Green Eagle

Your Republican party. Today, Marco Rubio has lowered himself to making jokes about the alleged size of Donald Trump's penis. And Marco is the choice of the supposedly rational Republicans. Republicans are rapidly evolving the most totally dysfunctional process that could ever be imagined to select their candidate for President.  And the results- Trump, Rubio, Cruz- certainly are what one would expect when selecting politicians by who could tell the dirtiest joke.

It's only been a couple of weeks since Antonin Scalia kicked the bucket, and today, Clarence Thomas Asked Questions from the Supreme Court Bench!!! Thomas has not asked a question from the bench in over ten years. Things we will never know:  What did Big Nino have to hold over Thomas, to keep him silent for ten years?  Was one Supreme Court Justice being blackmailed by another one? What a question, huh, and what a sad state when we even have to ask it.

The press still doesn't get it, despite daily lessons for decades now.  The latest example: this article in today's New York Times, by Trip Gabriel, which features the following hopelessly deluded comments: "OKLAHOMA CITY — It is one of the prime paradoxes of the 2016 election: A twice-divorced candidate who has flaunted his adultery, praised Planned Parenthood and admitted to never asking for God’s forgiveness is the favorite of the Christian right... Mr. Trump’s appeal with the religious right is debunking some long-held maxims about evangelical voters, showing that they are not monolithic; that they do not fall neatly in step with evangelical leaders, many of whom endorsed Mr. Cruz; and that within evangelical ranks lie fault lines of class and culture." All these years and the press has refused to figure out what should be so obvious:  The "Christian right" is a gigantic con.  None of these guys has really ever cared about a damned thing except...

It's been really hard for me to get up the interest in posting anything lately.  Who can have any doubt about the sick spectacle that is our electoral process this year; and yet the press insists on ignoring the monster in the room, and pretending that everything is just fine.  And that's all they want to talk about. The Republicans had a "debate" a couple of days ago which was virtually devoid of any real content, and which consisted of nothing but the three top vote getters engaging in an insult competition, in which one of them, with Olympic class skills, was clearly going to emerge victorious, having proven absolutely nothing of note. The following picture, which I stole from Crooks and Liars, pretty much encapsulates the whole thing to me: Pretty much says it all, huh? After their depraved performances in the last couple of electoral cycles, I thought the Republicans were going to have to work really hard to sink to an even lower level of depravity, but ...

Digby, at Salon this morning: "At this point, watching Donald Trump calling Ted Cruz the worst liar he’s ever seen and implying that he’s got a mental disorder doesn’t even phase the press. That’s just Trump being Trump. But it is noteworthy that Marco Rubio’s supposedly “high road” campaign is tarring Cruz with the same message. Even poor old Ben Carson gets in on the act, fulminating over Cruz’s alleged “dirty trick” in Iowa in which some of his campaign workers phoned into the caucuses with a bogus report that Carson was dropping out of the race and told them to vote for Cruz instead." Sorry, Digby, but what you should really be spending your energy on is the fact that they are right- Cruz is a compulsive liar, and does have a clear mental disorder, and yet a large number of Republican leaders and people in the press still insist on portraying him as a legitimate choice to be a national leader. In fact the whole Republican party consists of compulsive liars with m...

As the Republican party moves ever closer to out and out rebellion, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the actual text of the federal laws governing sedition.  So, here are the relevant sections of those laws. I want to add that I found it interesting, in reading this, to realize that the Bundys and their cohorts have gone far over the line separating protest from sedition.  It will be interesting to see if the government has the sense to hold them responsible for their behavior. Anyway, here goes. first, a non-legal definition of sedition: "Sedition usually involves actually conspiring to disrupt the legal operation of the government and beyond expression of an opinion or protesting government policy." Well, if this were the wording of the law itself, there is no question that the Republicans are committing sedition in many ways.  The actual laws are not quite so clear cut, but still make an interesting read. 18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious co...

I think it is an appropriate time to give some consideration to the following excerpt, from Article 2, section 2 of the Constitution, that document beloved of all right wingers: "He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law" Please observe that this section does not say, "with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, if they feel like getting off their damned asses long enough to do their job."  The President is required by the Constitution to appoint a new Justice in the case of a vacancy, and the Senate is required to deal with it in a forthright manner, not turn ...

The last time the Republicans won the Presidency without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket. Thanks to Thom Hartmann for pointing that out.

Well, I've got something else to blame Jeb! for, before the world forgets that he exists- he made Green Eagle look like an idiot for predicting that, eventually, the rich guys would have their way, and make Jeb! the Republican nominee. At several points in the last few months, Jeb seemed to be steadying himself and moving back into the race, which should have been easy for him to do given the competition and his huge financial advantage. But every single time, he revealed himself to be the most pathetic candidate that anyone can remember.  And don't tell me that this is a result of some subconscious desire to sabotage himself.  No one gets this far in political life without wanting the prize; it is just that Bush showed a combination of almost unbelievable stupidity and a sense of entitlement unknown outside of the first sons of British Dukes, and the Kardashians. And I guess that I am also guilty of underestimating a force that I have talked about for years, since long be...

We know what a gaffe is supposed to be: when a politician says something really stupid.  What a gaffe really is, if you are a Republican, is when you accidentally tell the truth. The classic recent example was when Representative Kevin McCarthy stated out loud something that everyone in the country with half a brain knows perfectly well: that the Benghazi hearings were a lying political witch hunt designed to destroy Hillary Clinton, with absolutely no substance.  For the crime of saying that out loud, McCarthy had the speakership of the House taken away from him. Well, any number of Republicans have now collaborated in perpetrating the latest gaffe.  This happened in the day after Antonin Scalia died, when they openly announced that they were never going to give a consideration to anyone that Barack Obama nominated. Now, let us deal with the reality here.  Remember those people with half a brain I referred to above?  Well, they all know something else, an...

If you want a real taste of how utterly insane the right is these days, click on this link to a Right Wing Watch post, and listen to the first audio excerpt, which explains how Obama killed Antonin Scalia as part of a pagan human sacrifice ritual. I repeat something I have had to say over and over again.  There is absolutely zero possibility of rational discourse with people like this.  Half insane delusion and half an in-your-face demonstration that they will do anything, no matter how loathsome, to get what they want, this represents something that is beyond the pale of normal political behavior to deal with. If you wonder how the Nazis got the German people to go along with their insanity, the answer can be found in this short excerpt.

Let's just start this Wingnut Wrapup off with this wonderful post by the marauding infant, Ben Shapiro, over at Breitbart: "Antonin Scalia’s Death Could Mark End of Constitution" Now, there's nothing to stop the lizard people from taking over!  Any way, here are some of the wonderful comments from this post: "If either Trump, Sanders, or Hillary gets elected (or one of the GOP Establishment's candidates), the Constitution is indeed finished.  Only Cruz is a Constitutionalist, even many of Cruz's detractors on both sides will admit this.  Save the Constitution 2016! Cruz 2016!" Whatever.  Apparently, believing that the United States should be run by right wing religious lunatics makes you a Constitutionalist.  Those damned liberal teachers never told us that when we went to school. "With Scalia's passing we may not even have elections, O'hammed is now our king. " O'hammed.  That's a new one, even for Green Eagle...

Okay, it's inevitable that, over the coming months, the Republicans are going to constantly refer to the Democratic Senate's rejection of the nomination of the right wing Robert Bork as an example of partisan judicial decisions made by Democrats.  I think we had better deal with the facts of the career of Bork, before the Republicans get too much momentum going on this one. Bork, during his confirmation hearings For those who may not remember, or may have never heard about it, the salient event in the entire career of Bork was the so-called "Saturday Night Massacre."  Briefly, as described by Wikipedia, "The Saturday Night Massacre was the term used by political commentators[1] to refer to U.S. President Richard Nixon's dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal" Cox was a...

With a life long commitment to following the original intent of the Founding Fathers. Yes, you know who I am talking about: one of the greatest legal mountebanks of all time, the recently departed Antonin Scalia. I periodically assembled material from some of his opinions to demonstrate what a farce that piece of right wing propaganda was.  I never got around to assembling it all into a post.  I'd like, today, to deal with just one of the court decisions in which Scalia was the prime mover, that in District of Columbia v. Heller, which vastly expanded gun "rights" in the United States. The material I am quoting comes from Wikipedia , but can be found many other places.  But first, let us remember what the second amendment actually says: Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. So, on to Scalia's basis for his opinion: "The Supreme...

In memory of the late Antonin Scalia, the great champion of original intent, right? I turn for the next remark to another authority: "(The President) shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for..." What the Constitution does not say is that the President shall nominate Judges of the supreme Court, unless he is a Democrat, and Republicans don't want him to appoint one.  It is the President's duty to do that.  It would be a real example of the Republicans' fantasy-world claims that Obama is trashing the Constitution, if he failed to carry out that task. Obama: the only guy who can wreck the Constitution by following it.  Get ready for a Republican tantrum to top all tantrums.  They are all going to be competing with Ted Cruz to see who can ma...

It's about fucking time. At least we've finally seen the end of perhaps the most corrupt person ever to sit on the Supreme Court, and the one with the least respect for the rule of law.  Don't expect me to spend one second feeling anything but thrilled and relieved that this malignant fascist has gone to his eternal punishment.  The only sad thing is that he didn't die in prison, which is where he has belonged at least since he joined four other corrupt Republican Justices to make George W. Bush President. Of course, this monster hasn't been dead more than a few hours, and Republicans are already screaming that Obama has no right to appoint a successor, for reasons that we hardly need mention.  And we all know that even if he appointed Jesus Christ himself, the Republicans are going to do everything they can to frustrate him, so in the chance that a Republican is elected President, we can have another crook on the Supreme Court to replace Scalia.

So, the latest right wing Patriot Revolution came to an end yesterday, the same way they all do-in miserable, humiliating failure. Judging from the belligerent talk of the last four holdouts, we are lucky it didn't end with a few bangs, but instead, it ended for good, I think, when the last guy standing demanded marijuana before he would come out.  At that point, I think, any shred of credibility these people had vanished into the smoke from his bong. Not that this is unprecedented.  The belligerent claims that they are just about to lead a revolution any day now always end in this sort of humiliation, when it turns out that, despite endless national publicity, their uprisings inevitably end up attracting a couple hundred people at most.  If you are interested in more of these ludicrous incidents, I would like to direct you to a post I made in December of 2014, listing a fair number of them which had taken place in the couple of previous years. The truth is that, d...

Cliven Bundy has asked for a public defender.

It's just after 11 PM Pacific time now.  Anyone who sees this needs to turn to Crooks and Liars and spend a few minutes listening to the live audio feed coming right now from the four people left at the Oregon wildlife refuge. I must say that, in my entire life, I have never heard such madness.  These people are in a state where they could do anything.  I won't even characterize it- I can't even begin to find the words to describe the state that these people are in.  The raving about the government is truly beyond belief- and you know how much time I've spent following crazed right wingers.  Well, here is the truth with the mask ripped off, and it is really scary.  Anything could happen at this point.  Please, if you read this post in the next little while, click on the link and listen.  It is truly frightening, and a horrible demonstration of what we have bred by letting these people get away with their malignant idiocy for years. It's real...

So, let's take a look at the New Hampshire Republican results.  I'm going to ignore everyone who got less than one percent, just to make this a little easier. Trump 35.3% Kasich 15.8% Cruz         11.7% Bush 11.0% Rubio 10.6% Christie         7.4% Fiorina 4.1% Carson 2.3% Well, here's the story.  Fiorina and Christie are already out, and Carson is only holding on because he lives in a dream world.  And, we all know that the Republican party is never going to nominate John Kasich, one of the most boring candidates on earth. These people all pretty well break down into two categories- the figures who are acceptable to the big money guys that really run the Republican party, and the insurgents; the candidates for the really, really angry guys.  And, of course, Carly Fiorina, who tried to be both things- a (miserable) CEO and a really angry person, all at once.  That got her all the way up...

I hope I can induce you to take a look at this short video showing the damage inflicted on the Syrian city of Homs by its government: Drone footage over Homs After years of war, parts of Homs, Syria, are crumbling and deserted. New drone footage shows the extent of the devastation. Posted by Channel 4 News on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 And Israel is regularly savaged for being the worst country on earth because they have knocked down houses belonging to suicide attackers. Naturally, you only have to read down a little way in the comments on this video to find people blaming the destruction of Homs on Israel: "West , USA , Isreal (sic) and Arabs states are responsible for all these in Syria"   "constantly dying in Iraq and Syria due to the Government of the United States and Israel"   " typical Zionism Christian blaming Muslim"   "Typical Zionist responses everywhere. Let's blame Muslims and say that they typically blame I...

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars, here is an image that appeared on Ted Nugent's facebook site: The next time that someone tries to tell you that right wingers are the Jews' best friends, show them this. Needless to say, Nugent will be able to get away with this without a shred of consequence, because his hatred is exactly what the right runs on. And by the way, this sort of knocks a hole in the theory that there is no connection between attacking the state of Israel and anti-semitism.

Am I the only one (highly unlikely) or is the press up to its usual Repubican-coddling tricks? Last month, the Democrats had two debates on the weekend.  This was immediately decried by Republicans as a sign of fatal weakness, hiding their agenda from the public, which would supposedly not watch a weekend debate and/or some sort of dirty trick by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz; a claim which was picked up by the Sunday morning talking heads and proclaimed far and wide among the mainstream meda. Well, this week, the Republicans had a Saturday night debate. Not a peep. How strange.

If you don't empty the garbage can, there won't be any room for more garbage, will there?  Of course, some of you may criticize Green Eagle here, bringing up the fact that jumping in the garbage can isn't the same as emptying it, but maybe the garbage will get crushed down so there will be room for more: These days, they're scared of everything: Justin Holcombe, Town Hall:  "Yikes: Iran Flew Drone Over US Aircraft Carrier" Absolute proof, I guess, that Obama is a weak leader, since he didn't bomb the crap out of Iran, using this meaningless act as an excuse. Bryan Crabtree, Town Hall:  "Think Trump’s Bankruptcies Make Him Unqualified? That's Foolish" Proof of how much "success" in business really means to Republicans.  Because nothing makes a person more qualified to be President to today's right wing, than being totally incompetent.  You know, a lot of Republicans have been idiotically screaming for years that the c...

I haven't been posting much lately.  I took a look at a lot of liberal sites that I have bookmarked, and I noticed that many of their writers don't seem to be posting much either.  And I am sure it's not because they have lost interest; it is because there is so little point in saying the same obvious things over and over again, only to have them drowned out by the right wing noise machine and the stupid, corrupt mainstream media. In the official Beltway pundit world these days, Bernie Sanders, a serious, life long liberal politician, with carefully thought out policies which also happen to be supported by a large majority of Americans, is just the same as the loudmouthed racist carnival barker Trump.  And Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most accomplished person to run for President in decades, is the same as the puerile, lying empty suit Marco Rubio. And we know that the mainstream press is going to keep repeating these grotesque distortions of political reality a thous...

Can there be a person in the entire country who would support Ted Cruz after seeing this picture of him and his wife? Really, he could be the second coming of Jesus (as he seems to think he is,) and still, who could stand the thought of having to look at things like this for the next four years?

Here is an aerial view of a place called Amghirar, in the hills of Southern Morocco, from Google Earth.  I just sort of found it by accident: From the air, it appears like we could be looking back through time to 2,000 or 3,000 BC.  What could people think about in a place like this?  What do they feel?  Are they pretty much like us, or are they so foreign that we can't really understand them at all? Looking at this really makes me feel like I am an isolated, very unusual (and not particularly interesting) sort of person, living in the Hollywood Hills, without a clue of the forces swirling around us every day.  I feel a sort of hopelessness at the idea that I can really understand anything. Well, this is probably the most useless post I have ever made.  Sorry if it caused you to think I'm a little deranged.  Nice picture though, huh? A little more:   I mentioned Catal Huyuk in the comments.  Catal Huyuk, in Turkey, dates from about 7...

Who cares?