Al Franken v. Rick Perry

During Perry's Senate hearing for the position of Secretary of Energy, the following exchange took place:

FRANKEN: Did you enjoy meeting me?

PERRY: I hoped you were as much fun on that dais as you were on your couch.

FRANKEN: Well ...

PERRY: May I rephrase that, sir?

FRANKEN: Please. Please. Please. Oh, my lord.

PERRY: Well, I think we've found our Saturday Night Live soundbite.

Perfect Game. (I Once Ran 76!)

Copy and paste into your address bar. Ronnie O'Sullivan, 147.

https://www.facebook.com/949111835206758/videos/1166226760161930/

SNL Cold Open - Steve Bannon As Death; Sean Spicer

This is the best SNL Trump parody yet (I don't know who the "David" is that tells his parents he works at Applebee's):



And here's Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer:

European TV Mocks Trump

Courtesy of HuffPo, Here are 7 short videos from European nations, all wanting to be second if America is first. I think other nations around the world will be getting in on the project.

The first one, that the others are imitating, is from the Netherlands. 4 minutes, 5 seconds:



Belgium, 1 minute, 58 seconds:



Switzerland, 3 minutes, 47 seconds:



Lithuania, 6 minutes, 42 seconds:



Portugal, 7 minutes, 28 seconds. Jump to 2:06, because the first part has a narrative spoken in Portuguese, with no subtitles:



Denmark, 5:40:



Germany, 12:20 (but the mock video ends at 4:52:

What We Need Is Another Kent State?

Click here for an article at Electablog (by Electablog) entitled "UPDATED x2: Northern Michigan Republican calls for “another Kent State” to deal with campus protesters."



Reacting to a campus protest against Breitbart's odious Milo Yiannopoulos speaking at UC Berkeley, Republican Party Secretary and former Chair in Marquette County, Michigan, Dan Adamini posted on Facebook:

The violent protests at our universities certainly indicates Portage acacian at the lower level. I’m thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death. They do it because they know there are no consequences yet.

He also tweeted:

Violent protesters who shut down free speech?Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.

In the past, he mocked and belittled the civil rights protests of Congressman John Lewis:

John Lewis: 'I don't see Trump as a legitimate president': https://t.co/h5I1BNitWK via @AOL. Too many blows to the Head during protests?

The Marquette County Republican Party has issued a mealymouthed statement distancing themselves from Adamini.

Click here for an article at abc13.com, untitled, by Deborah Wrigley. It tells how a racist flier was left in the night at a home of Asians in Riverstone Ranch, a community in Fort Bend County, Texas (southwest of Houston).< br />


It reads:

Our new president Donald J Trump is God's gift to the white nation. We want to get out country back on the right track. We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians, blacks and Jews.

We can start with the great state of Texas and President Trump will take care of the country. Those foregeiners [sic] are taking our high paying [sic] jobs and leaving us stranded. So please do not sell or rent your homes to them. We are everywhere and watching every move. We have our members in the law enforcement and government so don't bother going to them.

That's contained in the image above. The letter goes on:

If you are one of those above-mentioned race [sic] then this is a warning. Leave Texas or better yet go back to where you came from. If you don't heed this warning then we are not responsible for the torture starting now.

The racist bigots feel legitimized by Trump's hateful rhetoric.

Chaffetz: Mental Health Exam For President?

Click here for an article at PoliticalConundrum Forum [no, I've never heard of them either, but I've verified the article's content with various other sources], entitled "WOW! JASON CHAFFETZ 'MULLING' LEGISLATION TO REQUIRE PRESIDENTS TO UNDERGO MENTAL HEALTH EXAMS."

In a meeting last week with The Post editorial board, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight Committee, said he was weighing legislation to require presidents to undergo an independent medical examination, including for mental health. Chaffetz cautioned that he wasn’t “talking about some of the rhetoric that’s flying around” about Trump. Still, he said, “If you’re going to have your hands on the nuclear codes, you should probably know what kind of mental state you’re in.”

He's not suggesting Trump should undergo a mental health exam; he's suggesting that presidents or presidential nominees should be tested in the future.

Presidential Approval

Presidential approval in February of the first year of their presidency:

"The Only Thing We Have To Fear ..."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Too bad Trump, fearmonger/hatemonger in chief ("American carnage"), didn't get the memo.

Tapdancing 101, With Betsy DeVos

In her Senate hearing for confirmation as Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos was being questioned by Senator Tim Kaine, as follows:

KAINE: ,,, if confirmed, will you insist upon that equal accountability in any K-12 school or educational program that receives federal funding, whether public, public charter, or private?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Equal accountability for all schools that receive federal funding?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Is that a yes or a no?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Do you not want to answer my question?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

Panicdote!

panicdote (n): a story about the goings-on in Washington that leaves you convinced the world is maybe about to explode.

H/T Ariel Edwards-Levy @ Twitter

Trump's Tired, Needs A Florida Vacation

As of fall 2016, in his eight years in office, Barack Obama had taken 28 vacation trips lasting 217 days. W. (aka C-Plus Augustus) took 88 trips lasting 533 days. Trump complained bitterly about Obama's vacations, though he never mentioned W.'s. And now, after two weeks in office, Trump needs a break at Mar-a-Lago. Poor baby.

And this is a couple of days after Trump's disastrous, crotchety conversation with Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, which his staff described as coming at the end of a long, exhausting day -- at 5 p.m. (I guess that is a long day, considering His Trumpness arose at 3:30 a.m. to send out a barrage of nonsense tweets.)

Der Spiegel Covers

Der Spiegel is a popular, influential German magazine.

Melania And The Donald

This is unsupported, but I read that when Barbara Walters (Baba Wawa) interviewed Melania years ago, she asked him if she would have married The Donald if he wasn't rich. Melania replied, "Do you think Donald would have married me if I wasn't beautiful?"

Insanity Rules: InfoWars Gets White House Press Credential

Hard as it is to believe, birther Jerome Corsi will be an accredited representative of Alex Jones's InfoWars at White House press conferences. If you're not familiar with Alex Jones, feast your eyes on this (there are so many clips similar to this -- it's like shooting fish in a barrel).

Bannon: Stop Legal Immigration!

Yes, it's immigration -- legal as well as illegal -- that is the heart of the problem. Novel theory, no?

Click here for an article at The Washington Post by David Ferenthold and Frances Stead Sellers, entitled "‘Why even let ’em in?’ Understanding Bannon’s worldview and the policies that follow."

It's an excellent article, and an understanding of how Steve Bannon's mind works is apparently going to be a big help in figuring out what's going on, as he continues to act as Trump's Rasputin. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling well today, and I'm not going to take the trouble to summarize the article and provide quotes: Read it for yourself!

Click here for a previous post of mine, entitled "Who Is Steve Bannon?", based on an article at The Daily Beast, by Ronald Radosh, entitled "Steve Bannon, Trump's Top Guy, Told Me He Was 'A Leninist' Who Wants To ‘Destroy the State.'"

The 3 a.m. Phone Call

That phrase has always been shorthand for the hot line ringing in the White House with news of an emergency -- perhaps nuclear. Now the U.S. doesn't need to worry about that so much; the rest of the world has to worry about "The 3 a.m. Tweet."

Is It Okay To Punch A Nazi?

This is a question that was bouncing around the Net; it's been a while now, but it's all about the viral video that shows alt-right Richard Spencer getting hammered with a sucker punch while babbling about his Pepe the Frog pin:



So, is it okay? You decide!

Poster At The Holocaust Museum

Warning signs of fascism:

Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Closing Down

After 146 years, they've been driven out of business by the competition -- the Trump administration.