Who Gets In

From Wonkette commenter divegirl:

Trump's Gift to Veterans

I mean grift.

But it should still leave us speechless that only a few days ago the President of the United States was held liable by judge of defrauding veterans to the tune of millions of dollars via a fake charity he used for vainglorious personal and campaign expenses.
...
 
Our eyes glaze over reading this stuff because…well, it’s Donald Trump. But that’s only because our sense of moral outrage has become deadened by his behavior. Try, if you can, to imagine that Barack Obama had raised money for veterans only to spend it on a giant portrait of himself and a bunch of sports memorabilia. It would have singlehandedly destroyed his presidency and would likely have forced his resignation. George W. Bush was certainly no saint, and his administration was guilty of misdeeds of horrendous consequence. But he would never have been so tawdry and venal as to steal money from veterans for such things. If he had, it would likely have ended his presidency. Same for Clinton, Bush Senior, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. None of them would have survived such a revelation.

But in this funhouse horror of an administration, the news that the President of the United States was forced by a judge to repay $2 million to real charities because of these grifter scams was just another Thursday. It wasn’t even the top headline of the day.

Donald Trump skates by because we have come to expect this level of debasement from him. Because they refuse to hold him accountable, we have come to expect it of the entire Republican Party.

Also this indescribable Dishonor .

Veterans and active-duty military luuuurrrrvvve the Pumpkin Traitor and I will never understand it.

Happy Veterans Day.

Of Course the Motherfucker Is Refusing to Concede

But. He. Is. Out.  Moscow Mitch is on the run, and so is the Pumpkin Traitor.

5,151 votes is four tenths of one percent.  There will be a recount.

Kentucky voters appeared to reject Gov. Matt Bevin Tuesday, bucking a statewide Republican trend as they turned their backs on a politician known as much for his blustery personality as his conservative values.

Democrat Andy Beshear, who ran a campaign as the anti-Bevin and stuck to a script of “kitchen table issues” — education, pensions, health care and jobs — declared a narrow victory over the incumbent governor.

As of 10 p.m., unofficial results from the Associated Press showed Beshear leading Bevin by 4,658 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting. More than 1.4 million votes were cast.

Bevin refused to concede the race.

“Would it be a Bevin race if it wasn’t a squeaker? I mean come on,” Bevin asked the crowd at the Galt House in Louisville. “This is a close, close race. We are not conceding this race by any stretch.”

Instead, he said he wanted every vote to be counted and for the “process to be followed” before the next governor takes office. The State Board of Elections typically approves the official election results within a few days of

Bevin did not specify whether he would challenge the results of the race, but he has 30 days after the results are certified by the State Board of Elections to decide whether to formally contest the results, according to state law. Typically candidates request a recanvass of voting machines, and then a recount, before contesting an election.

A contested election in Kentucky is extremely rare. According to Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, the last contested election for governor involved the 1899 election of Democrat William Goebel. (Who was assassinated in the aftermath.)

“After tonight this election is over,” Beshear told supporters as he declared victory. “After tonight, we move forward with every other Kentucky citizen as team Kentucky.”

Vote to Kick Out KY's Trump TOMORROW

Every day, you see someone Bevin has fucked over, if not completely destroyed their lives.

The teachers going into debt to buy school supplies for their students because Bevin gave school funding to charter school con artists and tax cuts for his rich buddies.

The single father taking care of his disabled child getting kicked off Medicaid because Bevin's new rules demand he get a job.

The mother of three children in Knox County who can't afford the three days off work and the 150-mile drive to Louisville for an abortion.

The farmers going bankrupt because of the idiotic and destructive trade war Bevin supports.

The laid-off workers still waiting for the jobs Bevin lied about providing, and unable to qualify for the Medicaid health insurance Bevin make impossible to get.

The non-christian children in public school intimidated and terrified by the unconstitutional Jeebus signs and classes.

Vote Bevin mini-trump out and show the world that Kentucky Democrats have had enough and Mitch McConnell is next.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.  Find your polling place here.

VOTE!  Or shut the fuck up forever.

The Real Public Charges

The hardest-working and most economy-supporting people in this country have the lowest-paid jobs.  Those would be the jobs the rest of us literally can't live unless somebody else does them:  the lettuce-pickers and all the other food crop harvesters, the toilet cleaners and the garbage collectors, the diaper-changing, vomit-mopping-up caretakers of our infants and our elderly.

They are the ones who keep this country running.  They are the ones whose hard-earned taxes repugs are giving to the real public charges:  the oxygen-wasting idle rich.

One desperate guatemalan refugee cleaning hotel rooms while hiding from ICE does more real work in A SINGLE HOUR than Ivanka fucking Trump has done in her entire grifting, cheating, pissing-on-the-poor life.

Wonkette: 

One of Stephen Miller's top priorities for fucking over America's legal immigration system is finally about to take effect, assuming it survives the many lawsuits that will be thrown at it. The new rule would sharply restrict the ability of low-income people to get permanent residency or even temporary visas by screening out virtually all applicants who have ever used federal assistance like Medicaid, food stamps, or public housing. The rule will be published in the Federal Register Wednesday, and then go into effect in October, despite an overwhelming majority of public comments opposing the change.

 

The rules are an attempt to inject steroids into a relic of the Immigration Act of 1882, which prohibited immigration by anyone deemed likely to become a "public charge" -- that is, likely to become a burden to the taxpayer. That term was never explicitly defined by Congress, so Miller and his allies in the Trump administration decided it should be defined as restrictively as possible, to keep out anyone who's used any of a whole raft of public assistance programs for any amount of time.

Let's emphasize right up front that this is not about undocumented immigrants: This is an attempt to punish legal migrants who legally received benefits that Congress said they legally qualify for.

Just for shits and giggles, because reality doesn't exist in the Pumpkin Traitor's America, have some facts:

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

Like all of this president’s immigration policies, this one is based on lies. Here are the facts.

–  Legal Permanent Residents (LPR’s)–sometimes referred to as green card holders–do not have full access to all public benefit programs and are subject to limitations before being eligible for federal means-tested benefits…such limitations include the “five-year bar,” which requires the individual to have maintained LPR status in the U.S. for five years before being eligible for benefits…

– Legal immigrants use federal public benefit programs at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens…

– Both documented and undocumented immigrants pay more into public benefit programs than they take out ...

Not infuriated yet?  Have some Rude Pundit.

This Might Not Be Radical Enough

Via PZ Myers at Pharyngula:




Ramen

The McConnell-Trump Economy in Kentucky

Yeah, it's an isolated anecdote, although it explains and confirms a lot of things we've been seeing over the past year, so anyway:

I was in Kroger this morning, in a white, well-off section of Louisville, where I noticed that there were no baggers.

The poor cashiers were struggling to handle long lines of shoppers, backed up because the cashiers had to do the bagging, too.  And because on the busiest grocery shopping day of the week, there were only four checkout lines open.

Recently this Kroger had closed four checkout lines and replaced them with self-checkout, thus eliminating at least four cashier jobs, not including the departed baggers.  There was no waiting at the self-checkout, because everybody hates them.

And even though everyone in line whom I could see and hear was being patient and polite, the stress on the cashiers was evident.

Just as I reached the cashier, an elderly woman in her 70s, her phone buzzed.  She said, apologetically, "may I beg your indulgence?  I have to take this call. My mother just fell and broke her arm."

I'm a liberal Democrat, not a child-caging repug, so of course I said "please, go ahead."  It was the hospital, just texting to let her know her 94-year-old mother had broken her shoulder plus her arm in three places and they were prepping her for surgery.

She kept working.  And she kept thanking me.  And I kept reassuring her that we must support everyone caring for elderly or disabled loved ones.

What the FUCK kind of economy requires a woman in her 70s, with a 94-year-old mother undergoing emergency surgery, to KEEP WORKING instead of going to the hospital to be with her mother.

The kind of economy Mitch McConnell and the Pumpkin Traitor are working to create: Lords and Serfs.

Also, fuck Kroger for trying to force us all into self checkout by eliminating jobs. 

The Tribute He Deserves

Down with Tyranny:

Tax Day Meme

Down with Tyranny:

e

Remembering also that all us working stiffs are paying way more in federal taxes this year because of the Trump Tax Cut for Rich Fuckwads.

Trump the Savior

I have been saying for too many years now that the freakazoids are a clear and present danger to this nation and the world.

In the Pumpkin Traitor, they finally have a vessel for their power-mad fantasies.

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

All of this is cultish and disturbing on many levels—not the least of which is the fact that our foreign policy is being managed by a man who thinks he’s playing out some kind of biblical prophecy. But the most dangerous part is that cults are inherently authoritarian, which takes me back to what Stewart wrote.

I have attended dozens of Christian nationalist conferences and events over the past two years. And while I have heard plenty of comments casting doubt on the more questionable aspects of Mr. Trump’s character, the gist of the proceedings almost always comes down to the belief that he is a miracle sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord. I have also learned that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.

This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

They want it all. And in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.

The fact that Christian nationalists have anointed the most amoral man to ever occupy the White House as their savior tells us that their allegiance to him isn’t grounded in principle, but in authoritarian power that puts them above the law. That’s the kind of political leadership they’ve been looking for.

Your New Resistance Chant: Release the Report. Release the Report. Release the Report.

To the trumpies trying to hide it, I quote every fascist, authoritarian asshole who ever crushed civil rights in the name of false national security:

What are you afraid of?

And My Repug Congressman is a Putin-fellating Traitor

Speaking of I Got Mine Fuck You billionaires, Thomas Massie is far worse than just a selfish, piece of shit libertarian.

He's playing treason with the trumpies.

From Think Progress:

For most of the last decade, former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) held the title of the most Kremlin-friendly member of the House of Representatives. But with Rohrabacher’s loss in his reelection bid last year, a new contender has laid claim to the crown.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), first elected to represent Kentucky’s 4th District in 2012, may not be as bombastic as Rohrabacher or have as many colorful anecdotes about drunkenly arm-wrestling Russian President Vladimir Putin as the former California congressman. But he’s distinguished himself in the House for pushing and voting for Russia-friendly measures, time and again.

Massie did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for an interview.

Widely considered one of the most prominent libertarian members of Congress, the Kentucky congressman made news last month as one of the few Republicans to vote against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration, describing Trump’s national emergency plans as “overreach.” 

But despite his recent vote against the president’s pet project, Massie has taken plenty of opportunities to lavish praise on Trump, from backing the president’s abrupt foreign policy decisions — including when Trump unexpectedly announced American troops would be leaving Syria — to claiming that Trump “probably saved the GOP from itself” when the president signed the 2017 tax bill.

Most notably, Massie has taken steps to slow criticism of Russia, as well as deflect questions about the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia, along the way.

Massie has regurgitated many of the conspiracy theories Trump has pushed to discredit the ongoing Mueller investigation. He has repeated the baseless claim that the FBI secretly spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign, playing up the evidence-free notion that the campaign’s attempts at Russian collusion were, in reality, traps laid by the Obama administration.

There’s no evidence the Obama administration attempted to trick the Trump campaign into colluding with Russian agents, but it’s a line Trump routinely pushes to distract from questions about his own ties with Russia. In an editorial following Massie’s statement, the Lexington Herald Leader wrote that Massie’s “feverish parroting of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims” was “disturbing.”

It’s unclear whether Massie believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election, even though America’s own intelligence community, along with any number of journalists and academics, has thoroughly established those interference efforts.

In a 2017 survey of Cincinnati-area politicians, The Cincinnati Enquirer asked whether they accepted the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian hackers stole Democratic emails in order to aid Trump’s election. According to the Enquirer, Massie “did not directly answer,” but later in the interview claimed the investigation into Russia’s hacking was “a political effort to de-legitimize the incoming administration,” a line often peddled by the president himself.

Read the whole disgusting thing.

The Misunderstood

Down with Tyranny:

by Noah

A Trifecta of Truth, presented in a simple meme. Perspective matters even when based on bullshit.

Plus, I would add that Trump is lunatic man's idea of a sane man, or, more specifically and accurately, a Republican man's idea of a sane man, and, a traitor's idea of a great president.

Tonight's meme is adaptable to all genders of course.

Of Course the Freakazoids Love Trump More Than Jesus

Steve M:

Many people think it's odd that evangelical Christians love a president who's a thug. But it was clear long before Trump entered politics that right-wing Christianity isn't about living by the moral code of Christ. It's about declaring that your and your allies have a monopoly on morality -- and, more important, declaring that people you don't like are immoral and despised by God, and therefore should have no influence on how we run society.
When your ethic already divides the world into good people and mortal enemies who must be destroyed because they can't be reasoned with or accommodated, of course you're going to be attracted to a leader who shares your political goals and conducts his life like a Corleone ordering a hit. To evangelicals, there's a clear line dividing the saved and the damned, the fit and the unfit -- just as, to Trump, the world is divided into loyalists who should be rewarded and traitors who must be crushed. So of course the evangelicals love Trump. He has a pure sense of right and wrong.

One Answer to Why

From TPM commenter Maximus:

Duplicitous Weasel

Nancy LeTourneau of Political Animal, on Mitch McConnell giving the west wing baby what he wants:

So it is McConnell’s response that is worth noting. He jumped right on Trump’s bandwagon. I hope that the people of Kentucky notice that their senator is behaving like a duplicitous weasel who’s getting bullied by a narcissistic toddler.

ICE Unchained Won't Stop With Just the Browns

Still got an "I'm With Her" sticker on your car? Belong to the ACLU, NAACP or Human Rights Campaign?  Ever publicly express a less-than-worshipful opinion about the Pumpkin Traitor?

Get your affairs in order, because no obviously fake "papers" are going to save you now.


Zandar:

This is a war being fought right now.  ICE is saying that they reserve the right to come in and raid any city in America, demand identification, and round people up for non-compliance or even documenting the atrocities.
This is Trump's America in 2019.

Caught Showing Your Racist Ass? White Privilege to the Rescue!

Fuckhead's parents wasted money on a repug PR firm; the White Male Supremacy cavalry was already on the way with free excuses.

A corrective from Stephen Robinson at Wonkette:

No white guy's life is ever going to end because he was cruel to women or minorities. The sneering Nick Sandmann will probably be on the Supreme Court shortlist in a few decades. During the Trump era, the "cruelty is the point," and a disturbing number will rush to protect those who are cruel in Trump's image.

And this, from the Root.

Fuckhead student blames Native Elder; repug rep Massie "proud" of racist assholes

What else did you expect?

Entitled little shit spews lies:

A statement has been issued by a student who said he was the youth “confronted by a Native American protestor” in a widely circulated video that provoked intense criticism of Covington Catholic High School over students’ treatment of the elder American Indian.

The backlash against the school was severe and continued Sunday. The Covington Diocese and the school have condemned the students’ behavior, apologized to the Native American and said they were investigating. The incident occurred in Washington D.C. where the students had traveled for a rally.

Nathan Phillips, the Native American standing opposite Sandmann in the video, gave his own account of the events in an interview with the Associated Press. 

The following is the complete statement issued by Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic:

I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me. 

I am the student in the video who was confronted by the Native American protestor.

And it gets worse.  Definitely auditioning for the Pumpkin Traitor's next Supreme Court appointment.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article224846990.html#storylink=cpy

Billionaire shit shows own racist ass:

Rep. Thomas Massie came to the defense Sunday evening of the students from Covington Catholic High School who were involved in a confrontation with a Native American man this weekend in Washington, D.C.

The Kentucky's 4th District representative, which includes Northern Kentucky where Covington Catholic is located, tweeted that after watching "over an hour" of video on the incident, he believed the students were there participate in the March for Life and got a "brutal lesson in the unjust court of public opinion and social media mobs."

"I urge everyone to watch the other videos before passing judgement. Would you have remained that composed at that age under those circumstances?" he said on Twitter.

Massie added that it was his honor "to represent them."

Of course the MAGA bully was "composed"; he was the one committing the intimidation.

Shutdown Not a Game

Real people are really suffering, as is the case with everything the Pumpkin Traitor does.

Rude Pundit concludes:

This isn't a fucking game. The harm that Trump claims will come to the United States without his stupid wall is a fantasy. The very real harm that is being done to Americans, many in states that voted for Trump, needs to end. Whatever dumb fucking point Trump wanted to prove has failed. The assholes who think this proves the government is too big have failed to do so. People need their government to function.

On so many things, we are pushing people to the brink. Someone's gonna commit crimes to get the medications they need. Someone's gonna get killed because they don't want their kids to starve.  And it won't be an immigrant who does it. It might as well be Trump and the GOP with the gun in their filthy hands.