Affinity

Art, Fun, & Nonsense.

“ I feel it’s important to have hydrocarbons equally represented.”

CREDIT: Independence Institute.

I, uh, uh, oh gods, there’s so much wrong here, that it … oh, wrong, wrong, wrong. Along with the wrong, the co-opting of phrases expressing specific concepts has been turned into a rotten, fermenting word salad crawling with maggots. I, oh. I sincerely hope that no artists participate in this travesty.

One thing Earth Day celebrations have been lacking is a recognition of fossil fuels — at least according to the Independence Institute, a self-described “action tank” based in Colorado that receives funding from a litany of prominent conservative dark money groups.

“Enviros celebrate by planting trees but they never celebrate the trucks that deliver the trees, or the gas that powers that truck, or the plastic handles of the shovels they use,” an email from the organization reads. “Shouldn’t Mother Earth be thanked for making Earth Day events possible?”

Budding artists are encouraged to send their original works in by April 21 with the main requirement that it “should showcase the awesomeness of fossil fuels.”

I can’t even. Just can’t. Think Progress has a full breakdown on the monies backing this monstrous reality denial.

Amy Cooke, executive vice president and director of the Energy Policy Center at the Independence Institute, has been critical of Colorado’s renewable energy standard, arguing that clean energy sources should be expanded to include clean coal, natural gas, hydroelectric power, and nuclear. Late last year, Cooke was named to the Trump administration’s EPA “landing team,” and wrote of her excitement for the future of the EPA under Trump and Administrator Scott Pruitt (both have been clear about their intent to cripple the agency, slashing its budget and immediately gutting policies to fight climate change).

Cooke told ThinkProgress that the organization’s fossil fuels art contest is rooted in inclusivity. “Fossil fuels seem to get left out of the Earth Day celebration,” she said via email. “As an energy feminist — pro-choice in energy sources — I feel it’s important to have hydrocarbons equally represented.”

Fossil fuels get left out of Earth Day celebrations because they have a lot to do with destroying the earth, habitats, species, poisoning water and so forth, you godsawful excuse for a person. “Energy feminist.” “Pro-choice in energy sources.” Okay, I have to get past my overwhelming desire to smack her.

In regard to Independence Institute’s donors — and their history of working against climate action — Cooke avoided specifics. “In general, people and organizations support us because of the work we do including being energy agnostic,” she said. “We encourage innovation instead of over regulation. It’s actually kind of liberating because we aren’t boxed in by an either-or cynical choice paradigm.”

“Energy agnostic”. Uh huh. Oh you’re boxed in, alright – all you want is destruction. Jesus Fuck.

Full story at Think Progress.

Troll in the Dungeon, Er, Crossdressers in the Building!

Karen Kipgen, Page Program Supervisor for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, sent out a Capitol-wide email warning members and their staff of “crossdressers in the building.”

The Page Program is for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors seeking to serve in the House to help elected officials.

Several sources sent Raw Story photos of the email of Kipgen’s warning.

“As per the Speaker’s office, Pages are being allowed access to the ladies restroom across from 401, for today. Again, there are cross-dressers in the building.”

[…]

The state’s LGBT organization Oklahomans for Equality, as well as Planned Parenthood and other HIV/AIDS advocacy groups, were visiting the Capitol as part of an education advocacy day.

[…]

“I’m with about 70 traumatized students right now,” Toby Jenkins, Oklahoman’s for Equality executive director, told Raw Story over the phone. He explained that they went to the House Speaker Charles McCall’s office with questions about the email but that the Speaker refused to meet with them. He did tell them that the email did not come from the Speaker’s office and that they’re investigating whose office sent the email.

Way to be a nasty asshole, Oklahoma. (#NotAllOklahomans, I know. You need to hold these willfully ignorant assholes to the fire.) Via Raw Story.

A Shambolic Adhocracy.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast.

Rick Wilson has an incisive and wonderfully caustic take on the current state of … affairs. Just a bit here, the whole column is highly recommended reading.

Trump is faced with terrible options when it comes to rearranging the deck chairs on the SS White House, and those of us who warned you this was inevitable are ordering popcorn. The cancer in the presidency isn’t his staff—though they reflect his shoddy intellect, his shallow impulsiveness, his loose grasp of reality, and Chinese-menu ideology. The problem is Trump himself, and nothing and no one can change that.

[…]

What about some of the other ideas in play? Might a D.C. Wise Man/Usual Suspect of the old school right this ship? This too is a path where Trump can’t win.

First, it’s an instant way to alienate his base of fervent “burn down da gubbmint and let Trump be King” morons. A swamp veteran is going to smooth down the edges, take away Trump’s tweeting phone, cut deals with Congress, and fire the embarrassing mouth-breathers like Scavino, Gorka, and their like. He’ll work deals, manage expectations, and close the Oval Office to the random calls and visits that send President ADHD’s agenda bouncing wildly as an ideological Pachinko machine.

Some of the people mentioned are smart, competent folks with decades of experience in the folkways and traditions of D.C. Some know how to manage large, complex operations. Here’s the problem; no White House chief of staff can change Trump’s essential character. No White House chief of staff can set up a chain of reporting and accountability for a man who is driven almost entirely by the need to draw every particle of praise and adoration into the event horizon of the black hole of his boundless, hungry ego.

A strong, effective chief of staff would be of enormous benefit to this president, but so would avoiding Kentucky Fried Chicken, early morning tweet frenzies, and 20 hours of Fox News every day.

[…]

The shambolic adhocracy of his White House is a perfect reflection of Trump’s own chaotic, disordered thought process and lack of mental discipline, and that’s not changing any time soon.

Full column here, highly recommended.

New York: Tuition Free 4 Year College!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says in New York we have rejected the politics of division.

New York will be the first state in the country to cover four-year college tuition for residents after the program was included in the budget package approved Sunday night.

The state’s Excelsior Scholarship program will be rolled out in tiers over the next three years, starting with full coverage of four-year college tuition this fall for students whose families make less than $100,000.

The income cap will increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019.

“With this budget, New York has the nation’s first accessible college program. It’s a different model,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo Saturday in a statement. “Today, college is what high school was—it should always be an option even if you can’t afford it.”

This is amazing and wonderful news. NYS has become a great model in these dark times, and it would be fantastic to see other states pick up this model as well, as our current regime would never do anything so positive and *gasp* socialist.

Via NBC and NY Daily News.

100 Days: Re-branding the Regime.

President Donald Trump’s communications team is plotting to divide their first 100 days into three categories of accomplishments, according to people familiar with plans. | Getty.

Oh, that 100 days. It looms, and there’s a desperate effort underway to pull off a magical “re-branding” of the regime. Yep. That’s the caliber of our current government, spending time on trying to come up with catchy phrases and massive spin on all those “great accomplishments” so far. I can’t honestly say this is any sort of competent regime, any more than I can say it’s any form of government at all. It isn’t. We’re the country of failed mail-order steaks, but hey, we’re gonna have a new brand, so everything is greeeeaaaaat, you betcha!

The symbolic 100-day mark by which modern presidents are judged menaces for an image-obsessed chief executive whose opening sprint has been marred by legislative stumbles, legal setbacks, senior staff kneecapping one another, the resignation of his national security adviser and near-daily headlines and headaches about links to Russia.

The date, April 29, hangs over the West Wing like the sword of Damocles as the unofficial deadline to find their footing— or else.

[…]

“One hundred days is the marker, and we’ve got essentially two-and-a-half weeks to turn everything around,” said one White House official. “This is going to be a monumental task.”

For a president who often begins and ends his days imbibing cable news, the burden has fallen heavily on a press team that recognizes how well they sell Trump’s early tenure in the media will likely color the president’s appetite for an internal shake-up.

That was the backdrop for a tense planning session for the 100-day mark last week.

More than 30 Trump staffers piled into a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjoining the White House, according to a half-dozen attendees who described the Tuesday meeting.

Mike Dubke, Trump’s communications director, and his deputy, Jessica Ditto, kicked off the discussion of how to package Trump’s tumultuous first 100 days by pitching the need for a “rebranding” to get Trump back on track.

“I think the president’s head would explode if he heard that,” one of the White House officials present said.

Oh, the need to re-brand “Trump”, yes, I imagine that one wouldn’t go over well.

Staffers, including counselor Kellyanne Conway, were broken into three groups, complete with whiteboards, markers and giant butcher-block-type paper to brainstorm lists of early successes. One group worked in the hallway.

“It made me feel like I was back in 5th grade,” complained another White House aide who was there. “That’s the best way I could describe it.”

Dubke, who did not work on the campaign, told the assembled aides that international affairs would present a messaging challenge because the president lacks a coherent foreign policy. Three days later, Trump would order missile strikes in Syria in a reversal of years of previous opposition to such intervention.

“There is no Trump doctrine,” Dubke declared.

Some in the room were stunned by the remark.

“It rubbed people the wrong way because on the campaign we were pretty clear about what he wanted to do,” said a third White House official in the room, “He was elected on a vision of America First. America First is the Trump doctrine.”

“America First” is not a doctrine. It’s not anything. It’s a bit of rhetoric tossed out like a barbed net to catch the slowest swimmers. It doesn’t mean jack shit.

As for the rebranding remark, Dubke said that had been misinterpreted. “There is not a need for a rebranding but there is a need to brand the first 100 days,” Dubke said. “Because if we don’t do it the media is going to do it. That’s what our job is.”

Oh, the dishonesty. Yes, you’re trying to re-brand, and you’re in desperate need of something, after all, you can’t be dropping missiles and bombs every day, right? As for the media, it would be nice if the assholes who decided tossing random missiles was presidential would pull their head out of their arses, but you can’t blame media for reporting the facts.

Trump’s communications team is now plotting to divide their first 100 days into three categories of accomplishments, according to people familiar with plans: “prosperity” (such as new manufacturing jobs, reduced regulations and pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal), “accountability” (following through on swamp-draining campaign promises such as lobbying restrictions) and “safety/security” (including the dramatic reduction in border crossing and the strike in Syria).

:Snort: Well, the Pants on Fire teams will be busy. Trump has not done any of that, except to lie his arse off about it all. Everyone already knows the strike in Syria was a meaningless attempt to shore up ratings.

Trump aides are grappling with the reality that they will end this opening period with no significant legislative achievements other than rolling back Obama-era regulations. Even the White House’s most far-reaching success, the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, required the Senate rewriting its own rules to overcome Democratic opposition.

Yes, 45 to 50 years of hard fought for legislation which helped all people, and protected our land and water, all gone. So fuckin’ yay for you, idiots. That’s quite the “accomplishment”, making sure it will take people decades on end to repair all the damage done so far.

Though the White House continues to push for progress on stalled health care legislation, there are only five legislative days remaining once Congress returns from a two-week spring break. Plus, another deadline looms: Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress must still pass a bill before April 28 to keep the government running.

If they fail, a shutdown would begin on Trump’s 100th day in office.

And that would be Trump business as usual, wouldn’t it? I’m sure he’d solve it with a few more $3.5 million trips to Florida to golf. *spits*

Full story at Politico.

Oh look, here’s an “accomplishment”:

Via NYT.

The Golf Course Ratings War.

A U.S. carrier group, including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, shown here, departed Singapore on Saturday, April 8, towards the Korean Peninsula, according to a Navy news release. CREDIT: AP Photo/Bullit Marquez.

The Tiny Tyrant is, once again, where else? On a fucking golf course in Florida. For all the mouthing off this idiot did about President Obama golfing, this massive asshole seems to be unable to stay off of one for a whole three days. Poor Little Tyrant, his pointless bluster in the form of an airstrike didn’t work on his ratings. They stay at the bottom of the barrel. What’s a tyrant to do? Oh, well, let’s take a shot at provoking a nuclear war, that should work! FFS, is there no one who will tell this sociopathic idiot that most people, including Americans, really don’t fucking want a nuclear war, because most of us don’t want to fucking die just yet?

We now have two idiotic, sociopathic tyrants facing off in their “my dick is bigger!” contest, Kim Jong-Un and Little Donnie. Yeah, I’m gonna go paint while I can.

Think Progress has the full story.

Oh, there’s also this:

“Xinhua, the state news agency, on Saturday called the strike the act of a weakened politician who needed to flex his muscles,” The New York Times reported. “In an analysis, Xinhua also said Mr. Trump had ordered the strike to distance himself from Syria’s backers in Moscow, to overcome accusations that he was ‘pro-Russia.’”

Not “pro-Russia”. Right. How in the fuckety fuck does that work when he had his little chat with them, warning them about the strike? FFS, no one can take this idiot seriously, which only ups the possibility he will use nukes. Christ.

Via Raw Story.

The Wall Hits A Wall.

Getty Images.

All I have here is: it’s about godsdamn time people came to their senses. Took long enough.

“It’s anywhere between $26 billion and $40 billion to build it, you can’t drive on it, you can’t use it for anything, it doesn’t do anything to drive economic growth and jobs in America beyond the building of a wall itself, and it probably wouldn’t be built using union jobs to begin with,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Yep. By golly, they even managed to notice that Mexicans aren’t exactly enamored of Americans anymore, and we’re talking repubs here. So, let’s hope this is one idiotic idea that’s down the drain.

The Hill has the full story.

Sunday Facepalm: The Problem with Syrian Kids.

When I posted about the illegal strike on Syria, I made a strong point about the Tiny Tyrant’s hypocrisy in claiming to care about Syrian children. He did not, and does not care about those children in the least. While campaigning, he compared Syrian people to venomous snakes, and Syrian people are high on his ban list. Nikki Haley has now come out and stated the real problem with those “beautiful babies” who happen to by Syrian – they come with parents. Oh my!

Following President Donald Trump’s military attack on Syria for the use of chemical weapons, CNN host Jake Tapper asked Haley why the administration was opposed to taking in refugees when “beautiful babies” were being “slaughtered.”

“Why not allow Syrian refugees who are children and maybe their mothers to come in after they’ve been vetted,” Tapper wondered.

Haley argued that President Trump “very much believes in the responsibility of keeping Americans safe.”

[…]

Tapper pressed: “But certainly you don’t think Syrian children pose a risk to the American people.”

“Well, Syrian children have to come with Syrian adults,” Haley replied. “And you don’t know, it’s hard to know based on the vetting process. And that’s unfortunate that we can’t find that out.”

[…]

“At the end of the day we need to remember that Syrians don’t want to live somewhere else. They want to be home. They want to be with their family. They want to be with their loved ones. And that’s the focus of why the airstrike happened this week.”

Right. An airstrike which did not do one fucking thing, outside of being a cynical ploy to shore up abysmal ratings, the only thing the Tiny Tyrant cares about. He certainly does not care about anyone’s children, outside of his own. I do imagine most people would prefer to stay in the land of their birth, however, war and climate change are making that impossible for way too many people. Since Little Donnie doesn’t want to actually help any of those brown babies with adults attached, perhaps he could go big picture, and focus on making a difference regarding climate. Oh, wait. Yes, he’s already done that one, hasn’t he? Rolled us right back by about 45, 50 years, hellbent on accelerating the nauseous mess uStates is about to become. Got it.

Via Raw Story.

Straight from the Golf Course, It’s Mr. Tweet!

The reason you don’t generally hit runways is that they are easy and inexpensive to quickly fix (fill in and top)!

That’s the Fucking Idiot’s amazing military logik! Well, he would know the dirty and cheap way to do something. I’m afraid the Tiny Tyrant isn’t doing so well anymore, the tweet stream is cynical, funny, and outraged. Lots of people tired to death of this moron. Not a whole lot of Trumpholes coming to the defense, either.

This also came up more than once in the tweet stream:

Pro-Trump super PAC @GreatAmericaPAC fundraising off missile strikes in Syria.

This Fucking Idiot is busy trying to funnel money into a 2020 campaign, while demonstrating that he can’t even manage to stay in the white house for one fucking weekend, let alone actually work.

Naturally, our ever Fawlty Dictator is busy sucking up all the taxpayer money while he plays at his private club, and is, once again, golfing.

Source: WaPo.

Think Progress has a lovely breakdown of just how much money the Fawlty Dictator has stolen to date, in order to spend every possible moment out of the white house, faffing about in Florida, busy sucking all those poor people dry, and golfing. Amazing he found a moment to tweet at all, ennit?

All the Clowns and Personal Profit.

screenshot.

screenshot.

Trey Yingst, One America News Network. Lars Larson, conservative talk radio host. Jason Stevens, The Federalist Paper. Katie Pavlich, Fox news. The Daily Signal, published by the Heritage Foundation. Breitbart news. London Daily Mail. Lucian Wintrich, Gateway Pundit. David Smith and Sinclair Media. Kaitlan Collins, Daily Caller.

If you don’t know who these people are, take a few moments out of your day to find out, because these are the people who are being allowed seats at press briefings, and not one of them could be referred to as objective, no matter how much you twisted and stretched the definition. The NYT, BBC, and Politico, among others, are being blocked from some press briefings, and that’s become routine. Unfortunately, providing permanent access and seats to those listed above is also going on. If you thought Fox was bad, well…go have a read.

With so many garish spectacles to feast your eyes on at the 33-ring Trump circus, some clowns are easy to miss. Especially the ones performing in proximity to Sean Spicer. Pry your eyes away from the Pagliacci of the Pressroom for a moment, however, and look hard at some of his supporting buffoons. They may not have attracted the notice of Saturday Night Live yet. But now that the White House is blocking outlets like The New York Times, BBC, and Politico from some press briefings, the ones who are still there are becoming an increasingly important part of the story.

Get the full story here.

In discussions yesterday, it was noted with fatigued and cynical eye that stock went up on Raytheon after the pointless missile strike on Syria. Given the Tiny Tyrant’s notion that government is little more than a well-rounded cow to milk, it should come as no surprise that Donnie has his short fingers buried in Raytheon stock. Everywhere you look, if you’re looking in the direction of Trump, is surrounded by incestuous smoke screen. Filthy rich assholes love wars, it’s one of the quickest ways for them to shovel mass amounts of money down their throats. For everyone else, it’s not great. We should not be blind to what’s happening here, and everyone should be opposed to starting yet another war for no good reason, one which will echo on for years to come, and give people every reason in the world to hate the U.S.

As noted by the Palmer Report, Trump owns stock in Raytheon, which was reported by Business Insider in 2015.

According  to Trump’s financial disclosure reports filed with the FEC in 2015, his stock portfolio includes investments in  technology firms, financial institutions and defense firms, including Raytheon.

On Thursday, Trump launched an attack on the al-Shayrat military airfield, used by both Syrian and Russian military forces, hitting it with 59 Tomahawk missiles manufactured by Raytheon. Trump’s attack on Syria was reportedly in response to a deadly gas attack launched by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against his own people earlier in the week.

While the Tomahawk attack did little damage to the airfield — with the Syrian air force  continuing to launch assaults from the same base on Friday — investors, sensing an increasing escalation in tensions between two countries and the possibility of war , pushed Raytheon stock up.

Full story here.

Breaking: Syrian Warplanes Leave Airbase Hit by U.S.

JUST IN: Syrian warplanes take off from air base hit by U.S., carry out strikes in Homs countryside – Syrian observatory for human rights.- Reuters.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the planes carried out strikes in rebel-held areas in the Homs countryside.

The Shayrat base was the target of a Tomahawk missile strike carried out by the United States late Thursday night, a direct response to reports the Syrian regime launched a chemical attack on its own citizens Tuesday morning.

Via Raw Story.

Also see: Trump’s vision on Syria’s foreign policy is still completely incoherent.

Well, it was nice having voting rights while it lasted.

CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.

CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.

By a 54–45 vote, the Senate confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Friday.

Full Story.

Here We Go Again: Syria.

Airstrike on Syria (Photo: screen capture).

Airstrike on Syria (Photo: screen capture).

More than once, I’ve brought up the possibility of Trump starting yet another war, and I’ve been on edge for a while now, wondering when the fuck it was going to happen, because I think we all knew this was coming. The Tiny Tyrant is not bathing in adulation, he’s not everyone’s little baby, being cooed at. People are not happy, and they aren’t impressed. His low approval ratings are setting a whole new record. His Regime is a chaotic clusterfuck, his wife happily keeps her distance, while people are calling for her to get the fuck out of NYC, and no one in Florida wants the Trumps around anymore, as they are pure poison to plain folk, their wallets, and their businesses. There’s the collusion with Russia, the overwhelming evidence of corruption, fraud, and constitution violation. Donnie hasn’t gotten over his humiliation in not passing the Fuck You Care Plan, either. So, what’s a shallow, sociopathic idiot to do? War! Missiles! It’s the War on Terra 2.0!

And, just like with Bush, this is already working on at least some people, primarily the media it seems. Deciding to fire a missile from a long distance to slaughter people does not make a person “presidential”. Especially not in this case. Trump made this decision at his Mar-a-private club, without congressional approval. That’s not presidential. That’s a fucking dictator. And there’s something everyone really needs to remember – Trump does not give one shit about those Syrian children. Syria was on his personal hit list of bannination, and when he was campaigning, he compared Syrian refugees to venomous snakes. Don’t go thinking he had a sudden attack of empathy, he didn’t. Okay, let’s get on with the round-up, lots and lots to absorb out there.

In Think Progress’s main article about the strike, they include the seven tweets by Trump deriding President Obama for considering strikes against Syria. He ranted and raved about it quite a bit.

The actions represent a dramatic reversal from Trump’s position when Obama considered military action against Syria after Assad used chemical weapons in 2013. Trump repeatedly derided the idea of striking Syria, characterizing it as a foolish and expensive waste of time.

[All Caps] Again, to our very foolish leader, do not attack Syria – if you do many very bad things will happen & from that fight the U.S. gets nothing!

Think Progress also has an article about the excessive fawning by the media over the suddenly “presidential” Tiny Tyrant.

This isn’t entirely surprising. Trump’s approval ratings have been fairly low, but the President indicated in 2012 a certain awareness that decisive military strikes can help polling rebound.

Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.

And many are already terrified that Trump might use military action to shore up his popularity and distract from the massive scrutiny and investigations his administration has face in its first 11 weeks.

You can include me in that group. That’s exactly what this fucking sociopathic idiot is going to do.

Think Progress has an article about the unhappiness of Russia with this symbolic muscle flexing.

Though the strike was intended to degrade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s capability to carry out another chemical attack in the future, it appears to have been largely symbolic. During a gaggle with reporters, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster acknowledged that after the strike, “the regime will maintain the certain capacity to commit mass murder with chemical weapons, we think, beyond this particular airfield.”

Raw Story has an article which reminds us all of Trump’s vow to commit war crimes and his love of torture.

Raw Story also has an article up about the selling of the Iraq war, and just how much news outlets had to do with that, primarily Fox.

The 10 Republicans who have done a 180 on Syria, now that Obama is not president.

The Conversation has an article about the current rationalisations for the new war.

Even the Nazis are upset.

And, just in:

Nine civilians including four children were killed in the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airbase near the city of Homs on Friday, the Syrian state news agency said.

And: Trump administration edges toward war in Syria.

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