Malicious Compliance?

 

Monday night, people became aware of a memo from the Trump Administration that halted payments regarding all sorts of things.  That memo said to pause "all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance." 

Well, that wasn't very specific. So maybe the memo was drafted by someone who didn't exactly know what all the programs were, but figured they were all suspect. Or maybe the memo was crafted by someone who really did want all the programs everywhere halted, but didn't know they would be leaving the Administration red-faced and red-assed.

Trump loves doing stuff, and also hates to be blamed for doing stuff. Somebody might get "you're fired'd" for this. I would like it to be Russell Vought, who hasn' t even been confirmed for OMB yet, but who is the Project 2025 guy who thought up this exact kind of thing, was singled out by the Trump Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt as the guy to contact, and is forever stuck in my mind as being the guy in the first Trump admin who halted the aid to Ukraine for the first Trump impeachment.

The Wake-up Call

 

A disturbing picture of a man in a lot of pain has emerged regarding the driver of the car that burst into flames in front of a Trump property in Las Vegas, Matthew Livelsberger--but the part I found very concerning is the messages left behind recovered from his electronics.

He describes his explosive journey as "terrorist attack" but a "wake-up call". Maybe in his opinion, but his pyrotechnics injured several bystanders, and the message urges potential violence:

Military and vets move on DC starting now. Militias facilitate and augment this activity.

Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands.

Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete.

Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.

This is suggesting militias be involved in an ideological purge. Pretty much the Trumpist program of firing the current federal workforce and replace them with loyalists? But the use of semis ringing the streets?  

A convoy?

Unauthorized Thoughts and Declined Prayers

 

Generally, when a stranger is murdered in cold blood, there's at least a muted "Damn shame!' sort of reaction. If a man with a family dies at the age of 50, why, you can certainly say "That's far too young, that poor man's family!" (Not that he was poor--unfortunate, but not poor.) You don't actually see people writing folk songs about the killer and posting them to social media, or see people back out of the search for the killer. 

What has happened, if one can at all "read the room", is that the murdered CEO has become a stand-in for a parasitical industry. Our health insurance system isn't a "health care system"--it's a promise to pay for protection. Some of your health care bill will be paid. Not all. Your course of treatment can be affected by your insurance company. 

This can and does result in bad (fatal or crippling) outcomes. Of course, people feel some way about that. 

And the result of that feeling may look very cold-blooded. It isn't. It's rather hot, actually.

Another One Bites the Dust?

 

Some people might think there's a real problem with Pete Hegseth's SecDef nomination once the whistleblower stories about getting kicked out of vet organizations for being a rape-y, drunken peculator start flying and the word starts trickling that he's always drunk at Fox News and the thing where he's an open Islamophobe and Christian Nationalist and you know, how his own mom deplored his serial adultery and abuse of women. 

I think it's really bad when the Trump transition starts floating "Tater Tot Ron" DeSantis as a possible replacement. 

But you never know. After all, if you want to get out there and show you aren't a problem person, just a hard-drinkin' man's man and a hard-lovin' ladies' man and also, you ARE SO completely competent to do a big boy job, you can always go on the propaganda network you work for and have your mom explain it. 

(Don't laugh. Elon Musk's mom tell folks they are just jealous of her smart boy all the time, and no one picks on him anymore. ) 

TWGB: This Polished Coprolite

 

So, Monday I found myself thinking about Trump wanting and accepting Purple Hearts even though his probably fake bone spurs prevented him from actually serving our country when young when Trump stood in front of a backdrop of ruin and disaster and human tragedy--and accepted a french fry pin for doing a dopey photo op in a swing state from someone who for some reason decided that the way to handle Trump is to go the "Dear Leader" juche approach. Trump, while there, having disrupted relief efforts, defended his lies about FEMA that already resulted in the arrest of a man who threatened violence. 

It's really, really hard to imagine a shittier human being--but just watch! He gets shittier!

He since went on to say, in all sincerity to a person asking about what he would do regarding education that he would end the gender re-assignment surgeries that absolutely are not happening in schools. You can't get Tylenol in a public school without a permission slip. Teachers are buying crayons and construction paper out of pocket. And this deeply disturbed person thinks hours-long surgeries are being given out for free to minors? With no parental consent? And he said it all to demonize schools, teachers, trans kids. To spread hate as fertilizer for his own benefit.

It's beneath contempt to think that anyone takes this seriously. It's "children who identify as cats use litter boxes at school" level stupid. Anyone with a modicum of critical thought would understand why you don't say something that weird and wrong out loud where thinking people could hear--

TWGB: Winning on Character!

 

A little while ago, Rich Lowry took some heat for writing a column suggesting that Trump could "win on character", which seems stupid as hell, but meant something like using policy as demonstrating that he's steadfast to his principles or some such drivel. I noted in my last post that there was something "weird" about using hallowed ground for a campaign photo-op--but it gets worse. The Trump campaign muscled aside a civilian employee who tried to stop them from filming the event for their use. 

Well--this is consistent with Trump principles to be sure. We can all remember Trump using tear gas on protestors to clear the way for a photo op at a church and using his cabinet members and a bible like props. Maybe we also remember when he exploited a murder victim's funeral, alleging he had spoken with her family when he had not, and claiming things he had read in an obituary were memories they had shared with him. 

Trump uses people as things. That is his character. Maybe he wanted to use a photo op to counter the claim that he considers our war dead as "losers" and "suckers", which was resurrected in part by his gross assertion that the Presidential Medal of Honor, which he has awarded to political allies, is in some ways better than the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded to military heroes of conspicuous bravery. Maybe it's to counter the book just out by his former national security adviser General McMaster. 

Come to think of it, when we look at who Trump consistently is, it really is hard to see how he could "win on character". This is the man who betrayed our Constitution over his 2020 loss by instigating a riot at the Capitol and setting in motion a plan to avoid the transfer of power despite losing his election.

Seems Weird to Me

 

There's something that strikes me as a little ghastly about Trump using Gold Star families and the graves of heroic dead as a prop for a photo-op with his trademark "thumbs-up" pose. It's out of place in a "Happy Memorial Day" sort of way. He was there ostensibly for the wreath-laying ceremony, but actually to rip the Biden Administration for the Afghanistan withdrawal as part of his campaign.

His criticisms are not surprising, but they do serve to remind us who he is.

In other unsurprising news, Trump was endorsed by former Democratic Rep. and Tucker Carlson fill-in host Tulsi Gabbard. For what her opinion is worth. 

Her opinion. for example, is about the same and certainly no better than RFK Jr.'s on Trump and, well, NATO, and she cites Pro-Putin propaganda. 

They’re country over party. Just don’t ask which country. pic.twitter.com/8SBnAu1NK8

— Frank Lesser (@sadmonsters) August 26, 2024

Although unlike RFK Jr. she has, to my knowledge, never severed a whale's head with a chainsaw and driven around with it strapped to her car. Which is a real thing, apparently. 

Just potential Trump 2.0 cabinet members, is all. But it just seems weird to me. I used to think I knew the GOP. 

But they are something of a happy family, no? Just a little weird, right?

Taking the Measure of a Man

 

On the second night of the DNC, something happened that to me, was entirely hilarious. Of course, Chicago was rocking because the rollcall affirmed our candidate, and who isn't turned up for the Obamas? But at the exact same time, VP Harris and Governor Walz filled the house in Milwaukee at the same venue the RNC occupied. Who the hell can cast that much shade at night?

Stars do.

I noted in the comments of an earlier post that Trump was going to speak on crime at Howell, MI, a town associated with the Klan, and it happened, and it was dull, and Trump was Trump. He lied a lot, but listlessly. He wonders why suburban women don't want him, a sex pest associated with other sex pests, a serial philanderer, a shitty role model for boys, a misogynist, and a person who does not respect women's rights over our own bodies or lives. It really makes you wonder what funhouse mirror view of himself he's always had. 

And then at the DNC, he got called out in a standup funeral. Sure, Democrats and a few Republicans were there to talk about why Kamala Harris and why now, and what needs to be preserved for our future of this great democratic experiment. 

It was uplifting and magnificent and of course I was teary-eyed and in the front pew of the church of what's happening now. It's a beautiful thing to see people come together to build a better future. I love it, and I love it for us. 

But you know what?  I stay petty. 

TWGB: Jumping the Shark?

 

He’s waving to nobody. His campaign staffer filming this is who he points to. That’s it. It’s all a scam, staged, and fake. pic.twitter.com/15LEDhCJVh

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 10, 2024

This isn't the first time recently Trump has been caught waving to a supposed bunch of admirers that just aren't there. It's just that it's starting to get so sad and obvious. You know what else is--this kind of puffery about crowd size:

But after all, one of the first big lies about Trump's Administration was regarding the crowd size at his Inauguration. Poor Donald! Nothing is ever BIG enough! And maybe, just maybe, there were people paid to be at his very hot, very disappointing rally in Las Vegas this Sunday. (Hopefully they get paid, that is--he's already threatening to stiff the teleprompter people for making him say "Hispanicans.") That's not a new story in TrumpWorld, either. And he has jokes!

They Only Needed to Be Shamed

 

The PACT Act will be going to President Biden's desk to be signed after needless and spiteful delay on the part of Senate Republicans, who spent the weekend trying to defend their fist-bumping vote against the bill with sad claims of "gimmicks" and "pork". They got rightfully hammered for that, but 11 Republican senators still voted against--all of whom also voted against the bill in June.

This group includes Rand Paul of KY, who argued that veterans would take advantage of the program because one could not tell for sure that their illnesses were from service-related expose (that's right--he's basically accusing cancer-stricken vets of trying to pull one over on the government), Mitt Romney of Utah, generally incorrectly perceived as a moderate, and my outgoing (but not soon enough!) senator, Pat Toomey, who opposes spending money to help people or basically being useful at all, just on general principles. 

So, what happened here? It looks like the Republicans got caught out for being spiteful hacks that literally didn't have a problem with the bill, just with Democrats.  And some of them still pretty transparently seem to have contempt for the idea that after having served and made sacrifices on behalf of this country, veterans want to be compensated for the harm done to them.

This is who they are. Don't forget it. 

And as an afterthought, although so many people worked to make this bill a law, a lot of praise goes to Jon Stewart for using humor, outrage, the superpower of celebrity, to advocate forcefully for the Seante to just do the right thing. He's a good guy. 

Republicans Don't Care About Our Veterans

 

55-42: Senate BLOCKS the House-passed bill expanding access to VA healthcare and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxins during their military service (PACT Act) from advancing to final passage. 60 votes were needed. pic.twitter.com/JEn6hOZMs5

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) July 27, 2022

It really looks like Senate Republicans blocked a bill expanding health care coverage to veterans sickened by toxins they were exposed to in the course of their service as a part of a nasty snit-fit because Democrats worked out a climate bill. And I mean, they can cite any other "concern" they pretend to have, but frankly, I think it boils to they are hopping mad Democrats ever have the nerve to be effective. And to be even more frank, this isn't the first time the GOP has screwed vets over. They like the uniforms and the flags and the pomp and the circumstance, but they do not like the accountability of what happens to our soldiers during or after the wars.

I put this in the same category as Republicans not supporting our families or Republicans not supporting women and children.  Republicans have no sense that they should be doing the right thing because it's right, they will easily not do right if they think there is a political benefit in it. They will simply obstruct doing the right thing to "own the libs". 

That's a very suspect way to use one's time in office, and I think it should mean Republicans should not be in any office. That's right--every single Republican needs to be understood as part of the problem because they actively reject responsibility for being part of the solution. 

They would not for all the world reject a photo op involving folks in uniform to be seen as patriotic, but right here, they went out of their way to say sick vets are not their concern, because what about the damn Democrats, trying to do something about the environment on the planet we all share. The nerve of them!

Also, maybe they will decide LGBT folks have less rights because still owning libs due to a case of the mads. Exactly how mature adults who are responsible for the laws of a country would work--on Bizzarro world. 

It looks bad because Republicans are bad. Not a single one should stay in office. Not a single one. 

He'll Swear Any Oath, Hump Any Flag

Before I get too far ahead of myself, a few little things about the 2020 presidential election that Trump has now for the second time suggested that his own followers should vote twice in: it's pretty goddamn interesting to me that Trump goes out of his way to undermine faith in the integrity of our elections when that is apparently the exact strategy of the Russian election interference project. 

Which is no less funny for being the exact kind of mimicking Russian talking points Trump basically always does (on the 2016 election, on Syria, on Ukraine, you name it.) Also, his DHS withheld info that Russia was pushing a line gleefully engaged in by some Trump supporters that there is anything wrong with former Vice President Joe Biden's brain, and now they aren't even briefing congressional committees on election interference in person. And his Attorney General (or should that be: Attorney Specific to Things Trump-related?) says he doesn't exactly know if voting twice is wrong, but he definitely will sign off on punishing traditionally Democrat-voting regions? 

So far, so questionable, yes? Before you make up the reasons why he's doing this, here's the latest:

He doesn't know why servicemembers bother to serve. What was in it for them? What is this thing about loving country more than life? He called WWI fallen "losers" the same way he considered Vietnam vets losers or POWs losers. He disrespected those physically maimed from being a part of his celebration of the military because "Who wants to see that?" 

Of course, he'll swear any oath that he said no such things. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend it from enemies foreign and domestic, and so far, I don't know--is that something he's even doing? He believes Article 2 gives him superpowers and used the military like a prop.

He didn't protect us from COVID-19, he treats foreign policy like his own influence campaign, and his economy is for his cronies and the very rich--it isn't for most of us. He can literally hump the flag:

But that does not make him patriotic. Trying to know anything at all about our history, instead of assuming things he thinks people like to hear, might be more effective. Appreciating that the words the Founders bothered to commit to paper, and the ideals that people have given their lives for, meant things, would go a long way to establishing some degree of fitness, but that isn't him. 

He performs a kind of patriotism I personally despise. He doesn't care what this country could be, how it treats its citizens or what our laws mean, what we should stand for ethically and morally--he cares that it's his. And he is the pitch that defiles. (Read your Ecclesiastes. Get on back to me.) 

The Bland Man

A number of tonight's false claims at the RNC came from Vice President Mike Pence, CNN's @ddale8 says.

"Pence said again that Biden wants 'open borders' ... It's just wrong. Biden does not support completely unrestricted migration" https://t.co/TnNCUL7WnK pic.twitter.com/J4shr0iOzx

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 27, 2020

I'll never understand the folks who thought Donald Trump would replace Mike Pence with Nikki Haley (or anyone else) because, for one thing, Mike Pence looks at him like a dog looks at a man with bacon in his pocket, and for another, Pence is unsweetened porridge. He's dull. He will never, not ever, not on pain of death, not for love or money, upstage Trump. He's an unrepentant liar, but he does it without a single muscle in his shrunken apple-head face betraying him in the slightest. He puts the "bland" in blandishments.

He gently, ever so gently, acts as a figleaf to the normals that the Trump Priapus isn't going to poke their eyes out with any such horrors as the very real sexual harassment and rape allegations, such as the one that Trump right now is refusing to offer his DNA via cheek-swab to refute (because, would it? one might very well ask).

Does he mislead--yeah, of course. He offers a narrative of violence in Trump's America that ignores that a fallen police officer was killed by a right-wing Boogaloo Boi, not by the largely peaceful BLM protesters. He referred to violence in Kenosha, but did not mention that Kenosha Kyle is a MAGA. He lied about the Veteran's Choice act, signed by Barack Obama, even though Trump himself was called on this egregious lie just recently, but in the meanwhile, he had elderly vets in his audience with no masks or apparent social distancing, because, well, I guess their sacrifice for their country should extend even to this?

That's warped.

I've been comfortable telling everyone about what a monster Trump is, because, fuck, low-hanging fruit and all that. But Mike Pence is no less monstrous for being the Invisible Man to Trump's obvious Mr. Hyde.

So anyway, in a bullshit evening populated by bland people who told us stupid things like "Biden/Harris are radicals who would ban farm animals" and that Donald Trump really genuinely cares about human beings because he might have called one of his campaign staff after an operation (which refers to one person, useful to him, only, and not the actual broad swath of persons with pre-existing conditions), Mike Pence showed how he is the clutch person in the Trump Administration, because he excels at mendacity and boringness at once. One could have muted his speech and ignored closed captions, and come away with as much of an impression as having listened. He said a great deal of nothing, and a lot of it was untrue and potentially dangerously so.

He even fixed his mouth to say one of the dumbest things I think could even be made a campaign slogan, "We will make American Great Again, Again."  Like, for a sterling blink if you missed it bit, we were made great, but then the COVID-19, and all the deaths, the job losses, the failed businesses, the unemployment, the evictions and a wave of foreclosures and whatnot (which we are not actually, if one was any competent prognosticator, even barely done with) but forget all the things that happened on Trump's watch including the racial divisions and the carnage and thhhhhaaaaatttttt sort of thing.

I don't care how bland this mofo is, you don't get to recover a fumble, regain a few yards, and ask for infinite downs. The line would be more plausibly delivered by the late, great Leslie Nielsen. Who, I think, would play Pence better than Pence does. For laughs, because taking Pence seriously is a painful business.

With All Due Solemnity

Watch live! Vets stand up to Trump and U.S. empire @Nigrotime reportshttps://t.co/TqwdXK4mwe

— Truthdig (@Truthdig) November 11, 2019

There's a part of me (even me!) that is taken aback by the protests that greeted President Trump as he became the first sitting president to attend New York City's Veteran's Day parade. One of the reasons why is that Trump surely could have anticipated, in the midst of his impeachment proceedings, that there would be protestors (his presidency always has protestors) and security provisions made to shield Trump including a beautiful wall....of trash trucks. There were other ways to mark the day. In a sense, he would have honored it more "in the breach than in the observance." After all, it is not like there has been a long tradition of presidents attending this particular event, or that Trump even remains a resident of New York City.

I'm not taken aback by his being protested at all, however, even on this day. Veterans were among those protesting him today, and they have ample reasons. Just recently, he was fined $2 million for misuse of funds raised for veterans for the benefit of his 2016 campaign. Military service on behalf of this nation has not prevented Trump's ICE from deporting non-citizen veterans. Trump's cronyism and carelessness have done nothing to correct corruption at the VA. And Trump's foreign policy, in word and deed, leads some people to wonder just what country he's working for.

Trump reportedly called Bolton at home to complain about a CNN story that said the Navy was pushing back against Russian aggression in the Black Sea. When CNN portrayed the move as a response to Russia, the White House told the Navy to cancel the maneuver.https://t.co/5CVLTWqK8M

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) November 12, 2019

With all due solemnity for those who have served, looking honestly at what Trump is really doing is a form of honor to those who have served, and to the veterans of current and future wars who will be impacted by decisions the man is making right now.

This is Another Time to Understand Why Some Kneel

Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. was killed, not on a foreign battlefield, but by officers responding to reports of a mall shooting. He was armed, but had not been the person they were looking for. They simply thought he looked like he could have been. 

There is a lot of signifying foolishness we have to listen to regarding the use of guns in the US. We hear about the "good guy with a gun" who is supposed to stop a murderous rampage with lightning reflexes and his trusty iron. But we know this can go wrong--this month, security guard Jemel Roberson was exactly that person: the good guy with a gun, who stopped a shooting from becoming worse. And he was fatally shot. 

I don't know that what we are looking at with respects to officer-involved fatalities is necessarily explicitly or exclusively racial. I can see cases like that of Richard Black, Jr., a veteran who was shot by police having used his weapon in self defense, as an example of skin tone being no salvation. I understand that police ROE has sometimes become excessively "shoot-first" based because of training like "Bulletproof warrior".

We are not safer, as a society, if the people charged with keeping the peace, keep it by sacrificing others from fear, rather than respecting the call to serve and protect from trained strength. (Which could maybe do with better marksmanship.) And where we accept stunningly weak justifications for officer-involved shootings, we damage the reputation of those who are dutiful. I'm not persuaded that this is a simple issue at all--but I do think we suffer from a romantic, mythic view about guns, and about policing.

We need to explode the myths we have with a cold dose of reality, and that means being real about race and the access to firearms as drivers of violence, and discuss why zero tolerance for racism and less of a romantic view of guns are more stable points of view. I'm not for gun-grabbing, but for changing the idea that firearms are a kind of multitool for making everything or anything right, when other means might suffice.

But when those who currently serve or who are vets here have survived battlefields and yet find violent ends at the hands of our justice officers, we have a situation where the kneeling is for them, not against them (nota bene: it was never against them). Many of our vets are disabled and/or unhoused, which makes them populations that experience violence at greater rates. We can and should do better and expect better on their behalf.

Veteran's Day--We Can Not Forget

This image I am using today is one I have used before for Memorial Day, because we have separate days for celebrating and remembering the lives of those who have served: the living and the dead. Veteran's day this year has coincided with the remembrance of the end of WW1, and this has also become connected with the drama of our current Commander in Chief, because he could not be arsed to memorialize our dead in Europe from WW1 or our dead who lay buried in Arlington. This tells me a lot about how Trump sees our veterans, through the lens of how he treats the passed. 

Our servicemembers are volunteers currently, and have chosen a period of their lives for which death or grave injury is a possibility, to serve the country that they love. Our servicemembers, our vets, have sometimes been new citizens, or people who served in the hope of becoming citizens. But they served with honor, because they did so for this nation.

Is Trump enough of a nationalist to know that people who never lived so long under our flag, nonetheless served for these colors, and bled for them? And should be recognized as every bit as American as my pale vintage WASPy humanity? 

Could he fathom their sacrifice, having in his own life sacrificed so little? 

We need to talk about his abdication from addressing our servicefolks, how he would not visit those who currently serve, and boldly assigns a posting for 5000 or more souls to a kind of Hadrian's invisible wall to mark a pale place between our border and the impoverished, distressed, and tired, poor, wretched refuse, yearning to be free, that even think to lawfully try for asylum here. 

I wish, my dead, delivered, and live, and thriving, my unsacrificed heroes of our so many wars, our veterans, that we had better representation for you, and us. 

I will not ever forget this man's disregard of you. 

2020--Because Apparently We're Doing This Thing

Now, you may know that I love, but do not understand, West Virginia. I love the beautiful land and the kind, generous people, I love the immanent feeling of history that stays alive there, I love the working class values. I just don't get the way a state that votes for Trump by a huge margin, also keeps Jim Manchin going back to Washington D.C., but hell, I respect it. 

What I do kind of get is the rest of the country. Now, I can respect a man in uniform with the best of them. I kind of wanted Gen. Wes Clark to be a big deal--even to run in 2004 or be a running mate for Kerry (I didn't quite trust Edwards--there is something about an abundance of earnestness that rankles me). I value the contributions and perspectives of people who have served, because, like Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, they have often inculcated organizational skills, discipline, and have shown personal physical and mental courage--they can appreciate the risks of putting themselves on the line for a purpose, and recognize that politics is the lesser of dangerous fields. 

That said, I am loathe to discuss 2020 yet with 2018 contests still being decided, but I feel like we are already into this thing, and somebody should just read out a particularly obvious riot act.

Not just anybody is gonna do against Trump, even if he is the in fact, word, and deed, actual worst. I can't speak to Michael Avenatti's potential 2020 race (except to say I personally, and regrettably, have a type, and he is it, and if he was auditioning for Vixen's short-term, but torrid, personal flirtation, he'd be wildly successful) but I can say a word about Richard Ojeda's.

Ojeda has a really great personal bio, as a lifelong Democrat, a veteran, and the descendant of an undocumented Mexican migrant. In many ways, his story is the sock in the mouth to people who want to shit-talk about immigration--this is a stellar individual, and he came from great people--immigrant people. He has established a charitable organization and is responsible to his community. He has also worked as an educator, and is an excellent speaker because of this. 

But he lost his recent US Congressional bid pretty sincerely. Now, you can say congressional districts in WV are gerrymandered to the fucking eyeballs, and the funny thing is, you don't get a different result no matter how you slice WV. He didn't win with populist kind of red state white folks having supported Trump and saying stupid shit about how coal is still a thing. 

This dude is toast outside of West Virginia. Gillum is getting a recount in fucking Florida, there's a run off for Espy in Mississippi and likely one for Abrams in Georgia. This white dude who voted for Trump doesn't really speak to how he's going to find the votes in these places, when he can't find them in his own district. And he won't have the name recognition or any other thing with his particulars in genuinely progressive areas, so even if he appealed to the rust belt, he might not win a PA primary because Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and so on. 

I would genuinely recommend he set his sights on Shelly Moore Capito, the WV senator, or Jim Justice, the governor who by 2020 will be fed up enough of Trump's fat jokes. He might get his shit to work statewide by 2020. For West Virginia values of shit-working.

But if it didn't work in his district, he really should not be thinking about doing a 2020 presidential run right now.

I also think Beto should be setting his cap at Cornyn, not Trump. 

I am not ready for 2020--and I think some of these here candidates are even less ready than me. 

He Won't Even Know What He Did Wrong

While standing in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson, President Trump decided that a ceremony honoring the remaining Native American code talkers was an ideal time to bring up his standing feud with Senator Elizabeth Warren and call her by his favorite pet name--Pocahontas.  

Leaving aside whether he intended to use this name he calls her in a racist way (because, screw his intent, the issue is how his words are going to be received by the people he delivered them to), why did he need to make this event about anything else? These are veterans, they risked their lives for a country that has not done well by Native American people, and this was about them, not Trump. Even if what he said was not culturally inappropriate, that he felt the need to backhand someone not present shows his pettiness. 

But it was also culturally insensitive (and this is not the first time he has been culturally insensitive like this, but of course, that was for business). And just as he has used this name of a famous historical Native woman to insult the Senator previously, he should by now know that some Native Americans have taken offense and should by now know to not use it.  But will anyone in the White House try to correct Trump? Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made sure to point out that the real villain here is Elizabeth Warren, for believing her family's oral history regarding her heritage. And I half-believe that even if someone did try to explain to Trump how what he said was inappropriate, he'd never quite get it. (Something something, politically correct, something something, snowflakes.) 

We can expect no better from him, regardless of what his job entails or what we deserve from him.

I Think Mark Kirk is Done, Right?

I thought Rep. Tammy Duckworth might win by thismuch given the kind of year it has been and because she has been fortunate in opponents. After all, she won her House seat in a contest against musket-grabbing Joe Walsh, whose best shot was "she buys clothes". (The actual hell?) And now she is facing Senator Mark "who actually likened President Obama to a drug dealer" Kirk, who just basically performed the dumbest possible self-own imaginable in a debate at the University of Illinois.

What she said: "There's been members of my family serving on my father's side since the American Revolution."

His comeback: "I had forgotten your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington."

She carefully said her father's side. She is a Daughter of the Revolution, and a veteran. She herself was wounded in combat. Mark Kirk probably should have known better than to challenge her known personal story.

But he basically just snapped and went "foreigner!" at her. That is really gross and not at all acceptable. I think he should lose by rather a lot now.

(Although I am reminded of what happened to Sen. Max Cleland. But 2002 feels like a very different time, somehow.)

UPDATE: hey, Mark Kirk's shop came out with a statement about his screw-up:

Yeah--consistent except that last bit. Also points deducted for continuing cheap shots. CYA grade? I give it a C-minus. (But you needed to bring your "A-game", Linus.)

Keeping Up With Trump is Exhausting

Sometimes, a blogger doesn't even know where to start with a presidential candidate like Donald Trump--I completely agree with Upyernoz that stories that were exceptionally fascinating, like his violation of the Cuba embargo, his slut-shaming of a former Miss Universe over a fake rumor of a sex tape (when Trump himself has appeared in a porno and wanted his second wife to pose in Playboy--the latter being exceptionally tacky because I read it as Trump wanting to display his trophy) don't even get full traction, because no sooner does someone start looking into a lead, there's more crap! Fresh crap made daily! If blogging is your side-gig, there just aren't enough hours in the day to take in the full scope and breadth of The Donald's wretchedness, and it's mostly up to full-time journalists (like the estimable David Farenthold) to get into the nitty-gritty. But there's so much nitty! And it's so gritty, people!

So let's say you are interested in how Trump used his Foundation's money to pay a contribution (or bribe) to FL AG Pam Bondi. It might equally interest you to know that this is not new "pay to play" behavior for Trump, because he has used his various corps and cut-outs to donate significant sums to state government candidates for various reasons. It might equally interest you to know that the NY AG just issued a "cease and desist" letter to the Trump Foundation to stop it from raising funds because they aren't set up to solicit them. Both ends of that story are basically really shady behavior in a "black letter" kind of way--they don't "look wrong". They are.

Let's say the story of Trump's singularly weird obsession with Alicia Machado bad-mouthing him to the extent that he went on a "wee hours" Twitter rant this past Friday--it might also interest you to know that  alumni of his long-running reality TV series "The Apprentice" also found him to be kind of a sexist pig.  But you might miss that story, because no sooner do you see it, than you find that he has basically labelled vets with PTSD as "weak".  (Great shades of his infamously tone-deaf "I like people who weren't captured." Still and always missing every point about what bravery is--sometimes you don't win every battle but the pride is in attempting, and service members who suffer trauma are not weak, they are deserving of our respect and decent care.)

Even the most basic not-simpatico things, like how he could screw over US steel producers by buying from China (who he now wants to tell us screws us over at every chance--with whose help, Deadbeat Don?) might escape notice. I see so many stories that as a blogger, I feel like I ought to give a shout-out to in order to signal-boost his basic dishonesty and fraudulence. But great gosh almighty! It's exhausting to keep up with someone who is a graduate course in how to be extraordinarily shady. He is on a level of ethically non-fit that sinks the needle. It's like the behavioral equivalent of the "Gish gallop", where so many untrue statements are made that it's crippling to the discourse to swat them all. Might I suggest the "Trump Trots"?

I will try to canter alongside the best I can.

EDIT: Also he did business with an  Iranian bank linked to terror.  So whatever. Worked with Gaddafi too. It's just borderline awful--but sort of a proof of the general premise.