Fox News Isn't 100% in the Tank for Trump

And Trump is not happy about it.

Following a series of swipes at Fox News from the White House this summer, Neil Cavuto has become the latest network personality to push back against the president’s expectations of uninterrupted praise.

Cavuto said on Thursday: “First of all, Mr President, we don’t work for you. I don’t work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you. Just report on you – call balls and strikes on you.”

And this:

Fox News isn’t supposed to work for you. https://t.co/kQDY4UKv8z

— Brit Hume (@brithume) August 28, 2019

Of course, the low-wattage loons on Fox and Fiends are still almost as far up Trump's ass as is Bill Barr.

Caturday

Cat yoga with shelter cats:

A couple of the shelter cats which were at that session got new homes from it.

1911 Assembly

If you strip down your 1911, this video can show you how to quickly put it back together.

Because It's Friday

Steam in Boreas, Colorado:

Trump the Tyrant- Republicans Follow Him At Their Peril

President* Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project.

He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.

Let's be clear about this: Trump is normalizing authoritarian behavior. What he is doing will be replicated by a Democrat.

Funny thing, too: Conservatives were so, so outraged by Kelo v. City of New London and who cheered when Vera Coking fought off Trump's attempt to take her home for a parking lot are now silent about Trump's orders to aggressively confiscate the private property of American citizens to build an arbitrary portion of his fucking wall.

One might wonder if Trump's telling subordinates that he will pardon them if they break the law is enough to justify a conspiracy charge against Trump.

Also, as anyone who has ever seen a road project hurried, construction done at a rush is often as well-made as a Soviet apartment block.

But keep this in mind, conservatives: The tools that Trump picks up will be used by others in ways in which you will not approve.

Conservatives: You can stand behind Trump or you can stand behind the United States as a nation of laws. You no longer can do both.

Apropos of Nothing In Particular

The whole story.

And this:

Let the Pruning Begin; 2020 Ed.

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has ended her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Mrs Gillibrand announced her decision to withdraw in an online video after failing to qualify for a third Democratic debate next month.

"After more than eight incredible months, I am ending my presidential campaign," she said.

Regular readers of this blog know my opinion of the junior senator from NY.

There are a number of other candidates who are likely to be gone soon. Some may not; Tom Steyer can afford to continue until 2040 or so.

R.I.P., Captain Haynes

A pilot who is credited with saving dozens of lives has died. United Flight 232 went into total hydraulic failure while Al Haynes was at the controls in 1989. With the help of three other pilots, he maneuvered the DC-10 to a miraculous crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa, and 184 of the 296 people on board survived.

Captain Haynes was 87.

The cockpit voice recorder transcript is fascinating. The famous exchange with ATC:

My recollection of things is that every time they tried to replicate the flight of UA 232 in a simulator, they had an unsurvivable crash. Most of the attempts didn't get close to the airport. That anyone survived is a testament to the skill of Capt. Haynes and the other pilots in the cockpit.

Godspeed, Captain.

I So Don't Care About This Shit

Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, will be able to continue using a law firm that recently represented the University of Southern California, which is an alleged victim in the sweeping college admissions bribery case, a federal judge allowed Tuesday.

This sort of shit has been going on for a long time. Do you really think that Jared Kushner got into Harvard on his own merits? Or that Donny, Jr. or Ivanka did?

Admission of the kids of graduates (legacies) or of donors is old news. The difference may be that the wealthy know enough not to have a paper trail linking the donations to the admissions of their spawn.

Baby Trump Is Getting What He Wants

The Amazon is burning, the Little Trump who is the president of Brazil is rejecting any help.

I'm pretty certain that Bolsonaro is seeing the result that he wants. He'd have the Amazon burned to the last tree if he had his way.

Just like his mentor.

"The Few" Are Really Down To a Few

John Hart, the last surviving Canadian who fought in the Battle of Britain, has died at the age of 102.

Only four pilots from that battle still survive.

Our Very Stable Genius

President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.

One would have to be an incredibly ignorant imbecile to think that detonating nuclear weapons in the atmosphere is a good idea.

In fact, it's a very bad idea. Almost any sentient adult would have recognized that it was a very bad idea. But not Trump, who kept raising the subject.

At what point do Republicans begin to acknowledge, in public, that Trump is nutter than a boxcar full of peanuts?

Republicans Go For The Big Lie, Again

Republicans are trying to blame white supremacist mass shooting on "leftists".

Congressional Republicans recently circulated talking points on gun violence that falsely described the El Paso massacre and other mass shootings as “violence from the left.”
...
“White nationalism and racism are pure evil and cannot be tolerated in any form," the document said. “We also can’t excuse violence from the left such as the El Paso shooter, the recent Colorado shooters, the Congressional baseball shooter, Congresswoman Giffords’ shooter and Antifa."

I wish this was a joke. It's not. It'a a Big Lie. The El Paso shooter was parroting Trump's racist screeds about immigrants. Gabby Giffords is a Democrat. I am unaware of any "mass shootings" that are linked to Antifa (other than events such as the D-Day landings).

As the article goes on to mention, the FBI has noted that a majority of domestic terrorist incidents have been perpetrated by white supremacists. But the Republicans have to lie about all that, because they have been wrapping themselves in white supremacist rhetoric.

Play with fire, get burned.

(H/T)

Trumpanzees Try to Blackmail and Intimidate Reporters

A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.

It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.

The group has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times — three outlets that have aggressively investigated Mr. Trump — in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his re-election prospects.

This is a naked attack on a free press, the sort of thing that an autocrat like Putin would approve of.

Most reporters are not public figures. Arguing that they are is to argue that everyone is. And going after their families? That's truly evil.

In mitigation, one may assume that after a number of these revelations are made, people will consider the source and stop paying much attention.

I guess it's unfair to compare Trumpanzees to Putin. Putin just has people that discomfort him arrested or killed.

Do You Call or Text on Your Smartphone During an Airline Flight?

If you do, the usual gaggle of spies are listening in.

At this point, if you don't use an end-to-end encryption app for phone calls, it's pretty safe to assume that somebody is listening in. Even if the NSA isn't supposed to spy on Americans, the GCHQ and the CSIS can. There's really nothing to stop them from sharing.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Lear 40:

Trump Acts Like a Tyrant and Republicans Are Silent

Boy howdy, it was really something when Republicans were up in arms, sometimes literally, about the Affordable Care Act.

But when Trump greatly expands the reach of the presidency, like threatening to declare a national emergency so that he can force companies (including the importers of MAGA hats) to stop doing business with China, the only thing you hear from Republicans is crickets.

Just crickets. They are either collaborationists or cowards; in the final analysis, there's really no difference.

Remember this?

Wars of any kind are never easy. There are almost always things that happen that the initiator didn't foresee once the fur begins to fly.

Caturday

A shelter cat relaxes:

It's Almost Adorable When Trump Thinks He Has Dictatorial Powers

President Donald Trump declared Friday that he had “hereby ordered” American companies with operations in China “to immediately start looking for” an alternative after Beijing announced a series of retaliatory tariffs.

Yep, King Donald the Nutjob thinks that he has the power to order around American corporations, or, for that matter, anyone else, to do whatever flits through his increasingly unhinged mind.

Everyone else probably knows that the president of the United States has no power to order American citizens (and corporations) to do anything.

By the way, does the order apply to Ivanka?

(Bet you won't hear a single Republican say "boo" about this.)

Because It's Friday

Big Boy (UP) 4014 in Chicagoland:

Nobody was going to get a clear shot.

Post-Trump Staff Jobs Not Worth Fretting Over

Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has joined Fox News as a contributor, the network announced on Thursday. It is the latest sign of the revolving door relationship between Fox and the Trump administration.

ABC's hit show "Dancing with the Stars" is about to get a lot spicier. President Trump's former White House press secretary Sean Spicer is joining the cast of the reality hit for its upcoming season — along with a few other controversial celebrities.

Firtly, Fox News is largely a GOP agitprop channel. That Trumps former Chief Liar has gone to work for Fox News should surprise and astonish absolutely nobody.

Second, from having watched maybe 0.15 of an episode of Dancing With the Stars, the so-called stars on that show range from the weren't-you-once-somebodies to the who-the-hell-were-yous. The next mention in the press of most of the "stars" on that show will be when they either die or are arrested. So who the hell cares about Spicer getting that gig?

It Will Be a Cold Day in Hell Before I Take Advice on Being Jewish From an Aging Obese White Supremacist With Delusions of Godhood

Showing a fresh willingness to play politics along religious lines, President Donald Trump said American Jews who vote for Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
...
“Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they are defending these two people over the state of Israel?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Claiming that American Jews are loyal to Israel is a favorite trope of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and low-wattage bigots.

This is the same sort of bigoted bullshit that propelled Nixon to suggest removing Jewish officers from anything to do with resupplying Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Petulant Orange Toddler Throws Hissy Fit, Stays Home

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a visit to Denmark next month after the prime minister described his plan to buy Greenland as “absurd” took the Danish royal palace by surprise, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
...
“Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump said.

I first thought that Trump's idea about buying Greenland was just him engaging in some trolling. But it appears that the Mar-a-Lagoführer was serious.

Trump: "The Economy's Fine, Consumers Are Rich, No Reason for Concern!"

That's what he and his duty spokesmen have been telling everyone.

But then there's this:

White House officials have begun preparing options to help bolster the American economy and prevent it from falling into a recession, including mulling a potential payroll tax cut and a possible reversal of some of President Trump’s tariffs, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Saying that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" is sort of like saying "the foundation of this structure is sound" even while smoke is wisping out of the attic.

Cops Keep Serving Those Stomping on Workers

A protest that began with five men blocking a train full of coal has grown into a small 24-hour tent city along some railroad tracks next to the highway. It has become a pilgrimage site for labor activists, a rallying point for the community — “a tailgate party on steroids,” as one local official approvingly put it.
...
The railroad blockade began in late July, about a month after Blackjewel, the two-year-old company where the miners worked, suddenly declared bankruptcy. Blackjewel owned mines in four states, and employed over a thousand miners in central Appalachia. ... Workers received no pay for their last week on the job. Then they learned that their paychecks for the previous two weeks had bounced.
...
One of the company’s assets was a trainload of coal, over a million dollars’ worth, at the Cloverlick No. 3 mine in Harlan County. The coal, dug up by the unpaid workers, had been sold, but had not yet been transported to the buyer. On the afternoon of July 29, the train rolled slowly out of the mine. It did not go unnoticed.

“They was doing it as quiet as could be,” said Dalton Lewis, 20.

A fellow miner called him with the plan: “Come on down here, we’re going to stop this train.”

The Justice Department later declared the trainload of coal to be a "hot asset", which I gather means that the sale of the coal would be treated 100% as income to the mine. So the train stays put until everyone can agree what to do with the proceeds of the sale of the coal. The workers want the money to go to the wages that the company, in essence, stole from them.

Missing from the NY Times story, quoted above, was this nugget, reported locally:

At one point, [state] police told the miners they couldn’t be on the tracks but the protest continued, according to WYMT.

Unlike in past decades, the cops didn't try to solve this Harlan County labor issue with gunfire. Which I guess is progress.

Fun Times in Mississippi

TUPELO — A Mississippi RV park owner evicted an interracial couple because of the color of their skin. ,,, More than a half-century after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination on the basis of race, Gene Baker acknowledged asking the interracial couple to leave his RV park near Tupelo.

Mr. Baker may thing he solved his problem by saying that he's closed his RV park, but I suspect that he's seriously kidding himself.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A Lear 35:

If the PLA Marches Into HK

If that happens, we will have the first American president in decades who will have to be pressured to utter even tepid words of reproach.

For Trump has already signaled that he doesn't give a shit. In his soul, he's no less of a dictator than Xi.

The Blue Pass, Again

Officials at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility have placed a correctional officer on administrative leave after a pickup truck drove into protesters who were blocking the entrance to the facility’s employee parking lot Wednesday night.

Protest organizers said a 64-year-old man suffered a broken leg, internal bleeding and possibly a back injury. Amy Anthony, spokeswoman for Never Again Action, identified the man as Jerry Belair, of Warren.

If you or I deliberately drove a truck into a picket line, we'd be wearing handcuffs within minutes.

But when the driver is a cop (ok, a prison guard), the rules are different. They get the blue pass. Not only do they not get arrested, they get extra police patrols around their homes.

Now They Have to Force People to Go to Trump's Little Nurembergs

The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak or take the day off with no pay.

“Your attendance is not mandatory,” said the rules that one contractor relayed to employees, summarizing points from a memo that Shell sent to union leaders a day ahead of the visit to the $6 billion construction site. But only those who showed up at 7 a.m., scanned their ID cards, and prepared to stand for hours — through lunch but without lunch — would be paid.

“NO SCAN, NO PAY,” a supervisor for that contractor wrote.

Oh, they say that the workers were "free" not to go. But that would have been an unpaid day of work, with no per diem and less overtime. So roughly, it would have cost each worker $700 to skip on on the ranting of the Orange Überführer.

It was standard Trump, with him taking credit for projects that were begun under his predecessor.

Same old shit.

Caturday

Bella is hiding from the dreaded pill-popper.

Wise Words From the Mooch

[Trump] can say that he’s not a racist, and I agree with him, okay? And let me explain to you why he’s not a racist, ’cause this is very important. He’s actually worse than a racist. He is so narcissistic, he doesn’t see people as people. He sees them as objects in his field of vision. And so therefore, that’s why he has no empathy. That’s why he’s got his thumb up in the air when he’s taking a picture with an orphan. That’s why when someone’s leaning over the desk and asks [Nobel Prize–winning human rights activist Nadia Murad], “Well, what happened to your family members?”—they were murdered—he just looks at her and says, “Okay, when are we getting coffee here?”

You know, he doesn’t look at people—and by the way, if you and I were in his field of vision and he had a cold and the two of us had to die for him to get a Kleenex, you’re fucking dead. I mean, there’s no chance. You understand that, right?

The most observant point Scaramucci made what if the Republicans don't primary Trump and get him out on their own, they are going to ride the Trump Train into near-oblivion. Fox News has his approval numbers sinking. He currently would lose at landslide levels against four Democrats.

Simply put, Trump's four year strategy of "divide and conquer" isn't working. His past record of divisiveness is so strong that he can't pivot to the middle. Few will buy it. Not to mention that Trump doesn't have the discipline to not be the black-hearted misogynistic and racist crank that he truly is.

Many of the politicians now following Trump will survive, because they'll just find someone or something else to latch onto (looking at you, Miss Lindsey). But some organizations and nations that have clearly bound themselves to Trump may be in real trouble.

Because It's Friday

That is a 2-4-4-2 Mallet-type compound steam locomotive. Steam exhausted from the rear engines powered the front. That's why, on Mallets, the front set of cylinders are larger than the rear set.

Some say that the Big Boys are Mallets, in that they have two sets of engines. Big Boys are "simple", in that both the front and rear engines use steam directly from the boiler. My own opinion is that Mallets are compound locomotives.

The Editorial Cartoon That Draws Itself

It would be Trump as Putin's hand-pupped and Netanyahu as Trump-s hand puppet.

With a push from President Donald Trump, Israel on Thursday barred two Muslim-American congresswomen from entering the country for a visit, an extraordinary step bringing the longtime U.S. ally into Trump’s domestic fight against political rivals at home.

Trump is using a foreign government to attack two of his domestic political opponents.

Every day, in every way, Trump sinks to a new low.

All shame on Bibi for being as venal and dishonest a troll as Trump. But hell, we already knew that he was. Both are grifters who are using their offices as a shield against being indicted.

Trump to Motorists: Die, Already

The Trump administration proposed new rules Wednesday to relax regulations for commercial truck drivers on breaks and work hours.
...
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the rules seek to balance safety and flexibility for truck drivers.

“This proposed rule seeks to enhance safety by giving America’s commercial drivers more flexibility while maintaining the safety limits on driving time,” Chao said in a Wednesday statement.

Mrs. Moscow Mitch is full of shit. Letting drivers run for longer hours does zip point shit for safety and it is 1,000% laughable that there is a single political appointee in the Trump Administration who gives a flying frak about safety.

There's been enough research on this, but Trump is all about the rich getting richer. As far as I know, the Orange Nazi has never driven anything larger than a golf cart in his life. He doesn't ride on the highways, that's what helicopters are for. So if more motorists die because they've been hit by a truck that was driven by an exhausted driver, don't expect Trump to care.

The "Champagne Campaign" plus 75

Operation Dragoon, Allied landings on the French Riviera, took place 75 years ago today.

Operation Dragoon had an interesting planning history, first on, then off as the size of Operation Overlord was expanded, then back on to gain control of more French ports.

The Free French Army was a significant component of the landing force. The French have been commemorating the landings since. Our Navy has often sent a ship to participate in the memorials: The ship anchors off the Riviera, a French delegation boards, then the ship gets underway to lay a wreath at sea, then returns.

The landings have been shadowed in history by D-Day, expect no commemorations or ceremonies in this country.

Cry Me a River, Donnie Boy

“It's probably costing me from $3 to $5 billion for the privilege of being [president] — and I couldn't care less—I don’t care. You know if you’re wealthy, it doesn't matter. I just want to do a great job,” Trump added.

Yeah, sure it is. {/sarc}

Trump has been proven to lie about his financial status. He's been lying about his net worth for decades.

Anybody who believes a word that Trump has to say about his finances should not be allowed to handle scissors or be out on the street without an escort.

Here We Go Again; Economics Ed.

The threat of a recession doesn’t seem so remote anymore for investors in financial markets.

The yield on the closely watched 10-year Treasury fell so low Wednesday that, for the first time since 2007, it briefly crossed a threshold that has correctly predicted many past recessions. Weak economic data from Germany and China added to recent signals of a global slowdown.

The difference between 2007 and 2019 is that in 2007, the governments of major economic powers were more than willing to work together to try to lessen the effects of the recession.

But this time around, nobody's going to work with Trump. Nobody trusts him to keep to any agreement. Trump's word is of no value whatsoever. The skeeviest used car dealer is more honest than Trump.

Trump Administration: Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free Only Applies to White People

They're not even pretending not to be racist bastards anymore.

A top Trump administration official says the famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty, welcoming “huddled masses” of immigrants to American shores, was referring to “people coming from Europe” and that the nation is looking to receive migrants “who can stand on their own two feet.”

US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli, the disgusting piece of shit who offered that twisted rewrite of Emma Lazarus's poem, might want to reflect on the historical fact that there was a time when conservatives, such as his boss, regarded Italians as non-white human trash who were not welcome on our shores. His ancestors would most certainly not have been granted admission were the likes of Stephen Miller were running things back then.

Meanwhile, the Party of Treason is now angling to be the Party of Rape and Incest.

GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa questioned on Wednesday whether there would be any population left on Earth if not for rape and incest, a remark that has drawn condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans.

"What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" he said in Urbandale, Iowa...

Can Moscow Mitch Be Bought?

You can read this story about how a backer of Mitch McConnell persuaded McConnell to do what he could to lift some sanctions against Russia and come to your own conclusions.

Whether McConnell is serving Trump, Putin or doing things that only benefit Mitch is a question worth pondering.

This is What Upsets the Evangelicals About Trump?

They're upset about his using the word "goddamned".

The issue has recently hit a nerve among those who have become some of the president’s most reliable supporters: white evangelicals — who constitute much of [WV State Sen. Paul] Hardesty’s district. The group was key to Trump’s 2016 win, helping bolster his standing in critical swing states, and Trump likely needs to maintain that support if he wants to win a second term. But some are growing fatigued with the irreverent language that is often spewed at Trump’s rallies and official events.

“I’ve had people come to me and say, ‘You know I voted for [Trump], but if he doesn’t tone down the rhetoric, I might just stay home this time,’” Hardesty said in an interview, adding that he has yet to hear back from anyone inside the White House after urging the president in a formal letter to “reflect on your comments and never utter those words again.”

It's not Trump's racism that upsets the Christian Talibanistas. It's not that he cheated on his first wife with the woman who became his second wife, then cheated on her with the woman who became his third wife, then cheated on her with a porn star and others. No, it's Trump's use of a single word that upsets them.

Cry me a river. They knew Trump was a irreligious, profane snake when they first voted for him.

The Song of Hong Kong

More than thousand HKers sing Les Miserables' 'Do you hear the people sing?' at HK international airport with their calls for free election and democracy. Here is the Ground Zero in the war against authoritarian rule. That's the reason for us never surrender. pic.twitter.com/1MkTp4BkVg

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2019

The song in full:

I fear that the blood of the martyrs will water the streets of Hong Kong. For all of the hand-wringing, the stark fact of the matter is that Hong Kong is Chinese territory. The Chinese Communist Party has zero intention of letting a full-blown democracy take root anywhere on its soil. If they let the people of Hong Kong determine their own fate, what's to stop the people of Shanghai or any other location demand the same?

Whether or not the world approves, the CCP will, sooner or later, send in the PLA to crush the demonstrations. To the CCP, their survival is at stake. They will take world disapproval and sanctions as a price that they will willingly pay.

On Your Phone: Shut Off Everything Google

The fuzz are using Google to find everyone within the vicinity of a crime. Doesn't matter if you were in the coffee shop getting a cup of Joe and a cruller across the street when someone took advantage of the Stop & Rob, they want to know where you were.

So make sure that any Google apps are set for local only while using. Shut them off if you aren't using them.

But, if you have an Android phone, you may be SOL.

Bad News for the Epstein Food-Chain

In the wake of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, federal prosecutors in New York have shifted their focus to possible charges against anyone who assisted or enabled him in what authorities say was his rampant sexual abuse of underage girls.
...
If any Epstein assistants hoped to avoid charges by testifying against him, that expectation has been upended by his suicide.

“Those who had leverage as potential cooperators in the case now find themselves as the primary targets,” said Jacob S. Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor. “They no longer have anyone against whom to cooperate.”

Yepper. It's Jeffie's final Fuck-you to those who enabled and facilitated his crimes. They can't trade Epstein for their own hides.

They may be able to promise testimony in the civil cases against the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein, for what that's worth to the Federal prosecutors. Probably not that much.

Trunp often acts out on Twitter if people aren't talking about him. This is probably the first time he's happy that they are not talking about him.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A Lear 31:

Epstein: Suicide or Hit?

I’m kind of busy, so discuss it at will.

Caturday

Dog frowns on being told he can't be in Caturday:

Case of Severe Dumb-Assery

The Springfield Police Department says it responded to a call of an active shooter at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at Republic Rd., near Golden Ave., Thursday evening.

Officers booked Some Dumbass, 20, on suspicion of first-degree making a terroristic threat. Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson has yet to file formal charges in the case.

The Springfield Police Department arrived on scene within three minutes of the call. Police stated Dumbass pulled up to the Walmart, where he donned body armor and military fatigues. Police say the man had tactical weapons ... a former firefighter held the man at gunpoint. At that moment Springfield Police arrived on scene and detained the man.

Dumbass apparently was recording his little excursion.

What Dumbass came close to recording was his own death. If the other guy had waxed his ass, given the events of the last several days, the other guy might have gotten a bit of a lecture and then let go.

Missouri is a "constitutional carry" state. It would not be unreasonable to suppose that there would have been some number of armed citizens in the store. Dumbass is extraordinarily lucky that he is not now being prepared for a dirt nap.

Trump Refuses to Drain the Swamp of Demand for Undocumented Workers

The Trump administration has eagerly pursued arrests of undocumented immigrants over the last two years culminating in a record-setting raid of Mississippi poultry plants this week. But the administration appears to have been far less aggressive in going after corporations involved in those cases.

It would seem that going after the companies that employ undocumented workers might reduce the market for such workers.

Including one of Trump's companies.

Because It's Friday

Big Boy live steam scale model:

For sixty years, if you wanted to see a Big boy steaming, you had to find a scale model.

This one is a 1:6 scale model which took 11,000 hours to build. It was offered for sale for $245,000. Those freight cars were also offered for sale for over $3,000 a pop. Shipping all of that from the US to NZ could not have been cheap.

50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago tonight, four followers of Charles Manson, on his orders, killed Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Steven Parent at the home of Roman Polanski. Tate was Polanski's wife and she was over eight months pregnant.

Leno and Rosemary LaBianca would be murdered the following night.

Almost all of the "Manson Family" are still where they belong-- in prison. One turned state's evidence and was granted immunity. One, who was convicted of a different killing, was paroled almost 25 years ago (in exchange for telling where a body was buried). Two, including Manson, have died in prison.

The Tarantino movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, takes gross liberties with the facts of the day.

Another Mass Killing

A man “full of anger” stabbed, slashed and robbed his way across two Southern California cities in a bloody rampage that killed four people and wounded two others who were apparently targeted at random, authorities said.

Time to "do something, goddammit" about those stabby/slashy things?

Does Moscow Mitch Use Russian-Based Servers?

Apparently he does. So do other Republicans.

I tried to look at the website (civicmerit) and my browser lit up with security warnings.

We'll see what develops on this story.

Deadbeat-in-Chief

[El Paso] claims the president’s political campaign owes an outstanding debt from a February campaign rally — specifically, more than half a million dollars.

On Monday, an El Paso city official said Trump has yet to pay.

According to Laura Cruz-Acosta, communications manager for the El Paso city manager’s office, the president has an outstanding bill of $569,204.63 for police and public safety services associated with a February campaign rally.

“The city staff have followed the process and procedures as it relates to any invoicing that we provide, and we will continue to do so accordingly as per city and state policies,” Cruz-Acosta said. She said that Trump owed an initial fee of $470,417.05 but that the city tacked on a 21% one-time late fee in June — 30 days after the campaign failed to pay the initial amount owed.

When a candidate holds a rally that requires a local candidate to provide security, the candidate's campaign is supposed to pay for it.

Not paying bills is what Trump does. He is a deadbeat, someone who steals services. Trump is a thief.

Phony-Baloney Reasonings

I've been hearing people rant and rave that we need universal background checks.

Show me where that would have done a thing. The Asswipe of Pittsburgh owned his gun legally. The Asswipes of Dayton and El Paso apparently did, as well.

But "something must be done, goddamnit."

More Lies and Bullshit From Trump

Trump on guns:

“We have done much more than most administrations,” he said, without elaboration. “We have done actually a lot. But perhaps more has to be done.”

Such as?

This, though, was the big laugh:

“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” Trump said, adding that he had directed the FBI to examine steps to identify and address domestic terrorism. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America,” he said.

That is one steaming load of shit from Our Fascist in Chief.

Let's refresh, shall we? Skipping over Trump's long record of racism before he took up residence in the White House, including his being the Chief Birther, there is no denying the fact that American white supremacists have viewed Trump as their guy from the day he rode down that escalator to open his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists, murderers and criminals. When American Nazis gathered in Charlottesville for their Tiki-Torch march, it was Trump who said that they included "good people". Trump openly stated that a federal judge of Hispanic heritage couldn't fairly judge the Trump University fraud case "because I'm building a wall." If an immigrant commits a crime, Trump seizes on that to lambaste all immigrants. He has openly encouraged immigration from northern European (white) countries. When an attendee at one of his rallies said that immigrants should be shot, Trump thought it was funny. He's been avidly promoting the notion that America is under attack from waves of filthy immigrants, a line of propaganda that has been picked up by the Right Wing Noise Machine. His racial slurs towards people of color are beyond enumeration in this post. He and his spawn have been retweeting racist memes for years.

Trump has knowingly and openly stoked these fires of racism and xenophobia. For him to now claim to be astonished by the heat of the flames is like the Menendez Brothers asking for leniency because they're orphans.

As to the calls to "do something, goddamnit", legislating from an atmosphere of fear and panic is inane at best. The last time we did that, we got the absurdly-named USA Patriot Act. If you don't know what a liberty-gutting shit-show that piece of excrement has been, then you have not been paying attention for the last seventeen years.

(Also, this.)

When Are We Going to Realize that White Nationalism is a Terrorist Ideology?

A shooting at a supermarket in the US state of Texas that left 20 dead could have been a hate crime, officials say.

A 21-year-old white man was arrested at the Walmart store where the attack took place in the city of El Paso, near the US-Mexico border, on Saturday.

A document, apparently posted shortly before the attack and believed to have been written by the man, espoused white nationalist and racist views.

The tract called the attack a response to "the Hispanic invasion of Texas".

The shooting was an act of terrorism. If you are not clear on that, imagine, if you will, that the shooter had been yelling "Allahu Akbar" as he killed people.

This Asswipe drove from Dallas to El Paso, to a Wal-Mart that is hard by the border, to kill Hispanics. This is the second terrorist act against Hispanics in less than a week.

White nationalism is a ideology of hatred. Yet their sympathizers in Congress, in the GOP, in the DHS, and now, in the White House, do their utmost to allow violent extremists to do their bloody deeds.

The first step in changing this is to remove the Chief Racist now residing in the White House.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A Lear 28:

D-Day Reunion

A GI rode the M/V Cape Henlopen which, as USS LEST-510, carried him to Omaha Beach:

Caturday

Cat in the bag:

I advised the cat's staff to cut off the handles of that bag.

Grocery Stores to CT Gov. Lamont: Fuck You.

The new one-term governor of Connecticut[1], a Democratic version of Trump,[2] pushed through a ten cent tax on plastic bags, with a ban two years down the road. Besides reducing plastic bag use, Lamont figured to pull in $55 million in additional tax revenue.

Except that the two biggest grocery chains in the state, Stop & Shop and Big Y, chose to pull the plastic bags altogether. They say they're doing it out of environmental consciousness.

I think that's bullshit. They could have pulled the bags at any time. My belief is that neither chain wanted to fuck around with keeping track of the bags and charging tax on them. Especially Stop & Shop, which has a lot of self-checkout lanes and they'd have to police the customers over how many bags they were taking.

So in a way, they are saying "fuck you if you think you're getting more tax revenue, you assholes."
________________________________________________
[1] Ned Lamont spent the campaign telling voters that he wanted to put up toll gantries to charge tolls to out-of-state heavy trucks. It wasn't more than a few days after he won the election that he said that nope, he wanted to charge tolls on everything. His proposal to do that died in the legislature. Even his party, which controls the statehouse, couldn't stomach that.
[2] Another one of those limited/no government experience businessmen who think they can fix everything.

ProFa Violence, Again

A Kentucky man is accused of punching a protester outside an Ohio rally for President Donald Trump.

News outlets report 29-year-old Dallas Frazier of Georgetown was arrested Thursday night and charged with misdemeanor assault.
...
A criminal complaint by Cincinnati police says Frazier was in a car near the protesters outside and jumped out, shouting “You want some” before repeatedly punching [a] 61-year-old protester in the face, breaking his glasses. Frazier was led away by authorities as protesters chanted “Lock him up.”

That's a really gutsy Trumpanzee, punching out a man over twice his age.

Words from two and a half years ago:

Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi Party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed. That word is Nazi. Nobody cares about their motives anymore. --- Julius Goat

Because It's Friday

Pacing UP 4014:

Colbert's Cold Open-- Heh

Dead on!