Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

GOPers Now Just Chimps Throwing Their Feces

Yesterday's Michael Cohen hearing before Congress was what Friends and ER used to be - MUST SEE TV.

Honestly, I turned it on as it began, thinking I would go about my business, check in here and there, browse the sound bytes on Twitter and get things done.  Was not to be.  With a pants shitting opening by Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, I was planted on my couch for the duration. 

His pathetic contention that getting Cohen's opening statement the night before was not enough time and showed "disdain" for the process was the first in a day's long contest in which each GOPer attempted to ball up his own feces and heave it the farthest.

I have news for poor, apparently remedial reader Meadows:  I read it in ten minutes in the middle of the night when it showed up on Twitter.  It was not rocket science, it was not written in secret code. It was not something you needed weeks to parse out.  And that you did not like the content?  Tough titty said the kitty but the milk's all gone.  (all thanks to my mother for that one)

In two months Michael Cohen is heading to prison for three years.  Coming before Congress was voluntary, not compulsory.  There was zero to gain at this point.  Not even the bandied about "Rule 35" reduction in sentencing.  His testimony yesterday gained him nothing.  Maybe a clearer conscience, but not much more.

The questioning in the hearing was stark in contrast between Dems and GOP.  Despite the evidence he brought with him, and the statement he made about his years working for Trump, as each Republican was given their five minutes, it was nothing more than a new chimp hurling his/her feces at Cohen.

Each began with a clod of shit tagged "You are a proven liar."  In fact, these oh-so-mature simians had mounted this behind them:

Seriously, this is a Congressional committee of supposed adult leaders.  This garbage would not be allowed in the hallways of a high school for a student council election.

Yet there it was, the proud poster love child of Rep Jim Jordan, former wrestling coach who is accused of covering up sexual abuse of players and Rep. Meadows, whose white fragility was a thing to behold towards the end of the hearing.  (Note for Mark:  Using a black woman as a prop?  Just a thought - if you don't want someone to refer to your actions as racist, don't pull racist shit like this.)

Yes, Cohen lied to Congress at his last appearance.  But missing in their ire was the fact that his lies to them had been to cover for Trump.  No, that did not seem to bother them at all.

The GOPlanet of the Apes had one purpose - divert, obfuscate, bathe in hypocrisy, and shove their arms straight up their own colons for more shit to fling.  Not a single one asked a pertinent question regarding the allegations and EVIDENCE against Trump.  Not. A. One.

Contrast that to each Dem who asked questions with purpose, questions that helped elucidate Cohen's history of being Trump's fixer, questions that will lead to further witnesses being called before Congress. 

For his part, Cohen came across as coherent, thoughtful, clear and cogent in his answers.  He did not use hyperbole.  He did not answer if he did not know the answer, and he even defended Trump on occasion.  No, I do not absolve him of his crimes, nor should he be absolved on any level.  He broke the law.  But as for the additional clods flung by GOPers regarding him only being sorry he got caught?

Look, a two year is only sorry he got caught with his hand in the package and Goldfish crumbs in his hair.  Initially.  Of course Cohen is sorry he got caught.  Breaking a law, a promise, a rule all hinge on the guilty party thinking they will not get caught.  So when they are?  That first wave has everything to do with survival and the gymnastics of kicking one's own ass.  He is going to prison.  His family has been dragged through this sewer of his own making.  Of course he is sorry he got caught.

But what also comes across is a man whose eyes are finally open to the magnitude of what he facilitated, the place blind loyalty led him, and just what the price is for being intoxicated by the proximity to power.  Cohen is a man who now knows without a doubt that Trump was never worth the risks he took.  The cover-ups, the strong arming, the threats, the boorish behavior, the backroom dealings, and the crimes.

And he will have years apart from his family to ruminate on his choices.  Years to reflect on gambling everything and losing it all.  Years to ponder how he will move forward - his law license was revoked, he has been disbarred. Years to feel the guilt daily for what he has done to his wife, his children.

So this constant GOP heaving of shit labeled "liar" "criminal" and "cheat" was not only redundant, it said more about the Republicans than it did about Cohen.  They flung those words for hours, never once choking on the hypocrisy of defending a man who has now openly lied to the public over 8,000 times.  Their sanctimony over Trump being called a racist by Cohen was worthy of Scarlett needing a fainting couch at Tara - Trump's racist actions and words are well documented for decades.

They literally listened to nothing that was being said, processed none of the answers, and showed no concern that the President of the United States was being proven a criminal right before their eyes.  Cohen was smart to bring evidence, like the Trump signed check, financial documents, etc.  Yet in the end, these were the Republicans:

Hear no evidence, see no evidence, shout and fling poo at all presented evidence.

It is stymying to me how absolutely steadfast they and all MAGAts are in their refusal to believe Trump could have ever done a single thing wrong in his entire life.  Investigative reporting is cast off as FAKE NEWS.  Evidence is some product of the Deep State.  And even if they concede with a shrug over something?  They do not care.  That is the stuff of cults.  Believe nothing but what comes from the leader. 

That's how this happens:

That is Jonestown.  Those are dead bodies.  The bodies of hundreds who propped up a conman.  Hundreds who feared questioning Jim Jones.  Hundreds who refused to hear a single bad word uttered about him.  Hundreds who refused to back down from their choices even when they knew they were mired in bullshit.  Hundreds who gladly poisoned themselves and their children for him.

This abject refusal to see Trump for what he is, what he has always been is dangerous.  And when that mindset is in the heads of our supposed leaders?  We get what we are seeing daily - a wholly unfit POTUS who is intellectually dim and incurious, who continues to pad his own wallet through his position because no one will stop him, who has left the reputation of the USA in tatters on the world stage, and who rampages across our Constitution with impunity.

I have asked this before, I will ask it again of his adherents:  Take anything, any one thing he has done and replace his name with Obama.  What would your reaction be?

Rhetorical question.  We all know you would have set your hair on fire by now.  You would have been hanging more effigies in your front yards.  Your elected GOPers would have filed articles of impeachment immediately.  There would be no shrugging by you; no blind support because "President"; no refusal to believe cold hard evidence before you.

You would be out for blood, for justice, for truth.  And with your set, blood always seems to come first.

Flinging your shit like angry little chimps will not change the outcome.  There is already so much evidence of wrongdoing in the public sphere, and who knows what SDNY and Mueller's team have ongoing - based on Cohen's testimony, there is a dam that will ultimately break and drown all those who have supported a criminal, who have participated in criminality with him.  And that will tsunami those ridiculous red hats off the heads of his followers.

The clinging to conspiracy theories so as to not have to face reality?  Like continually pointing at the basement of a pizza parlor that doesn't have a basement just because you hate Hillary Clinton.  Your staunch refusal to accept the reality that you voted for and support a man with a litany of failures in his business life; a man who constantly inflates and deflates his worth and holdings to secure him lower taxes or higher ratings; a man who won you over for saying "You're fired" on a scripted reality TV show; a man who literally pees in a golden toilet in Trump tower; a man who openly bragged about being a philandering piece of shit repeatedly; a man who faked a name and called news outlets to plant stories about himself; a man who has three wives, children by each, and has openly cheated on them all; a man would not cross the street to pee on you if you were on fire.

This is who you support.  Sorry, but you hitched your wagon to an outhouse, not a star.

Look, no one likes to admit they were wrong.  About anything.  It is embarrassing.  It makes us have to doubt our own judgment that brought us to that place.  It colors how we are perceived by others. 

But you GOPers and MAGAts are wrong.

And there's not enough shit in this world to fling and cover up the truth.

Cut. It. Off.

As anyone who has been around this blog for the 14+ years it has been open, you know I love children.  They are precious, the future, innocent, the best a human being can ever be, and should be protected and cherished at all costs.

So you also know that nothing makes me see red faster than any story of child abuse.  Through the years I have covered horrific instances of abuse of the most fragile in our society.  And what I believe should happen to those who mete out this horror against them.

Let the punishment = the crime.  Starve, beat up, break bones, ravage, keep in a cage, douse in boiling water, expose to pedophile friends for money, etc?  Suffer the same fate, only on an adult scale.

But this story of abuse, and an equal fate, would only indulge the monster who perpetrated it.  He would probably like it.

In yet another story out of Florida (I swear that state needs cleansed with bleach), this piece of shit, Matthew Alvin Hockenberry, has admitted to forcing a FIVE YEAR OLD to perform oral sex on him.  REPEATEDLY.

Let me repeat that. A FIVE YEAR OLD.  Marinate on that fact.  Let it sink in.

What were you doing when you were five?  I was in kindergarten learning to use scissors and paste.  I was watching Sesame Street and playing on my swingset.  I was playing in my sandbox with my siblings. 

I was not sucking dick.

How anyone can look at a child and see them as a sexual being is beyond me.  That they can take their lust and use it against a tiny child sickens me beyond words.  Not only are they inflicting unimaginable pain, fear, and confusion on the child - they are inflicting memories.  Scars may fade, but memories are forever.

Hockenberry has been charged with capital felony sexual battery.  He faces life in prison if convicted.  If?  He has admitted that “this activity” has happened repeatedly with this child.

Life in prison is not good enough.  You know where I live when it comes to this type of abuse.  He needs to go.  His services on this planet are no longer needed.  He has proven that his allotment of oxygen is a waste of our resources.  He needs to be put down like the rabid animal he is. 

But first?

CUT. IT. OFF.

That's right. CUT IT OFF.  Don't numb it first, don't even use a sharp knife.  In fact, enlist some feral pigs to "fellate" him till it is gone from his body.  Let him ruminate on his choices, and then?  Lights out.

Harsh?  Am I actually advocating a form of torture?  YES.  Sorry, I do not offer redemption to anyone who treats a child like a fleshlight or a blow up doll.  This extends to every sexual predator of every child.

The Pope is currently holding the Vatican's first summit on sexual abuse and ruminating new rules for reporting it within the Catholic Church.  New guidelines for what dioceses should follow as new instances are reported.  Sorry, this whole insulate, protect and move them around like some perverse shell game needs to end.  What they are doing, have been doing, is criminal.  There should be one guideline:  CALL THE AUTHORITIES IMMEDIATELY.

Instead, the Vatican acts as if resignation or defrocking is punishment enough.  The most high profile example is former Cardinal of Washington DC, Theodore McCarrick who resigned after allegations began to pile up last year.  As this summit approached, the Pope took the public step of defrocking the Cardinal, which amounts to expelling him from the church, a step that has been described as “the most significant abuse-related punishment given to a former cardinal in the modern history of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Seriously.  Kicking him out of the club is punishment?  CALL THE POLICE.  What these priests and clergy are doing is criminal.  When Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me..." this is not what he was gathering them for. That these priests, deacons, bishops, and cardinals wear vestments makes them no different than that swamp creature Hockenberry in Florida.  They belong in prison.  They belong six feet under ground.

I simply do not care what your position is in this world - priest, accountant, fast food worker, stockbroker, babysitter, Senator, bartender, oil rig operator - if you sexually abuse a child, we have zero need of your participation in the game of life any longer.

And you have zero need any longer of your weapon of choice.

Telling you to cut it out does no good. 

It's time to CUT IT OFF.

A Tale of Two Shitties

Our news cycles are rife with shit.  Pardon the bluntness, but it is the truth.

No, I am not crying that Donald-Trump-I-don't-like-the-story-fake-news garbage.  I mean shit.  Tragic, horrific, criminal, dangerous, pathetic, heartbreaking, infuriating shit - real stories about the shit we try to get away with, or the shit we do to one another.

Jussie Smollett, the young singer and Empire actor whose name shot to the top of the news cycles globally three weeks ago after claiming to have been attacked on a Chicago street, has been arrested for making it all up with the help of two people he knows. 

Turns out the ruse all started back on January 22nd when the FOX studio where he films received a letter threatening him.  In movie fashion, the missive was comprised of letters cut from magazines.  Fast forward to the 29th of January and he reports he has been attacked by two men who tied a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs against him.

Given the tone and temperature in this country, and the fact that decent people want to rally around a victim and offer support, it was a story that was reported on here and abroad, with viewers disgusted by what he claimed to have endured.  He appeared on national news programs for interviews, proclaimed at a concert where he performed that “I’m not fully healed yet. But I’m going to [be], and I’m gonna stand strong with y’all.”

And yes, we (decent society) wanted to stand by him, while the Chicago PD continued their search for his attackers.

Sidenote here - to anyone who wants to scoff, or did from the beginning?  With nooses appearing regularly, and bigoted, racist, homophobic attacks truly happening on a regular basis - none of this was difficult to believe.  It would hardly have made it a one-off.  This country is f*cked.  Period.  It is rotting from the White House on down.  The stench of phobias, discrimination, and targeting of group after group has only worsened since Trump first slithered down his escalator and announced his candidassy.

A week ago two brothers were taken in for questioning about the attack.  Suspicion that this was a ruse began to simmer.  As police further investigated, they found the "attack" items at the home of these brothers - both who know/work with Smollett - and with the pull of a thread this entire filthy, contrived blanket unraveled.

This morning, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Smollett had been arrested and is being charged with a felony for filing a false report.  He also said that Smollett's motivation was that he was “dissatisfied with his salary” and chose to stage the attack after the racist letter he crafted out of magazine clippings, stuffed with white powder (crushed Tylenol), and with MAGA as the return address, did not garner a big enough reaction.  Johnson continued, saying, Smollett "took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career".

Shit.  Pure disgusting shit.

So in an attempt to raise his profile, get more money, garner sympathy, he chose this?  One of the most heinous historical symbols of murderous aggression against black people - the noose; homophobic slurs that LGBTQIA individuals endure daily; and brace yourselves - I will even defend *MAGA* here, as the report apparently stated the assailants championed "MAGA country" in their attack.

All of it was bullshit.  A selfish, temper tantrum sham for attention.  Jussie Smollett - you certainly raised your profile, but as for that money over which you are dissatisfied?  Gone.  You are now toxic.  What you did was dangerous and hurtful to every person who has been attacked, vilified, hurt for simply the color of their skin.  To every person who inhabits any letter on the spectrum, like you, you have diminished what they face daily - the name calling, the fear of using the bathroom alone, the fear of being beaten to death.  I promise you, Matthew Shepard would gladly take your "unacceptable" salary on a hit TV show, oh, but wait, be can't - he is dead because he was gay.

As for the MAGAt portion?  Easy target, yes.  But every MAGAt who is puffing their chests and crowing about this today?  STFU.  You know this garbage and danger is rife within your ranks.

That includes Trump who could not resist Tweeting this morning:

You want to play the Whataboutism game, Donald?  What about the racist and dangerous comments you make constantly?  <insert crickets>

What Smollett did was not just ill conceived, it was, in itself, an attack.  An attack that makes it harder for true victims to be believed.  An attack that only further divides the factions in this country.  An attack on the countless decent people who will now side eye the next report of racist, bigoted violence.

He must be held accountable.

Yet, while Jussie's shitty story has been top tier news and worthy of Trump's Twittering, in the shadow is yet another story that makes the blood run cold, but will receive no commentary from the Twittler-in-Chief.

Christopher Paul Hasson, a lieutenant in the Coast Guard and former Marine, was arrested on February 15th on firearms and opioid possession, but the filing also states that those “are the proverbial tip of the iceberg.”.  Christopher is another home grown, radicalized here, terrorist.  A self proclaimed white nationalist whose goal was to “murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country,” his stockpile of weapons was seized by authorities who also found all his ramblings, Google seaches that were obsessed with "what if Trump impeached" and "civil war if Trump impeached", and correspondences with top White Nationalists in this country.  “You can make change with a little focused violence. How long we can hold out there and prevent niggerization of the Northwest until whites wake up on their own or are forcibly made to make a decision whether to roll over and die or stand up remains to be seen," he allegedly wrote.  "Fine people" all, right Donald?  What, no Tweet?

Mr. Hasson is yet another white male, born and bred here, who is a greater threat to the US citizenry than some made up caravan.  His hero?  Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in 2011.  Hasson wrote that he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.”  His hit list included prominent journalists from CNN and MSNBC, supreme court justices, and Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Beto O' Rourke, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

His fragile white male ego slurped up the rantings of Breivik, who rambled that leftists and feminists "hate white males" and that they are all about an assault on cultural values.

Hate white males, huh?  Well, Mr. Hasson and Mr. Breivik, that's just shocking considering what fine, superior specimens you both seem to be.

This cretin, toked up on steroids (part of Breivik's guide for getting ready for "physically grueling" attacks) was stockpiling not just weapons, but drugs.  He is now in custody and will face his charges in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

Both news stories.  Both laden with the shit we humans get up to in this life.  What I find in these two toilet bowls is a bit of irony.  You see, I am a leftist, a liberal, a feminist - one of those worthy-of-murder humans Hasson despises.  And that assault on cultural values?  That is just code for the fact that people like me see people like Jussie, a black homosexual as being just as worthy of rights and protections as those coveted "white males."  I am not out to assault cultural values, Mr. Hasson.  I am out to protect those who are targeted for the mere act of being who they are.  I am out to even the playing field.  I am out to make the Constitution stand up to the words written, make the Pledge of Allegiance truly mean what it says: liberty and justice for all.

I won't hold my breath waiting for imPOTUS to Tweet something majestic and damning about Hasson, someone who quite obviously aligns with Trump and so many in his cadre of MAGAts.  He saves his 280 characters for shitty stories that embolden his base, allow him to point a finger and go "Nanny, nanny boo boo."

That's ok.  Justice has come for both Smollett and Hasson.  And the toilet bowl only flushes down.

Besides, before we know it, a whole new Tale of Two Shitties will be playing out in the news cycle.  Two new stories that will sicken us, vie for our attention, and wait for their turn to be lauded or ignored by our President, a man who should set an example, but only ever lowers the bar.

We are so f*cked.

Together In Laughter, Together In Loss

It was just over nine years ago when I sat down at this keyboard and had to break the heart of this blog by communicating to you all that Toni, having suffered extensive head injuries, had passed.  Toni represented so much of what this piece of internet real estate had become.  A family.  A family comprised of disparate strangers from all walks of life, all states, countries around the globe - strangers who had morphed into friends through the mere act of sharing.

That day will never leave me.  The privilege of being allowed such windows into so many of your lives, so much confidence placed in me as you have privately shared your struggles throughout the years, I have never taken that trust for granted.  But that day, that extreme privilege mixed with such profound pain as I was asked to share her passing.  It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.  Speaking at her memorial, an honor permanently attached to my soul.

I sit here again, tears flowing down my face, as I write these words about another one of our amazing DGMS family members, Jackie Anderson.   She has left us far, far too soon.

But then cancer, like the speeding van that took Toni, is an uncaring, heinous, equal opportunity destroyer.

Jackie has been a fixture here since the fabled American Idol days.  Looking back through the comments - hers take up 12 complete pages through the years - she first found her way to DGMS in May of 2007.  By her own admission in one early comment, she was "either a great or a terrible mother. I introduced my son to this blog and now he's as big an addict as I am. I'm on-line now working, and he's still up anxiously awaiting the "reCrapping". 

From that, her son Randy became a DGMSer and online friend through the years, too.

As the past 12 years have rolled on, Jackie has provided her own brand of warmth, no nonsense views on the myriad topics we talk about here, and has become a good friend to so many of us.  I have written many times in the past, do not ever let anyone roll their eyes or write off these friendships made here.  They are real, with real people and real hearts behind them.  Many of us have had the opportunity to step off the page and meet in person, but even those we have not yet met IRL, are REAL.

Reading through her comments, I have smiled through my tears, pulled some to share with her son Randy as we message back and forth, and marveled at just how, no matter what she was facing at any point in her time with us - health woes, financial strain, stresses, fears - she was unfailingly upbeat and such a bright light.  Comment after comment of her laughter, her bad jokes, her cheerleading, her supporting, her sharing her pride at being a mother, then a grandmother.  And then I found the one she left when I wrote about Toni's memorial: "If that turkey, Toni, makes us all hold hands and sing Kum Ba Ya, I'll pee my pants with laughter."

And the tears come again.  No matter how much she or any of you have grown to love this place, being memorialized on this page is not something I wish for any of you.  I am quite sure she never imagined me sitting here writing about her passing.

The past few months, she and I have been in very regular contact.  She shared her health fears, I knew the financial strains, and through your donations, we made her Christmas wish come true - she simply wanted to be able to provide gifts to her grandbabies. set a nice table for Christmas dinner.  You all did that. 

As she shared some of what was happening with her health online, I was privileged to "hold her hand" behind the scenes, absorb the fears she shared, try to return some of the cheerleading she had so freely given through the years.  When the diagnosis came - a very rare form of cancer, my heart sank.  Yet she maintained her positive refrain, and we shared even more awful jokes about her pain's, um, location.  This comment from years back made me smile: My e-mail address is still "amomonthemove" because of all my mom-taxi runnings. I should actually change it now to "amomenjoyingsittingonherbutt" since mine are grown and doing their own running. hmmmm - I may have to give that more serious thought.

I can assure you that sitting on her butt was the last thing she wanted to be doing.

As things worsened over the past weeks, your donations helped with immediate needs in her home.  I promise she appreciated every penny. 

As I was flying home this past week, having bought wifi on the plane, I was messaging with her.  She was very honest - she had been in the hospital for the past week, the medications were not helping, conditions were worsening, and the pain was becoming unbearable.  Then she told me she and her kids had filled out DNR paperwork.

I'm not stupid or in denial.  I knew how bad things were when she was diagnosed.  But the three letters "DNR" brought everything into sharp focus.  She told me, "This may be the end of the road for me."

Crying on the airplane, we shared some more bad jokes.

I still thought there was time.

But last night, Randy reached out to tell me she had passed about an hour prior.  I am stunned by the speed, our bad jokes still hanging warm in the message air between us, but I know that the speed also brought about the relief, the release from a pain none of us can truly imagine, a pain I know Jackie would hope none of us ever will bear.

But in the speed, her family has been left broadsided, hit with a semi truck of emotion and loss, shielded only by the shock the human brain can provide to carry us through the worst of times.  Randy has been an angel sharing with me throughout the day.  His mother was everything.  Not just the decent human being we all knew through DGMS.  Not just a smartass, or NASCAR fan, or ray of sunshine supporting others. 

He told me, She singlehandedly shaped me into the adult I am today. I'm not really sure how I could've asked for a better mother. She was so incredibly selfless.

Reading through her 12 pages and 12+ years of comments, her pride in being a mother was clearly evident.  She took her role seriously, instilling honor, accountability, strength, and immense love in her children, and in her grandchildren.  My heart breaks for the tiniest two who will grow up without remembering or experiencing her presence in their lives.

As I went back and reread the words I wrote about Toni's passing, these apply to our situation today, and I change only the name:

We Are One:  In all of the years I have written DGMS, I have taken so much pride in seeing the blogmunity rally to send Mae to school, save animals, keep Santa alive - to truly touch lives.  But never, never have I ever envisioned having to sit here and try to type these next words.

Jackie's children need our help.  Jackie needs our help.  Finances are strained and decisions must be made.

My heart is breaking, but I have never felt such an awesome obligation before in my life.  I am begging you all, please join me in chipping in what you can.  We have this amazing chance to carry Jackie from this life and help her energy be released.  I know it will shower back down on us all. 

College, Christmas gifts, mattresses, winter coats, pets - they all now pale next to the opportunity we all have to stand as ONE and deliver our friend to peace.  The peace she earned in this life.  The peace she will have in knowing her children have not been burdened by her passing.  And in return, the peace I know she will insure we all receive.

DGMS is now honored to be adding another guardian angel.  Her name is Jackie.  Please help me give her wings to fly. The Yes, Virginia link is open.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am so thankful for the years she has added to my life, to all our lives.  I will miss you, Jackie, but I swear on my eyeballs, I will NOT sing one note of Kumbaya.  Hug Toni for us.