Green Eagle

100 Days Memorial Edition.  Although having our White House packed with fascists and outright Neo-Nazis sure makes the ravings of these pathetic lunatics seem less important. Guy Benson, Town Hall:  " Liberal Myth-Busting: Yes, 'The Rich' Are Already Paying AT LEAST Their 'Fair Share' in Taxes" Fair, as defined by rich people. Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Report: As Moderates Balk Over New Deal, GOP Working on More Tweaks to Obamacare Repeal Bill" Or, in plain English, Republicans working on exactly how piggish they can make their health care bill and still ram it down people's throats.  Here's a little more from Guy: "Dan McLaughlin snarks, "shutting down the government over healthcare is totally okay now, you guys." Well, you know what?  Shutting down government to keep millions from losing their health care is okay.  Shutting it down to take health care away from millions is not okay.  Get the difference there?  

This is something that I, among many honest people, have been pointing out for years, but as it is virtually ignored by the mainstream press, it's just as well to bring it up once in a while:  Republican States are overwhelmingly recipients of Federal tax money that is extorted from Democratic States.  Of course, we constantly hear the exact opposite from Republicans- that the hard working real Americans in rural areas are robbed to support those brown and black people in the cities, so we need to bring up the truth on occasion. Here's a recent article from Buzz Flash,  entitled "Blue State Voters Subsidize Southern Red State Voters, Not the Other Way Around," which makes this point, and is well worth taking a look at.  It is illustrated with the following map, which pretty much says it all: This shows the Southern States that live off of the earnings of the rest of us.  A sample of the article: "Nine of the ten states with the largest percentage of nonpa

NOTE:  Revised to add points VII and VIII below. Calls for what?  Those are the first words of the Washington Post story about the pathetic one page "tax plan" released by the Trump administration today.  Before even looking at the actual contents of that page, I would like to write the first sentence of what would have been my strictly neutral report on this earth-shaking event: "Trump reveals intent to ram through the same massive tax cuts for the rich that Republicans have been pushing for a century, larded with the bare minimum of supposed cuts for everyone else- cuts that will miraculously largely disappear before the bill is enacted- to delude his greed-maddened, stupid supporters into destroying their children's future for a few bucks thrown their way." Okay, now we have the pre-written view from both sides.  Let's look at Trump's proposal and see who is closer to the truth. I.  Cutting the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%- that i

And now this news, helpfully brought to us by Yahoo: "Rabbit set to be world's biggest dies on United Airlines flight in fresh PR disaster...Simon, a three-foot continental rabbit, was reportedly travelling from Heathrow to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after the 10-month old bunny was purchased by a celebrity owner. But breeder Annette Edwards has now claimed that the animal was on course to grow even bigger than his father Darius – who became the world’s biggest rabbit after growing to 4ft 4 inches." Here's a picture of Simon's father: USA Today reports that a third of all animal deaths on US flights the last five years occurred on United Airlines. Apparently, there really is something going wrong with United, as stories about their malfeasance seem to be in the news every couple of days.  I can't pretend this is as important a story as whether Trump has decided to incinerate the world today, but I'm sure you all appreciate seeing the picture o

Today, Donald Trump, the World's Toughest Negotiator, caved on his signature issue, which he promised his supporters to do, literally hundreds of times: building his great wall. He can't even get his own party to go along with him.  But of course, it's all the Democrats' fault for refusing to accept his offer of not kicking millions of people off of health insurance if they would help him get some kind of propaganda victory before his first hundred days are up, on Saturday. Do you think this is the point where the mainstream press will start covering him solely and utterly as the miserable, worthless failure that he is? Do you think this is the point where his approval rating among the people who voted for him will fall below 96%? Nope.

Remember when Devin Nunes was proving that both he personally and the House "investigation" into Donald Trump's clear treason were dedicated to nothing but covering up the truth?  Remember when everyone in the media was saying that it was just fine to have these people collaborating in this monstrous crime, because we were being assured that the Senate investigation was determined to get to the bottom of the whole thing? Was there anyone out there who bought that?  Outside of the mainstream press, of course, which is paid to swallow garbage like that on a daily basis?  Why, Republican Senator Richard Burr told us over and over again that he was serious about this inquiry, and Democratic ranking member Mark Warner was right there to be a character witness for Burr.  Hallelujah, government was going to function at last! Here's a disturbing, but totally predictable article from Tim Mak at the Daily Beast, detailing the state of the Senate committee's investigat

I just found this random quotation by accident the other day: "...no man needs ever despair of gaining proselytes to the most extravagant hypothesis, who has art enough to represent it in any favourable colours. The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of the army." - David Hume, Treatise on Human Nature So, I thought I would start off by featuring a few of the wingnut reactions to yesterday's marches for science, across the country.  Sorry, they just ignored it, so I will settle for second best by reminding you whose birthday it was yesterday: I'm almost certain that this picture is a photoshop job, since by my highly scientific calculation, Lenin died  35 years before the ES-335 was invented, but you never know.  I for one never knew when Lenin's birthday was until wingnuts discovered it was the same day as Earth Day, and (of course) built several decades of conspira

I ran one of these pictures only a couple of days ago, but I think it's worth seeing them together. March against Trump today: Pro Trump march last week: We've been lied to so systematically about which side the American people are really on, with billions of dollars of Republican money spent to push the myth, and a willing press to pump it out. Do not believe it.  Republicans win elections through massive smear campaigns, totally lying about what they and their opponents advocate, and pervasive vote rigging all across this country.  Now this has been augmented with their treasonous collaboration with a foreign dictator who wants to prevent any strong leadership in this country, and what you see above turns into electoral victories for a party that works against every interest of the American people.  Sad to say, it's worked out great  for them; digital age sabotage of democracy has proven far easier than even their worst backers thought it would be. It didn'

From Yahoo UK News today: "Russia sends troops to North Korea border as tensions escalate...A report from primemedia.RU claims: ‘Railway trains loaded with military equipment moving towards Primorsky region via Khabarovsk have been noticed by locals. A military official added: ‘The movement of military equipment by different means of transport to southern areas is being observed across Primorsky region over the past week.’ The movement comes only a day after Russia and the US clashed at the UN over a UN security council statement, drafted by the US, which condemned North Korea’s latest failed test." Not totally confirmed yet, but that's all we need- another superpower being sucked into the morass Trump has created by his grotesque mishandling of North Korea's government.  North Korean leaders have been acting in the same belligerent manner for decades, and every previous President, even the village idiot George W. Bush, has managed to respond in an adult mann

Here is a story that has bothered me for some reason, but seems to have been taken by the mainstream press as just a minor aberration in Donald Trump's behavior.  Trump has a visit to England planned in the fall.  As part of his trip, he has demanded that he be allowed to ride along with the Queen in the royal coach. Maybe it is difficult for someone without familiarity with the country to appreciate what a colossal insult this is- it's like demanding that he be allowed to wear the crown.  You could, I suppose, just chalk this up as another example of Trump's pathological need to bully and humiliate everyone he comes in contact with, and that would be true; but I think there is more to it than that. I commented a little while ago about Trump's replacing his top advisers one by one with members of his own family.  My thought was that, as he has taken power, his megalomania has grown, and merely being President is not enough for him.  He is coming to think of himself

I've noticed that I hardly seem to post anything these days but really short stories.  This bothered me until I looked at the current news, and realized that there is hardly any analysis needed for things like this: President of United States says that Korea used to be part of China Senior Republican says it's okay for the United States to destroy the countries of China, Japan and North and South Korea, as long as we are okay. Top on air personality at smear factory gets $200 million dollars to lie the American people into electing a dictator, gets fired, but not for that. President lies to world about where he is sending our navy, in order to bully a foreign country. Vice President says that it's okay to murder foreign people, in order to send a lesson to other foreign people. President has as a guest at the White House a person who threatened to shoot his opponent. President makes remarks indicating he doesn't know the difference between the head of Nort

So everyone on the left is so excited that Bill O'Reilly is leaving Fox News.  Not me, no sir.  Consider the reality of O'Reilly's career there. He worked for Fox News for about 20 years, spewing the most vicious pack of hatred and lies he possibly could.  For this he was paid millions; his salary at the end being about $18 million a year. So let's be cautious here and guess that, over the years this scum was paid about $200 million for his contribution to the country's well-being.  Just before leaving, he signed a new contract with Fox News, which they are apparently going to honor, perhaps netting him another $60 or $80 million.  And now that he is gone, he will just be replaced by one of ten thousand essentially identical right wing robots who are willing to sell their souls to the devil. Not a bad deal for O'Reilly, who must have known his dirty deal couldn't last forever; Fox has made him rich beyond anything he could have ever imagined, and he does

Lindsey Graham, one of the two Republican Senators alleged throughout the mainstream media to actually be sane, spoke out today about Donald Trump's infantile warmongering: "Yes, it would be terrible, but the war would be over there, it wouldn't be here...It would be bad for the Korean peninsula, it would be bad for China, it would be bad for Japan, it would be bad for South Korea, it would be the end of North Korea but what it would not do is hit America" An unprovoked military aggression by the United States might result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in four countries, cause massive destruction and result in political disruption and a refugee crisis similar to what we are now seeing in Syria.  But who cares?  None of these people belong to the groups the Republican party panders to, and let's not forget that none of their citizens are white.  So who cares who we kill, as long as we can reverse the decay of support for the worst Pr

I guess I should note that Trump's popularity in the newest Pew poll hit 39%, the first time it has dropped below 40% in this poll, and in fact the lowest number a President in his first term has ever hit in the Pew poll. Those bombs didn't work to stop his slide into Dick Cheney poll territory.  Well, I guess there is only one place for him to go now: And I wish I could say I am kidding.  I guess there is an actual chance that the military would refuse Trump's demand to unleash a nuclear weapon on some innocent country, but that is just about our only hope, as Trump made it clear in intelligence briefings that he cannot for the life of him figure out a reason not to launch a first-strike nuclear weapon. If things keep going bad for him, we are very rapidly going to reach the point where starting a real, hot war is his only option to preserve himself, and we sure as hell know that the fate of anyone else won't play a part in his calculations.

The disappearing carrier strike group!  Last week, Donald Trump threatened North Korea by claiming that the strike group built around the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was on its way over there, to threaten the North Koreans with bombing raids and God knows what-all. Well, there they are, but not on their way to North Korea.  Turns out they are going to the Indian Ocean, to participate in long-planned annual exercises with the Australian navy. So the world is now burdened by two nuclear armed lying bullies, each threatening the other with war, and each lying through his teeth, for the real purpose of inciting support for war among his populace.  No matter that their attempts to maintain a grip on their positions are each directed at a mentally unstable adversary with the power to do immense harm and, apparently, without much understanding of the risks of their bullying. As I have mentioned, it's sort of like the Cuban missile crisis, if John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev ha

We have just learned this, from our Vice President: “Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan,” Pence warned. “North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region.” The bombing in Afghanistan may have killed close to a hundred people; we do not know about casualties from the Syria bombing.  These people were killed to send a message to another country eight thousand miles away.  That is not a military response; it is murder. I'm not going to waste my time or yours raving about what our country should do about a President who is nothing but a common thug and murderer; we all know that.  It is not going to be done, and I guess that is the end of the story, at least until he leads us into carnage we can't back out of.

Just for the record, there was a pro-Trump march in Philadelphia today.  And here it is: How long will our mainstream press go on pretending that the Trump wave was anything but a one day phenomenon, generated by billions in spending by right wing sociopaths and a foreign dictator? Sigh, probably forever, or at least until the nuclear weapons start going off.  They really will destroy the world for a few months of profits.

I don't have much to say these days, because it is all so obvious, but can I remark what a terminally dysfunctional country we live in when Trump actually didn't voluntarily start a nuclear war this week, and it is interpreted as a move to the center?

Will Trump keep Steve Bannon, or will he fire him and replace him with someone equally nauseating?  Will Trump keep Sean Spicer, or will he fire him and replace him with someone equally nauseating?  Will the Republicans keep Paul Ryan, or will they fire him and replace him with someone equally nauseating? They can play this game forever, and they will.  Every time they kick someone under the train, the ever-cooperative mainstream press will have a thousand opportunities to write stories about how now, everything has changed, and it is our duty to love and obey Trump, and give Congressional Republicans everything their masters want.  This, apparently, is how you create a successful Republican government. If success is defined Mugabe style as staying in power for years, in a country that you drive further into ruin every single day you are in control.

Here we are again!  I think Trump's use of THE BIGGEST BOMB IN THE WORLD has gotten the wingnuts all excited, so they are out in force, dropping their own bombs, if only verbal ones.  I report, you decide- or laugh or ignore or whatever. I am dedicating today's Wingnut Wrapup to Jeffrey Lord, a brain dead right wing liar who of course was seen by CNN as so politically astute that they just had to pay him to come on their network and preach the word to the American people, for uttering one of the most offensive political remarks of the last ten thousand years; to wit: "Think of Donald Trump as the Martin Luther King of healthcare" But there he sits, on our TV's, and there he will remain, demonstrating once again the real reason why this country can't find a way out of the wilderness. Cortney O'Brien, Town Hall:  "Ari Fleischer, Both as a Jewish American and a Press Secretary, Empathizes With Spicer" Remember Ari Fleischer?  He was Geor

Remember that saying about the PLO under Yasir Arafat, that "They never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity?"  Well, I'm guessing that Donald Trump is getting ready to have that chiseled into the front of the White House. Faced with a favorability rating dropping like the stock of United Air Lines today, Trump did the only thing he could: try to start a war. So, he shot his sixty missiles off in the hopes of getting the kind of kick that rose the miserable loser George W. Bush up to 90% approval, and what happens?  It takes a day and a half for the White House to blast the whole thing into the past, by committing their usual round of public atrocity. Sure, he will probably temporarily halt his flight path toward a truly Cheneyesque approval rating.  He may even get his numbers from 36% positive all the way up to a stellar 40% or so, at which point the mainstream press will of course be trumpeting about how he's turned everything around now, and is a real

Today's mind-numbingly degraded comment coming out of the Trump White House has to do with the Nazis' use of poison gas: "White House press secretary Sean Spicer created a major headline at this afternoon’s press briefing when he denounced Russia for sticking by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the wake of recent chemical attack on citizens, saying someons “as despicable as Adolph Hitler…didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.” "Spicer made it worse: “I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.” And why might that be?  Why might Hitler have not used Sarin gas?  Maybe because he was such a nice guy?   Let's see if we can find out, something which will take approximately 45 seconds online: "Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by scientists at IG Farben...it is the most toxic of the four G-Series nerve agents made by Germany... In mid-1939, the f

Man, it's been tough lately, finding anything these assholes have to say that doesn't make me want to hit them with a baseball bat several hundred times, but here goes: Matt Vespa, Town Hall:  "Ranking House Democrat On Intel Committee: No Definitive Proof Of Collusion Between Trump and Russia" And there you have their strategy, in the face of treason that even an idiot could see:  No matter how many connections have turned up between Trump and the Russians, no matter how much money has changed hands, no matter how many actions Trump takes to alienate our allies and strengthen Putin's hand, it would never be "definitive proof" in the eyes of Conservatives who still see "definitive proof" that Hillary is running a child rape business in the nonexistent basement of a pizza parlor.  If Trump gave Putin a blow job on national TV and then did a Cossack dance around the stage singing the Russian national anthem, it would "prove" nothin