented round one of the Strong Man “law and order” stuff.

That speech was for his election supporters … neo-Nazis, white nationalists, KKK, mouth breathers on 4Chan and reddit who read Breitbart and are scared of women and talk tough only on their computers … and they got the message. They were elated that he didn’t condemn them. He’s still with us. He’s grateful. His inept and inapt Presidency is our fulfillment.

The media piled on these last couple days and required Trump to issue a “clarification.” Although he didn’t label it as such, because that would mean he said something wrong the first time. And he looked plenty impatient while he issued. The righty whiteys and other mouth breathers will get that message, too … roughly translated as “see what our guy has to put up with from the lamestream press?” But they know what’s in Trump’s heart. Hatred. Contempt. Same as theirs.

Don’t believe what Trumpolini said today … he didn’t believe it either … the truth is in what he failed to say the first time around.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder in the WH

Not a pretty sight. And not the only thing wrong with Donald J Trump. His delusion about the size of his inaugural crowd, forced upon the early suffering Sean Spicer and insisted upon in private, indicates that he is also, well, delusional.

But a lot of the biggest messes President Rancid Combover has gotten himself into … and several of his worst self-induced tweet shitstorms … have stemmed from his complete and utter inability to admit error.

Like most good narcissists (even the cagiest ones) Little Donnie just can’t do it. “I know it looks like I have my hand in the cookie jar, Mom, but it was Jeff Sessions’ fault. I just had my arm out and he put the cookie jar around it.”

No matter how high the professional or personal stakes … and they are exceptionally high regarding his neoNazi and white supremacist supporters … Trump can’t make himself concede that he said or did something wrong. If he is talked into later statements that allow for at least the possibility of error – as he was on speech two regarding Charlottesville – the psychological pressure for him to go back on the admission is unbearably high.

Trump’s self-immolating press statements yesterday were an example of narcissism in a dither. Yesterday (August 15, 2017) was also possibly – we can only hope – the day he finally, fatally, screwed the pooch.

I’ll take my anti-nausea pill and watch FOX tonight. Look for which, if any, GOP politicians come to his defense. But, if the what-the-President-actually said-meant to say-was trying to say defender cupboard is bare, that’s it. The day when wheels start to turn behind the scenes … impeachment wheels, 25th Amendment wheels, or just old-fashioned Amish-style shunning wheels … to give Trump a not very friendly push.

If that happens, then stick a fork in the Mussolini wannabe’s fat ass. He’s done.

What Trump said and why he said it …

He took no responsibility for the current rise in racial tensions and the recent hubris of Klan types and neo-Nazis. He didn’t even blame Obama and said that this kind of stuff has been going on for a long long time. He said the most important thing was to re-establish “law and order,” which – before it was a TV show – was a phrase most used by Richard Nixon and usually had a racist tinge. Trump, uh, wants our children to feel safe to play.

This stuff all comes from Bannon, Gorka, Miller. It’s the kind of stuff fascists say to prepare the populace for martial law and the Clampdown. It’s the kind of speech a Putin gives.

Ain’t gonna happen.

But that’s what the Trump crowd wants and I wish I could subpoena some emails to find out whether Richard Spencer and other alt-right scum were acting under the direction of Breitbart scum in the White House. I know Bannon et al are happy about Charlottesville and hope for other such events.

Here’s the good news. When you pull the camera back … and you start counting bodies …. the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally wasn’t exactly a rousing success. It was fucking scraggly. A few hundred neoNazis tops, whose primary cultural contribution heretofore has been to reintroduce the buttondown shirt to college age kids. They can’t be “replaced” because they haven’t done anything worth replacing. And never will.

In addition, the racist assclowns were far outweighed by anti-fascist protestors … including Black Lives Matter folks and what looked to be a contingent of anarchist youth. The violence has been minimal compared to other such events in our nation’s history. Unlike the events at Ole Miss in 1962 and Skokie in 1977, for instance, most of the locals in the surrounding community appear to have stayed home and watched it on TV. And, surprisingly given Trump’s closing remarks, no one seems to have brought their small children to a Unite the Right rally. So they stayed safe. This time! But for how long?!

In terms of white riotry, Charlottesville is very small potatoes. The alt-right is not making the transition … even with major supporters on the President’s staff … from internet hysteria and bullying to an organized “National Front.”

So let’s condemn Charlottesville without feeding the sense of “national crisis,” which the Trump crowd is seeking to foster. They want us to believe things are out of control, in disorder, so that we’ll welcome the efforts of Strong Man Trump to put things right. And make America not just great again but safe, too. They are playing fascist games, wishing and hoping, so we need to be aware and beware.

But we also need to keep things in perspective, historical and otherwise. And never feed into their lies.

The mentally ill guy shouting “I’m gonna fuck you up!”

is now POTUS and our Commander in Chief. Somebody give him a sandwich to distract him. Maybe after he finishes eating, he’ll take a little nap and we can all rest our ears. Or our eyes in this case, since our mentally ill guy tweets “I’m gonna fuck you up” instead of shouting it.

I don’t believe North Korea will launch missiles on Guam, but the mentally ill guy running that joint murdered his brother and is friends with Dennis Rodman. So shit could happen. Shit can always happen when two grossly incompetent males with bad haircuts and “issues” square off. Well, in this case, round off. And they can’t even settle things on the golf course, ’cause our crazy guy is a known cheater.

Here’s the deal. Sometimes what Trump says and does is simple madness. But, when there is a method to it, it’s always the same method: distract folks from his thieving and other crimes. Try to make them forget he crawled up Putin’s ass decades ago and still sleeps there. Don’t let anyone see behind the curtain to discover that Donald J Trump is a complete fraud. A charlatan.

I never bought that Donald Trump was serious about running for President. I always thought it was a business move and the only difference between him and a franchise owner like Herman Cain was a higher TVQ. But then red America … in its infinite stupidity and ignorance … kept voting for him, his creditors (red Russia) saw an opportunity, and Trump himself decided being President wasn’t a bad way to increase sales and brand recognition. While also keeping his Russian bookie from chopping off fingers, giving him a draft deferment or two that aren’t just lies.

(On a side note, why is it that the most bellicose war mongers are always the guys who dodged the draft and never served?)

I don’t think the dumb, lame fuck-you-up stuff will lead to a military confrontation. Anymore than it did when only North Korea needed a sandwich and a nap and we behaved like sane adults. But it pisses me off that I even have to think about it. And I can’t imagine how pissed folks are in Japan, South Korea, Guam.

Meanwhile, I’m going to keep my eye (mostly) on the ball, which stinks of corruption and deserves prison time. Not just for Trump himself but for his top campaign staff, for his various Mobbed-up monkey business business associates, and for his whole stupid shitty family.

May his fall from power happen sooner rather than later so the folks in Guam can get a good night’s sleep.

The current occupant of the White House inspired this cover on Newsweek

Not on National Lampoon or Mad magazine or even Rolling Stone in the great satirical heyday of Ralph Steadman. And based on the reporting that accompanies it, the headline Lazy Boy could not be more apt.

This happened. In America. We need our nation’s alleged conservatives to develop a conscience … and my home boys and girls in the middle of the country to turn off Fox Entertainment … so we can have all hands on deck to legally correct this monumental mistake.

And it needs to be corrected soon.

Enter Scaramuccia

The master mobster communicator Trump’s commedia d’el arte has needed all along. With more than a hint of Joe Pesci. Finally, a bumbling but well-dressed motherfucker so crass and stupid and unlearned that he might occasionally make Trump look good.

This nasty yippy-yappy shithead – aka the Little Skirmisher – speaks to The Donald’s soul.

Think about that. And what Machiavelli would have to say. Although Machiavelli should probably say it soon, since I suspect this Scaramucia will exeunt by the second act.

From Wikipedia:
Scaramuccia (literally “little skirmisher”), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell’arte (comic theatrical arts). The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman). Usually attired in black Spanish dress and burlesquing a don, he was often beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice.

Unfit to Serve

Personally, I wouldn’t want Donald Trump serving me at a Waffle House, but the White House is definitely a bridge too far.

The smiley picture accompanying these thoughts is from June 12, 2017, when he invited/coerced his shabby corrupt Cabinet into praising him and thanking him for the opportunity to serve Donald Trump. That was the day I put aside any doubts that Trump is mentally ill.

I assume Donald was frowney when he sent his latest, tasteless tweet-by of a talk show host. The reason that he was smiley one day and frowney the next is that Donald Trump doesn’t know who he is. He has no sense of self. And he looks to the world to give him an identity and let him know how he should feel about it.

When he receives praise (even phony ginned-up praise) he feels good. When he is trashed, he feels bad, has a tantrum, lashes out. He also has no “public face.” With Angela Merkel (yet another woman smarter and more capable than Donald), he couldn’t hide the hurt from her criticism. Pouted in public with her. Kicked rocks.

And then there’s the fact that Donald suspects … he can’t let himself admit it … that he is and always has been a fraud. That there is no one behind the curtain except a bunch of Russian gangster bankers. And tic tacs.

Pence might be worse – meaning more competent at doing horrible shit to the country – but we can’t let Donald Trump continue as President. He is a danger to himself and others.

Measures must be taken to remove him. Impeachment, the 25th Amendment, even a standard 5150 might do.

O, America

After all these years, we can’t manage to provide basic health care for all?

Why?

So we can keep pretending the market will find a solution to problems it hasn’t found yet. And never will. The “market” – at least the way Americans play it – isn’t about problem solving or anything else save making already rich people and corporations even richer, usually at a cost to the poor. We Americans don’t have the character to find private solutions to public problems. We’re missing some essential part.

I know the practical reasons we’ve made a hash of this issue for decades. The political reasons. All the Dark Money reasons from the Dark Money players. But I don’t give a shit about those things anymore. And I can’t keep blaming them.

The problem is us. Some hole in our hearts and souls that no amount of increased poverty and suffering can heal. An utter inability to think and act in concord for the good of all.

I’m going to skip Fourth of July this year. I’m just not in the mood for fireworks and flag waving. I’m too ashamed. And I’m starting to realize… as I look back on our history and on a personal history which now exceeds 60 years … that America was ever thus. We were always this mean.

Is there a bigger dunce in this Confederacy of Dunces than Devin Nunes?

I don’t know why I hate him so much, just the sight of him boils my blood. He’s a sniveling little weasel doing what he’s ordered to do by the Trumpets … apparently because he, too, has received Russian money for one of his paltry investments … but he’s so BAD at it. All of it. The lying. The jack stories he concocts to cover his tracks, which are always uncovered. His inability to stand still without cringing or flinching.

Devin Nunes … I keep wanting to call him Nevin Dunes and give him a pencil mustache … looks guilty when he first wakes up in the morning. He’s done something bad in the night. Peeked through a hole into the adjoining bathroom. Thought wrong thoughts. Wrong! And then it escalates from there …. Devin walking, Devin avoiding, Devin fleeing, Devin trapped and forced to approach a microphone.

And then Nevin Dunes opens his mouth to speak!!! His vocal quality is somewhere between a robocaller and cats fucking. I can’t listen for more than a minute or two.

Nevin … sorry, Devin … won’t be able to keep this up for much longer. He’s bound to crack. Prediction: on the witness stand when it comes to that, he’ll cry and cry and cry. Blame everyone from Trump to his mother. Wipe his eyes with his dunce cap.

The rest of the world should declare war on us …

and take out our current Commander in Chief. Or least take away his cell phone. I certainly wouldn’t blame the world’s other countries for lining up against us if the global disaster called Trump (as rumored) pulls the United States out of the Paris Agreement today. This will put our nation in rarefied company … with only Syria and Nicaragua as fellow non-signators … among the world’s almost 200 countries.

Syria has been busy the last six years, so it is understandable that it hasn’t gotten around to signing. Nicaragua refused to sign because it felt that the Agreement’s regulations were not STRONG enough.

There is also the small independent state of Ijadaiatdgmm near Burptown in Kentucky, which is composed primarily of retired coal miners and Southern Baptists over the age of 50 and which is seeking independence from the rest of America, Ijadaimites believe climate change is a hoax and worry that a reduction in carbon emissions may delay the Rapture. NOTE: Their proposed nation name is an acronym for I’m Just as Dumb and Ignorant as the Day God Made Me. Also not signing are Randy Quaid and his wife, who believe that the Paris Agreement is a veiled attempt to get them to pay back taxes.

Rex Tillerson urged Trump to keep us in the Agreement. So did the current heads of Exxon Mobil and all other oil and gas companies, car companies, etc. (Although that may have been smoke and mirrors to disguise their own guilt in creating global catastrophe.) So did North Fucking Korea for Christ’s sake. But we have a President who emulates Slim Pickens and wants to ride Destruction all the way down while yahooing and waving his combover.

Twice this week I dreamed that Trump’s election had been “fake news” and we had a real President again. Then I woke up.

Just a pic of our Prez and his best buds

Talking to Russian officials in December when they’ve been accused of interfering in the election on your behalf (possibly an act of war, certainly cybercrime) is a problem. Bad. Just talking to them. Unless it’s to give them shit for their behavior in the last election.

Talking to them in secret. Worse. Somebody might think you had colluded with Russia to sway the last election. And this was partial payment.

Talking to them in secret about creating a secret communications channel so that you can hide the shit you talk about from your own government and intel services. So bad the only thing you can do … if you’re caught … is lie.

Doing all this shit and pretending to forget … no one believes any of the Trump administration folk who omitted Russian contacts … means it’s time to say goodbye to government service. And hello to the possibility of prison.

You can’t explain this shit away … FOX employees who get paid to explain it away are running up huge tabs at the local bars and having trouble sleeping at night. Their little scam (FOX liar for a living) may crumble soon and they might have to become newsmen and newswomen again. Although corporate flackery seems the easier route and the one they are best suited for.

There is a very simple explanation for all of the above behavior. From Jared. From Kelly, Sessions, Manafort et al. Trump and his gang are in bed with the Russians. Politically, financially, legally … i.e., illegally. They have been since well before the 2016 election and Trump, in essence, is now in a copresidency with Putin as regards foreign policy.

A lot of this stuff is criminal. Some of it is treason. But, you know, Obama, her emails. Benghazi, ACORN, 76 trombones and 110 cornets. America, O America.