Tag: Drumpf

Sessions makes it through 2.5 hours of testimony with no bathroom breaks. He even drank a little water.


Other than that, it was a pretty unremarkable event. Sessions pouted, refused to answer questions, revealed that he doesn’t take notes, and has a really, really bad memory.

Following his testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee today, many reporters were astounded at how well dressed and groomed the Attorney General was. “Sitting as I was, in front of Mr. Sessions’s table, I was quite impressed. In spite of clear damage to his memory functions, he was able to find not only all of the required items of clothing, but he even had matching socks.”

It is well known, of course, that he has people to drive him around, remind him of appointments, and put large-print prepared remarks in front of him, but his impersonation of a functioning elderly person was universally acknowledged as nothing short of brilliant. “It makes you think he could still find his car in a parking lot,” oozed Senator Risch of Idaho, not a man to give praise lightly.

Granny-Sessions
“No one ever put one over on Granny, and they’re not going to do it to me.”  
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Parasite Attack! Flesh-eating Worms in the United States!


 

A Meta-Bug News Roundup

Screwworms in Florida

The New World screwworm, Cochliomyia homnivorax, isn’t probably something you think about. Fortunately, you don’t have to. The screwworm, a larval form of a fly, has been eradicated in the United States since 1982.

220px-Cochliomyia_hominivorax_(Coquerel,_1858)220px-Screwworm_larva

Unlike maggots, which eat only dead flesh, the screwworm eats live tissue. When I was in Haiti recently, I saw what they are capable of. Any wound, any abrasion, any cut is an invitation for the flies to show up. Then the larvae come out, and work their way not just into the necrotic parts, but the actual live tissue.

Screwworms obviously present a serious danger to livestock. I can even find you a gross story where they went into a woman’s ear. But since the ’50s, researchers began experimenting with the release of sterile male flies, first on the relatively controlled setting of an island, and then on the mainland. By 1982, there were no more screwworms in the US.

Naturally, flies don’t recognize international borders, so in partnership with Mexico and the nations of Central America, the screwworm has been restricted to south of the isthmus of Panama, a bottleneck that is relatively easy to defend. The breeding of sterile males is ongoing in Panama.

Recently, 40 endangered Key Deer had to be euthanized in Florida when it was discovered that they were infested with screwworms. Sterile males were introduced, the Florida Department of Agriculture set up inspection stations in Key Largo for animals leaving the keys, and the outbreak was contained.

 

Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has died.

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”

pirsig

Here’s a passage  from Zen  that I always found interesting.

Things are getting worse.

Twittler has proposed huge tax cuts, and naturally they benefit him and those in high income brackets the most. They propose eliminating the inheritance tax, which is probably the best tax we have: WE’RE TAXING DEAD RICH PEOPLE! They’re decomposing, they can’t complain, and if their whiny little offspring think it’s just horrible that they have to be just a tiny bit like the rest of us (which they won’t, they’ll still be stinking rich), well, they can commiserate in their gated communities and in their country clubs, just like they always have. The Great Unwashed will be able to perhaps feed and educate their children a little better. It’s understandable how those at the top don’t really want a level playing field, but keeping the “Paris Hilton” tax–or maybe we should call it the Trump Kids Tax–is a good thing. Just ask Teddy Roosevelt. Whatever you name it, don’t let anyone get away with calling it a “death tax.” It’s not.  It’s a tax on plutocracy and oligarchy.

I can’t write anymore today. A buffoon is fucking up or determined to fuck up so many things at once–relations with Canada and Mexico, military policy, health care, foreign trade– that it’s overwhelming. As I’ve written before, there’s a good chance that the American Experiment has failed, and the wise will at least be keeping an eye open on an exit strategy. While I’m here, I will work to make this a better and safer place, but I do not believe that this is the best place for my children to plan their future in.

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The Wall Won’t Be Built


That’s a prediction, but if I were a betting man, I’d definitely bet against.

Mexico’s not paying.

The residents near the border don’t support it.

The Pussy Grabber is losing popularity, therefore power and clout.

Caveat: If he builds a wall like the Stonehenge replica in Spinal Tap, it doesn’t count.

 

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When Is It Time to Fight, and When Is It Time to Realize That You’ve Lost?


As a Jew taking the long view of history, I have come to the conclusion that it’s not wise to fight for something that can’t be saved. Fight where you can, but retreat and regroup when you’ve been outflanked.  If my great-grandparents had gotten the notion in their heads that it was only a matter of time and people fighting for doing the right thing, they would have stayed in Europe, and they would have been killed. They would have lost. Forever. There’s a dignity and nobility in a Last Stand, but making a last stand where you don’t need to is pointless suicide.

Screenshot 2017-03-21 08.50.33

I’m not saying that there is a danger of a Holocaust here. I’m not saying that the problems now single out Jews. However, the lesson of history is that sometimes things don’t get better. Sometimes they do, but it takes lifetimes and generations. But sometimes,  it never happens. Civilizations fall. Societies crumble, and nothing worth living in springs from the ashes. Things go to hell and never come back.

One ray of hope is that Drumpf’s demographic skews older. One old fart funeral at a time, our country is probably getting better. I look at my kids in our and see how much more tolerant and accepting they are than we were at that age. This change is slow and it’s incremental, but it is positive.

But there are plenty of signs that we’re sunk.

There is still the conversion and indoctrination of the young to the selfish and jingoistic mindset of tRump, especially those who are seduced by the idea of American Exceptionalism. (Who wouldn’t want to be exceptional, especially if to be exceptional requires merely the luck to have been born in the right place at the right time?) We are far too militaristic, especially in a country where so few people serve. The pious sanctimony surrounding our armed forces prevents any useful discussion of how they should be used. We are far too religious. Religion as a double-edged sword that too often gets sharpened on only one side. We have denigrated science and research to the point where other countries will equal us and surpass us in the ability to do cutting edge innovation and investigation. This is a race where you can’t make up for lost time. The changes to our environment–caused by those who still subscribe to the antiquated idea that the highest and best good is determined solely by ascertaingin that which brings in the most money–have launched us down a dangerous road, and we can only slow that movement, not turn it back. We have large parts of the population who believe that gun ownership, not debate, not reason, not commitment to each other, is  the most important foundation of a society. The USA is not the Last Best Hope of the World. We can be a leader in the way forward, but not without a commitment to see where we’ve gone off course. Currently, those in power do not have that commitment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Twittler Supporter’s Rationale: This is Our Last Best Chance to Say “Fuck You” To a Changing World We Can’t Deal With


Which is the primary reason Twittler supporters like him:

trumpie-998x657

They relish, they love, they bask in the glow of being able to say “Fuck You!” for 8 years.They hate what they’ve become and they have found their scapegoats in liberals who envision a fairer and more decent view of America. It’s not that they have any evidence to think that Der GropenFührer is anything other than the huckster he has proven himself to be. They just hate liberals. They hate they idea that a few lazy people scam the system while multitudes are helped–It’s so much easier than looking at how the plutocrats control their lives. They love the idea that any worth they have in life is only due to solely their own pure virtue, and can disallow the idea that luck might have had something to do with where they are in life. They now don’t have to admit that their own difficulties are due to inequities they are powerless to fight, but can instead blame it on the misguided good will of others. They can revel in their greed, and the uber-Gordon Gekkos of the world will tell them that that is all just and right. They can inflict their religious prejudices upon the minority by playing the victim. They can indulge their gut feelings that their genes are at least better than someone else’s. When we go to war, and other Americans pay the price, they can stand up for “G-d Bless America,” say that they support the troops, and feel absolved for making others pay the price for their jingoism. This is the triumph of the selfish minority. When the masses realize, if ever, that they’ve been cheering their own exploitation, it will be too late.

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Stupid GropenFührer Supporter Quote of the Day


From Breitbart.com (O never ending font of moronity!)

I might say it’s more of a muslim thing but then most dems are muslims…
It appears Barry’s boyfriend Van Jones has gone from kidnapping school children to teach them about back door $ex to teaching them about the thing he has sold his soul to.Screenshot 2017-03-17 08.54.50

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Amazon.com: Boycotts Don’t Work, But I’m Doing It Anyway


They’re still advertising on Breitbart.com.

Boycotting Amazon is like boycotting Google. You can’t do it. Or if you do, it’s not going to make a difference. And I don’t know if Amazon can stop Breitbart from linking to books it wants its readers to buy. But frankly, I’ll just feel better buying my books from Powell’s, or whatever it is I need, from elsewhere. (For more carefully laid out strategy, see https://grabyourwallet.org/ )

I have to believe that Breitbart is suffering. Other than clickbait, I don’t see any ads on Breitbart anymore. (Does clickbait even pay well?)

However, it still looks like there are plenty of readers. Each article provokes literally thousands of enraged comments, of which nearly all agree with the editorial point of view. You would think that by the time that there are already over one thousand comments, that the wackos would realize that, at that point, it’s just piling on. But, and this is telling,  they can’t resist. They have to pile on. They love to pile on. In fact, Breitbart exists to give the worst among us a chance to pile on, and in that warm mass of jingoistic sludge, bond with others and feel like the only ones with a firm grasp on the Truth. The comments also reveal that possession of the Truth gives the right to mete out whatever justice–or revenge–is deemed appropriate.  I believe that it comments were eliminated than Breitbart.com would cease to exist. trump jesus

A sample of the folksy wisdom to be found in the comment section:

—Tar and feather the so called judge in the public square. Remove him from office and make an example for the rest of the kool aid drinkers

—-TRANSLATION! The DEEP STATE = THE iLLUMININATI satanist !

GOD has said that satan is the ruler of This world for a short time !

The illuminati or deep state what ever lanquage you choose to call them is satans shadow government that he rukes the earth. by !

Only now at the very end of humanity has people WAKEN IP to this FACT !

GOD has SAID this NOT ME !
-)

—-Liberals are serial lunatics, perpetually angry zealots, profoundly criminal and inveterate liars to boot. They pose a clear and present danger to our land, laws, livelihoods and lives and must be dealt with accordingly.

 

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Today, a Pseudonym-ed Commenter Told Me to ‘Go to Hell’


The comment was in response to my last post, where I said that #45 had bugged the phones of anyone who ever tweeted ‘#notmypresident’, and then snidely remarked that there is no way anyone can disprove it. It’s the laziest and most obnoxious form of argument in the world (that was my point), because it’s impossible to disprove a negative.

The post was in response to #45’s completely unsupportable and absurd tweet that Trump Tower was bugged by the Obama administration. The tweet appears to be more a child’s lashing out than a well-founded accusation based on evidence.

Someone on WordPress found the post, and told me, simply, to go to hell.

I have to admit I was, and am still disturbed by this. A total stranger, someone who knows neither me nor my friends and family, wishes me dead, ostensibly for having a strong opinion that he or she doesn’t like. Hardly anybody reads this third-rate blog. It serves mostly as what I think of as my Walt Whitman space, but far less eloquent, poorly reasoned, and if it were on paper it would be guilty of the old insult, “not worth the paper it’s printed on.” (Let it be said in its favor, it does have bad pictures to go with it.) Yet someone found it, and then was so incensed by what I wrote that s/he wants me to not only die , but suffer in eternity as well.

I didn’t approve the comment for publication under the post for the simple reason that there are plenty of places on the internets where people can hurl invective at each other; it’s not my responsibility to provide more.

But I do have to admit: I am disturbed by this and wonder what the something is that’s happening here.

To the person who expressed the nasty sentiment: I have little doubt that I am–at least according to the criteria listed by many of the world’s residents–going there immediately upon my demise.

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