Democrats Plunge Virginia Backward

By Karen

Just like their dithering role models in Congress, Virginia Democrats failed to vote in this week’s statewide elections by just enough (~2 points) to make us lose EVERYTHING. In one day, they turned our totally blue state to flaming red by letting Republicans become governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and regain a majority in the House of Delegates.

Trump is gloating because — despite losing Virginia TWICE — he’s now got the state in his greasy pocket.

Our next governor, Glenn Youngkin, whom Stephen Colbert aptly described as “the love child of Mr. Rogers and Ted Cruz,” vows to “change the direction of Virginia.”

The vacant eyes, the vapid smile of Virginia’s next Republican governor

Youngkin will come to power inheriting a multi-billion-dollar budget surplus, COVID on the wane, again, the Civil War and its iconography no longer a “thing,” and women able to get abortions without undergoing the invasive, unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds pervy Republicans mandated when they last ran the show. This is the direction he wants to change.

Youngkin, a millionaire and former CEO of a hedge fund, has never held an elected office in his life. While pretending he had nothing to do with Trump, he blew Trump’s ignorance and divisiveness through a foghorn that echoed in every dark corner of the state where knuckle-draggers get along jes’ fine with no book larnin’.

He encouraged parents who never read the book to demand banning Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved — because it makes slavery look bad and it’s written by a black woman.

He’s also got parents’ panties in a bunch over critical race theory. They have no idea what it is, it’s NOT taught in Virginia, but they’re slavering to abolish it — because they innately know more than teachers.

I won’t be surprised when they make Gone with the Wind a textbook and mandate it in all high schools as the definitive word on the Civil War.

And Monument Avenue could very well get all its statues of loser Civil War generals back. The pedestals are still there, just waiting.

For Virginia now to “change direction,” Youngkin means to turn it into East Coast Texas. He must be itching to ban as many abortions as possible, allow even more extreme gerrymandering, and procedurally disenfranchise Democratic (ahem, minority) voters under the guise of “election integrity.”

(NOTE: Even though the top three Republican ass clowns won by just a point or two, no Democrats are screaming this election was stolen. We’re not that abysmally stupid.)

And let’s not forget the death penalty, which Virginia abolished earlier this year. Youngkin must certainly want to revive that while he’s rolling back all gun control so Virginia can proudly resume giving every homicidal nut job on the Eastern Seaboard a hassle-free experience expanding their arsenals with unlimited numbers of guns and assault weapons.

Once murders pick up again, Youngkin will want to keep Virginia’s prisons from overcrowding by having the option of speedy executions. Of course, he’ll consider pardoning any felon who declares their victim “needed killing” (i.e., the shooter is white, the victim wasn’t).

That’s justice, Republican-style.

Ever heard our famous slogan, “Virginia is for lovers”? Forget that if you’re LGBTQ. Our leaders don’t want your kind around here. And don’t expect any legal accommodations that might spare you from being personally persecuted and discriminated against in housing, jobs and services.

It’s only a matter of time before Youngkin makes his obligatory trek to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of his lord and master, whose repeated endorsements (which Youngkin pretended to ignore) undoubtedly delivered the voters that no candidate appealing to reason or decency could ever hope to reach.

And now Virginia’s going to pay. Thanks a lot, Democrats. You blew it bigly.

Chapter 117: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 152

Tony Has a Couch Breakthrough & “Resign or Hang” Has a Nice Ring

Max lies forlornly on the end table whenever he doesn’t feel the couch is safe, so I made him a special “spot” there. Now it’s his favorite spot…

I probably should move that figurine which looks like Adele. The kitty fountain is right below it, and Max looks like he could be plotting a drowning.

CATS WORKING SCOOP: While I was doing my daily 7,500 steps, for the first time EVER, Tony took my spot on the couch…

He jumped down soon after this pic when he realized he’d been seen…

NOW, TO INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah apparently ignored a massive 6-year-old stockpile of explosives sitting at Beirut’s port until it detonated last week, blowing a huge hole in the capital city that killed 160 (so far), wounded 6,000+ and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The understandably furious people are protesting to force out the entire government, rallying around the theme, “Resign of Hang.”

This is suffering on an epic scale, made even more tragic because it wasn’t caused by war, but probably self-inflicted through government corruption or ineptitude.

The Washington Post talked to people there. See if anything they say rings familiar…

“These thugs in power don’t represent us.”

“They stole from us, they looted us, they made us go hungry, they made us poor.”

“They are stealing everyone’s money, stealing people’s rights.”

“We lost everything, so hope is all we have left.”

A member of Lebanon’s Parliament who just resigned, Paula Yacoubian, said, “I cannot stay within the mafia. They stole everything, they destroyed the country and they want to continue doing business as usual.”

Here in the U.S., Trump’s stupidity and pathological sadism has sickened more than 5.1 million Americans and killed 165,000 (so far). Also, nearly 18 million people have lost their jobs and mass evictions are about to start because Congress can’t get its shit together to deliver more aid.

As of that weren’t enough, after decimating most government agencies using hand-picked toadies, Trump’s now trying to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service in a last-ditch effort to sabotage mail-in voting and stay in power, ending mail delivery as we know it.

And he wants to abolish the payroll tax, which does NOTHING to help the unemployed. No paycheck, no payroll tax deducted. But it will soon leave seniors with no income and no health care, because Social Security and Medicare are funded through payroll taxes.

Instead of squabbling over the irrelevant Confederacy, I’d like to see American protesters put their muscle behind “Resign or Hang” rallies around the White House, Capitol, and anywhere else congressional vermin burrow. There shouldn’t be a fence or wall high enough — anywhere in the country — for Trump and his enablers to hide behind. They need to see that consequences as direct and personally devastating as the physical harm they’re inflicting in some way on every American will be their fate if they don’t stop sabotaging the county or, even better, resign NOW.

Lebanon’s got it right. When your government is crawling with murderous thugs who are literally blowing up the country and its people, the punishment should fit the crime.

Chapter 109: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 126

Trump Threatens Suburb Extinction & Tries to Unplug the CDC

On lunch breaks, I check what’s going on with Twitter. Today, “Abolish Suburbs” was trending (for non-Twits, that means “very popular, lots of tweets”). Since I live in a ‘burb, I had to know why. Here it is…

Joe Biden and the Radical Left want to Abolish Police, Abolish ICE, Abolish Bail, Abolish Suburbs, Abolish the 2nd Amendment – and Abolish the American Way of Life. No one will be SAFE in Joe Biden’s America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2020

It’s past time someone confiscated Trump’s phone. His tweets win over no one who isn’t already brainwashed. Instead, he shows us how an already-deranged person behaves when dementia sets in.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s governor tested positive. He was at Trump’s Tulsa rally, but doesn’t think that was it. Oklahoma has been breaking its daily records for new cases since then, so he could have caught it anywhere.

It’s also increasing in Virginia. Roughly half of new cases are on the coast, where people have been merrily romping at Virginia Beach.

But back to Trump. Yesterday afternoon, reporters roasted in the Rose Garden for a “press conference” I didn’t watch. It was supposedly about China (why?), but was actually a scripted anti-Biden rant.

Every time Trump opens his mouth, he blurts panic. His poll numbers are tanking everywhere — even Texas — and prison looms.

In addition to abolishing suburbs, Trump also says Biden will eliminate windows.

I’m not going to decipher this nonsense; here’s a good article debunking the bullshit.

The most important thing, which Trump apparently omitted, and which should scare the living shit out of everybody, is that Trump is trying to unplug the CDC from COVID. He’s ordered hospitals to report their case stats not to the CDC, but to some database he’s cooking up. Probably an Excel spreadsheet Jared created.

Trump has already muzzled Dr. Fauci. They don’t speak anymore and Fauci is forbidden to appear on national TV. Instead, Fauci does interviews with entities like Stanford University, which then allow the media to rebroadcast them.

As if anyone sane still needs it, Trump proves every day that he doesn’t care how many Americans this pandemic kills.

Mary Trump’s book describes Trump’s parents as self-absorbed in different ways. They wouldn’t bother to acknowledge their kids’ feelings. This led twisted little Donald to create a persona of not having feelings. It’s become a core inability to empathize or care about others’ suffering.

Now that Trump’s losing what little ability he ever had to reason, he doesn’t care that his current behavior kills the voters he needs to stay out of prison until 2024. Every action is motivated by greed, revenge or self-preservation, no matter how many deaths he causes.

I’m reading about John Adams’ fight to free America from British rule, which ironically seemed sane and benign compared to Trump’s dystopian hellscape of a government.

It’s depressing to know that what was once considered the greatest democracy on Earth granted this ignorant, corrupt inhuman creature the power to literally destroy the entire country, economically and physically.

The other two-thirds of our government, supposedly in place to counteract a murderous despot, do nothing and leave it up to us to overcome all Trump’s schemes to cheat again and take him out in November.

I’ll admit, my heart rejoices every time I see a GOP voter or politician test positive. I wish the worst for all of them. They have to go, or be deprogrammed to rejoin decent society, before we’ll be able to scrub away the orange stain of Trump from the U.S.

Chapter 91: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 108

Now 3 Things We Can Count On: Taxes, Death & COVID

While COVID was ravaging New York and New Jersey, remember how Trump’s red states seemed smug and complacent, like it could never touch them? Republican governors across the South and Midwest rejected even the most basic precautions, such as masks and social distancing.

Now COVID is on their doorsteps and any idiot could have predicted the results.

Doctors and nurses doing videos in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas talk about how their hospitals are overwhelmed and people are dying horrible deaths with no end in sight. They’re like reruns of the videos out of New York that other states’ leaders laughed at.

Meanwhile, Trump and Pence refuse to set up the national response and testing we desperately need because they simply don’t care how many people die. I personally believe Trump pleasures himself every evening while looking at the rising numbers of sick and dead. To him, they’re ratings of his success as a dictator. Yes, he really is that sick.

That pair gloat over their nonexistent leadership and prance (at taxpayer expense) from one hot spot to the next like a couple of Typhoid Marys. It seems a matter of when, not if, they will both end up on ventilators — or worse, if we’re lucky. They must pay a price for preening in front of chanting mobs that undoubtedly include infected morons spewing virus. I’m counting the days.

The MAGA set thinks COVID is just one more reality whose existence they can deny. If they pretend it’s gone, it’s gone. But that’s not how viruses work.

I sincerely hope the European Union slams the door to all Americans — including Trump. Countries that did the right things shouldn’t let our potentially infected people anywhere near their citizens. They see Trump gleefully breeding a subset of Americans who will kill without mercy or remorse, with or without a gun. To that bunch (you can easily spot them by the masks they DON’T wear), nobody’s life matters, not even their own. Yes, they’re really that stupid.

My head was exploding as cases rose and yet states started relaxing restrictions and reopening, including Virginia, whose physician-Governor Northam KNEW better. Then the inevitable new wave of illness and death — especially in red states — was reported like nobody saw it coming.

Soon we’ll be seeing figures on the people who attended Trump rallies and ended up in the hospital fighting for their lives. I wonder if that will also be covered as some crazy new twist in the COVID story, or the disgusting inevitability of having an increasingly irrational monster in the White House who feeds on death. He must be stopped before November.

Chapter 44: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 61

The Great Chives Experiment & Let’s Get Real About Reopening

This morning I made some leisurely scrambled eggs with fresh chives and sour cream…

Anthony Bourdain used to advise lightly mixing the eggs so they still have white running through them. Gordon Ramsay and Eric Ripert are thorough mixers, and I side with them.

Yesterday after the tuna melt experiment I was ready to grow my own chives. I’m putting what I’ve got on everything now to use them up before the crop comes in. I cut off the greens and put the roots in water, which needs to be changed daily. Now we wait…

My only sunny windows are on the front in the afternoon, so these are on the kitchen windowsill, where Roc and Tony hang out a lot. They both sniffed but didn’t try to taste. They seem to be aware they shouldn’t knock over the glass, too. Onions are extremely toxic to cats, so if/when the chives begin to sprout and anyone takes even a single chomp, we’ll have to abort.

OK, this morning’s news set me up for a little rant:

When I turned on the TV, a British reporter on Morning Joe was talking about how they’re reopening England. He said, “It’s complex, it’s a jigsaw.”

Then the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran a story about reopening Virginia that sounded like there’s some deadline we need to meet.

There’s nothing “complex” about it, and deadlines for doing it are bullshit.

Virginia has 25,070 cases, with 850 deaths. Virginia ranks about 48^th of the 50 states for testing. This is our situation right now…

Does this look like Virginia’s on a trajectory to consider reopening ANYTHING?

The way forward couldn’t be simpler: NATIONWIDE, as long as large numbers of people are sick and dying, we all stay on lockdown. Period.

We’ve already shrunk the economy by 80,000+ consumers in two months. Without testing everybody every time they’re in public (which we’ll never do), half-ass patchwork reopenings without prohibiting all out-of-town travel CANNOT work.

Businesses will pay the same overhead for a fraction of customers while having no clue as to who’s spreading COVID. This accelerates long-term economic shrinkage by causing more mass death.

That’s no “recovery” by any measure, even if it makes the brain-dead, gun-toting protesters with tiny penises happy.

I suggest that idiots who follow Trump’s example and flout the rules for masks and distancing get legally binding tickets with huge fines for reckless endangerment. The essential businesses now open who have to serve these people should be empowered by the states to issue those tickets.

The airlines are showing the folly of premature reopening. Instead of taking the quick route to bankruptcy by flying their full fleets with an average on domestic flights of 17 passengers per plane, they’re canceling most flights and cramming more people onto a few planes.

So they save money and get a trickle of income today, but probably kill off some of tomorrow’s repeat customers.

The argument that people “have to get back to work” is equally specious. Bringing home a paycheck today won’t seem so wonderful to your family when they frame it as a memento of the last dollar you ever earned because you’re dead.

I hate being stuck at home. But if we fuck this up — and it looks like we certainly ARE — we’re back to Square One. All these weeks in quarantine will be for nothing.

If staying alive means pissing off Trumpers, let’s go for it! Let them protest en masse, infect each other, and fine them bigly for the pleasure. Once they cull their own herd, they’ll leave the world a kinder, less racist, more intelligent place.

BONUS: This essay keeps making the rounds because it’s a brilliant take on Trump from a British perspective. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.

Chapter 36: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 53

French Toast Avec Syrup? Jamais! & Tony Goes Live

Treated myself to French toast for breakfast. I just soak sourdough bread in an egg and fry it in canola oil. Easy-peasy…

I like my cast iron skillet because it browns the best…

I finish French toast with nothing but a little salt, so I never order it in restaurants. They always turn it into a dessert, drenched with maple syrup and powdered sugar. I don’t mind eggs being sweet in baked goods, but I would never put syrup on a fried egg, which is what French toast is. The French might even consider that disgusting.

This past week I lost the last shred of work I had left with a client who once constituted the biggest egg in my freelance basket (another story). It was a hospital, and it just discontinued its monthly newsletter for the doctors. I suspect it’s less a matter of the doctors not needing news from the administration, but more about people working from home trying to free up more time for Netflix by shedding whatever tasks they can get away with.

But whatever. It got me thinking about other publications I edit for clients that contain many group photos of people standing in tight rows staring at the camera. One is a school. I guess I can hang those up, too, at least for the foreseeable future. No matter what Marmalade Mussolini wishes, it’s going to be a lean or financially disastrous year for much of the country.

That said, I’m still working at least a few hours seven days a week mainly with proofreading and transcription, and occasionally copywriting or editing. As a long-established freelancer, I’m thankful to be better positioned to survive than a lot of people.

Speaking of which, there’s been no sign of my $1,200 stimulus payment yet. But the feds wasted no time cashing the considerably larger check I sent them in April for my first-quarter taxes.

Last night for TV I caught up with Tommy, the new CBS series starring Edie Falco. She plays a no-nonsense lesbian former NYC cop with a mixed-race adult daughter who’s now chief of the LAPD. I love it! Fingers crossed when CBS renews it (which they MUST), they don’t get cute and move it to All Access. I’m still pissed about missing Christine Baranski on The Good Fight, but I refuse to pay CBS for streaming.

This morning Tony was being incredibly cute on the perch — until he realized I was filming him, as cats do. Since I don’t think you’ve seen him “live” yet, here’s a moment with the kid himself…

Unfortunately, the camera didn’t pick up the “Meow” he shot at me as he declared the scene a wrap.

BONUS: For a fake race, the virtual Kentucky Derby was exciting. See who won…

Chapter 30: COVID Chronicles

By Karen

Day 47

IRS Plays Dumb RE: Stimulus & Roc the Supermodel

I’ve been expecting to see $1,200 appear in my checking account because the IRS has had access to it for years.

When my sister Keri recently reported receiving her stimulus, I got suspicious. So today I checked the IRS site. They had no record of my checking account, even though on March 18 they withdrew $86 that I owed on my 2019 taxes.

Good old Steve Mnuchin’s got it all under control — NOT.

I reentered my information and we’ll see how it goes. I won’t starve, but since they offered it…

The CDC added new symptoms to the original three (fever, dry cough, difficulty breathing). Now, be on the lookout for:

• Headache
• Sore throat
• Muscle pain
• Chills or chills with shaking
• Loss or taste or smell

Who hasn’t had a headache since this started? Are we all infected? Who knows? Rotsa ruck finding out. Can you tell I’m feeling a little testy today? It’s Monday.

If you’ve paid attention to current events at all, you’ve probably noticed a second insidious virus COVID-19 has spawned. It’s called narcissism and Trump is the vector. He’s convinced his cult that coronavirus is a hoax and the economic shutdown is their real problem.

They’re infected with Trump’s insistence that their right to move freely through society and become potential COVID carriers takes precedence over all our lives.

Businesses should open and expose employees to sickness and death so Trump’s cult won’t get bored or be inconvenienced.

If you believe coronavirus is real and deadly, you must bolt your doors while Trump and some idiot governors egg on the cult to rampage openly, spreading the virus and prolonging its existence.

Once science catches up with treatment and a vaccine, the next crisis will be stamping out the plague of ignorance and entitlement Trump has unleashed. It will be difficult, but the first step will be to neutralize the source of infection — Trump himself.

Now, on a lighter note, this morning Roc snagged a prime sunny spot on the blue perch. Then he saw me with the camera…

And went into his routine…

This is the suave, Charles Boyer “come-hither” look he usually reserves for his “Sweet Tater”…

Then he channeled Melania writhing naked on a bear-skin rug…

That got a little out of hand…

I didn’t see what was coming up behind me when Roc abruptly shut down the photo-op…

I should have known. No sunny spot in this house goes unchallenged…

But by now, it had moved down the perch and Tony wasted no time claiming it…

Tide is Finally Turning on Trump

By Karen

Before a tsunami hits, the low tide before it recedes an unnatural distance, exposing acres of beach never seen before. People come out to marvel at it, to play on land that just hours earlier was deep under water.

The tide’s been going out since Trump’s inauguration, pushed back with his and his enablers’ incessant barrage of boasts, lies and denials. His emboldened family, cabinet members and other enablers have been playing on the newly exposed beach — running roughshod over the rule of law, naively believing Trump and his almighty tweets will keep the tide back forever and they’ll always own the beach.

They don’t hear the growing roar just beyond the horizon. The tide is turning and gathering strength.

For the first two years of Trump, the roar was little more than the muttering of the disenfranchised majority of voters who got Trump against their wishes.

Discontent grew until the November 2018 mid-terms, when Democrats achieved the unthinkable: their votes swamped Republican gerrymandering, voter suppression and intimidation and outright cheating to reclaim the House.

They even called it the Blue Wave.

Mike Segar | Reuters

That was the moment the tide turned. I’ve considered Nancy Pelosi a ditz, but as Speaker of the House again, she’s Trump’s worst nightmare.

Not only did Nancy refuse to give Trump a penny for his wall, she and Chuck Schumer baited Trump into bragging he’d own the ensuing government shutdown. On TV, so even the dimmest MAGA moron can’t refute it.

The shutdown allowed Nancy to yank what Trump lives for — an opportunity to spout his State of the Union litany of lies in the Capitol before Congress, the Supreme Court and a TV audience of millions.

On another front, Michael Cohen’s been subpoenaed to testify before Congress about Trump’s criminal conduct over the years.

On a third front, Trump’s long-time friend Roger Stone finally got arrested. His indictment quotes Stone’s texts and emails about conspiring with Wikileaks. And don’t overlook that Trump’s hand-picked toady, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, didn’t stop the FBI from hauling Stone in.

Fourth, Paul Manafort, already rotting in prison watching his hair dye fade, got summoned to court to face another possible 10 years in jail, on top of the 7-10 already in play. Mueller’s lawyers advised the judge NOT to let Manafort’s cooperation influence her sentencing decision.

Fifth, Rudy Giuliani has been on TV digging Trump’s hole even deeper by saying Trump was negotiating with Moscow for his tower right up to Election Day.

Meanwhile, Trump let the government shutdown grind on until it endangered air travel and airport security. After bringing the country to the brink of economic standstill, he agreed to reopen the government for three weeks — and got no concessions or wall financing in return.

Some tough negotiator.

Trump compelled six Republican senators to join Democrats on reopening the government. It’s a cooling stream of defections, now that Trump’s looking isolated and impotent. His approval rating is around 36-37 percent. So, roughly six in 10 people think Trump’s a chump.

Sixth, House committees, now headed by Democrats, are poised to let subpoenas flow, armed with power to get serious about Trump’s crimes.

You can tell Trump’s increasingly unhinged by his repeated babbling about South American women being kidnapped and restrained with duct, electrical or blue tape (he varies) and smuggled en masse across the border by drivers who turn left, no right, no left, to cross into the country illegally.

Nobody knows what he’s talking about. He told the story again during his January 25 speech to reopen the government. Here’s another instance (I cut to it at 8:45)…

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling change in the air. The government has reopened, but Trump’s State of the Union is still unscheduled.

I hope Trump doesn’t think he’ll take the government hostage again just as the employees are shoveling through their work backlogs and piles of overdue personal bills he created. If he tries, I believe Congress will kick Mitch McConnell in the nuts and come together to stop Trump. Enough’s enough.

Pelosi will let Trump use shutdowns as his “I’ll hold my breath until you give me what I want!” when Hell’s covered with icebergs.

And Mueller hasn’t even shown his hand yet.

For the first time since the plague of Trump descended, I feel fresh ocean breezes. When all the waves converge and the tsunami of justice hits Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Robert Mueller will be riding its crest. And finally, the fetid stench of Donald Trump will be washed away, and his bloated orange carcass will be tossed onto the ash heap with history’s other failed dictators.

We Need to Take Notes from Brexit

By Karen

Uninformed, nonthinking British voters’ bigotry was stoked by sleazy politicians. Next thing you know, they’ve tanked their economy, shredded their standing as a trusted, responsible ally, and sent worldwide stock markets into a tailspin.

That’s what happens when a country tries to make itself “great again” by being more unpredictable.

If Great Britain’s catastrophic Brexit from the European Union did nothing else, let it teach us some lessons before November so we don’t follow it down the crapper. We should learn…

A fact-challenged buffoon with a bad haircut isn’t your best source of information.

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson (who could play “Dumb” to Trump’s “Dumber”) was a Brexit cheerleader, appealing to racism and selfishness. His personal agenda was apparently to oust current Prime Minister David Cameron (which he did) so he could have the job himself.

Google your homework BEFORE you vote.

When Brits woke up after their Brexit celebration, their money was worth less and their stock market in free-fall, with recession predicted to follow. THAT’S what made them Google, “What does it mean to leave the EU?” and “What is the EU?”

The answers made them start a petition for a do-over.

When the situation unravels, don’t expect the buffoon to clean up his mess.

Once Great Britain’s economy and trade deals were reduced to rubble and other EU members want to kick the UK out on its arrogant arse pronto, Boris Johnson decided he didn’t want the PM job after all. So, buh-bye to any promises he made to halt immigration, save jobs, and replace all that ails England with “something terrific.”

Our own carrot-faced loudmouth is on track to tank our economy and revive massive unemployment when the many nations he’s already alienated tell him to stick his “art of the deal” on trade renegotiations straight up his ass. And perhaps, just for fun, he’ll drag our southern border states into a pointless war with Mexico over paying for a stupid wall.

And what will he do? He’ll blame Congress for everything and quit, if he’s not impeached first. And so will the hapless schmuck who ends up being his VP.

Don’t expect your so-called friends to stick around, either.

Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain in the EU, but England and Wales dragged them out, so they may secede from the UK. Against France, Germany, and 25 other EU countries, a diminished UK will have all the clout of Rhode Island as a voice in Europe’s destiny.

Never underestimate the power of ignorance.

Trump is cultivating an unthinking, fully-armed militia to do his bidding with violence. We’ve already seen it at his rallies. For example, if he decrees that Hispanics or Muslims belong in internment camps so they can be watched (like Roosevelt did to Japanese Americans during WWII), he’d just have to say the word. His supporters would gleefully put on their bedsheets, grab the ammunition, and kill more than they capture in the name of patriotism.

Britain has cut its own throat and may never recover. If we don’t stop Trump, the AmerExit he’s planning could easily turn into a bloodbath.

First Debate: Mitt Gone Wild

By Cole

Just about everybody concedes that Mitt Romney “won” last night’s debate on the economy. Republicans are positively giddy.

Mitt’s bravura performance proved beyond any doubt that he’s the quintessential department store mannequin. Change the window-dressing, change the man. He has no genuine core.

Last night his handlers dressed and prepped him to be Elmer Fudd in camo, out to stalk and bag that “wascally wabbit,” Obama.

And Mitt did. So eager to make his points, he flouted the rules by repeatedly refusing to let moderator Jim Lehrer speak and keep things on track, and even talking over Obama.

At one point, Mitt even had the nerve to say, “Mr. President, you’re entitled to your own airplane and your own house, but not your own facts.”

This from the man with 5 houses and several Cadillacs with their own elevator, representing the most fact-free political party in history.

Mitt was so stuffed with numbers (few of which contained his actual PLANS), they exploded from him on every topic.

Obama and Lehrer found themselves playing with a statistical piñata.

Had Obama sunk to responding tit for tat, they’d have been ping-ponging so many incomprehensible figures, the audience would have tuned out.

By trying to keep it simple, Obama came across as “weak.”

What’s indisputable is that Obama got VERY bad advice as far as not calling out Romney on his everlasting bullshit or bringing up anything he’s ever said or done that might embarrass him (like dissing the 47%, or decimating American companies like KB Toys and raising employment in China while at Bain).

And Romney pounced on and gleefully rolled in those concessions like a dog in shit.

It seems Romney thinks he’s running to be anointed king. In his first term…

• He’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act, yet keep all the good parts — and replace the rest with WHAT?
• He’ll lower taxes 20%, but eliminate loopholes and deductions (WHICH ones?) — which may result in tax INCREASES for the middle class.
• He’ll to create 12 million “good-paying” jobs — HOW? Doing WHAT?

And Congress doesn’t exist in RomneyWorld. He’ll just wave his golden scepter and POOF! — instant Utopia where nobody’s unemployed, health insurers aren’t unfair, and the budget always balances.

Unfortunately, Obama handed Romney this one on a silver platter, and I hope today he’s kicking some of his re-election “experts” to the curb before they try to hog-tie and gag Joe Biden when he faces Paul Ryan on October 11.