Green Eagle

So in an interview today, Donald Trump says that he would agree with sending women who had abortions to prison. Shortly afterward, Rachel Maddow had a chance to ask Hillary Clinton about this.  Hillary talked, of course, about the Republican assault on women, and needless to say, she was one hundred percent right.  But I think she missed a larger point here. Trump is attacking not just women with this declaration, but all Americans.  He is asserting that it is just fine to throw people in prison for refusing to accept the dictates of an extremist religion.  This makes him absolutely on a level with people who demand Sharia law.  This is, to me, a very disturbing development in our national political life, and is one more step in the downward Republican spiral to accepting force as a valid alternative, if they discover that they cannot win what they want through elections. A lot of people will ridicule this statement, but then they have ridiculed my predict...

Another in an endless series of posts saying the same thing, but it has to be done. The press and many national political leaders have now reached the point where many of them are willing to admit that, for several times in a row now, the Republican party has managed to throw up a bunch of the least qualified leaders since Kaiser Willie ran Germany in World War I.  And the "speculation" continues about who is responsible for this deplorable situation; is it liberals?  Is it all Obama's fault?  Is it the war on Christians?  Is it the economy, which of course is also the fault of those evil liberals giving things to, well, you know who, who already get far too much of the wealth of this country? And on and on. All of which, of course, is utter nonsense, designed to avoid mentioning the truth, which is so obvious that anyone who cares can see it clearly.  The Republican party realized quite a while ago that they could never get people to vote for their real age...

And their role in tearing this country to shreds.  Here's an excerpt from an excellent article from Esquire, the rest of which is well worth a read: "You know who in the media really created He, Trump? Anyone who laughed at Ronald Reagan's casual relationship with the truth and with empirical reality. Anyone who blew off Iran-Contra. Anyone who draped C-Plus Augustus in a toga after 9/11. Anyone who cast Newt Gingrich as a serious man of ideas. Anyone who cast Paul Ryan as an economic savant, that's who. Anyone who wrote admiring profiles of how shrewd Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were. Anyone who put Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck on the cover of national magazines based simply on their ratings. Anyone who put Matt Drudge on a public-affairs program. Anyone who watched the conservative movement, the only animating force the Republican party has, drive the party further and deeper into madness, they are the ones who share the blame. He, Trump merely has taken the bark o...

I must sadly announce that I have been forced to enable comment moderation today.  I've just been overwhelmed with trolls- it really only takes three or four to totally take any fun out of blogging, and I suspect they are (deliberately) driving other people from reading my blog. So, what I have learned is this characteristic of trolls:  They start out by posting comments that are very wrong, but are at least somewhat related to my posts, then rapidly move to getting more and more irrelevant and vicious, until they end up like Anonymous, calling me a butt fucking faggot, or this Dikran character, saying that my wife must be deeply defective if she is with me.  If I start deleting their comments, after  a short time they will ratchet back the disgusting comments, and being the sucker for free speech that I am, I generally let them come back, at which point the whole sick thing begins again. Well, enough.  I really liked the idea of letting anyone comment, what...

Republicans turning on Trump?  I saw a poll today showing that 82% of Republicans are willing to vote for Trump if it comes to that.  Add the 10% more that will do the same thing, but are ashamed to admit it, and the 8% of Republicans that will "change their mind" by election day, and you have all of them. These people voted twice for George W. Bush.  They voted for Romney when he rubbed his wealth in their faces.  The voted for the guy who picked Sarah Palin to be his vice President.  What in God's name would make anyone think that, when it comes down to it, they won't vote for this race baiting carnival barker too?  They are going to all vote for Trump, no matter how disgusting that is, because if they had any respect for our country they wouldn't be Republicans to begin with. So, those of you who are hoping that a lot of Republicans will stay home in November if the party picks Trump: forget it.  Barring a party coup, he is who we are getting, a...

Not a one of them really believes in God or Jesus, or they wouldn't spend their whole lives doing things that would send them straight to Hell.  The whole thing is a gigantic Kabuki drama with no other intent but to shout down their opponents.  And this applies to the greedy little hate-filled white jerks they call their base, as well to the corrupt leaders. Not much more to say about that-it's pretty obvious when you stop giving them credit for being "religious" and look at how they really behave.

Too soon to report much of the inevitable right wing piggishness, as the Republicans join with ISIS ro make mutual hay out of the Brussels attacks.  Don't worry- it's coming, ready or not.  In the meantime: John Hawkins, Town Hall:  "How Can You Feel Good About Yourself If You Vote For Hillary?" One more delusional act of projection from the people that are getting ready to shame themselves asking you to vote for Donald Trump. Matt Vesta, Town Hall:  "Trump Protestors Block Traffic In Arizona, Get Into Skirmishes With Police Near Trump Tower In NY" Blocking traffic...no comment on Trump supporters beating up protesters.  That's just fine if you are a Republican.  But blocking traffic?  Death penalty!!! And along the same lines: Jazz Shaw, Hot Air:  "Criminal blockades are now apparently the norm at Trump rally protests" Criminal violent assaults by Trump supporters?  No reason to worry about that becoming the norm too.  ...

Well, I guess we can thank ISIS for providing a wonderful opportunity for the Republicans to vent their mindless rage on the people of the Middle East.  The immediate responses of their leading candidates to occupy the Presidency are pretty much as you might expect: Donald Trump:  “Frankly, the waterboarding, if it was up to me, and if we changed the laws or had the laws, waterboarding would be fine,” Trump said. “If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding. You have to get the information from these people.”  “We’re going to get worse and worse. At this point, we cannot allow these people to come into this country, I’m sorry.” Torture and excluding a billion people from the country because of their religion.  Not to be upstaged, we have this from Tailgunner Ted: Ted Cruz:  "We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence," the statement read. "We need to empower law e...

So many lies are going to be told in the next eight months, and so many myths about our country's history that it is unfortunately going to be necessary for us to repeat the truth over and over again, if we have any hope of being heard above the right wing din.  Well, the truth I want to write about today has to do with the real origins of the overwhelming anger and hatred that have flooded the Repubican party's base. I don't want to hear a single person say that it is because the "government" has screwed the white people of this country, or that it is a reaction to Obama's failure to "bring the country together" in the face of Republican leaders who would never let that happen.  I don't want to hear these things- lies told every day by Republican spokesmen- because they are false.  The truth is that the Republican party carefully and deliberately built this base, working away to achieve their goals for nearly a hundred years. I believe that ...

It's been a while.  The wingnuts have been just so boring lately.  Oh well, here goes: Today's Wingnut Wrapup is respectfully dedicated to Malheur occupier Shawna Cox, who has filed a $666 billion dollar lawsuit against the Federal and State governments for being in league with Satan.  It will be most interesting to see how that fares in court.  She is currently locked in a tight competition for Least Likely Lawsuit to Result in a Win for the Plaintiff, with the Kalamazoo Uber driver who went on a killing rampage, and is now suing Uber for $10 million because it caused him to murder six people by making him work too much. Larry Kudlow, Town Hall:  "A Growth Message, Not Catfights, Will Propel the GOP to November Victory" Unfortunately, Larry, catfights are what you've got.  Or maybe ratfights. Donya Jam, Town Hall:  "US and Europe Should Recognize Iranian Elections as a Sham" Great.  Right after we recognize the "election" of George...

Very kindly provided to us by Daily Kos .  And here it is : just go read it. And it provides the answer to the great trivia question of the 2016 election:  Donald Trump has fired many people, but who fired Donald Trump?

Well, here is the secret that none dare speak:  There is no real way to keep people from coming across our borders if they really want to.  Egypt has a border with Gaza that is little more than seven miles long, and now is protected by a flooded moat, and they still can't keep Hamas crazies from entering the Sinai and attacking police and soldiers all the time.  Our border with Mexico is about 2200 miles long, travels through some really desolate and hard to monitor territory, and at other places is marked by a river that can be crossed in seconds.  No wall, no army of border guards, can really stop determined people from entering this country, and we haven't even begun to talk about our 4,000 mile border with Canada, over 800 miles of which is across the Great Lakes- no wall there, and only a 20 mile boat trip away. The truth is that  migration from worse places to better places has existed as long as humans have, and it is like a natural force, relentless an...

So, there have been few American politicians in our lives as openly nasty and hate filled as Donald Trump.  But I think it's time to stop the facile comparisons to Hitler.  These claims prove to me, more than anything else, how knowledge of what Hitler and the Nazis were, has largely disappeared in this country.  Here's a bit of perspective. First of all, the United States in 2016 is facing little compared to the massive trauma of Germany in the 1920's, when Hitler rose to prominence.  Yeah, our last Republican President gave us one of the most humiliating military disasters in history, and Republican economic cant caused a major disruption in the economy.  But, in truth, the Iraq aggression really affected Americans in only very minor ways, compared to World War I Germany, where a large part of a whole generation was killed off, and the people at home suffered immense deprivation, only to lose a war that they need never have entered, and end up being charged ...

I am sure you are desperately anxious to hear the coverage of Donald Trump's Nuremberg Chicago rally today, from the legendary Stupidest Man on the Internet, Wingnut Wrapup's favorite, Jim Hoft.  Well, he has been a busy beaver, producing the following posts before midnight today: "Chicago Rioters Turn on Trump Supporters=> Groping Trump Women Is OK, “They Are Racist White B*tches” "UNREAL!  Ted Cruz Blames Donald Trump for Chicago Rally Cancellation and Violence" "Anti-TRUMP Protesters Scream “F*ck You!” at Families Entering Chicago Trump Hotel" "Sean Hannity:   “Ignorant So-Called Journalists” Are Blaming Trump for Rally Violence" "Perfect. Anti-Trump Goons Scream Profanities at FOX News in Segment on Peaceful Protesters" "OUTRAGEOUS! Megyn Kelly Blames Trump and His Supporters for Violence at Rallies" " Glenn Beck Supporters Protest DONALD TRUMP in Chicago" "BREAKING: TERRORIST BILL...

A photo of a stadium rally for Marco Rubio in his home State of Florida, a couple of days ago: I have a feeling that this does not bode well for Marco's candidacy, and with it, the hopes of the imaginary cadre of responsible Republicans who supposedly exist out there somewhere. So, forty years of Republican hating have finally come together to reduce their Presidential field to the two absolutely most abominable candidates they had- the insane dominionist Ted Cruz, who thinks God put him here to rule the earth, and Trump, a lying, vicious huckster who no sane person would trust for a second. Get ready for months of the mainstream press telling us how the "Washington elites" have failed us, how Obama is equally to blame for this because he failed to turn himself white, and in general, how the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans.  And maybe enough people will believe it, to elect one of these guys, and insure that the United States comes to an inglorious end...

The news these days is so stupid and without real interest, that I have to write about something else, or my blog will die an ignoble death.  I want to start with some straight talk about jobs.  As usual, this involves obvious truths that no one licensed to speak in the mainstream press dares utter in public. And let's start with the main truth:  The jobs are never coming back.  I remember a couple of decades ago, as the "information revolution" was getting going, how all the supposed experts assured us that technology would generate more jobs than it eliminated.  This universally acknowledged "truth" was, I always thought, one of the stupidest notions I have ever heard.  Whatever new jobs were created, why would a business go to the massive expense of investing in new technology unless it cut their end costs; and replacing manufacturing jobs with more expensive high tech jobs cannot possibly do that.  So, even if we succeed in bringing back a portio...

A graphic posted by Jamie Galt, who was shot in the back yesterday by her four year old son.

Eternal thanks to Nancy Reagan, for dying in order to give Republicans something to talk about for a couple of days, other than their party's spectacular ripping off of their masks, and revealing themselves to be the racist, fascist party that they have always been. I wouldn't have thought she cared enough to do that.

This week, we were treated to the spectacle of a debate supposedly designed to help pick the next leader of our country, which involved discussing the size of the leading candidate's penis, and an endless round of cheap, childish insults, but did not include a second of meaningful discussion on a single issue of substance. And going almost unnoticed in all of this, was the blatantly partisan nature of the whole thing.  If any of you are old enough to remember the many, many years when Presidential debates were run by the League of Women Voters, you know that the audience was instructed at the beginning of the debate to show no reaction to what the candidates had to say.  In this "debate," we had an audience, hand picked by Fox News, cheering wildly at every attack on Trump, in a manner as spontaneous as a sitcom laugh track.  Furthermore, we were treated to a number of slides, prepared in advance by Fox, highlighting lies that Trump told; not once was such a thing shown...

So, I was driving to work yesterday morning, the day after Super Tuesday, and I turned on that bulwark of liberal reporting, NPR.  The news comes up at the top of the hour.  One of their people says that there is so much news from the primaries that it is going to take all three of their top news readers to report on it.  So, they go into a detailed conversation about Trump, Rubio and Cruz, complete with a couple of recorded statements from various Republican spokesmen.  This goes on for a few minutes, and then they conclude that segment with (I am not lying to you) one sentence about the Democrats.  One sentence!  And that is from the supposed liberal end of the broadcast spectrum. That's how American voters get the idea that all the excitement, all the important action, is happening on the Republican side of things, and the Democrats are just a bunch of boring, irrelevant hacks. And there's not one thing we can do about it.  I keep repeating thi...

Well, all you hear about to stop Trump any more, thanks to the idiotic behavior of the Republicans, is a "brokered convention," i.e. the rich guys just deciding who the Republican candidate is going to be, regardless of what anyone else wants.  Of course, that is pretty much how the Republican party has worked for a hundred years, but we keep hearing that it is that or Trump, who will lose in November.  I want to suggest that there is a third possibility, which really scares me more than either one of the other two.  And here it is: We've heard a lot of "speculation" about a third party run by Michael Bloomberg, who despite being a multibillionaire just like Trump, the Koch brothers or the Waltons, is somehow being portrayed as a patriotic centrist.  Well, of course, Bloomberg has as much chance of winning the election in November as Pippin the Hobbit.  But here is what he could do:  If a propaganda campaign big enough is mounted in his support, aimed not...