Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: The Trump Tax Cuts

The simple answer to this is NO! The tax cuts were supposed to "result in a significant increase in productivity-enhancing investment which would then boost the long-term US growth path." According to a recent study, it has not, nor is it in the cards coming up.

Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: The Democrats because...

There, above, is sufficient evidence why Donald Trump must be controlled after the mid-terms. Add to that the fact he is leading this country into sure disaster. Then, he's history in 2020!

Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: Liar in Chief

To put a stop to the disgrace this man has brought on the United States.

Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: Gun Control

This country's gun culture is an example of the fact there is no meaningful candidacies for gun control next month with gun deaths escalating out of control. Thank you NRA!

Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: Donald Trump

Donald Trump

This is but one reason that Progressives and Democrats MUST take over Congress next month!

Who wins 2018 U.S. Mid-terms?: Mitch McConnell

MITCH MCCONELL

This is but one reason that Progressives and Democrats MUST take over Congress next month!

LATEST: Montreal also voting on gun ban

Montreal will vote today whether to adopt a resolution that would echo the Toronto City Council’s call for new federal gun controls. It is reported...

"Following the shooting deaths of two people in Toronto’s Greektown neighborhood by an attacker with an illegally obtained handgun in late July, the Toronto City Council adopted a resolution supporting several federal and local gun restrictions. The measure called for a nationwide ban on all handguns and semi-automatic firearms, a prohibition on the at-home possession of firearms, shuttering the remaining shooting ranges and gun clubs in Toronto, and a local ban on the sale of handguns and “handgun ammunition” within the city."

And a pathetic U.S. Congress still pees its pants because the National Rifle Assn. and Wayne LaPierre refuses to allow even any thoughts of gun legislation so they refuse to even consder a U.S. gun ban.

Guns across U.S. border spurring Canadian gun violence

Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control and a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto exclaimed, "historically in Toronto about two-thirds of handguns used in crimes came from the US." She added, "if you look at Chicago, which is the same size as Toronto, Chicago had 10 times as many gun murders last year as we did." But it's getting steadily worse in Canada and you might say there could also be a copycat effect; monkey see Americans getting away with rampant gun violence, monkey figure they can do the same in Canada. Gun nuts have no conscience nor control.

And there are more handguns in Canada today; 660,000 before 2013 to 840,000 in 2016, firearms which, by the way, require licensing.. But the reactions are exactly the opposite to gun violence in Canada from the U.S. Our cowardly morons in Congress say "Our thoughts and prayers are with you," and leave it at that. Immediately Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government proposed new legislation for stricter background checks and record controls. And Toronto City Hall is voting on a ban on handguns in city limits. Take that Wayne LaPierre and your stinkin' NRA.

"Truth isn't truth," says Rudy Giuliani

Will Don McGahn flip on Trump?

This the perfect opening for a piece on another of Donald Trump's lawyers that apparently has a wealth of information on his boss, and thinks it is something special investigator Robert Mueller should know. The article I am reading from a very reputable source is anything but clear on what Don McGahn has revealed or will talk about in the future. The implication is that Trump actually condones what McGahn is doing, urging him to testify from the beginning. Giuliani's comment about truth is, of course, his typical confusion with reality.

It is known that McGahn has "knowledge of intense encounters" with Donald Trump and his cooperation stems from earlier advice from T-rump's previous attorneys. William Burck, McGahn’s lawyer, even credits Trump with a commitment not to interfere. The problem with this is that you can never believe what Donald Trump says. And here's a good reason why...

"McGahn also told Mueller how the president tried without success to get his then staff secretary Rob Porter to warn McGahn that he could be fired if he didn’t deny the Times article that said the president ordered him to fire Mueller."

One former administration official said that Trump  "did not immediately grasp the difference between the White House lawyer and his personal lawyer" when it is in fact McGahn's "job is to protect the office of the president, not Trump the individual."

Will Catholics re-think their religion?

Let me get this straight right here. I am a firm supporter of the LGBT community; 101%! But it seems perfectly obvious to me that the priesthood must attract more than its share of gay men. And there is nothing wrong with that except, some of them are either pedophiles or turn to pedophilia later partly because of the stupid church law against priests marrying. And yet another ridiculous law that women cannot be priests. This rigid doctrine isn't working and being another firm supporter of Pope Francis, I thought something would change under his leadership. By the way, I am not a Catholic.

Sexual abuse in the Catholic church is completely out of control and with a hierarchy in place to protect the abusers, and at best just move them from one diocese to another where they continue their shenanigans, most of the time unmonitored because the new position doesn't have information on past offenses. It's like pedophilia in perpetual motion. And it isn't always gay; in many cases it involves young girls. I know that Catholics are cautioned never to question the church, and that may be worst problem right there. If there was ever a time the Catholic church should be questioned, it is now.

But who will do it?

High ranking naval officer is Trump's latest critic

Retired Adm. William McRaven

The architect of the Bin Laden assassination "issued a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump's decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan." Retired Adm. William McRaven defended former CIA Director John Brennan as "one of the finest public servants I have ever known, a man of unparalleled integrity." Donald Trump, who qualifies for none of that description, responded by threatening to yank more security clearances for all others who chastise him. McRaven volunteered to "have his own security clearance revoked in an act of solidarity."

McRaven said...

"Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency."

This is truly pathetic when coming from a top navy man who is talking about his former commander-in-chief. Other top officials and military officers said the same. Brennan put it this way...

"This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent," Brennan tweeted after the announcement.

McRaven made a parting comment about Donald Trump...

"Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation."

Good God, how much more of this can we take before this whole country implodes?

Can we turn dead malls into homeless shelters?

This is a great idea from Facebook for making use of the abandoned shopping malls around the country to give the homeless a place to live and receive decent food. The malls are there throughout the U.S., many already closed. In December 2017, CNN Money predicted 300 out of the 1,100 malls that now exist will close over five years. What happens is the anchor store closes, which brings down the smaller shops one by one until the mall becomes a ghost town. The facilities are still there like the food courts to convert to cafeterias and the stores to small apartments and business amenities.

This would require a philanthropic entrepreneur with enough money to get the job done. Maybe Warren Buffett and Bill Gates could team up and put their foundations behind something like this to solve one of this country's biggest problems, one a rich country like the USA shouldn't have. The renovation could include medical facilities, daycare for homeless mothers, financial centers for counseling and aid. There is no end to the possibilities of something that could be done about what has plagued this country for years. Think about it and let me know what you think.

More on this later.

Trump axes ex-Obama officials security clearance due to his criticism

Trump and a determined John Brennan

"Don't piss me off" should have been Donald Trump's 2016 campaign slogan. This dufus cannot tolerate criticism of any kind and retaliates for anything said or done that doesn't either promote or praise him. Check out this site where you will find a list of those who either resigned or were fired by Trump. But the security clearance thing is new and the Oval Office lunatic just revoked the security clearance for John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump said the former Obama CIA chief has displayed “erratic behavior." Translated, he spoke ill of Trump.

Sarah Sanders in delivering the latest bomb citing instances where Brennan supposedly exhibited this behavior. The media has refuted this statement with facts and Brennan commented, nothing will stop me from criticizing the Trump administration. There are several more, all of which have somehow castigated T-rump, all but one from the former Obama administration. In the same CBS news article this observation...

"Brennan has been extremely critical of the president. He called Mr. Trump's joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of the Helsinki summit last month "nothing short of treasonous."

In a tweet from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky...

"Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump ?"

And this is a Republican who apparently agrees that Trump is off the deep end, as usual. The decision to revoke the clearance came a day after Brennan, who headed the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency under Democratic President Barack Obama, leveled a blistering attack against Trump for the president’s tweeted criticism of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman...

“It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.”

Damn! That says it all! 

Trump requires NDAs, Obama didn't

Omarosa: You want me to what?

Donald Trump has required non-disclosure agreements from all of his staff, as revealed recently by former Trump campaign and White House aide Omarosa Manigault, and confirmed by Kellyanne Conway. Barack Obama did not require these same kinds of NDAs because his Associate White House Counsel Ian Bassin did not consider it within their capability to require NDAs of their employees. Just another illegal move by the master, T-rump. Re. all this, the media is asking...

"Why should we trust anything you say, when you are legally bound to say good things?"

The non-disclosure seems to center around the recent exposure of trump using the "N" word and MSNBC’s Katy Tur's recent question, above, to Trump 2020 spokesperson, Marc Lotter, who replied...

if he ever felt he was in a position that compromised his integrity, “then I wouldn’t work for that candidate any longer, and that’s just not something I’ve come across.”

Tur pressed further what if he was "appalled" at something and re-asked her question...answer: “if there was something that wrote to a criminal level,” his NDA wouldn’t prevent him from communicating with “the proper authorities.” One major publication reported...

that copies of Trump NDAs that have either been given or described to its reporters “lay out breathtakingly broad prohibitions on behavior and appear to be drawn heavily from similar contracts used in the past by the Trump Organization, the president’s family firm.”

Additionally...

signers promised not to ‘demean or disparage publicly’ Trump, his company or any member of his family — and also not to assist any other politician exploring a federal or state office and barred signers from sharing any information they had learned in the building,  

It would appear to almost any literate person--this of course doesn't include Trump supporters--that Donald Trump has an awful lot to hide. 

Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker a model of Karl Rove scare tactics

GOP portrayal of Democrats

You can trace Karl Rove's back-hand connivances to the George W. Bush administration with every known use of lies and dirty tricks known to the political world. He was still doing it in the 2016 New Hampshire race threatening Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte's opposition. She lost. Wisconsin's Republican Gov, Scott Walker is basically mirroring Rove in his current campaign saying things like...

“Those other things — health care, education — none of that matters unless you’re safe.” then he adds, if Democrats win, you and your family are in danger. Democrats want to let violent criminals back onto the street.

One reporter commented...

"If you were to distill the prevailing Republican campaign message for the 2018 midterm elections to one image, it would be this: a hooded figure in the shadows, machete (or knife or bladed fingers) in hand, waiting to pounce if the wrong candidate wins.

Life is a horror movie and it’s Democrats behind the hockey mask. Vote Republican."

The mostly white and uneducated supporters of Donald Trump eat this shit up with words like “Kill, Rape, Control” and absorb it like the gospel. The Republican no holds barred campaign has even added...

"Kathy Griffin holding the decapitated head of a mock Donald Trump doll, limousines burning in the street. Snoop Dogg literally shoots a Trump impersonator at the end."

Sure looks like to me the GOP is running scared. 

GUN CONTROL: Political gamble Dems must take

Students like these started it all

A confused and uninformed public has welcomed gun rights political candidates for years, but after the recent wave of shootings, has apparently at least somewhat come to their senses. Let's see now, they muse, which is best, the right of a gun nut to carry his weapons anywhere he or she wishes, or the right of innocent individuals, especially children, to live? Even the lowest double-digit IQ should have chosen the latter, but National Rifle Assn. head Wayne LaPierre has drummed the rights of these ringed-nose followers and the sacredness of the 2nd Amendment into the public for years now.

The new trend becomes obvious with the rash of mass shootings, including the killing of 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida six months ago. Here's an example of one candidate's message, Philip Levine, in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary...

“I’m running for governor because I’m a parent who will not stop at anything until we make our gun laws stronger and our children safe.”

To illustrate the difference in attitudes, the number of political candidate ads for gun control has risen from only 559 in 2014 to 18,416 in 2018, a phenomenal jump that would indicate that these contenders are no longer running scared of the NRA. In the races covered there were 57,500 anti-gun-control spots so far, mostly by Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats are picking the gun rights candidates to oppose, although that branch still leans toward gun control opposition. Two-thirds of the American public now wants stronger gun control, and with a Democratic Congress, who knows.

QAnon's strange beginnings

Ever heard of the 4chan site? I hadn't either until I also heard of QAnon, which came up in some research I was doing on Alex Jones. It is described as being "one of the most extreme message boards on the internet," and after viewing it, I would agree, but also adding, downright weird. You can post messages to its board. and people reply like any other social media site, except half of what I read I don't understand but then, I didn't really spend the time. It all started with a small-time YouTube video creator and two moderators of the 4chan website who...

"banded together and plucked out of obscurity an anonymous and cryptic post from the many conspiracy theories that populated the website's [4chan] message board."

They ended up with...

"a Reddit community, a business and an entire mythology based off the 4chan posts of 'Q,' the pseudonym of a person claiming to be a high-ranking military officer."

Some think the mysterious three are doing it just for money, but others believe they are really "Q." Here is another viewpoint...

"QAnon is a convoluted conspiracy theory with no apparent foundation in reality. The heart of it asserts that for the last year the anonymous “Q” has taken to the fringe internet message boards of 4chan and 8chan to leak intelligence about Trump’s top-secret war with a cabal of criminals run by politicians like Hillary Clinton and the Hollywood elite. There is no evidence for these claims."

Read the rest of the NBC coverage here. It looks like one more of those conspiracy theories that you must decide, do I just dump it or take it for what it's worth and make it what I want to? This one does look like it could have longevity. 

Even more on QAnon and 4chan tomorrow

Tomorrow I will share some research I've done on the 4chan site which is responsible for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey snubs gun control again

Doug Ducey, Governor of Arizona, isn't the brightest politician in the pack, and he has been considered a worse governor than Jan Brewer, if that's possible, but he made a recent move that may just cost him even more votes in November, based on recent progressive moves in Arizona. The liberals are waking up here, tired of living under the conservative mantle of a bunch of gun nuts who love their firearms more than they do the lives of their children. My gut would tell me these are the same people who drown their kids daily in backyard pools.

Ducey was invited to debate gun violence and school safety at a town hall invitation from March for Our Lives Arizona. All other gubernatorial candidates will be there. Jordan Harb, March for Our Lives Arizona director said...

"Ken Bennett [GOP candidate] clearly does not agree with anything we propose, yet he is still willing to have this conversation with our community. I think, ultimately, this shows how much of a coward Doug Ducey is."

Well, we knew how dumb our governor was, now we confirmed that he is a coward. Not sure if this is the way Harb meant it, but Ducey's cowardice stems from his connection to the National Rifle Assn. who heartily endorsed him in his 2014 run for the office. The Arizona gun nuts took it from there and helped put him in the Gov's seat. The question is, as November draws closer, and the NRA slides further into oblivion when it comes to their power, will Ducey, plus the rest of the gun nut candidates across the U.S., abandon the group for greener pastures, which really aren't there.

Is the Conspiracy theory QAnon's explosion on Internet out of control?

This question of 'who is Q" cannot be answered until we know what QAnon is, and so far that is a mystery that only Q knows. As one reporter commented, since it, “first crawled out of the Internet’s churning goo, the theory has metastasised.” In its gooey slime, it has added Donald Trump to the conundrum. Q followers, who call themselves bakers, follow a path of conspiracy theories called "breadcrumbs," basically believing "the US government has been secretly investigating Democrats and the Justice Department will soon reveal compromising information about Hillary Clinton."

The above, alone, would surely seem to associate QAnon with Donald Trump and his attacks on the Democratic establishment. The whole thing got its start on "the 4chan internet forum titled “Calm Before the Storm.” The page link here has a video of a follower that amassed a lot of information if you are willing to spend an hour with it. The narrator emphasizes that QAnon is neither religious nor political and has its followers such as Rosanne Barr and Curt Schilling. At Trump's Florida rally, signs read  “We are Q,” another “WHERE WE GO ONE WE GO ALL.”

Sarah Sanders commented...

“The president condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual and certainly doesn't support groups that would promote that type of behavior.”

It's hard to tell if she knows something we don't or this is just another of her air-head statements.

In Arizona, the home of conspiracy theories, Q falsely claimed an abandoned homeless encampment in Tucson was a child sex trafficking camp even after local authorities investigated and found no evidence to support the claim. Another incident, unexplained, in June, an armed Q follower blocked an entrance to the Hoover Dam with his vehicle. But this statement from a NY Times reporter tops them all, commenting on conspiracy theories that are usually about evil cabals manipulating world events...

QAnon, by contrast, “is a conspiracy theory in which the good guys - in this case, Trump and his allies - are in charge."

 Michelle Goldberg should just go back under her rock.

There will be more on QAnon.

NRA "mission" a blatant oxymoron

The mission of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), whether they want to admit it or not, most likely not, is to put as many guns on the street as possible. They can deny this all they want, but over the years it has been clearly established that Wayne LaPierre's NRA works for gun manufacturer's not its 5 million or so membership. These poor slobs eat up LaPierre's rhetoric, passing it around like facts, which most aren't, while gun makers drool over profits. Their stated mission is to protect the 2nd Amendment and the rights of gun nuts. Simply analyzed, it is a glaring oxymoron.

They just filed a claim in New York against Governor Andrew Cuomo that his "blacklisting" is "jeopardizing" their mission. No doubt they did not define their mission as "to put as many guns on the street as possible," which would seem to me to invalidate the charges to begin with. If they chose that flowery crap about the 2nd Amendment, although this may be true, it is not the real meaning about their existence. It is to sell more and more guns and LaPierre and the NRA will never be satisfied until every house in America is armed from a handgun to an AR-15. God help us!

You'll see more on QAnon tomorrow

It seems appropriate to cover this mysterious subject more since there are so many connections between it and Donald Trump, and I do that in my first blog post tomorrow. I would like to see your comments.

Gun nuts take hit on "Stand Your Ground" law

Stand Your Ground is without a doubt one of the stupidest laws to ever be passed in this country, thanks to Florida's Marion Hammer, top National Rifle Assn. lobbyist. First it was Trayvon Martin killed by George Zimmerman in 2012, who eventually got off scot-free, but since has experienced a number of personal problems as a result. This time Michael Drejka, 47, didn't get away with it with the killing of another black man, Markeis McGlockton in Clearwater, Florida. McGlockton, 28, was shot and killed on July 19, after shoving Drejka to the ground at a convenience store.

Drejka invoked the Stand Your Ground law, the sheriff refused to arrest him on that basis of the law, but Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pinellas County, decided to file charges based on the exact same investigation sheriff Bob Gualtieri had collected but did not file charges. Good 'ole boy vs. finally some common sense in Florida. So, another NRA creation for the purpose of protecting the gun nut over the innocent public from gun violence suffers a setback. It is prime time for the public to understand that the only way to stop this daily rampage of bloodshed is to get rid of the NRA.

Most agree Medicare for All is NOW

FactCheck.org has probed the recent study published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University that says the "Medicare-for-all plan laid out by Bernie Sanders will save American people $2 trillion over a 10-year period. The author of the study, Charles Blahous, says 'wait a minute, maybe I didn't say that.' First of all, I have to tell you that Blahous' paper was sponsored by the Koch Bros., who contribute heavily to George Mason U. And Bernie's $2 trillion savings have a lot to do with his projected savings on medical care and prescriptions that seem to me perfectly logical.

Blahous doesn't disagree with Sanders, just prefers to believe his figures instead, which are less optimistic. Bernie counters with, of course Medicare for all will cost more overall but with its collective savings in purchasing power, plus cutting back on health care needs by helping those who need it, resulting in more general wellness. As before, Sanders presents other major companies who do have universal health care like Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, plus several more smaller and even third-world countries.

The real question is, one Bernie Sanders has been asking for years, is, can we really afford not to have UHC in such a rich country like the U.S., especially when you see so many homeless on the streets, many of which are suffering from mental illness?

Jim Carey will cast Trump/Giulianiin in Dumb and Dumber 3

I can see us now-Maybe even a new star on the "Walk"

Jim Carey, of Bruce Almighty, and the Dumb and Dumber series, just released his latest work of art depicting Donald Trump crucifying Jesus Christ, whom Trump would have us believe was a loser simply because he failed as a carpenter. This is a hobby of Carey that I would like to think he picked up because he loathes Donald Trump as does most of rest of the sane individuals in this country. Re-casting Dumb and Dumber 3 is my idea, but one that has merit because my suggestion for new characters has enormous promotional possibilities. 

Donald Trump and Rudy Giulianiin are the most gullible publicity mongrels on the planet today, and both of them probably just dumb enough to accept the parts. Trump expresses his stupidity on a daily basis but Giulianiin's latest resulted in CNN's assessment of him demonstrating that maybe “lawyer to the president” isn’t the best job for him. After denying making a comment on the Michael Flynn/James Comey "take it easy" request, James Tapper played the tape of Giulianiin clearly saying it. He then turned to obstruction of justice to try and change the subject, most points also wrong.

How this moron ever ran the city of New York completely amazes me, and he must have had one hell of a support team that did most of the work on the 9/11 disaster.