Category Archives: National Politics

Donald Trump’s Annotated Thanksgiving Message

Where are his tiny hands?

President-elect, and Twitterer In Chief, Donald J. Trump has released a Thanksgiving message that needs answering. That’s why I’m here.

He hasn’t held a press conference yet, but this is his 2nd video release, in an attempt to go over the heads of the media and lie directly to the ‘Merkin public. The Not Now Silly Newsroom is poised to pop his pomposity.


We are very blessed to call this nation our home. And that is what America is: it is our home.

Oh, Donald! You’re only one line in and you are not only repeating yourself already, but saying the obvious.

It’s where we raise our families, care for our loved ones, look out for our neighbors, and live out our dreams.

After attacking people for almost 2 years, you now wants us to look out for our neighbours??? Unless they’re Black, Muslim, or LGBT, that is. Amirite?

Look at the people you’ve appointed to your cabinet so far. Are those people who support inclusiveness or division? NNS reports. My readers decide.

It is my prayer, that on this Thanksgiving, we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by a shared purpose and very, very common resolve.

Are you serious, Drumpf?

You’re now asking us to heal the divisions you caused with your relentless twittering?

I have a common resolve with many ‘Merkins: To make it as difficult for you as the GOP did to President Obama. To make your life as miserable as your mendacious Birther campaign did for Black folk and the POTUS. To expose you as the fraud and conman you are. The next 4 years promises to be fun in that regard.

In declaring this national holiday, President Lincoln called upon Americans to speak with “one voice and one heart.” That’s just what we have to do.

Quoting Abraham Lincoln does not make you a statesman. Quoting Donald J. Trump proves you are not.

We have just finished a long and bruising political campaign.

And, who was the biggest bullying bruiser on the block? Step right up, Divider In Chief.

Emotions are raw and tensions just don’t heal overnight.

The dogs of hate you unleashed will never heal. You made overt racism cool again to a large segment of this country with your lies, xenophobia, and — yes — racism. This is all on you, Agent Orange. 

It doesn’t go quickly, unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together to bring real change to Washington, real safety to our cities, and real prosperity to our communities, including our inner cities. So important to me, and so important to our country. But to succeed, we must enlist the effort of our entire nation.

Boilerplate bullshit. The only history that will be made is of a president worse than George W. Bush. Already you have made decisions that ensure only part of the nation is represented. Again: Look at your Cabinet of Deplorables. These are all people who have a history of divisiveness.

This historic political campaign is now over. Now begins a great national campaign to rebuild our country and to restore the full promise of America for all of our people.

Your words are inclusive. Your actions are not. Your appointments are not. Your tweets are not. Since I know you to be the biggest liar to ever run for public office, I will go by your actions, not what bullshit on a teleprompter that comes tumbling from your pie hole.

I am asking you to join me in this effort. It is time to restore the bonds of trust between citizens.

You mean the bonds you helped destroy with your scorched earth presidential campaign?

Join you? Why, are you falling apart? Buh duh boom!

Because when America is unified, there is nothing beyond our reach, and I mean absolutely nothing.

If only the presidency had been beyond the reach of your tiny hands. It should have been, but ‘Merka just lost its mind.

When you made fun of a handicapped reporter, that should have ended it all. However, the people who voted for you cared little about good manners, decency, or Political Correctness. They were just pissed off at everything and everybody. You were the middle finger they extended.

Let us give thanks for all that we have, and let us boldly face the exciting new frontiers that lie ahead.

We are all watching — in real time — the hate you unleashed. Whether it’s attacks on people who don’t look like your mostly White male supporters, or the hate being expressed against you in protests that seem to grow daily. You’ve managed to bring the country together for a new frontier to:

Make ‘Merka Hate Again.

Thank you. God Bless You and God Bless America.

#WhoWouldJesusBitchSlap?

Good Mourning G.O.P. ► An Aunty Em Editorial

The worst thing to have happened this election cycle is not the ascendancy of Demagogue Donald Trump, but the premature death of the G.O.P. We should all be concerned.

Let’s be clear: The destruction of the Grand Old Party of Lincoln didn’t start with Trump. As a cancer on the nation’s body politic, The Child Named The Donald delivered the coup de grâce. However, the Republican Party has been sick for a long time; weakened enough that Trump could put it on life-support.

The Not Now Silly Newsroom has identified Patient Zero. The original infection, the moment this debilitating disease began, was the day John McCain brought Sarah Palin out of the deep freeze of the Alaskan tundra to be his vice presidential pick. For the same reasons that hospitals like to keep it really cold, the chill up there kept her from infecting too many. Once she arrived in the hot house of national politics, she was able to use incomprehensible word salads to infect multitudes of people already weak with fright that the ‘Merka they knew was changing.

Remember when Sarah Palin placed
cross hairs on Democratic targets?

Remember when one was shot in the head?

The McCain-Palin ticket lost spectacularly, but by then Palin had won, invading the host in a way no one noticed at the time.

Like any new disease just being discovered, it needed a name. It finally got one the following year — February 19, 2009, to be exact. Microbiologist Rick Santelli, who was slumming as a commentator on CNBC from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, looked into his electron microscope and then gave his best diagnosis of the problem that ailed the country. Watch:

Remember what caused that rant?

Newly-inaugurated President Obama had the audacity to suggest the country should bail out Main Street (homeowners in foreclosure), as opposed to Wall Street and Wall Street went bonkers. Oddly enough, so did a lot of other people who thought that they were getting a raw deal because they struggled with their mortgages and no one ever bailed them out for making all the right decisions. Better to give the money to the Too Big To Fail banks. Right?

So the disease coursing through the nations veins was named the Tea Party, which already had a ‘Merkin Mascot: A mouth-shootin’, gun-totin’, Obama-hatin’, G droppin’ know-nothing to rally ’round. After Pain quit her day job as the duly elected governor of Alaska, the Tea Party had their whack job.

TO BE FAIR: To McCain’s credit, he did try and shut down the more extreme voices at his rallies, but he’s the last republican to do so. The die was cast, to mix metaphors.

Soon Tea Party Loyalists — wearing tri-cornered hats with tea bags hanging from them, fer fuck’s sake — started interrupting Democratic Town Halls. Republicans either condoned it, or never said a word against it. Then whacked-out Tea Party candidates started running fpr office and the Republicans either played nice with them, or just tried to ignore them, until some of those crazy MoFos got elected.

The Tea Party ran on platforms that were simply unrealistic. They were based upon Manichean ideals, which could never survive a democracy like the 3 branches of government the Founding Fathers had the foresight to create, anticipating this exact scenario. Another way the Founding Fathers made it hard for ideologues to gain control was requiting reelection every 2 years for Congress and 6 years for the Senate.

So, every 2 years for the entire President Obama administration Tea Party candidates made more and more outlandish promises. And, these crazy MoFos kept getting elected, or reelected, to the point that were challenging the natural order of the party under whose banner they had run. [See: Boehner, John]

And then came Donald Trump. He fed into this entire disaffected group of people, whether they had considered themselves Tea Party Stalwarts, or just pert of the working poor. He spoke to their fears. He fanned the flames. He ran for President. He won the Republican nomination.

The Republican leadership allowed Donald Trump to happen.

Almost none spoke against the racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and bullying of Trump. Many of them ended up supporting him, even among those he bullied. Donald Trump will now, and forever, be the face of the Republican Party.

And, that’s the biggest reason that the GOP must die. It would take — at the very least — a generation to wash off the Trump stink. Better to euthanize the party and be done with it. Start anew.

However, and this is the most important part of my Aunty Em Editorial (or rant, take your pick): It is Seriously Bad Mojo that the Republican Party is, effectively, dead. Death by suicide, but dead all the same.

While the Founding Fathers were against political parties, it didn’t take long for partisan politics to form. I’ll let the Wiki fill in the blanks:

The United States Constitution has never formally addressed the issue of political parties. The Founding Fathers did not originally intend for American politics to be partisan. In Federalist Papers No. 9 and No. 10, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, respectively, wrote specifically about the dangers of domestic political factions. In addition, the first President of the United States, George Washington, was not a member of any political party at the time of his election or throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation, as outlined in his Farewell Address.[6] Nevertheless, the beginnings of the American two-party system emerged from his immediate circle of advisers. Hamilton and Madison, who wrote the aforementioned Federalist Papers against political factions, ended up being the core leaders in this emerging party system. It was the split camps of Federalists, given rise with Hamilton as a leader, and Democratic-Republicans, with Madison and Thomas Jefferson helming this political faction, that created the environment in which partisanship, once distasteful, came to being.[7][8]

And, that’s how it’s been ever since. The 2 party system eventually stabilized into Democrats and Republicans, battling it out of the direction of the nation. The two part system (with occasional, feeble challenges by 3rd or 4th party candidates) is far healthier for ‘Merka than a one party system. [See: Russia, Cuba] That’s what could happen after the GOP does its post-election postmortem.

The best results of the 2016 election could be the formation of several parties from the various factions running this election cycle. Of course there’s the Libertarian and Green Parties, which never really seem to get enough support during the primaries to even make it to the debates. However, this year you also have the Bernie Democrats, who could be looking for a new home after this election. The Anybody But Hillary Democrats might come home. Or, they could start something new as things shake out over the next 4 years of a Clinton presidency.

On the other side of the aisle: The Anybody But Trump faction could stick with the bones o the GOP, which needs rebranding to have any viability. Then there are Conservatives, who are voting Trump because it’s all they’ve got, but may want to establish their own party that sticks to Conservative principles.

Then you have the Trump supporters, which are not small in numbers. Once the finger-pointing begins, they’ll be at each other’s throats. There will be a great splintering into several different groups, just as Fox “News” is facing the same divisions in its audience.

I predict that things will eventually settle into the Rage Party, or the Breitbart/alt-right racialists who now feel a freedom to voice their Inner Ugly in ways they have not since the ’50s.

Another faction will be the disaffected poor, who liked some of Trump’s message, if not the ugly rhetoric. Then comes the evangelicals who will eventually realize that they backed a conman, especially as court judgements against him start to pile up.

Then, finally, there is The Tea Party, which has been marginalized this election as one Tea Party darling after another was vanquished by Cheetos Jesus. If they play their cards right, they may be able to pick up some of these groups, but I don’t think they’ll ever have the same influence as they once had. [See: Cruz, Ted]

A political system with several political parties is how it often works — or doesn’t — in countries that have parliaments. If no party has a clear majority in the House, they are forced to find was to form a coalition to get anything passed. This requires hard bargaining and compromise, the exact thing that’s been missing during the Obama Administration.

Bring on more political parties, but please don’t celebrate the demise of the Grand Old Party. It’s been a sad thing to witness.

Fact Checking The Presidential Debate ► Another Aunty Em Editorial

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the combined topics of Donald Trump’s lies and whether the debate moderators will fact check this crazy MoFo. 

It might surprise people to learn that I am totally against a Debate Moderator holding a candidate to the facts. That’s the job of the other candidate.

The moderator’s job is to introduce the candidates, spell out the agreed upon debate rules, see to it that the participants keep to the those rules, and then get the fuck out of the way. [Although, just to be evil, I’d give the moderator a microphone kill switch if anyone goes over their allotted time.]

There will be plenty of time to fact check both of these candidates.

Of course, knowing the media like I do, Hillary Clinton will probaly be fact checked harder than Donald Trump, even though an article published yesterday claimed Donald Trump Lied 87 Times Last Week — Or Once Every 3 Minutes, 15 Seconds.

As we have seen during this election cycle, it doesn’t really matter how many lies Donald Trump tells. He is running neck and neck in the polls with Hillary Clinton despite being a bigger liar than Richard Nixon and Roger Ailes put together.

Which is why Donald Trump has to be crushed. Not just beaten, but beaten badly. Beaten so badly that this kind of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic psychopath with a total lack of empathy and compassion for any basic, human emotions will never get this close to the White House ever again.

And then Trump must be ridiculed as a loser and hounded to the ends of the earth, as his business empire inevitably falls apart under the weight of lawsuits, terrible business decisions, and the total collapse of the Trump brand. Here are my early contributions:

McCarthyism Redux ► Throwback Thursday

It was 62 years ago today when Senator Joseph McCarthy was famously rebuked by Joseph Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army, which was under attack by “Tailgunner” Joe during the height of the Red Scare of the ’50s:

“You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

McCarthyism led to many good people being blacklisted in their chosen professions, including the most well-known, the Hollywood 10. The WikiWackyWoo has a list of the Victims of McCarthy, which is still not exhaustive. You may not know many of the names on that list, but it includes such notables as Lucille Ball, Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Bertolt Brecht, Luis Buñuel, Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copland, Howard Da Silva, Dolores del Río, W.E.B. Du Bois, Albert Einstein, John Garfield, Jack Gilford, Allen Ginsberg, Ruth Gordon, Lee Grant, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, Sam Jaffe, Danny Kaye, Gypsy Rose Lee, Burgess Meredith, Arthur Miller, Zero Mostel, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Dorothy Parker, Linus Pauling, Paul Robeson, Edward G. Robinson, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw, and Orson Welles.

Speaking of no sense of decency: In 2016 we have entered a new era of
McCarthyism, with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump lashing out
indiscriminately at Mexicans and Muslims. George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

As a public service the Not Now Silly Newsroom wants to remind everyone of that ugly era in ‘Merkin history in an effort to wake people up to the evils of Trumpism.

Everything old is new again!!!


More Trumpism at the Not Now Silly Newsroom:

The Palin Family’s Greatest [Literal] Hits ► Throwback Thursday

Remember this trio of tweets and posters to promote a book?

Sensing her ongoing total irrelevance, Alaskan grifter Sarah Palin latched onto the +Donald J. Trump gravy train-wreck this week. With predictable and HIGH-LARRY-US results, it didn’t go well.

As much fun as we on the Left are having — make no mistake: the return of the Palin Word Salad is comedy gold — we should never forget what a vile creature she really is, along with the family she rode in on.

Remember: It would be BLOOD LIBEL if you were
to even suggest that Sarah Palin was using gun sight
logos on this poster to suggest 2nd Amendment
solutions, especially after Gabby Giffords, one of
those in the sights, was shot in the parking lot of
an Arizona supermarket in an assassination attempt
that left 6 dead and 13 injured 5 years ago this month.

On Tuesday, as whispers of Palin’s potential Trump endorsement were starting to blow up the internet, two other stories were bubbling under news cycles’ Hit Parade.

The first was that her abstinence-avert daughter Bristol, taking precious time away from diapering her 2nd baby born out of wedlock, defended Mama Grizzly from an accurate attack from the Ted Cruz camp over her Trump endorsement.

Then came the not-as-surprising-as-you-might-think reports that Palin’s eldest son Track — left home alone — had been arrested the night before for [alleged] beating up his girlfriend and then threatening to shoot himself.

According to the police report:

She and her boyfriend of one year, Track Palin, left a different residence together and were arguing the whole way home. Once they got to his home they argued in the car, then in the driveway . They were screaming and he was calling her names. [Redacted] told Palin that she had called the cops even though she had not, in attempt to calm him down and to scare him away from “touching her”. Palin approached [Redacted] and struck her on the left side of her head near her eye with a closed fist. [Redacted] got on the ground in a fetal position because she didn’t know what else he would do. Palin then kicked [redacted] on the right knee. [Redacted]’s phone was sitting on the ground in front of her. Palin took her phone and threw it across the driveway. She retrieved the phone and went inside the house. Palin was already inside and holding onto a gun, yelling “do you think I’m a pussy?” and “do you think I won’t do it?” [Redacted] stated Palin “cocked the gun” and was holding the rifle out next to him with the his right hand near the trigger and his left hand near the barrel, with the barrel just away from his face pointed to the side. [Redacted] was concerned that he would shoot himself and ran outside and around the house. She didn’t see where Palin went, so she went inside and up the stairs, where she hid under a bed. Shortly after, she heard Palin walking around inside looking for her. Palin left after not locating her.

However, the news that Track [allegedly] beat up his girlfriend didn’t hit the TRENDING lists until after Sarah Palin’s loony toon speech in Trumpville, USA.

That news revived earlier stories about the Punch Drunk Palins. In 2014 the whole famn damily got into a donnybrook with some of their neighbours. Then, as now, the police were called. Combining several written reports, my editors at PoliticusUSA wrote in 2014:

Our friend Gryphen at The Immoral Minority has the details,

According to the grapevine Track had some altercation
with a person who may or may not have once dated one of the Palin girls.
That led to some pushing and shoving, which escalated somehow to the
family being asked to leave the premises.

However before that could happen a certain former abstinence
spokesperson unleashed a flurry of blows at some as of yet identified
individual before being pulled off by by another partygoer, after which
Todd apparently puffed up his chest and made some threatening remarks.
(The “C’ word may have been uttered at one point.)

In the end the cops were called, order was restored, and the Mama Grizzly made sure the whole thing got swept under the rug.

Blogger Amanda Coyne added some more color to the picture,

The owner of the house gets involved, and he probably wished he
hadn’t. At this point, he’s up against nearly the whole Palin tribe:
Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that
Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed
repeatedly, and it’s something to hear when Sarah screams, “Don’t you
know who I am!”

And it was particularly wonderful when someone in
the crowd screamed back, “This isn’t some damned Hillbilly reality
show!” No, it’s what happens when the former First Family of Alaska
comes knocking.

Wonkette confirmed with the PoPo that the brawl really happened.

My fascination with the Palin Family is nothing new. Read:

 More Proof the Palin Family
Are Liars and Grifters

As the news of Track’s latest arrest became too big to ignore, mother Sarah Palin went into hiding to formulate a response. She skipped Trump’s first event yesterday, with everyone wondering, “Where’s Sarah?” When she emerged she came up with this Laff Riot:

According to PoliticusUSA, there are 2 competing stories about why Track Palin served in the military in the first place, which, incidentally, was during George W. Bush’s incumbency:

Barack Obama didn’t send Track Palin to the Middle East. Depending on
whether or not one believes the Palin family version of the story Track
Palin was either forced by his parents to enlist after getting
arrested, or he volunteered to go. Either way, the responsibility for
Track Palin’s arrest belongs solely to the man himself.

I do not wish to make fun of anyone who has PTSD. I’ve seen its
effects first hand. If Track has PTSD, I hope he is able to get
the help he needs. [On a tangential note: I hope somone is smart enough
to take away his guns.]

Having typed that, if Sarah Palin says Track has PTSD it needs to be checked with a higher authority because: 1). Palin’s relationship with the truth has been bitterly strained over the last decade, or so, and; 2). There is no one she wouldn’t betray — including using her son and a medical diagnosis — to score points with the “Right wingin’, bitter clingin’, proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions, and our Constitution.”

For further proof there’s no one she wouldn’t throw under the wheels of a campaign bus: Despite the fact that:

  • John McCain elevated Sarah Palin to national recognition when he tapped her to be his Veep, and;
  • +Donald J. Trump famously attacked John MCain as a loser who was captured and the compassionate billionaire doesn’t like people who were captured.

Sarah Palin betrayed previous BFF Ted Cruz, Conservatives, religious fundamentalists and Tea Party-types in order to Scream Stump for Trump.

I rest my case. Now watch this bucket of crazy, which MoJo introduces with the headline:

Here Is a Video of Sarah Palin Interviewing Donald Trump. It Is Bonkers under the funny URL
http://www.motherjones.com/contributor/2015/08/starts-chanting-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-kiss-stops-chanting:

More Proof the Palin Family Are Liars and Grifters

Glasses have not made her smarter

Sarah “Skagway” Palin, the quittingest governor in Alaska history, gave birth to a waste of flesh named Bristol, who made averitible fortune promoting abstinence despite having had 2 babies out of wedlock.

Bristol Palin proves — once again — that she’s a fucking hypocrite, which is the very best kind of hypocrite. Today she wrote [all ellipses in the original]: 

The President should be worrying about the radical jihadists in ISIS
who are gaining land and power everyday as they enslave, rape, and
murder their way through the Middle East. He should be worrying about
Pastor Saeed and the other Americans held hostage in Iran while we send
billions of dollars to them in a horrible nuclear deal. He should be
worrying about the economy, which still hasn’t fully recovered. You
should be worrying about our broken immigration system.

The list goes on and on. But instead he worries about renaming a mountain.

Mr. President, stop playing political games and start doing your job.

That’s what Alaskans really care about.

By
the way, no one is buying the “Denali is what the Alaskans have called
it for years” line. I’ve never called the mountain Denali .. and neither
does anyone I know …

It’s Mt. Mckinley [sic] … It always has been and always will be to most of us…

What a waste..

Heya Bristol. Is this anyone you know? 

On July 26, 2009, the day she resigned as Alaska Governor to ride the gravy train, your Carny Barker mother said

Sarah PalinAnd, getting up here, I say it is the best road trip in America. Soaring through Nature’s finest show: Danali, the great one. Soaring under the Midnight Sun.

Watch this video starting at 1:25:

Now what do you say, Bristol?

Donald Trump, Demagoguery, and The National Shrine of the Little Flower

The National Shrine of the Little Flower, © Headly Westerfield

Back when I was still writing for NewsHounds under the nom de plume of Aunty Em Ericann, I famously compared Glenn Beck to Father Charles Coughlin, one of ‘Merka’s biggest demagogues.

That was then. These days the biggest Merkin Demagogue is Donald J. Trumpolini.

In November of 2009 I wrote about growing up in Detroit:

Because of its majestic feel, I always loved when we drove up Woodward. At 12 Mile Road, on the northeast corner, stands a church that attracted my attention even as a Jewish
child. It’s just so beautiful despite, or because of, the iconography.
The National Shrine of the Little Flower really is a gorgeous building and seeing it as a child started me off on an appreciation of architecture that continues to this day.

On the opposite corner sprawls Roseland Park Cemetery.
I mention this graveyard for one reason: whenever we passed this
corner some of my older relatives would spit a “patooey” as we crossed
12 Mile. Because some of the older Jews in my family still held Old
World values and superstitions, I had always assumed it was some curse
to protect against the dead.

It was only years later, when I began to understand both architecture
and politics, did I come to learn that this monument to Jesus Christ at
the Shrine of the Little Flower was also a monument and a shrine to,
and built by, Father Charles Coughlin,
one of the most rabid anti-Semites to ever have his own radio show. At
his height he is said to have had 40 million listeners. 

Beck responded, disingenuously, that because their politics were so totally different, there’s no way he could be compared to Father Charles Coughlin. But, there’s actually nothing in the definition about one’s politics:

dem-uh-gog, -gawg
noun

  1. a person, especially an orator or political leader, who gains power
    and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the
    people.
    2. (in ancient times) a leader of the people.

verb (used with object), demagogued, demagoguing.

  1. to treat or manipulate (a political issue) in the manner of a demagogue; obscure or distort with emotionalism, prejudice, etc.

verb (used without object), demagogued, demagoguing.

  1. to speak or act like a demagogue.
My submission for a Trumpolini bumper sticker

If the coif fits, Donald J. Trump wears it. He has now become Merka’s biggest demagogue, and in such a short time, too.

It started with his offensive comments about Mexicans at his announcement speech, if a rambling, braggadocios, and at times, incoherent word salad worthy of Sarah Palin can be called a speech. He’s too rich and busy for Political Correctness, which can be reduced to a bumper sticker: TRUMP 2016: RUDE AS I WANNA BE.

Of course Trump was expected to attack his GOP opponents. To be perfectly honest, the Left Wing has been serving popcorn at his verbal jibes against Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, Carla Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Perry. It’s all in good clean fun, provided you’re not one of them or their supporters. However, when Donald Trump attacked John McCain, even the Reich Wing of the party blanched, until they realized it didn’t hurt him at all. That’s when they realized Donald’s Demagoguery was actually working. Supporting Trump, hoping to get his sloppy seconds when he finally flames out, are Ted Crux and Mike Huckabee.

Who could have predicted he’d sue Univision just as the campaign was starting? Who ever expected Trump to attack Heidi Klum? Or, Secretariat? More to the point, who expected him to bite the Fox “News” Channel hand that feeds his enormous ego? If that weren’t enough, his misogynist comments about Megyn Kelly were almost enough to make Andrew Dice Clay blush.

Yet, so far, Donald Trump has defied gravity. Nothing he says, no matter how stupid or offensive, seem to be bringing him back to earth. His poll numbers continue to climb as he “gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.” That’s the textbook definition of demagogue, folks.

Sadder still is that nothing has really changed in the decades since Father Charles Coughlin and his divisive hate speech thrilled a large portion of the nation. Everything old is new again.

Headlines Du Jour ► Thursday, July 9, 2015

Hello, Headliners. Today’s birthday belongs to Root Boy Slim. Here are some other Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear:

Here is today’s Headlines Du Jour:

RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE:

SO GLAD WE’RE LIVING IN A POST-RACIAL SOCIETY:

TODAY IN CLIMATE CHANGE:

FREE THE WEED!!!

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA:

HACK ATTACKS:

OUR FUTURE ROBOT OVERLORDS:

IN INNER SPACE:

For the first time, filmmakers capture
plankton feasting on polystyrene.

IN OUTER SPACE:

VIDEOS DU JOUR:

Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.

Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, July 5, 2015

Hello, Headliners! Today’s birthday belongs to Robbie Robertson of The Hawks and, later, The Band. Here are some other Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear:

Here is today’s Headlines Du Jour:

RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE:

DUMP TRUMP LUMPS:

SO GLAD WE’RE LIVING IN A POST-RACIAL SOCIETY:

GIMME THAT OLD TIME RELIGION:

FREE THE WEED!!!

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA:

HACK ATTACKS:

OUR FUTURE ROBOT OVERLORDS:

FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

IN INNER SPACE:

IN OUTER SPACE:

VIDEOS DU JOUR:

Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.

Three Stooges In The GOP Clown Car

The Freedom Tower in Miami
All pics copyright Headly Westerfield, 2016

Senator Marco Rubio made it official: He’s running for POTUS! Rubio is the third Senator in the GOP clown car, after Rand “Ayn” Paul called “Shotgun!” knowing full well the vehicle was already under Ted Cruz control.

Rubio made his public announcement at the Freedom Tower (not to be confused with NYC’s Freedom Tower), which has great significance in Miami’s Cuban community. It’s known as the “Ellis Island of the south” because it was used to process the tens of thousands of Cubanos who fled Castro’s regime.

However, as much as this “son of a bartender, son of a maid” played the grassroots populist at his Miami launch, Rubio may have tipped his hand towards his true constituency: the Fat Cats, who bankroll candidates hoping for some of that quid pro quo down the line. Before announcing to the general public, Bloomberg tells us:

In a private breakfast Monday morning with about 100 donors at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, he played up the yesterday-versus-today contrast.

That theme serves another, more immediate purpose: It allows him to
tacitly build a case against his mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb
Bush, without mentioning him by name. Bush’s father and brother spent 12
years in the White House, and he is expected to announce his own bid in
the coming weeks. Bush, 62, has been criss-crossing the country since
December, trying to build an early war chest of $100 million or more.

That Rubio has challenged his former-mentor, Jeb “Forget About My Brother and Father” Bush, has created a schism in parts of Florida’s Latino community, which has always been fond of the former Florida governor. However, Rubio’s biggest problem might be in ‘Merka’s wider Latin community. People remember how he first backed a path to normalization for undocumented immigrants and, when that didn’t play well in the polls, reversed course. Now it appears he’s in favour of creating a 2nd class of citizenship for the undocumented, which would last 10 years.

See an entire gallery of Not Now Silly images
from the Marco Rubio Campaign Kick-Off.

In Marco Rubio enters fray despite sliding clout among Latinos, the Boston Herald notes:

Poll numbers suggest Rubio’s recent retreat from his previous support of comprehensive immigration reform is hurting him among Latinos. A member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that drafted a comprehensive immigration reform package in 2013 that passed the Senate but stalled in the House, Rubio later backed away from his support of the measure, embracing a more conservative stance that focused on border security.

A recent poll by political opinion firm Latino Decisions stated that policy shift hurt Rubio with likely Latino voters nationwide, only 31 percent of whom have a favorable view of the senator compared to 36 percent who have an unfavorable view.

In key Latino-influence states, the numbers are more dire: In his home state of Florida, his unfavorable rating stands at 42 percent compared to a 39 percent favorability rating. In California, only 25 percent of Latinos rated him favorably, compared to 39 percent who gave him poor marks.

As if to underscore that opposition, 50-60 vocal “Dreamers” came out to protest Rubio’s announcement.
They quickly became the focus of the media because there was very little
else going on in the 85 degree heat.

Rubio, the youngest candidate in the race, is trying to sell himself as a game-changer; a new candidate for the new century. However, the century will be celebrating its Sweet Sixteen by the time of the next national election. As my PoliticusUSA colleague Jason Easley writes in Marco Rubio Faceplants Into 2016 By Not Seeming To Know That The 21st Century Already Started

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told ABC News that he is
thinks he can be the candidate to lead America into the 21st Century.
The problem is that the 21st Century began 15 years ago.

During an interview with ABC News,
Rubio said, “I think this country’s at a generational moment where it
needs to decide not what party it wants in charge but what kind of
country are we going to want to be moving forward. I think the 21st
century can be the American century, and I believe that I can lead this
country in that direction. I can help lead it there from the Senate. I
can lead it there as president.”

TIME Magazine tells us how Rubio intends to thread the needle of what is predicted to be a crowded GOP field:

[…] Rubio’s path to the party’s nomination relies on running a lean, upbeat campaign that blooms late, advisers say. At this stage, being a lot of voters’ second choice can be a first-rate strategy. The campaign hopes the base never warms to Bush, its romance with Walker proves fleeting and the social-conservative vote is divvied up between the various candidates vying for it. Then Rubio’s lean campaign operation will expand rapidly, and he can capitalize on his personal magnetism through the platform provided by the presidential debates. Rubio aides point to the roller-coaster GOP primary in 2012 as evidence that strategy can work.


Videos in this playlist copyright Headly Westerfield, 2016 – Feel free to repost with credit

Now that Rubio has thrown his hat into the Clown Car, the Oppo Knives will come out for him, both from the Democratic side and those in his own party. Maybe we’ll finally get to the bottom of Rubio’s credit card SNAFU when he was in the Florida legislature. Fox “News” reported (almost exactly 5 years ago) that opponent Charlie Crist accused him of some jiggery-pokery on the GOP dime. From GOP Credit Scandal Threatens to Halt Rubio’s Momentum in Primary:

Rubio, a former state House speaker, had a party card for nearly four years and admits using it for some personal expense, but he says he personally paid American Express for non-party charges.

The controversy comes at an inopportune time for Rubio who has a substantial lead against Crist in the polls and on Thursday picked up his latest high-profile endorsement, from former Vice President Dick Cheney.

On Wednesday, Rubio sent a $2,417 check to the state party as reimbursement for six flights that he said were inadvertently double-billed to the party and to state taxpayers, The Miami Herald reported.

That pesky problem went away after Rubio reimbursed the party for some personal expenses that, had he not been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, might very well have sailed through Florida’s GOP Petty Cash Accountancy. No doubt this will come up again in the next 18 months.

No matter what happens, we’re going to be in for a bumpy ride. With as many as 6 more potential GOP candidates against Hillary Clinton, these folks are going to have to move to the Right to appeal to the rabid primary voters. When the party finally anoints a standard bearer, they will have to, in the words of that famous song:

It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
Put your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane,
Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Let’s do the Time Warp again!

To get your election toes’a’tapping: