TrumpCare Flops - Will The "Fuhrer's" Tax Code Effort Be Next?

"The Democrats are to blame for Trumpcare going down! The Democrats are to blame! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

Let's admit that if I deliberately give you a 44-stone advantage  playing 'GO',  the onus is on you to win, i.e. surround my men so they've no place to move and do so pretty quickly. No excuses! Given this sort of handicap, if you still lose, then you are the one to blame.  Even with a massive piece (and position) advantage you were not competent enough to marshal your forces to best advantage and instead let victory slip through your fingers.

In like manner, if your political party enjoys a 44-seat advantage in the House of Representatives, the largest in modern history, then the onus is on your party to get its desired piece of legislation passed. It is emphatically NOT on my party to lend you its numbers or support, especially if your legislation is designed to repeal my party's original bill.   If you blame my party because your party failed - though they enjoyed a 44-seat advantage- then you are either an idiot, psychotic, stoned drug addict  or drunk.

But such was the case yesterday after Trump's (aka "Der Fuhrer's")  much ballyhooed "health care" (repeal and replace) of Obamacare came crashing down. After seven long years of vowing to kill Obamacare, and months of Trump's yapping on the campaign trail he'd do it (making it one of his main promises), e.g.

"On my first day in office I am going to ask congress to send me a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Immediately!"

The supposed vote had to be mercy -killed before it could even commence. Why? Because a quick, informal tally showed it as much as 34 votes short.   No, there were no Dem votes for it, but why should there have been?  As Rep. Joe Kennedy put it last night, to Chris Hayes on MSNBC: "The message from hundreds of thousands of Americans was 'don't do something stupid and vote on a bad bill."  Adding: "Doctors hated this bill, patients hated this bill, nurses hated this bill, hospitals hated this bill and seniors hated this bill, It was a bad piece of legislation"

And, indeed, had any Dems been stupid enough to vote for this misshapen mutation (which killed 10 health care requirements) they'd have paid dearly at the polls in the 2018 midterms.  So anyone with more than air between the ears certainly couldn't have expected them to cooperate to pass an odious bill that hurt far more than it helped. (Actually the only ones it helped were the hyper wealthy because it was actually a tax cut bill to deliver $330b in cuts on the backs of those whose ACA benefits, Medicaid were cut). Further, no sane person could expect Democratic  cooperation to kill a bill they had sacrificed to get through seven years ago! Hell, get real!  But then remember, Trump - now playing the blame game - isn't sane, but a psychotic. So he would say anything to get the monkey of loss off his back.  While President Harry Truman was the first to say "The buck stops here", Trump has now revised that to: "The buck stops with those guys there, not me!"

But what would one expect of a two-bit real estate weasel who built his "empire" on cons, bankruptcies and suspect money from Russian oligarchs.

Add in Sean Spicer's false bravado and optimism that a vote would be held, not to mention Trump's absurd  "ultimatum"  to get the Tea Baggers (Freedom Caucus) on board, and you had all the makings of a grade B drama about to unfold.  Adding to the suspense, an emergency meeting of the House Republican Caucus was called shortly before the scheduled vote. As it was announced, the House went to recess, with Democrats shouting in a taunting manner, “Vote, vote, vote”, daring Republicans to bring the bill up.  Democrats had reason to needle these Reepo miscreants as it was mainly their people - at assorted town hall meetings- who brought the shame on the Repukes as they recounted how their loved ones would be adversely affected by repeal. Did the Repukes care? Hell no!

In a short meeting that ensued, Paul Ryan announced that the bill was being pulled from the floor in a terse statement to members. What ought not have been surprising, as I noted in the previous post, is that the 'pukes ended up playing whackamole tryin to appease the Tea Baggers by adding more and more refuse to their bill. (Namely eliminating ten cornerstones of sound health care, including everything from hospitalizations, ER visits, and maternity care to prescription drugs and mental health services. )

So no wonder a losing wicket emerged with any moderates in swing districts wary of supporting the legislation, which included major cuts to Medicaid. The original bill  was estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to lead to 24 million fewer Americans having health insurance over the next 10 years, and the final mutated, tortured product was even worse. So why in hell would any Dem help provide cover for these termites by adding a 'yea' vote?

The real blame for the loss, if one could be singled out, had to be the 24-odd member Freedom Caucus.  So committed were they to ideological principle and purity that they absolutely refused the opportunity to send the ACA into the annals of history, even after Paul Ryan removed all ten health requirements they asked for. They didn't want a bloody half loaf, by golly, it had to be the whole enchilada or nothing at all. The WSJ Editorial yesterday (p. A14, 'The Freedom From Reality Caucus')  put it this way:

"By insisting on the impossible over the achievable, these self-styled guardians of conservative purity could become the worst friends conservative ideas and free markets have had in decades."

Meanwhile Trump, who bragged endlessly about his ability to make this happen and his deal making, couldn't budge one single Tea Bagger. Not one. This left him bellyaching over issues of "loyalty" in the wake.  SO much for the art of the deal, but as one pundit put it last night:

"This bill isn't some abstraction. It's the entire health insurance market for a nation of 330 million people. You can't just negotiate it like you're doing a development deal in Atlantic City."

But see, with Trump the Reepos had a turkey who (unlike Obama with the ACA) didn't even keep up with the changing content of the bill or what those changes meant for individual congressional districts and their reps. One Goopr Rep even complained to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker:

"We're astonished how in over his head Trump is. He seems to neither get the politics or the policy of this."

But what would one expect of an ignorant, arrogant, psychotic asshole? Especially one with delusions of grandeur and authoritarian narcissism issues that rival those of his Onkel Adolf.

As far as Trump was concerned it was as if he was just dealing with so many below par properties to be fobbed off on gullible suckers.  Trouble was the would be victims weren't gullible, and by the end of the recent recess most of the Reepos knew it. At least those who had the balls to attend their town halls, as opposed to hiding or inventing the lamebrain excuse those gathered were "paid protesters".

Trump's other egregious claim in washing his hands of the bill, is that he would "just let Obamacare explode". Of course, he's on some kind of drug or else losing even more gray matter. There is no "explosion" as the CBO noted in its report. But, there is a danger of erosion of benefits given the Reepos did manage to nix the mandate which paid for the benefits most people value the most, such as for pre-existing conditions and keeping adult kids on parents' plans.

This is why, as Michael Moore warned last night, the Dems can't spend too much time gloating or in jubilation mode. They - we- have to get to work and ensure those provisions are made more secure.  This is especially given the final iteration of the AHCA that almost went for a vote last night was the most extreme form possible eliminating such things as emergency services, hospitalization, pregnancy and newborn care, rehabilitation services, lab services, prescription drugs, outpatient care, pediatric services and preventive services (e.g. colonoscopies, PSA testing etc)

Moore emphasized the nature of the bill on offer was that health insurance wouldn't have to provide the above services even for those with regular health insurance!  That is how sweeping the bill was and how devastating the repercussions would have been if passed: None of the listed service would have had to be covered by insurance companies. (All were put in to sweeten the bill for the Freedom Caucus assholes. )

Moore's solution is that we now need to push for a "Medicare for all"  type of healthcare, similar to what oldsters like me already have, as well as most citizens of the planet. But he isn't unrealistic concerning what would be needed, i.e.the Ds winning next year with veto-proof majorities. A long shot to be  sure, but after Trump's election it was also regarded as a long shot that the ACA would remain in place  after the first year.  Everyone on the R-side, and certainly Trump supporters, expected it to be repealed as per his campaign promise. (But given how his Mexican wall promise also fell down, i.e. getting the Mexicans to pay for the thing and not U.S. taxpayers, we ought not express too much surprise.)

At the very least, Dems need "to fix those parts of Obamacare that cost us votes last year."  Moore also advised the resistance now needs to shift focus from the congress critters to the for profit insurance companies.  So, we need to exert as much political pressure as possible on the money-grubbing bastards.

Trump, ignoramus that he is (apart from being a psycho) actually believes now he can pivot to tax reform and have better success. But I have news for him, he won't. As Rep. Karen Bass (CA) put it last night:

"If Trump thought this was tough wait until he comes to tax reform"

The same issues that divided Reepos with their foolish AHCA will also divide them on the tax reform - why?  Because they again will need the votes of the same Freedom Caucus extremists to get anything through. But, those extremists - as per their performance yesterday - will demand far greater cuts than Ryan will put up, and more centrist Reeps will tolerate.

The WSJ today ('GOP Focus Shifts To Tax Code Revamp', p. A5) also pointed out an overlooked little fact: the healthcare bill was to be the lead-in for the tax code revamp, i.e.:

"Repealing Obamacare would cut spending on health care subsidies and cut $1 trillion in taxes."

With their stupid AHCA bill having bitten the dust, most of the momentum is lost for the tax bill. As a policy strategist for Cornerstone Macro LP quoted in the piece notes:

"Defeat on healthcare is a blow that could make it harder to pass a more ambitious tax plan such as proposed by House Republicans."

Indeed. And because the Reepos are going to use budget reconciliation again (where only a simple majority is needed, so they don't have to depend on Dems) they will have to adhere to the reconciliation rules. Those "forbid any plan from increasing budget deficits beyond the current budget window."

So, not only will Ryan and Trump likely have to contend with the touchy twerp Tea Baggers....errr....'Freedom Caucus', but also the budget hawks. That lot that won't tolerate one more cent added  to the deficit.

If Ryan and Co. expect Dem cooperation for this next round they won't get it. Because the Dems are smart enough to know that any tax bill put out by Ryan & Co. will have "bombs" buried inside. As  Rep. Bass observed: "We must be on our guard because another way for them to come after health care is by cutting the taxes that pay for health care coverage."  In other words, she recognizes a party of rats when she sees it, and also that -  like rats- they will keep coming after the 'cheese' by new and varied avenues if a primary one is denied. Dems can't rest and neither can the resistance movement.

Rep. Bass may also have nailed the basis for the Republican anti-ACA campaign most accurately, noting it was probably "political rhetoric to gin up their base" and "this was really sad because it misled an awful lot of people".     As she further observed, many of the ACA problems in states were self-inflicted, because when given the chance for Medicaid expansion and federal subsidies, they demurred - tossing their citizens into the crapper.

Bass, like Moore, did leave room for the Reeps to "come back to the table" - and maybe even work with Dems to improve Obamacare.  BUT that has to be for an affirmative (not destructive) objective. Dems will never cooperate so long as the mission is to deny healthcare to millions and toss people off what they have, then use the money saved for tax cuts to give the upper 1 percent.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/71804/its-official-donald-trump-is-a-loser


And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/steven-rosenfeld/71803/why-the-republicans-bizarre-and-failed-efforts-to-repeal-obamacare-is-a-major-defeat-for-trump-and

Trump Proves He's A Congenital Liar With Zero Credibility

"The President has one of two choices: either retract  his claim or provide the information that the American people deserve. Because if his predecessor - President Obama - violated the law, we've got a serious issue here to say the least." - Sen. John McCain, Sunday on CNN

If Trump announced today or tomorrow that North Korea shot down a U.S. plane over international waters and it was a cause for war, would you believe him? I sure as hell wouldn't, not without ironclad evidence because of the shameless history of lying this turd has shown. The latest coming from his Twitter account the Saturday before last when he  launched a series of tweets that began at 5.35am audaciously accusing Barack Obama of an impeachable offense.

In one he wrote: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wire tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

Note the demented asshole used the specific term "wire tapped" which has a specific meaning. In fact, he reinforced that meaning (and intent) when he went on to  make the  comparison of the alleged surveillance of his Trump Tower communications to Watergate.  As any history nerd knows, actual wire tapping -specifically of phones - was big around that time, and Nixon did it with impunity. This was before the FISA law that required warrants for any action and these had to come out of the Dept. of Justice.

Every manjack with half a brain knew all this, which is why Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Lindsey Graham called Trump's bluff by demanding the DOJ produce evidence (it must have if they exist) of said, claimed wiretaps.  But by the end of Monday they were unable to, only offering a weak, measly excuse that they "needed more time".  Actually, they could have all the time in the world but it is clear they will no more find such evidence then I will find evidence of an alien visitation in my backyard right now. It is just stonewalling for no purpose, plain and simple.

Then there were Trump's asinine acolytes like Sean Spicer  (whose former "job" was acting as Bush Jr.'s Easter Bunny for the WH Easter egg hunt)  yesterday trying to spin it away by insisting Trump shouldn't be taken literally because he tweeted with "wiretaps" in quotes. As if we are at the level of such imbeciles we'd all agree that a tweet from a cartoon medium has any gravitas at all. Apart from which, only a certified imbecile would accept such nonsense ....or ...the gibberish expelled from Kellyanne Conway's mouth that he meant wiretapping in a generic way. It was really done via microwaves and TV.

Do these inveterate liars truly believe the rest of us are as dumb and gullible as their fake news groupies and most of their voters? 

But this is something that can't be laughed away because it impacts on the very basis of presidential credibility. This unqualified stooge, basically a failed businessman who exploited bankruptcy laws, made a serious attack on the legitimate extant government of the United States, predicated on the Constitution, legal evidence in jurisprudence and adherence to civil and national law.  Hence, this attack cannot go down any memory "holes" like his stupid other claims, including that he didn't really lose the popular vote by nearly 3 million, or that he had the biggest inaugural crowd in history.

If then Trump doesn't retract his charge, and admit he shot from the hip unthinkingly, or lied openly, then we can only conclude nothing he says can be trusted. Hence, even if he makes a claim for war, it can't be trusted. Not without absolute evidence to back it up. Indeed, the evidence, given his stream of lies since Jan. 20th, must now be of a vastly higher standard than for any other President. This is because he has himself painted himself into a corner by crying 'wolf!' too many times. 

It is therefore essential not to allow this reckless charge to just pass into oblivion, with no one held accountable.  Indeed, Trump's tweets also suggested agents of the Justice Department also engaged in a felony, as well as the FBI. So ALL of these have the obligation to pursue this charge through every channel - either proving it valid, or proving Donald J. Trump is the congenital, psychotic liar he always has been.  As Chris Matthews put it yesterday: "I don't understand how a sitting president can get away with accusing his predecessor with a felony and get away with it."

Indeed, because as I pointed out a president can't just order a wiretap after the passage of the 1978 FISA law. IF there was a wiretap it was more plausibly ORDERED by a judge on account of suspicion of criminal activity in Trump Tower or collusion - possibly with a foreign power.  So in fact, Trump's tweets - as opposed to any victimization - may actually be open admissions that he has something to be guilty about, if such wiretaps were actually FISA -warrant approved.

Trump's inability to deliver hard evidence, combined with his DOJ's inability to find any wiretap evidence, shows this deranged mutt doesn't deserve to be president. Hell, he isn't even fit to run a landfill or a dog kennel.  Any so-called commander-in -chief who lies habitually like this asswit, can't be trusted to ever tell the truth. And if he can't he will not be believed even if there is a real national emergency.

His howling and vehemence for support will simply be interpreted as histrionic exploitation for more lies. Ditto with his wild, exuberantly exaggerated positive claims for health care (the Ryan Repuke 'make America sicker' plan) e.g.

"I will see that everybody gets covered! No one will be without!"

when there will actually be 14 million more without the ACA next year, and 24 million without care in less than ten years. (According to the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office's assessment yesterday).

Again, nobody but an outright fool can believe anything coming out of his mouth.

It is now time the media go on the offensive against this lying swine, and that means - as per a piece in The New Republic (April,  pp. 16-17) - that the pretense of objectivity be dropped. From the article:

"What if, instead of assuming its reflexive posture of 'objectivity', the press embraced the opportunity to go full on offense?"

This is predicated on the fact that any noncommital parsing of the blizzard of lies, falsehoods issuing from the reprobates in power is woefully inadequate to keeping citizens abreast of what's going down.  Instead, adopt  ab initio the POV Trump is a compulsive liar and put every news story or Trump tweet in that framework. Cease trying to chase down these tweeted turds as "true", always adopt the take they are false from the get go.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-boehlert/71626/trumps-lies-are-no-laughing-matter-for-the-press

Another Courageous Judge Throws A Haymaker At The Trump Cabal

Marchers on the streets of Seattle Friday night, demanding the Trump dictatorship obey the law.

"I think this cloud is one that is going to rain a storm upon this administration and it deserves it".   - Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe on MSNBC last night

Following in the footsteps of deputy AG Sally Yates days ago, a federal judge(James Robart)  in Seattle   ordered a temporary halt on Donald Trump’s travel ban for refugees and people from seven predominantly-Muslim nations. Indeed, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reportedly told U.S. airlines that they could board travelers who had been barred.  The result was a haymaker of a ruling, effective nationwide, that upheld the Constitution and had the Trump Imperium on their heels, scrambling for response as they went into histrionic mode.

As I pointed out before, this was a no brainer given that the "order" violated the Constitution in numerous aspects including the equal protection clause and also the establishment of religion prohibition.  There was also the fact this glorified tweet was never properly processed and vetted in the first place, one reason it caused so much consternation including among 1,000 career professionals at the State Department. They put their names to a Dissent Letter which allows them to make their criticisms known without fear of retribution from poltroons and narcissistic assholes.

As Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson put it: "We are a nation of laws. Not even the president can violate the constitution. No one is above the law, not even the President"

Indeed, and he will learn - like Richard Nixon did before him - that he is not a goddamned potentate or king, and if his own congress or Justice Dept. will not hold him to account, then governors of the states will. At least those governors who recognize constitutional transgressions when they see them.

AG Ferguson added:

"This decision shuts down the executive order immediately, shuts it down. That relief is immediate, happens right now. That’s the bottom line.”

Meanwhile, Trump's head was exploding as his panties became twisted with yet another uppity guy who refused to kiss his ass and follow his orders, like Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull and Mexico's President, and now the Iranians too.

In his order, Robart wrote that the states had shown “immediate and irreparable injury” caused by Trump’s order.  He wrote further:

“The executive order adversely affects the states’ residents in areas of employments, education, business, family relations, and freedom to travel,” he wrote. He then issued nationwide restraining stops to several sections of Trump’s executive order: its 90-day ban on visa-holders from seven nations, its indefinite ban on Syrian refugee admissions, and its 120-day ban on the entire refugee program.

“The work of the court is not to create policy or judge the wisdom of any particular policy promoted by the other two branches,”


Robart also wrote. “The work of the judiciary, and this court, is limited to ensuring that the actions taken by the other two branches comport with our country’s laws, and more importantly, our constitution.”

The judge insisted that his ruling was “narrow” – about whether certain actions by the president were cause for a restraining order – but concluded that “the circumstances brought before [the court] today are such that it must intervene to fulfill its constitutional role in our tri-part government.”

Late last night, the White House Cabal released a statement saying that it would seek an emergency stay. This was after an earlier request for a stay by a justice department attorney had been denied by Judge Robart. Evidently it's hard for Trumpies to grasp when THEY are breaking the law. Also, it's extra sad that with Sally Yates' departure the DOJ under her replacement Dana Boente appears to be filled with just 'yes'' men and poppets  - prepared to do the potentate's illegal bidding.  They seem to have left their principles at the door.

Propaganda Secretary Sean Spicer said last night:

“At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate. The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people,”

Of course, this is all recycled horse shit and as I noted in previous posts it does nothing to protect the homeland. All it does is to give ISIS plenty of propaganda material for its online recruitment. That along with the Trump earlier blurt that we "need to take the Iraqis oil."  How dangerous is this stuff? Ask anyone serving in Iraq who now must  look behind their back every second thanks to this deranged fucker's impulsive words.  

Almost as degenerate, as Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe noted last night, was the secret order issued with the phony executive order that all lawful visas be rescinded. In Prof. Tribe's words:

"So called laws made in invisible ink, in the dark, in ways that violate our constitution, hurt everybody."

Referencing states' retort to the idiots in the DOJ, to the effect that they "lack standing". No they do not because their universities and businesses are adversely affected by this fucking ban.

Another takeaway for these Trumpist jackasses and the fools who defend them: The American Enterprise Institute has calculated that the odds of an American being killed by a Muslim refugee are 3.6 billion to 1. That is greater odds against than three Apollo asteroids crashing into the Earth at once.

And finally, 48 college presidents - including from Harvard, Brown, and Washington University (where one of the debates was held) have signed a letter to Trump pointing out the dangers of his foolish "executive order" and how it was unconstitutional and risked Americans' safety.

Michael Smerconish this morning wisely advised it was time for Trump to "fold his tent" and not squander any more "political capital".  (As if he ever had any). Smerconish observed the alternative is that the litigation arising will likely last longer than the ban itself. Indeed, it may last years.  As Trump and his cabal fight on with many different courts and rulings, it is assured that many of his other plans will be flayed as he loses whatever scintilla of capital he has left.  But he has no choice, given "President Bannon"  has issued his direct orders to the Donald.

It was not immediately clear whether authorities would comply with the broad order, especially after officials reacted in confusion a week earlier, detaining valid visa holders and arguing with lawyers. But the justice department at least had the sense to say it would not immediately file for an emergency stay, at least on Friday night. Reports said Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had informed US airlines that they should board travelers who had been barred by an executive order last week.

For those who may be unaware, we are already in the midst of a constitutional crisis, certainly in the embryonic phase.

See also the view from Barbados:

http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/93159/editorial-surely-trump-card-mere-trump-blasts

Orwell's "1984": The Novel To Read For The Trump Era

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge truth or falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."- John F. Kennedy

Emmanuel Goldstein - below- the Ultra "terrorist" in '1984'. Oceania's enforcers went crazy trying to ferret out all his allies for 'thought crimes'. Are we near such a future in the U.S.?


With Kellyanne Conway's recent defense of "alternative facts", it should  come as no surprise that sales of George Orwell's "1984" (written in 1949) are spiking beyond all expectations. It appears sensible people in the country wish to understand how governments can debase and mutate language in order to control thought. If a government is successful in controlling thought then it has a clear path to spreading propaganda and brainwashing many of its citizens.

In previous posts I've given examples of assorted deformations of language, mainly the substitution of political euphemisms for events or actions that don't need any soft soaping, because they are what they freaking are. Some examples:

"enhanced interrogation" for torture

"rendition" to remove someone to a hidden site for purposes of "enhanced interrogation"

"Collateral damage" - deaths caused to civilians when bombings or attacks are indiscriminately launched

And the classic:

"war on terror" - when one cannot make war on a mode or strategy. One makes war on a nation state.

Other examples of the uses of euphemism are well known - mostly employed by Republicans and conservatives for the purpose of mind-fucking, such as "DEATH taxes" for estate taxes, and "entitlements" for Social Security and Medicare, when people have to actually pay in for the former (out of each paycheck) and have to pay nearly $250,000 over a lifetime for what Medicare doesn't cover, including dental care.

Then there is the more recent  use of  "scandal" to replace "conspiracy". Thus, we are now supposed to accept "the Watergate scandal" as opposed to Watergate conspiracy, and the "Iran-Contra scandal" as opposed to Iran-Contra conspiracy. The effort here clearly to expunge the concept of political conspiracy from public consciousness.

More to the point, the society of Oceania is controlled by an omnipresent, totalitarian agency (INGSOC) which monitors citizens comings and goings, as well as erasing and altering evidence of the past as it distorts the truth by continually altering the language - even in dictionaries. (The defining language being Newspeak).    Kids in INGSOC uniforms are mandated to report every bit of odd behavior detected in adults - whether 'proles' or those like Winston Smith, charged with altering the language to Newspeak in their little agency cubbyholes.

To fix ideas, throuWith the ascension of Trump to power, along with the appointment of a long time propagandist (Steve Bannon) to a top security post, we are in a language skewering era that rivals or exceeds anything that came before, and may be one of a kind.  Trump's assorted spielers, like Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway, can seemingly blurt anything they want without most media doing due diligence. Spicer actually had the chutzpah to accuse former deputy AG Sally Yates of "betrayal" for her principled stance to defend the constitution from a clearly lawless executive order. Some Trumpies, so smitten with language mutation, have actually gone off the rails totally and called it "treason". Well, they need to read Orwell's "1984" to get a grip. Taking a principled stand of dissent to defend the core of American values (in the Constitution) is emphatically not "treason".

The plot of the Orwell novel follows an everyman drone who lives in Oceania, specifically in a region formerly known as England. The tenor of the scenes and descriptions clearly shows a society in a state of perpetual war. There are bombed out shells of buildings all around, and Winston himself lives in a dilapidated apartment.

Throughout the novel readers are introduced to a litany of phrases and terms describing the Oceania government's actions such as: "doublethink" (believing contradictory things and "Big Brother" the ever present controlling image on every citizen's monitor screen.

The arch villain of the Oceania state and Big Brother is intellectual Emmanuel Goldstein. One sees that  at every interlude the hapless denizens of Oceania must sit in vast halls  as Goldstein's face appears on a screen  - whereupon they begin screaming  'TRAITOR!' until they're delirious and emotionally spent.

What vile deed did this "traitor" Goldstein commit? Well,  insisting that citizens think and reason beyond Big Brother's endless lies such as "war is peace'.  Instead Goldstein argued that continuous war was used to siphon off the wealth of society to keep people living at bare subsistence. Goldstein's exact words:

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

What or who represents Goldstein in the Trump era?  From what we've seen, it is anyone, or any group that  challenges what it is being told to believe by the so-called authority. Such dissenters  would be the "liberal" media as well as reflective politicians and all intellectuals worth the name. Thus, when Kellyanne Conway and other Trump lackeys (e.g. Sean Spicer) insisted the rest of us were wrong when we said his inauguration crowd was less than those for Obama (in 2009, 2013), it evoked the words from "1984":

"The party told you to reject the evidence of  your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

Compare that to Spicer's claim of "record breaking crowds" at his inauguration despite clear evidence to the contrary.

The takeaway here is that those who read "1984" are likely to be more prepared as the Trump blitz on language and evidence continues. These readers will see a fictional portrayal of what is playing out on many levels right now.

Professor Heath Brown, an expert in presidential translations at John Jay College in New York, quoted in today's Colorado Springs Independent, observed:

"The Trump administration is obsessed with controlling the message".

This we must resist with every fiber of our intellectual being. Those who haven't read Orwell's book, you might want to do so before the Trump first term runs to the conclusion of its first year. By then who knows how much havoc will be wrought on thought and  intellectuals who are the embodiment of 1984's Goldstein.

Women's March Trumps Trump Inauguration - And Trumpies Go Ape Shit

Don't you dare believe your lyin' eyes! You believe what my Twitter feed tells you! Or Sean Spicer, my chief , ass-kissing lackey!

The scenes from the Women's March yesterday in  Denver  as well as Washington, D.C. were captivating to behold. So many women taking to the streets to make their voices heard from every walk of life. The Washington  march wasn't the only one held in the US, however. From Atlanta to Phoenix, from Boston to Sacramento, “sister marches” staged a show of defiance by ordinary citizens determined to rebuke Trump’s values.  In addition, one beheld similar scenes from cities around the world, from London, to Prague, to Berlin. Organizers in London said 80,000 had taken part in an event there. In Prague, hundreds gathered in Wenceslas Square, waving portraits of Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

These images and others warmed the cockles of our hearts, especially Janice's. She had been on a downer since Friday, unable to watch anything pertaining to the Liar-in- Chief's installation. This, even as we were having breakfast at a hotel in Aurora, getting ready to leave after my 3D biopsy.

So yesterday's magnificent scenes of the estimated 500,000 women on the march had the equivalent effect of a nice psychological balm - scenes which we will put on a DVD to remind us how many oppose this clown in office. Did I say clown? Uh, yes, indeed I did. Especially after this walking talking turd had ambled to CIA HQ in Langley, VA and actually stood at the site of their Memorial Wall - honoring 117 of the fallen - over decades.

He delivered a 16 minute spiel, about the same as his Inaugural PR piece, and used nine full minutes to whine about the media instigating the "feud" with the CIA (no, we have his Twitter feed records to show this fucker did it all by his lonesome) and then also whined about the media "lying" over the women's march crowds compared to those for his inauguration.

My thoughts on seeing a replay of his remarks on CNN were actually embodied in a question:

"Has this deplorable excuse for a human  no decency, no shame?  Has he no recognition of where he is? Has he not even the perceptual fine tuning to pay homage to the shrine whereupon he stands? Not even for five minutes? Are his petulant complaints worth more than those 117 lives?"

And today I stand by those words even more than yesterday. As one media commentator put it, "Is this going to be how it is? Complaining about every little perceived slight each day? What about running the country?"

Well, I am afraid this POS will leave that to his basket of despicables being streamlined to take over a number of agencies and run them into the ground.

Anyway, it evidently wasn't enough for Trump to spew his lies, he had to get his ass licking toady press imp Sean Spicer to pile on too (with uh, "alternative facts" to use the euphemism of Bimbo Troll Kellyanne Conway) . It seems the stark images of the Friday fiasco being outdrawn by the women's march as well as Obama's previous inaugurations caused the Trumpies' heads to explode.

In case you missed it, Spicer actually accused journalists of reporting inaccurate crowd numbers and using misrepresentative photographs to "minimize enormous support" for Trump. Which is a pile of horse merde.  In fact, actual dated images of the National Mall on Friday contradicted Spicer's assertions especially compared to Obama's two previous inaugurations..  Indeed, a time lapse video produced by PBS showed the National Mall was never full at any time on Friday.  Meanwhile, photographs show the National Mall packed with crowds just before Obama’s inauguration in 2009 – but much more sparsely covered with people just before Trump’s ceremony.

Spicer also claimed there's never been the white ground coverings on the National Mall before. But in fact photos from 2013 clearly shows National Park Service workers unloading them  for the Obama inauguration.  Spicer also lied by saying that hundreds of magnetometers prevented many more thousands from getting through to the event. But the Secret Service in fact noted there were no such devices for screening at all.

Spicer also tossed out lies to do with Metro Ridership numbers, inflating the numbers for Friday. The actual numbers were:

570,557  for Jan. 20, 2017

782,000 for Jan. 20, 2013

1.1 million for Jan. 20, 2009

Thus, Spicer's claim that the Trump numbers were the "largest ever" was another bald-faced lie, similar to Trump's that he actually won the popular vote.

As one media commentator put it:  "I just can't understand why he (Trump) decides to get up in the morning and go on these rants".

But we do KNOW why! Because we have a guy as leader of the free world who is chronologically 70 years of age, but emotionally at the level of a dyspeptic three year old who just soiled his pampers and wants them changed.

CNN's Jim Sciutto perhaps put the most somber perspective on the issues last night. He said that ultimately these numbers - of whose crowd was biggest' will not matter, and indeed fall into a memory hole. But what will matter are those like U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East, North Korean missiles fired, or terror cells in the U.S. Will the Trump bunch lie (offer "alternative facts")  about all these too, if they can so easily do so about meaningless crowd numbers for events?

As Sciutto put it:

"When those facts and numbers matter, that have a real effect on our lives and national security are you going to trust the words coming from the president and the podium?"

Historian Douglas Brinkley's take is also germane,  referencing how LBJ and Nixon fudged the numbers on Vietnam war casualties:

"So Donald Trump has a sacred obligation to tell the truth."

But will he? I doubt it, because this is part and parcel of Trump's premoral character, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2016/10/narcissism-pre-moral-mind-and-donald-j.html


As I noted in my Jan. 13  post:

"While diehard Trumpsters may love this sort of reactionary behavior, it doesn't comport with strength especially in a President. What it shows is that any twerp, misfit, or non-political person (without political power) can get under the big man's skin and make him freak out. In other words, it shows he is hostage to any insult that comes down the pike and from any direction."

In other words, Trump's compulsive lies are driven by his thin skin syndrome. Because he has no tolerance for criticism and the facts to support him are few or non-existent, he must conjure up pseudo-facts, fake news and lies. The greater the truth and facts cast in his path, the greater his need to summon lies, fake news to try to try to counter them. In the end, it's a losing wicket which will ultimately undermine Trump's time in office because his credibility will be destroyed. Indeed, it already has been destroyed....by his stream of stupid, reckless tweets.

Without credibility no president has a leg to stand on, and certainly no moral character to either unite or summon the nation to common action.

Buckle your seat belts as it will be an intriguing 4 years indeed. Trump and his minions need to be on notice that they will be called on their lies and bullshit every time they spew it.

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-moyers/70786/at-trump-inauguration-his-hollow-rhetoric-collides-with-reality