Freudian Slip, DHS Ed., or "Robbing Peter to Pay Donald"

DHS is going to make the TSA cough up just shy of a quarter of a billion dollars to "support the humanitarian crisis on the Southern border".

Not "ameliorate" or "combat" or "deal with" or anything like that. "Support". You are free to speculate as to the meaning of that word choice.

Since Trump is raiding every Federal pot of money for his manufactured emergency border wall, he'll probably order money taken from the Statue of Liberty National Park.

Anywho, the last time I flew commercial, there was a PA announcement that someone had left a money-clip at the TSA checkpoint. If that was unclaimed, now we know where the money went.

Narcissistic to the Very End and Beyond

A healthy dog was put to death in Virginia at the behest of its owner, who made the request in her will.

The owner of Emma, a Shih Tzu mix, died March 8. Her dog was held at the Chesterfield Animal Shelter before it was picked up March 22 and then euthanized, NBC affiliate WWBT in Richmond first reported.
...
Emma's owner, Anita Cullop-Thompson, 67, wanted to be interred with her pet, Morrissett Funeral and Cremation Service owner Larry Spiaggi told NBC News.

Dogs are property, so as far as the dead woman ordering her dog be put down, no crime, there.

But morally and ethically? That is severely fucked up. I'm somewhat surprised that they could find a vet to do it, for as far as I know, the Cat-Murdering Vet hasn't taken up practice in Virginia.

If there is an afterlife, Emma's owner should spend it with Emma gnawing her ass every day.

Because It's Friday

An Indian Garrett:

Goombye, Theresa May

Bowing to the inevitable, Theresa May announced Friday that she will step down as U.K. Conservative Party leader in two weeks, admitting defeat in her attempt to take Britain out of the European Union and sparking a contest to replace her as prime minister.

May said she will quit as head of the governing party on June 7 but stay as caretaker prime minister until the new leader is chosen, a process the Conservatives aim to complete by late July.

Which means that she'll still be the Prime Minister when the Chief Saboteur of the Western Alliance comes for an official visit.

Her replacement may end up being a man who, for all intents and purposes, is another pseudo-lackey of Vladimir Putin. I suppose one must pay the devil his due, for Putin will have, to some degree, conquered the Anglophone Alliance and NATO without firing a shot. Even when his minions have left office, the Western Alliance will have been severely weakened.

Corrupt AF, Again

President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

I don't know how much of this has to go on until conservatives pull their heads out of the sand and wake up to the fact that Trump is corrupt to the core. But I'm guessing it will be a long time until they can grow a spine.

I thought Democrats were spineless. But when faced with Trump, the Republicans have all of the spine of a one-celled organism (and they're about as smart).

China Fucks the World Over, Again; Plus GOP Family Values!

Researchers say that they have pinpointed the major sources of a mysterious recent rise in a dangerous, ozone-destroying chemical.

CFC-11 was primarily used for home insulation but global production was due to be phased out in 2010.

But scientists have seen a big slowdown in the rate of depletion over the past six years.

This new study says this is mostly being caused by new gas production in the north-east provinces of China.

China is probably the largest rogue nation on the planet. China's government pretty much operates on the principal that agreements, laws and norms mean nothing to them. Sort of like Donald Trump.

Speaking of the Party of Trump:

A Mississippi state lawmaker has been accused of drunkenly assaulting his wife because she was taking too long to undress for sex.

Doug McLeod, 58, was arrested on Saturday night in George County on a minor domestic violence charge.

His fellow Republicans in the state said Mr McLeod should resign immediately if the claims are true.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Don Henley's The End of the Innocence is a song from the 1980s that sounds mightily relevant today:

O' beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They're beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king

Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie

In the present day, we have a president who thinks that he is above the law, that he was elected to be king. "L'État, c'est moi" is the motto of the Trump Administration. Trump, as enabled by his coterie of bootlickers, truly believes that he can do what he wants with no consequences.

And Kris Kolbach Also Wants a Pony and an Ice Cream Machine in His Office, Too!

Kris Kolbach, whose last jobs involved whitening the voting rolls and stealing elections, has given Der Gropenfuhrer his list of demands should Trump choose him to be his Border Fuhrer Czar. It is an eye-popping ask from a self-entitled snowflake:

1. Office in the West Wing.

2. Walk-in privileges with the president.

3. Assistant to the President rank - at highest pay level for WH senior staff.

4. Staff of 7 people (2 attorneys, 2 research analysts, 1 scheduler, 1 media person, 1 assistant).

5. POTUS sits down individually with Czar and the secretaries of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, Ag, Interior, and Commerce, and tells each of the Secretaries to follow the directives of the Czar without delay, subject to appeal to the President in cases of disagreement.

6. 24/7 access to either a DHS or DOD jet. Czar must be on the border every week.

7. Ability to spend weekends in KS with family on way from border back to DC, unless POTUS needs Czar elsewhere.

8. Security detail if deemed necessary after security review.

9. Serve as the face of Trump immigration policy - the principal spokesman on television and in the media.

10. Promise that by November 1, 2019, the president will nominate Kris Kobach to be DHS Secretary, unless Kobach wishes to continue in Czar position.

What is it with these right-wing grifters? It's a good thing for Bizjet Kris that Gen. Mattis is no longer SecDef. The first time that ol' Kris walked into Mattis's office and issued orders, Mattis would kick his pasty ass all the way down the stairs of the River Entrance.

If Trump has any spine at all, this list should receive a FOAD stamp, with orders to the WH cops to deny Kolbach entrance to the WH and to shoot him if he argues the point.

Next, the Hazards of Dihydrogen Monoxide

Ladies and Gentlemen: The saddest and funniest testament to American bigotry we've ever seen in our data. pic.twitter.com/Bh3FBsl8sR

— John Dick (@jdcivicscience) May 11, 2019

That's right: LVI% of Americans are, well, ignorant and bigoted to boot.

You probably don't need to be told that the Arabic numeral system is the one that we use today. The concept of zero was in use in Arabia when Europe was firmly stuck in what was formerly called the Dark Ages. Because of the use of zero, Muhammad al-Khowarizmi was able to develop algebra at a time when Europeans were still using Roman numerals.

I'm reasonably sure that if the pollsters asked if "the Arabic system of al-Gebra" should be taught, a lot of people would say no.

Why the World Hates New York Bankers and Lawyers

If you have the time and stomach, you ought to read this article about how the banksters and the lawyers fucked over a lot of immigrants by selling them overpriced taxi medallions. It is a long read, but in short, the same usual suspects who brought down the economy in the Aughts are still hard at work.

We should have built and used guillotines the last time around. But Obama and Holder couldn't even be bothered to investigate those fuckers. Hell, Holder was one of them and, arguably, did his level best to ensure that few of the banksters, if any, were ever held accountable..

If You Are Pregnant, Planning to Become Pregnant, or Could Become Pregnant Someday.....

..... and if you live in one of the states that is criminalizing abortion, I have a quick bit of advice to you:

Leave. Move to another state. Do it now.

If your boyfriend or husband doesn't want to move, then dump his ass and go.

For you are at risk of incarceration. If you become pregnant and have a miscarriage, all a prosecutor has to do is convince a low-wattage jury that you did something wrong and you'll be sent to prison for second degree murder.

Up to one in four pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Most every woman I know who now has children had one or more miscarriages. It's devastating enough, every mother-to-be I personally know mourned their miscarriages as the loss of a child. But to then have the cops go tromping around and some Christian Talibanista of a prosecutor attempt to prosecute them? That's outrageous.

Did you have a couple of drinks one night? The state could try and argue that there's a link between that and a subsequent miscarriage. Or they could charge you with child endangerment.

In the case of Georgia and some of those other Cult of the Fetus states, once you leave, never go back. Not even for a visit. Don't even change planes at Atlanta.

The striking thing about the Christian Taliban Fetus Cultists is that they show absolutely zero concern for the child other than criminalizing being a mother. I don't know of any of them that are doing anything to promote prenatal health. There's no move to expand the availability of prenatal care. There is zero support for anything to do with the child or the mother from conception to post-birth that doesn't involve incarceration.

Oh, they say that they are "pro-life". But where are their works to actually help people? Help mothers with child-care? Nope. Do anything to make pediatric care available to poor people or to rural areas where the hospitals have closed? Not going to happen. Support education so that the kids may have a future? Dream on. They stopped supporting things like that when black kids became legally entitled to use them.

The Talibanistas are moralists; the only tool they know is the stick.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A Falcon 900:

Caturday

Max has gotten coned.

The Passing of Giants

Both Herman Wouk and I.M. Pei have died. Both men were centenarians.

Tardar Sauce, R.I.P.

Grumpy Cat has died.

She was seven.

For NRA Members

You should read Tiffany Johnson's letter to the NRA Board and, if you agree, sign it.

Note for commenters: For the purposes of this post, anti-NRA snark will be deleted without warning or even the formality of a red card.

Because It's Friday

More footage from 4014's first test run.

It's amazing that they restored it in less than three years.

Fucking A Right

(Credit)

I presume that as soon as the fourteen year old daughter of one of those members of the Cult of the Fetus in tthe Back-Alley States becomes pregnant from her cousin or a kid under the bleachers, that she'll be shipped off to a blue state for an abortion quicker than you can recite the names of the noble gases. (If the father-to-be happens to be a racial minority, they won't get past saying "neon" before the girl is on her way to New York.)

For that's what I've seen happen, both with respect to abortion and divorce. People who say that divorce is a sin and that marriage is forever seem to change their tunes most ricky-tick when their marriages go sour.

Is Trump Waking Up to How Much He's Been Rolled by Bolton and Pompeo?

President Trump has told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, according to several administration officials, in a message to his hawkish aides that an intensifying American pressure campaign against the clerical-led government in Tehran must not escalate into open conflict.

There was a process for diplomatic discussions with Iran. But between the machinations of chickenhawks like Pompeo and Bolton and the infantile dislike by Trump of everything Obama did, Trump blew that up last year.

The chickenhawks have persuaded Trump that by tightening things on Iran, that the Iranians would bend to their will. It hasn't happened. Other than the Saudis and the Israelis, who are always happy for Americans to shed blood and treasure for them, there is precious little support around the world for Bolton's War. To the rest of the world, the irrational player in this has been Trump. If anyone has managed to make the Iranian government appear to be a sober and thoughtful party, it has been Trump.

Trump may now want to talk to Iran, but to the Iranians, the current crisis has been manufactured by the chickenhawks. Trump has been painted into a corner by the chickenhawks.

He may now be realizing that Pompeo and Bolton are no friends of Trump, that they view Trump as a puppet whose strings they can pull.

Mosque Fire

Setting fire to a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan... gee, I wonder who could have done that?

Trump's War (or Bolton's)

The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.
...
The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran.

Pompeo, of course, is lying like a senior Trump official:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States does not seek a war with Iran, amid rapidly growing tensions between the two countries.

The Iran nuclear deal was not perfect. But Trump blew it up because of his childish opposition to anything and everything that President Obama did. That is the bottom line for Trump: He's opposed to everything Obama did. It is a level of childish vindictiveness that normal people outgrow by the time their age reaches double digits.

If a war ensues, the U.S. is likely going to be largely going it alone. The rest of the Western world is blaming Trump for ratcheting up tensions with Iran. Bolton, in particular, is trying to engineer a war. It has apparently been Bolton's lifelong dream to mastermind a war, and now he seems to be achieving his goal.

In a just world, Bolton would be in a jail cell in The Hague for war mongering.

Trump, who has criticized other presidents for getting into wars in the Middle East, is on the verge of making the mother of all foreign policy fuckups.