Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

This Is Not OUR President

The shock is palpable.  And we truly did not think we could be further shocked.

The fear reaches to the core.  And we did not think we could be more afraid.

The shame is face warming.  And our faces were already aflame.

The sick feeling is unending.  And we were already covered in emotional vomit.

The anger is at the boiling point.  And we thought the pot was already running over.

If you had any lingering doubt, hell, any lingering hope, about the craven bastard installed into our nation's highest office - his murder inciting rally last night incinerated it all, like Drogon hearing the word Dracarys.

Our country is burning down.

Donald Trump stood at a podium in North Carolina and, as if there was any doubt remaining, made it clear for all 300 million+ in this country, and billions of people around the world - he is a racist, a Nazi, a white supremacist, dangerous, and not the President of ALL the citizens here.

Coming off a four day stretch in which his racist words against four women of color in Congress earned him a rebuke in the form of a House resolution, and derision from anyone on this planet with warm blood and humanity, he did what he does - he ran to an arena, filled it with useful dullards in red caps, and basked in the glory of what he has unleashed.

But last night marked a change.  Gone was the predictable and laughable chant of "Lock her up!" that his lemmings masturbate to.  Instead, warming to his theme that Ilhan Omar is bad, anti American, and married her brother - yes, he stood outside the White House yesterday and spread that thoroughly debunked piece of garbage - he was giddy as a new chant, based on his Tweets from the weekend, filled the air.

Send her back!  Send her back!

Watch as he revels in it.

This is racism, this is inciteful, this is a sordid sack of orange skin enjoying endangering a wife, a mother, a sitting Congresswoman.

The overwhelming fallout from decent people has been both reassuring to see, and sickening in that we all experienced the same feeling of dread when watching it - and none of us thought we could feel a deeper dread than we have been carrying inside.

It also apparently scared the Tangerine Toddler because today he tried to say, "I was not happy with it.  I disagree with it."

WE. SAW. YOU.  You stood there soaking it in like a fat turkey being basted on Thanksgiving.  You made no effort to quell it, to tell the horde NO. 

In case you ever wonder what the term gaslighting means - this is it.  Don't believe what you saw with your eyes, heard with your ears.  Believe what I tell you to believe.

And his followers will.  They have bought into Big Birther's bullshit from the beginning.  They are happy to simmer in his toxic stew of xenophobia, racism, hatred, and white supremacy.   They love that he has made it ok to unleash all the pent up racism they have had to choke back because decent society looks down on it.

And somewhere in his crowds, someone under a MAGA hat is going to again be moved to action and someone is going die.  AGAIN.

We have seen it happen already.  MAGAts moved to violence, lives being lost to President sanctioned violence against anyone who looks different, thinks different than their fuhrer.   And there is no one in the GOP willing to risk their cushy job and proximity to power who will stand up and do anything.  Their silence is deafening.  Their denials and verbal origami vomit inducing.  The degree to which they will turn themselves into pretzels to avoid criticizing or calling him out is pathetic.

Lindsey Graham who famously said of Trump back when he was vying for the GOP nod, "he is a race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot" takes the prize today, blaming Omar, and acquiting Trump.  "If you're a Somali refugee wearing a MAGA hat, he doesn't want to send you back.  You'll probably have dinner at the White House."

Digest that.  If you are a US citizen who does not agree with this affront to humanity, it's ok to have him point his stubby finger directly at you, to incite violence against you, to throw racist tropes at you.  That is not simply unacceptable, that is dangerous.  And I have to ask, all that time Mrs. Birther, an immigrant herself with fewer years as a citizen than Omar, leveled criticism and attacks at President Obama, what would the hew and cry from the GOP been if he had openly encouraged "Send her back! Send her back!"?

Rhetorical question.  The GOPer victim brigade would have shit themselves blind, censured him, called for his ouster.  Hell, we would still be tripping on all the pearls they would have so violently clutched and broken from around their necks.

It is truly impressive, in a That's-A-Really-Huge-Meatloaf-You-Made-Out-Of-Shit,-Honey way that we started the week thinking he could not get worse - that his fully out in the open, racist tweets against the Congresswomen were a new low, a wake up call to all, perhaps.  How innocent we were on Monday.  Last night made it clear that he had not hit bottom.  In fact, he was determined to grab a bigger shovel and keep digging.  

And he will.  Yes, it is Trump in all his warts and spray tan glory, but it also provides the distraction he is so desperately seeking as Epstein's pedophilic, blackmailing business comes to further light, and as a judge has ordered Michael Cohen's documents unsealed.  

Oh, and for good measure, he wagged the dog and had a drone shot down off the coast of Iran.  I mean, nothing like some provocation in the Middle East to turn all eyes - and we do so well there, right?  

He cannot be permitted to distract, gaslight, obfuscate.  Journalists have got to finally be willing to get on this horse and ride it down his damned throat.  Don't sugarcoat the questions.  Don't accept answer you know are lies.  Hold his corpulent ass to the flames.  Force all the issues.

This is a reprobate who is lauded by David Duke, the Proud Boys, the KKK, white nationalists.  He is an ignorant, foul, self serving creature who revels in riling up the most ignorant in this country.

I have to ask them - do you truly believe he gives shit one about any of you?  That if you do something and get hauled off that he will do fuck all for you?  You are rubes.  You have been as easily led as real sheep, and now he has you standing on a precipice, and is willing to watch you fall off it as long as you insulate him from accountability.

Decent society looks at you, chanting and leering, and a collective shiver of revulsion goes through us.  What do you actually think is the endgame?  He is going to be gone eventually.  Whether in handcuffs, election, or his canned ham of a heart explodes in his chest, he will be gone.

And where will that leave you?  Outcast from friends and family.  Video and photos for posterity showing you as a slobbering, chanting, piece of meat shaming yourself forever.  Cheap red hats your only parting gift from a carnie who used you till there was no use for you anymore.

And yes, that includes you Trump voters who claim to be loving.  Open. Christian. Allies. The ones who profess to be uncomfortable about children in cages and discrimination and racism.  You, who stood shoulder to shoulder with this garbage during the campaign.  I told you then, you cannot marinate in a cesspool for years and declare yourselves clean.  Well, now you cannot declare yourself safe either.  He is on a tear, with the walls closing in, and he is getting more and more desperate.  We begged you to open your eyes year ago.  To see how dangerous he would be for so many segments of society.  And you scoffed.  You poo poohed.  YOU LAUGHED.  He is running out of targets, and you will eventually fall into one of his verbal gunsights.   Then what?  OK if we go with one of your favorite expressions towards us?  Fuck Your Feelings?

A couple years ago a fellow writer friend used the word "lacerating" to describe the feeling we were all experiencing after Charlotte and Heather Hyers murder.  It struck me as the most accurate one I had seen.  It still does.  The feeling is a deep, bloody cut to the soul of this country.  To the millions of truly decent people who desperately want our founding documents to be followed, applied to all.  To the millions here and around the world who are staring open mouthed at the past four days, aghast that this is what he has reduced down to.  Open, blatant, foul racism.  Open, blatant, foul inciting of his followers.  Open, blatant, foul endangerment of members of Congress.

We have been gutted.

That does not mean we are done.  We're not.  Not even close.  This wound to the psyche of the majority in this land will fester, will hurt, but what comes of it in the end will be even more resolute, exponentially stronger, and more forged - like emotional steel - to end this cowardly, heinous bullshit once and for all.  This scar will be a badge of honor to all who stand up and refuse to be cowed in the face of these truly dark days.  

The majority did not put him into office.  But the majority sure as hell has to come together and get him out.

THIS IS NOT OUR PRESIDENT.  

Call It What It Is: RACISM

My grandmother had a lot of sayings she used when I was around her in my young life.  But one keeps coming to mind these days as Trump supporters try to distance themselves from the really bad things he says and does, and try to justify their sycophancy with words like "jobs!" and "the economy!"

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Originally a British colloquialism regarding debt, it has transformed through the years to mean that once involved, one cannot stop at half-measures.

And when it comes to MAGAts, you cannot just be in for a penny with this abomination.  If you support him, at all, you support every corpulent pound of him, his acts, his tweets, his racism.

Yes, his racism.

It is stunning to me that this has even been up for debate since Sunday. (Frankly, when it comes to Trump, since EVER.)

Over the weekend, he tweeted at four female Congresswomen of color - Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan - that they should go back where they came from.

Go back where they came from.

Well, let's just unpack the obvious real quick.  Three of them are FROM HERE.  And the 4th has been a US citizen longer than Trump's current fembot, Melania.  Not that Trump knows that.  He only knows their skin is darker so they must be from a "shithole" country.

Quite frankly?  Given the state of affairs in the good old U.S. of A. currently?  We are a shithole country.  In fact, that may be the only thing we can raise the We're #1 foam finger to these days.

Aside from the ladies all being citizens, and Trump being profoundly ignorant, that trope has very long and vile roots in American history.  But as dumb as he is, he knows that. He suckled at the teat of it with his own parents and grandparents.  He practiced it as a landlord.  He took out a full page NYT ad against 5 young black men, since proven INNOCENT.  His rallies are an ad for Clorox.

Telling people to go back where they came from is a blatant form of racist exclusionism.

"There have been different phrases that have been used," says Michael Cornfield, a scholar of rhetoric at George Washington University, "but the idea that we don't have any more room for people, or those people don't look like us, this is a long, ugly strain in American history."

That he singled these members of Congress out is no coincidence.  They are, after all, WOMEN.  And they are, to any racist's eyes, "the other."  And nothing scares them more than "the other."  Trump's entire campaign was about firing up his filthy base against those who are not white.  His entire presiduncey has been about dividing, about singling out, about caging, and now about rounding up in raids - THE OTHER.

Muslim, Hispanic, LGBT - he places targets firmly on the backs of these people.  He then incites his base with bullshit, lies, and scary stories around their campfire (which is a blazing outhouse), and sits back while they do the damage.  We see it daily as cell phone after cell phone catches his acolytes accosting people speaking Spanish in public, walking while black, holding hands while gay, attempting to serve this country while trans, wearing a headscarf in Congress.

His minions are not only emboldened by his rhetoric, they are moved to action because they believe they can no longer get in trouble for their black souls as their hero has the blackest of them all. 

So watching these four women - #TheSquad - punch back yesterday during their press conference?  A thing of beauty.  And the only way to handle a bully, a narcissist, a blatant racist.  Trump has lived his entire life steamrolling over anyone who dares question him, invoice him (his nonpayment is legend), stand up to him.  He has never truly been held accountable for anything.

Until now.  And the 73 year old toddler in Depends doesn't like it.  So he doubled down yesterday.  When asked if what he tweeted was racist, he did not apologize.  He said “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”  He then went further saying that Congresswoman Omar goes on “speaking about how wonderful al-Qaeda is.”

Another blatant lie.  In fact, when asked about that, she said she would not dignify it with a response.

None of this should be surprising.  There is nothing here with 50 shades of grey to cipher out.  Trump is using the exact same birtherism tact he used against President Obama, to now turn his pack of jackals against those who dare stand up to his heinous behavior and words.

HE. IS. A. RACIST.

There is nothing questionable here anymore, no credit to be given, no chance his words are being misrepresented.  They are HIS words.  He knows what he is doing.  And now he is leading his band of brigands to attack anyone who stands up for equality; who stands up for immigrants; who stands up against children in cages; who stands up for all religions and no religions, hell, anyone who stands up to him.

His tweets this morning?  We all need to just leave.  You, me, anyone with humanity and decency needs to get out.  If we don't agree with him, if we dare protest, criticize - LEAVE.

My response?  FUCK YOU.

This is my country, too.  And I am sickened daily by what has been unleashed upon it.  Which means I stay and fight.  Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, especially in the face of such an amoral, bile-inducing, criminal, human rights eschewing collection of parasites. 

But let's use your thinking, you orange imbecile.  Why are YOU still here?  Why are any of your bootlicking supporters still here?  You and they spent 8 years pissing, moaning, lying, burning in effigy, slandering, and questioning every thing President Obama did, said, even who he was.  Yet you are still here exhaling your fetid breath.  Why?

Rhetorical question, we know the answer.  Because when you do it, it's patriotic.  We when do it, we hate the United States of America.

Today Congress is voting on a resolution to condemn his racist, hate speech.  And while GOPers were complicitly silent after his tweets, they will have to stand and be counted today.  Either stand up against the occupant in the Oval disparaging with racist tropes their fellow Congresswomen, or stand with Trump and his nakedly racist cabal. 

Of course, the Commoder-In-Chief is aflame about this, too.  Loudly bellowing that the vote should be about Democrats “spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things every said by a politician..."

HI-LAR-I-OUS.

The hypocrisy is staggering.  This from the garbage maw who taught a nation's children the phrase "grab them by the pussy."  This from the orange cesspool who called athletes "sons of bitches."  This from the human quagmire who decried immigrants from "shithole countries."  This from the lowlife who said in a Times interview that he “beat the shit out of” his opponents in the primary.  This from the goon who, in a single speech in May, used “hell,” “ass” and a couple of “bullshits.”  Spare me your sanctimony, you worthless wank.

This is not a president for all people.  He never has been.  He has never pretended to be.  In fact, he cannot be, because he doesn't see all people, as PEOPLE.  He see an ocean of useful idiots in red hats.  He sees a bunch of spineless, complicit, potentially blackmailed power whores in the GOP.  He sees brown skin and folks holding Qurans as convenient targets.  And he sees us.  We are not people, we are a threat.  A threat to his rhetoric.  A threat to his lies.  A threat to his legacy.  A threat to his freedom.  A threat to his power.  A threat to his lifetime of unaccountibility as a crook, a rapist, a bankrupt - morally and financially.  We represent the chickens finally coming home to roost.

And we are a threat to his racism which he has now fully unhooded and unleashed upon us all.  Imagine how bad this will become by this time next year with an election in full swing? 

He has always been in for a pound, not a penny.  He wants it all.  And he does not care who gets hurt to get it and keep it.  Which is exactly the mindset of those who support him.

You don't get to just support a little bit.  You don't get to hide behind your stocks doing better - and let's be honest, the majority of you MAGAt hat wearers have never owned a single share of stock in your lives.  But you do own all of this.  YOU WON, as you are so fond of reminding us, right?  That means you won children torn from their parents, innocent people festering in cages.  You won citizens being stabbed and killed because of their skin color.  You won mosques and synagogues being bombed.  You won dead children face down in the Rio Grande.  You won healthcare on the brink of being torn away - yes, yours, too.  You won schools being filled with dead students.  You won lower taxes for the billionaires!  You won every decent person seeing that you do not actually believe in God.  You won dead journalists.  You won all his lies to you about Mexico paying for his wall.  You won a 73 year old child fighting with department stores, actresses, athletes on Twitter.  You won a BLOTUS who has spent over 22% of his time in office GOLFING ON YOUR DIME.  You won higher prescription prices.  You won a serial philanderer who cheated on each wife, has been credibly accused by 23 women of rape and molestation, has been credibly accused of raping a 13 year old child, has paid a porn star to keep quiet, and who is friends with no less than five pedophiles.

SO MUCH WINNING.

You get it all.  I have said it before, I will continue to say it - you are the sewer you have chosen to marinate in.  You have happily stood shoulder to shoulder with white supremacists, Nazis.  You have cheered on misogyny, hate, bigotry, and phobias of all ilk.  You have clapped like seals as he targets group after group.  You don't get to stand in a cesspool for years and somehow magically declare yourself clean because you don't agree with some of the shit.

And that includes the racism. 

It is yours.  He is yours.  But don't worry.  If you ever decide to go back where you came from?  You're all only one short flush away.

We stand with #The Squad.  You just stand with #The Squalid.

 

 

 

 

 

I Ask Again, What Will It Take?

Two years ago I asked the question of Trump supporters.  Two years ago there was already so much depravity, classlessness, cluelessness, criminality at play.  Two years ago there was more than enough to make any supporter look themselves in the mirror, be sickened, and ask "With what have I aligned myself?"

It is now July 2019.  He has been in office since January 2017.  What has transpired since then is stunning in its enormity.   His mere behavior performed by any past President would have earned censure, impeachment.  And GOPer heads would have exploded by now.

Yet there he sits.  Continuing to act the fool, cozying up to dictators, ignoring the Constitution, practicing his racism hoodless, out in the open for all to see.  Having updated this piece with so many of the things that have transpired in the past two years, I have to ask again, What Will It Take?

So, you voted for Trump.

You cheered his rhetoric of hate and phobias.  

You proudly wore your "Fuck Your Feelings" t-shirts to his rallies.

You cried out "Lock her up!" at his events - not caring to comprehend that there is nothing to "lock her up" for.  Hell, at his re-election kickoff last month you were still chanting that ridiculous mantra.

You LOVED his blanket condemnations of Islam.

You grabbed your sac every time he hollered how Mexico would pay for his wall.

You deathgripped your whiteness, so fearful of becoming the minority and having the treatment tables turned on you.

You happily lapped up every impossible promise he made.

You fact checked nothing.  And you voted for him.

A man-baby so insecure with himself that he championed his own penis in a debate.  A self confessed womanizer, cheater, molester, and piece of excrement who has never had any use for religion was embraced by churchgoers because he said words like "abortion" and let people pray over him.  A thin skinned schoolyard bully who hides behind his foul tweets, his malice a feature, not a bug.

You voted for him despite the hordes of white supremacists who lauded him.  You proudly stood shoulder to shoulder with them at his campaign stops.  You joined in the mob mentality he meant to elicit each time he pointed to the penned in group of reporters and endangered their very lives.

You voted for him despite watching him mock a disabled reporter, disparage a Gold Star family, and run down John McCain, a real POW, saying "I like people who weren't captured."  How you trumpet your patriotism out one side of your mouth while cheering him on out the other side as he runs down those who have actually served and/or paid the ultimate price for this country?  The hypocrisy is staggering.

You voted with your hate, with your ignorance, with your misogyny, with your fears, with your phobias, with your delusions.

You voted for his pledges to "drain the swamp."

You spent 8 years hating on President Obama for every breath he dared to take, grabbing at every salacious made up story, ridiculing his time spent with his family, spent golfing, hell, you ridiculed his family as well.  A family that never had a breath of scandal; a family that is affectionate, intelligent, close.  A President who projected intellect, probity, empathy, sympathy; a President who was largely respected around the world.

When the election came around, you were more than happy to transfer your bullshit onto Hillary Clinton, believing all manner of made-up garbage, including that she runs a child rape ring from the basement of a pizza parlor that has no basement.

Seriously, how fucking dense are you people?

Rhetorical question.  No answer needed.

So, you voted for him.  For that whole Make America Great Again emptiness, but then bumper sticker thinking tends to win the day in your crowd.  Sorry, Trumper sticker thinking.

He has now been in office for just shy of three years.  What will it take to make you finally wake up and see what you have let loose?  See how far this country has fallen in such a short time?

His great plan to defeat ISIS in 30 days?  Where is it?  Again, rhetorical question - it exists only between his ears and as expressed hot air when he rambles out loud.

He emboldened all the dullards who see only color, and who feel it is now their right to physically strike out at anyone who is not white - ripping off hijabs, punching people on subways, shooting them dead in bars - all accompanied by the words "Get out of my country!"

He hates Muslims so much (like you) that he has now tried twice to institute travel bans - except from countries where he has financial interests, actual terrorists from those countries be damned - those Mu$lim$ are okey dokey?  How do you reconcile that?

You gleefully supported over 33 hearings on Benghazi, not caring one whit how your tax dollars were being squandered on a witchhunt in which your own party could find no wrongdoing on Hillary's part.  Yet Trump ordered an ill-conceived, bravado laden raid over dinner resulting in women, children, and a Navy SEAL being killed, and you look away.  He was 600 seconds from starting a war with Iran as a distraction.  Planes were in the air.  Yet, you care not.

Seriously, the mental gymnastics you must be doing to be cool with that are worthy of a Simone Biles gold.

He stood holding an LGBT flag for a photo op to show just how much he supports the spectrum, yet has set out to deny transgender people the right to serve their country, and has made removing discrimination protections for all LGBTQIA people a hallmark of his "legislating".

He promised you the "greatest healthcare" while stumping, and has now made it clear that what he supports is tens of millions being throw off their insurance, premium increases that will bankrupt your parents, prescription drug prices completely out of reach of the ordinary citizen, and millions in tax cuts for his rich friends - none of which has trickled down onto you.  Good luck when little Johnny needs asthma meds or you get ass cancer.  Or you change jobs and your wife with diabetes can no longer get insured because of that pesky pre-existing condition of hers.  Oh, and you are aware that her simply being a woman will be a pre-existing condition, correct?  Perhaps you should have done your research and actually comprehended that the Affordable Care Act and the FOX slurred Obamacare are the same thing.

Maybe when enough of you start to die... will that be enough?

You derided Obama as elite for his impressive education, called him a celebrity because of his crowds.  Then you elected a petulant, spoiled brat who brags about his own pedigree (Wharton), who was a reality TV star.  

Does your hypocrisy chafe at all?

Trump assured you time and again that Mexico would pay for that big beautiful border wall.  Mexico told him to fuck off time and time again.  And now, today, those words, those promises - all vanished like a fart in the wind - yet you act like he never said them as he plunders your tax dollars for a vanity project every expert is on the record as saying is worthless.

Is that enough?  What, no umbrage?  No outrage?

You embraced his every childish taunt, his every 3am Twitter rampage during the campaign, thinking them hilarious, brave, profound - how about now that he should be governing yet is more distracted by tweeting his racist shit of "go back to where you came from" at Congressional women of color - who are citizens of this country?

He making you proud by acting like a 12 year old boy with his first cell phone?

That whole swamp draining thing?  Um, he is surrounded by white nationalists, climate deniers, liars, and fellow million/billionaires.  He loudly derided Hillary for giving a speech at Goldman Sachs - you booed and hissed and wanted her head - he has surrounded himself with former Goldman Sachs employees.  The latest to be gone?  Alexander Acosta, Labor Secretary - another one of Trump's "only the best people" - who constructed the sweetheart deal in Florida that let pedophile billionaire and Trump buddy, Jeffrey Epstein, go free.

"Her emails!  Her server!  Security!!!!!"  <----There's a popular one from the campaign trail.  Yet you are as quiet as a ward of coma patients as his administration uses private email servers, he openly conducts the business of national security over dinner at his "winter White House,"  invites Mar-a-Lago members to sit in on cabinet interviews, and he continues to use an unsecured Android phone.

Vacations?  Golfing?  Pfffft.  "There's just so much to be done," Trump told CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview broadcast Nov. 13, 2016. "So I don't think we'll be very big on vacations, no."  Former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, famously told FOX “He will never take a vacation… he can’t sit still. He’s so eager to get things done and change things up – there is never an idle moment and so there is not going to be the word vacation will not exist in a Trump administration.”

As Louisiana is under water and children rot in cages at the border, he just returned from another round at your expense at his course in Virginia.  As of yesterday, July 14, he has visited his golf properties with evidence of playing 207 times, at a cost of over $105 million taxpayer dollars.  207 times since taking office.  He has spent almost 22% of his time in office PLAYING GOLF.

What, is golfing suddenly cool?  Ok with all of you who derided every stroke Obama took?  And the costs you all shit yourselves blind over in terms of "vacations" when Obama was in office?  All these $3 million trips to Florida hunky dory with you?  West Palm Beach knows what a bankrupting grifter he is as his repeated trips are threatening the very existence of many businesses:  "We're going broke."  That $1.7 million dollars in taxpayer money that has gone from the WPB coffers to his security?  The White House refuses to even acknowledge the requests to be reimbursed.  But then he has not yet reimbursed DC for the security costs surrounding his inauguration either.

You still cheer him on despite having been credibly accused of sexual assault, including rape, by 23 women.  Just three weeks ago another woman stepped forward.  Yet you cling to this pulpit driven directive that he is the Second Coming?  A man who cheated on every wife and slept with porn stars is your savior?

How much more evidence do you need to hear from those who have been there; see in pictures taken inside - to understand the atrocities we are committing in the Trump concentration camps at the border?  Children have died in our care.  Their sin?  Being brown and carried here to the supposed safety their parents still equate with this country.  They are ripped from their parents arms, sent away, no documentation, no healthcare, no decent food, kept in freezing conditions.  And one last time for the dullards in the cheap seats:  SEEKING ASYLUM IS LEGAL.  And even those who cross illegally?  That is a misdemeanor.  A MISDEMEANOR.  And for that they have their children stolen from them.  Think about that the next time you get a ticket for reckless driving, or you drink too much in public, or accidentally fire that beloved gun of yours within certain city limits.  Think about having your children stolen from you for those misdemeanors.  Is that cool with you?

<Insert crickets>

Of course it's ok with you.  You'd rather eat from a buffet of Trump's rectal remnants than admit, perhaps, that you got conned by a man who literally earned the moniker Don The Con DECADES ago.  You got played by a reprobate who has made a very public display of constantly and consistently cheating, lying, ripping off, and threatening people all his life.  The Art of the Deal?  Sorry, the only art here is the art form to which he raised carnival barking.  And that comparison is apt.  As the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" is connected to Barnum, the most famous carnie of them all, Trump is out to unseat him for that title.  With you as his willing suckers.

So what will it take?  THAT is a serious question.

Will you have to see your own grandparents starve to death as Meals On Wheels evaporates?  Will Putin have to be caught with his tongue in Trump's mouth and his hand down his trousers for you to stop with the "fake news" bullshit?  Sorry, but just because news doesn't make your head feel good or your pee pee hard does not make it fake.  Will your child have to die in front of you because your healthcare disintegrated?  Well, you can take heart in all those new weapons of death he has promised for the military.

What will it take for you to finally admit that you were lied to, vote grifted, used?  

I suspect for most of you it will take a target finally being squarely placed on your back.  

Whether it is healthcare, bankruptcy, your coal jobs NOT coming back, your deployed spouse or child being blown to bits in a war of distraction and bravado, or finally being labeled a "loser" by Trump for being poor - it will happen.

You cheered as he targeted Muslims.  Because you aren't one.  You applauded as he targeted the LGBT.  Because you aren't one.  You proudly wore your MAGA hats as he targeted Mexicans.  Because you aren't one.  You laughed as he constantly went after minorities (pssst, brown people).  Because you are not one.  You clapped like a deranged seal as he repeatedly took aim at Black Lives Matter supporters.  Because you are not one.  You blew off his obvious ridiculing of a disabled reporters.  Because you are not disabled.  

Your target is coming.  It is inevitable.  You will need something at some point - we all do - assistance, insurance, school lunches for your children when you lose your job, food stamps, housing aid, an emergency operation, and on and on.  And when you do, you will be a loser, a taker, a welfare cheat.  Too bad you can't eat boot straps.

Some of you are slowly opening your eyes - comment sections now contain those who confess to making a mistake with their vote, TrumpRegrets collects all the staunch supporters who have finally realized they have been chewing on bullshit, not red meat, thrown to them by this fraud.  Investigations into his lies and connections (and those of the cadre of villains around him) are ongoing and more is gleaned every day.

He is firmly linked to, and friends with, FIVE pedophiles.  So far.  Jeffrey Epstein and Trump have shared more than an affinity for young girls.  Both have been accused of rape by girls as young as 13.  And Epstein's vault has just been opened.  Will that sway you?  If there is unquestionable evidence that your hero is a child rapist?  Will that finally open your eyes?

I dare you all to watch Robert Mueller testify before Congress on July 24.  Even if he does nothing more than regurgitate what he put in his repor - a report you have refused to read - you will finally hear that your god has not been exonerated, not even close.

His house of cards is coming down.  Alternative facts, fake news, Tweets meant to distract, all of it, will eventually give way to cold, hard facts that reveal how vile, corrupt, compromised, and naked is this emperor.  Sadly, however, the damage has been done.  

And you own it.  All 62 million who looked the other way at every horrific statement, heinous promise, and pledge to hurt other people.  You did this to our nation because, like Trump, you cared more about winning than you do about your neighbors, this country.

What will it take?  Pain.

It's coming Trumpers.   But when you are crying, in need, damaged, bereft don't expect the majority that tried to keep this from happening to feel sorry for you. 

To quote your tshirts:  Fuck Your Feelings.

Their Final, Most Essential Command

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - George Orwell, 1984

Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, 1984 has proved eerily prescient in what its then fiction foretold of our now reality.

We watch in equal parts shame, shock, and horror as atrocities play out under the flag of our country, yet over a third of the population cheer.  Over a third of the population have literally given themselves over to rejecting the evidence of their eyes and ears.

But then, it was not 1984 and Big Brother that taught them this behavior.  Rather it is the past four years and Big Birther who has literally stood in front of them and said these words, “Just stick with us, don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news.  Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening…”

Nowhere is this more at play that in the coverage of what is happening at our southern border.

Regardless of the reports from doctors who have been in the facilities, Congressmen and women who have toured them and talked to those held captive, the heartbreaking Congressional testimony from former detainees, and even the report from the DHS Office of the Inspector General, the message from this administration is clear - THEY are lying, WE are telling you the truth.

Over the past few weeks the flow of information coming from the concentration camps in Clint, McAllen, and Yuma has been sickening.  The overcrowding, the stench, people denied clean drinking water, toothbrushes, a chance to bathe; children being punished by having their mats removed from their cells leaving them on the cold concrete floors; young children trying to care for even younger children; teens being sexually abused; guards mocking the desperate, scared, hungry, and cold humans in their "care."

I couch that word CARE because CBP agents are proving to be some of the worst trash in our system.  Their vile private Facebook group in which they openly deride immigrants, threaten sexual assault, cheer each other on in their behaviors, and openly post about immigrants as animals, mocking the deaths that have happened at our hands?  Well, we had every assurance from US Border Patrol Chief Aunt Lydia Carla Provost that, "These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out. Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable."

Turns out that good old Carla was a member of that Facebook group.

I know I speak for so many when I say how relieved I am to know that the fox is guarding the hen house.

To further try to "FAKE NEWS!" the legitimate reports from the border, Mike Pence, Lindsey Graham and a group of DHS officials visited two facilities in Texas.  Ahead of the visit he called the reporting "slanderous."

Reporters along for these visits were sickened, calling the smell and what they saw "horrendous."

But Pence, in keep with the "don't believe what you see" directive from Trump, looked right past the overcrowding, the stench, the desperation, the scores of men locked up calling out "no shower, no shower!" and making gestures about brushing their teeth and said, "I couldn't be more impressed with the compassionate work that our Customs and Border Protection are doing here at this border facility."

BREAKING: New video shows shows severe overcrowding of men in cages at Texas detainment facility during VP Pence's visit Friday. pic.twitter.com/OSlwz4yZBZ

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 13, 2019

Graham, ever the hostage-of-whatever-this-administration-has-over-him lauded the agents.  Saying they are "every bit" the patriots that U.S. soldiers fighting overseas are. "I don't know what we pay you, but it's not enough."

Truly, Lindsey, what is the going rate for government sanctioned inhumanity?

As for Pence, who touts himself as the most godly of men?  He saw 384 men in a chain link pen without mats , pillows, or blankets, openly saying they had not showered in weeks, asking for toothbrushes, and he turned his back.  How he can look upon these conditions, these PEOPLE, and not fear his comeuppance in the hereafter?  “Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:33-34

Another facility, this one holding small children - he smiles, seeing nothing amiss, despite the House Oversight Committee releasing a report yesterday states the Trump administration's child separation policy is "more harmful, traumatic, and chaotic than previously known."

Look closer.  1. THESE ARE SMALL CHILDREN.  Look to the right of the picture.  2. HOW OLD IS SHE?  She sits there alone, frightened.  And cold. This is Texas and it is 100 degrees. Video of these children show them in coats and hats. That poor child should be with her mother, her father, someone she knows loves her, cares for her.  She should feel safe, be smiling, playing, LIVING.  Instead she was ripped away, stored in a tent like human cord wood, and the "do not believe what you see" crowd thinks she is MS-13 or a drug mule.

This picture absolutely breaks me.

Yet it means nothing to those in power, those they have in their power. 

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. . . . Power is not a means; it is an end . . . not power over things, but over men. . . . In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. . . . There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. . . . Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." - 1984

Cult 45 is not swayed by normal emotions of compassion, empathy, sympathy.  In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement.  This is what makes them happy.  This thrills them to see those they are told to hate suffering, being debased, for they themselves have been fed a steady diet of fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement.

Those are the constants in the MAGAsphere.  Fear of "the other."  Rage kept constantly burning through rallies, lies, propaganda.  Triumph sold to them in the form of "liberal tears" and "so much winning!"  And the self-abasement of which they are completely unaware.  They are being used, they are means to an end - POWER.

And it will be too late when they realize that boot they love to see crushing others will also be stamping on their faces forever.

We cannot let them alter the reality to fit their fiction.  We cannot let their lies become our history.  We cannot let their final, most essential command wash away our ability, our willingness to see what is happening under our flag.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Amen, George, amen.

 

 

 

Ma'am, I Said Sprinkles, Not Tinkles

We all know and laugh at the near constant stream of insanity that wafts into the news from the state of Florida.  "Florida Man" is its own punchline given the news items that inevitably lead to the sentence containing the words "from Florida".  Whether he is attacking a McDonald's employee for not getting a straw, denying the syringes found in his own rectum are his, punting a rabid coyote, doing donuts on an airport runway, licking doorbells, pressure washing his neighbor, walking into a convenience store with a live alligator, or attacking his mom who refused to dress his mannequin - ALL REAL 2019 HEADLINES - Florida man is a force to be reckoned with.  Or avoided completely.

But wait.  Florida woman is not to be trifled with either, and she is saying, "Hold my beer."

Meet Jung Soon Wypcha of St. Petersburg.  She owns a food mart that shares a bathroom with Lulu's Ice Cream next door.  According to the people who own Lulu's, they believe her behavior took a turn after a dispute over parking spaces.

On June 17th she began using the toilet with the door wide open (5 times), security cameras catching her not washing her hands.  This escalated to her entering Lulu's freezer area where she began putting her hands in the ice cream containers.  She did not waffle, instead she then deliberately picked her nose and began placing her personal Dippin' Dots on the products, followed by spitting into the tubs.

I know, I know, two scoops of gross topped with hot gag.

On June 22nd, when she tried to use the bathroom facilities, they were locked.  So what's a girl to do?  She peed in a bucket used to churn ice cream.  Then she emptied it into the sink where utensils and mixing bowls were washed.  The cherry on top?  On her way out, she visited the freezer, again putting her disgusting mitts all over everything again.

Let's pause a moment while I scream, you scream, we all scream...

Lulu's owners contacted authorities and she was arrested and charged with two felonies: criminal mischief and tampering.  She now faces a rocky road and possible jail time.

As for Lulu's, owners Paul & Beth Chiulli closed to sanitize everything and to get rid of $2,000 worth of products and mixing pieces, but they are committed to staying open despite their nutty business neighbor.

"We make great ice cream," Paul said. "You know, we have five star reviews all across the board and we love what we do and we take ice cream very seriously."

I guess we should all just be grateful Jung didn't offer up her own homemade soft serve...  Don't get any ideas Florida Man, don't get any ideas.

Arrested Developments

It's no secret that policing in this country has been sporting a well deserved black eye.  With the advent of the cell phone camera, we have seen example after example of officers who do not deserve to walk among us, let alone wear the uniform.  Power mad, racist, bigoted, and at times openly criminal in their own acts, calling the police has become a loaded act for so many.  A gamble, a roll of the dice in which you don't know what kind of police officer will show up.

That's not to paint them all with one brush.  Not even close.  There are amazing, civic minded, compassionate, big hearted, BRAVE people who put their lives on the line for total strangers daily.  And they should be lauded and applauded.  But there are in policing, just as there are in any occupation, bad apples.  Only when an accountant is a shitheel, life and death are typically not on the line.

With the bad officers, instead of putting their lives on the line for total strangers, they put total strangers lives on the line for sport.

Meet Deputy Zachary Wester of the Jackson County, Florida police department.  Sorry, former Deputy Zachary Wester.

You see, Zachary was a criminal with a badge.  Zachary was scum with an agenda.  Zachary is an asshole, a bully, a contemptible human being.

Patrolling the streets and highways of Jackson County, Zachary racked up quite a record for catching speeders, people with faulty taillights, those who strayed over the white line, etc.  And while those violations are all different, hundreds of them all had something in common.

Zachary ended up arresting the people for drug possession.

Take Benjamin Bowling who was pulled over by Wester when he was on his way to the store to buy diapers.  Bowling had been out of prison for roughly a year.  He was clean, sober, doing everything right to get his life on track, so much so that he had been awarded custody of his little daughter.  Wester pulled him over for swerving over the white line, but then ramped things up to search the vehicle, saying he smelled marijuana.  With absolutely nothing to hide, Bowling allowed it.

Wester "found" meth.  Bowling found himself convicted of meth possession and lost custody of his child.

Theresa Odom was pulled over by Wester. “The reason for is, um, your brake lights: They work one minute, and then the next minute they don’t work.”

Now, normally that is cause to thank the officer and promise to have it looked at right away.  After all, it is impossible to see the back of your own car while driving, so you need it pointed out to you.  But Wester took her license, walked away to his cruiser, came back and asked to search her vehicle.  Again, fearing nothing, she consented.  Once again, he "found" meth.  Once again, an innocent person had her life turned upside down.

Kimberley and Jeremy Hazelwood, with their small children in the backseat, were pulled over by Wester last June.  His reason?  He said their insurance has expired.  Then he saw a bottle of Excedrin Kim had.  He called in a K-9 unit, and by the time they got there, had arranged for the dog to find meth in the bottle.  Kim was arrested.  Jeremy was beside himself, as they did not do drugs, ever.  Wester told him he could tell Kim did meth “by the way her face was sunk and her teeth . . . Jeremy stated his wife has always been like that."

Blood boiling yet?

This was a pattern for a very long time, leaving innocent lives destroyed.  They would be pulled over, he would turn off his bodycam, and voila! METH.  People lost their jobs, marriages, ended up in court ordered rehab, lost custody of their children. Until he left his bodycam on one day - the time he pulled Odom over. 

As he began searching her truck, one can easily see the "evidence", about to be planted, in his hand.

According to court records, Odom was on pretrial release from an earlier stolen property charge when Wester arrested her on Feb. 15. The new arrest prompted a judge to revoke her bail, which kept her behind bars until resolution of the drug case. She pleaded no contest to the drug charges March 6 and was sentenced to four years of probation.

As the sister of one of Wester's victims pointed out, “People are losing their lives, their freedom, their children, their marriages — all because of this one man,” Erica Helms said. “It’s not just innocent men. It’s innocent children. It goes a lot deeper than everyone realizes.”

It was Odom's arrest that spurred on the following developments.  A prosecutor noticed that Wester's reports did not match his bodycam - in the few instances it was left on.  As he had left his cam on during Odom's arrest, it caught the above and gave cause for the Sheriff's department to open an internal affairs probe on August 1 of 2018.  Wester was fired September 10th. Turns out his trunk contained large amounts of meth, marijuana and 42 pieces of drug paraphernalia.  He was finally arrested Wednesday this week, and a press conference was held.

According to Special Agent Chris Williams, "The investigation included 10 special agents and two crime analysts who have logged over 1,400 hours on this case already. And it’s still ongoing today.”

The fallout so far?  120 cases have been dropped, 8 people have been ordered released from prison, and 263 cases are currently under review.

Think about the lives included in those numbers.  The families, spouses, children, employers, friends - all affected by one shitbag with a badge.

Wester has been charged with 52 counts of racketeering, false imprisonment, official misconduct, fabricating evidence and possession of controlled substances, among other charges.

At the press conference, State Attorney William “Bill” Eddins of Florida’s 1st Judicial Circuit was asked why Wester had done theses things.  He indicated investigators are trying to figure it out.  “You’re never certain of what lies in the heart of man,” he said.

Um, Bill?  This shitbag has no heart, and deserves far more than the potential 30 years he is facing for ruining hundreds of lives.

Again, not every police officer is a criminal. Not every police officer harbors boatloads of hatred, racism, and bigotry.  And not every police officer who pulls you over is looking to turn it into something more than it is.

But this should make everyone think long and hard.  The last time I was pulled over was for speeding.  I wrote about it back then.    I joked with the officer.  We talked about 80s music.  He knocked 10 miles off the ticket which knocked $100 off the fine.  I realized as he drove off that I had played my own race card. The cute little white lady with big green eyes race card.  I hated knowing how any of my black friends would have fared, would have feared that encounter.

But this abomination of a cop, Wester, did not discriminate in his game.  Every color of the rainbow got caught in his web.  And it makes me scared to think of how I would immediately react if a police officer asked to search my vehicle.  I would be like the folks above.  My first thought would be, "I have nothing to hide, so let them look."

After reading about Wester, I believe my first thought now would be the 4th Amendment and my words would be, "No, I do not consent to searches." 

I know, I know, we all get flustered in the presence of police authority, especially on the side of the road.  But refusing a search request is not an admission of guilt and does not give the officer the legal right to search or detain you.  They need probable cause - sight of something, smell of something.  And if you are detained, say little.  “I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer.”  These words have been likened to a legal condom.

Of course, the best answer is for the good apples to start outing the bad apples.  Good police officers know who the bad ones are in their ranks.  And if they are brave enough to leave their homes daily not knowing what could befall them on the streets, then they should damn well be brave enough to cross the sacred blue line and clean their own house.

Because until they do, this kind of shit is going to continue happening, and that black eye on their profession is never going to fade.

Mental Shillness

Man's inhumanity to man is nothing new.  Human beings have been fighting, hurting, killing one another since the beginning.  A game of perpetual one upmanship in which a tribe, a country, a kingdom, a religion, a race tries to exalt itself as THE one to follow, worship, pay, bow to.

And with all respect to Rodney King, there is never going to be some revelatory "Can't we all just get along" moment that transforms this behavior.

We are what we are.  Animals on two legs.  With massive egos and equally massive prejudices and fears.  But at least when animals attack, they have been provoked and are trying to survive, or are simply continuing the circle of life, Simba.

Not so, humans.

Today's example comes from Peoria, Arizona (incidentally where my parents live) where this sack of self exalted garbage, Michael Paul Adams, currently sits in a jail cell for killing a young man in a convenience store in the early hours of July 4th.

Was he provoked?  No.

Was he attacked?  Not even close.

The 17 year old boy who died, Elijah Al-Amin, had his throat slit from behind by Adams because he had been listening to rap music outside in his car before entering the store.  Adams told police the music - not the teenager himself as he had zero interaction with Elijah - made him feel "unsafe", that people who listen to rap music are a threat to him and the community, and that he decided to be "proactive rather than reactive" and kill him. 

Let that sink in.

The kid was listening to music.  In his car.  For that crime, this beautiful young man is dead.

And before anyone starts in with "what was this black boy doing roaming around at 2 in the morning?" DON'T.  Don't even.  He had finished his shift at Subway at 1130pm, stopped to see his girlfriend, and was on his way home when he stopped at the Circle K for a soft drink.  This was a decent young man.  “He was a good kid,” his broken father said through tears when interviewed. “He wanted to be hotel management, he wanted to move to Seattle, he wanted to move different places.”

He never made it to his 18th birthday.

Police and defense attorneys have still not called it a hate crime, however, leaning into a narrative of mental illness.  His attorney, Jacie Cotterell, questioned his ability to access mental health services after he was released from prison. She said that he was “set up for failure." 

STOP.

Yes, you, me, any decent person, will read this story and say "He's crazy!" but not in an acquit-him-of-premeditated-murder way.  No, we think he's batshit because none of us can remotely imagine doing something like this.

The reality is this murderous thug has a criminal record as long as Usain Bolt's leg.  It includes theft, shoplifting, drug violation, disorderly conduct, assault with a weapon and aggravated assault of a correctional employee.  In fact, he had just been released yet again from the Arizona State Prison Complex in Yuma two days before this attack.

Using mental illness as a convenient shill in the face of cold blooded murder needs to stop.  There are millions of people with various mental illnesses who do not slit the throats of someone on a fucking whim.  And it does a serious disservice to every person who struggles daily when a repeat, violent criminal is afforded a place to hide and shirk responsibility for his actions. 

Especially a white one.

If Adams were black, chances are he would have been dead at police hands since it happened.  Instead, he was apprehended, covered in Elijah's blood, and is being offered excuses that would never be afforded someone with darker skin.

Buy hey, let's play along.  I hate country music.  And a whole lot of Nazi, white supremacist, redneck, Confederate flag waving, violent jack offs listen to it.  Do I get to just walk up behind Bubba Shitbag, open his windpipe, and hide behind mental illness?  

No?

But wait!  How about the fact that I count all my steps in my head?  I always have.  I know that is an OCD symptom. And OCD is a mental illness.   Don't I get a free coddle-my-ass pass to murder on a whim? 

You mean that old cocksucker Al Swearingen was right?  "You can't cut the throat of every person whose character it would improve."?  Because I personally see a whole lot of character needing improved in that picture above.

Look, mental illness is real and it covers a massive spectrum of struggles, disorders, and incapacitating issues.  No one should be stigmatized for having something they battle each day.  Depression, anxiety, OCD, bi-polar disorder, borderline personality - the list is long, and people valiantly battle on each day.  Without murdering someone.

The Arizona Department of Corrections has stated that Adams had not been classified as seriously mentally ill, and was provided with contact information for resources in the community after he was released from prison on July 2.

"Upon release, he was provided transportation from ASPC-Yuma to Maricopa County, after which he was no longer under the Department’s legal jurisdiction and the Department had no further legal authority over him," Department of Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux said.

Yes, it is insane to murder someone in cold blood over the music they are listening to.  And yes, our criminal justice system leaves a ton to be desired when a violent offender is released.  But Michael Paul Adams made a conscious decision to follow this young black teen into the Circle K, pull out his pocketknife, and end the life of someone who posed him no threat whatsoever.

That Elijah's murder may get bargained down, somehow lessened in its brutality, not called a hate crime by Adams claiming mental illness?  It's not just insulting to his memory, and painful to his family and friends.

It is crazy.

#JusticeForElijah

 

 

 

Child Rape Apologists And Their Whataboutism

Anyone paying even cursory attention to the news the past months has known the name Jeffrey Epstein.  Wealthy, connected, and a registered sex offender.

As Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown - sure to be on her way to a Pulitzer - has dissected his past, interviewed his victims, and autopsied the sweetheart deal he was given by current Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta 11 years ago, anyone with a moral code and sense of decency has been progressively sickened.

Unless you are Team MAGAt.

But I digress - as Maria would sing, "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..."

Jeffrey Epstein's predilections for underage girls has not been a secret.  In fact, for years and years, investigations have been started and thwarted, articles have been near publication, but altered after a visit and some pressure from Epstein (looking at you Graydon Carter and Vanity Fair), and countless friends, employees, and acquaintances have known and either procured for him, indulged with him, or looked the other way.

When a 53 page indictment - FIFTY THREE PAGES - of his criminal child sex history had been prepared by the FBI - this was 2007/2008, it appeared his pedophilic goose was cooked.  Enter his money and his high priced legal team who met with then prosecutor Acosta.  One meeting, and poof - 53 pages of sickening details, victim statements from upwards of 80 women and girls as young as 14 at the time, corroborations, and detailed digging, disappeared into a "non-prosecution agreement" in which he would serve a mere 13 months in a county jail with the ability to come and go for work and walks.

The deal also specified that “any potential co-conspirators” were granted immunity.  Oh, and the victims were never told.

What in the ever loving fuck?

That's right, all of his victims who had bravely come forward with their stories, despite fear of his power, influence, money, and reach, were kept in the dark about this development, all the better to not be able to legally challenge it.  Which they could/would have because it broke the law of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

Think about that.  You are a prosecutor.  You have 53 pages of details that should raise the bile to the back of your throat.  Should enrage you.  Should move you to do what you presumably entered law to do - UPHOLD IT.  And you quietly let a child sex rapist and trafficker loose.

How do you sleep at night?  Rhetorical question.  Given Acosta's rise, I would say he has slept well on a pillow of promises, money, and power.

So the years rolled on.  Turns out exactly as they had before.  Friends knew and still hung out with him.  Reporters knew but still wrote glowing articles about him. The Trump transition team knew all about him because they spent a few seconds asking if he would be a problem in terms of confirming Acosta as labor secretary.  Nah.  After all, Trump himself was great friends with him, even providing this quote for a 2002 profile piece in New York magazine, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

One White House aide lauded his Arab connections and influence peddling abilities, casually writing off the rest with “OK, so he has a girl problem.”

As the Miami Herald was digging and publishing, Epstein defenders took to the airwaves.  Alan Derschowitz, FOX legal shitshow analyst and Epstein's attorney when the sweetheart deal was made has been particularly loquacious in Epstein's defense.  But then he was also listed in the civil suit brought by victim Virginia Giuffre who was 15 at the time she was used by these predators.  The suit stated Dershowitz “was Epstein’s attorney, close friend, and co-conspirator. Dershowitz was also a participant in sex trafficking, including as one of the men to whom Epstein lent out Plaintiff for sex.”  That suit was joined by another brought by Sarah Ransome in which she states she was repeatedly instructed to have sex with him.

Epstein's contacts, pals, buddies, business connections, etc run the gamut from Trump to Bill Clinton to Prince Andrew.  All have enjoyed his company through the decades, flown on his private jet repeatedly, and who, it stands to reason, may be very queasy the past two days.

Saturday night, after touching down in said private jet at Tetorboro Airport in New Jersey, Epstein was met and arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force.  He is charged with allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, paying them, some as young as 14, to have sex with him, procure other young girls for him.

Add to that the details that came to light yesterday in a press conference that upon searching his $77 million manse in NYC, investigators found a "vast trove" of pictures of nude and partially nude young women and girls - many of whom appear seriously underage.  A safe was found to contain labeled discs of encounters as well. 

The indictment details his activities, how his employees would procure underage girls for him in NYC and Palm Beach, bringing them to his home to perform nude massages which would then escalate to Epstein touching them and move on to "include one or more sex acts."

"Epstein typically would also masturbate during these sexualized encounters, ask victims to touch him while he masturbated, and touch victims' genitals with his hands or with sex toys," the indictment alleges.  It also states Epstein knew that the girls were underage in part because some of the girls told him their age.  They would be paid sometimes hundreds of dollars.

Let me just interject something here - THAT DOES NOT MAKE THEM PROSTITUTES.  That makes them children who were being exploited and raped.  That so many news outlets are referring to them as underage women and that they had underage sex with him is grotesque.  THEY WERE CHILDREN.  A 14 year old is a child.  A child is not consenting.  A child is being raped.

As all of this was coming to light, and the connections to Epstein were being drawn - including Donald Trump who has his own "vast trove" of women who have come forward about his molesting, raping, exploiting them - MAGAt nation has taken to the virtual streets. 

And their whataboutism is very telling about just what kind of world they live in.

Showing up everywhere are these words, "Well, what if Bill Clinton is involved?"  The unmistakable meaning being that surely if one of the left's favorites is implicated we would defend him/her - you know, the way they do anyone in the conservasphere who is shown to be a deviant, a child rapist, a piece of shit.  I have also seen this defense: "Well, there is a big difference between a child and a 14 year old."

Seriously, this is the hill you want to die on?

Sorry, but no.  In fact, it has been a repeated and resounding no, we would not defend him from countless liberals in response to such bullshit. Including me.

You see, in the world in which I live, child sex trafficking is not a partisan issue.  It's a human issue.  And there are shit humans in every spot on the political spectrum.  You see, you simple minded, FAKE NEWS screaming, child rape apologists - it does not matter who is implicated, they need held fully accountable.  Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, Santa Claus, the freaking Pope - IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER.

AGAIN, A 14 YEAR OLD IS A CHILD.

Oh, incidentally, you screaming FAKE NEWS at anything you don't like about your Orange Fuhrer doesn't make it not real.  It's just you showing your ignorant ass as someone who cares not for the rule of law, accountability, children in cages, children being used and abused, tax dollars being squandered by your hero, or justice.  It's you standing up and shouting to the world, I'M A FUCKING DUMBASS AND PROUD OF IT!  I'M JUST A PIECE OF SHIT THAT SUPPORTS AN OUTHOUSE!

I am really curious about one thing - why were you so eager to believe Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor basement - a pizza parlor that has no basement - but you are bound and determined that your heroes, proven to be decades long cronies with a pedophile and child sex trafficker, are instantly innocent?  Never mind, we all know the answer.  Just as with children in cages abused and dying under our flag, you will defend the indefensible rather than admit anyone in your orbit is corrupt.

That's the difference between you and decent society.  You are happy to ignore evidence, even that of child rape, to preserve your delusions.  We are willing to be disappointed in people and hold them firmly, fully accountable.

Whatever the fallout, whoever is swept up and incriminated in this reprehensible, decades long, casual use of underage girls as cum receptacles NEEDS DRAGGED INTO THE LIGHT AND THEN BURIED FOR THE REST OF THEIR MISERABLE LIVES.

Anyone who looks at a child and feels lust?  Die.  Your services are no longer needed.

These things happen because money is a powerful insulator from accountability.  Epstein being a billionaire with connections has allowed for the continued abuse of countless victims.  Just as Trump's money and celebrity have insulated him from true accountability EVER.

It remains to be seen just who is caught when this house of cards is demolished.  I just hope the cards are made of concrete and pulverize every last creature involved.

Victory Is More Than The Trophy, Or In Pinoe's Case, TROPHIES

As a card carrying soccer mom for over 15 years of my life, my love and appreciation for, and understanding of, the game and what it takes to compete are a part of me.  I have driven countless miles, managed more teams than I can remember, traveled abroad with players, sat in the stands of countless MLS games and a World Cup semi final, carpooled to make sure players could make practice and games, supplied hundreds of gallons of Gatorade, carried injured players to the ER, wiped tears of defeat, wiped tears of joy.

For over 15 years, I turned my life over to the sport two of my children loved, the sport I came to love along the way.

There is a reason it is called "the beautiful game."

We saw it play out over the past month during the Women's World Cup.

Angst, glory, pain, grit, celebrations and bone deep loss.  These women experienced it all.  They may not all speak in the same tongue, but they share a common language - SOCCER.  A common history - game recognizes game, as the kids say, and these players know exactly what it takes for them to be playing at that level.  The years of practices, injuries, missing out on a social life, having the answer to every question be, "I can't, I have practice/a scrimmage/a game/will be out of town..." Make no mistake, regardless of the rivalry when the whistle signals kick off, the respect for one another is there throughout.  And when you see a team go out, those tears are real, those tears are based in having played this sport since the age of 5 or 6.

I had a front row seat to watch my two players gut themselves, juggling classes, commitments, homework, holidays, school functions, as well as soccer balls.  I have seen them play through pain (ice and Motrin being the answer to all questions), still attend training to support their teams even while in a cast or full leg brace.  I have seen sacrifice, exhaustion, loyalty, and bravery.

They gave the game their all and the game gave them all in return.  Friends for life, maturity, sportsmanship, leadership lessons, humility, and memories galore.

Along the way, they watched their heroes on the international stage - Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd, Tobin Heath, and yes, Megan Rapino.  Pinoe has been a Sharp family favorite for a decade.  Toby met her after the semi final against France in 2011 in Germany.  It is a moment I will never forget.  He had drawn a poster of her singing Born In The USA (which she had done after scoring in an earlier game - grabbing a mic at the corner and singing) and she signed it.  His face as he ran back to me in the stands was everything.

Pre-transition, Toby and Rapinoe were so very similar.  The hair, the height, the weight, the position, the leadership, the skills, left footed and right footed, set piece takers, Toby wore #15 as a collegiate player, and the verve.  Oh, the verve.  Both fierce competitors, both crazy in the best ways, and always championing the underdog.  Post transition, Toby is still everything Rapinoe is as a human being - strong, brave, resolute, undaunted by bigots and haters, and still the biggest defender of the underdog.

Rapinoe was all a parent could ask for in terms of inspiration and example for their child.  She was an icon on the rise then, she is a superhero now.

Following her through the years (made even more fun as our family vet for 12 years in Austin is her Uncle) has been a joy, because that is how she plays the game.  Her exuberance, her steely determination, and her responsibility as a player with an increasingly large profile has been humbling to watch.

Megan, an out and proud lesbian, is unapologetic about her commitment to raising awareness of the inequities in this country.  In 2016, she was the first white athlete to join Kaepernick in taking a knee during the anthem - responses from National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) owners and U.S. Soccer be damned.  She has steadfastly refused to sing the anthem - a quiet protest over this country's unwillingness to live up to the words in the Constitution, let alone the song.  She understands that doing what is right, is not always doing what is easy.

She is very vocal about the pay inequality between the men's national team and the women's.  For perspective, here's a little food for thought.  Oh, and the USMNT lost last night to Mexico in the Gold Cup final.

Seems to me they don't deserve equal pay, but higher pay based on performance alone.

Rapinoe is well aware of the fallout, the hate, the bullshit, the name calling from her advocacy.  But here's the thing - she does it anyway because she doesn't need your permission or forgiveness.  She is brave and resolute.  And she knows that she has now, more than any other time in her rise, the biggest microphone and the brightest spotlight.  She is going to use them to fight for those without a voice. She is not going to waste them.

Two weeks ago when video from a photo shoot in January went viral - Megan responding to a question about potentially winning the WC and the invitation from the President that would follow with, "I'm not going to the fucking White House." - conservatives panties got in a wad, their pearl clutching was immediate.  How dare she say that about the President?  Oh, the disrespect!  She hates America!  (Pssst, MAGAts:  “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” - Theodore Roosevelt)

Her reaction? She took it head on at the next presser and made one apology.  To her mom for the profanity.  She was unapologetic and rightfully so regarding Trump and his continued onslaught against the rights of LGBTQIA people.  (For the record, my child would have apologized to me, too.  But for only using that word once.)

From last month's Sports Illustrated interview, “I am not going to fake it, hobnob with the president, who is clearly against so many of the things that I am [for] and so many of the things that I actually am.  I have no interest in extending our platform to him.”

She is supported by her team, many of whom are also out and proud members of the LGBT.  And for the record?  Protest, especially when it is about calling out a despot and making this country live up to its own words, is about as patriotic as one can get.

She played the majority of this WC with a target on her back.  Once her "I'm not going to the fucking White House" comment was out, she was targeted not only by the outhouse Trump himself, but by the floaters MAGAts that support him, all rooting for her and the team to lose.  (Their hypocrisy in terms of patriotism is hilarious.)

It only made her and the team tighter, more determined.  As they put one win after another behind them, Megan delighted in scoring and striking her now iconic pose for the crowds and the cameras.  A beautiful, silent FUCK YOU to the haters.

With one game left between them and the title, they entered the stadium yesterday as the forged steel competitors they are, led by Captain Rapinoe.  Not just to play with each other, but as I have seen in so many of T's teams, FOR each other.  There is a difference.

It is the difference that cannot be taught, only felt.  It is not a skill that can be honed, it is born of something deeper than a desire to win.  It is an invisible cloak a team puts around itself, and with no words necessary, plays with one heart.  It is born of unwavering trust in one another.  It is something you cannot understand unless you have lived it, or had the privilege of being so very close to it.  I have.  I have seen a team dig deeper than they knew possible, run faster and harder than they knew they could, take hits that would normally hobble them, and watched as they literally will themselves to the final whistle.  And when that whistle blows, they collapse on one another - a mixture of pride, joy, pain, and amazement.

That was yesterday's game.  It was not easily won.  It went 0-0 a very long time before a foul in the box awarded a PK to the USA.  A PK Pinoe stepped up, took, blasted into the net.  Yes, she was thrilled, struck her pose, but then celebrated with her teammates and the immediate knowledge that the game was far from over.  In fact, for the uneducated, players know from experience that the most dangerous time in terms of being scored on, tends to happen within minutes of having scored.

For Pinoe, even more joyous than her game winning goal (so named because the other team never scored, ergo 1 goal was all that was necessary), was her reaction to Rose Lavelle blasting home goal #2.  She embraced her like a proud older sister, tickled that Rose had scored the biggest goal of her life on the world's biggest stage.

Watching her receive not only the Golden Boot for most goals scored in the WC, but the Golden Ball for best player in the entire tournament?  Tears.  She carried her team, she carried the weight of expectations, she carried the hate of the President and his coven of black souls, and she carried every single memory of every game she has ever played to not only get to that spot, but deserve that spot.

And for every supporter of her and the team?  Well, the pride in them is palpable, but so is the schadenfreude in knowing how much grumbling and crow eating is being done by the ones cheering for them to fail.

The spotlight is bright, the microphone is on, and I cannot wait to see how Megan puts them to good use for every underrepresented, marginalized, discriminated against person she has always been fighting for.  It's a great start by not going to the fucking White House and normalizing anything about that reprehensible bigot currently occupying it.

In this house, as my kids say, we stan Megan Rapinoe.

Mississlipping

Children kidnapped and in cages.  Mothers and fathers drinking from toilets while their captors post vile "tonk" references about them on Facebook. (Tonk being a slur used by CBP shitheads for the noise their metal flashlights make when they hit an immigrant on the head.). Iran ramping up uranium production. Climate crisis.  Jeffrey Epstein arrested on child sex trafficking charges.  Poverty, starvation, disease.  So much suffering and criminality in this world.  But these all pale in comparison to the struggles being faced right here at home in Mississippi.

Thank baby Jesus, mighty Zeus, and black Ariel that their lawmakers are on the case taking on the true villianny in our society.

Vegan patties masquerading as burgers.

This past Monday, a law went into effect making it illegal for anyone to use "meat terminology" (read: burger, hot dog, etc) in relation to nonmeat products - vegan, vegetarian.  Two hooves up for the cattle lobbyists who brought this paranoia to life and the 117-0 vote in their House that proves their sanity is slipping.  Those in violation could face up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. 

That's right, market with the words "vegan burgers," "meatless hot dogs," "vegan bacon," "meatless meatballs," "vegan chorizo" and "meatless steaks" and you could find yourself in prison.

What a bunch of soyshit.

If you are so dim that you pick up a package that reads meatless hot dogs and cannot understand that THERE IS NO MEAT IN THEM, then no law is going to help you.  And heaven forbid some healthier options be on your store shelves for you to try.

I find it hilarious that the nation's fattest state - SEVEN YEARS RUNNING - is literally taking legal steps to essentially protect their obesity ranking.  But then it is also #50 in healthcare, so you do the math, which may be hard if you are in MS as your state also ranks #46 in education.

I have yet to mistake my vegan burger, which is clearly labeled as such, for ground beef. 

But hey, if the rule is now all about the literal, then these brain trusts in their legislature had better get off their corpulent asses and take on the other deceitful foods out there tricking the poor, innocent, ignorant public.

Chicken fingers.  My grandmother raised chickens, they are notoriously bad with their hands, not having any to speak of.

Hamburger.  I hope the populace of Mississippi are sitting down when they are told there is no ham in those burgers.

Buffalo wings.  I saw Dances With Wolves a bunch of times.  They can stampede, but not once did I see them take flight to escape the Indians.

Sweetbreads.  Sorry folks, but King's Hawaiian has nothing to do with this dish.

Spotted dick.  No, not even close.

Rocky Mountain Oysters.  I personally know a few who have been deceived by the name only to find out they have joined the ranks of barnyard teabaggers.

Grasshopper pie.  A good old southern favorite, without a single damned grasshopper to be found.

How about eggplants?  NO eggs.  Pineapple?  No apple.

I could go on and on, but lord knows they won't entertain the logic here, even though it's theirs to begin with.

The new law is already being challenged in court by companies who produce vegan and vegetarian options for consumers, but Mississippians can rest easy for now.  Their lawmakers are on the case and have boldly proclaimed (all apologies to my Queen, Bianca Del Rio), "Not today, seitan, not today."