Noise & Karma!

Yeah, whatever, Little Baby Man gets up and flaps his lips. Words spill from his mouth. I don't rightly give a damn. He is a fabricator of lies, lies of epic proportions. Beyond the pale. It is all just toxic, noxious, noise. Mind pollution. I pray for the day this man meets his justly-deserved Karma! Me thinks it will be a day of darkness for him and of unbridled joy for the rest of us. Ding. Dong.

Music is Music to My Ears!

Listening to the radio this morning.  They tell me next up is a preview of Little Baby Man's State of the Union speech tonight. NO THANKS! I quickly switch to CDs.  Music is music to my ears...

First up, David Johansen and the Harry Smiths... 

And then...

Ethiopiques Volume 4 (ethic jazz & musique instrumentale 1969-1974) - Hat Tip: Jim Jarmusch and his film "Broken Flowers."

The good life, one disc at a time...

State of the Union? F%@#ed Up!

This is the only way anyone could get me to watch Little Baby Man's State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday... tie me to a chair and pin my eyeballs open, just like in A Clockwork Orange...

It's seems that everyone is reading that blockbuster book (Fire & Fury), about Little Baby Man's totally dysfunctional White House. You wonder just how do WH staffers get up each morning and look themselves in the mirror. How many dollars would it take for someone to swallow their dignity/integrity, to take on such a demeaning, slimy, creepy job?

Some intelligent, charismatic, highly-accomplished, and dare I say it, Presidential Folks are reading that book...

On the hunt for a GRAMMY Award of his own, James Corden auditions celebrities for the spoken word version of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury." pic.twitter.com/SjTobAbv2N

— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) January 29, 2018

Little Baby Man's War with the FBI is a Suicide Mission Doomed to Fail!

Little Baby Man's war with the FBI is a suicide mission doomed to fail... which is bad news for him, but great news for the rest of us!

Love this story, by Tim Weiner (Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award Winner), love how it reaches back to Nixon's Watergate scandal and brings us to the present. Great writing...

"On Friday, April 27, 1973, a dozen armed FBI agents left their headquarters in the Old Post Office building — today a gilded Trump hotel — and marched up Pennsylvania Avenue. Waving their badges, they walked into the White House.

Their orders were to stand guard in the West Wing, wherein lay evidence of high crimes. “They’re going to lock down and secure the business offices, including the president’s,” the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Jack McDermott, told an astonished Secret Service man.

Caught in the web of Watergate, President Richard M. Nixon returned from Camp David and found a skinny young FBI man standing at attention down the hall from the Oval Office. Screaming in rage, he grabbed the agent by the lapels. “What the hell is this?” he shouted.

It was the rule of law challenging the power of the commander in chief—and the beginning of the end for Nixon. He knew that he was doomed. Within a year, the president would be named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an iron-clad criminal case. His impeachment inevitable, he resigned the presidency in the summer of 1974.

We now stand on the verge of the same kind of confrontation." - T. Weiner

Be Sure to read the whole thing...

Dutch Hackers Hacked the Russian Hackers Who Hacked the U.S. !

This is an incredible little story. In the summer of 2014, Dutch Intelligence enlisted a team of hackers called the Joint Signit Cyber Unit (JSCU), to hack into the Russian Intelligence team of hackers (code named Cozy Bear), and watched in real-time as Cozy Bear's hacking team hacked into the United States State Department, the White House and the DNC.

"The Dutch watched as the Russian hackers penetrated the computer network of the State Department."

"Not only did the AIVD gain access the computer network, it also hacked the security camera in the corridor."

Dutch Intelligence shared all of this with the U.S. So there is definitive proof that the Russians hacked the U.S. AND, the key perpetrators were identified on camera... 

Wow. Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy... of course, Little Baby Man refuses to acknowledge any of this, he blathers on about "fake news," but that is exactly what we would expect from a Russian Dupe/Asset in the White House!

🎥WATCH🎥

*In 2014* Dutch spies infiltrated #Russian🇷🇺hackers Cozy Bear and gave REAL-TIME evidence & *video* to the US of #Russia hacking the US State Dept, WH & DNC‼️

WHY IS ISN’T THIS MAJOR NEWS⁉️@volkskrant @MSNBC @maddow @CNN @tedlieu pic.twitter.com/eCvMO1lcbe

— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) January 26, 2018

The Leader of Liars!

Yes. Conspiracy Theater. It explains so much of the madness of our political moment. The GOP has a big problem with "reality" - you know, "The state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them." As one of my own most popular posts of all time reminds us: "Reality has a clear liberal bias."

And that has driven the GOP insane! So, instead of clear-eyed, clear-seeing, we get "conspiracy theater." A tangled web of lies. Of course, all of this will come crashing down around their ears. No doubt. They are a delirious, desperate, frantic political party. Anchored by Little Baby Man, The Leader of Liars. The problem with lying all the time, it gets harder and harder to keep track of the lies. The story gets too convoluted. Finally you choke on your own stream of lies. 

As Matthew Miller tells it: “Look at the precedent,” says Matthew Miller, who was a Justice Department spokesman in the Obama administration. “A few decades ago, Republicans decided it was advantageous to start attacking the mainstream media, and they convinced Republican voters you didn’t have to believe anything you saw in the mainstream media. They then did the same thing with scientists, when they decided it was in their interest to say climate change was false. For years they’ve attacked universities as elitist, and polls are showing nearly a majority of Republicans think universities are a force for bad. For the past year, they’ve had their sights firmly pointed on the Justice Department and the F.B.I. That is going to have a lasting effect.”

The GOP Lie Machine fabricates lies, and attacks the Media, Scientists, Universities and the Rule of Law.

Reality has a way of catching up with all of us... there is always the reckoning. Me thinks this Conspiracy Theater is gonna vanish in the bright light of day. There are plenty of folks willing to spread lies, and concoct cover stories, for Little Baby Man at the moment. But for how long? How many folks would risk lying to the FBI and risk Jail Time all for Little Baby Man? 

I would think that list of folks would be pretty damn skinny.  It's  gonna get messy, super messy, but it's gonna happen, the lying rats won't go down easy, but go down they will, and they will turn on each other to save their own skins, and it's going to happen very, very soon! Keep your eyes peeled!

"I Have Skull Designs Upon My Shoes." - D. Bowie

"In the villa of Ormen, in the villa of Ormen

Stands a solitary candle, ah ah, ah ah

In the centre of it all, in the centre of it all

Your eyes

On the day of execution, on the day of execution

Only women kneel and smile, ah ah, ah ah

At the center of it all, at the center of it all

Your eyes

Your eyes

Ah ah ah

Ah ah ah..."

Blackstar - David Bowie

I have been close-listening to David Bowie's album "Blackstar." I purchased the CD 2 weeks ago. Maybe "close listening" doesn't quite do it justice. I have been communing with this record. Listening to it religiously. Channeling. It is the highest, finest Art imaginable. An extraordinary achievement. I have been subsuming myself into it, taking it in like a High, Holy Sacrament. 

It was released on January 8, 2016, coinciding with Bowie's 69th birthday. 2 days later Bowie died of liver cancer. A shocking story. "Blackstar" is an elegy - "a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead," written and performed by the creative being who feels Death breathing over him, hovering THIS/CLOSE.

If Death is always on our left shoulder, it's like Death was leaning in and whispering in Bowie's ear while he was making this record. I don't find it morbid, I find it inspiring. Facing Death, what does a True Artist do? He creates music. Extraordinary, incandescent music.

Bowie was one of our greatest Artists. A shape-shifter. A clairvoyant. A visionary. I don't really want to review the record, but let me give you a word-stream that this work evokes: Visionary, revelatory, groovy, powerful, lush, layered, sophisticated, avant, heart-breaking, funny, brilliant, intelligent, transcendent, other-worldly, spiritual, forward-looking, reflective, philosophical, dazzling, exhilarating.

Luxuriate in the sound of it. Produced by Tony Visconti and David Bowie. Bowie sings with gravity, grit & passion, you hear a singer using his instrument in all it's human glory. He fronts Donny McCaslin's "New York Jazz Combo" and it's just exquisite, a superb band, playing brilliantly, with creative power, perfectly recorded. Lush. The packaging too. Just gorgeous. An incredibly beautiful & transcendent "last will and testament." 

"I'm a Blackstar, I'm a Star, Star..." - D. Bowie

All those invisible connecting strings that tie us to all the phenomena that makes up the Universe.

Why Death (see previous post)? Might as well ask that famous Chico Marx question: "Why a Duck?" Nature has it's own planned obsolescence - "an artificially limited useful life." You know, you're supposed to be fruitful and multiply and then get on and get off. We all kind of wrestle with that idea. Maybe there's a bit more to life than the needing, wanting, grasping. What if we don't play the game?

I think of Bartleby, the Scrivener, A Story of Wall Street and his enigmatic "I would prefer not to." What if we don't jump when asked to? What if we don't indulge all our whims? What if we refuse to be persuaded by all the idiocies of the modern world?

I like to think we are more than our bodies. More than our biological necessities. More than our urges and chemical processes. I think we are spiritual beings, part of a much larger journey. A mystical path. Instead of being dazzled by materialism, the hard things of the world, the really important things are invisible: love, energy, spirit. All those invisible connecting strings that tie us to all the phenomena that makes up the Universe.

I suppose we could just accept that we are frail beings with a limited life-time on the planet, (there is truth to that idea), but it's not the only truth, I refuse to believe it's the only truth, if you demand that we are all only "Living in the Material World," (hat-tip to George Harrison), just like Bartleby, I would respond: "I would prefer not to."

Forever is Such a Long Time!

Yes. Death. It's the subtext to everything we do and think, right? As Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan once said (I'm paraphrasing): Death is always riding with us on our left shoulder. 

Do we live as if every breath we take could be our last? Sounds exhausting! Or do we live as if we will live forever? Forever is such a long time! 

Day to day. Do we count the days, or just live without the counting? 

One morning I blurted out (blame it on too much coffee): "The Dead are always with us. We carry them with us in our DNA, in our spirits, always." Is that true? Don't rightly know. If it is, it's a heavy thing. Right?! No wonder waking and matriculating during the day can seem like a job.

Death. Our friend. Our constant companion. Our Nemesis. Our adversary. Our confidant. Our Hero? Our Ultimate Villain? Does Death, and the Spector of Death give our lives meaning, shape, gravity? I don't rightly know.

"The Classic Rat Inside the Walls of Government"

Rick Wilson, "Never Trumper," GOP Media Guy, Coiner of the title: "Everything Trump Touches Dies," definitely has a way with words. He has the gift, a little bit of that Hunter S. Thompson MOJO...

Here is Wilson on the Government Shutdown, and that little Rat Bastard Stephen Miller... 

"Miller is the classic rat inside the walls of government, a sneaky little crapweasel who plays the D.C. game to its hilt, pursuing his agendas instead of those that would be good for either his principal or for the country. I can only imagine what Miller was like when he was at Duke with pudgy race-baiter and Nazi fanboy Richard Spencer. Can’t you see them in some dorm room bull session, smoking weed and working through their plans to depopulate the Rodina of anyone darker than a latte? That, and Spencer trying to find a girl to throw Miller some mercy sex so he could get the dead-eyed creeper out of his dorm room." - Rick Wilson

Hah! That's good!

Cadet Bone Spurs Has No Shame!

Why is it that the biggest "war mongers" amongst us, are always the last people to serve in the military? Why is it that those who promote war always find a reason why they (and their children) don't need to serve? It's always someone else, someone else's children, who are sent to the front lines of any military conflict.

How do we tolerate these hypocrites? How come they aren't hooted out of government and polite society? I was happy to see  that our Illniois Senator Tammy Duckworth, Iraq War Vet, (Purple Heart, lost her legs in an attack on her Black Hawk Helicopter),   called out Little Baby Man's hypocrisy. What a beautiful thing...

"I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger." - T. Duckworth

Also: "I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs: if you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting [Kim] into a war that could put 85,000 American troops and millions of innocent civilians in danger,” Duckworth said. She added that if Trump “truly cared” about servicemen and women, he’d “stop hiding behind his Twitter account, stop blaming everyone else, and tell his party ... to do their job.”

Of course Little Baby Man has no shame. Otherwise he'd slink away and curl up in little fetal ball and beg forgiveness. "Cadet Bone Spurs" - nice one Tammy!

Stormy Daniels Spanking Little Baby Man with a Forbes Magazine Featuring His Picture on the Cover!

Do you have a kink, are you kinky?  "Someone who is kinky may be called a kink. Said person generally has a fetish(es) seen as abnormal to the public, ie. biting, bondage/bsdm, public sex, spanking, tranny sex, etc."

If you do/you are, I mean, whatever, right?! Like they say, whatever happens behind closed doors, between 2 consenting adults is pretty much whatever... - "Whatever Get's You Through the Night, It's alright, alright..." - J. Lennon.

So Stormy Daniels spanking Little Baby Man with a Forbes Magazine featuring his picture on the cover?! Really? Really? Really? Stormy! I mean it sounds oh so plausible, just like our President #45. Think: Sociopathic Narcissist! 

No moral outrage or condemnation here. Just laughter. Pure unadulterated laughter...

Hah. Hah. Hah. You can't make this shit up. Right? I am so obsessed with the Russian Dupe in the White House story. Every day another morsel, another mind-boggling detail. Then there are the moments of Zen, of sheer hilarity.  This tale has it all.

The married GOP Candidate paid a Porn Star $130,000 to stay quiet about their affair. No big deal right? Not surprising. I guess the big surprise is that the story didn't drop before the election. Too much time spent on the other candidate's email server.

Some people have some explaining to do.

"Everybody Hates Us!"

That great American Songwriter, Randy Newman, once wrote (and sang): "No one likes us, I don't know why..."

We now live in the "Age of Clarity." For many of us, the scales have fallen from our eyes. We see the world with a much more clear-eyed, clear-headedness than ever before. And it's not just those of us in the #Resistance here in the States. People from all over the Globe now see the USA with a newly-forged clarity. Those old lyrics could be amended to: "No One Likes us, We Know Just Why..."

Let's call it the "Little Baby Man Effect!" "Everybody Hates Us!"

Sharpened Tooth! Fang & Claw!

Sharpened tooth. Fang & claw. The knife is close. A friendly hand. Kith & Kin. There is a smile. Intimate confidence. The cut is unexpected. Unbidden. The plunge is sure, deep. A casual destruction. A perfect betrayal. Those closest to us, those who have known us the longest, find themselves in a privileged position. There is no greater wound. No deeper slash. An Existential dread. A small, certain death. Brings you up short. You catch your breath; blood rises, and falls. A blood-letting. A blood curse. Blood sport. Another cut, another scar. Another day. Another step. Life.

What's Up with People?!

Relationships. How do they work when they work? How do they not work when they don't work? How does a relationship thrive? How does it fall apart? What do we need from another person? How do we know another person? Why do we struggle to know ourselves? What's up with people? What is Love? What is Hate? Why are we so confounding? Maddening? Ridiculous? Tragic? What is Art? How does Great Art enrich us? How does Art make us better people? What inspires us? What animates us? What deepens our understanding? And our Humanity? What is knowledge? What is Wisdom? What connects us? What are the invisible connectors that connect us to everything and everyone? What are the threads? Phantom Thread...

Don't Want to Coarsen the Language!

Yeah, I changed my mind (see previous post). I don't really want to contribute to the "coarsening of the language." So when it comes to monikors for our current President, #45, I have decided to take the higher road. Let's be funny, let's be creative, let's reach for the perfect label.

Here are a few names that have been suggested by friends:

Cheeto Jesus

Commander Marmalade

The Orange-Headed Idiot

Here are some names I've come up with myself:

Noxious, Toxic, Circus Clown

President Deplorable

Little Baby Man

I guess, I won't standardize. I won't just pick one. I expect to use all of these in rotation. That is all folks!

Yes, inevitably, it's President SHITHOLE!

A Wise Person once said: "We don't see things as they are, We see them as we are." So by that logic if you see SHITHOLES everywhere in the world, it is you who is a SHITHOLE!

EDITOR'S NOTE: We have new "style guide" for this blog. We have decided to standardize on how we refer to our current President, number 45. In the past we have described him in a variety of ways: Noxious Clown, Mendacious Toxic Idiot, Racist, Fool, Ignoramus.

His current Cabinet Members have also described him with some colorful language: Dumb as Shit, Idiot, Fucking Moron, Hopeless Idiot, Stupid, Fucking Idiot, Fucking Fool.

And for awhile we settled on the "Grab Them By the Pussy" President, because, well, these were his own words. But no doubt, it was a bit unwieldy, too long, too many characters.  So from today going forward whenever we refer to 45 we will call him PRESIDENT SHITHOLE! It does roll off the tongue nicely. Indeed.

BTW: Nice Work. This was projected on Trump's (ShitHoles'), D.C. Hotel.

Updated Editor's Note: Upon reflection, I've decided this will be the first and last use of "President Shithole." He does deserve the name, but I won't write it, or speak it. Let the man swim in his own obscenity. I will choose the higher road. That is all!

"Picture Him Chasing Me Around His Hotel Room in His Tighty-Whities!"

It's not surprising to read that our "Grab Them By the Pussy President" paid a Porn Star $130,000 to stay silent about an intimate encounter. In fact, it's hard to believe this man could get laid without some serious scratch involved. Talk about a dirty, nasty job. 

So yeah, the story is not that shocking, or interesting, except of course, if you actually read it. The hilarity is in the details.
I would expect Alec Baldwin and SNL to reenact it all for our edification. Check it out:

"Evans said she talked to (Stormy) Daniels the next day, apologized for bailing, and asked her how the night went. “She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’"

Hate-Filled, Vile & Racist! So?

I live in Illinois. I guess that makes me an  Illinoisan. Illinois is known as the Land of Lincoln, and the heart of America. I just discovered this morning that Illinois also has many other nicknames including "The Garden of the West," "The Sucker State," and "Egypt." Who knew?

Anyway, Dick Durbin, one of our U.S. Senators is a mild-mannered, bland, milquetoast, nebbishy kind of guy. He is not a glory-hog, not in the papers or on TV that often. He is in the news now because he was at the now infamous "Shit-Hole" meeting with our current "Racist in Chief."

 Dick Durbin, described the Racist, Grab Them By the Pussy President and his language as: "Hate-Filled, Vile and Racist." Many of us, of course, are shocked, saddened, maddened, appalled, disgusted, by these comments.

For others amongst us, this no big deal.  Being hate-filled, vile and racist is a feature, not a bug. Thus, the crazy divide in our country. You may wonder how anyone can defend these comments.

I must remind you that you can find people to defend just about anyone and anything. There have been apologists and defenders of all kinds of bad actors and bad acts in the history of mankind. There were plenty of folks who defended Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Milosevic, Genghis Khan, Pol Pot, George Wallace.

Bad shit. Bad actors. Defenders defending the indefensible.  Common. Yes, for some folks a feature not a bug. For the rest of us, a pesky, unwanted bug that should be called out, isolated, and swept out of office at the earliest possible opportunity!

American Nero!

It's great when you can rely on other people to write about our "Grab Them By the Pussy" President. Frankly it's exhausting writing about this guy. Still, never fail, he constantly provokes. There is a never-ending stream of mendacious stupidity that makes you want to spit, cry, laugh, and punch a wall, all at the same time. 

It's like that crazy old coot in the neighborhood always ranting at the passing traffic. He should be locked in his room, we should take all his toys away, and bring him plates of jello, and let him watch Fox News all day. But no, this guy is on TV, on Twitter all the freaking time! Exhausting!

So let's turn to other writers to take on the task of processing it all. First up Kevin Drum reviews the week of the "I Am Not a Moron" Tour -- A Report Card! Grisly! The grade? D Minus! Because of course this Freaking Idiot must be graded on a curve!

Next up is David Remnick, Editor in Chief of the New Yorker. It's is great to read writers who are more well-read than you. Why? You get paragraphs like these, a gratifying thing of beauty, "The Grab Them By the Pussy"  President is our American Nero: 


"What made the Emperor Nero tick, Suetonius writes in “Lives of the Caesars,” was “a longing for immortality and undying fame, though it was ill-regulated.” Many Romans were convinced that Nero was mentally unbalanced and that he had burned much of the imperial capital to the ground just to make room for the construction of the Domus Aurea, a gold-leaf-and-marble palace that stretched from the Palatine to the Esquiline Hill. At enormous venues around the city, he is said to have sung, danced, and played the water organ for many hours—but not before ordering the gates locked to insure that the house would remain full until after the final encore. Driven half mad by Nero’s antics, Romans feigned death or shimmied over the walls with ropes to escape.

Chaotic, corrupt, incurious, infantile, grandiose, and obsessed with gaudy real estate, Donald Trump is of a Neronic temperament. He has always craved attention. Now the whole world is his audience. In earlier times, Trump cultivated, among others, the proprietors and editors of the New York tabloids, Fox News, TMZ, and the National Enquirer. Now Twitter is his principal outlet, with no mediation necessary...

... there is little doubt about who Donald Trump is, the harm he has done already, and the greater harm he threatens. He is unfit to hold any public office, much less the highest in the land. This is not merely an orthodoxy of the opposition; his panicked courtiers have been leaking word of it from his first weeks in office. The President of the United States has become a leading security threat to the United States." - D. Remnick

"I Talk to the Wind." - King Crimson

For some reason, "In the Court of the Crimson King" has been on constant repeat on my CD player for days and days. There is something about this record that speaks to me. This time. This place. This NOW.

I do this too... all day, everyday...

I Talk to the Wind

[Verse 1]

Said the straight man to the late man

"Where have you been?"

I've been here and I've been there

And I've been in between

[Chorus]

I talk to the wind

My words are all carried away

I talk to the wind

The wind does not hear, the wind cannot hear

[Verse 2]

I'm on the outside looking inside

What do I see?

Much confusion, disillusion

All around me

[Chorus]

I talk to the wind

My words are all carried away

I talk to the wind

The wind does not hear, the wind cannot hear

[Verse 3]

You don't possess me, don't impress me

Just upset my mind

Can't instruct me or conduct me

Just use up my time

[Chorus]

I talk to the wind

My words are all carried away

I talk to the wind

The wind does not hear, the wind cannot hear

I talk to the wind

My words are all carried away

I talk to the wind

The wind does not hear, the wind cannot hear

[Verse 1]

Said the straight man to the late man

"Where have you been?"

I've been here and I've been there

And I've been in between

So Much News!

So many things to write about this morning... sort of paralyzing... 

What do you say when a Contemptible Asshole publicly destroys himself? Not sure. Maybe you just marvel at the display. Just how did Contemptible Asshole do it? Speaking the truth (for once, accidentally, inadvertantly?), about another Contemptible Asshole... oh my, what was that word bubbling up from that noxious pile of bilious bile? "Treasonous!"

What to say when a Senator breaks all the rules, and releases the raw transcript of the origin of the "Steele Dossier?" I mean, what do you call such a Senator? Hero!

What to say when it's revealed that the Republican Party is in total panic mode, going all out to protect the Russian Dupe in the White House? No surprise! A party of treasonous weasels!

Don't Cross a Black Cat!

Cats: (Felis silvestris catus or Felis catus) is a small, typically furry, carnivorous mammal.

The domestic cat is believed to have evolved from the Near Eastern wildcat, whose range covers vast portions of the Middle East westward to the Atlantic coast of Africa. Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago the animal gave rise to the genetic lineage that eventually produced all domesticated cats, having diverged from the Near Eastern wildcat around 8,000 BC in the Middle East.

They are independent. They basically tolerate us. We are fascinated by them. Don't cross a black cat. Bad luck.

Personally. I love cats. And they are attracted to me. There is some kind of kismet there. Of course, I am highly, highly allergic to Felis Silvestris. They are toxic to my being.  So, of course, life dictates that I spend much time trying to coexist with these little mysterious creatures.

An Obsequious Toady!

"Yes the President is a Genius..." - Stephen Miller, Trump Political Advisor

An obsequious toady. Smug. Insufferable. A boot-licker supreme. You almost expected the inevitable moment when Stephen Miller started "goose-stepping" around the CNN set screaming "Mein Furher, Mein Furher!"

And they had to "escort him off the set!" Brilliant!

Patience Grasshopper

I think this an important post from Kevin Drum. He points out that the Republican Party is in "full-on panic mode." And he sort of counsels that the rest of us should not panic.  The tide is against the GOP. Patience Grasshopper. Maybe "The Grab Them By the Pussy President" is gonna bring the apocalypse, but maybe not...

So here’s the situation (emphasis added!):

• The Republican Party is screwed. Both their base and the conservative media-industrial complex are all-in on racial grievance-mongering, but it’s clear that this is a losing strategy nationwide that’s only going to get worse. The demographic argument for the GOP’s demise has been a Chicken Little prediction for years, but it’s pretty clear that the sky really is falling now.
• By a fluke, they won anyway in 2016.
• At the moment, it looks like they’re about to get squashed like bugs in the 2018 midterms.

Deep Throat in the Russian Clusterfuck?!

I had this thought myself yesterday...

Is there a "Deep Throat" in the Russia Investigation? I mean, of course, Deep Throat (Watergate), not Deep Throat (The Film)

Is there at least one deeply-embedded source feeding leads to the Mueller investigative team? Is there one patriot in the whole bloody lot of rotters? 

One can hope. 

And looking at the way the story is unfolding, deep secrets seem to slip out every week, it seems likely that loose lips are flapping.  Funny, just as I thought of it, I came across this article yesterday. "Robert Mueller May Have a Deep Throat Witness on Russia."

Wouldn't that just be the ticket to glory?!

Why is Fatboy So Fat?!

Salacious Gossip: "Implying a certain kind of moral looseness, salacious is often used to describe nasty gossip, obscene reports and steamy tales. Salacious things are usually not fit for general public consumption and probably need some kind of parental guidance warning. Think of the tawdry accounts of some politician's affair with a staffer, or a particularly sex-filled reality show on TV."

Hey, this might not be the most consequential tidbit from Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, but it might be the funniest. It answers the question, "Why is Fatboy so Fat?"

"According to a new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, POTUS likes fast food because no one knows he’s going to be there so there’s no chance of anyone tampering with the food."

“He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade,” writes author Michael Wolff, revealed in an excerpt of the book published by New York Magazine."

Yes, "fear of being poisoned." Maybe not so crazy. I mean, it's clear that anyone who gets to know this guy, loathes this guy! Karma! So as a remedy the Orange-Headed Idiot is not so slowly poisoning himself with fast-food... perfect!

And the people that do get close to "The Grab Them By the Pussy" President, what do they say about him? Let's play a little game...

"Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?"

Yesterday a "Neutron Bomb" went off in Washington D.C. An excerpt from Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury" was published by New York Magazine. OMG! Must-Read!

How do I sum it up? What a Shit-Show. Think "Spring-Time for Hitler from Hell." Whatever you thought about our current "Grab Them By The Pussy President" and his gruesome band of boot-licking lackeys, never mind, it's way worse than you ever imagined.

It all made me think of Johnny Rotten and his infamous words from the last U.S. show, on the Sex Pistols first U.S. tour - Winterland Theater, San Francisco, CA January 14, 1978...

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

That is the question I'd like to ask the 62,979,636 Dolts that voted for Trump. What a con-job! Trump didn't want the job! It was all a failed brand-building bid. Instead of #MAGA, we got #ShitShow! Hah!

Years from now, it will be hard to find anyone who will admit that they voted for the Orange-Headed Idiot. Just like no one voted for Nixon. But at moment the Dolts are still in deep denial. Shite!

"A Crime in Progress."

You think this must be a parody account. No such luck. Sorry, I mean, Happy New Year, right? But, I must say, "WTF!" We have a very unwell person in the White House. Very, very unwell. Unsound of mind, of heart, of soul. 

Two megalomanical madmen. Let's hope neither button works. Can we unconnect those things?! And put those guys in rubber rooms?  Please?!

Of course, not only is he unwell, but he is a Russian Asset...

This morning, Glenn Simpson & Peter Fritsch, the founders of Fusion GPS, have an "opinion piece" in the NYT about "The Steele Dossier" and Republicans Fake Investigations.

More blockbuster stuff: 

"Yes, we hired Mr. Steele, a highly respected Russia expert. But we did so without informing him whom we were working for and gave him no specific marching orders beyond this basic question: Why did Mr. Trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun?

What came back shocked us. Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the Kremlin to help elect Mr. Trump president. Mr. Steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the F.B.I."

Trump vs. the Deep State!

This is probably the most important article you could read this morning. Enlighten yourself this 2nd day of 2018: Benjamin Wittes' "Why Trump's War on the Deep State is Failing - So Far."

Clear-headed. Well-reasoned. Backed up with facts. Yes, Trump has disfigured, disgraced, disrupted our Country. He has attacked the Rule of Law, the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, all that he derides as the "Deep State."

But, thankfully, the Deep State is pushing back. And they do have the facts and the law on their side. We should all be rallying to embrace the Rule of Law, the Constitution, a free and fair Justice Department.  This is a fight for the soul of the country... stay tuned...

Blue 2018!

I am starting 2018 at the bottom. Rock bottom. I mean, I suppose there is farther to fall, but I can't imagine it, or okay, that's not correct, I can imagine it, but it is frankly unimaginable. There is pain, suffering and misery, there is death, there is deep, dark, blackness, those are the things I contemplate not contemplating.

I am a hopeful soul. It's just built into my DNA. Not sure where that comes from, but it's my go-to mode. Still this first day of 2018 seems pretty damn bleak. Sub-zero. Insanely cold. And if I am to be honest with my self, prospects for the New Year don't seem all that great.

I mean that all-around. Lots of fears, worries, concerns... prospective failures. So how do I turn this darkness into gold? I imagine that I am at the bottom, and can't fall through the cracks to a certain Hell, so maybe I touch bottom, and spring back up to the surface, renewed. Like a birth experience.

I am listening to Elvis Presley's "Sun Sessions" this morning. The birth of r&r. The touchstone. The lodestar. The music is basic, simple - guitars, acoustic bass, a stark combo, fronted by a supremely weird, unconventional, spooky-strange voice. This morning even these Sun Sessions seem a bit dark. Out of time. Sort of Hermetic. Otherworldly. Lost. 

"Blue Moon"

(R. Rodgers - L. Hart)

Blue moon,

You saw me standing alone,

Without a dream in my heart,

Without a love of my own.

Blue moon,

You knew just what I was there for.

You heard me saying a pray for

Someone I really could care for.

Blue moon,

You saw me standing alone,

Without a dream in my heart,

Without a love of my own.

Blue moon...

Without a love of my own.