"Not An Imminent Threat"

If Donald Trump wanted to prosecute a war of choice with Iran successfully, he needed to play to his strengths.  

Thinking ain't one of them.

Like, he never considered the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz and choking off a key source of the global oil supply?

And now Joseph Kent, a counterterrorism "expert" in the Trump regime who was hired only because he was an avid Trump supporter, has resigned his post because Trump broke his promise not to start a new war, adding that Iran was not an imminent threat to the United States.

In a congressional hearing this week, Director of national Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard more or less said the same thing.

Gabbard also added that Iran's capability to build a nuclear weapon had in fact been eliminated, even though actual intelligence gathering has determined that Iran still has the basics for making such a weapon, even though no one knows much material the Iranians may still have.

Dude, when you've lost a key ally in your administration and your own DNI contradicts you, its time to take a hint.  

If Donald Trump wanted to prosecute a war of choice with Iran successfully, he needed to play to his strengths.  

Thinking ain't one of them.

Playing Post Office (And Other Games)

Apparently, voting by mail can now be hazardous.

The United States Postal Service, under the control of Trump cronies, changed how and when it postmarks the mail. Mail is no longer postmarked on the day you drop it in the mailbox but on the day it's processed at the regional sorting center.  That means it may not be processed for three, four, maybe five days.

At least, it could be annoying for folks who still send birthday cards and bill payments by mail and need to get them to their intended destinations in time.  But it also means that mail-in ballots will now be postmarked when they're processed, which wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that, because processing a ballot can take days, a ballot mailed on time can still be marked late and thus not be counted.  It's a clever and sneaky way to throw out a lot of Democratic mail-in ballots.

While Democratic voters may be smart enough to fill out and mail in their ballots the second they get them, and seniors who vote Republican, who vote by mail more often than anyone, may end up having their ballots thrown out, that's only the least of it.  The Trump regime is already working on ways to circumvent the election results in November, going so far as to confiscate the 2020 ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, where Atlanta is located, to "prove" that he "won" the state and the 2020 election, when in fact he was sending a clear message to Georgia and to other states that Democratic victories will not be tolerated.  

Why do you think Tulsi Gabbard, America's top spy, accompanied the Federal Bureau of Investigation officers who seized those ballots?

The special election in my U.S. House district to fill Mikie Sherrill's old seat may very well end up being the last free election in the U.S.in my lifetime. 

Five Things I Hate About Elon Musk

1. Musk demanded that federal employees send him a list of five things they did on the job last week to prove their worth to the government or be fired.

2. Musk demanded that federal employees send him a list of five things they did on the job last week to prove their worth to the government or be fired.

3. Musk demanded that federal employees send him a list of five things they did on the job last week to prove their worth to the government or be fired.

4. Musk demanded that federal employees send him a list of five things they did on the job last week to prove their worth to the government or be fired.

5.  He's just a mother-truckin' creep.

You thought my fifth thing was going to be, "Musk demanded that federal employees send him a list of five things they did on the job last week to prove their worth to the government or be fired," didn't you?

As soon as this news came out, some of us Trump-hating Musk haters and Musk-hating Trump haters decided to send nonsensical lists of the five things we did on the job.

Here's the list I sent from my regular e-mail address:

1. I ate a Crisco sandwich. 

2. I had sex with a lady clown at the circus.  (Field work. 😉) 

3. I practiced my karate chops while jumping in midair. 

4. I wore an Indian headdress to keep my wigwam. 

5. I called a vegetable by name because the vegetable dreamed of responding to me. 

That last thing refers to a Frank Zappa song.

Now here's the list I sent from my alternate e-mail address:

1. I squirted whipped cream on my desktop and let the office rats eat it. 

2. I scratched my feet for five hours. 

3. I sent rubber ducks to a contractor with the note,  "Take them these here rubber ducks, we just ain't gonna pay yo' bill!" 

4. I ran around the office in a chicken costume yelling "SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK!" 

5. I carved a likeness of Elon Musk out of soap, ate it, and crapped it out in the toilet. (Sorry, I forgot to flush!)

I need a fix 'cause I'm going down . . ..

As it turns out, most government agency and department heads are telling their employees not to respond to Musk, that it's totally unnecessary, and that it also might go against rules and regulations.  National intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard told her employees not to comply to avoid the leaking of government secrets.

Dude, you know you've lost your credibility when even Tulsi Gabbard is trying to preserve her integrity.

Not so much Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who told his employees to comply.  I guess he figure that if they do, he'll find out what they do . . . because as someone with no experience in transportation issues, he has no idea himself.

The OTHER Unholy Trinity

The three riders of the apocalypse in the regime of Der Amerikanischer Führer are in place.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is Secretary of Health and Human Services . . . 

Tulsi Gabbard is now Director of National Intelligence . . .

. . . and, as of today, February 20, 2025, Kashyap Patel is director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Helter skelter.

So, if you hope to survive Trump, good luck.  Because of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you may have to deal with a disease that makes COVID look like the common cold.  If you survive that, Tulsi Gabbard may let a Russian operative poison you for having insulted Putin when Biden was President, or maybe there'll be a contract on your life for insulting Elon Musk that escapes her watch.  And if you end having to deal with Patel . . .

. . . you'll wish you'd been done in by one of the other threats.

They're coming down fast . . . yes, they are . . . yes, they are.

(Correction:  The above photo is not of Kashyap Patel.  The above photo is of James David Vance.  I regret the error.)

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I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!

RatFucKed dJ tRump

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ended his quixotic presidential candidacy and did something just as quixotic - he endorsed Trump.  

Kennedy will bring nothing to Trump's campaign.  Democrats drawn to the Kennedy brand who supported him over Joe Biden have mostly flocked to Kamala Harris.  Anti-vaccine voters were always going to go to Trump in the now-passed event that Kennedy dropped out of the campaign. Kennedy was already dropping in the polls, meaning that he wouldn't take away enough votes from anyone to make a difference if he had stayed in.  

If Kennedy benefits Trump at all, it's that he helps him with groups like the American Association of Clinically Insane falconers, book clubs that have recommended "101 Uses For a Dead Bear Cub," and the Decapitated Whale Heads Society.  Oh, and Brain Worm Survivors Anonymous.

Oh yeah, Tulsi Gabbard is supporting Trump too.  As if I really cared. 

Tulsi's Out

Last week, Tulsi Gabbard finally ended her impractical residential campaign.  What was as telling as who didn't get out is who Gabbard endorsed for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination upon her exit.

Gabbard, a darling of the far left, endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which is an indication that she understands how crucial it is for her party and her country to unseat Donald Trump.  Even though Bernie Sanders remains resolutely in the 2020 presidential campaign despite the fact that he can't catch up to Biden's delegate count, Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, knows that now is not the time for a revolutionary, progressive political agenda; that can come later.  She knows in this time of a global pandemic and a need for steady leadership that we have to return to where we were before those two dual infections - COVID-19 and Trumpism - took over.  She's a patriot who put party and country over politics.  Her endorsement of Biden was her way of telling Bernie to take a hint.

In addition to being the last woman, the last person of color, and the last millennial in the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman, is the last candidate from the West.  So, unless Biden gets California's Kamala Harris to be his running mate (not entirely out of the question), the Democratic national ticket will once again have no candidate from the Western states.  Colorado's Gary Hart, the last Democratic presidential candidate from a Western state who had any realistic chance of winning (well, except maybe New Mexico's Bill Richardson), once said in 1987 that the West was the future of America . . . and in terms of Democratic presidential politics, it likely always will be.  Oh, well, maybe Hart, who turned 83 in November 2019, may still live to see a President from west of the Rockies.  Or maybe we can have an Elton John fan in the White House so we can have a President who's from rock of the Westies. ;-)        

The Gift of Gabbard

When CNN's promotional ads for the next Democratic presidential debate on March 15 said it was "down to two" candidates, it became obvious that Tulsi Gabbard became in 2020 what Martin O'Malley became in 2016 - the Democratic presidential candidate no one wants to talk about unless the talk turns comical.

Gabbard says that she's continuing her long-shot run for the Presidency because she says she has "an opportunity to speak to Americans every single day about the sea change we need in our foreign policy," such as our military spending. Uh, don't we have Bernie Sanders for that? In fact, Sanders' positions on both domestic and foreign policy have made her redundant.  And while she doesn't have Joe Biden's unfortunate ability to make gaffes, her favorable comments about Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and her past comments about gay marriage more than equal every stupid thing Biden has said.  She mostly exists as a candidate for the entertainment value.

The difference between Gabbard and O'Malley, though, mostly comes down to Gabbard being less grounded in reality.  I have long had this theory that, when the Russians released e-mails from the Democratic National Committee through Wikileaks, O'Malley intercepted an e-mail from Debbie Wasserman Schultz to John Podesta that said Martin was the most insufferable boor in the entire Democratic Party and that everyone hated him.  And so, with tears in his eyes, O'Malley realized right then and there that he had no chance of winning the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.  But at least O'Malley isn't oblivious to the truth of what people think of him.  By contrast, I think Tulsi Gabbard is utterly clueless about how people view her.  Even though Hillary Clinton reportedly said that the Russians were "grooming" Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate to take enough votes away from the Democratic nominee to help Trump win a second term, even though the Democratic National Committee has made it impossible for her to qualify for the primary debates, and even though progressives have completely abandoned her for Sanders, she remains under this delusion that she actually matters.

As with other would-be Presidents who will never occupy the White House, a cult following has developed around Gabbard.  In a way, that's rather nice; she still has a small cadre of people who believe in her and still think she can be President. It's also sort of sad.

Ask someone who knows from personal experience of having supported Martin O'Malley. :-( 

Tulsi?

I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, but I have to spend some time on her, because she is inexplicably running for President, so I'll be brief.

She supports all of the big positions on a typical progressive Democratic wish list - free college, national health insurance, equal rights for women, the usual lot -  but she doesn't support any gun control legislation under considerations despite talking tough on the issue?  And she was conflicted about a December 2014 report on the CIA's use of torture in terror suspect interrogations, saying that "the jury is still out on the report?" And after meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, she was skeptical about accusations that Assad used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians?  What?

And she wants to be our next President.  Yeah, the jury is still out on that.  Me, I'll pass.

And, by the way, Tulsi, enough with the leis - we know you're from Hawaii.

Next!

How the West Was Cursed

John Hickenlooper dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination campaign. The former Colorado governor just could not get enough attention in an overcrowded field as this one.

I'll get to the specific reasons for Hickenlooper's departure later.  But for now, I just want to comment on how Hickenlooper is only the latest in a series of Democratic presidential candidates from the West - defined as any state west of the 102nd meridian - who couldn't get the presidential nomination.  Party elders and political experts have been looking at the West as an opportunity for Democratic growth to compensate for their eroding base of support in other regions, and they've made progress there in the past couple of decades, but the parry still doesn't seem to be interested in tapping talent from these twelve states to stand for the highest office in the land or even the Vice Presidency.  No Democrat from the West has ever been on a national ticket.

Gary Hart came the closest.  When he announced his candidacy for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, he did so on April 13, 1987, on a big rock in a park outside Denver with his wife and daughter by his side.  The symbolism was twofold - he was making the announcement on the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, the President who bought Louisiana and promoted westward expansion all the way to the Pacific, and he made it in a landscape that exuded Western culture and values as a way of sending the message that states like his own Colorado were the future.

Alas, the West had as bright a future in presidential politics as Hart did.  Democratic dominance on the West Coast would actually help make the West less relevant in presidential politics; California would become solidly Democratic after 1988, and Washington and Oregon, as well as Hawaii, would go so firmly in the Democratic column as well that no one was going to fight over any of these states in a general election.  Today, Democrats don't seem to be able to communicate with average voters from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada or seem to understand their concerns on the economy or local issues like water rights and the like.  Democratic competitiveness in Arizona and Idaho have been a tough go, and Democratic successes in Montana and New Mexico have been qualified at best.  Alaska, Utah and Wyoming are solidly Republican, redder than the rock Gary Hart stood on while announcing his 1988 presidential bid.  And while Colorado, as well as Nevada, has to some extent, become competitive, no one in the Democratic Party thinks enough of Colorado to nominate someone from Colorado for President.

That includes Michael Bennet (above), who not only holds Gary Hart's old Senate seat and shares a birthday with Hart, he also shares the stigma of being a well-coiffed white guy who seems too perfect for women and people of color to trust.       

But even women of color like California's Kamala Harris (below, left) and Hawaii's Tulsi Gabbard have a problem.  It's not that a lot of bigoted people wouldn't vote for them.  It's that, judging from the Democratic presidential debates, they wouldn't vote for each other.

Man, did some sh-- go down in Detroit! 

Meanwhile, Washington State governor Jay Inslee (below, left) and Montana governor Steve Bullock are trying to be heard with their presidential campaigns, but people are so busy ignoring Tim Ryan that they don't even know they're running.   

Democratic presidential candidates from the West are candidates that members the Washington establishment of the party simply don't take seriously, just as they don't take the ranchers and farmers out there seriously and just as they take for granted that the contiguous Pacific coastal states and Hawaii will always vote Democratic in presidential elections.  The list of Western Democratic presidential also-rans is a list that also includes former Arizona congressman Morris Udall, former Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt, two-time California governor Jerry Brown, and former New Mexico congressman Bill Richardson, as well as non-candidates like former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer.

If the West is the future, Democrats, judging from their obsessions with the Midwest and with demographic voting blocs, seem to be living in their own past.

As for Hickenlooper (and perhaps Bennet later), I come to praise, not bury, which is why I salute his presidential efforts with one of my favorite songs from the first album from Stephen Stills' group Manassas.