Trump's the rump of the GOP field

 Ah, Donald Trump consistently shows what a hypocritical dumb-ass he is (via Alternet):

The Donald's going to have a hard time doubling down on this one.  

Politico is reporting that Trump, while speaking at a Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa Saturday, told the crowd, "[Sen John McCain] was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured." The two men had been engaged in a media war over the past few days. 

Trump's slight was reportedly met with a scattering of boos from the crowd. 

McCain was held captive in a North Vietnamese prison camp for five-and-a-half years, while Trump received four military deferments between 1964 to 1968.

"Ya big baby!"

I have no trouble that Trump avoided Viet Nam---I won the draft lottery myself, and avoided that awful and illegal conflict, but for someone who utilized his wealth and connections to stay out of the fight to then critcise someone who did wind up in the fray (many of whom had no choice in the matter because they weren't as fortunate as The Donald) is inexcusable. Trump never seems to have any trouble finding a lower pit to bark his bilious statements from. He is a worthless waste of the air he breathes, and that he is taken seriously says more about the quality of our corporate-loving media and the depths the GOP has sunk to that it does about his sorry ass.

Don't Be a Dick (Cheney, that is)

(Via The Borowitz Report)

BAGHDAD —In a development that offers a faint glimmer of hope for Iraq, both Sunnis and Shiites are finding common ground in the view that former Vice-President Dick Cheney seriously needs to shut up.

In the days following the publication, this week, of a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about Iraq that Cheney wrote with his daughter Liz, hatred of the former Vice-President has, to the surprise of many, become the first thing that Sunnis and Shiites have agreed upon in centuries. 

Iraqi observers in recent days have reported seeing both Sunnis and Shiites reading the Cheneys’ op-ed then tearing it to shreds in a rage. 

“Cheney is an ass!” a Sunni merchant reportedly exclaimed in a Baghdad market on Thursday, to the resounding cheers of several Shiites nearby. 

“Historically, it’s been challenging to find anything that Sunnis and Shiites agree on,” said Sabah al-Alousi, a history professor at the University of Baghdad. “That’s why their apparent consensus that Dick Cheney needs to shut the hell up is so significant.” 

Visiting Baghdad on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the joint Sunni-Shiite calls for Dick Cheney to shut his pie hole were a cause for optimism. 

“If Dick Cheney winds up being the one thing that brings Sunnis and Shiites together, the United States owes him a debt of thanks,” he said, adding that the two sects’ view of the former Vice-President was also shared by the Kurds.

We love the way you kill!

(Via Keystone Progress Daily Funnies)

Remembering . . . . .

Anyone got an answer?

No matter how much we spend, we've got enough bucks for bombs. Healthcare, job creation, or education of our children---not so much.

Oh, and there's enough for prisons, too . . . . .

Fourth of July 2013 Mendocino Parade

Fourth of July 2013 Mendocino Parade, a set on Flickr.

It's a little late, but here are my pictures from the Mendocino 2013 4th of July parade. Click on the pictures to go to my Flickr feed and see larger versions. It a unique slice of Northern California life. Where else do the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Move to Amend folks walk side by side?

I am Bradley Manning

Everything old is new again

A great cover of an old Dylan song---funny how it's even more relevant than ever.

Osama's Legacy

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed."

When I look at the new reality in our country---that many people seem okay with all their phone calls and online communications being tracked and whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are called "traitors"---I can't help but feel that Osama bin Laden accomplished his goals with the attacks of 9-11. He wanted to instill fear in our hearts and change our lives and society, and those attacks seem to have done just that. He wanted to turn us against each other and Islam, and that too seems to have been the result.

But it is only through the complicity and cooperation of our leaders and us that those things have come to pass.  We could have displayed courage and stood up to the terror Osama and his criminal cohorts tried to instill in us. Instead, we are sacrificing our freedoms for the illusion of safety. I hope it is not too late to stop the drift into totalitarianism and plutocracy.

Time will tell.

Recycling the old lies:

(Via Juan Cole)

Quote for the day (Former President, Republican Division)

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Our American System

Time after time lately, it appears that no matter what the horrible blow that a corporation strikes against people (the banking meltdown, outsourcing, denial of healthcare coverage, BP oil disaster, etc.), there are minimal consequences at most. It fact, much of the time the companies involved wind up giving bonuses to their top officers, while the people affected either suffer the damages in shadowy anonymity or go down the tubes without any attention from the media or the powers that be.

BP talks condescendingly about the "small people" it supposedly cares about, while it works to conceal how bad the oil disaster it caused is. Unemployment pushes close to 10%, with no sign of getting any better anytime soon, and there's barely a blip on the radar screens of our public discourse, while the deficit becomes the cause du jour. Rich owners who walk away from real estate investments are considered good businesspeople, while homeowners who try the same thing are considered immoral. And the bankers are bailed out with money from the taxpayers while refusing to reduce loan interest rates to the people who paid for the bailout.

This is life in modern America. "We the people" have become the great unwashed masses to the politicians, media, and corporate entities who suck their sustenance out of our lives. They may give us a few crumbs now and then, but even the barest of consideration, such as extending unemployment, is considered extravagant, while trillion dollar bailouts and war budgets are passed without a blink.

This is one of the reasons I haven't written much here lately. I find myself becoming cynical and feeling defeated. Not the best source of thoughts to express. It may change soon, but I don't feel very hopeful now.

Where's my diamond bathtub?

(Via Alan Grayson)

In the New York Times for June 13th, the Pentagon proclaimed that Afghanistan holds almost one trillion lira - no, sorry, that's one trillion dollars - in hitherto-unknown mineral wealth.

Allow me to offer these revelations:

(1) Paris Hilton actually is Albert Einstein, with a wig. Think about it - you've never seen them together, have you?

(2) The Moon is made of green cheese. Specifically, a lovely Camembert, slightly fruity, that goes very well with cabernet.

(3) While you were at work today, someone broke into your house, stole everything, and replaced it with an exact duplicate (apologies to Steven Wright).

$1 trillion dollars in mineral wealth in Afghanistan. What a lame excuse for a lame excuse.

But the interesting thing is that the Pentagon felt it necessary to serve up this fevered imagining. Why? Because they say that they need another $33 billion for the war by July 4th, or, or, or, I don't know - they just say that they need it. And for once, Congress isn't falling all over itself to give the generals whatever they want. So get ready to hear about lithium in Afghanistan, oil in Iraq, and diamonds in your bathtub.

With 14 million Americans out of work, support for endless war is crumbling. People want an America that is #1 in health, #1 in education, #1 in quality of life, not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied.

Alan is a rare politician, who is willing to speak truth will a candor and humor that makes it clear to anyone just what is going on. Once again, he hits the nail on the head.

Die for Lithium, suckers

At last, definitive proof that we are not there about oil (or freedom, for that matter):

(Via New York Times) WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

So there, you nay sayers! It's not about oil, it's about your rechargeable batteries!