Rantings of a Demented Candidate

This post is the work of my friend, the very creative William Kendall, and is reprinted with his permission.  Please visit him at his blog here.

So, the Republican convention is underway, and I thought I'd take the obnoxious

voice of Donald Trump again and speculate on the sort of crap he might blather on with. Needless to say, finding his voice is highly revolting. And odds are what he actually says will be much worse.

“I’ve just gotta say, folks, it’s great to see all of you out here ready to confirm what we already know: that the only person who can take this piece of crap party back to power is me, me, and me. Donald Trump. Because I am the best. I am the greatest. I do great things, folks. Everybody knows it. They know that the Trump name stands for quality and integrity and all that good stuff.

Hello, Cleveland! Well, those members of the community who got in here, anyway. I don’t give a crap about any of those stupid protesting ****ers out on the other side of the police lines, let me tell you. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in Cleveland, and let’s be honest... this is probably the last time I’ll ever come here, because let’s face it, the place is a hellhole, folks. Hell on Earth, let me tell you. When I get into the White House, I’m gonna build a wall right around this cesspool of a city and turn it into a prison, just like that movie, Escape From Forrest Gump, with Kurt Russell taking shots at Tom Hanks, right? And I’m gonna sentence Rosie O’Donnell to spend the rest of her life right here, believe me. Have I mentioned what a disgusting cow she is? It’s terrible, just terrible.

I know, some smarty pants reporters are going to be saying, hey Donald, you can’t sentence anyone to anything. You’re not a judge. Well, you know what I say to that? **** you! First thing I do when I get into the White House, I’m gonna be passing laws that revoke your rights and let me do whatever the **** I want! Emperor Donald, folks, that’s me.

And let me tell you something, folks. There are a lot of people out there who look at me and they criticize. They dare to question me. They think they’ve got the right to make fun of me. They refuse to bow down and worship me as I so richly deserve.

Well, **** that! Because I’ve got big plans, folks, big plans. As part of naming myself Emperor For Life, Supreme Majestor, and His Stupendous Greatness Lord Donald, which all of you vermin are gonna have to memorize, I’ll be passin’ a law that makes even the slightest criticism of me illegal and punishable by terms of seventy years hard labour in the Donald Trump re-education camps. You heard me right, folks.

Because anyone who makes fun of me, says I’ve got little hands, or thinks my hair isn’t actually real hair, they’re gonna end up there. Along with everyone who voted against me, believe me. Because the Trump campaign is gonna keep track of every ballot and who voted for who and what their social insurance number is. Don’t ask me how we’re gonna do it, we got ourselves a hell of a system. And after the election’s over, we’re gonna be busy settlin’ scores and puttin’ people behind bars and into forced labour and all that great stuff, am I right, folks?

You know what I expect outta life? What I’ve already got. Incredibly hot wife, I mean have you looked at Melania? She’s smokin’ hot and sexy and never in her life would even dream of plagiarizing anything. Let me tell you, folks, she’s almost as hot as my daughter Ivanka. And don’t worry, just because I’ve already divorced twice for younger women every single time doesn’t mean that’s gonna happen again anytime soon.

I haven’t had a chance to go out to Eastern Europe and scope any hot babes for the position of Mrs. Trump #4. Just kidding, believe me, trust me, that’s just a joke. Hey, if I’m lyin’, may lightning strike Justice Ginsberg.

Speaking of the old bat, let me tell you, she’s absolutely disgusting. First order of business after I’ve suspended your rights and all of democracy, I’m havin’ the whole Supreme Court arrested and locked up in my Trump re-education camps. Just because. We don’t need nine morons in black robes lookin’ like something outta a bad movie from what’s his name? Oh yeah, a bad movie from Olaf Bergman tellin’ us what to do. We just need me tellin’ you what to do. Like it was always supposed to be.

Where was I? Oh, right, tellin’ you what I expect outta life. Like I said, I already got that hot wife, and she’s gonna look all hot and sexy and gorgeous and amazin’ as First Lady. I got lots of people sayin’ to me, yes sir and right away, Mr. Trump, and let’s not forget, as you wish, dread lord of darkness. I got all of that. I got respect, let me tell you. I got respect from everybody and everything. I got respect comin’ outta my ass.

Everybody knows what a great guy I am. I mean, the blacks love me, even when I’m dumpin’ all over them or havin’ their homes torn down or plannin’ on revoking the 13^th Amendment. The Mexicans love me. Doesn’t matter if I’m callin’ them rapists and demandin’ they pay for the yuuuuuuuuge wall I’m gonna have built. Muslims love me, even if I think all of them should be kicked outta the country, believe me folks, that’s the first order of business when I get into the White House. Civil liberties, my ass.

Anyway, who else loves me? Women love me. Because every woman wants nothin’ more than to have a rich guy take care of ‘em and tell ‘em what they should do, right folks? Well, to be fair, not every woman. I mean, that Megyn Kelly, she doesn’t seem that impressed with me. Don’t know why, what did I ever do to her? Except that whole thing about blood comin’ outta her whatever. Hey, you know what? I still stand by what I said.

Hey, there’s Scott Baio, ladies and gentlemen, give the great guy a big hand. Did I promise this whole thing was gonna be star studded or what? And we all know that Scott Baio, he’s a hell of a guy, real A-list material. Scott, I’m seriously thinkin’ of havin’ you be my Head Honcho Of Culture, or whatever the **** I’m gonna call it after the dumbasses vote me in. Nobody can do that job better than a truly great actor like you.

It’s great to see Scott out here. And Kirk Cameron. Hey, Kirk, any thought to becomin’ my Grand Poobah of State Theocracy? We’re gonna need one, but you’re gonna have to shift your focus to the Worship of Trump first. Because aside from bein’ an Emperor, I’m elevatin’ myself to god status too.

Hey folks, there’s old Pat Robertson there lookin’ like he’s about to stroke out. Fooled you, did I? You thought you’d be the Grand Poobah of State Theocracy in the United States Of Trump, right? Well, sorry, old man, but that just isn’t gonna happen.

You know who’s not here tonight, folks? Lots of Republicans who are refusing to bow down and acknowledge me as their rightful master. We’re talkin’ two former presidents. We’re talkin’ two former GOP presidential candidates. And yes, John McCain, I still stand by what I said. I don’t like guys who get caught and end up prisoners of war. They’re losers. Losers! I like winners. Winners like me.

And we’ve got plenty of Republicans out there who decided not to show up at all. They made up all sorts of excuses. They snickered when they asked if they’d support me. They said they were busy mowing the lawn this week. Well, boys and girls... mostly boys, because I don’t give a **** about career women. When I’m in the White House, I’m comin’ after every single one of you in this party who show me this kinda disrespect. 

You don’t disrespect a Trump. And what I end up doin’ to the Mexicans and the liberals and the Muslims and the blacks and the Daughters Of The Revolution isn’t gonna be anywhere near as bad as what I’m gonna do to you traitors, believe me, folks, I know what I’m talking about. We’re talking scorched earth, people, the mother of all throwdowns.

That reminds me of my old pal Saddam. You know, when you really got to know the guy, he wasn’t that bad. Sure, he slaughtered lots of people, but he made an effort to take pride in his work. You know who else does that? Winners.

Anyway, I’m gettin’ carried away with myself. Make America Great Again. That’s my motto. That and Donald Trump Is Master Of The Universe. Because let’s face it folks, believe me, I am. Everybody knows that, and when I’m done and Crooked Hillary is spending the remainder of her days in a prison cell, it’s not gonna end there. Because I’m gonna have her daughter and grandchildren serve her sentence after she’s gone. All part of my Destroy Freedoms And Rule With An Iron Fist agenda. Wait, did I say that out loud? I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud. Forget I said anything, okay, folks?

In closing, I just wanna thank my running mate. Mike Pence, governor of that great state of Indiana. This man, folks, he and I think alike. Mike, I swear, you’re not gonna regret hitchin’ your wagon to the greatness that is Trump. I mean, seriously, am I right, folks? We got the best team, the most amazing people workin’ for us, and we got all the suckers believin’ every line of bull we feed them.

Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, can possibly go wrong now. So don’t worry, Mike, we’re goin’ all the way to the White House.

Or as I’m gonna call it, the Trump House." 

Copyright © 2016 by William Kendall

Plagiarizing Trump

Note:  The above from Crooks & Liars comment section.

Stephen Colbert Delivers Best Opening To The RNC Of All: 'Christmas In July'

Okay, has everyone had enough of the lunacy for one night? I sure have, so I was so grateful to laugh my butt off for a few minutes, thanks to our own Heather, who made this clip to close the night. Last call, folks. Enjoy the video, and we'll be back in the morning with more…

Why Trump Must NEVER Become President

Trump And O'Reilly Agree: It's World War III!

Right after news broke about today's attack in Nice, France, Donald Trump cancelled his news conference to announce his VP, realizing that the news cycle wouldn't put enough attention on it. Instead, he headed straight over to Fox News and Bill O'Reilly's show to talk about what he, Donald Trump the (proto)fascist, would do if he…

Ted Nugent Pretends Obama Wants a Race War

Seditious Ted Nugent Pretends That Obama Wants A Race War

Right off the bat, let's define a word that is not commonly used, in fact, I've never heard of it before today. Ephebolphiliac: an adult who is sexually attracted to adolescents. It is mandatory to have knowledge of this abnormal trait, because it's relevant to a person who calls our own President an 'evil man.' Ted…

| Southern Churches and July 4th Celebrations

| Southern Churches and July 4th Celebrations

Make it look like an accident...

Some things are just too funny!

Special thanks to my friend, William Kendall, who blogs here.

Ben Carson Admits Evangelical Leaders Don't Care About Religious Values By Supporting Trump

Donald Trump met with almost a thousand Evangelical leaders yesterday to try and convince them that he's one of them. Dr. Ben Carson joined MSNBC's Morning Joe program earlier today and was by the co-host why evangelical leaders were lining up behind Trump. SCARBOROUGH: Dr. Carson, I want to circle back to yesterday's meeting again and…

Who REALLY Loves Hair Trump?

Reaping the Whirlwind

[Jesus and the rich young man: "You've got to leave it all and follow me!"]

The New Testament character known as Jesus is an enigma.  He preaches and teaches and heals and acts like a biblical prophet.  He's not always consistent which is to be expected for his story was created and then recreated by at least four different people.

For example, he heals some folks, and then simply refuses to heal others with no good reason for doing so.  His curses a fig tree because it is barren and declares it will never bear fruit; but it wasn't the season for figs.

Most of the time he is non-violent, but then he attacks the money lenders in the temple courtyard, which makes no sense for they were doing nothing wrong; they were simply making it easier for people to make sacrifices.  In the Gospel of Matthew he says his ministry is specific to the Jews and the gentiles can go to Hades.  Later in that same gospel he sends his disciples out to the ends of the earth of preach his message to all people.

But some things stand out.  He has no use for hypocrites!  He hates religious phonies who wear their religion on their sleeves (or on the bumper of their cars).

Those who love to stand on the street corner and pray so that they can be seen and applauded by their peers are hypocrites. They have had their reward and what the afterlife holds for them is not going to be pretty.

Jesus said nothing about sex.  His teaching as regards homosexuality is nil.  He recognized government as necessary and useful and thought his followers should support it while realizing they had a different ministry.  He had no intention of changing the world by taking control of the government and bending it to his will or God's will, which in this case, amounts to the same thing for Jesus the man is really God the god.

What he did teach was that those who follow him must give up their luxuries and reach out to the sick, to the poor, to those in prison, and to all who have been beaten down by their own failings or by circumstance.  His followers were not to judge but serve.  Those who can be called by his name will be known, not by what they claim to believe, or what they confess in public, but by their devotion to helping the sick, the poor, the lame, and those who have landed in dungeons of despair.


If there is anything that defines present day Republican politicians, it is their blatant hypocrisy.  They, almost to a man (or woman), profess to love Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to follow Jesus, but it's all a pretense.  In actuality, they couldn't care less!

They parade around the country in their suits of piety spewing their non-biblical views as being God's views and condemning to hell all those who disagree with them.  And they are gleeful about it.  To those they determine are sinners, they cry out happily, "God is going to get you!"


These people are not Christians by any definition of the word.  Pat Robertson is not a Christian.  He is a pagan pervert. Donald Trump is not a Christian.  Not even close.  Paul Ryan may be a Catholic but he's not a Christian.  You could say the same about almost every single Republican congressman, senator, governor, mayor, school board member, etc.

Pat Robertson, in the wake of the Orlando tragedy, wants gays to kill themselves. Donald Trump wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country.  The moron who is governor of Texas tweets that the gays in Orlando had it coming to them. And little pious pompous asses all over the political landscape mimic such nonsense.  In the name of Jesus, of course.


There's a horrendous human being who claims to be a Christian pastor by the name of Kevin Swanson.  Mr. Swanson is from the midwest which is a politically important area for poobahs wanting to be president.

Many Republican politicians believe that in order for them to win political office they have to make nice with Swanson.  That isn't hard, for they share most of his views re religion and society and politics.

Let's look at three of them:  Ted Cruz,  Mike Huckabee, and Bobby Jindal.  All three are self-proclaimed Jesus lovers, Christians extraordinaire, and all three want to "bring our country back to Jesus" so God will bless it once again, which generally means the poor will get poorer, the rich will get richer, the minorities will get lost and fundamentalist Christians will get the power.

Cruz is a fundy, a crazy fundy who has been anointed by self-appointed "apostles" to somehow help these true believers take over not only the government but all major areas of life.  He had been anointed to become president but evidently his god didn't get the word in time.  Huckabee is a hack of a Baptist preacher who exemplifies all the really bad things about Southern Baptists; he also has sold his soul at the altar of money.  Jindal is a Roman Catholic.  Actually, he's more of a fundamentalist than a Catholic, but he also believes it is his duty to make the government into a Christian power to force his version of religion upon all people.

In the wake of the recent horror in Orlando, all three of them used the social media to express their concern for the survivors and their families.  Oh, you should read such sad sorrow and gnashing of teeth.

Don't believe a word of it.

Just a few months ago, these three phony Christians attended a rally led by the self-appointed pastor, Kevin Swanson.  It was called the National Religious Liberties Conference and was basically a Republican presidential candidate rally.

Pastor Swanson stood before the attendees and spewed his usual message of hate which he claims he must do because that's what his god requires.  Part of that message of hate was to call for gays to be put to death.

He said god wants gays to be put to death.

Then he introduced and shook hands with the three would-be presidents.  Their silence in the midst of this horror was palpable.  None of them said a word.


So, when you read they sent heartfelt condolences to the families and survivors of the Orlando massacre, remember the bitter root of hypocrisy that grows the tree that these and most other Republican politicians hide behind.  Their claim to be Christian should fall on deaf ears for if there is one thing they are not, is Christian.


Finally, they, along with all the other right-wing fundies who have preached hatred of gays, must assume some responsibility for what happened in Orlando.  For they have sowed the wind and we have reaped the whirlwind.  

The Face of Neo-Fascism

Ken Burns Warns Stanford Graduates To Make Donald's Defeat Their Top Priority

Filmmaker and historian Ken Burns took to the podium at Stanford University's commencement this weekend to warn graduates of the impending threat Donald Trump poses to the American experiment, and he did not mince words. Rather than try and excerpt it, I'm going to simply put the entire transcript here, courtesy of Media Matters. For 216…

Congressional Republicans are Traitors

I am enraged as should be every other person who cares about the United States of America.

In 2008, Congressional Republicans, took the position that they would bring down these United States rather than treat President Obama as if he were the real, actual, elected president of the country.

Republican leaders publicly declared they would rather see the United States default on a variety of issues rather than to work with the president on solving the problems faced by the country.

Now, we have a Supreme Court nominee waiting in the wings for the Republicans in Congress to do their sworn duty.  They refuse to do so.

The following is from Shakesville:

"How unusual is the Republican blockade of the nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court? After a comprehensive look at every past Supreme Court vacancy, two law professors have concluded that it is an unprecedented development. ...In every one of the 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the professors wrote, the president was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement with the Senate's advice and consent."

Based upon the evidence before us, we can only conclude that these Republicans are, in fact, traitors.  They have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and defend the country.  Their continued failure to do these things constitutes treason!

The Republican Descent into Political Hell

This is from an article at Daily Kos titled "The Dark Truth of John Boehner's Resignation."  You can read the entire article here.

The quote is attributed to Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein and explains well why at this time in our history the Republican standard bearer is the ignorant bully, the loud-mouthed con man, the deceitful lying fraud:  Donald Trump.

It also explains why Republican leaders, past and present, can look at Trump and even mention the fact that he is completely unqualified to be president of the United States, while at the same time claim to support him, which is very much like making a pact with the Devil to retain the false promise of power.

Mann and Ornstein say:

One of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier — ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

D. Trump - pathologal. liar. fraud. con artist. petulant. toddler.

And from Crooks & Liars, in regard to Republicans having to try to calm the fears of our South Korean allies relative to Trump's foreign policy nightmares:

This is only the beginning of what the Republicans will have to face, the

"consequences of nominating a pathological liar and petulant toddler as their presidential candidate."

There is more here.

Michelle Obama: 'In America We Don't Build Walls To Keep People Out'

Withering indeed. Michelle Obama makes the idea of 'Trumpism' unthinkable. Source: The Guardian Michelle Obama has delivered a withering attack on Donald Trump, warning a graduating class of New York students, and through them America, that those who seek to rule by intimidation and fear end up diminishing the hope and freedom of their nations. Without…

Trump Enters Rally To One Of Hitler's Favorite Songs

Donald Trump held an unhinged rally in San Jose tonight. Clearly Hillary Clinton's harsh criticism of him earlier in the day unsettled him enough to really turn up the heat. In addition to confusing his wife with his daughter, Trump staged his entrance to one of Adolf Hitler's favorite tunes, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. I've…

Comrade Trump Sings Songs Of Love

Comrade Trump promises that under his regime he will... ...tell American companies what they can produce and where they can produce it. ...tell American companies who they can hire and how much they will be paid. ...use the power of government to keep American workers working in dying industries despite what the market says. ...conquer inferior…

The Republican Jesus

Thanks to Crooks & Liars.

Why Trump's Fake Publicist Charade Matters: A Closer Look

Why is Google sponsoring Trump’s hate?

Da Trump Said These Things About Women

Trump IS Evangelical Christianity

March 1, 2016 by James Croft from Patheos.

A Peter Wehner Opinion Piece in the New York Times today laments the ascension of Donald Trump as the anointed candidate of American Evangelicals, expressing amazement that Trump “won a plurality of evangelical votes in each of the last three Republican contests” and has gained the endorsement of prominent evangelical leaders. “If this embrace strikes you as discordant, it should,” Wehner writes, before outlining all the ways in which Trump should be unacceptable to evangelicals.

As an English atheist I’m an outsider both to American politics and to Christianity. Perhaps that’s why I see things differently: Trump is not a perversion of American Christianity, but its apotheosis. What Wehner calls “inexplicable” – the appeal of Trump among evangelical Christians – I see as totally predictable, even inevitable: Trump is the creation of a fetid political culture which has been fostered, for decades, by the religious right.

Wehner complains:

Mr. Trump’s character is antithetical to many of the qualities evangelicals should prize in a political leader: integrity, compassion and reasoned convictions, wisdom and prudence, trustworthiness, a commitment to the moral good.

He is half right. Trump is antithetical to these qualities. Yet American evangelicals – for decades the most prominent face of American Christianity – have long eschewed them. That they do so now by supporting Donald Trump should come as no surprise: they are merely continuing their sordid tradition. It feels strange to say it, but not supporting Trump would, for the religious right, be the hypocritical move.

Why do I say this? Because the religious right in America has always been a political philosophy based on bullying, pandering, projecting strength to hide fear and weakness, and proud, aggressive ignorance. That’s what it’s been about from the beginning. Trump has merely distilled those elements into a decoction so deadly that even some evangelicals are starting to recognize the venom they have injected into American culture.

American evangelicalism has never supported “reasoned convictions”: the religious right has long supported the teaching of anti-scientific material in public schools, alongside the imposition of their religious views on others using the power of the government (the popular campaign to emblazon “In God We Trust” on police cars being the most obvious current example).

Neither wisdom nor prudence are served by evangelicals’ insistence on abstinence-only sex education, which unwisely and imprudently increases rates of teen pregnancy while effectively lying to children about their own bodies.

The purported evangelical value of compassion is poorly evidenced in their decades-long campaign against the rights of LGBTQ people: organized homophobia in the USA is an essentially religious activity, with evangelicals leading the charge to deny us equal rights. At every step on the journey to LGBTQ equality evangelicals have formed our primary opposition, mounting well-organized, well-funded, and often viciously personal campaigns against our rights. Compassion, indeed!

And nowhere in the constant alarmism of the religious right – “America is under threat from godless progressives who wish to destroy our freedoms!” – do we find anything approaching “a commitment to the moral good.” The religious right wants an America that is good for them and to hell – literally and metaphorically – with everybody else.

Where is Jesus in this? Nowhere. Jesus never was and never has been the focus of politicized US evangelicalism. It is transparent to anyone who views the megachurch spectacles of a Rick Warren or a Joel Osteen that the story of Jesus is useful only insofar as it offers a vehicle for the regressive right-wing politics these pastors prefer. Jesus has become the ultimate fig leaf, a flimsy shroud to drape over social views which would otherwise be revealed as nakedly evil. That the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump makes perfect sense: they are shamelessly self-promoting bigots who, to give just one sample from a lifetime of grotesqueries, blamed the 9/11 attacks in part on feminists and gays. These are precisely the sort of people Trump should appeal to. I’m surprised by Wehner’s surprise.

What appalls more genteel conservative evangelicals about Trump, this outsider suspects, is not his views or his character, but that he is saying so blatantly what their movement has always believed, ripping off the fig leaf to display the tortured form beneath. They are looking in a Trump-shaped mirror, and don’t like what they see.

See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/templeofthefuture/2016/03/trump-is-evangelical-christianity/?

We Are Governed by Children!

We'll begin first with a few of the Republican candidates for president, the dumbest and most ignorant of which is probably Ben Carson.

Ben Carson has said so many stupid things in the course of his candidacy that they would fill a book.  

He’s still out there, pretending he can become president because…well, he’s really a black man and president Obama is not.  You see, says Carson, Obama was raised “white” and therefore does not understand the black experience.

Ben Carson is dumb as a stump about too many things.  He may be 64 years of age, but he’s still a child.

Marco Rubio is a child also.  He’s lied consistently about his background and how his family came to the U.S. from Cuba.  He is a non-entity in the Senate to which he should never have been elected in the first place.

Rubio is not very bright.  As Paul Krugman says, “His notions on foreign policy seem to boil down to the belief that American can bully everyone into doing its bidding, and that engaging in diplomacy is a sign of weakness.  His ideas on domestic policy are deeply ignorant and irresponsible, and would be disastrous if put into effect.  

In other words, he’s a George W. Bush clone but not quite as bright as Bushki.

Now consider D. Trump.  Yesterday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast he put a couple pieces of bacon - a banned food for Muslims - inside the Quran.  

He said he was “just fooling around.”

That’s our not-so-presidential presidential candidate, D. Trump.

He probably wasn't happy with the news that he really doesn’t have much pull in the city of New York.  According to those in the "know," he’s not one of the players although he pretends to be.  He’s 2nd-rate when it comes to New York in that his holdings and businesses there don't compare with the real powers in Gotham.  Some of the banks don’t want to do business with him because he can’t be trusted to do what he says and he doesn’t pay his bills.

Then there’s this little tidbit which I discovered, that so far has stayed under the radar, but I think speaks volumes as to Trump's character.  In John Feinstein’s book, “A Good Walk Spoiled,” which details life on the PGA Tour back in the early 90s, Feinstein says that at the 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Trump was paired with Paul Goydos.  Goydos, a relatively unknown on the Tour, was surprised and wondered why.  He was told, “‘This way it will be Donald Trump’s group.  If we put him with a big name, then he would be shoved into the background."

Trump is a decent golfer and he actually shot a hole-in-one during the tournament.  He told his friends there were 5,000 people who saw him accomplish that feat.  Goydos said it might not have been more than 50.  Also, while out on the course, Trump talked to Goydos about a sponsorship deal which was music to the struggling pro's ears, but Trump never followed through.

A sponsorship deal did happen the next year when Goydos was paired with Jack Olsen, Hertz’s chairman of the board.  Goydos and Olsen worked out a deal where Goydos got $50,000 for wearing a Hertz hat and carrying a Hertz bag for the rest of the year. 

As Feinstein put it:  “Trump talked.  Olsen produced.”

Ted Cruz.  He’s the darling of the far-right evangelicalistas.  He’s the one anointed by the Dominionists to take over the U.S. and then the world.  God wants him to be president.  Just ask his crazy father!  

Ted has no morals, no ethics, does not believe in the American system of government and by his words and actions demonizes the United States Constitution.  He would break down the wall separating church and state.  He has no empathy with people, either, recently stating he would eliminate the serving of gluten-free meals in the military.  On this issue he is also either totally uncaring or just plain ignorant.  He seem to think gluten-free is some kind of liberal plot having to do with political correctness when in fact, for many people, to eat gluten means sickness and death!  

He’s a child-man.  

One of those stumping for Cruz is the Duck Dynasty dumbass, Phil Robertson, who is a racist, a misogynist, and homophobic scumbag but thinks Cruz is the right person for the White House.  And Cruz, who will pander to any moron who will vote for him suggested if he’s elected he’ll appoint the Duck Dynasty fool as ambassador to the United Nations!

Not to be outdone by the temper-tantrum child, D. Trump, Cruz also wants to build a BEEG fence to keep all the Mescans out of our fine country.  Heh, heh.  Nobody told him that more Mescans are going back to Mexico than are coming here.  It ain’t so hot here anymore for the folks who do the crap labor nobody else wants to do.

The Republican children in Idaho are mostly rightwing Christianists so it's not too surprising they want the Bible to take center stage in our public schools.  

To ensure this happens the Senate’s education committee has put forth Senate Bill No.1232 which “expressly” permits the Bible to be used to “further the study of literature, comparative religion, English and foreign languages, United States and world history, comparative government, law, philosophy, ethics, astronomy, biology, geology, world geography, archaeology, music, sociology, and other topes of study where an understanding of the Bible may be useful or relevant.”

Unfortunately, the Bible is not a good source for information on any of these topics but more to the point, it is unconstitutional!  This bill would be laughed out of town by adult legislators.  But we have too few of those these days to make much of a difference.

The Republican members of the Oklahoma legislature, also children, are dealing with a piece of legislative crap which would basically drop all regulations and rules for the public schools.  

Now, because these stupid childish legislators have had their way before, private and charter schools in Oklahoma are already exempt from the normal regulations.

Here is what this bill means for the public schools:  (from Daily Kos)

Elimination of the teacher's minimum salary schedule.

Elimination of the requirement for school districts to participate in the Oklahoma Teacher's Retirement System (OTRS).

Elimination of school district provided health insurance.

Elimination of criminal background checks on school employees.

Elimination of teacher evaluation and due process protections.

Elimination of payroll deduction.

Elimination of due process protections for support staff.

Elimination of all certification requirements for all school district positions.

Elimination of negotiations between a school district and employees.

Elimination of student curriculum requirements.

Elimination of required continuing education for local board of education members.

Those of us who are adults should also be aware that his is part of the Koch-inspired attempt to rid our nation of all public schools.  The above is just one way of achieving that goal.

And then down in Iowa, Republican children in the legislature are considering a bill which would allow children of any age to shoot guns.  This bill, they say, puts the power back where it belongs, in the hands of the people.

Okay, but why stop there.  Let's give the people all power.  Let’s no longer have any speed limits; let’s no longer have any laws at all.  The people can decide what is best for them and their families and their neighbors.  

This is all so sad.  The children who lead us say over and over again, because they are children, “You can’t tell us what to do!”

Or, as so many Republicans put it today, “We don’t need no damn guv’mint!”

Every Voter Needs To Know This About Ted Cruz

Educational Levels in the United States

The following was sent to me by a friend.  It tells a tale that we need to heed.  Instead, the people who govern us currently are doing everything they can to destroy our public schools.

This map shows how states could be renamed based on education levels within them.  Americans like to think they are #1 in everything, but when it comes to education, the U.S. quickly loses boasting rights. Math and science are particularly rough: U.S. ranks 28th in the world for those subjects. Although we may be a developed nation, when education is broken down by state, we aren't all that different from countries that are more economically challenged.

HomeSnacks.com used information from the U.S. high school graduation rates from the U.S. Census and compared them against the education index of each country from the United Nations Development Program.  The result? A map of the U.S. with each state renamed as the country that resembles their level of education.

h/t to Lou Cardamone

The Holy Quran Experiment

Scalia's Black Beemer by Greg Palast

Scalia's Black Beemer By Greg Palast | for OpEdNews 

It was one of our team’s weirder investigative discoveries: The recently departed Justice Antonin Scalia – aleha hashalom – in 2011, was ticketed for recklessly driving his black BMW. To his family, I offer condolences. To my readers, I offer the facts. A man's soul must be laid to rest, but history must not be buried as well, especially now that the Justice's passing has become grounds for stories that border on historical obscenity, cf. the New York Times "Liberal Love for Antonin Scalia". Love?? Well, if you want a Valentine, this ain't it.

There's been a lot of gleeful chuckling, for example, about Scalia's courtroom bench "humor." But behind his jokey comments lay a cruelty aimed at the poor, the injured, the Beemer-less class that turns to the Court as the last hope for protection against corporate and state violence.

Here’s a telling example of Scalia’s humor from a crucial voting rights case. In 2005, Indiana's Republican legislature passed a law barring the vote to anyone without current state photo ID. The excuse: an official ID would prevent voter fraud – despite the fact that the state had not found, in over 100 years, even one case of a voter illegally impersonating another.

The media did get a laugh out of the ten nuns who were turned away from an Indiana polling station because the sisters' driver’s licenses had expired. The nuns were in their eighties and nineties. Their licenses had expired, though they had not. Tough luck ladies, you lose your vote.

Bobby Kennedy and I covered the cute story of the nuns; but we also wrote about the unnoticed 78,000 African-Americans in Indiana who lost their right to vote because they did not have the right ID to vote. A disproportionate number of African-Americans lack cars, and therefore driver’s licenses; and only a few, apparently have passports for weekends in Paris.

Get a free copy of the investigative report – in comic book form, Steal Back Your Vote

Civil rights groups sued, stating the obvious: that the Indiana law is racist in its operation, a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Black folk, the elderly, students, and poor whites – were all blocked from registering and voting. Federal Justice Terence Evans threw out the biased ID law, writing, “The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too-thinly veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic.”

But Indiana argued before the Supreme Court that anyone could get an ID – they just had to get a non-driver ID from a county office. Experts pointed out that the average poor person in Indiana – a poor person likely to be Black – lived an average 17 miles from a county seat. That’s when Justice Scalia rode, recklessly, to Indiana’s rescue. Scalia chortled that “Seventeen miles is seventeen miles for the rich and the poor,”

Black or white. How cute. How droll, Mr. Justice. And it's true, at 65 miles per hour, 17 miles is just a 15 minute cruise, whether your BMW is black or white. But the experts I spoke with told me they calculated that travel required two bus rides, cost a day of work, and included fees that amount to a poll tax. In the non-BMW world, 17 miles is just another long, obstacle-choked road to the ballot for voters of color.

All week I’ve heard Scalia praised as an "originalist," that is, sticking with the intent of the writers of the Constitution. Really? The right to vote without regard to race, the 15th Amendment, grew from the ground watered by the blood of Abraham Lincoln’s warriors. "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state.”

Was it the original intent of these words to enable the creation of new Jim Crow obstacles to citizen rights? Since when does an "originalist" so insouciantly ignore the clearly marked signposts of the law?

My suggestion: The President should not nominate a replacement for Scalia. Let's make this election a referendum: make Americans choose our Court. Let Americans decide if our Court will defeat or cuddle up to Jim Crow, whether our government may dictate whom you love and marry, whether the Bill of Rights is just a porous veil covering an unfettered and brutal spy state. Let's put the soul of America to a vote.

We are completing our film on the latest, hidden tactics of racially poisonous vote suppression which has grown like a mold from the 2013 decision by Scalia and his Court comrades to gut the Voting Rights Act. As John Pilger kindly said of my work, "The information is a hand grenade."

This film is the peaceable weapon for the new civil rights movement. Right now, support the completion of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: a Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits, with a $100 donation and I'll list you in the film credits as a supporter and I'll send you the signed DVD once the film wraps.

Donate $50 if you just want the signed DVD ... For $1,000 or $500, get a film credit (Producer or co-Producer respectively) and tickets to the film's opening. Or support the film for any amount you can, no matter how small or large.
Please make this donation to our foundation right now. All donations are tax-deductible.

We're so close to the finish line, I can’t thank you enough for keeping us going. For 15 years, Greg Palast has been uncovering voter suppression tactics in investigative reports for BBC Television, The Guardian, Harper’s and Rolling Stone.

In 2016 Greg Palast will be releasing his new feature film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy—A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits, which includes his award-winning investigation Jim Crow Returns. Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures' Picnic.

HELP US FOLLOW THE MONEY. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund's store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive!

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Boycotting the Jews

I'm not sure where this piece originated. It was sent to me by an enlightened and honest friend, a man of integrity. I'm reprinting it here because I feel it deserves the widest audience possible. 

Boycotting the Jews

A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people. In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

"Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

"A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube. Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil. If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege. Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate. Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew. Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the Schick reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

"Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram. They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

"Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease. Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

"In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.

Meanwhile I ask, what medical contributions to the world have the Muslims made?" The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature: 1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace: 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat 1990 - Elias James Corey 1994 - Yaser Arafat 1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics: (zero)

Physics: (zero)

Medicine: 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar 1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7


The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature: 1910 - Paul Heyse 1927 - Henri Bergson 1958 - Boris Pasternak 1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1966 - Nelly Sachs 1976 - Saul Bellow 1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer 1981 - Elias Canetti 1987 - Joseph Brodsky 1991 - Nadine Gordimer

World Peace: 1911 - Alfred Fried 1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser 1968 - Rene Cassin 1973 - Henry Kissinger 1978 - Menachem Begin 1986 - Elie Wiesel 1994 - Shimon Peres 1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics: 1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer 1906 - Henri Moissan 1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson 1908 - Gabriel Lippmann 1910 - Otto Wallach 1915 - Richard Willstaetter 1918 - Fritz Haber 1921 - Albert Einstein 1922 - Niels Bohr 1925 - James Franck 1925 - Gustav Hertz 1943 - Gustav Stern 1943 - George Charles de Hevesy 1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi 1952 - Felix Bloch 1954 - Max Born 1958 - Igor Tamm 1959 - Emilio Segre 1960 - Donald A. Glaser 1961 - Robert Hofstadter 1961 - Melvin Calvin 1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau 1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz 1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman 1965 - Julian Schwinger 1969 - Murray Gell-Mann 1971 - Dennis Gabor 1972 - William Howard Stein 1973 - Brian David Josephson 1975 - Benjamin Mottleson 1976 - Burton Richter 1977 - Ilya Prigogine 1978 - Arno Allan Penzias 1978 - Peter L Kapitza 1979 - Stephen Weinberg 1979 - Sheldon Glashow 1979 - Herbert Charles Brown 1980 - Paul Berg 1980 - Walter Gilbert 1981 - Roald Hoffmann 1982 - Aaron Klug 1985 - Albert A. Hauptman 1985 - Jerome Karle 1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach 1988 - Robert Huber 1988 - Leon Lederman 1988 - Melvin Schwartz 1988 - Jack Steinberger 1989 - Sidney Altman 1990 - Jerome Friedman 1992 - Rudolph Marcus 1995 - Martin Perl 2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics: 1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson 1971 - Simon Kuznets 1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow 1975 - Leonid Kantorovich 1976 - Milton Friedman 1978 - Herbert A. Simon 1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein 1985 - Franco Modigliani 1987 - Robert M. Solow 1990 - Harry Markowitz 1990 - Merton Miller 1992 - Gary Becker 1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine: 1908 - Elie Metchnikoff 1908 - Paul Erlich 1914 - Robert Barany 1922 - Otto Meyerhof 1930 - Karl Landsteiner 1931 - Otto Warburg 1936 - Otto Loewi 1944 - Joseph Erlanger 1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser 1945 - Ernst Boris Chain 1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller 1950 - Tadeus Reichstein 1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman 1953 - Hans Krebs 1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann 1958 - Joshua Lederberg 1959 - Arthur Kornberg 1964 - Konrad Bloch 1965 - Francois Jacob 1965 - Andre Lwoff 1967 - George Wald 1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg 1969 - Salvador Luria 1970 - Julius Axelrod 1970 - Sir Bernard Katz 1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman 1975 - Howard Martin Temin 1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg 1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow 1978 - Daniel Nathans 1980 - Baruj Benacerraf 1984 - Cesar Milstein 1985 - Michael Stuart Brown 1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein 1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini] 1988 - Gertrude Elion 1989 - Harold Varmus 1991 - Erwin Neher 1991 - Bert Sakmann 1993 - Richard J. Roberts 1993 - Phillip Sharp 1994 - Alfred Gilman 1995 - Edward B. Lewis 1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129!

The Jews are NOT promoting brainwashing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non-Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.

There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church. There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people. The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems. Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it all: 'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

Benjamin Netanyahu: General Eisenhower warned us. It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 65 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.


h/t to Bob Poris

Youthful Cruz Wants To Rule the World

Young Ted Cruz

In 1988, Ted Cruz was kidding about ruling the world, and it's sort of funny. In 2016 he's making the same same joke and it's not funny any more. Since this clip was provided by a former classmate, it's a fair bet to make that young Ted was not that well liked. Source: Politico A new…

Rafael Eduardo Cruz Belongs to Canada!

Born in Canada.  Can he be president?  OMG!  Maybe Canada will take him back.  We have enough scum in our country.

[The graphic is from Daily Kos]

The Jewish Version of the Night Before Christmas

This came from a friend of mine who got it from a friend of his.  I do not know the author of the piece, but thought it was wonderful in light of the right-wing's nonsensical "War Against Christmas." 

It's even more meaningful if you know anything about southeast Florida, or in particular, the city of Boca Raton.

The Jewish Version of the Night Before Christmas

T ‘was the night before Christmas
Down here in Boca.
I was sitting in Starbucks,
Drinking my Mocha.

I know we’re all Jewish,
But was wondering still
If Santa would come here
And give us a thrill.

On my way home
No Christmas lights did I see
On the houses, the windows,
Not even the trees.

What a strange feeling,
Not a decoration in sight.
Was it really December
Or a warm summer night?

I drove past the deli,
There were lines out the door.
People were waiting
For corn beef and more.

The restaurants were busy,
Christmas dinners not planned
Never, not here
We’re in Boca Land.

At home all was quiet.
I left out Kosher wine
In case Santa came to Boca
For the very first time.

Snoozing came easy
To me Christmas eve.
I wasn’t waiting for presents
To be left under a tree

I could hope all I want
I could fuss and then see
If Santa would make time
For little old me.

Then all of a sudden
He pulled up in his Jag
With a sack full of presents
Each sporting a tag.

Oy Bloomies, Oy Saks,
Oy Niemans and more.
He knows where to shop,
He frequents my stores!

He looked for the rye bread,
The coleslaw and deli.
He came to Boca first
To fill up his belly.

“I have a long night ahead
I want you to know.
From Boca I leave
For the North and the snow.”

He stayed for a while
He chatted and ate,
Then he left in a flash
Before it got late.

What a great night
I thought with a sigh.
That jolly old Santa
Is a really nice guy.

As I cleared off the table
I heard with delight
“SHALOM TO YOU ALL”
“AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT”

Marion County, Florida Sheriff Wants YOU To Carry A Gun!

[Photo of Sheriff Blair from OcalaPost.com]

The sheriff of Marion County, Florida, Chris Blair, "is urging residents who have gun permits to carry their weapons."

Here's his rationale:  It's dangerous out there.  We live in an era with "a level of violence and hatred ... that we have never seen before."

Of course he wants only those gun nuts "who carry firearms responsibly and are confident in their abilities," to handle their weapons to actually stick them in their pants, for they "can -- and should -- be our first line of defense in an active shooter situation."

This is all bullshit!

The argument about the right to carry guns has gone from stupid to horrendous. First of all, the Constitution does not give every Tom, Dick, and Mary the right to carry any weapon they choose.

It is very clear that only those members of a State Militia in a time of crisis can have weapons and that "right" is to be closely regulated.  That's what the Constitution says.  The NRA has become so extreme and so successful with their propaganda that even our Supreme Court is bamboozled by their unhistorical interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Be that as it may, to think that the people I meet on the street might be carrying loaded weapons which are made specifically for the purpose of killing other people, is scary to the nth degree!  In fact, I know very few people who I would trust with a loaded water pistol in their pocket much less a real gun!

Another statistic that might set your shorts to twitching is that about one in ten of our citizens are mentally ill.  And a whole lot more are merely neurotic.  Do you want those people walking around your local mall with guns at hand?

Sheriff Blair teaches a "concealed weapons" course and implies that taking such a course provides the gun carrier wannbe with the necessary resources to "bring the fight to the attacker ... [and] help save lives."

What a crock.  A concealed weapons course includes a few lectures and a few minutes on a shooting range.  An "active shooter situation" is another world and would bring most people to their knees crying for their Mommy, whether they were carrying a concealed weapon or not.  

Furthermore, just about every day we read about a "responsible" gun owner shooting a friend to death or shooting herself in the foot.  My uncle Carl was a "responsible" gun owner and he put a hole in Grandma's kitchen while cleaning one of his rifles.

It takes a lot of work and very close attention to be a responsible gun owner and that is best left to the professionals that we hire to protect us from domestic enemies, and to the military who are in charge of keeping us safe from foreign nasties.

Finally, I cannot think of any mass shooting in recent memory where people carrying concealed weapons made any difference whatsoever nor can I recall any "active shooter" situation where a concealed weapons carrier had a chance of stopping the shooting.  Take for example, the mass shooting in the Colorado theater of a few years ago.  Can you imagine what horror might have ensued if a bunch of folks pulled out their concealed weapons and began shooting into the darkness?

When a person walks into a place of business only to pull out an automatic weapon and begins spraying the room, you could have a tank in your pocket and it wouldn't do you any good.

So why would Sheriff Blair suggest such a patently stupid proposal?  It must be political.  He's a Republican.  The Republican Party belongs to the NRA.  A Republican in good standing cannot be allowed to say anything negative about NRA policy, which is basically to put a gun or guns in the hands of every man, woman and child in the world.

Sheriff Blair's suggestion has little or nothing to do with making our community safer!  It is painfully obvious that such a policy creates many more chances for gun violence, death and misery!

What we desperately need these days are leaders who are not bought and paid for by the NRA, who are not unconscious right wing nut cases, who have at least a modicum of common sense.

You would hope the local sheriff would be one of those kinds of leader.  That's not the case in Marion County, Florida.

"We made it on our own" ... with lots of government help!" - Mr. Ben Carson

On Mystical Experiences & Belief in God

"Mystical experiences are not ineffable."  [Ineffable = Beyond expression; indescribable or unspeakable."]  By downregulating posterior-medial-frontal-cortex activity via transcranial magnetic stimulation, an interdisciplinary team reduced subjects' belief in God."

Or, to put it more simply, scientists, by manipulating the brain, can make it so we don't believe in God so much.  I would love to test this out on several thousand fundamentalist Christians and several thousand extremist Muslims.

--- Harper's Magazine / "Findings," p. 96 / December 2015

Touching Ted Cruz Family Moments Brought To You By SuperPACs

Oh wow, these moments are so awkward it makes you wonder if Ted Cruz's family needs a professional producer to show them how to hug him. Gawker: Thanks to the (few) rules governing campaign Super PACs, candidates aren't technically allowed to coordinate with them. Which means candidates can't technically feed them hours and hours of raw…

Mass Shootings R Us

Ben Carson - A Diatribe on a Moron

It is impossible to refrain from mocking, deriding, and otherwise slapping down Mr. Ben Carson.  He invites disdain.  His heart expands by blowing smoke up the asses of the Republican base.  It is possible he's some kind of Manchurian Candidate - someone who is so far out in space mentally, that in the end even Jeb Bush or Rubio would look good. 

But I don't think so.  It may be as simple as he's using his candidacy to sell books.  We know from his previous connection with a grifter that he'll jump at a chance to make money.

The clue to understanding Carson, I think, is to realize he is a 7th Day Adventist. I know there is no religious test for political office and that candidates can hold some pretty strange religious beliefs, but in Carson's case, you need to consider his religion in order to understand that man.

It is his religious beliefs that define his weirdness, his implausible world view, his immunity to science and fact and truth.  The 7th Day cult was built on the beliefs of a rather strange woman, Ellen G. White, who was hit in the head with a rock when she was young, which might explain her numerous "visions."  Ellen White believed that every word in the Bible is true, that only a certain number of folks would reach heaven, that God demands his followers to obey the Sabbath.  

It's curious, though, why Adventists want to claim that particular facet of the Hebrew faith and ignore all the other commands of the Hebrew god.  

Consistency has never been at the heart of Adventism and thus Carson can hold a variety of beliefs without shame or fear of contradiction; he can deny science and he can make stupid claims about the world (which he often denies making) and feel justified in this dichotomy because to be an Adventist requires you to undergo a mental lobotomy!  

This brain surgeon is a moron.  

And no one has said it better than my friend, William Kendall, in a post titled "The Odd Case of the Sleepy Candidate," here.

The Visions of a Young Ben Carson

Thanks to William Kendall, who blogs here.

Operation Enema

Thanks to YellowDog Granny.

Second Amendment Scoreboard

Thanks to YellowDog Granny.

Whining about the so-called "war" on Christmas

Thanks to YellowDog Granny for this.

Turning Water Into Wine

Now, if he could only turn the clowns in the Republican contest for the White House into normal, intelligent people!

Carson And Jesus: Best Buds

Wow. Just wow. https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/663028755464605696 I understand the notion of the personal relationship with God, even though I'm an atheist -- however, I find that my reaction to this sort of thing is colored less by my lack of religious belief than by the fact that I live in New York, where a lot of people work…

Pope Francis Visits The Sick

Our thanks to William Kendall for this photo.  Please check out William's blog, "Speak of the Devil," here.