Not Everything Is Lost

Via Wil Wheaton:

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.

Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—
She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we're fine, you'll get there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let's call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
Would ride next to her—Southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered
Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—
Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped
—has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

~Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), "Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal."

The Disruption of Orange Caligula

Despite the fact that he has failed at pretty much every endeavor he's set his tiny hands to, the current illegitimate occupant of the White House has succeeded spectacularly at one thing: absolutely monopolizing the entire "fake news" cycle—that he so loathes—24/7.

Even yesterday, as nature was putting on one of the most awe-inspiring spectacles imaginable, the shitgibbon still managed—through his own blatantly willful stupidity (as I predicted), made it all about him.

I mean seriously. If someone in a lab coat told the idiot not to touch a hot stove, I'm sure he'd think, "No one can tell me what to do…especially some scientist."

And we saw that yesterday.

And now he's flying into Phoenix to hold a "rally." I guess widdle Donny's ego needs to be stroked after the last couple weeks. Oh hell, after the last eight months. Is it possible that it's finally pushing through his thick, malignantly narcissistic skull that except for his knuckle-dragging, basement-dwelling base, everyone is coming to hate him?

All I know is that this Phoenix trip is going to be a shit show. Both sides are planning on infiltrating the other to cause trouble. Supposedly the anti-Trumpers are buying up tickets and will be staging a mass walk-out the moment the tiny-fisted ferret-wearing shitgibbon starts blathering incoherently. In other words, the moment he starts speaking.

Meanwhile, the Trumpanzees are openly advertising for actors (preferably of color) to pose as anti-Trump protestors (at $10/hour) to cause trouble so Dear Leader can claim with his trademark smirk, "See, both sides are violent!"

My employer has taken note of this gathering tsunami of stupid about to descent upon the city. I work about two blocks from the state capitol building, and yesterday we received a call and email from our supervisor:

As a follow-up to this morning's Deputy Director's meeting, here is guidance regarding tomorrow for our employees specifically in the Capitol Complex/Campus, and Phoenix Metro areas. For employee safety, we are making the following options available for Division Directors to use based on your discretion and individual business needs:

If employees are non-essential (as deemed per individual Division Directors) and have the ability to telecommute, the recommendation is to have them do so. Employees are not required to physically come to the Capitol Complex/Campus/Phoenix Metro if they are not needed. However, if they do, then we'd like them to leave the area no later than 1 p.m. as there are reports of large protests, not to mention traffic congestion in preparation for the arrival and event.

Additionally, all facilities in the area locked down at 1 p.m. to preclude any general public entry and for the safety of our employees.

Only the senior tech at my facility will be on site; myself and my other colleague were requested to telecommute. One of the perks of being a contract employee, however, is that I'm not trusted with the keys to the remote access kingdom. Asked what to do about this, my supervisor replied, "Put down 8 hours on your time sheet and enjoy your day off."

This actually works out well, because I was already planning on calling out today anyway. Two weeks into the new school year, Ben has already brought home—and shared—the first incident of the upper respiratory creeping crud. He started exhibiting symptoms last Friday, and I knew I'd be feeling it within 48 hours. Sure enough, it started to hit shortly after I got finished putting the new bed frame together (another story for another time) on Sunday. By the time I left work yesterday my throat was on fire, and this morning—after a horrible night's sleep—I can tell it's already moving down into my chest. I'm hoping to ward off full-blown bronchitis by hitting it hard with Mucinex to keep the sludge flowing, but I know how this typically goes, and I will undoubtedly be making an appointment with my Primary Care doctor by week's end.

And now I'm going back to bed.

#Truth

White dudes: I don't know who's worse: Hillary or Trump.

LGBTQ people: Trump is.

Black people: Trump is.

Undocumented immigrants: Trump.

Muslims: It's Trump.

Women: Trump, duh!

White dudes: (shoving their heads deeper into their asses) I just…don't…know…

Just When You Think…

…nothing more vile can come out of that Shitgibbon's mouth, he proves us all wrong.

As if we needed any more proof, today it became abundantly clear we have a literal Nazi sympathizer in the Oval Office. Even the bimbos at Faux News were left shaking their heads in total and complete disbelief at what Twitler said this afternoon.

What, exactly, is the line this piece of excrement needs to cross before the Congress of the United States steps up and does what is needed? Yes, Pence is abominable, but he's caught up in Mueller's investigation and is as knee-deep in Russian collusion as Trump himself so he can be removed just as quickly. That leaves Paul Ryan as next in line, but even he is involved with Russia.

That leaves Orrin Hatch. At least he won't nuke another country because someone dissed him on Twitter.

It Was Fun For a While (NSFW)

…but I just can't anymore. My name ended up on the RNCC mailing list after responding to their initial survey on how the Shitgibbon-in-Chief was doing several months ago. For a while it was fun responding to their weekly—or increasingly daily—email money begs with appropriately disgusting graphics telling them in no uncertain terms how I felt, but after Charlottesville, that's changed. Telling them to go fuck themselves isn't sufficient. I realized that as long as was on their mailing list, they viewed me as a de facto supporter, and I could not have that.

So I unsubscribed after sending one final image.

A Leopard Cannot Change His Spots

Over the next four decades, Trump burnished his reputation as a bigot: he was accused of ordering "all the black [employees] off the floor" of his Atlantic City casinos during his visits; claimed "laziness is a trait in blacks" and "not anything they can control"; requested Jews "in yarmulkes" replace his black accountants; told Bryan Gumbel that "a well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market"; demanded the death penalty for a group of black and Latino teenagers accused of raping a jogger in Central Park (and, despite their later exoneration with the use of DNA evidence, has continued to insist they are guilty); suggested a Native American tribe "don't look like Indians to me"; mocked Chinese and Japanese trade negotiators by doing an impression of them in broken English; described undocumented Mexican immigrants as "rapists"; compared Syrian refugees to "snakes"; defended two supporters who assaulted a homeless Latino man as "very passionate" people "who love this country"; pledged to ban a quarter of humanity from entering the United States; proposed a database to track American Muslims that he himself refused to distinguish from the Nazi registration of German Jews; implied Jewish donors "want to control" politicians and are all sly negotiators; heaped praise on the "amazing reputation" of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has blamed America's problems on a "Jewish mafia"; referred to a black supporter at a campaign rally as "my African-American"; suggested the grieving Muslim mother of a slain U.S. army officer "maybe … wasn't allowed" to speak in public about her son; accused an American-born Hispanic judge of being "a Mexican"; retweeted anti-Semitic and anti-black memes, white supremacists, and even a quote from Benito Mussolini; kept a book of Hitler's collected speeches next to his bed; declined to condemn both David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan; and spent five years leading a "birther" movementthat was bent on smearing and delegitimizing the first black president of the United States, who Trump also accused of being the founder of ISIS.

Oh and remember: we knew all of this before he was elected president of the United States of America.

Source.

How To Bring The World To The Brink Of Nuclear War In Six Months (Along With A U.S. Civil War For Good Measure)

From Johnny Spade:

In six months this illegitimate fraud who illegally sits in the Oval Office has brought us to the brink of World War 3 with North Korea, while simultaneously our nation is divided at the seams with ignorant neo-nazi scum holding torches and screaming "Heil Trump" desperate to see the Union burn.

I ask Republicans how they can STILL buy this Orange Turd's bullshit with all the proof available right under their noses? Not just from reports from CNN, MSNBC or the NYTimes, you know, the "fake news" organizations as #GOP's attempt to brand them, but from FoxNews, the AP, the Wall Street Journal, the very memos & press releases from his administration AND the sociopaths very own tweets?!

Why make every effort to block the Russian Hacking & Collusion investigations if he did nothing wrong? Why, six months in now, are his finances and tax returns STILL hidden from the publics view?! Where's the outrage about him spending more time on the golf course in six months than Obama did in 2 years?

Or at the very least how can Republicans still blame and scapegoat everyone else for their failings, as they now hold both houses of Congress with a Republican "President"? That disgusting health care bill, the #NoCare bill, they redrafted and messed with for months could not pass the smell test in their own party! Why did John McCain refuse to vote for a ludicrous plan of "repeal & replace later" (i.e. take away millions of peoples healthcare and uhhh, we'll figure it out later)? Because he's an honorable man who knows bullshit when he sees it!

This is what happens when 60+ million people stay home and don't vote; when a foreign government disrupts the very fiber of our democracy by hacking our election process for the benefit of a completely inexperienced bafoon and when we adhere to an archaic system where one candidate recieves 3 MILLION more votes than the other yet still "loses"…we get a silverspooned, failed casino owner/reality show star sending our country back decades.

While refusing to listen to the scientific and intelligence communities, the other countries in the Paris climate agreement shake their heads (including China!) while his military and diplomatic advisors are ignored because of his obnoxious hubris and ego. The infant won't even call the other living former Presidents for their advice and viewpoint, breaking with over a century of tradition.

I hope the Earth survives and something positive happens, but since all of the warnings LibDems gave out re: Trump during the campaign have come to pass I have no idea if nuclear winter is right around the corner but know we're the closest we've been since the Cuban Missle Crisis. Considering the bulk of #GOP's are Christians who welcome the end of the world/Rapture like it's some big reunion concert, who knows if anyone can convince FührerTrump that sending out statements that are just as crazy as what's coming from North Korea is not wise and Nuclear War is NOT GOOD. Considering he had to be told during the campaign by the Joint Chiefs why we DON'T use nuclear weapons I don't feel too good about the outcome.

Where are the GOP Congress members who haven't drank all of the Kool-Aid, the Generals in the Joint Chiefs, the CIA Agents, the Secret Servicemen who won't allow the world to be engulfed in nuclear winter?! Is the retention of power more important to the Paul Ryan's & Mitch McConnell's than preventing their families bodies melting in a nuclear war?!

Are everyone of these sub IQ80 degenerate duncecaps who show up to these ridiculous post election election rallys too stupid to see the domino effect ANY nuclear weapon usage would cause throughout the world?! This isn't as easy as "leveling" North Korea and only North Korea! Millions of casualties will suffer a litany of negative consequences, and that's just if ONE nuclear explosion takes place.

If one missle is launched, Pakistan, India, Israel, Japan, China and those with WMD's we may be unaware of will be given license to fire at will on their percieved enemies.

But hey, Derp Derp! Go on with your bullshit talking points and AVOID REALITY! "The economy", "Benghazi'", "but her emails", "MAGA!" "The billionaire who's never bought his own groceries & has a personal attendant wipe his ass understands me!!" "He'll save muh coal job from dem nasty mexicans!"

Fuuuuck. I guess it's been a good run…man is man's worst enemy, and the past two years has illustrated that more than any other time in history.

I Have No Words

I have no words for the events of the last 48 hours except What the FUCK is wrong with this country?! But plenty of people more eloquent than I do. Here is just a small sample. We will not be silent.


I Mourn For Our Country

Trump's ridiculous statement on Charlottesville shows his unbelievable inability to communicate (we need "true affection" for each other?!) and underscores his unwillingness to specifically call out white supremacists.

Instead, he sticks with the idea that hatred and violence and bigotry are coming from "many sides." Why is he so reticent? Because he has been a white supremacist his whole life, his entire career …

This monster is on a golf vacation while our country burns, but still found time to take a moment to bloviate:

That one doesn't sound like his third-grade vocabulary. It was probably written by a member of his staff. But then followed it was followed up with this:

That sounds more like his vocabulary and diction. "Charlottesville sad!" SERIOUSLY?!? Fucking piece of moronic filth. The disgust I felt for George W. Bush doesn't even come close to absolute unmitigated HATE I feel for that asshole.

Here is a picture of Trump's America:

IMPEACH THE MOTHERFUCKER ALREADY AND REMOVE HIS WORTHLESS WASTE OF FLESH FROM THE WHITE HOUSE!

THIS is why…

…you do not give a 6-year old pyromaniac a box of matches and drop him into a field of dry grass.

I just can't anymore. Today has left me completely overwhelmed and at this point I just want to say, "Do it, you fucking bastard. Nuke the goddamned planet and get it over with. I can't deal with your BULLSHIT and Congress's refusal to do anything to rein you in any longer!"

I wish I still had the spiritual outlook that would allow me to believe in an afterlife—or reincarnation (as I once did). At least then I could take some solace in knowing we'll all end up in a better place—or with the trillions of planets in the universe, at least somewhere else—on the next go round; that in the grand scheme of things, turning this Earth into a charred cinder and extinguishing all life on it doesn't real mean anything.

But I can't think that way anymore. While there may be trillions of habitable planets teeming with life, each one—including the Earth—is unique and as humans, we each have one life. I would hate to think that at a distant point in the future some Galactic Survey ship encounters one of the Voyager probes, locates its source and swings through our little backwater system only to find a burnt-out irradiated rock third from the sun; all evidence of humanity wiped away because some narcissistic, sociopathic man-baby with a micro-penis had to prove what a man he was.

 

To Paraphrase Rex Huppke…

…conservative political columnist at the Chicago Tribune [emphasis mine],

"I write about this president often, and I'd like to write about him less, but I can't, because he never stops behaving in a way that degrades our humanity. He never finds a bottom. And that's not OK."

If 45's intention was to be the center of the news cycle every damn day, then I would say he's succeeded—spectacularly. You cannot escape him. Even in formerly safe tech blogs, he's crept in. Anti-trump memes are filling Instagram. Everywhere you turn it's Trump, Trump, Trump! It's INSANITY, and it's making us all crazy. But we cannot stop talking about him because we are appalled by his behavior—and the fact that so many of our fellow citizens are apparently just fine with it.

Does he have to actually launch a nuclear missile before someone drags him from the White House? Because it sure as hell seems like that's what it's going to take to remove the demented, traitorous piece of shit from office—and even then I'm not sure it would happen.

Quote of the Day

The President told everyone that only he could do the job and he would drain the swamp. Instead, he's dammed up the swamp, put a party boat on it, and has turned his attention to Twitter." ~ Erick Erickson, conservative radio host and blogger.

You know you're in trouble when your own supporters start calling out your bullshit. But of course that requires a certain amount of self-awareness, doesn't it?