Ivanka and Kim Yo Jong

• The following is a bit of propaganda from AOL:
• 
  
• 
  
• Ivanka Trump will arrive in South Korea for the Winter Olympics' closing ceremonies on Friday.
• 
  
• Her appearance is sure to spark comparisons to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who drew media attention earlier on in the Olympics for her role as a cheerful propaganda pusher.
• 
  
• The two women have superficial similarities, but Kim is the head of propaganda for a brutal authoritarian regime.

What was the difference again?

The Lyin' Paul Ryan

It has become commonplace to state that most Republicans are liars. Republicans in Congress, in our state houses, and in city and county governing bodies, lie as a matter of course. The end justifies the means is their meme, their motto, the basis of their lives.

And because their "end" almost always hurts our country and the great majority of the people in our country, we must conclude that their lies are essentially treasonous.

If you wonder why Congress hasn't gone after the corrupt swindler who currently occupies the Oval Office, it's because they are one, part of a global network of liars, tied into our archenemy, Russia, with the ultimate goal of solidifying their ham-fisted control of the United States political system to benefit themselves.

One of the worst liars is the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, or as he is better known, Lyin' Ryan. Ryan is a follower of Ayn Rand, who, in her books, taught that greed is a good thing, and the lack of morals or ethics, is essential for achieving one's goals.

Lyin' Ryan, believes Ayn Rand. He believes in Ayn Rand. That's why, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Ryan cries and lies that "entitlements" are the reason for our ballooning deficit. As if those of us receiving Social Security and utilizing Medicare did not pay into the system.  These so-called "entitlements" are not the reason for the deficit increase but rather the Trump budget is the gremlin as it cut taxes on the rich and thus drastically cut government income.

The deficit is going to increase exponentially, but the Republican liars don't care about that now that they are in charge.  If they can pay back the people who bribed them with money and promises, the deficit be damned! Some say that Republicans in Congress have sold their souls to maintain their power.  I'd say, "That's rich, because Republicans in Congress have no souls." They sold them long ago.

Lyin' Ryan needs to be called out for his reprehensible actions which are creating great pain and suffering for millions of Americans in order to give the rich a little more wealth.

Trump and His Wall

Jesus and the Interpreter. A modern-day christian helps Jesus get started.

Do Something

Open Thread - Cartoon Of The Day

h/t @bikingisfun2. Open thread below....…

Bess Kalb and the NRA - from The Huffington Post

Bess Kalb is a writer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live."  She has some pertinent and pointed thoughts re Republican lawmakers moaning about prayers and thoughts which they would be praying and thinking about relative to the shooting yesterday at the high school in Parkland.  At one time we lived within a couple of miles of that school and Lois Anne once ran a 5k part of which scooted by the front of the school.

Ms. Kalb noted that Marco Rubio and other nogoodniks (my word), offering their prayers to their non-existent god, and their condolences - must not forget their  condolences - received millions of dollars from the NRA which served to help keep them in office where they in turn made sure that nobody dared mess with the NRA and the NRA's desire to ensure that every man, woman, and child in the US of A had at least one weapon of "self-defense," in their possession.

The lawmakers have been very successful in that enterprise and are currently planning to enact another law which would basically do away with background checks which will most certainly be signed by Prezident Thumper.

It should also be noted that Prezident Thumper, after 32 seconds of deep thought, said he thought that the people of south Florida could have done a lot more to stop this shooting but they neglected to see the "signs" of trouble in the atmosphere.

* * * *

Ms. Kalb states that "In the 2015-2016 election cycle alone, GOP candidates took $17,385,437 from the NRA.  And that doesn't count the $21,000,000 the NRA gave to Prezident Thumper.

Prior to replying to individual tweets, Ms. Kalb "shared a few other choice words about lawmakers collecting cash from the gun lobby:

Bess Kalb

✔@bessbell

Replying to @bessbell

God have mercy on your NRA-kept souls:

Richard Burr
$6,986,620

Roy Blunt
$4,551,146

Thom Tillis
$4,418,012

Cory Gardner
$3,879,064

Marco Rubio
$3,303,355

Joni Ernst
$3,124,273

Rob Portman
$3,061,941

Todd Young
$2,896,732

Bill Cassidy
$2,861,047https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/opinion/thoughts-prayers-nra-funding-senators.html …

4:44 PM - Feb 14, 2018

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Bess Kalb

✔@bessbell

Replying to @bessbell

Sorry to be crass but we have the motherfucking receipts, @joniernst @RoyBlunt @SenCoryGardner @marcorubio @senrobportman @SenToddYoung @SenThomTillis @BillCassidy.

5:00 PM - Feb 14, 2018

You can read Ms. Kalb's entire article and more HERE. 

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Trump says he did nothing wrong and here's why:

The "Steele Dossier" on Greg Palast

The “Steele Dossier” on … Me: Why I won’t praise the FBI lie & spy machine By Greg Palast Do we hate Trump so much, we’ll cheer FBI perjury, cheer the monstrous FISA star chamber and the surveillance horror show exposed by Ed Snowden? Like it or not, that creepy little GOP shill Rep. Devin Nunes, revealed facts that should scare us.  First, FBI agents failed to tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court that the file it used to justify spying on a US citizen, the “Steele dossier,” was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. True, the FBI dropped a footnote about the source coming from a "political entity," a fuzzy cover-our-ass comment that failed to state known partisan bias. But failure to tell the court the whole truth and nothing but the truth is perjury. Amazon has just released the new post-election edition of Palast’s film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:  The Case of the Stolen Election on DVD and stream (FREE for Prime Members). Ironically, Nunes himself commits the same perjury, by failing to mention the original creator of the report.  Before Hillary paid for a copy, the file was already written for a news front sponsored by Republican billionaire Paul Singer.  Singer: Better known as “The Vulture.” Singer The Vulture, the court should have been told, has a long history of creating what FBI Director James Comey himself called “salacious and unverifiable” files on his enemies. I know.  Because The Vulture created a file on me. And on elected officials worldwide who got in the way of his next billion.  Poisonous garbage – but really effective, deadly garbage. In 2011, I flew to the Congo and discovered that The Vulture had seized the funds meant to end a cholera epidemic.  I reported on Singer’s deadly capers at the top of the BBC news, on the front page of the Guardian and on Democracy Now!   To spike the story, The Vulture’s PR flunky called BBC and said, “We have a file on Greg Palast.”  Apparently, it contained the same kind of salacious garbage peddled by Steele.   The BBC pressed Singer's flak to turn over the actual dossier. Singer’s flunky backed down after admitting it contained old fabricated smears that had been long discredited. (In fact, a US power company had to write me a fat check in punishment for the libel.) So, it’s personal.  When I hear that some Trump toady is slimed by a suspect Singer file, I don’t clap with joy.   Steele-style dossiers by GOP Vulture Singer has slipped secret, poisoned dossiers to media outlets to destroy the reputations of elected officials from Argentina to the Congo — all to make another billion. Indeed, his PR flak boasted how he had planted stories about the president of the Republic of Congo with a pliant Washington Post. It was part of Singer's campaign to seize $400 million from the Congo for old bonds he bought for just $10 million during the nation’s civil war. Singer seized funds that were made available to the Congo by US and European taxpayers to help the destitute nation clean its water supply and end a cholera epidemic. Even the US Treasury has accused him of “extortion.” Singer’s smear campaign shifted to Argentina.  The nation’s President Cristina Kirchner refused to pay “El Buitre” (The Vulture) billions he demanded for old bonds based on legal flim-flam. Vulture-financed groups deployed dossiers that accused Kirchner of murder! It worked. The new president, Mauricio Macri, in his first days in office, paid Singer the billions of dollars Kirchner had refused.   FBI texts: truly dangerous Not all dangerous thumbs belong to Trump. While Nunes’ memo is poisoned by comically pro-Trump bias, we cannot ignore his exposure of the ill influence of partisan FBI agents like Peter Strzok. I ask you to read the texts to his love-interest, Justice Department attorney Lisa Page. I don’t give a toot about their fooling around, I care about how they deliberately bent the investigation of Hillary Clinton to protect her. Bernie Sanders supporters take note. Strzok admitted that the FBI somehow overlooked that Clinton’s email server, which she claimed was used for wedding invites and the like, contained several emails marked with a ‘c’ for “confidential.” Worse, Strzok, wrote that he saw himself as providing an “insurance” policy against Trump’s election. Remember that Comey press conference in which he stated that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling classified emails? The Democrats blamed that for Hillary’s loss. In fact, it would have been far worse, except that Strzok convinced Comey to change the language to “extremely careless” from the much harsher – and possibly criminal – “grossly negligent.” You can hate Trump all you want. But when FBI agents bend official statements to protect one candidate over another, our democracy is shot in the stomach. Is Trump a bloviating bigot, a nuclearized narcissist miscreant? That’s a fact. So, why are we rushing to join his bonfire of our liberties? Take my word for it: you don’t want the FBI picking our presidents.   The choice between FISA and freedom Finally, I cannot believe my fellow progressives are now cheerleaders for the FISA court, the very agency Edward Snowden courageously exposed as the judicial inquisitors blessing an ugly police spy state. Just one of the thousands of FISA court spy authorizations — revealed by Snowden — permitted the National Security Agency to get every single phone call made by Verizon callers, and similar demands were approved to seize the records of every major phone carrier. The ACLU has been in legal combat with the FISA court over "mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans," allowing use of "Network Investigative Techniques" (i.e. malware), and information collected under the law without a warrant that could be "used to disproportionately target disfavored groups, whether minority communities, political activists, or even journalists."   I ask a simple question: have we no shame? Again, the Nunes Memo does not discredit Mueller nor his investigation. Nevertheless, the Nunes Memo exposed FBI perjury, how in secret the FBI brought the full dark powers of the surveillance state down on US citizens based on fabricated slanders, and used official power to flak for a Presidential candidate. And progressives are applauding? So I ask you what Snowden asks: When you’ve crossed the wrong billionaire, when they come for you, will they quote your own words in praise of the Gestapo Lite? * A version of this story was first printed in Truthout

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election (the brand new, updated, post-election edition). The update of Greg Palast’s film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election is now available on Amazon and Amazon Prime.  Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo. Support The Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive. Become a monthly Contributor. Or support us by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of The Palast Investigative Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. Follow Palast on Twitter | Like Palast on Facebook | Forward to a friend  Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter Share this with    Copyright © 2018 Greg Palast, All rights reserved. You are receiving this Newsletter because you are a subscriber. Our mailing address: (Check donations are payable to: SMF (our fiscal sponsor) Memo: Palast Fund Greg Palast 3357 Cahuenga Blvd W, #13 Los Angeles, CA 90068 Add us to your address book

The Lying Bachmann's Sign

Michele Bachmann, the mini-brained moron from Minnesota, said she was contemplating a run for a seat in the U.S. Senate.  But, first she needed a sign from her god. 

Now she says she is not going to run for the Senate because she did not receive a sign.

Again, following a tradition she established years ago, she is lying.

Note the above sign.

 Religious, Right?

To find out how to fix our country, follow the money!

More on the "Trickle-Down" Theory

The Trickle-Down theory, which says the government needs to cut taxes on the rich so they can use the money saved to grow their businesses, hire more people and provide their employees with larger salaries, etc., does not work. 

In spite of Ronald Reagan, our "Alzheimic president", who loved to promote the theory, it has never worked but has always proven to be a means of enriching the wealthy and screwing the poor. 

And no matter what our current ignorant, stupid, serial liar, sexual predator president says, it will always remain a failed promise, due to the nature of the human animal and the capitalistic system.

It is so a real airplane!

What follows is from Brad Reed at Raw Story via Alternet.

"President Donald Trump this week boasted of delivering 'F-52' jets to the Norwegian government - however, it turns out there is no such thing as an F-52.

"As the Washington Post reports, F-52 jets are fictional planes that are only found in the video game 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.'"

This raises the question, of course, as to whether or not da Trump is living in the real world or in the world of video games and reality shows.  His cavalier attitude toward the use of nuclear weapons is not only a sign of a deranged human being but of a human being that cannot clearly distinguish what happens in the video game, "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare," and the reality of life on this planet in the year 2018. 

Thus, he's oblivious to the danger represented by the fact that there is a real person, also as mentally deranged as he is, who is the leader of the people of North Korea.  This man-child is without a moral compass, is prone to impulsive actions no matter the consequence, and is easy manipulated by insults.

That last sentence is an exact description of Donald Trump.  And those "advanced fighter aircraft in service of the United States of America," the F-52s, are not going to save him or us because 1) THEY DON'T EXIST, and 2) if we engage in a nuclear war it won't take long before there is nothing left to save on this entire planet!

And the Republican Party refuses to do anything about their moron in the Oval Office.  They would rather destroy the earth than give up one smidgen of their power or position! 

The Problem with Lemmings

There's some old mythology which claims that lemmings (small, hamster-like rodents) will follow a leader en-masse over a cliff to their deaths.  It seems this is not true but sometimes myths serve a purpose such as detailed in this wonderful cartoon above.

I'm not sure of the source, but I believe this cartoon was in the comment section of an article on Crooks & Liars.

The Best Governor for Florida

When we think about someone who could be a good governor for the State of Florida, no Republicans come to mind for the Republican Party in Florida lives in a state of unreality, a state which gives to the rich, takes from the poor, and offers nothing of value to the great majority of people who live in Florida..

The Republican Party in Florida is a copy of the national Republican Party.

Thus, we turn to the Democrats.  There are two contenders.  One is running on a platform which will turn the state towards the values of truth, integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, caring for the young and the old, etc.  The other's platform shows the person to be a DINO (Democrat in Name Only), for this person's values square up with the Republican values which have dragged our state through the mud year after year.

The following chart is a graphic portrayal of the values for which each candidate stands:

The primary election is set for August 28, 2018.  Please get out and vote for

Andrew Gillum, the mayor of the great city of Tallahassee!

Thanks for Ybor City Stogie for the above chart.

Trump asks Ben Carson to say prayer before cabinet meeting

You may want to have a barf bag close by if you watch and listen to this hypocritical, nonsensical, prayer which is couched in praise of the scumbag, Trump, and pretends to give a damn about the country and its people.  Carson is heading up an agency he admits to knowing nothing about and that he wished would be disbanded.  He has in this situation proven once again that his religion is merely a cover for his own greed and need for power and prestige. 

For Carson to associate with Trump is to align himself with one of the worst human beings on the planet at the moment, a man who is a danger to the peace and prosperity of our country and the world, a man who has no understanding of the Christian religion or the Jesus it professes to preach.  These days, fundamentalist Christianity, of which Carson is a part, has become nothing more than a cover for the evil that humans would do.

And then Carson has the gall to conclude his pious paean to his pretend god by calling on the name of Jesus.  Hypocrisy abounds.  You just have to wonder what Mr. Kushner was thinking, even though Kushner is complicit in all the horrors that Trump and has dumped on our beloved country. 

Legal victory stops steal in ‘Bama! But,… Ballot-stuffing, an Alabama GOP habit, blocked… leaving Moore’s team with only nine other ways to steal it By Greg Palast Savor it.  This day, Monday December 11, attorney John Brakey won a court order – in Montgomery, Alabama no less – requiring every county to keep copies of their ballots after the vote tomorrow. Now, you may think that in a democracy, in the United States of America, in the 21st Century, you wouldn’t simply throw away ballots, announce a winner, and say, “trust us, we counted the ballots fairly.” But this is not exactly America, nor the 21st Century.  This is Alabama; Alabama after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act. That only leaves THE OTHER NINE WAYS THE GOP IS STEALING THE ELECTION IN ALABAMA.   Before you read on about vote theft way down south in Dixie, get the full vote-heist story, captured on film in Alabama.  It’s in the post-election edition of the movie, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election. No, it’s not the one on Amazon or iTunes.  This is the NEW update--#TrumpStoleIt edition, which will go commercial next year. But right now, you can ONLY get it by making a tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund. Donate $20 or more and get the download. Or donate $50 for a personalized, signed DVD as a heartfelt thank you from me. Or you can simply support our work for any amount no matter how large or small. We didn’t get to Alabama by flapping our arms—we had to pay for tickets, cameras, lawyers, and feed our team of indefatigable detectives. It is our habit, by instinct and long experience to get to the places where news willbe made. Help us continue the hunt. Now, read on… So, any GOP ballot-stuffing plans are now in trouble. The TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) that Brakey won may stop what I call the “Baldwin Ballot Bandit” trick or, as my co-author Bobby Kennedy calls it, “good old ballot box stuffing.” Background:  In 2002, Gov. Don Siegelman won a close re-election. But, after the Associated Press announced the result, rural Republican Baldwin County locked the courthouse doors. Beginning at midnight, GOP officials claimed to have counted thousands of ballots that they mysteriously “found”—enough to flip the election.  No one was allowed to see those ballots—if they even existed. This is what the Brakey TRO intends to stop.  [For the full story of the Baldwin County Ballot theft, see “Stuffed,” by Bobby Kennedy Jr..  It’s chapter 28 of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, the 2016 edition of my bestseller.  Donate $50 for the book and I’ll sign it to you with my thanks.] So, how will they steal it?  Let me count the ways (nine of them). [Photo:  Palast trying to get into an Alabama DMV in Lowndes County—73% black.  Locked tight.] The ID con.  Within hours of the Supreme Court slicing up the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Alabama passed a law requiring all voters to have a photo ID from a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles).  And the very next day, the state shut down almost every DMW in the ten Black-Belt counties. “Caging.”  It’s a felony crime, but that didn’t stop Judge Moore’s campaign chief, Brett Doster, from committing this vote theft crime for the George W. Bush campaign in 2004.  I know, because I have Doster’s own confidential emails. (How I got them – well, that’s another story. You’ll just have to read the book.) Here’s a bit of one of the emails.  Bobby Kennedy Jr explains how this ‘caging’ trick steals votes (from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy): Crosscheck.  In 2015 I got a call from Hank Sanders of Selma, Alabama.  His name was missing from the voter rolls.  That’s Senator Hank Sanders.  Despite his post, he’d been removed mysteriously.  I flew down and solved the mystery.  The perp:  Donald Trump’s operative, Kris Kobach of Kansas. Kobach created a list of 239,801 Alabamians he tagged as “potential” duplicate voters.  I got my hands on about a third of that list – how? don’t ask – and it’s overwhelmingly names of Black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters.  Yet, Alabama has arrested not one double voter.  It’s Jim Crow all over again. “Spoiling.”  The Alabama ballot has nothing on the ballot but the Senate race and, in some counties, a local referendum.  But it also has a box for “party-line” votes.  Vote for “Democratic Party” and also vote for the Democratic candidate, your vote can be tossed in the “spoilage” bin, not counted, because they can decide, arbitrarily, that you “over-voted” – voted twice.  It’s a technical gotcha that is used selectively…i.e. against Black voters. I saw the “over-vote” spoilage trick eliminate 700 Al Gore votes in Gadsden County, Florida in 2000.  (That’s more than the 537 votes that supposedly elected George W. Bush.) And I saw it again in November 2016 in Detroit, Michigan, where 70,355 ballots were not counted (in part, because of the same over-vote trick).  Throwing out those Detroit ballots gave Donald Trump a supposed 10,700 margin to win Michigan. OK, let’s review:  There’s Ballot stuffing Crosschecking Caging Spoiling Blocking (the ID con)… …and five more tricks, including that old GOP standby, purging “ex-cons” not allowed to vote.  Except I’ve yet to find an ex-con purge list that’s anything other than a con itself. I simply can’t describe every trick in this small space.  You’ll have to read the bookor see the film. There’s one certain way to stop these vote suppression games.  One candidate, named Barack Obama, told our team:  You can’t steal all the votes all the time.  Turn out so massively, they just can’t steal it. Martin Luther King Jr led 35,000 marchers over the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to the capital Montgomery.  Along the way, four marchers were murdered by the Klan.  But by time the marchers got to the capital, the Voting Rights Act was on its way into law. A young Hank Sanders was there.  Last year, making the film with him, the elder Senator Sanders demanded I walk over the Pettus bridge with him.  “You have to walk over the bridge every chance you get—because the right to vote is always in jeopardy.” We will see if enough Alabama citizens will cross that bridge tomorrow to overcome the trickery and flim-flam that Alabama calls an election.

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election (the brand new, updated, post-election edition).  Stay informed, get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo. Support The Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive. Become a monthly Contributor. Or support us by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of The Palast Investigative Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. Follow Palast on Twitter | Like Palast on Facebook | Forward to a friend  Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter Share this with    Copyright © 2017 Greg Palast, All rights reserved. You are receiving this Newsletter because you are a subscriber. Our mailing address: (Check donations are payable to: SMF (our fiscal sponsor) Memo: Palast Fund Greg Palast 3357 Cahuenga Blvd W, #13 Los Angeles, CA 90068 Add us to your address book

The President Declines Time's Offer to be Man of the Year

The president is crazy.  But you knew that!  I'm just not sure how many people realize how crazy he really is or is becoming.

Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars, speaks of Trump's dementia.  I don't know that she's a psychiatrist, but I think her diagnosis is right on, if incomplete.  I think it's more than just dementia; I think he's so crazy, they could re-write the book on insanity.

The dementia comes into play because he wrote that while Time magazine was considering him to be its Man of the Year, he declined as it would have meant interviews and stuff and would have taken him away from his regular job of screwing up the country.

Time magazine, however, said the prez is mistaken.  In other words, the oaf is a liar. 

Because he's such a liar and a freaking loon, it's important to laugh at him because that chips a bit of his power away every time. 

Here is the picture used by Ms. Madrak for her article and some other pictures that were shared in the comments section.

[P.S.  It appears he did make the cover of Mad magazine!]

Please read Ms. Madrak's article HERE.

The New GOP

Note:  I have no idea as to who put this together, but it does represent, I believe, the direction of today's Republican Party and its leader, dTrumpf.