I’ve never served in the military. I grew up in a strict household under my Dad and went to private Catholic schools were there was always some authority figure bearing down. Therefore, the last place I wanted to be was in the military. As time has gone by though, I have gotten to know some…
Category: BarackObama
Trump betrays Kurds one year after promising “I don’t forget” their sacrifices for the U.S.
That Donald Trump betrayed America’s Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS should come as no surprise; Trump betrays everyone sooner or later. But Trump’s treachery in codifying Turkey’s ethnic cleansing of the Kurds across the Syrian border is different in kind and degree. After all, agreeing with President Erdogan that the Turks “had to…
Why Mitt Romney must demand Trump’s impeachment
Mitt Romney has never missed an opportunity to be an opportunist. Romney the leveraged buyout pioneer took advantage of the U.S. tax code to pocket tens of millions of dollars from investments in companies that failed. Mitt the mythical Massachusetts moderate transformed himself into the “severely conservative” 2012 presidential nominee by turning his back on…
Tucker Carlson can't think of a company that's sown more hate that Twitter; hmm, that's a puzzler
Self-awareness is not a strong suit with the folks at Fox News. To wit: x Tucker Carlson just now: “It's hard to think of a company that's hurt this country more than Twitter. Maybe there are some. I can't think of one. If you look at the hate & the division & the cruelty that's…
Robert Jeffress is Donald Trump’s minister of hate
By now, Americans have grown accustomed to incendiary rhetoric from the raging right. Nevertheless, the past week witnessed some truly explosive eruptions from some of the leading lights of the conservative movement. Last Sunday, Donald Trump warned that his impeachment and removal from office could trigger a second civil war. Three days later, frequent Fox News…
Trump campaign is reportedly freaked out about Michigan
Last week I wrote a diary about the manufacturing slump in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — two of the three traditionally blue states Trump flipped red in 2016, and which he desperately needs for another victory in 2020. As I’m sure you’ll remember, his margin of victory in those states was thinner than the gruel you’ll…
Trump claims Obama left him with a military 'very low on ammunition'
It’s a metaphysical certitude that either 1) Trump made this up out of whole cloth or 2) James Mattis told him this because Trump wanted to invade Mexico, Puerto Rico, California or somewhere equally as insane. Because I really, really doubt the U.S. military — with a budget of $611 billion for FY2016 (nearly $400 billion…
Alright. Let's Talk About a Public Option With Regards to Health Care.
I’m for Medicare for All. However, the public option is being touted by some of the Democratic presidential candidates as the alternative to Medicare for All. I’m not going to recount all the arguments being made against Medicare for All. Instead, I’m going to focus on the politcal arguments being made for the public option and…
How Is Going From “Yes, We Can!” to “No, We Can't!” a Message For Electoral Success?
Barack Obama gave a resounding speech of “Yes, We Can!”, and Democrats loved it. He was the first biracial man to occupy the White House. Obama talked about being “transformational.” And his election and re-election gave hope to many. Too bad some of the Democrats vying for the Democratic nomination for 2020 have embraced a…
Is Trump killing the Obama boom in bellwether Elkhart?
With the unemployment rate still at 3.7% and GDP growth at 2.0%, the American economy remains solid, if not spectacular. But with more warning lights flashing yellow, Team Trump is growing more concerned about the direction of the so-called best economy ever just as the 2020 election heats up. The president and his advisers have good reason…
Remember when Trump ripped Obama for negotiating with the Taliban?
Back when Donald Trump was just a dangerously uninformed civilian instead of a dangerously uninformed pr*sident, he thought negotiating with the Taliban — “our sworn enemy” — was a huge mistake. Now? Let’s invite them to Camp David for “secret” negotiations just prior to 9/11! And then announce on Twitter that the “secret” negotiations are off….
PBS reporter calls Trump a liar to his face
Okay, she was kinda-sorta diplomatic about it, but still. After Donald Trump blathered some nonsense about never, ever doing things for political reasons (really?), and claimed that he ran in one election (false) and won, and that he’s ahead of the 2020 field based on polls (wrong again), he said that Obama kicked Russia out of…
After GOP sabotaged Obama, Trump looks to scapegoat Democrats for slowing economy
As Donald Trump’s bragging about the economy reached a crescendo last fall, former Obama White House communications director Jen Psaki provided a helpful reality check for the American people. “A buffoon could have kept the recovery going,” Psaki explained, “and in fact one has so far.” That Trump had inherited an Obama boom, an expansion…
Can We Agree That Democratic Consultants Who Help Sexual Harassers Suck?
Nicole Bell of Crooks and Liars has another story up about how even Democratic political consultants are helping to restart the career of a prominent sexual harasser: Mark Halperin. According to Politico, there are 75 Democratic consultants who decided to be part of Mark Halperin’s latest book. NEWS … MARK HALPERIN has signed a deal with…
Obama responds to El Paso and Dayton like a real president should
President Obama just responded on Facebook to the weekend tragedies in El Paso and Dayton. This speaks for itself: Michelle and I grieve with all the families in El Paso and Dayton who endured these latest mass shootings. Even if details are still emerging, there are a few things we already know to be true….
Donald Trump’s color-coded geography of hate
“When I am president, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and protected equally,” Donald Trump declared on July 22, 2016, as he accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president. “Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in Baltimore, Chicago,…
Media 'optics' police hounded Obama and Clinton for years, now give Trump a pass
What a difference a new administration makes. After spending years as self-appointed patrollers of so-called political optics, relentlessly ticketing Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for supposedly major and minor infractions, the D.C. press has dropped that pursuit under Donald Trump. No longer obsessing over how things look or bemoaning a lack of proper theatrics, Beltway…
Obama shares impassioned anti-Trump op-ed on Twitter
President Obama rarely comments on the puerile antics of Donald J. Trump. Let’s hope that changes when election season gets into full swing and he hits the campaign trail on behalf of our nominee. But for the most part, he’s faithfully observed tradition and held his tongue, despite the dopey depravities of our doddering dunce-in-chief….
New Trump appointee spread multiple ugly conspiracy theories about Obama
Well, so did Trump, of course, and he’s allegedly president. Apparently, Monica Crowley has a penchant for saying Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim. You know, the usual. Totally normal, folks. Totally, totally normal. CNN: Monica Crowley, who was appointed by Trump last week as assistant treasury secretary for public affairs, made multiple comments spreading…
Former Fox host: Republicans' concern about the deficit was always a con
In the middle of the Obama years, Alisyn Camerota worked at Fox News, dodging falafels, loofahs, fatally toxic Hannity-lizard-spittle and, no doubt, Brian Kilmeade roaring down the hallways on his Big Wheel whenever he smelled pigs in a blanket cooking in the commissary. In fact, she briefly co-hosted Fox & Friends, which is the journalistic equivalent of getting your…
The most important issue for Democrats in 2020? The courts
As the 2020 election season heats up, voters’ priorities are coming into sharper focus. As in years past, there is a great divergence in what each party ranks as its top issues. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center found that Republicans identify terrorism, the economy, Social Security, immigration, and the military as their five greatest…
Fox News to U.S. women's soccer team: Shut up and play
The world champion U.S. women’s soccer team is fast becoming the Dixie Chicks of 2019 — and I love them for it. But not everyone is so inspired. Take Fox News, for example. To paraphrase the Chicks’ Natalie Maines, I’m ashamed that the president of the United States is from the United States. In fact,…
Mitch McConnell: Obama's ancestors also owned slaves
You know, if you go back far enough, most people today probably have ancestors who “owned” slaves. Slavery was rampant in the ancient world, after all. But with regard to reparations, here’s what’s important: Some people ***cough, cough, white people*** continue to benefit from the institutional racism that followed slavery and continued until ***checks watch*** now….
Biden Does Not Know When To Stop Digging.
You all are going to hear about this from plenty of other diarists, but Joltin Joe Biden just can’t quit digging his own grave on misreading the political times. Biden says he would probably resubmit Merrick Garland for the SCOTUS if he wins the presidency. And this is what he had to say about how…
Eric Trump apparently thinks Obama was president in 2008
Hoo-boy, the Trump kids are doing their level best to embarrass themselves the past few days. Yesterday, a video of Ivanka Trump attempting to speak authoritatively about something other than handbags went viral. And now Eric Trump is tweeting nonsense. Care to go for the trifecta, Don Jr.? Or maybe Tiffany wants to get in a…
Meet the Press host disappoints serious journalist Chuck Todd
In late May, President Donald Trump shocked many when he rejected the assessments of his own administration and U.S. allies about recent North Korean violations of United Nations resolutions regarding its ballistic missile program. In response to Trump’s support for the “very smart man” in Pyongyang, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd offered a novel…
Tucker Carlson thinks we're getting way too worked up about North Korea's atrocities
Guess I’m just a softheaded liberal who thinks you shouldn’t enslave and starve your people, imprison and kill your political foes, and run your country like a death cult. Silly me. On Fox News this morning, Tucker Carlson, the Joseph Goebbels of bow-tied silver-spoon twerps, said we’re getting far too exercised about the whole Trump-loves-murderous-dictators…
Heavy medal
Imagine you’re in a coffee shop when a man you don’t know sits down uninvited next to you. Scribbling on a napkin and spouting something about “tax cuts pay for themselves,” the man then confidently proclaims: “You really can't collect much money from upper-income people. They know how to get around taxes.” You’d probably roll…
Democratic Moderates Owning Their Mistakes? So E.J. Dionne Says.
E.J. Dionne Jr. wrote a recent column that covers the recent Third Way meeting in Charleston, SC. There is the usual blather from the attendees who describe themselves as “moderates” against leftists in the Democratic Party. But Dionne goes on to take some quotes from Third Way President Jon Cowan that supposedly demonstrates that centrists…
Living In The Past With Joe Biden.
I really want to know from those who support Joe Biden how the latest examples of him living in the past are part of some great electoral strategy. What do you mean living in the past Merlin? Biden not only did another ode to more civil times, but he also bear hugged the economic belief…
The pathetically weak Trump stock market in three easy-to-read charts
Well, it’s weak compared to the stock market returns under the Kenyan socialist America-hating usurper Barack Obama, anyway. Lots of caveats go with this, of course. The stock market is a pretty poor metric of real economic prosperity, as most of its gains go to the already wealthy — and millions of Americans own no equities…
CNN election analyst: 'The strong opposition to Trump's re-election remains historically high'
This is eye-opening, encouraging, energizing even. But Trump’s defeat is not a fait accompli — not by a long shot. So let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. After all, when Donald Trump first announced he was running for president, I thought Carrot Top had a better chance. (Oh, if only Carrot Top were president. A…
Wrong-way Trump is on a one-way road to war with Iran
The United States was the world’s lone “hyperpower” when President George W. Bush launched his disastrous and unnecessary war with Iraq in 2003. An economic and military hegemon unchallenged by any single enemy or collection of rivals, the U.S. could and did act with impunity in swiftly toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad. But even…
Paul Krugman guts Republicans over their hypocrisy on the economy
You’re probably already well familiar with the Republican Party’s guileful ratfucking of our economy while the black man was in charge of our country. Much is made of Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse everything President Obama ever did, but Trump’s policies are really just a new chorus of an old hymn. After the economy cratered…
Mitch McConnell signs T-shirt joking about the death of Merrick Garland
Why? Because he’s the worst (er, second-worst) human being on the planet. A random conservative goober tweeted out these photos of Mitch McConnell, memorializing the chelonian choad’s singular role in killing Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination. In case your eyes don’t stick 12 inches out of your head like Mitch’s do, the shirt says “Merrick…
President Obama Pays Tribute To His Friend & Former Colleague, Sen. Richard Lugar (R. IN)
Former President Barack Obama took to Twitter today to pay tribute to his friend and former colleague, the late U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R. IN) x For thirty-six years, Richard Lugar proved that pragmatism and decency work—not only in Washington but all over the world. Michelle and I send our warmest sympathies to his family…
The four zombies of the supply-side apocalypse
Zombies have gripped American popular culture for years. In books, television shows, and films, the undead are regularly resurrected for your entertainment. (Even Jane Austen fans were treated to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy butchering those from beyond the grave in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.) But whatever their reanimation story, the zombie’s Achilles’ heel…
Trump says he made Obama wiretapping accusation on 'a little bit of a hunch'
So how often do you make incendiary, slanderous accusations against former presidents based on an inkling? And would you do it multiple times (see: bullshit birtherism)? As we all remember, Donald Trump made a wild, completely unsupported accusation against Barack Obama back in March 2017, and now he’s admitting he did so “on a little bit…
Trump and Barr bring three decades of GOP criminality full circle
Historical events occur twice, Karl Marx famously said, first as tragedy and then as farce. But when it comes to the rampant lawlessness of Republican presidential administrations, the record is a succession of national tragedies for the United States. And the damage to America’s democratic institutions is no laughing matter. As President Trump, his attorney…
McConnell brags about obstructing Merrick Garland nomination 16 days after whining about obstruction
Fuck you, Mitch McConnell. Fuck you in your scurfy chelonian exoskeleton. ThinkProgress: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday ignored his past condemnations of Democratic obstruction, releasing a three-minute campaign kickoff video for his 2020 re-election bid, centering on his successful 293 day blockade of Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court. ……