Alan

Alan , 3 days ago to random

Actor Bill Cobbs died today. He was a terrific actor and a lovely human being.

I had the absolute pleasure of working with Bill on an episode of The Outer Limits that I wrote and produced.

But, before that, I'd seen Bill once on stage in a production of James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner" at Baltimore's Center Stage. It's about a woman who runs a storefront church in Harlem and what happens when her ex husband - a jazz musician played by Bill - comes home more or less to die.

It was the first time a play blew me away so intensely that I couldn't get out of my seat after the show. I think the ushers had to pull me out of the theater.
That I got to work with an actor who did that to me in the theater?

Sublime!

Here's to you, Mr. Cobbs, sir!

You were a remarkable artist, a consummate professional and a delightful human being!

https://variety.com/2024/film/people-news/bill-cobbs-dead-west-wing-bodyguard-1236049909/?

Alan , 14 days ago to random

American conservatism is now officially a death cult.

Alan , 22 days ago to random

Nothing good can come from normalizing treason - which is exactly what our news media has done with the entire Trumpublican story.

What exactly is a "pro-Putin Republican"?

And what does it mean exactly that "Russia 'interfered' with our elections"? Did any Americans help them interfere - or were they aware that Russia was "interfering" on their behalf?

That is the point of interfering - so that one side will win and not the other.

For some reason, I have it in my head that Russia doing what it's doing - and Americans helping them do it - is highly illegal.

And treasonous.

And now normalized.

Alan , 24 days ago to random

If Republicans could win elections on the strength of their ideas, they wouldn't have to cheat and rely on foreign governments to help them "win" elections.

Alas, that ain't the case.

So, it's cheating and relying on foreign governments.

How on earth did we normalize this?

Strandjunker , 2 months ago to random

BREAKING: New reports show that CIA agents were killed, captured, or compromised because Hunter Biden sold their names to our enemies.

Now that I got Republicans’ attention. That was actually Donald Trump.

Alan , 2 months ago to random

Donald Trump must have a 50 - 60 word vocabulary, tops. Not only is he the most corrupt person to ever be POTUS, he's the most painfully inarticulate.

Alan , 2 months ago to random

Considering what Donald Trump is attempting to do - overthrow the democracy the majority of Americans WANT as their government - what the conservative members of the SCOTUS are doing is OBSTRUCTIVE.

Anyone enabling an insurrectionist in pursuit of his insurrectionist goals is a co-conspirator to commit insurrection. That includes Supreme Court judges.

GottaLaff , 2 months ago to random

Via Obama advisor Eric Schultz:

wow - NYT reporter says their nonstop coverage of #Biden’s age is retribution for not giving their boss an interview:

“It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pissed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/25/new-york-times-biden-white-house-00154219

Alan , 2 months ago to random

After Day 2 of Donald Trump's election fraud trial in NYC, it should be come crystal clear to the Department of Justice - trying Donald Trump is not as hard as they think.

Trump has zero defense for anything he's done.

Already Trump's defensive team has been told they're losing all credibility. This will not get better for Trump. His case won't suddenly gain traction because he doesn't have a case.

This jury - as every jury to come will - sees both Trump and the reality of what he is in the proper context.

Though one cannot know for sure what any jury will do, having served on two juries, I feel pretty confident that - given the job and the specific instructions - this jury will return the most logical verdict. The one that's correct.

And so will every other jury to come.

At no point will Trump ever have a "case" to argue. He's that corrupt. That guilty.

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

Via Politico:

Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who worked closely with Donald #Trump in a bid to subvert the 2020 election, should lose his license to practice law, D.C. bar disciplinary authorities argued Tuesday. #legal

wdlindsy , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

"NBC stands for Now Boosting the Coup."

~ Mark Jacob

#NBC #RonnaMcDaniel #Jan6 #insurrection #coup #MediaFail
/1

https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/nbc-stands-for-now-boosting-the-coup

Strandjunker , 3 months ago to random

He betrayed our national security.
He compromised our elections.
He incited an armed insurrection to overthrow our democracy.
He will do so again.
He is a traitor.

Do not normalize Donald Trump.

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

NYT reporter:

Chuck Todd just attacked his own network, NBC News, over hiring Ronna McDaniel. "Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation," he told Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. "There's a reason why there's a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this."

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

Via Manu Raju:

“I wish that as Republicans, we had a nominee I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.”

Asked if she would become an independent, Murkowski said: “Oh, I think I’m very independent minded…I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”
Asked again on if that meant she might become an indy: “I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Mediagazer Bot , 3 months ago to random

Sources: MSNBC President Rashida Jones tells employees that the network has no plans to have former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel on the channel (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/msnbc-has-no-plans-to-have-ex-rnc-chief-on-network-0d88e70c?st=3yhzhqjcv8f4gil
http://mediagazer.com/240323/p3#a240323p3

Alan , 3 months ago to random

Shouldn't all those Trump-Russia connections garner a little more reaction than they're getting?

Actually, it's flat out illegal to solicit foreign help or to accept foreign help. Now, imagine that the foreign help is at cyber war with your government! Now what you're doing isn't just illegal, it's TREASONOUS!

Pro-Putin Republicans aren't just "an oddity", they're TRAITORS.

No less.

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

He’s trying to get someone killed… again.

Via Kyle Griffin:

#Trump has attacked Judge Arthur Engoron half a dozen times this morning — including calling him "a Crazed, Trump Hating, Rogue Judge."

Engoron, along with his court staff, have received numerous threatening messages from Trump supporters since the civil fraud trial.

GottaLaff , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Via Josh Gerstein:

NEW: Insurance giant Chubb issues letter to customers defending $91.6 bond for #Trump to facilitate his appeal in #EJeanCarroll libel case. Company calls itself 'part of the justice system plumbing' & says bond 'fully collateralized' if verdict is upheld.

ADDED: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24479707-trump-bond-3132024

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

I’m happy to hammer Republicans. You?

Via Ruth Ben-Ghiat:

Dems, time to hammer Republicans for being upset that Americans have jobs and the economy is strong

Aaron Rupar:

"All of this stuff is by design" -- Bartiromo and company think the strong jobs reports are a conspiracy to keep Biden in office #DarkBrandon #Bidenomics

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

✔️ Via Instit. For Policy Studies’ Sanho Tree:

I think Welker needs to understand that we cannot have a rational discussion about public policy if we can’t agree what constitutes a baseline for reality.

Aaron Rupar:

Kristen Welker says that #Trump "allegedly" tried to overturn the 2020 election. No, he really tried to do that. We lived through it!

GottaLaff , 3 months ago to random

Via David Cay Johnston

#Trump & Co. intend to force a #theocracy despite our Constitution expressly forbidding any establishment of religion.

Jews, Muslims, agnostics, atheists, and actual Christians should be horrified by words below from a retired general who has shown his disloyalty to America..👇🏼

Trump’s former (& future?) nat sec adviser Mike Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God”

GottaLaff , 4 months ago to random

Oy. Just imagine who the next GOP Senate leader could be.

Via Scott MacFarlane:

Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) just now: “Mitch #McConnell is the least popular politician in America of either party. He is a symbol of everything that's wrong with Washington”

Alan , 4 months ago to random

Calling Republicans "Republicans" just seems wrong when they have nothing to do with "Republicans" as we knew them.

We need a new, better name for them.

I suggest "fucking traitors".

breadandcircuses , 4 months ago to random

It's not parody. It's not The Onion.

This is the actual world we live in now...

---

"Mystery Billionaire Buys Apocalypse-Ready Bunker Surrounded By Fire Moat"

In a dystopic but perhaps unsurprising turn, the ultra-wealthy are investing in fortified shelters like never before. Mark Zuckerberg’s purchase of a 5,000-square-foot bunker beneath his Kauai ranch has set off something of a buying frenzy, with the global elite seeking refuge from future threats like armed conflict, cyberattacks, and climate change.

But it’s far worse than just bunkers: Al Corbi, president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments, is overseeing the creation of custom designs for the uber-rich that go far beyond traditional shelters. His most ambitious project to date is an island fortress with a 30-foot-deep lake surrounded by a flammable liquid moat, water cannons for aerial threats, and a whole lot more, set to be completed in 2025.

---

FULL STORY -- https://www.dmarge.com/mystery-billionaire-buys-apocalypse-ready-bunker

#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism

squig , 4 months ago to random

Trump is going to have to grift the #MAGA Deplorables for every dollar they're worth!

Alan , 4 months ago to random

We Need To Start Using The Word “TRAITOR” – And Meaning It

Donald Trump is a traitor. So is virtually the entire Republican Party. There. I said it. More to the point? I absolutely mean it. Donald Trump and virtually everyone in the Republican Party - because either they are one or they stand with one - is a TRAITOR. Not a hyperbolic traitor, but a literal one. And because that is demonstrably true, we must stop thinking of Trump and the GOP in any other terms.

https://howtolivebullshit-free.com/2024/02/16/donald-trump-is-a-traitor/

Alan , 4 months ago to random

Donald Trump was a liar long before the press finally called him one. An authoritarian and a fascist, too. The same applies to "traitor". He is one and has been one all along. Ditto the rest of the GOP. What, after all, is a pro-Putin Republican if not a traitor by another name? Calling them traitors isn't political. It's just accurate. As with Trump, some people, we must take at their word. And Trump, from the moment he pranced onto our political stage, has always been an unabashed traitor.

Some day, we'll get to point a laser beam at the news media and take them to task for screwing up the story of their lifetimes. Blinded by the cynical conservative canard that "both sides do it", our news media has equated political behavior (the Democrats) with criminal behavior toward a political end (the Republicans). The two may seem alike, but they absolutely aren't. This has blinded our press to the dangers Donald Trump posed from the start.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with Trump and the GOP, they want to alter America in fundamental ways. For starters, they want to strip the rights from a whole lot of us. The majority of us, in fact. And they want to significantly alter our friends v foe balance on the world stage. That is, they want to abandon our friends and allies and embrace our enemies and foes.

They carry out this threat to our sovereignty via word and deed. Repeated words and deeds actually.

Look, facts can be divorced from politics. For example: the world is round (though not everyone agrees). Those are the Trumpanistas - the flat earthers who don't care about reality or anything in it. They want the world the way they want it - white, male and Christian. They refuse to abide by anything else.

Add Right Wing Money to finance whatever it takes. A SCOTUS for instance. The RW Money's always believed it could either control Trump or mitigate any damage Trump might cause to Trump and Trump alone. They were wrong.

The Kochs and Mercers - for example - have curious ties to Russia. That made it easy when Russia seduced the Right Wing political class both literally and in a criminal sense. Maria Butina won medals upon returning to Russia - medals she richly deserved for having seduced not just a couple of dumbass political operatives, but the NRA and most of the Republican Party, too.

For whatever reason, Trump and then nearly the entire GOP got sucked into a conspiracy to end American democracy - an absolute violation of their oaths of office. They have conspired with enemies both foreign AND domestic.

The GOP knew before Trump even took office that Putin likely owned Trump. They did nothing to investigate it or challenge it or stop it.

On June 25, 2016, per the Washington Post (reporting almost a year later on May 17, 2017 in a piece by Adam Entous), former Speaker Of The House (then just Representative) Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting wherein the intelligence community had briefed members of Congress about Putin's ongoing attempts to undermine Ukraine's fragile, new democracy. From there, McCarthy strode directly into a meeting of GOP leaders.

The first thing McCarthy said upon entering: "There's two people I think Putin pays - Rohrbacher and Trump - swear to God!"

The phone call was recorded by the way - and the recording was played for reporter Entous).

Now, the thing you have to know is, when McCarthy said this Everyone in the room KNEW that, yeah - California Representative Dana Rohrbacher was "Putin's Favorite Congressman". Deep, deep, DEEP in Putin's pocket.

Think they'd nominate Dana to be POTUS? If Rohrbacher HAD been so ridiculously ambitious, do you suppose the GOP would have primaried him as being "Moscow Dana"?

Rohrbacher's association with Putin wasn't a good thing. It was a bad thing. And McCarthy - part of the GOP's leadership - had just associated this bad thing with their about-to-be presidential nominee.

You'd think someone might say something. Even a "Whaaaaaaat? Kevin, dude, are you SURE about that?" No one challenged the contention. No one questioned its veracity.

No one said "Holy shit - somebody, get the FBI on their phone!"

Instead, the GOP leadership did the exact opposite. They actively chose to keep this terrible secret A SECRET. That was their CHOICE in that moment.

We know it was.

It was RECORDED.

Suddenly then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan stepped forward and asserted what Republicans call "leadership". Ryan told them they were not going to let the subject leave the room. Their secrecy was going to be their bond. You'd swear Ryan was a mob boss instead of Speaker Of The House. "No leaks," he said, "This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

A real family… of traitors.

Again, this is per the Washington Post; I am not pulling it from my bottom.

In hindsight what was treasonous then has become more so. Monstrously more so.

This monster has been staring democracy-loving Americans in the face for a long while now. A few saw it early on. It's never fun to be ahead of a curve. Especially when fascists are part of it.

But, here we are. We've bought into the very real FACT that the Republican Party is now a stronghold of fascist and authoritarian values. No one questions that.

That wasn't true 5 years ago.

"Traitors" is coming next. I'm not even really ahead of the curve anymore.

https://howtolivebullshit-free.com/2024/02/11/traitors/

GottaLaff , 4 months ago to random

Via Inner City Press... wow.

#Trump #Engoron #legal

GottaLaff , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

UPDATE. I'VE CHANGED THE LINK so you can avoid Threads (thanks @deborahh ❤️

Via @atrupar

Wow -- Hawley badgers #Zuckerberg into apologizing to people in the audience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUAfRod2xgI