CPAC, Already, Today

In just one morning, today, so far, at CPAC, Ted Cruz laughed about his Cancun debacle while Texans literally froze to death, they did a tribute to racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynist Rush Limbaugh and they wheeled out---no kidding here--a GOLD STATUE of none other than Donald J "Jenius" Trump that looked for all the world, not like they were honoring him but that they were, instead, mocking and laughing at him. You know, the way all the rest of us do. Check it out for yourself.

Seriously, y'all, when you're done with that, could we use that at Democratic National Committee gatherings? That's fantastic. "The Onion" and SNL can't write stuff this good. If only they, the Republicans, weren't actually serious with all this. Wow.

The Corruption of This President--and of our Goivernment and Political System---Is Rampant and Plain For All To See

Herein, two mess ups by the Republican Party Buffoon in Chief.

Donald Trump plunges democracy into a three-alarm fire of corruption

When former Vice President Joe Biden entered the Democratic presidential race a year ago, he introduced the now familiar theme that the “soul of this nation” was at stake in the 2020 election. Judging by what we’ve seen from President Donald Trump over the past few days, Biden is right.

It began Friday night, when Trump informed Congress that he was firing MIchael Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general. This was nothing more than a vile act of political retribution that had been months in the making. Atkinson fulfilled his legal responsibilities by informing Congress about a whistleblower complaint that exposed Trump’s impeachable crimes. What everyone else recognizes as following the letter of the law, the president views as cause for termination.

On Monday, Trump turned his attention to the inspector general who oversees the Department of Health and Human Services, who had just released a report revealing the extent to which hospitals were struggling to meet the health care demands associated with treating COVID-19 patients. The thorough review included interviews from 323 hospitals across 46 states and stood in stark contrast with the rhetoric coming from the president. Naturally, Trump labeled the report a “Fake Dossier” and suggested “politics” influenced it.
Irony is alive, oversight is dead

On Tuesday, the president removed Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine. He had just been designated to oversee the newly created Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a watchdog panel authorized by Congress to conduct oversight of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The same day, Trump said he had seven IGs in his sights — prompting Sen. Chris Murphy to announce he would draft a bill to “give all Inspectors General protected 7 year terms.”

The irony here is that Republicans once cautioned about this exact thing before Trump infected them and they abandoned every principle they once proclaimed to stand for. There was a time when oversight over massive government spending was the centerpiece of the Republican oversight agenda. My former boss and House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa actually declared, “This money, at the American people’s expense, going through the hands of political leaders, is in fact corrupting the process.” He literally called the Obama administration “the most corrupt government in history.” Where are those Republicans now?

In the course of three days, Trump fired an IG for telling the truth, attacked another for exposing the totality of a health care pandemic, and removed another in a brazen effort to avoid being held accountable for how trillions of taxpayer dollars will be allocated. The sum of these actions is nothing short of blatant corruption in plain sight. Free from the limitations of accountability, there is nothing stopping the president from turning the so-called “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act) into a $2 trillion personal slush fund.

Coronavirus hypocrisy: From masks to mail voting, Trump's special and we're not.

Trump feels empowered to obliterate the guardrails of checks and balances. Bit by bit, he has stripped away the levers of oversight until there's nothing left. It started by ignoring congressional subpoenas for his financial records. It continued as Trump refused to cooperate with the House impeachment investigation, stonewalling Congress’ attempts to hear witness testimony and conduct depositions with administration officials close to the president. And now he is leading a purge of the final remaining frontier of oversight — the inspectors general.
Supreme Court's dangerous path

For anyone hoping the Supreme Court will assert its role as the third branch of government, it has delayed hearing cases, including three lawsuits involving Trump’s tax returns and financial dealings. And yet, somehow, the Supreme Court managed to reverse a federal judge's order to extend absentee voting by a week in Wisconsin's primary on Tuesday. The result was that voters had to choose between their health and their civic duty.

The court’s refusal to move forward with cases that impact the president, coupled with its willingness to interfere with the Wisconsin election, foreshadows a very dangerous path as we look ahead to the November elections. In essence, the court’s conservative majority is just another political instrument for Trump to wield.

End of oversight: Trump's unfettered attacks on accountability are a life-and-death crisis for democracy

It may be hard to see the forest through the trees in this time of social distancing, but make no mistake about it, our democracy is in the midst of a three-alarm fire. The highest court in the land has effectively been hijacked — serving only the interests of Donald Trump. Congress is no longer a co-equal branch of government, a result of Trump’s toxic brand of obstruction.

By taking a wrecking ball to independent oversight, Trump has made the presidency into a dictatorship. At this point, the only recourse we will have left to save our democracy, repair the institutions of government, and restore accountability to the American people, is to vote in November to save “the soul of this nation.” That is, assuming Trump, the Republicans and the Supreme Court let us.

The 2nd two-fer of the day isn't as bad, not as huge but still bad. Not done there, a former President, none other than also Republican Party member George W Bush states publicly we need to be non-partisan as Americans just now, what with this pesky international pandemic but who comes out against even that? Comes out against Americans being and working together.

Trump rips George W. Bush after he calls for unity amid coronavirus outbreak

If it were anyone but this Republican Party President Donald J "The John" Trump, any one part of this would be unbelievable.

As it is, Trump is getting and has gotten away with all of this, to date, and it's very believable.

The lampoon site, "The Onion", can't keep up with, let alone outdo, this guy.

Link:  Once a staunch Republican and rising star, Kurt Bardella

More "Big Government" from the "Small Government" Republicans

Republicans and so many in the Right Wing swear they're for "small government", almost at any cost yet here is an example from only this week from a declared and very "Red state", full of Republicans, right next door:

Law Proposed To Force Employees To Friend Their Boss On Facebook

You'd think it was coming from some satirical website online like "The Onion" or something but no, it's real:

An Arkansas Senate committee met this week to consider a bill that said employees should be essentially forced to “friend” their bosses on Facebook or other social media websites.

The bill targeted online privacy protections for workers that passed as part of a social media rights law two years ago.

The bill passed in a 91-1 Arkansas House vote in February. It holds that employers could require workers to “friend” them on social media, and that firing for a refusal to add them would be seen as just grounds for termination.

Some employers could be granted even more access to their employees’ accounts, by requiring them to turn over their passwords so that employers could read their private emails.

What's amazing about this is that it's being considered formally and that it's, again, coming from the political party that insists it's all about "small", unobtrusive government.

Keep in mind, however, that it was these same "small government" Republicans who brought us the huge cash boondoggle that is the Homeland Security Department and the Patriot Acts, I and II.

They are also the people that say it's the other political party that is the "big government" group.

Does this not seem just like the evening news?

Warning: crude language Other than the cursing, is this not just exactly like the evening--or morning or mid-day--news?

"The Onion" as prophet

Days before George W. Bush took office, "The Onion" predicted a massive increase in defense spending, a Gulf war, a recession brought on by substantial tax cuts, deregulation of industry, defunding of social-service programs, and a return to deficit spending. Who would have thought great humor could be that cynical but, ultimately, correct? See the original "The Onion" post here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/

Another real-life headline, seemingly written for "The Onion"

Playboy Mansion illness traced to bacteria in hot tub

HAHAHAHAHAHA


That's good.  I love that.


Have a great weekend, ya'll.

Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110416/ap_en_ot/us_playboy_mansion_health_probe
http://www.theonion.com/

More reality, seemingly from "The Onion"

AZ Birther Law Requires Candidates "To Describe Penis"


The new problem is that we all now have to deal with "birthers" stupidity AND Arizonans craziness.


Quoting the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz", "What a world, what a world..."

Yet another real-life headline, seemingly written by and for "The Onion"

Iceland's penis museum finally gets human specimen




I mean, come on.








Link: http://www.theonion.com/ 

Another headline that could have been written by "The Onion"

Restaurant to retrain staff after alcohol given to toddler




I mean, come on.


You gotta' be kidding me.


Some adult didn't know you can't give...






Oh, never mind.


Link:  http://www.theonion.com/
 

FAQ: Real life headline or "The Onion"?

I've said before, mostly on Facebook, there's so many times when I see real headlines that make me think I'm reading the sarcastic, witty and very funny "The Onion" fake media.  Today was one of them, from a local source:

Seeing-Eye Dog Needs Surgery To Remove Tumor

And my response is "Really?  Are you kidding me?"

KMBC News right now has this up as one of their lead stories, as shown on Yahoo! News.

This stuns me.

As a people, we seem so engaged and preoccupied, time and again, with stories about someone's dog or cat, like this story.

But what's our response for the woman on the street corner, who has diabetes and one blind eye and who hurts all over?

Or the Vietnam Vet?

Or the Iraq Vet?

We're that interested in somebody's cat or dog when so many of our fellow human beings either don't have enough to eat or are homeless or are out of their minds because they suffer schizophrenia and our society doesn't care enough to see to their hospital care?

Does this make ANY sense, except in either a humor magazine or a bizarro world?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a "pet person."  I love animals.  I also think they should be taken care of.

It just seems we care for a great deal of animals at great expense while we let a great deal of humanity go by the wayside and in a lot of ways.

I don't get our priorities.

Links:  http://www.theonion.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_onion

This just in (from The Onion)--and don't you frequently feel like this?

Middle East Conflict Intensifies As Blah Blah Blah, Etc. Etc.

April 26, 2007 | Issue 43•17

June 9, 2007

MIDDLE EAST—With the Iraq war in its fifth year, the war in Afghanistan in its sixth, and conflict between Israel and the rest of the region continuing unabated for more than half a century, intelligence sources are warning that a new wave of violence in the Middle East may soon blah blah blah, etc. etc., you know the rest.

Yet another act of violence in response to something else terrible that occurred in, oh, let's say Basra.
"Tensions in the region are extremely high," said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who added the same old same old while answering reporters' questions. "We're disappointed by the events of the last few months, but we're confident that we're about to [yakety yakety yak]."

The U.N. has issued a strongly worded whatever denouncing someone or something presumably having to do with the vicious explosive things that raged across this, or shattered the predawn calm of that, or ripped suddenly through the other, killing umpteen innocent civilians in a Jerusalem bus or Beirut discotheque or Fallujah mosque or whatever it was this time.

Either a car bomb killed people or a car hit a roadside bomb, killing people.
In the aftermath of a whole series of incidents, there have also been troubling reports of just fill in the blanks. Middle East experts say the still somehow worsening situation has inflamed age-old sectarian tensions between the Sunnis, Shiites, Semites, Kurds, Turks, Saudis, Persians, Wahhabis, radicals, extremists, Baathists, mullahs, clerics, et al, which is likely to lead to more gurgle-gurgle over the coming weeks and months.

A certain number of U.S. troops were also killed somewhere in some tragic fashion, while a much greater number were wounded. Meanwhile, impoverished or oppressed supporters of whichever faction carried out the attack or ambush probably celebrated, angering an angry U.S. public that is already angry. Locals are calling for an investigation into excessive force or outright corruption by military or political officials on one of the 15 sides of the various conflicts, although the implicated party has categorically denied wrongdoing, just like they always do, without fail, every time this happens, which is daily, it seems.

And in Afghanistan, the Taliban.

In Israel, Palestinians and Israelis escalated tensions and so on and so on ad infinitum, ad eternum, and some say, ad absurdum, and although Hamas released a statement condemning Israeli forces for the resulting civilian deaths, Israeli officials say the teens were armed with rocket launchers, though it doesn't really matter.

Also, Ahmadinejad, Iran's nuclear program, bin Laden at large, Moqtada al-Sadr, Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, Fallujah, renegade mullahs, embedded and/or beheaded journalists, oil revenues, stockpiles of former Soviet armaments, freedom, racism, Halliburton, women's role in Islamic society, the Quran, withdrawing troops, economic disparities, Sikhs, Pakistanis, oil, rebuilding, stories of hope, the Saudi royal family, the Holy Land, insurgents, and the tragedy of Sept. 11th.

In an attempt to increase public support of whatever the fuck it is he thinks he's doing, President Bush trotted out the same old whoop-de-do you've heard over and over at a solemn-yet-resolute speech attended by soldiers, or religious leaders, or firemen, or some mix of ethnic-looking people from one of those countries.

"We have to give this plan time to wop bop a loo bop, a wop bam boom, ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang," President Bush may as well have said. "May God [help/bless/save] the United States of America."

(Back to yours truly: So the question is, how many hundreds of years are we supposed to give a damn?)