Political cartoon

From Legal Insurrection

Amazing similarities

The Washington Post has an article in it's online issue about Donald Trump's disastrous machinations with the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City back in the 1990's.

It's an amazing bit of research and reporting. And if you've been paying attention to the primaries build up and the campaigning, the similarities between how Trump bulldozed his way into that debacle and his current Presidential run are plain.

His "just trust me" "I'll get it done" "I'm Donald Trump, I can do things others can't" rhetoric, the outright lies and grandiose overstatements about his abilities and promises of wealth to be delivered have all been echoed over and over on the campaign trail and in the televised debates.

Along with his penchant for lashing out at any who dare to stand up to him. Such as Marvin Roffman a senior analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott who forecast that Trump's absurdly ambitious plans for the Taj wouldn't work. Trump demanded Roffman be fired then denied he ever did so, despite the evidence of his written demands for Roffman's dismissal.

Roffman sued both his former employer and Trump and got financial settlement's in each case. But as I've said repeatedly as Trump-bots have pushed this clown to the top of the polls -- trade one thin-skinned petulant dictator for another? WTF are you people thinking?!

As an aside, there's a rumor that Sarah Palin may come out with an endorsement of Trump today. If that's so, I'll be very disappointed. And along with Glenn Beck, I'll be wondering exactly what happened to the Tea Party grassroots that sprung up all those years ago.

Trump as Republican nominee = Hillary as President, as Trump loses against Hillary in every poll. And if you're thinking Hillary will go down with this server thing, remember, I've said all along that she's a stalking horse for Elizabeth Warren. You see quiet chatter about this all the time in background stories. Warren's got the lib bonifides to take the reigns and run with it. And Bernie would happily support a Warren presidency, so the left would be united and Trump's hateful rhetoric would turn off independents and swing voters. It would be a landslide victory for socialist Democrats.

I would encourage anyone to read that article. And if you're seriously considering Trump as your nominee, I wish you'd think this through. You're making a mistake and dooming this country to an even more leftward lurch than we've seen in the last eight years.

Glenn Beck still falling on deaf ears at FOX

As I mentioned previously, I don't watch The O'Reilly Factor very often. On Friday though, I noticed in the tease for that night's episode that both Marco Rubio and Glenn Beck would be on. So I did my little back and forth trying to catch just those segments and avoid the usual grandiose bloviating that O'Reilly is famous for.

Much to his dismay, when O'Reilly asked Beck who had won Thursday's debate, Beck replied Rubio and Cruz. Beck pointed out once again that Trump is noticeably weak on policy questions. As O'Reilly pushed Beck to anoint Trump the presumptive nominee, Beck pushed back as he had with Hannity previously.

Beck pointed out that Trump simply isn't a conservative and never has been. He went further, calling Trump a "progressive" something O'Reilly dismissed out of hand. Beck countered by pointing out that progressives believe government is the answer to everything and the answers to big problems are even bigger government. He said that Trump agreed with that, noting that Trump's answers to the country's problems aren't the dysfunctional over-reaching government but rather the wrong people are running the government.

O'Reilly was beside himself, finally pointing out that Bernie Sanders was, in fact, a progressive. Beck stammered into the camera, agreeing, and then waited for the implications of what he just said to dawn on O'Reilly. Naturally it did not happen. Nothing's going to get through that arrogant self-assuredness.

Beck pointed out how he's been right about so many things that O'Reilly has dismissed him on, from the caliphate to Obama, etc. Naturally O'Reilly wasn't going to admit Beck was right even though any open-minded person should be able to see Trump for what he is.

As I've said before, a number of FOX's on-air talent are totally in the tank for Trump -- Greta, Eric Bolling, Hannity . . . they all fete Trump for their own reasons. I believe O'Reilly wants Trump to be the eventual candidate for a simple reason -- ratings.

He's admitted as much, talking about how Trump is ratings gold to hosts and O'Reilly is all about the ratings. He doesn't care who runs the country and what they do with it. He's insulated by his wealth. Whatever pitfalls and tragedies strike you and me, O'Reilly will have his millions and his comfy lifestyle and his place on television to tell us how smart he is. He spews this bullsh*t about how he's all about protecting the people, but he really doesn't care. If the causes that bring him notoriety also help folks, that's wonderful, even more good press. But at the end of the day, he only cares about himself.

I've said repeatedly that informed voters must take things with a grain of salt, understand who's telling you stuff and wonder about their motivations. Conservative pundits, bloggers, and tv hosts are no different. There's plenty of resources out there, check things out for yourself, don't trust any of them.

[aside] I had hoped Beck's website would have a clip of his appearance on The Factor Friday, but it doesn't at the moment. If he puts one on there, I'll embed it here.

Update:
Okay, here it is. It's not the entire segment, but you can get an idea of what Beck was saying and how O'Reilly was trying to stick up for Trump throughout:

Also, Beck had to back pedal about his claim that Trump had voted for Obama in that segment. He did so, but also offered a bit of illuminating background on why he believes Trump did, in fact, vote for Obama (from his Facebook posting):

"1. He was a registered democrat when he cast the vote. Trump had been a registered democrat for 7 years by the time the 2008 election came around.
2. This doesn’t guarantee that Trump voted for Obama of course. However, registered democrats in New York voted for Obama by a 91% to 8% margin. So, if Trump was in that 8%, he was quite the outlier.
3. He remained in the democratic party for almost another year after casting the vote.
4. In the decade leading up to the vote, he was a dedicated Democrat, with the only exception being his flirtation with the Independence (Reform) Party in 1999-2000. Incidentally, in this period, large parts of his platform were considerably to the left of Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama. In fact, I don’t believe even Bernie Sanders has ever proposed a wealth tax on what is in your bank account.
5. In the year leading up to the vote, he spoke favorably about Hillary Clinton, telling Wolf Blitzer “I think Hillary would do a good job." Obviously, it is theoretically possible for someone that thinks Hillary would be a good president to vote against Obama. But to paraphrase Donald: “Not a lot of Republican votes come out of blue state democrats that support Hillary Clinton.”
6. He was among the fiercest critics of the Bush administration. Yes, now it’s hard to believe that he would have voted for Obama, but in 2008 he had spent several years speaking just as negatively about Bush. He called him “a terrible president, perhaps the worst president in the history of this country.”
7. It’s not just that he called Bush a “disaster” many times. It’s why he called him a disaster: Iraq. He called the invasion of Iraq “one of the worst decisions ever made” saying it would have been a “wonderful thing” if he had been impeached because of the war. In fact, he was arguing for the war related impeachment of Bush just two weeks before he cast his presidential vote.
8. Given his opinion on Iraq, consider Trump’s available choices as he looked back: one candidate on record opposing the war, one candidate on record passionately supporting “one of the worst decisions ever made.” Why wouldn’t he vote for Obama?
9. Similarly, given his opinion on Iraq, consider Trump’s available choices as he looked forward: one candidate on record saying he would end the war, the other on record saying he would escalate it. Why wouldn’t he vote for Obama?
10. He continued to praise Obama after the election telling Larry King “Here's a man that not only got elected, I think he's doing a really good job.”
11. He gushed about Obama in his 2009 book: “His comments have led me to believe that he understands how the economy works on a comprehensive level. He has also surrounded himself with very competent people, and that’s the mark of a strong leader.”
12. He supported Obama’s first main policy push, the stimulus, saying it was “what we need” while praising Obama’s for “building infrastructure, building great projects, putting people to work in that sense.”
13. He supported Obama’s efforts to fix the banks including to potentially “nationalize” them. “I do agree with what they're doing with the banks. Whether they fund them or nationalize them, it doesn't matter.”
14. Looking back at this period, he described himself as Obama’s "biggest cheerleader."
15. Trump’s argument is that he raised money for McCain, so obviously he supported him. Is this really a standard Donald feels comfortable with? Does that mean he also supported John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer?
16. Immediately following the passage of Obamacare, while even moderate republicans coalesced around its repeal, Donald Trump made a maximum donation to the campaign of Harry Reid. Reid was one of the few vulnerable democrats able to hold on to power in the Tea Party wave election of 2010.
17. Speaking of the Tea Party wave, put yourself in that moment again. Hope for constitutional preferences was renewed. Hundreds of thousands of people were gathering all across the country and in Washington DC for Restoring Honor. Conservatives celebrated the biggest wave in a century. One month after that election, Donald Trump gave $50,000 to Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Do I believe Donald Trump voted for Barack Obama in 2008? Yes. Yes, I do."

Friday Flashback -- Linda Blair

Yes, I know it's Saturday . . . I'm having some issues here, cut me a bit of slack please.

Anyways, Linda Blair as we all know, burst onto the scene in what is perhaps the scariest movie of all time -- The Exorcist. Not only was the movie shocking and frightening, it created a firestorm of publicity in 1973 by having the then 13 year old Blair using some pretty foul language and playing out some pretty foul scenes before the camera.

Like a lot of actors who become associated with an iconic performance, Blair never broke free of the Exorcist albatross around her neck. In 1983, in an attempt to be "grown up" she posed for Oui Magazine which had positioned itself as the poor man's Playboy back then and got sorta stars like Blair and a young Demi Moore to pose nude for them.

I ran across some decent scans from that issue recently and share them with those who may never have seen Blair in the baby-fat goodness of her early 20's:

I don't think that term means what you think it means

During President Obama's in-kind political donation, oops, I mean town hall on gun confiscation, oops, I mean common sense gun control, the Prez repeatedly brought up the dreaded "conspiracy theories" about his wanting to confiscate law-abiding citizen's firearms and essentially deconstruct the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Mirriam Webster defines conspiracy theory as:

"A theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators."

In the case of our President, and by default, his enablers in the leftwing/mainstream press, the term is used as a pejorative, an insult implying an irrational fear of the uneducated about something beyond their comprehension. To wit: Obama claims he's not out to take our (the law-abiding citizens) guns . . . that's a fallacy, crazy talk, a conspiracy theory, etc., he just wants to ensure that no more mass killings (naturally he refuses to invoke the terrorist attacks that have escalated during his impotent term in office). Even though nothing in his proposals would have prevented any of the terrorist attacks or mass killings he sheds crocodile tears over on television.

btw, they used to say Bill Clinton was the first black President, apparently Obama is the first woman President -- can't get what he wants? He turns on the water works. pathetic

Over and over again, he repeats this statement "I'm not out to take your guns."

Hmmm . . .

On the first day of the 2016 legislative session, Democrat lawmakers Mary Margaret Oliver, Carolyn Hugley, Pat Gardiner, Stacey Abrams, Dar’shun Kendrick and Dee Dawkins-Haigler of Georgia introduced HB 731, a bill that outlawed certain types of firearms (over 50 brands and models) in the state of Georgia, along with high-capacity magazines (anything that holds more than 10 rounds). The bill goes on to state that beyond banning weapons certain weapons would be required to be seized by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Ya got that? Seized. That's the same as confiscation, okay Mr. President?

Oh, and the penalty for owning a dreaded high-capacity magazine after Jan 1, 2017? Yeah, it's a felony. A felony!

The list of firearms banned is pretty expansive, and concurrently non necessary as fully automatic and select-fire weapons are already illegal to own without a Class 3 dealers permit (at least that's what it used to be called). And some of the weapons, like the Barrett .50cal sniper rifle cost nearly $15,000.00! Who the heck can afford one of those? Let alone the ammo?

But he's not coming for you guns, folks. That's a myth. A conspiracy theory.

It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

And it's not some crackpot theory when you're actually introducing bills that do what you claim you're not trying to do.

Bernie Goldberg agrees with me

"Dogs and cats, living together . . . mass hysteria!

I mentioned before that I don't watch Bill O'Reilly's show. I find him to be a buffoon and a bully and nowhere near as informed or intelligent as he thinks he is. But I happened to be watching tonight and caught his segment with Bernie Goldberg on FOX's handling of the 2016 campaign.

Goldberg pointed to several things he found problematic with FOX's coverage. One -- Trump gets too much air time, more in fact, according to Bernie, than many FOX anchors. Second -- and more to my point, Trump is often interviewed by certain hosts like he was their friend. Which is to say, the hosts show favoritism towards Trump.

Bernie was careful not to name names, but I will. Greta van Susterin, Sean Hannity and Eric Boling are the ringleaders of Team Trump at FOX News. Greta leads with Trump, as she did tonight, or has him on more than anyone else. He's practically a regular feature on her show. And as a former prosecutor, she knows how to lead him with questions to protect him.

Greta: "Now I know you really didn't mean [whatever stupid thing he just said], right? I mean, you were simply trying to point out [this more innocent thing], right?"

Trump: "Of course, I would never say such a thing as that, Greta. It's just as you say, I was just trying to make this other point." blah, blah, blah.

It's disgusting.

Boling was subbing for O'Reilly after Trump's childish comments about Hillary during the last Democratic debate. Boling loved every minute of it. And when his guests in one segment tried to point out how un-Presidential and undignified he was behaving, Boling just shut them down saying he thought it was great someone was dishing it out to Hillary and more power to him, etc.

I quit watching Hannity after Glenn Beck showed him for the dim-bulb hypocrite he really is. Hannity's the low hanging fruit of conservative talkers, a poor interviewer and a one-thought host. And he's a huge Trump fan. Apparently completely okay with a dictator Trump while being totally against a dictator Obama.

So bully for Bernie for having the stones to take these hosts to task even if he didn't have the full set to name names. O'Reilly for his part told Bernie he didn't know what he was talking about. Claimed CNN has Trump on more than FOX, which I don't know but I'll bet is not true. And claimed that Trump is ratings gold so hosts are going to have him on because he's entertaining.

Hmmm...

I thought they were supposed to be a "news" channel. Focusing on the issues in electing the next President. Which is it, Bill? I think you may have made Bernie's point for him.

Anna Camp in a bikini = too modest

Pitch Perfect is a guilty pleasure of mine. A silly little picture that captured my imagination with solid acting, a good story and some decent musical performances. Of course, I'm not the only one as the original spawned a sequel that came out last summer.

Anna Camp played the head of The Bellas, a harsh taskmaster for the girl's group that literally drove herself sick with her desperate drive for perfection. I thought she was attractive when I saw her in the movie, the first time I've seen her in anything, I think, so when I saw she had some bikini pics out there, I was intrigued.

meh

You can see she's got a pretty rockin' body, and I'm not advocating wardrobe exposures at every turn -- but the granny-panties bikini just isn't doing it for me. She still looks great and all, something a bit more saucy might have been fun.

just sayin'