Peter David's Blog, page 17

Chris Pratt getting bashed for no reason

So on Twitter, Chris Pratt (a.k.a. Starlord) tweeted in part “I’m praying for you because I believe in the healing power of prayer” to Kevin Smith, who had recently announced that he’d had a heart attack.

And now people are bashing Pratt for saying he was sending prayer. Why? Because they’re apparently conflating it with people who send empty prayers to the victims of gun violence.

No. It’s not the same. At all.

When I had my stroke five years ago, do you guys have ANY idea how many people said they were praying for me. Hundreds. Probably thousands. Including an entire Buddhist temple. And we totally got where everyone was coming from. When faced with a situation where someone was ill, many people were resorting to asking God to give me a break. No one said, “Hey dumbass, if you weren’t morbidly obese you could probably have avoided this.” There is nothing wrong with evoking sympathy from a higher being when confronted with bad news.

The reason there is now backlash against offering prayers during gun shootings is because the politicians who are claiming they are praying are capable of doing so much more. The same people who claim that their thoughts and prayers are with the victims are taking thousands of dollars in donations from the NRA and doing nothing to try and address the problem directly. We don’t need God to step in and prevent shootings; we need the changes in gun laws that people have been demanding but are seeing squashed by the orange dumbass and his coterie of gun suckers. It’s a completely different circumstance from wishing for divine intervention to help a fellow human who is having medical problems.

I too wish Kevin Smith the best and a full recovery from his heart attack. And leave Chris Pratt the hell alone.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 23, 2018

Much to my surprise, Trump actually did something right this week. The downside is that he did his usual amount of things wrong, and as for the thing he did right, there’s every chance/likelihood that he will think better of it and maybe even claim that the “fake news” fabricated it.

1). Empathy in chief. Sympathizing with those in need or in dire emotional straits is one of the first things we learn as human beings. If a mother is sitting on her living room couch and sobbing, her pre-verbal toddler will come over to her and hug her to try and provide support. It’s simply ingrained into our psyches.

But not in Trump’s case. An alert newsman snapped a picture of his notes that he was using in order to try and display empathy for the parents whose children had been torn away from them. “What do you most want me to know about your experience?” was one note. “I hear you” another note assured the apparently blind listeners who didn’t notice the notes.

Trump literally could not be counted on to remember even fundamental questions. He had to be reminded to say that he was listening. The most powerful executive in the United States is so self-absorbed, so narcissistic, that he has no idea how to speak to grieving parents. How in the hell can someone live for seven decades and not learn simple, personal interactions? Has he never had to console anyone? Obviously not. At the most, he’s probably hired people to step in and speak on his behalf to anyone who was ever aggrieved.

How can he be prompted to say he hears you?!? . It’s three stinking words!!! He can’t remember three stinking words? If he didn’t have the note, would his mind drift off and then when snapped to attention he would say, “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” To assure someone that he’s paying attention has got to be the most minimal duty a president would have to undertake and he can’t even do that!!. This man isn’t simply lost as a president. He’s lost as a human being.

2). Teachers shooting off their mouths. . The worst possible answer to people slaying students is to arm the teachers. So naturally that is what Trump endorsed. Not all the teachers, mind you. Just the ones who could be trusted with guns. Because after not having the money to provide even basic school supplies so that teachers have to pay for paper and pencils out of their own pockets, Trump and company want to start arming teachers. Because the next time police come charging into a situation where an armed man is gunning down students, what they really need to deal with are a couple dozen educators waving guns around, because that will make it oh-so-easy to determine who exactly they should be shooting at.

Yet Trump insisted that if teachers are armed, they would have shot the hell out of the recent shooter in Florida. Maybe. Or they would very likely have wound up hitting other students or teachers and added to the death toll. If they had a hand gun and they’re facing a guy with a machine gun, they’d likely have one chance to shoot down their enemy before he opened fire and turned them into Swiss cheese. You want to bet your life on the aim of a terrified teacher? Good luck with that.

Of course, Trump then later turned around and said he’d hadn’t advocated arming teachers, right before his address at CPAC reiterated the notion. In fact, let’s chat about CPAC for the moment.

3). CPACing them in.. Trump gave an overview of his greatest lies at the conservative gathering, kicking off with the assertion that his administration had “the most successful” first year in the history of presidential administrations. This is, of course, a bald faced lie. His administration has done almost nothing, and the achievements they can point to are going to be screwing people over for years to come. He slammed the Democrats, of course, accusing them of providing blockage to his endeavors when in fact the GOP has been refusing to work with their left wing counterparts. He asserted that he was still going to build his wall that the Mexicans will never pay for, and claims that the Democrats refuse to do anything about DACA even though it was Trump who threw DACA under the bus in the first place. Yet his supporters continue to embrace his lies and tell themselves everything is okay when it very much isn’t.

4). I can’t wait to see the protests. Trump has settled on the day for his idiotic military parade: Veterans Day. His plan is to have a military processional begin at the White House and thread down to the Capitol. I am positive that this will not go unremarked upon: I fully expect hundreds of thousands of protestors to be lining the streets shouting down Trump and his waste of taxpayer money to provide a display of strength that is unprecedented, that nobody asked for and that nobody wants.

5) Sanctions. So Trump decided that this was the perfect time to implement sanctions against North Korea. Because when North Korea is beginning to develop a dialogue with their neighbors and is participating in the Olympics, that’s exactly when to punish them. As opposed to Russia which the Senate and House decreed should have sanctions placed against them and Trump is disinclined to implement them. After all, why punish them just because they helped rig the election to put him in office? What point would there be to that?

Did he do anything right?. For the first time in quite some time, yes, he did. He actually seemed willing to do something about eighteen year olds buying guns and opening fire with them. He advocated raising the age for gun ownership to 21, because it was pointed out that it’s insane to say that kids can’t buy liquor but the can purchase rifles. He also wanted to eliminate bump stocks that transforms semi-automatic weapons into basically machine guns. Of course, this announcement prompted two things: First, sales on bump stocks have skyrocketed, and second, the assholes in charge of the NRA are putting their feet down and are acting in opposition to both notions. Instead they are advocating putting guards at schools, “hardening” them, a new verb that Trump immediately picked up and reiterated. Because Ronald Reagan was surrounded by seven secret service agents when he was shot, so obviously having armed personnel on site is guaranteed to prevent gun assault. Despite Trump’s assurances that the NRA would fall in line, they have in fact stated that they oppose raising the age limit of gun ownership. Nor do they support the banning of bump stocks. So the question is, will Trump really act in opposition to NRA wishes or will he fold? My guess: the latter, because that would be consistent. Which is a shame. He could actually do something positive with his presidency if he’s willing to stand up to the NRA, but it’s unlikely that will happen.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 16, 2018

It would seem that there’s really only one thing to talk about this week, but surprisingly, no, there’s a couple of things. So let’s see what we’ve got.

1) This sort of behavior totally ruins my Lysistrata plan. Turns out Trump is being accused of a second affair, this time two years into his marriage with Melania. Traditionally when the first couple heads to Air Force One, they take a helicopter dubbed Marine One to it. Not this time; Melania headed over to it via car so she could travel separately from her husband. That does not bode well for the two of them, and I am convinced that at this point she is waiting for him to die because she’d rather be a widow than just another cast off wife.

2) And so it begins. Robert Mueller indicted thirteen Russians in interfering with the election. While Trump claimed that the efforts did not affect the election (it did) and of course there was “no collusion,” which is going to be a huge meme once he’s convicted of collusion, Hillary Clinton’s assistant, Nick Merrill, was much more specific in his comments: “Today’s revelations confirm what we’ve long known. Time will tell us more, but Russia went to great lengths to undermine our democracy, & the President won’t protect us. No matter your politics, it’s un-American. We have an adversary that is laughing at us, who will act again.” Yes, they absolutely will, as soon as the 2018 elections. Let’s hope to God that vote tabulators will have learned from the 2016 election and will be prepared to prevent it. If they’re smart, they will return to paper ballots which can not be interfered with by hackers.

3) The Rob Porter fiasco. Rob Porter, a former White House secretary, indisputably beat two wives. There’s photos of them,.Yet Trump’s administration incredibly tried to side with him. The White House administration claimed that the FBI was still conducting their investigation, except no, the FBI states that they finished their investigation back in January. But hey, I suppose that wife beaters who hit their wives so hard there are bruises on her face…I’m sure that a lot of them are really great guys.

4) Florida. You need to understand something: I have a fifteen year old. Every single day when I send her off to school, I have no idea whether I’m going to see her at the end of the day. Her school has no metal detectors, which I used to not be in favor of but now am. I am seriously considering getting her a Kevlar vest if I can come up with the $500 required to get a good one. I mean, I always had a sense that when she goes out into the world, anything can happen. She could be robbed, beaten. Then again, she took kung fu lessons so that anyone who tries to attack her will ideally have a really lousy time of it. And my third daughter teaches at a school and also took Kung fu. But if a lunatic comes in shooting, what can they reasonably do? And what did Trump do? He blamed the victims. He blamed the victims. He tweeted, “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior..Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!” You believable fucking moron. He was reported repeatedly. The police had been brought in by his mother. He was expelled from high school because he was considered too dangerous. He was a White Supremacist. Every single check system that Trump and his NRA shitheads will allow was in place and he still had no trouble buying an AR-15, a gun that has no place in a private citizen’s hands. You don’t need it for hunting; it will shred whatever it is you’re trying to catch. You don’t need it for protection unless you’re anticipating a zombie Apocalypse. It has one reason and one reason only to exist: To kill lots of people very quickly. It is the weapon of choice for demented shitbags who intend to blow a ton of people away. And what does Trump do? He revokes an Obama-era rule that made it harder for people with psychological problems to obtain guns. Gun advocates, of course, hated it, because they claimed it infringed on the Second amendment. No, it didn’t, you morons. The Founding Fathers passed the Second amendment to make it easier for colonists to form militias, not to allow demented psychopaths to acquire whatever weapons they wanted so they could slaughter dozens of people. Don’t you get that the weapons the founders were familiar with shot one bullet a minute, not forty-six. This has got to end.

Did he do anything right? No.

PAD

How to end gun violence

I’ve been sure that ever since the slaughter at Sandy Hook went unanswered that it is simply impossible to come up with genuine means of limiting gun slaughter. In the latest incident in Florida, the lunatic shooter bought his guns through legal means and was not deterred from doing so, even though he had a mental health record, a record of loving guns and talking about slaughtering people in the high school that expelled him because he was obsessed with guns.

What in the world can be done about it? When the vast majority of the population want to make it impossible for known menaces to obtain guns but the NRA won’t permit it and the politicians line up behind them, how can the lame ass politicians be compelled to take actions that will save lives?

Well, as a matter of fact, I think I’ve got an answer. An answer that was first suggested in 411 B.C.

Aristophanes wrote a play, you see. It was entitled “Lysistrata” and it centered on the title character convincing Greek women to withhold sex from their men until they agreed to end the Peloponnesian war.

I think that is what every wife of every Senator and every representative of the House should do. All the women should band together and say, “No sex until the gun crisis is brought under control. No sex until we have genuine gun control laws. No sex until you all say to the NRA, ‘Fuck off.'”

Because that is how you hit these assholes where they live. They’re so obsessed with big guns which are, let’s face it, just phallic symbols anyway.

If every wife figuratively cuts off their husbands’ sexual proclivities, I would like to think that that is going to be what turns them around.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 9, 2018

It’s been a relatively quiet week for IQ45. But here’s the problem with that: If you didn’t hear anything major from Obama for a week, it didn’t matter. You just figured he was doing his job. If a week goes by for IQ45 and you don’t hear anything major, you leap to the conclusion that he managed to cover up whatever evil he undertook this week.

1). Maybe we should all start saying prayers.. Trump appeared at the national prayer breakfast this year. You may well remember his appearance a year ago where he gave a freewheeling speech in which he promised to do away with the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits religious organizations from endorsing political figures, and trashed Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lousy ratings of “The Apprentice.” A year later, the law is still on the books and “The Apprentice” is off the air, so he had nothing major to discuss, it seems. He did still manage to say something stupid: “Our founders invoked the creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, ‘In God we trust.’”

Uh, no. I know this for a fact because I’ve been in three productions of “1776” and at one point the Reverend Jonathan Witherspoon points out the complete lack of mention of God. So one reference is put in to make the New Jersey representative happy. I double checked the final document and I found just the single mention. Not four.

As for “In God we trust,” that was added formally to the money in 1956 for a very specific reason: to differentiate the USA from the Godless commies. You remember the godless commies: the ones who managed to rig the election to get their boy Trump into office. If Trump had been around in 1956 he would undoubtedly have endorsed the move to show that we’re different from the Russians, rather than now when they undermine our elections and national actions.

2). Let’s rain on his parade.. Trump wants this country, which apparently is running out of money to help Puerto Rico, to waste millions of dollars on a parade displaying our military might. He claims that he got the idea from watching the Bastille Day parade in France.

Let us put aside for a moment that Bastille Day is a celebration of a massive internal war in which nobility was publicly executed by the guillotine. Let us put aside that, fair or not, the French, going all the way to “Encounter on Farpoint” where the French starship captain surrendered, have a reputation for giving up.

Putting all that aside, I do not believe for one second that this was inspired by Bastille Day. It was unquestionably inspired by Kim Jong un’s display of the North Korean army. Without question. Kim Jong un, between proving North Korea’s strength with his army demonstrations while simultaneously attending the Olympics and talking about achieving peace with their neighbors, is perfectly playing the role of national leader. He displays his strength while coming across as someone who can be reasoned with. He’s got the might but doesn’t want to have to use it. This is as opposed to the idiot-in-chief, because I can tell you seriously, there have been nights where I have lost sleep cogitating on the fact that this lunatic could conceivably start World War III if “Fox and Friends” tell him that he should.

Trump wants to show Kim Jong un that the US has a powerful military. Because to this numb nut, the simple fact that we could annihilate the entire world something like ten times over is insufficient. In terms of nuclear weapons, the only ones who have more are the Russians. So if they can annihilate the world fifteen times over, we’re supposed to compete with that? Isn’t having enough nukes to obliterate the world once over enough? But no, not Trump. Whereas previous presidents have, since the 1970s, supported the concept of reducing the world’s nuclear weapons, Trump wants to “update” it. Because apparently the weapons that annihilated Hiroshima and Nagasaki are out of date.

3). Screw it, just shut it down.. Trump is totally fine with the concept of the government shutting down. Why? Because he undoubtedly plans to blame it entirely on the Democrats. He figures that he can spend his entire days tweeting about how the GOP was willing to play ball but the Democrats want to protect the rights of foreigners to stay in this country. Yet as of Thursday night, who was singlehandedly delaying up the vote? Rand Paul. Wonder how he’ll spin it if one of his own screws things up for him.

Did he do anything right? Do you even have to ask?

PAD

They Keep Killing Glenn

https://www.peterdavid.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Glenns-Hostage-Video-small.mp4

Watch the short film above. Then come back here.

Done? Okay, good. So you know that because we literally don’t have anything better to do, we are putting together an anthology entitled “They Keep Killing Glenn.” Glenn has cheerfully agreed to go along with this, so now it’s just a matter of putting the damned thing together.

Now, you may wonder who’s going to be contributing to this thing. The answer is twofold. First, you can count on all the usual idiots from Crazy 8 Press to kill Glenn in all manner of interesting ways.

Secondly, three names: Stephen King. Neil Gaiman. David Gerrold.

I’ve written to all three of them and none of them replied.

So we’re moving on to the B-list, which is pretty much every other writer out there.

If you are a writer–and by that I mean you’ve had something published that you were paid for–then you are welcome to contribute. Here’s how you do it:

1) Write to my co-editor, Kathleen, on this: t.k.k.glenn@gmail.com.

2) Pitch your method of how you plan to dispatch him. We don’t want to have overlaps.

These are the current means we have of killing Glenn that already are good to go: Drag queen; electricity; comic book boxes; elevator shaft; straight up poison; Sherlock Holmes; defenestration; killed at college; killed at a convention, poker game, comet, stack of books, Groundhog Day, time travel, Garrote, Tesla (person not the car).

Now, you may be wondering how we’re going to pay for this sucker. Where, you wonder, is the inevitable Kickstarter program?

Not gonna do that this time. It was only a year ago that I came to the fans, hat in hand, asking for money to get me out of my snarl with the IRS, and you guys came through.

So not on this occasion. Let’s just say that I will have sufficient money in my pocket to cover the payments and publishing costs.

What are the payments? We are looking for stories from 3000 to 5000 words, for which you will get a princely .04 cents a word.

As of this point, “They Keep Killing Glenn” will make its publishing debut at the Shore Leave convention in July. So if you want to come on board, your story must be delivered by March 31.

Get writing.

PAD

(Get help for me. Please. —GH)

I have a pitch for a TV series—four page proposal and a s...

I have a pitch for a TV series—four page proposal and a script for the pilot—and no one to get it out there. If you’re an agent and like my work, contact me at padguy@aol.com. Thanks.

Super Bowl Live Blog

Welcome all. As in previous years, I will be watching the Super Bowl starting at 6 PM and will comment on the commercials. I might also comment on the game if it starts getting interesting, but we’ll see. Kath and I really don’t have a stake in this game: We don’t like either team. If a jet crash landed on them, we’d be fine with that. As for the half time show, I still think Justin Timberlake will have Janet Jackson as a guest. We will see.

6:00–Could someone tell me who the hell is singing?

6:04–Insurance? Really?! Great commercial until I saw what it was for

6:07–The Eagles are hungry and not just for a cheese steak. Okay, that’s funny.

6:11–Kraft: Un, no, please don’t.

US Bank: Aww, the doggie got nice place to live.

Merdes Benz–Okay that was funny.

6:13–Pizza Hut: I just saw Terrell Owens bowling on ESPN just a few hours ago. He’s not bad, although inconsistent.

6:22–McDONALDS: Guilty admission: I love the grand Big Macs. They remind me of how Macs seemed to me when I was a kid. I have to swing by McDonalds this week if those are back.

6:28–JURASSIC WORLD sequel. I am so freaking there. I have a real softness for those films, even though half of them suck.

5:42–TOYOTA–Wow. That’s one of the best car commercials I’ve ever seen.

VERIZON–I now have a new greatest fear: having robots laughing at me and saying I’m an idiot.

6:45–SOLO. Wow, and that was just the teaser trailer. Full trailer tomorrow. I’ll be there.

TURKISH AIRLINES: Eh. Still don’t care to fly to Turkey.

RISE: Well I’m not sure what that’s about, but if it’s from the producers of “Hamilton,” I’m definitely going to check it out.

6:53–M&Ms: Okay that was the greatest M&M commercial I’ve ever seen. I’ve never realized how much Danny DeVito looks like an M&M.

7:00–RAM: I hate this “full story stuff.” Can’t a commercial just be thirty or sixty seconds and that’s that?

WENDY: Now THAT was funny. Conflating McD’s with a historical disaster. It was a stretch but somehow it worked.

7:03=–CASTLE ROCK: Well, obviously if it’s a Stephen King project, I’m in.

NBC: All right, all right, I’ll watch the Olympics! Enough already!

7:09–DORITOS AND MOUNTAIN DEW: I’m not remotely sure what the hell I just saw: Morgan Freeman and Peter Dinklage lip synching to promote snack food. Okay.

SKYSCRAPER: If this movie were made twenty years ago, it would have starred Bruce Willis.

7:16–BUD LIGHT: I don’t drink so I’m not remotely interested in Bud Light, but that was certainly a seriously overproduced commercial. You could have made a whole indy film with the commercial’s budget.

MISSIOIN IMPOSSIBLE: Tom Cruise attempts to make up for “The Mummy.” He’s got a long way to go for that.

7:20–ROCKET MORTGAGE: So he was the anger translator, but actually he was a life translator.

AVOCADOS: I have no idea what just happened.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX: Just when you thought it had been milked to death, now it’s on Netflix. Jesus.

7:25–DIET COKE: How in God’s name was that supposed to encourage you to drink Diet Coke?

TIDE: Now THAT was funny.

WEATHER TECH: Wonder if the company owners are Trump supporters.

7:32–PRINGLES: I feel sorry for Kevin. As for me, I don’t understand the obsession with giving chips flavor. Can’t they just have them taste like chips.

ULTRA: Captain America the extra. Cute.

7:44–SQUARESPACE: Was that Keanu Reeves in a commercial?

RAM: Seriously? You use an MLK speech to sell your car? That is pretty freaking stupid. Plus almost everyone in the commercial was white. Jesus.

7:55–DUNDEE: I’ve been wondering what the hell that fake trailer flowing around on Youtube was. Worth it for the quick cameo of Paul Hogan.

PERSIL: TV dude should have been British. Then the commercial would have worked.

GOOD GIRLS: I thought that was a movie. It’s a TV series? Not sure about that.

8:04–Wow. That was a hell of a play.

8:11–YELLOW TAIL WINE: EH.

8:17–TOYOTA: GREAT commercial, but seriously: How could you not have them all walk into a bar?

8:18: PEPSI. Still prefer Coke.

8:35: My computer decided to screw around with me and it’s taken a few minutes to sort it out.

8:36: THE VOICE. Cute commercial. Still have no interest in the show.

OPTIMUM; You lost me Starz, you jackasses.

8:47–LEXUS: Damn, I am so sick of car commercials that have nothing to do with the films. It’s not as bad as the Star Wars one, but still.

BUDWEISER: VERY nice, Budweiser. Very nice. Granted, it’s better if you don’t boast about something you did that was positive, but on the other hand, I guess you can blow your own horn if you want.

9:00–WRANGLER: Now THAT was a great use of a car in a movie. Top notch.

WESTWORLD: I have GOT to catch up with that series.

9:03–STINGER: I’m indifferent about the car, but Steve Tyler came to my daughter Shana’s college graduation. We have a picture of her hugging him.

9:12–AVENGERS. This movie is going to ROCK.

T-MOBILE. “Some people may see your differences and be threatened by them.” The problem is when one of them is running the country.

JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR: Yeah, we’ll be watching.

9:22–Did anybody outside of the New York try-state area see that great “Dirty Dancing” commercial with Eli Manning and Odell Beckham?

9:26–MONSTER; Huh?

ULTRA: Eh. Seemed like a lot of similar commercials that were done better.

GROUPON: Cute.

9:38–ALEXA: That almost makes me want to go get an Alexa.

9:46–COKE: Since I can’t really drink Coke, there isn’t one for me.

UNIVERSAL: Remind me never to go on vacation wity Peyton Manning.]

9:52–HYUNDAI: Yet another company doing something nice and then getting press about it, but what can you do?

10:06==STELLER ARTOIS: Help us do good by buying our product.

TIDE–The Tide commercials haven’t been at all offensive. This evening, that’s a good thing to say about them.

10:15–God, this is an exciting game.

10:15–Please don’t let this get into overtime.

10:16–Thank you and good night.

Freak Out Friday – February 2, 2018

It is pretty impressive that in a week where you would think all focus would have been on the State of the Union address, Trump and his cronies have actually managed to distract from it by attempting to delegitimize the people who may well bring Trump down.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: If the GOP had had this mindset back in the 1970s, Nixon would have finished his second term with no problem.

Imagine if Nixon had adopted Trump’s tactics from the very beginning. Dismissing the Washington Post or the New York Times as failing and fake news. Finding whatever dirt he could on Senator Sam Ervin to prove that the investigations were illegitimate and part of a long-time grudge against Nixon. The Supreme Court ordered him to turn over the tapes, the existence of which John Dean revealed in testimony. Nixon would have just continued to deny the tapes ever existed and then immediately burned them. Easy peasy.

But it’s 40+ decades since that time, and both the GOP and the presidency have devolved into something that the 1970s version would never have recognized.

1). STATE OF THE UNIOM. Trump’s address was pretty much what every non-Trump lover expected it to be. A string of lies and exaggerations, with the Democrats reacting in pretty much the exact same way that the GOP acted when Obama would give the same speech. Except for omitting his favorite two word phrase, Fake News, from the speech, he lived down to expectations. He made a sideswipe at Football. He repeatedly applauded himself. He stood there and claimed that his and Congress’ job was to serve the people even though he is a self-absorbed, egotistical narcissist. He declared “Americans are dreamers” in the same way that white supremacists declare “white lives matter,” attempting to undercut a movement by broadening it so that it becomes irrelevant. And he reiterated his attempt to hold Dreamers hostage by forcing Congress to cough up $25 billion to build his idiotic wall…a project that the majority of Americans polled don’t want.

And afterwards, the rating-obsessed Trump declared that his speech, watched by 46 million people, was the most viewed speech in history. No. Obama had more. Clinton had more. But the fact that the Nielsen company flat out stated that this was a lie will likely not prevent him from saying it in the future. Because for Trump, the truth doesn’t exist; only his opinion and self-aggrandizing words matter.

2). THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INSTIGATORS. One almost has to admire the obscene lengths that Trump’s GOP is willing to go to to protect him. While the 1970s GOP was aware that Nixon was up to no good and was willing to hold him to the high standard of the office, the 21st Century GOP is willing to fall in line and do whatever is necessary to keep him in office. I suppose the one I’m most contemptuous of is Ted Cruz, considering Trump insulted his wife and accused his father of being involved in the JFK assassination.

And so Cruz et al are overseeing the release of a memo that ostensibly “proves” that the FBI have it out for Trump. It’s an obvious technique: They know that Trump is going to be proven to have been involved with Russia, and so are trying to show that anything they come up with can be easily dismissed. The reasoning is that if the source is tainted, then so is everything they could present. Both the FBI and the Justice Department have stated that the memo contained falsehoods and distortions, but that’s not stopping Trump’s people. Because they are aware that both the average American citizen and pretty much all of Trump’s supporters don’t care about much of anything except headlines. If they are told that the FBI and the Justice Department are out to get Trump, that is absolutely all they will care about. They won’t read beyond that to learn that the memo proves nothing. They won’t care when proof of Trump’s actions is presented because they will dismiss it as manufactured by people who have a reason to bring him down. No one ever questioned the motives of those pursuing Watergate; today’s mindset would have made the entire confrontation a case of “Who do you believe?” with the assumption of innocence being given to the president.

Part of me looks at the 1950s and the government-led search for Communists that destroyed so many lives, and I take satisfaction in how far we’ve come since those days. I also look at how far we’ve come from Watergate, and take no satisfaction in it at all.

PAD

The State of the Uniom, 2018

Welcome, friends. It’s been a year of Trump’s idiocy. A year of watching the Republican party provide excuses and free passes for all that he has done. They have proven beyond any question that they are interested in one thing and one thing only: Power. Trump is obstructing justice as baldly as Nixon did, but instead of being determined to find the truth, the GOP is trying to come up with means of diminishing the FBI. Idiots.

I will say right now that if you are expecting this coverage to be unbiased: No.

I’m watching on CNN. At the moment everyone is milling around and wondering if Trump will go off script. That would be interesting.

Feel free to sound off with your own comments. That way I know someone is reading this.

9:07: Sheeh. What the hell happened to his hair? It’s a lighter shade and incredibly flat. It’s like he’s completely bald and they put a hair helmet on his head.

9:08: I’m wondering if someone will shout “Liar!” There will likely be enough openings to do so.

9:09: Christ, this speech is supposed to be an hour long. I’m going to want to shower my brain.

9:09: Ryan stumbled over the word “Presenting.” It sounded like he almost said “preventing.”

9:11: A clear vision? Is that why his people constantly contradict him?

9:12: I wonder if he asked Ashleigh if she voted for him.

9:14: Yes, we’ve seen all these things. We’ve also seen Trump throwing paper towels at the Puerto Ricans and then insulting their leaders.

9:15: “And since he was shot, I have done everything I can to make guns unavailable to shooters. Oh, wait. No I haven’t”

9:17: And the majority of the people advocate gun control. So you should be making it a top priority if you want to represent them.

9:18: But are we strong enough to survive Trump?

9:19: Yes, these figures are correct. But the jobs have been rising for the past 75 months. Things are still improving because of all that Obama did, not what Trump did.

9:20: Tax cuts that tremendously benefit Trump and the one percent.

9:22: Yes, it looks great for the first year. But the following years, taxes are going to start increasing and people will wind up paying more in taxes.

9:23: I have never in all my years seen a president applauding himself in a State of the Union address. Never.

9:24: Meanwhile we are going to stop giving out food and water to the people in Puerto Rico because supposedly they are becoming “dependent” on the help.

9:26: It’s nice he’s talking about jobs. Remember the Carrier factory that he swore he would save their jobs? Gone.

9:27: That’s not necessarily happening. Walmart announced they were giving out bonuses but then closed a ton of stores.

9:28: Can we achieve his impeachment? Because I’m down with that.

9:29: We never lost the American way. Meanwhile “In God we Trust” was not a part of this country from its inception. It was added in the 1960s. “Under God” was added to the pledge in the 1950s.

9:31: This 12 year old kid didn’t start that. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have been putting flags on the graves of Vets in Long Island since the 1960s.

9:32: And he takes a swipe at the football players.

9:33: He wants judges who will interpret the Constitution the way that conservatives do. And he is fighting to protect religious liberty…for white Christians. And yes, fight to keep the second amendment. Screw the kids in Kentucky and the people of Vegas.

9:34: All the VA thing is a punishment for people. It doesn’t wind up providing money for the Vets.

9:36: Whoa, did you see the looks on those army guys? Boy, did they look pissed.

9:37: Why in the name of all that’s holy is eliminating regulations a GOOD THING?!

9:38: Clean coal does not exist. In the meantime he put Tariffs on the panels required for solar energy. He managed to kill solar energy which was the fastest growing means of power.

9:38: The Alabama plant was in place before Trump was in office.

9:39: I have no idea if the FDA thing is true, but I tend to doubt it.

9:40: STOP GODDAMN APPLAUDING YOURSELF.

9:41: Yes, medicine is cheaper in other countries because they have socialized medicine.

9:42: He doesn’t understand free trade. It’s that simple Economists must be tearing their hair out.

9:44: Obama actually started the infrastructure repair. And naturally the red states will benefit most of all because they have the worst infrastructure. Meanwhile he’s also trying to get rid of the studies for environmental protection. That would mean that wetlands, nature preserves, all of them could be built upon.

9:47: He’s trying to skew us back to the 1950s. America is not an industrialized society and hasn’t been for decades. He’s fighting for jobs that aren’t going to be around in a few years.

9:50: Oh…my God. He has this poor family standing to be props for his incessant determination to cast immigrants as murderers, thieves and rapists. This may well be a new low in the history of this speech.

9:52: But by all means, don’t do anything about the Second Amendment that enables murderers to have ready access to guns.

9:55: And most of the people arrested as part of MS-13 are American citizens.

9:56: Well, so much for him being undercover anymore. They just showed his face.

9:57: Pelosi looks like she’s projecting daggers out of her eyes.

9:57: No, the previous administration instituted the path for citizenship for dreamers that you wound up tossing out.

9:58: Right, the wall he said the Mexicans were going to pay for. He has once again linked the future of the dreamers to getting $25 billion for his damned wall.

10:00: Don’t we already HAVE a merit based system? And chain migration is not what he says it is. He is lying through his teeth, and I’m pretty sure I heard someone yell “No.”

10:02: Mitch McConnell looks horrified at what he’s hearing. He must be sitting there going, “What the hell am I going to do?”

10:03: Kath just told me I’ve got 444 looks at this blog. So that’s nice.

10:04: I just know that tomorrow Fox is going to claim he seemed so presidential. It’s for sure.

10:06: Boy, this cop and his wife do not look comfortable. They’ve realized he’s using them as another prop. A genuine good deed is just more grist for Trump’s mill.

10:07: Oh, China and Russia are rivals, now. Here’s the thing: they’re not. He has managed to lower our standing throughout the world as other countries realize they can move forward without the US because we have nothing to offer. And now he’s talking about more nuclear weapons even though we can wipe out the rest of the world ten times over.

10:09: Pretty sure that claim about Isis isn’t true. Anyone fact checking that?

10:10: Kath fact checked. Isis’s territory is pretty much unchanged. They had to retreat in a few areas that they had recently acquired, but that’s it.

10:11: And Justin is sitting there thinking, “If Hillary had won I wouldn’t have to be here.” He is definitely not comfortable.

10:13: Does this include the homegrown right wing terrorists? Nope.

10:14: Remember when Obama promised every year to close Gitmo? Bet Trump thinks waterboarding is cool.

10:16: And so set the stage for massive radical assault.

10:17: Christ. So he’s basically saying that if someone says we’ve done something stupid, they’re not our friends. He likely wants to shut down the UN headquarters.

10:18: He can diss corrupt dictators all he wants. But the fact of the matter is that corrupt dictators are constantly emulating Trump, dismissing reports of their horrors as “Fake News.” Dictators love Trump.

10:19: “I will not repeat the mistakes of previous administrations that have managed to avoid the world unleashing nuclear warheads.”

10:20: God, those two people have obviously been crying. Goddamn, these are people, not props.Jesus, this is a horror show.

10:22: He’s right. We are a witness to a power that could threaten the world. It’s speaking right now.

10:25: This was supposed to be an hour. It’s now an hour and ten minutes. The longest of my life.

10:28: Christ, I thought he was done.

10:28: Yes. And it doesn’t belong to you. Ever.

10:29: Yes, your job is to serve Americans. It is a task at which you have utterly failed.

10:30: Thank God. Kath was losing her mind. Looking forward to seeing the Daily Show and Colbert live programs deal with this.