And it's no coincidence that the media is desperately trying to explain to us that the only people who can be legally shot to death in this country with impunity are blacks, Hispanics, homeless, protesters, women, and schoolchildren, not white rich men... Especially no billionaires!
It's important for the 185 million American adults (70% of the total), who did not vote for Trump, to be aware that the world's unethical oligarchs/autocrats are about to take control of the biggest economy and strongest military on earth. And we should be aware that the journalists who are tasked with telling the truth are compromised to help the autocrats deceive the majority.
The failure by the Press to ask Trump the Why questions is a part of the coverup of immoral and criminal behavior. Shutting down the Autocrat Club is not in their financial interest. See the LA Times, WAPO and the TV news networks. They are all well paid to not ask Why.
Why was Donald allowed to keep operating his businesses while President? And use them to take money from foreign powers in exchange for favors and influence.
Why is he being allowed to expand his businesses after inauguration?
Why was Elon allowed to spend $250 million in an election deception/fraud campaign? That obviously worked! Elon now controls/influences the incoming administration!
Why are Donald and Elon and his pals allowed to do business deals with our economic and military adversaries? And talk to them and hide the conversations. Is Donald working for US or them?
Why did Donald nominate a Russian propagandist to be in charge of spying on Russia?
Let's ask the "responsible" journalists Why aren't they asking Why?
Murder is wrong, full stop, if it is not in self defense. Shooting a rich guy in the back is still murder. I don't want to become a LW version of the RW lunatics.
.
That said, the corporate media has repeatedly let down the whole country when they fail to cover the extreme violence that is being used to kill females, POC, and LGBTQ+ people, suppress voting rights, steal elections, etc., all in service of the oligarchy and Trump, Inc. And the repugnicans. So I totes agree with you there.
.
It's been suggested in podcast land that we LW voters should be throwing sand in the gears in our respective states and localities to prevent fascism from getting a toe hold or a strangle hold on us. In addition, we should be lobbying hard for our local state governments to 1. make the John Lewis Voting Rights Act legal locally, and B. support the Interstate Compact to have their EC votes mirror the popular vote. Maryland's Jamie Raskin is working hard to get states to commit to doing this and we would need 270 EC votes to be cast as part of the Compact. I think he's managed around 200 votes so far but needs at least another 70? Let's not surrender in advance, folks. Let's all be pains in the ass for Democracy!
ProPublica has a story today about how billionaires pay zero towards Medicare because there are very special IRS rules written just for them. I hate it here.
And of course, the concept of income subject to income tax (and associated taxes) has been redefined to only apply to use lesser humans that are on a payroll.
Billionaires…and Taylor Swift gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to truck drivers for her tour! We need billionaires like her please! Screw Musk-screw LDFF.
Taylor Swift donated enough to the food pantry I volunteer at to have the whole place renovated and filled. Anonymously. But everyone knows.
It has free breakfast, a daycare center which charges a miniscule fee, emergency food delivery, and a whole host of other community services.
Someone magical and anonymous donated enough turkeys to feed ... well, Turkey the country. And all the trimmings, too. I think it was her.
As a joke, the director sent letters to a bunch of Richie Richs asking for a donation. Trump, Leon, Buffet, and I forget who else. Buffet was the only one who responded and gave.
So fuck the ones who grow richer and never contribute anything positive to society. Fuck them and their families who follow their example.
And deepest respect and appreciation to those who help. 💙
(Sidebar: my adoptive father's parents immigrated here from Greece, so I was raised in a very Greek environment. The food! The dancing! The insane aunts and drunken uncles! Opa!
So I want to know what in great, blue fucking HELL did Greece do to that orange asshole that he wants Kimberly Gargoyle as his ambassador to Greece?!?!
Ti kefi, ti plaka…opa indeed. I spent a few months on assignment to the HAF. Like you, I pity the Hellenics having to host Gargoyle (funny take on her name and apropos).
I have a great story about my thea's (aunt) friend in the mountains and how she protected her Resistance sons.
Nazis went into her mountain village to hunt the Resistance. Her sons were hiding in the caves. The Nazis brought her into the village square and said if she didn't tell them where the resistance was, they would cut off her fingers, knuckle by knuckle. She refused.
Middle finger, first knuckle WHACK. Nothing. Second knuckle WHACK. Nothing. Now her thumb, but the Nazis hesitated. She sucked her own blood and spat it in their face. "You can cut me into pieces. NEVER will I tell you anything!"
They gave up.
I had the honor to meet her, this tiny woman dressed all in black. She pinched my cheeks purple and held up her mangled hand while her youngest son jokingly translated: "Live long and prosper." 🖖
My ex's grandparents came from Greece. My two children with him are half Greek background and Greek Orthodox. I just burst out in laughter when I saw that the Gargoyle was to be the Ambassador. I remember back in the 70's when there was a news report that Nixon's helicopter/plane had crashed. Wasn't true, but the Greeks were all excited that finally a Greek (Agnew) would be president. This is before Agnew's walk of shame. She is just trash. We are already laughed at in the rest of world, people like her and Lake round out the picture. At least Lake dresses like she has some class and doesn't look like Halloween scary. Guess she and coke boy have broken up?
Yep! And she summers in my state, which I believe is why she gives so much to us. We try very hard to protect her privacy
She's worked very hard to get where she is and still does. I don't know her music (my tastes run more towards geriatrics like Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc.), but I do respect what she does. She brings happiness, not misery (except to the occasional ex-boyfriend, and which one of us wouldn't love to do THAT?!).
Last year she gave out about $93 million in bonuses to her concert crew. This year she gave about another $140 million. THAT'S how a boss should treat the people who work for them.
Plus $100,000 to food banks in every city she appeared in. She's filmed at stadiums "handing out hundies" to the food & bev crews. She rarely talks about it, but in "Miss Americana" she identifies herself as a Christian. Living her faith. 🙏🙏
Taylor is one of the few billionaires who actually worked for what she earned ! If that was true for all of the oligarchs we might have a half dozen of them ! Felon would definitely be out of the line up ! Trump would be selling pencils under a bridge with a monkey and an organ !
America for sale. 80 years ago right now, American soldiers were fighting for their lives in the Ardennes against the Nazis. These brave men are spinning in their graves watching this bullshit from the hereafter. This can't be allowed to happen. We should channel Anthony McAuliffe, the acting commander of the 101st Airborne in Bastogne when the Germans demanded his surrender: To the German commander:
I remember my father telling me that story when I was only 5 or 6 years old …I always thought that Commander Anthony Mc Auliffe was the bravest soldier in the war next to my father of course !
He was in command because Maxwell Taylor, the commanding general of the 101st. Airborne was unable to get to Bastogne due to the weather. Those troopers got pissed when somebody said that Patton rescued them. "We were relieved, damnit!"
My Dad was a bombardier in the south Pacific. Flew B-24 Liberator and dropped bombs on the enemy. He never talked about it, not ever. The only story he ever told was that they would run target practice runs, dropping crates full of rocks on practice targets. He imagined the enemy laughing at the thought that the US Air Corps was out of ammo and reduced to dropping rocks.
He was my hero, and while I miss him every day, I'm thankful that he's not here to see what's happened to this country that he loved so much.
That would be amazing if the wannabe dictator from hell became incarcerated before his shouldn't be happening inauguration and had to stay there for a while. His ongoing plans to keep on crimin' could actually come to a screeching halt. He hasn't even taken office yet but he keeps stirring shit up at a record pace. Fingers crossed that he finally gets more than the usual handslaps for a change.
First, kudos for highlighting Elon Musk’s motives. The whole thing for business is to reduce or remove the frictions on profit such as taxes and regulations (labor costs are another, and why companies went off-shore). Taxes the rich & corporations defer pay for the educated workforce, the infrastructure, the security (military, and other perks of society. So they push the tab downward to the people who actually do the work. Then they bitch about minimum pay. Sigh.
As for regulations, IMHO, they are evolutionary. At the turn of the last century Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle resulting in the Pure Food and Drug Act. Damn those socialists, another bite in profit. Or the flaming Cuyahoga River resulting in the Clean Water Act. The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson inspired creation of the EPA. The Federal Aviation Regulations are in some part written in blood (I’m a former aviator). One could certainly write a book about why we have banking regulations…oh never mind, read The Big Short about the 2008 recession.
So we enter the brave new world where $1B allows one to poison the very people who made America great. To circumvent the taxes allowing their business to thrive, perhaps even exist (looking at you Elon with your Space X US contracts).
I return to my kudos to Jeff and others on blog and journalism. Like Upton Sinclair, Rachel Carson, et al it is your exposes, your continual light on malfeasance that will save our Country.
An absolutely wonderful comment. This is also exactly how I see it. So it must be right! (just kidding). But all true, and this country in every area I can think of is now going backwards.
Our democracy is in hospice. Next January, we will be a leader less nation. I saw that King Shitpants is building a new hotel in Saudi Arabia. He gave the oligarchs what they wanted to keep him out of prison and buy his election. We're fucked.
He approached Gorbachev with the same proposal many years ago, I’m not sure why it doesn’t exist already, unless Putin knew it would alert further investigation into Trump’s involvement in Russia James!
And it's no coincidence that the media is desperately trying to explain to us that the only people who can be legally shot to death in this country with impunity are blacks, Hispanics, homeless, protesters, women, and schoolchildren, not white rich men... Especially no billionaires!
It's important for the 185 million American adults (70% of the total), who did not vote for Trump, to be aware that the world's unethical oligarchs/autocrats are about to take control of the biggest economy and strongest military on earth. And we should be aware that the journalists who are tasked with telling the truth are compromised to help the autocrats deceive the majority.
The failure by the Press to ask Trump the Why questions is a part of the coverup of immoral and criminal behavior. Shutting down the Autocrat Club is not in their financial interest. See the LA Times, WAPO and the TV news networks. They are all well paid to not ask Why.
Why was Donald allowed to keep operating his businesses while President? And use them to take money from foreign powers in exchange for favors and influence.
Why is he being allowed to expand his businesses after inauguration?
Why was Elon allowed to spend $250 million in an election deception/fraud campaign? That obviously worked! Elon now controls/influences the incoming administration!
Why are Donald and Elon and his pals allowed to do business deals with our economic and military adversaries? And talk to them and hide the conversations. Is Donald working for US or them?
Why did Donald nominate a Russian propagandist to be in charge of spying on Russia?
Let's ask the "responsible" journalists Why aren't they asking Why?
To answer your question, Donald is working for his own aggrandizement.
Let’s only hope DT works hard enough for himself to get impeached again and get thrown out for good!!!
There would not be sufficient votes in either house.
They're not asking Why because they've been paid off or threatened with loss of job, or kompromat, and they're effing cowards.
The spinelessness of the MSM is going to be one of the sinister hallmarks of our era.
Yup. They get special dispensation from the orange god king.
Don't obey in advance; don't give up in advance.
Especially not the legacy media oligarchic owners.
Yes, they are appalled that a rich, powerful, white man got his karma.
Murder is wrong, full stop, if it is not in self defense. Shooting a rich guy in the back is still murder. I don't want to become a LW version of the RW lunatics.
.
That said, the corporate media has repeatedly let down the whole country when they fail to cover the extreme violence that is being used to kill females, POC, and LGBTQ+ people, suppress voting rights, steal elections, etc., all in service of the oligarchy and Trump, Inc. And the repugnicans. So I totes agree with you there.
.
It's been suggested in podcast land that we LW voters should be throwing sand in the gears in our respective states and localities to prevent fascism from getting a toe hold or a strangle hold on us. In addition, we should be lobbying hard for our local state governments to 1. make the John Lewis Voting Rights Act legal locally, and B. support the Interstate Compact to have their EC votes mirror the popular vote. Maryland's Jamie Raskin is working hard to get states to commit to doing this and we would need 270 EC votes to be cast as part of the Compact. I think he's managed around 200 votes so far but needs at least another 70? Let's not surrender in advance, folks. Let's all be pains in the ass for Democracy!
ProPublica has a story today about how billionaires pay zero towards Medicare because there are very special IRS rules written just for them. I hate it here.
And of course, the concept of income subject to income tax (and associated taxes) has been redefined to only apply to use lesser humans that are on a payroll.
Oh! So we are humans now? Must be a mistake, and I am sure Elno Skum will find a way to fix it.
Oooo, Elno Skum--I like that! I may have to use it (with attribution, of course!)
I got it from someone else, and - whoever it was please forgive me! - do not recall who. So, enjoy, and use without attributing me.
The version I saw was Lone Skum
I like that, too.
Stephen, Elmo Skum. Nice. I was trying to think of a "skunk" like nickname, but want to spend my time resisting + reading.
No, no! It’s ElNo, not ElMo. Gotta be an anagram!
Billionaires…and Taylor Swift gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to truck drivers for her tour! We need billionaires like her please! Screw Musk-screw LDFF.
Taylor Swift donated enough to the food pantry I volunteer at to have the whole place renovated and filled. Anonymously. But everyone knows.
It has free breakfast, a daycare center which charges a miniscule fee, emergency food delivery, and a whole host of other community services.
Someone magical and anonymous donated enough turkeys to feed ... well, Turkey the country. And all the trimmings, too. I think it was her.
As a joke, the director sent letters to a bunch of Richie Richs asking for a donation. Trump, Leon, Buffet, and I forget who else. Buffet was the only one who responded and gave.
So fuck the ones who grow richer and never contribute anything positive to society. Fuck them and their families who follow their example.
And deepest respect and appreciation to those who help. 💙
(Sidebar: my adoptive father's parents immigrated here from Greece, so I was raised in a very Greek environment. The food! The dancing! The insane aunts and drunken uncles! Opa!
So I want to know what in great, blue fucking HELL did Greece do to that orange asshole that he wants Kimberly Gargoyle as his ambassador to Greece?!?!
I'm ready to burst a brain blood vessel.)
Ti kefi, ti plaka…opa indeed. I spent a few months on assignment to the HAF. Like you, I pity the Hellenics having to host Gargoyle (funny take on her name and apropos).
I'd love to take credit, but I stole Gargoyle from spell check. Hahaha!
Kali spera, philos mou! Efharisto! 💙
Yet another failure by AI!!!
Mindy, maybe to soothe the insult, you could envision the time away from ambassadoring, tending to Botox, various implants etc.
Geez, the time on just her wanna-be-sexy lips will minimize her exposure. JC on a Pogo stick.
Have you seen her recently? she really looks like a monster.
Yep, what's that Mediterranean sun gonna do to her complexion?
They fought against Hitler and his Nazi creatures !
I have a great story about my thea's (aunt) friend in the mountains and how she protected her Resistance sons.
Nazis went into her mountain village to hunt the Resistance. Her sons were hiding in the caves. The Nazis brought her into the village square and said if she didn't tell them where the resistance was, they would cut off her fingers, knuckle by knuckle. She refused.
Middle finger, first knuckle WHACK. Nothing. Second knuckle WHACK. Nothing. Now her thumb, but the Nazis hesitated. She sucked her own blood and spat it in their face. "You can cut me into pieces. NEVER will I tell you anything!"
They gave up.
I had the honor to meet her, this tiny woman dressed all in black. She pinched my cheeks purple and held up her mangled hand while her youngest son jokingly translated: "Live long and prosper." 🖖
What a story! May we all #Resist with her courage.
My ex's grandparents came from Greece. My two children with him are half Greek background and Greek Orthodox. I just burst out in laughter when I saw that the Gargoyle was to be the Ambassador. I remember back in the 70's when there was a news report that Nixon's helicopter/plane had crashed. Wasn't true, but the Greeks were all excited that finally a Greek (Agnew) would be president. This is before Agnew's walk of shame. She is just trash. We are already laughed at in the rest of world, people like her and Lake round out the picture. At least Lake dresses like she has some class and doesn't look like Halloween scary. Guess she and coke boy have broken up?
That's how you know Swift is an excellent person, she doesn't brag about it, she(like Dolly,) just helps out.
They need to get her out of the country so Jr. can move on.
Jr. needs to concentrate on getting clean/sober. IMO.
She knows too much ! Rump is starting to pay her off. Gargoyle is perfect !
Nah, Don Jr has a new, younger, richer love interest. Gargoyle is in the way, so TrumpilThinSkin is smoothing the way for a non-litigious breakup.
And these are The Days of Your Life. 🤣
I'm sure fish lips knows where all the bodies are buried too. She hook some ancient rich Greek guy and disappear off our radar.
Sick shit. Amazing family values....
He's getting her out of juniors hair. Relationship is imploding, sounds like he's buying her off.
Yep! And she summers in my state, which I believe is why she gives so much to us. We try very hard to protect her privacy
She's worked very hard to get where she is and still does. I don't know her music (my tastes run more towards geriatrics like Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc.), but I do respect what she does. She brings happiness, not misery (except to the occasional ex-boyfriend, and which one of us wouldn't love to do THAT?!).
💙
Last year she gave out about $93 million in bonuses to her concert crew. This year she gave about another $140 million. THAT'S how a boss should treat the people who work for them.
Plus $100,000 to food banks in every city she appeared in. She's filmed at stadiums "handing out hundies" to the food & bev crews. She rarely talks about it, but in "Miss Americana" she identifies herself as a Christian. Living her faith. 🙏🙏
Taylor is one of the few billionaires who actually worked for what she earned ! If that was true for all of the oligarchs we might have a half dozen of them ! Felon would definitely be out of the line up ! Trump would be selling pencils under a bridge with a monkey and an organ !
No, the monkey would have nothing to do with him
Never said who was holding the leash and who was cranking the organ !😂
omg hahaha
Oprah too?...
Oh can we make that come true Robert?!! Cause I’m down with that..
The minkey does not tell me what to play, and I do not tell the minkey what to do with his money
Respectfully disagree Tess. Billionaire level wealth should be taxed out of existence!
Well they definitely should be taxed!!!!
Tess; Economic power begets political power. Therein lies the problem.
Justice Louis Brandeis:
“ You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few or you can have democracy. But you can’t have both.”
We have to get the big money 💰 out of politics,maybe taxation is the way to start, just not sure 100%. Bill Gates earned his.
Gates earned his the same way Musk did: right place, right time, knowing when to back a technology. Plus limitless ambition.
Repealing Citizens United would be a good start.
Gates earned his by fleecing every person who owns a computer. He is no ethical poster boy
America for sale. 80 years ago right now, American soldiers were fighting for their lives in the Ardennes against the Nazis. These brave men are spinning in their graves watching this bullshit from the hereafter. This can't be allowed to happen. We should channel Anthony McAuliffe, the acting commander of the 101st Airborne in Bastogne when the Germans demanded his surrender: To the German commander:
NUTS!!
Sincerely, the American commander.
And my father was one of them.
I remember my father telling me that story when I was only 5 or 6 years old …I always thought that Commander Anthony Mc Auliffe was the bravest soldier in the war next to my father of course !
He was in command because Maxwell Taylor, the commanding general of the 101st. Airborne was unable to get to Bastogne due to the weather. Those troopers got pissed when somebody said that Patton rescued them. "We were relieved, damnit!"
What our country has become
My Dad survived Midway Charlie.. and if he were alive today he wouldn’t even recognize
Damn right ! 🤨👍
My Dad was a bombardier in the south Pacific. Flew B-24 Liberator and dropped bombs on the enemy. He never talked about it, not ever. The only story he ever told was that they would run target practice runs, dropping crates full of rocks on practice targets. He imagined the enemy laughing at the thought that the US Air Corps was out of ammo and reduced to dropping rocks.
He was my hero, and while I miss him every day, I'm thankful that he's not here to see what's happened to this country that he loved so much.
That would be my Uncle Jack.
1. Elmo : “Quid pro quo! Quid pro quo!” Jumps for joy
2. Proceed to sentencing and put Orange Fuckwit in jail/prison until inauguration. No fuckwit is above the law.
That would be amazing if the wannabe dictator from hell became incarcerated before his shouldn't be happening inauguration and had to stay there for a while. His ongoing plans to keep on crimin' could actually come to a screeching halt. He hasn't even taken office yet but he keeps stirring shit up at a record pace. Fingers crossed that he finally gets more than the usual handslaps for a change.
yes that would be great, but not even dark brandon can pull that off...so many others would get in the way
Why is he being allowed to travel outside the US?
My understanding is Merchan didn’t place any travel restrictions
That means going to Hell isn’t out of the question?🧐😅
Lol, I hope so.
I'm guessing not every country is operating the same, hope they all get on the same page and freeze the very special boy out.
Yes please Kay-EI, thanks for this post!!
🇺🇸 Hey JAUN ! Be a stand up guy and sentence that bastard before the inauguration! 🙏🏻🙏🏻 For the sake of the country DO IT !🇺🇸
💯
Kay-El, oohhh! Paging the Karma Dispatcher: Quick! Get us the GPS map to NYC Stat!
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
Especially not cheeto boy
I love Alvin Bragg - bring it on, indeed! 💙💙💙. Please, please do - make our day!
First, kudos for highlighting Elon Musk’s motives. The whole thing for business is to reduce or remove the frictions on profit such as taxes and regulations (labor costs are another, and why companies went off-shore). Taxes the rich & corporations defer pay for the educated workforce, the infrastructure, the security (military, and other perks of society. So they push the tab downward to the people who actually do the work. Then they bitch about minimum pay. Sigh.
As for regulations, IMHO, they are evolutionary. At the turn of the last century Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle resulting in the Pure Food and Drug Act. Damn those socialists, another bite in profit. Or the flaming Cuyahoga River resulting in the Clean Water Act. The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson inspired creation of the EPA. The Federal Aviation Regulations are in some part written in blood (I’m a former aviator). One could certainly write a book about why we have banking regulations…oh never mind, read The Big Short about the 2008 recession.
So we enter the brave new world where $1B allows one to poison the very people who made America great. To circumvent the taxes allowing their business to thrive, perhaps even exist (looking at you Elon with your Space X US contracts).
I return to my kudos to Jeff and others on blog and journalism. Like Upton Sinclair, Rachel Carson, et al it is your exposes, your continual light on malfeasance that will save our Country.
An absolutely wonderful comment. This is also exactly how I see it. So it must be right! (just kidding). But all true, and this country in every area I can think of is now going backwards.
Excellent post David!!
Well dug comment David, had to come back and read it twice!!
Amen! Wonderful comment 👏🏻👏🏻
Welcome to Trumpistan 🍊
Our democracy is in hospice. Next January, we will be a leader less nation. I saw that King Shitpants is building a new hotel in Saudi Arabia. He gave the oligarchs what they wanted to keep him out of prison and buy his election. We're fucked.
Now he can get his Trump Tower Moscow.
He approached Gorbachev with the same proposal many years ago, I’m not sure why it doesn’t exist already, unless Putin knew it would alert further investigation into Trump’s involvement in Russia James!
Lisa, we are NOT FUCKED YET! Don't give up EVER, especially b4 inauguration!
#DoSomething #Resist
I'm not giving up. I'm one of those weirdos who lives on hope. Even though it slaps me in the face. I try again.
Hope is the gateway to despair.
I have a tattoo on my right
bicep that says " Don't get too excited " Meaning basically the same as Hope is the gateway to despair.
Don't forget, it is also an identifying mark.
Good idea Tess, deleting a section of the 14th amendment might yield some path forward against his inauguration!
Absofuckinglutely Lisa!!
Or Trumpimuskovistan maybe?