... and how he acts in office. Sometimes I think we give him too much credit for his calculated distractions and Machiavellian methods. Other times I fear we may not be giving him credit enough. So, what is he? A putz, or a prodigy? Brilliant, or a buffoon?

At times, it seems pretty clear that he is a bloviating fool who has lied, bullied and grifted his way through life, and knows no other way to get what he wants or to create the illusion that he has power and respect. He became, really, a two bit reality TV personality who was famous only because he was famous. He was best known in the real world for failed business dealings and cheating at ... well, everything, and he has brought that low intellect, systemic corruption and abject incompetence to the political arena. He's a cut-rate con man who, surely any day now, is going to be brought down by the sheer volume and audacity of his crimes/stupidity. He’s a racist, misogynistic, narcissistic asshole – no doubt. But if it walks like stupid Hitler, and talks like stupid Hitler …

But …. sometimes his moves and counter moves DO seem too coordinated and too effective to just be a side show in his personal circus. Is his trumpyness really calculated and shrewd? Is he trolling us and gas-lighting the narrative with a purpose? Really? I just don't think he is in any way an intelligent man, and I don't think he cares about anything except himself. The concept that he is actually a master strategist working on some kind of grand plan to destroy democracy in this country in favor of a Russian style oligarchy is simply too hard to rationalize. Look at him and listen to him. Stupid is normally either funny or sad. He mixes stupid with evil. I don’t think you can “act” that combination. He IS stupid, and he IS evil. He's not pretending.

Well – then, … is there a group of highly competent and well financed handlers that are directing this shit show down to the last detail? Are they so smart and skilled that they realize they should stay well behind the scenes and out of the light? Is trump the “useful idiot” they chose to be their tool to accomplish their goals? The “shadow government” conspiracy theory for the left? That’s a pretty thick tin foil hat, right?

So, the truth is probably some kind of mixture of it all. trump is a tool, and is clearly screwed up with no redeeming qualities, but he is actually pretty accomplished at gas lighting and at denying the truth despite readily observable facts. He's a bullshitter who has bullshat his way through life, and completely believes his own bullshit (any half ass bullshitter will tell you that is KEY to a life of bullshit). If you've known someone like this in your life (as I have), you know that it really doesn't matter if you call out their bullshit, because they have already moved on to the next line of bullshit. You're tied to reason and facts and investigative norms, while they are running circles around you spewing bullshit, covering the walls with it, and blaming you for the mess. And, damn-it, eventually you DO clean up the mess because someone has to, and they NEVER will.

And his circus-like administration has attracted ALL the clowns. People who could never be taken seriously by a serious leader, but who can impress the bullshitter with their own bullshit, and insert themselves into his circle for power, fame, money, etc... These people take a lot of the attention off of him because they are clowns, and they are full of bullshit, and we can't look away because, damn ... it's a bunch of clowns spewing bullshit. And sometimes they fling it on each other - but who cares? It's literally a shit show and we love it, or love to hate it. And before long we’re rooting for Pennywise because he’s started flinging poo on Bozo, and we sooooo hate Bozo, and Pennywise is married to Clara Bell – and we don’t understand how that can be since she’s one of the worst clowns, and we ponder this and argue with each other about it because we’ve forgotten THAT THEY’RE ALL FUCKING CLOWNS!!!

But then there likely IS a pretty opportunistic group of reasonably smart people who are taking advantage of all of this. Putin, McConnell, the Kochs and their cabal? You can count on it. And they are doing real damage. Not by "handling" or "manipulating" trump, but by quietly pushing their own agenda while the rest of the country is trumping out over outrage after outrage after outrage. They’re not “in league” with trump because he’s a narcissist and you can’t conspire with a narcissist almost by definition. But the opportunity is there and they are skilled enough to use it under the radar of the shit show.

So - I really don't think any of it is necessarily by design. I think it's more like a house infested with rats. They are destroying everything, fighting each other, shitting all over the place. Some of them are chewing through the electrical wiring. They are in the cupboards and the linen closet. They have built nests in the drain pipes. They are spreading disease and pestilence. And they're breeding like rats. And then you notice that your neighbor on one side has a grossly unkempt yard, and that is surely where the rats have been coming from. You’ll have to start hearings at the Home Owner’s Association to investigate that. And then you find evidence that your other neighbor - who has hated you for decades because he blames you for making him tear down his wall in 1989 - secretly put out food to lure the rats into your home in the first place, and he purposefully lured in the big orange rat with a yellow head (who seems to be the lead rat because the other rats follow him) and now you want to kick that neighbors ass, but you can’t because all your friends in the neighborhood won’t have your back anymore because you’re surrounded by rats, and the rats mock them and threaten them, and generally act disrespectful – like rats.

You call the exterminator, and he sets out a couple of rat traps because, he says, "no one has ever invented a better way to kill rats than a rat trap", and he claims this is sacred exterminator law that is written in some important document that is 200 years old or something, and can’t be changed. And he catches some rats, and they plead guilty to cheese fraud. But not enough. They're are more and more rats, and shit – it looks like now some of them are armed.

You bring in some cats, but the rats ridicule the cats mercilessly on the MSM, and accuse them of being corrupt and having their own pro-cat agenda. Some members of your family – especially the dogs - start to not trust the cats. Some of the cats quit because they’re close to retirement anyway and just can't handle all the drama. Now half your family wants to get more cats, some want to call the exterminator back, Aunt Martha says we should wait on the HOA’s report, and cousin Jed says just be patient and it’ll all go away probably. Meanwhile, more and more rats. It's overwhelming. You want to burn them out, but that will destroy the house. But they're destroying the house anyway... Maybe snakes? But then you'd have a house full of large, well fed snakes. Are snakes better than rats?

I don’t have an answer. It seems hopeless. But - the rats are not out smarting us. They aren’t coordinating their takeover of our house. They’re not conspiring with each other in some secret plan to make rats great again. They are just being rats. And that instinctive ratness is making them very, very successful rats.

... last minute to G O T f'ing V!!

I voted in Alabama - West Mobile - this morning, and drove by 5 other locations on my way downtown.

Crowds appeared to be VERY heavy at every precinct. That's probably NOT a good thing here. These are heavily republican areas, and I was hoping to see small crowds. Our mid-town area is a little more purple, and turnout at the one location I drove by there was also heavy.

The anecdotal lesson here is that the Trumplodytes may also be coming out to vote.

If you're where it really matters today, please go vote, and take a couple of friends. It's going to be closer than we might hope.

Source: AL.com

The wife of Alabama lieutenant governor candidate Will Ainsworth was injured in a “gun accident" today, the Republican candidate said on social media.

* * *

“We are thankful it doesn’t appear serious, but covet your prayers while the doctors treat her.”

* * *

Ainsworth has been a representative in the state legislature since 2014. Earlier this year, he led the charge to allow trained, certified school teachers and administrators to carry guns on campuses. After 17 people were gunned down at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Ainsworth sponsored the legislation, which drew roiling debate in Montgomery. The legislation didn’t have enough support to become law.


Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2018/10/lt-gov-candidate-will-ainsworths-wife-injured-in-gun-accident.html

---

... get elected to the state legislature.

... sponsor legislation to put guns in schools in the wake of the Parkland massacre.

... win the Lt Gov primary.

... your wife gets shot and injured in your home because you’re not a responsible gun owner ...

PRICELESS.

NOTE: I added the “(R)” to the tirle since AL.com is kind of known for not identifying party affiliation on bad stories. It is in the body of the article, though.

Source: Sean Burch,The Wrap

In a Monday morning appearance on Fox News, Kellyanne Conway suggested “anti-religious” late-night comedians fostered an environment for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting to take place.

“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny to make fun of anybody of faith, to constantly be making fun of people that express religion — the late-night comedians, the unfunny people on TV shows — it’s always anti-religious,” Conway said, without naming particular hosts.

* * *

Conway added: “This is no time to be driving God out of the public square.”

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kellyanne-conway-blames-synagogue-shooting-155354302.html

---

So ..... she's admitting people with a public platform can influence others to act? And that the content of public statements can trigger lunatics? Did trump approve this message???

Someone - or a group of someones - at a senior level in the administration suspects a complete meltdown is coming soon - scandals galore. Enough that even the deplorabase will walk away in sufficient numbers to make trump's stranglehold on the party irrelevant. Resignations, indictments, guilty pleas, possible impeachment - all manner of chaos.

The op-ed will allow them all to claim they were part of the shadow resistance, and are therefore American heroes, not collaborators. It's a get out of jail free card.

I think it's really that simple.

Congrats Doug. O.K. DU. The gauntlet has been thrown down. What’re you gonna do in 2018?

... Jones interviewed outside his voting precinct:

"Alabama we have come so far with too many things, and there is saying, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Alabama is not going to let that shame happen again."

I’m not sure we deserve this kind of competence in Alabama. But Gomer WAS from here, so maybe ...

AL.com

“Steve Bannon mocks Joe Scarborough's University of Alabama education, gets Lynyrd Skynyrd response”

Stumping for embattled Republican Senate Roy Moore Monday night in Midland, Alabama, Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon mocked MSNBC host Joe Scarborough by telling the crowd he went to much better schools - Georgetown and Harvard - than the former Florida Congressman.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/12/steve_bannon_mocks_joe_scarbor.html#incart_river_mobileshort_home


https://m.

... evidence is overwhelming. As much as it pains all of us, it looks like DU will have to be shut down. I don’t see any other solution.

For those of you who are not already familiar with the timeline, I’ll lay it out.

Several weeks ago, an administrator at Free Republic, "SeanStone", posted a cryptic message on that site saying “Soon - as soon as we get the story tidied up - it’ll be Skinner’s turn in the barrel”.

6 hours later, another freeper, "NotABot1917", posted a link to the following 2015 tweet by Skinner:




"NotABot1917" also said that he worked with Skinner on the site Discussionist around the time of the tweet, and that they were working late one evening when he asked Skinner if he wanted to order pizza from Comet Pong Pong. Skinner allegedly replied “Nyet..., uhh, I mean 'No'. No thanks”.

Message boards lit up and wasted little time running with the story. Skinner immediately issued a statement saying “Really? Are you all idiots over there? I would never turn down pizza. I like pizza”.

But 30 minutes later, a Cave poster tweeted that he had met Skinner at a junior high school football game in the late 70s. “RoidMoore14” said he was 32 and single, and attended the game to admire the cheerleaders after leaving the mall when a "misunderstanding" had resulted in some guy named Paul Blartt asking him to not return. He says he overheard Skinner at the concessions stand telling a hot little 7th grader “I have a Comrade 64 at home”, or something to that effect (he admits being distracted because the 7th grader was blonde and, well, a 7th grader). He says he was surprised that so many Russians could fit in Skinner's house, and he contemporaneously mentioned that to the 7th grader later that same night under the bleachers.

Almost immediately following that tweet, a JPR poster named “LeftierThanThou” came forward to announce that she once saw Skinner at a County Fair where he was irate that the food truck vendor didn’t have caviar OR vodka, and that he had to settle for stale funnel cake and a diet Fresca. The post received 43,000,000 recs in just under 11 minutes. Much credibility was given this account because it came from a site that's not considered conservative and is known for being highly resistant to Russian influence.

Skinner issued more statements, including “WTF?”, “Seriously?”, and “You've gotta be kidding me”, and said he welcomed an official internet Message Board Investigation.

Later that day, however, Jones Alexander's site - BullShitWars - published a story revealing that 3 new accusers had anonymously refused to come forward to report similar behavior. One claimed that Skinner, as a child, frequently rooted AGAINST Rocky and Bullwinkle. The second alleges that he sometimes rode his horse shirtless (Skinner was shirtless - not the horse... although, I guess the horse was technically shirtless too). The third source says Skinner once grabbed his waist and twice firmly said “I’m a Russian Bot. No really. I am”. The source indignantly shouted "I don't let Ms. O'Keefe grab me like that in public, and I never heard of Veritas. Stop saying that!"

Within days, more than 30 DUers were calling for Skinner to step down and close the site, saying that they believe the accusers because it was on the internet. "It would be extremely unlikely that all of these accusers who are from different sites and don't know each other would just make up stupid shit for nefarious purposes, no matter how made-up, stupid and nefarious it sounds" said DUer "MorganFairchild'sHusband". Long time DUer "IvanBotskyandYouCanToo" noted that Cucker Tarlson was being mean and making fun of DU, and "that has to stop because people in Alabama won't start visiting our site". Moderator "SebGorkaIsMyCodeName" also reported hearing a White House leak that Skinner may have attended the Trump Tower meeting as "Russian number 17". Many other DU members are simply concerned that these revelations could be interpreted as conceding the moral high ground to Breibart News, causing Bannon to ask "the what?"

Folks, this is simply too much. All of these accounts are suspicious and lack credibility on their own, but now there are a lot of them, all together, in one place. That has to mean something. And we haven't even heard from the more than 144 million other Russians who haven't yet accused Skinner.

Skinner is expected to make an announcement later today after consulting with friends and family. Brace yourselves.

___________________

Sexual assault and sexual harassment victims need our support, and the culture needs to change. But anyone who takes an objective and close look at this Franken "scandal" can damn well see that the probability that it's an orchestrated take down of a Dem who consistently goes after and embarrasses this administration is pretty freakin' high. But I guess that's unlikely in the age of Swiftboat, Veritas, Rovian politics, etc..., huh?

Victims are not served or respected by this kind of crap. We're losing one of our best today, and it sucks. It's also very - VERY - convenient for republicans and the White House. We've been outplayed again by people without a conscience, and this time they played our collective conscience against us beautifully. Gee. I wonder if we're going to see this tactic again?

... and threads about the divisiveness of the divisiveness are equally divisive.

And threads about the divisiveness of the divisive divisiveness are still divisive.

Shit. I can’t stop!