Present Day Republicans

Thanks, Republicans.

#VOTEBLUE

#BLUEWAVE2020

Quote of the Day -- Missouri Governor Edition

Thanks, Governor Parson!

Thanks, Republicans!

Who Is Donald Trump?

Just who is Donald Trump, exactly?

• The “billionaire” who hides his tax returns
• The "law and order" President who, again, hides his tax returns
• The “genius” who hides his college grades
• The “businessman” who bankrupted 3 casinos, lost over $1B in 10 years and took 6 bankruptcies, to date. So far
• The “playboy” who pays for sex
• The “Christian” who doesn’t go to church
• The "Christian" who cheated on his first wife--with his second
• The "Christian" who cheated on his second wife--with his third
• The “philanthropist” who defrauds charity
• The “patriot” who dodged the draft five times
• The “innocent man” who refuses to testify
• The “President” who takes no responsibility
• The “tough, strong” man who wears makeup and hairspray
• The “deal maker” who has yet to close a deal

Thanks, Republicans.

That's quite the guy you got there.

Quite the guy you foisted on us all, on the nation.

What's the Matter With Kansas?? Again

Since when do state government agencies not follow the direction of the sitting governor?

Since Kansas.  Since now.

Kansas Board of Education rejects Kelly order delaying schools opening to stem virus

And all she did, all Kansas Governor Kelly did was say schools should be backed up a few weeks, to September, to after Labor Day, to open. That was it.

Thanks, Republicans!

Meanwhile, this.

Kansas labeled a coronavirus ‘red zone’ as cases spike, White House document says

Tell us, Republicans, is that Kansas Board of Education or Bored of Education?

And what part of killing international pandemic do you all not get?

The state's business is more important than your children?

Really?

How Do You Not Love the Republican Party Senate Race Just Now in Kansas?

Seriously, how can anyone not but love, love, love the Republican Party Senate race in Kansas presently?

It pits racist Kris Kobach...

Group attacks Kobach over white nationalist ties 

Kris Kobach Tells CNN He Could Support Racist President

Kris Kobach and the problem of elite racism

Against law-breaking Marshall...

Roger Marshall was convicted of reckless driving in 2008. Here’s how it was erased

And then there's this---

Marshall struggles to unite GOP establishment in Kansas race

And this---

Roger Marshall prays for hope, 

campaigns on fear in Kansas

So the Democrats pull a Republican Party tactic and try to exploit it.

Democrats Are Spending Serious Cash 

To Aid Kris Kobach

As if all that weren't enough, we go this, too.

Kansas GOP responds to county chairman’s post comparing mask order to Holocaust

Fantastic. I'm loving it. We're loving it.

I say again...

What isn't to hate about Republicans, 

Is to love.

Onward to election day!

Quote of the Day -- On Deepset Republican Party Hypocrisy

Thanks, Republicans!

Link:

Where Are the Calls for Donald Trump to Resign?

Happy Sunday

Try to have a nice day.

SNL Nails This Impeachment Trial, Mitch McConnell and Alan Dershowitz

A fantastic skewering last night from, of course, Saturday Night Live. The guy doing Mitch McConnell has him dead-on.


Thank God and goodness for SNL and satire.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled insanity and absurdities.

What If Obama Said or Did It?

This idea has come up in a few places. That is, what if Barack Obama said or did even SOME of the things this orange Republican Party Trump has said or done. Bill Maher brougt it up first.


Can you imagine?

Republicans and Right Wingers would be FLIPPING OUT.

And then now? With this impeachment? Are you kidding?

If then President Barack Obama asked the head of another foreign nation---say, oh, the head of the Ukraine---for a "favor", to investigate the son or daughter of his foremost political rival in a current campaign for an election for his very job?

Can you even imagine the uproar from the Republicans?

FUGGEDABOUDIT.

They'd freaking explode.

They'd have him in impeachment status 20 minutes after the phone call ended. They'd flip.

Nicholas Kristof very fairly and appropriately proposes this very same question today, again, in Sunday's New York Times.

What if It Were Obama on Trial?

Consider Trump’s impeachment from some other angles.

Just a bit of the article:

What if it were Obama who had been caught in this Ukraine scandal?

My guess is that if it were Obama, Republicans would be demanding witnesses (as they did in the 1999 trial of Bill Clinton). Given how aggressively Republican members of Congress pursued the Benghazi events — multiple investigations, eventually finding no evidence of wrongdoing by either Obama or then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — I’m confident that the G.O.P. would be insisting that Obama be removed, with frequent chants of “lock him up.”

...“Imagine if our president had leveraged his role as commander in chief to convince a foreign power to open an investigation into his political opponent. Imagine if the president’s rival lost the primary because news broke that he was under investigation. Imagine if that meant the president faced a weaker candidate in November 2020 — and won re-election as a result.”

The foreign country could then blackmail our president by threatening to expose the corruption, gaining leverage over our foreign policy. Meanwhile, the president might abuse presidential power in other ways in the belief that impunity was complete. If all this eventually became public, and truth does have a way of trickling out, this would have devastating consequences for the legitimacy of American elections.

This thought experiment perhaps isn’t so far-fetched. We know now that Trump’s pressure on Ukraine caused alarm in the White House and the intelligence community, with National Security Adviser John Bolton likening it to a “drug deal.” Yet for all that uproar, it almost didn’t become public. It was only because of a whistle-blower that the information began to emerge, and the military aid to Ukraine was released only after the White House became aware of the whistle-blower and was being pressured by Congress.

In short, Trump’s plan almost succeeded — and in any case, he will get away with it in the sense that he is sure to be acquitted by the Senate. When Republicans suggest that Trump did nothing wrong, what message does that impunity send to Trump and to future presidents?

The third thought experiment is simple: What if Trump weren’t president, but was like almost any other person in America?

What if he were a high school vice principal who ensured that a police detective’s son would be accepted in advanced placement classes — and then added, “I’d like you to do us a favor, though.” The favor would be an investigation of the vice principal’s ex-wife before their upcoming child custody hearing, in hopes of tilting the outcome in his favor.

In that situation, the vice principal would be fired. We all recognize that no school official or other person in a government bureaucracy should use public power for private benefit.

So a last query: Shouldn’t we have as high a standard for the president of the United States as for a school vice principal?

How any President could ask the head of another, foreign nation to investigate the son of his foremost political rival during a current, ongoing campaign for election to his very office and that somehow be okay is beyond, way beyond me. That alone is enough. But then to withhold nearly 400 million dollars in aid Congress had approved and appropriated to help that nation against our own very public, national enemy in their time of need until he got such investigation?

Again, fuggedaboudit.

How anyone could say or think that what this Orange One has done is not impeachable is just incomprehensible.

But then, so is defending him.

This President, This Impeachment and What We're Witnessing

The whistleblower: "He did it."

The Inspector General: "He did it."

The partial call transcript: "If you look right here, you'll see him doing it."

Donald Trump: "Of course I did it! I'll do it again, too! Look, I'm doing it right now on live TV!"

Rudy Giuliani: "WE DID IT TOGETHER! AS HEROES!"

Mick Mulvaney: "You're damn right he did it! That's politics, baby! If you don't like it, go fork yourself!...wait, can I change my answer?"

Noah Feldman and Pamela Karlan: "It looks like he did it, which is an egregious violation of the Constitution and a textbook impeachable offense."

George Kent: "He did it."

Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams: "Oh yeah. He did it. That still matters in America, right?"

Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison: "Yep, he definitely did it."

Gordon Sondland: "He 100% did it. Everyone was in on it. Here are some text messages proving it."

Fiona Hill: "Yes. He did it."

Marie Yovanovitch: "He had to get me out of the way in order to do it."

David Holmes: "I acutely remember overhearing a phone conversation in which he was doing it."

OMB: "Yeah, we withheld the aide on his orders. Obviously, he did it."

The Government Accountability Office. He did it and, in doing so, he broke the law.

Lev Parnas: "He did it, and I helped. Here's a treasure trove of documents showing how we did it."

Republicans: "There's just no reason to think that he did it. If only you had some witnesses."

Quote of the Day -- Timely Trump Version

Quote of the Day -- Poignant Sunday Edition

Enjoy your Sunday and holiday, y'all.

So Proud of You, Kansas City

Yes sir, so proud of my now hometown.

That's you, Kansas City.

There was a rather hastily put-together protest and march today at the Country Club Plaza. It began at Mill Creek Park, went for a protest march around the Plaza and then back to the park for some speeches.

It was to protest for women's and abortion rights, rightly, after the nightmare week in Jefferson City on the part of yet more Right Wing, mostly all white, Republican men who voted to limit even the possibility of an abortion after 8 weeks of pregnancy.

Forget all the medical facts like how difficult it is to know a woman is actually pregnant in the first few weeks after conception and all the other facts. Yeah, forget all that. Forget that theirs is supposed to be a "small government" political party. Forget all that. They want to have that government come between the patient, the female patient and her doctor.

It's not quite as bad as Alabama's draconian law they passed this week but it's right up there.

So a protest was planned and executed today and it was a beauty. I knew I had to be there. It's estimated 4,000 people showed. And they were boisterous. Herewith, some photos from the day. It was wondrous.

Some of the posters were a bit more, uh, frank, shall we say?

As I said, it was a very good sized crowd. I think we were all very, very pleased with the turnout and energy.

Some people wrote on the sidewalks, too, for a protest that would last a bit longer than just the time we were there.

One of the biggest ironies of all these, again, Right Wing, Republican government representatives is this article on a study of abortions and nations with and without them.

Abortion rates go down when countries make it legal: report

But again, facts and data and scientific studies mean little to these people. It's the same on this topic, abortion, as it is with guns and gun laws. Facts just don't matter.

The Outrageousness of Alabama and Today's Republican Party

After that abortion bill in Alabama this week, man. What can you say?

As if Donald Trump and his Senate weren't bad enough, now this.

The Republican Party and Right Wing are now, as of this week,on an all out war on women and women's rights.

What's next? Take away their right to vote? Don't let them own property any longer? Make sure they can't get an education? It's not that outside the realm of possibility, it wouldn't seem. Remember this?

Senate Republicans reject equal pay bill

They did that in 2014. Voted down equal pay for women. Really.

They are only consistent.

Instead of working on denying women's abortion rights, you'd think the Alabama legislators would work on poverty in the state, wouldn't you?

ALABAMA HAS THE WORST POVERTY IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD, U.N. OFFICIAL SAYS

But no. Instead, all these white, old government representatives work on this.

Staunch as they are against abortion and abortion rights, you'd think they'd come down squarely for sex education, right? Wouldn't you think?

Republican Lawmakers Approve Ban On Sex Ed Funding

Mind you, that example is only Iowa but still, it's indicative of the party's stance.

And contraceptives? To fight those abortions?

Republicans Cut Contraceptives for Women

Nah...

And then there's "day after" pills so, again, there would be fewer abortions or possibility of abortions...  Right?

Republicans Cut Contraceptives for Women

Again, no.

And we, here in Missouri, no better. This week, voting for a bill to effectively ban abortions.

Missouri's House passes bill 

banning abortions at 8 weeks

Of course, when you have yet one more Republican, still, in 2019, saying things supporting "consensual rape", what can you say? It makes clear their collective ignorance and callousness.

GOP Mo. Lawmaker Apologizes for 'Consensual Rape' Remark

Missouri's Governor declared "All life has value."  "All life has value" from the political party that lost 1475 children, keeping them from their parents at the southern border. 

Suddenly, "all life has value."  That sounds conspicuously like "Black Lives Matter", doesn't it? But they were vehemently, publicly against that claim at the time. 

Meanwhile, the Republican Party announced their official slogan for the 2020 election campaign.

Darn near actual.

God help us.

Links:

Morning-After Pills Don't Cause Abortion, Studies Say

Contraception Is Not Abortion

Did Republicans Actually Say These Things About Rape?

Quote of the Day: Harry Had It Right

Harry had the Republicans down cold, from then, his day, to today.

A Few Reasons I'm a Democrat

This leaves out, of course, all the things Republicans do and have been doing, in Congress, across the states, across the nation, to their respective states, to their constituents and so, to the nation so yes, it's a long but partial list.

The Current Republican Party: Sunday Edition

GOP Jesus.

Republican Party Song of the Day, Week, Month, Decade. Century?

That these Republicans today are outraged, OUTRAGED! at the treatment of this, their party's nominee for the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, this Brett Kavanaugh, in these hearings when they didn't even allow---remember that--didn't even ALLOW hearings for the previous President's pick for the court is the epitome of chutzpah, irony and hypocrisy, all.

I thought Trump gaining the White House would be the worst that could and would happen.

I was wrong.

So deeply wrong.

Trump and an Open Seat on the Supreme Court

The Republicans have a serious "good for the goose" problem.

Sunday Reflections

God love 'em.

Or something.