Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Monday, May 29, 2017
It never ends dept.: Trump's plagiarized coat of arms
'Tiny hand clenched on top': Internet hilariously mocks Trump for plagiarizing his family coat of arms
News broke Monday that President Donald Trump appears to have plagiarized his family coat of arms that appears outside of the Trump National Golf Club outside of Washington.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
New Orlean's Mayor's Address re. removal of Confederate statues
A speech worthy of affirming applause. Thank you, Mayor Landrieu.
An old article about Trump that makes for interesting reading
One thing you can say about the Donald: Except for the declining appearance of his aging body, he never changes. The entire article gives a picture of Trump that show him for what he is, the ultimate conman -- and gives a sense of how he was able to fool so many who voted for him. I particularly like the last couple sentences that tell exactly what the entire world has (sadly) now come to recognize/realize about this man:
Trump...had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury, an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul. "Trump"—a fellow with universal recognition but with a suspicion that an interior life was an intolerable inconvenience, a creature everywhere and nowhere, uniquely capable of inhabiting it all at once, all alone. ♦
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Poor Catholic Sean Spicer. Left out from meeting the Pope. He is fuming about it.
It's so typical of Trump to punish "underlings" in this way. He knew Sean Spicer wanted, most of all, on this foreign visit, to meet the Pope. So what did the Donald do? He denied Sean his most desired wish and instead took his Jewish daughter and son-in-law to the meeting. He could have included Spicer, a most loyal (let's face it: "obsequious") servant who has abased himself over and over for the Donald, constantly lying for his boss to cover up the mistakes and mishandlings so far in this debacle of a Presidency.
Having slaved for Trump for over 100 days now, Sean should have known this would be his "reward"--to be sent home early instead of being allowed to meet the Pope. Hmmm...I wonder what kind of stories Sean can tell about the behind-the-scenes goings-on in the White House? And will we soon be hearing more of those stories in our news?
In contrast, President Obama listened to several of his Catholic staffers who had expressed a wish to meet the Pope, and brought them along with him on his visit with Pope Francis.
SEAN SPICER "FUMING" THAT TRUMP DIDN'T ALLOW HIM TO MEET THE POPE
It's very clear that relations have soured between the president and his chief spokesman and that sources traveling with the White House entourage say that Spicer is livid in the wake of the snub.
"Is it true that he's upset about not meeting the Pope? Is there any significance to this?" asked host Chris Cuomo.
"Our reporter traveling with them says that Spicer was fuming," said Chalian. "How big of a deal? I'm sure that it's a big deal for Sean Spicer."
He went on to say that this is emblematic of the kind of cutthroat, "who's up, who's down" atmosphere that Trump has fostered in the White House.
On Wednesday, Pres. Trump took his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner — both of whom are observant Jews — to meet the Pope. Other non-Catholic staffers gave up their spots so that Catholic staffers could get what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet a sitting Pope.
Spicer, a devout Catholic, was most looking forward to meeting Pope Francis of all the events scheduled on the trip, confided one staffer.
"That's all he wanted" from the trip, the aide told CNN.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Trusting your govt. can be dangerous to your health - news report from ksdk.com
The following news report from a St. Louis news network is worth watching, especially if you have recently read a UK Guardian report ridiculing people who believe chemtrails are being sprayed in our skies (because they see the chemtrails with their own eyes. Imagine that--believing what your eyes tell you. Will wonders never cease?). The following link is a short 4-minute news report you might find very interesting. Links on chemtrails follow that report, which you might also find interesting if you are a curious sort who prefers truth to coverups.
Army Has Sprayed Citizens with Radioactive Particles!
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Two different worlds...We live in two different worlds...
Here are 10 totally fake facts that Trump fans think are real
Americans, divided and polarized as they are, live in two distinct worlds. In one world, the earth is not flat, climate change is real and Bill and Hillary aren't pimping kids out in the basement of pizza restaurant. The other world is devoid of reason, evidence and pretty much any type of historical facts.
Things getting ugly at MSNBC re. Lawrence O'Donnell
We have to keep those support-for-Lawrence letters and calls going to msnbc, folks....write your e-mails to letters@msnbc.com
It seems Lack wants to put BFF Brian Williams in the slot that Lawrence occupies. In my opinion, Lawrence puts forth a far more intelligent and inclusive expression of the news for progressives than does Williams.
Read this info. re. the dispute: https://heatst.com/entertainment/things-get-ugly-at-msnbc-as-lawrence-odonnell-takes-his-contract-dispute-public/?mod=fark_im
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Words of Warning and Good Advice in case Trump mounts a coup
We all know by now that Trump is NOT TRUSTWORTHY. He is perfectly capable of trying to take over as a dictator by taking a traumatic situation (or creating a false flag operation) and claiming he is the "only one who can fix this." This mentally unstable man and his narcissistic need for power should never be underestimated. And, we know that no matter how outrageous his actions, he will always have his alt-right voters to support anything he may do.
We, the people should be prepared because, as the author says:
Given Trump's demonstrated instability, it does not matter whether America's Reichstag-fire moment is a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 or a smaller event such as last year's Orlando nightclub shooting; it might even be a natural disaster, such as a killer hurricane or a ghastly epidemic. Whatever form the event may take, Trump will use it as an excuse to declare that the United States is under siege and attempt to assume extraordinary powers.
Preparing For Trump's Coup
by Bob Burnett | May 20, 2017 - 6:23am
In the fifties, in Los Angeles schools, students routinely participated in civil defense drills. We were taught "appropriate" actions to take in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, such as "duck and cover." Sixty years later, many Americans are bracing for Donald Trump's attack on the foundations of our democracy. How will we respond when Trump uses some traumatic event as an excuse to claim dictatorial power?
Many Americans worry that the White House is planning for a "Reichstag fire" moment, a traumatic event the administration can use to leverage Trump's power. On February 27, 1933, the German parliament building, the Reichstag, was set on fire. (The Nazis named a young communist as the arsonist, but this was never proven.) Hitler used the Reichstag fire as an excuse to suspend civil liberties and attack German communists ― thus ensuring that the Nazis would be the dominant force in the German parliament. Many of us believe Trump is capable of a similar coup.
Given Trump's demonstrated instability, it does not matter whether America's Reichstag-fire moment is a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 or a smaller event such as last year's Orlando nightclub shooting; it might even be a natural disaster, such as a killer hurricane or a ghastly epidemic. Whatever form the event may take, Trump will use it as an excuse to declare that the United States is under siege and attempt to assume extraordinary powers.
Here are five steps to take to prepare for Trump's coup attempt:
1. Identify your affinity group: In the Bay Area, we prepare for earthquakes by forming neighborhood "earthquake preparedness" groups comprised of the residents of a few adjacent streets ― typically 20-30 homes. When the "big one" comes we will support each other by checking that everyone is accounted for and then doing whatever is required such as providing first aid, putting out small fires, or sheltering the homeless.
In the event of an attempted Trump coup we'll need the emotional support of our closest friends and family. (These should be people who live near you.) Identify who they are ahead of time. When the "Reichstag fire" event occurs, quickly meet with them, and assure them of your support. Then jointly plan a response.
2. Preselect your communication network: Once the coup attempt happens, the White House will be all over the mainstream media pushing their narrative: "America is under attack; it's time to take the gloves off and fight back with everything we've got." Underlying this narrative will be the Administration's characterization of Trump as a strong leader unafraid of taking action to protect the homeland.
In the face of the anticipated Trump propaganda onslaught, the resistance needs three things: an alternative communication network; a designated speaker; and a narrative.
While the resistance speaks with many voices, the Indivisible movement is perhaps the best organized to respond to a coup attempt. Indivisible has more than 6000 chapters linked by email, Facebook, and Twitter. The national Indivisible leaders (headquartered in Washington DC) are well positioned to get the message out to local chapters and to pass it on to the progressive media outlets, as well as progressive politicians. Thus, in a crisis, the Indivisible network can be become an effective alternative to the mainstream media. Furthermore, if you are attached to Indivisible, your affinity group can use the Indivisible network to rapidly respond to Trump's actions.
In a time of emergency, the White House will dominate the mainstream media. Therefore, it's important to identify, ahead of time, reliable alternative sources of information, media outlets that can provide you with an objective perspective. Among these news sources are NPR, The Guardian, BBC, Mother Jones, Talking Points Memo, Democracy Now, and The Rachel Maddow Show.
3. Focus your response: When Trump makes his move, the resistance needs to speak with one voice. While we can count on Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to take a strong stand, our most effective national spokesperson is likely to be Rachel Maddow. Information passed through the Indivisible network, or other progressive channels, will get to Rachel.
Another response channel is communication with your local (progressive) member of congress.
4. Prepare a narrative: Resistance to a Trump coup attempt begins with a simple assertion: "Trump cannot be trusted." The resistance needs to speak with a unified emphatic voice: "Trump is a failed President desperately attempting to stay in power. He is not trustworthy. Therefore, Trump's interpretation of [the traumatic event] cannot be the basis for national action."
After the traumatic event, the resistance needs to immediately appeal for calm and decry hasty action. You and I need to communicate with our affinity group, our national network, and our members of congress. Above all: we need to question authority.
5. Mobilize for Action: The appropriate response to a Trump coup attempt depends upon the nature of the traumatic event. For example, an environment calamity may require tight coordination with your local member of Congress. On the other hand, invasion of North Korea should inspire direct action such as demonstrations, marches, and strikes.
Work with your affinity group, and your national network, and plan a coordinated response. One possible response would be a "No war, no Trump" march a few days after the event.
Above all, prepare for the worst. Trump isn't going to go down quietly.
_______
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Trump terrible at Everything: 5 examples of his incompetence in just last 72 hours
The President Continues to Be Terrible at Everything: 5 Frightening Examples of Trump's Incompetence in Just the Last 72 Hours
by Kali Holloway | May 17, 2017
You didn't have to be a political genius—or a genius of any kind, really—to see that Donald Trump was going to be a disaster at being president. He clearly has no interest in politics or policy and doesn't understand, or care to understand, the basics of the job. The Trump platform consisted of unbelievable and unconstitutional lies all bound up with racist pipe dreams about how to Make America 1952 Again. To call Trump a con man is to insult hardworking, skilled con men and women the world over. Trump just recognized easy marks when he saw them, and he told them what they wanted to hear, which is that someone else's suffering would help them get ahead.
That's how we got here: 63 million ignorant, desperate and delusional Americans voted for a man uniquely unqualified to be president. Predictably, Trump has mucked up the task at every turn. On the rare occasions he shows up to work instead of golfing, Trump screws up with a frequency that can't be measured by any currently available metric.
In just this last week (and we're only three days in, mind you) Trump has spilled intelligence to the Russians, proved he's a real-life Ron Burgundy and generally made the lives of White House staffers miserable. (Although, how much sympathy can you have for someone whose dream is to work in the Trump White House?)
Here are five examples of news tidbits from the last 72 hours proving Trump is a danger to us all.
1. Intelligence officials have to warn other countries not to tell him secrets.
According to the New York Times, Israeli newspapers "reported in January that American officials warned their... counterparts to be careful about what they told the Trump administration because it could be leaked to the Russians."
As has been reported pretty much everywhere, Israeli officials decided to take their chances and share some intel with Trump. In his defense, national security adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster told media that Trump made a hasty decision to "tell the Russians what he knew."
2. NATO officials have to dumb down everything for him.
Foreign Policy reports that NATO, aware of Trump's reputation for being distracted by shiny objects, is doing its best to keep him entertained:
"NATO is scrambling to tailor its upcoming meeting to avoid taxing President Donald Trump's notoriously short attention span. The alliance is telling heads of state to limit talks to two to four minutes at a time during the discussion... And the alliance scrapped plans to publish the traditional full post-meeting statement meant to crystallize NATO's latest strategic stance."
"'It's kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump,' said one source briefed extensively on the meeting's preparations. 'It's like they're preparing to deal with a child — someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing,' said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'They're freaking out.'"
3. His staff is afraid he'll blab stuff unless someone keeps an eye on him.
In a report from the New York Times by Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman, this details stands out: "There is a fear among some of Mr. Trump's senior advisers about leaving him alone in meetings with foreign leaders out of concern he might speak out of turn."
You know how when little kids can't do stuff on their own, they get mad when you try to help them? Same with Trump. The Times article goes on to note that "General McMaster... has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations" when Trump is proving his ignorance or losing the thread. Instead of being thankful he has someone to do what he hired him for, Trump gets defensive.
Trump has reportedly "groused that General McMaster talks too much in meetings, and the president has referred to him as 'a pain.'"
4. He is easily fooled.
According to a report by Politico, Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus has to tell staffers to stop giving Trump things to read, because he'll believe anything that's put in front of him. In one example, deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland gave Trump printouts purportedly depicting two Time magazine covers. The first was dated to the 1970s and "warned of a coming ice age," while the second from 2008 offered advice on "surviving global warming":
"Trump quickly got lathered up about the media's hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an internet hoax that's circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it."
In another case, Trump was slipped a story by notorious right-wing internet troll Charles C. Johnson. The piece, which accused deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh of leaking information to the press, made Trump suspicious of his hire based on the flimsiest of evidence. Walsh has since moved on to a new job, but Trump continues to be duped by fake news printouts, which staffers use to get a leg up on each other.
5. Officials say he's too incompetent and uninterested to give away any important details.
Maybe the most frightening and obvious bit of information to emerge from the latest Trump-Russia intel scandal is this:
"In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling—and honest—defense of the president: that Mr. Trump, a hasty and indifferent reader of printed briefing materials, simply did not possess the interest or knowledge of the granular details of intelligence gathering to leak specific sources and methods of intelligence gathering that would do harm to United States allies."
In other words, the president doesn't know, understand or care about one of his primary functions as president.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Little Boy President: Not humorous any more (if it ever was)
Accurate observations about Trump -- should cause us all to weep for our nation as he destroys it and our Constitution:
Monday, May 15, 2017
Ridding Ourselves of a Crazy, Incompetent President
The following was written before we learned today that Trump revealed high intelligence to the Russians, which has the potential to cause the death of many intelligence agents.
How much more can we take before even the greed-and-power-driven obstructionist Republicans realize the uncontrollable crazed Idiot must be removed from office? Will he actually have to take a gun and shoot someone in broad daylight on New York's Fifth Avenue before his Bubble World supporters will finally admit they put a crazy man in the White House????
Ridding ourselves of a crazy, incompetent president
How much more can we take before even the greed-and-power-driven obstructionist Republicans realize the uncontrollable crazed Idiot must be removed from office? Will he actually have to take a gun and shoot someone in broad daylight on New York's Fifth Avenue before his Bubble World supporters will finally admit they put a crazy man in the White House????
Ridding ourselves of a crazy, incompetent president
by P.M. Carpenter | May 15, 2017, smirkingchimp.com
Notes a Washington Post article: "Across Washington, Trump's allies have been buzzing about the staff's competence as well as the president's state of mind. One GOP figure close to the White House mused privately about whether Trump was 'in the grip of some kind of paranoid delusion.'"
That passage — from White House insiders, no less — suggests a forming consensus on Trump's mental instability, as opposed to his bottomless ineptitude. Another passage suggests the same: "White House aides have felt bewildered and alarmed by how Trump arrives at his decisions — often on impulse and emotion." Or, as the NYT's Frank Bruni puts it this morning: "[Comey's firing] put the lie to the stubborn hope that there's a core of shrewdness beneath his antics and a method to his madness. Mostly, there's a raging, pouting child." And a congenitally diseased one at that.
On the less psychiatric and more practical side, a historian of the White House tells the Post: "The Comey firing is just the most dramatic example of a White House that is completely dysfunctional, the most chaotic in modern history." No explanation is offered as to why "history" is modified by "modern." One can scour the entire past of presidential administrations till the bovines mosey home, and one will not find another so dysfunctional and almost unbelievably chaotic. In Trump we have a president who makes George W. Bush look like a top scholar of industrial management. And we all know what W.'s expertise wrought.
Either way, and from whatever sources, the Post concludes that the "result is a hardening portrait of sheer disarray." And at the highest level of a global superpower, sheer disarray cannot obtain, not for four years. Something has got to give — either Trump goes, or Americans accept that their nation is now nothing more than a first-rate banana republic of incessant turmoil, childlike impulsivity, and limitless corruption; a kind of North Korea with a 70-year-old toddler in charge.
Ross Douthat, in turn, concludes that "liberals need to accept that the strongest case for removing Trump from office is likely to remain a 25th Amendment case"; that is, that the president of the United States is nuts, that he's endowed with a "mental unfitness for the office that manifests itself in made-for-TV crises and self-inflicted wounds." Douthat further concludes, however, that the 25th Amendment route is an unrealistic dream, since those initiating it would mostly be the ones who answer not to their constitutional oath of office but rather to hordes of bubbled barbarians back home.
That leaves us with Trump's outright impeachment and removal from office for high crimes and misdemeanors, which Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe urges. The president's "summary firing" of the FBI director, writes Tribe, "represented an obvious effort to interfere with a probe involving national security matters vastly more serious than the 'third-rate burglary' that Nixon tried to cover up in Watergate. The question of Russian interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign go to the heart of our system and ability to conduct free and fair elections."
Tribe goes on to ponder the, ahem, political difficulties of his legal advice. For the extraordinarily partisan congressional majority, impeachment and removal "will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty." Right. Congressional Republicans will simultaneously come to the realization that single-payer is the only way to go.
Still, to his pragmatic credit, rather obvious is that Tribe believes not in the non-existent virtues of a constitution-centered congressional majority. "Whether it is devotion to principle or hunger for political survival that puts the prospect of impeachment and removal on the table," he continues, "the crucial thing is that the prospect now be taken seriously, that the machinery of removal be reactivated, and that the need to use it become the focus of political discourse going into 2018" (my emphasis).
Which is to say, Tribe believes less in the political difficulties surrounding impeachment than he does in its political opportunities. Dismissing Republicans' "devotion to principle," as he should, Tribe correctly envisions their more customary "hunger for political survival." And that hunger must be instilled by Democrats. As Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton's impeachments demonstrated, the "machinery of removal" is a political — and not purely legal — device, whose levers are now controlled by Democrats. It is up to them to make impeachment and eventual removal the focus of 2018's political discourse — and that focus will fly politically.
For as a swelling majority of voters knows, when Donald Trump isn't embarrassing this nation or enriching himself or balling up the potential of sober governance with intoxicated incompetence, he is busy being just plain nuts.
_______
Friday, May 12, 2017
Love nature? Animals? Birds? You'll like this video from the Santa Cruz mountains -- short and very sweet
Nature in the San Lorenzo Valley Backyard:
Beautiful 3-minute video of what kind of natural animal/bird life lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains -- several other good nature videos from our area are on the same site:
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
The Miracle of Water, Consciousness and Healing
Amazing! Fascinating! The energy of frozen water crystals can be observed under the microscope. Experiments by Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto show how energy changes, depending on the consciousness directed to it. Simply incredible!!! Dr. Emoto is doing beautiful work and has also done a remarkable experiment with rice.
I've also included a Navajo Healing chant video, a wonderful healing contribution of sound and its effect on our bodies. There is so much to learn in this world! 😃
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Stupidest Comment of the Week
Of course it came from a Republican congressman who voted for Trump Non-Care (and who has good health insurance for himself and his family). He made the comment at a town hall meeting with his constituents who didn't seem to share his opinion. I wonder how they will vote in 2018.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Best Ever -- will make you laugh and cry...and laugh and cry...and cry...and cry....
I almost fell on the floor laughing...while feeling SO SAD. Won't even tell you what it is. I don't want to spoil it for you... Everyone in the country should see it. Please send the link on to others, if you agree. It deserves the widest audience possible.
Bernie Sanders' BRILLIANT Appraisal/Takedown of Trump's first 100 days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmR6XYVEKWI
Highly recommended simply for the sheer sanity of an intelligent analysis. After viewing Trump for 100 days, we all need a huge (yuge) dose of sanity and truth!
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