Regarding The Donald Trump "Joke" Tweet Re Obama Being A Secret Muslim

Remember when one of John McCain's supporters gave him a chance to go the "Obama is a Arab" (AKA a secret Muslim terrorist Manchurian candidate) route and he declined? Sure, McCain would have made a horrible president, but at least he had SOME integrity, unlike the current 2016 Republican potus front runner (McCain: Obama not an Arab, crowd boos. Politico 10/10/2008).

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque? Very sad that he did not go! (Trump insists tweet that Obama would've attended Scalia's funeral "if it were held in a Mosque" was just a joke by Scott Eric Kaufman. Salon 2/22/2016).

How much you wanna bet that Trump's supporters (who likely believe that Obama is a Muslim) got the "joke"? By which I mean they viewed that tweet as Trump being with them (in their belief that Obama is a Muslim). And that he only said it was a "joke" to cover his ass. Due to the political correctness of the "lamestream media" he couldn't just come out and say (without it being a "joke") what many of his supporters know to be "true". Yeah, I'm sure Trump's supporters got the message.

In any case, regarding jokes... this one from a late night host (concerning the Trump tweet) is actually funny, IMO.

Seth Meyers: Of course he wouldn't have gone if it was held in a Mosque. He didn't survive as a secret Muslim president for this long by falling for an obvious trap like that. Come on! (source: Late Night with Seth Myers, 2/22/2016).

Very sad that a bigoted racist misogynist like Trump is poised to win the GOP presidential nomination!

Image: Photographic proof that Barack Hussein Obama is a secret Muslim! In this pic he conspires with Osama bin Laden to bring death to America.

SWTD Tags: 2016 Election, Barack Obama, Donald Trump.

DSB #37

Corporate Media Employee Rachel Maddow Sells False Narrative Re Bernie Sanders Revolution

Sad to see Rachel Maddow join in with the corporate establishment insider narrative concerning how Bernie Sanders can't possibly win. As Thom Hartmann points out in a recent article, Rachel sold this false narrative via a misrepresenting of the IA and NH voter turnout figures.

Tom Hartmann: Rachel Maddow rolled out the latest confused bit of reporting on [2/12/2016]. Rachel ...by saying that the rationale for Bernie's becoming POTUS and actually getting something done (when Obama had such difficulty) is... Bernie's mobilizing huge numbers of new and energized voters. She showed a bunch of examples of his talking about his "political revolution" and how he's bringing new people into politics. [However, Rachel says] It turns out that fewer people showed up to vote Democratic in NH and IA this year than they did in Obama's 2008! ...how could Bernie possibly claim [there is a] revolution? ...as Rachel points out, "40k fewer people voted in this year's NH Democratic primary than did in 2008". [Repeating] for emphasis... "40 thousand less!" "And it was the same story in IA last week", Rachel continued. "Voter turnout was a record for Republicans in IA, but on the Democratic side... turnout... was DOWN from 2008!" [Rachel is saying Bernie can't win. But she] missed a few facts ... [Most importantly re] the numbers [she presented] in an astonishingly confusing fashion... The 2016 turnout on the Repub side was bigger than in 2008 in both NH and IA – because, in large part, the Repubs were running more candidates this year than last cycle. Dems, on the other hand, are running fewer candidates. In 2008, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Richardson all had on-the-ground get-out-the-vote operations (GOTV) running in both NH and IA. This year, instead of 7 well-funded, well-staffed GOTV operations running in those states, there were only 2... And looking at votes by candidate (something Maddow... ignored), Bernie, with 151k votes in NH, shattered the prior record of 112k in 2008, a record set by... HRC. Bernie got more votes this year in NH than Al Gore and Bill Bradley got combined in the 2000 NH primary. In other words, Bernie is turning out voters, just as he said he could. (Bernie's Political Revolution Is Actually Happening, Although the Corporate Media Won't Tell You That by Thom Hartmann. AlterNet 2/14/2016).

So, was this slanted anti-Sanders reporting by Rachel Maddow wholly her idea, something suggested by the msnbc bigwigs, or something Rachel understands she needs to do to keep her job? Whatever the case, it is sad to see. However, with msnbc committing to going even more corporate, it's certainly possible that Rachel got the message - tow the corporate line or get fired like Ed Schultz (SWTD #305).

On the other hand, Rachel apparently said that she finds it "hard to imagine him [Sanders] still being there at the convention" (MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "Hard to imagine" Bernie Sanders winning). So both Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews (who speculates that Bernie might be a Soviet-style socialist that wants government to own the means of production) are in the bag for HRC. And I've also heard that Chris Hayes is attacking Bernie as well (and no, I'm not only talking about Hayes calling the VT Senator "Bernie Sandwiches").

SWTD Tags: 2016 Election, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton.

DSB #36

Bernie Sanders Can Win The Nomination Despite So Many Of The Superdelegates Pledging Their Vote To Hillary Clinton

The establishment insiders want you to think that Bernie Sanders can't win the nomination because Hillary Clinton has so many of the Superdelegates "locked up". But this is not exactly true.

Superdelegates have never decided a Democratic nomination. ... When you look at the astounding numbers from IA & NH, where more than 80% of young voters have chosen Sanders over Clinton... it's clear that Clinton already finds herself in a very tenuous position for the general election. ...any hint that Bernie was screwed by the establishment will result in total abandonment. Democrats win when turnout is high, and if the DNC decides to go against the will of the people and force Clinton down the electorate's throat, they'd be committing political suicide. The important thing to know here is that Superdelegates are merely pledged to a candidate. We know who they support because they've stated it publicly... They are not committed, and can change at any time. If Bernie Sanders wins the popular vote, he will be the nominee. End of story. (After Sanders' Big Win in New Hampshire, Establishment Figures Want to Scare You with Superdelegates. Here's Why It's Bullshit. by Shane Ryan. Paste Magazine 2/10/2016).

The superdelegates aren't locked up. They are "pledged", but they can change their votes, and WILL if Bernie Sanders gets more "regular" delegates than Hillary Clinton (wins the popular vote). Which means that if you're for Bernie... you should absolutely NOT think your vote in the primary is pointless because Hillary is inevitable and you need to GET OUT AND VOTE!

Be you a registered Democrat or a unaffiliated. Just be aware that to vote for Bernie in the primary you need to be registered as a Democrat (and each state has it's own cutoff deadline for doing this. See voteforbernie.org for info re your state).

SWTD Tags: 2016 Election, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton.

PE Comment: Re Superdelegates.

DSB #35

Immediately Following Death Of Antonin Scalia, Repubs Promise To Obstruct Obama In Appointing Replacement

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away at the age of 79. WND says "the horrid reaction and comments about his death expressed by many liberals online illustrate that Scalia was hated by many people". While I don't know about that (haven't seen any "horrid comments", I will acknowledge I did not like Scalia (viewed him as a racist and toady for the plutocrats). But I never once wished he would die.

There are several SCOTUS members who are getting up there in age and both sides are aware that the next president will likely get to appoint a few new justices, which will sway the political leanings of the court. This makes the next presidential election potentially quite uconsequential. I never imagined that a justice would die this close to the end of Obama's term, however. But now that it has happened, it is Obama who gets to nominate the justice of his choice (as per the Constitution).

In fact the selection of a new justice was the subject of an email I received from WND this morning (I'm on the WND email list). WHY would they be speaking of nominating a SCOTS judge, I thought. Had one of them died? Yep. The awfulest one. Hurray!... is NOT what I thought. What I immediately thought was that the Repubs were going to do EVERYTHING to delay his replacement. Put it off to after the upcoming election so that President Trump can do the selecting. Or President Cruz (even though he might not be Constitutionally eligible to be president. But he isn't a Democrat so his being born in Canada probably won't be as big an issue as Obama NOT being born in Kenya was).

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate should not confirm a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia until after the 2016 election — an historic rebuke of President Obama's authority and an extraordinary challenge to the practice of considering each nominee on his or her individual merits. The swiftness of McConnell's statement — coming about an hour after Scalia’s death in Texas had been confirmed — stunned White House officials who had expected the Kentucky Republican to block their nominee with every tool at his disposal, but didn't imagine the combative GOP leader would issue an instant, categorical rejection of anyone Obama chose to nominate. (McConnell throws down the gauntlet: No Scalia replacement under Obama by Burgess Everett and Glenn Thrush. Politico 2/13/16).

All I can say is that this is bullplop and I pray that McConnell and his fellow obstructors don't get away with it. But I am sure they're going to try like hell to deny Obama what the Constitution grants him. But if they do manage to get away with it, then it'll be president Hillary Clinton or president Bernie Sanders who does the appointing. Which would be even better (if it's president Bernie Sanders).

Still, it is Obama who (under the Constitution) who should be doing the appointing, so that better be what happens. I mean, I very, very, very, much doubt that if the president were a Republican and Congress were controlled by the Democrats that the Democratic majority leader would be suggesting such a thing.

Video: Bernie Sanders says "I Don't Think Mitch McConnell Has it Right... The Constitution Is Clear".

SWTD Tags: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, SCOTUS.

Swash Zone: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! by Flying Junior (2/13/2016) and Obama, Texas Strangler by Capt. Fogg (2/15/2016).

PE: Antonin Scalia and the Phony GOP Devotion to the U.S. Constitution (2/16/2016).

DSB #34

Right-winging Bitter Clinging Proud Clingers

Half wit, half term ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin, wordsmither of "refudiate", Shakespeared another neologism during her 1/19/2016 Trump endorsment.

[Sarah Palin] And you quit footing the bill for these nations who are oil-rich, we're paying for some of their squirmishes that have been going on for centuries. Where they're fighting each other and yelling "Allahu akbar", calling jihad on each other's heads forever and ever. Like I've said before, let them duke it out and let Allah sort it out". [NYT Commentary] Here, Mrs. Palin accomplishes many things unusual for a political speaker: She recites the Arabic phrase for "God is great", and, more notably, coins a new word, squirmishes, a cross between squirm (which means to wriggle the body from side to side) and skirmish (which means a brief fight or encounter between small groups). Twitter embraced the new term instantly. (The Most Mystifying Lines of Sarah Palin's Endorsement Speech by Michael Barbarojan. NYT 1/20/2016).

Frightening that she could have actually been elected VP. Although this time around the GOP electorate might go for the Canadian-born, Green Eggs and Ham reading Ted Cruz. Not that there are any good Repub choices... but is this guy even eligible?

In any case, please find below some humorous takes on the Palin endorsement (via YouTube)...

Video1: Yosemite Sarah Palin (0:27).

Video2: SNL Palin Trump Endorsement Cold Open (5:09).

SWTD Tags: 2016 Election, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin.

DSB #33

Flint Water Crisis Proof Republicans Are Evil & Hate Poor People

OK, so the title of this post might be a little hyperbolic, but not by much. Perhaps I should revise my title to read "some Republicans are evil and hate poor people". Which is, incidently, quite Randian of them. Anyway, if you don't know what I'm talking about, what follows is a summary of the Flint water crisis.

[The] drinking water contamination crisis in Flint MI started in April 2014 after Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the Flint River. The corrosive Flint River water caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing extremely elevated levels of lead. (Wikipedia/Flint Water Crisis).

What we're looking at here, IMO, is negligent homicide at the direction of the MI governor, Rick Snyder. For which people should go to prison (people including the governor).

When Governor Snyder took office in 2011, one of the first things he did was to get a multi-billion dollar tax break passed by the Republican legislature for the wealthy and for corporations. But with less tax revenues, that meant he had to start cutting costs. So, many things - schools, pensions, welfare, safe drinking water - were slashed. Then he invoked an executive privilege to take over cities (all of them majority black) by firing the mayors and city councils whom the local people had elected, and installing his cronies to act as "dictators" over these cities. Their mission? Cut services to save money so he could give the rich even more breaks. That's where the idea of switching Flint to river water came from. To save $15 million! It was easy. Suspend democracy. Cut taxes for the rich. Make the poor drink toxic river water. (10 Things They Won't Tell You About the Flint Water Tragedy. But I Will by Michael Moore. HuffPo 2/01/2016.

BTW, they (Snyder and his administration) knew pretty early on that there was a serious problem, but they decided to keep it quiet, while switching some (big business interests like GM) back to the good Lake Huron water.

Can you believe the level of indifference/depravity this took? Yeah, that's why I'm with Michael Moore on this... he says Snyder should be arrested and prosecuted. Hell, if it were possible for Snyder to receive a fair trial I think he could be convicted of murder and receive the death penalty. Of course that ain't going to happen.

Apparently Cher tweeted about this and suggested that Synder be executed by firing squad (with the use of the hashtag #FIRINGSQUADWORKSFORME). OK, so 88% of criminologists do not believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent and (as a Progressive) I am opposed to the death penalty (for this reason, among others). But I'm going to go ahead a SAY that in Snyder's case I think we should make an exception. But only because it will outrage Republicans.

SWTD Tags: Michael Moore, Republican Racism.

DSB #32