I had a conversation with One-Of-Them who voted for You-Know-Who recently, and it quickly devolved into whether I had a job and paid taxes, the implication being if I’m not tired of carrying half the country around on my overburdened tax shoulders, I should be. My return was that I’ve worked for 40 years and Christians who ignore the love thy neighbor stuff in favor of a lower tax burden are missing the point. I mentioned my 80-something parents are both part of the fabled 47%. I was feeling around in the conversation for the racism, and it soon came out: “I’m talking about Muslim youth who want to come here on the dole while they study bomb making.”

Freddie Boom-Boom Washington DC?

You know, the story of angry brown people coming to kill your babies is running a little threadbare, of late. This idjit feels Taxed Enough Already because of a government demolitions work-study program for Muslim youths. Who knew? What do they call it? Fannie Mae Explode? Freddie Mac-10?

That’s apparently how we lost Pennsylvania: mouth breathers like this one frenzied into a lather by breathless bullshit pumped into their low-info bubble. And I’m coming to the conclusion that there’s nothing we’re going to be able to do about it. We can’t save these people from themselves. We have to save the rest of us from themselves, and hopefully the rising tide will lift all boats. If themselves drown, however, it will be by themselves’ own hands.

My parting shot was, “You can stand against the wall now, or be stood against it later, remember the Sinclair Lewis quote?”

Well, it turns out, neither did I, so well; (more…)

I have you some more names to add to the list of congresscritters not attending the Trump inauguration.

I live in Republican Pete Olson’s district.  Yeah, well, he’s never heard of you either. He is completely indistinguishable from his desk. Plus, he walks and talks funny. He got elected because Phil Gramm loves, loves, loves him.

I live less than 1/4 of a mile outside of Congressman Al Green’s district so ole Bubba and I adopted him, and he cheerfully adopted us back. We both talked to him last night and he was still undecided whether or not to attend the inauguration.  At 7:00 this morning Congressman Green called Don and said he has decided not to attend.

Here’s his press release:

“Today, we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; on Friday, President-elect Trump will be sworn-in. For some time, I have been hearing from many constituents with varying points of view on the question of whether I will attend the inauguration. My response is Dr. King was right when he indicated: On some issues ‘cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.’

“I will not attend the inauguration because conscience says it is the right thing to do.”

Then, an hour ago, Congressman Joaquin Castro announced that he will not attend.  His press release says …

“Every American should respect the office of the presidency and the fact that Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. But winning an election does not mean a man can show contempt for millions of Americans and then expect those very people to celebrate him.

“I come from a family and a place, Texas, where respect is a fundamental value – respect for people regardless of what they look like, where they were born, or whether they share your view of the world. Donald Trump has shown an utter lack of respect for so many Americans. His attack on civil rights hero John Lewis is the latest example.

“I will not attend this year’s inauguration ceremony. However, I will be in Washington to greet constituents who are traveling to our nation’s capital for the proceedings. I respect their choice to attend.”

God Bless Texas today.

UPDATE: Congressman Lloyd Doggett (Corrected)—

I will not be attending the inauguration this Friday.

We are sending a message to Mr. Trump. Respect, like Pennsylvania Avenue, is a two-way street. Instead of uniting our country, his continued unprecedented, unpresidential actions are further dividing it. By repeatedly taking the lowest road, he is not showing respect for the highest office. We are in for a long struggle that must strategically utilize every nonviolent opposition tool available.

In a report that Cheeto Jesus and healthcare opponents will HATE, the Congressional Budget Office reported that if he and the Congress go ahead with their repeal vote that 18 million people will lose health insurance next year, and the premiums for everyone else would double over 10 years.

Happy New Year, ya’ll, and welcome to the new world of single party rule.  Washington, DC becomes Austin.  Ya’ll buckle up, now – Hold my beer, watch this!

Okay, so Monica Crowley and her word-stealing ways are out.  To be honest, I was kinda wondering if she wrote Melania’s convention speech.

Trump’s Cabinet

The pick for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, is considering withdrawing because people are saying bad things about him.   Yeah, people just don’t realize that selling the economy with girls in bikinis might actually work.

And now it appears that Tom Price may have broken the law with his stock transactions.

So …

A new Quinnipiac poll indicates that only 30% approve of Trump’s overall cabinet choices. The hearings so far have only covered a handful of the cabinet picks. A number of controversial cabinet picks have yet to appear for confirmation.

Ben Carson won’t be able to find his way to the office and Marco Rubio may grow up to keep Jeff Sessions in the racist closet where he belongs.

Nobody can make a mess like Donald Trump.  Believe me.

Damn Twitter.

You know, the upside is that Donald Trump hasn’t gotten us into a weapons of mass destruction war yet – he’s done his fighting with words.  If you think about it, that’s quite impressive considering that Trump doesn’t know very many words outside of: me, wonderful, me, pussy, me, believe me, me, Nazi Germany, me, and unfair.

I dunno if it’s a good idea to get into a word war with the CIA, but I probably suspect it’s not.  However, with Trump holed up with those Breitbart people and every other conspiracy freak in the world, I am kinda surprised he hasn’t gone after the illuminati and ancient aliens.

The CIA director is fighting back.

So here I am kinda confused. As a liberal, I have a natural distrust of the CIA.  As a human being, I have a raging distrust of Donald Trump.  I have to think that Trump is undermining the legitimacy of the CIA so he can form his own CIA with the intent of … I dunno, world domination or some damn thing.

And then when you think, “Nope, this is as low as it goes, it can’t get any worse than this,” we find ourselves in a prostitute war.  Seriously, whore wars with Russia.

First Putin says that those who spread false rumors about Donald Trump are … you guessed it …

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday an unsubstantiated report that alleged Russia had gathered compromising material on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was a hoax, and slammed those who are propagating the allegations as “worse than prostitutes.”

Taking it from there, Putin also says he does not have compromising pictures of Trump with prostitutes.

The Kremlin has denied that it holds any compromising material on Trump after U.S. intelligence officials informed the president-elect about unsubstantiated reports that Russia had compiled potentially damaging personal information on him.

And if that doesn’t give you a complete picture of the Trump/Putin mind meld, lookie right here.

Trump is “a grown man, and secondly he’s someone who has been involved with beauty contests for many years and has met the most beautiful women in the world,” Putin said. “I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world.”

If I close my eyes, that’s Donald Trump talking, right? “Ours are the best in the world?”

I’m gonna give myself a heart attack.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

I am kinda tickled to be the one to let you know that even the Bruce Springsteen cover band has quit the Trump inauguration.

The B-Street band pulled out.

Wanna know why?

“We felt that we had to make it known that we didn’t want to seem disrespectful, in any way, shape or form, to Bruce and his music and his band,” Forte says. “I don’t want to upset them. We owe everything to him and our gratitude and respect to the band is imperative above all else. It became clear to us that this wasn’t working and we just had to do what we thought was the right thing to do and that was to pull out.”

Okay, so maybe Clint Eastwood and Gary Busey can quickly form a band.  Otherwise, there’s not going to be much dancing at the balls.