Category Archives: National

The GOP are all Trump-heads now

National, Uncategorized, ,

trump-falls-3

A poll conducted by Politico/Morning Consult allowed respondents to view the  lewd “Access Hollywood” video and Trump’s subsequent “apology.”

Those who took the poll rated their reactions to the clip on a scale from zero (very negative) to ten (positive) and a 74-percent majority had a negative reaction. However, other findings are unsettling but probably not surprising.

As of now, GOP voters largely want the party to stand behind Trump. Nearly three-quarters of Republican voters, 74 percent, surveyed on Saturday said party officials should continue to support Trump. Only 13 percent think the party shouldn’t back him.

Well, Trump knows he solidly captured the GOP base and did so early on. I am thinking back to his remark from back in January: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

The Washington Post broke the story!

NBC News had access to the Trump Access Hollywood tape for four days last week but due to legal  hemming and hawing it was finally scooped by The Washington Post. The Post moved quickly and took just five hours to vet the tape and decide to make it available to the public.

It is worth recalling that months ago a vengeful Trump took away The Washington Post’s campaign press credentials,  banning the newspaper’s staff from his campaign events. In June, Post executive editor Marty Baron wrote this: “Donald Trump’s decision to revoke The Washington Post‘s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press,”

Shortly afterward blogger Charlie Pierce wisely noted what this meant for Trump:

“ […] See, in my experience, this is how Marty Baron tells someone that they f*cked with the wrong executive editor.”

Pierce suggested helpfully that it might aid Trump’s understanding of the gravity of what he had done for him to  visit disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law “[…]  at the Basilica of Our Lady Of The Clean Getaway in Rome” [also see the movie Spotlight].

Howard Dean “twitters” and Sanders puts on his traveling shoes

National, , ,

Now just suppose that back at the most contentious part of the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders someone had asked who might eventually be a more effective campaigner for Clinton: Howard Dean or Senator Bernie Sanders. Would anyone have said or guessed Sanders?

Well former Vermont Governor Dean tweeted the week away following a post-debate twitter comment insinuating that Donald Trump might have a cocaine problem. donaldcoke At first he seemed to double down on his remark, until on Friday in more tweets he backed off a bit. I’ve got to side with what David Axelrod tweeted about Dean’s tweet “I love it, but this is nuts”.

Meanwhile Bernie Sanders is preparing to hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, hoping to draw large crowds in Iowa and Minnesota. togethercs

A spokesperson said: Sanders hopes to reach a broad audience, including young people, working families and people involved in the labor movement. […] his message: People need to get out and vote for Clinton because either she or Donald Trump will be president and the stakes are too high to vote for a third-party candidate.

“We’re going to go wherever Secretary Clinton’s people think that I am needed,” Sanders said on MSNBC. “And I am going to work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become the next president.”

So you have to wonder who is helping more to defeat Trump and elect Hillary, the former head of the DNC, Howard Dean or the “self-avowed socialist” Senator Sanders.

Mike Pence wants to channel Dick Cheney

National, , ,

As if Trump alone wasn’t bad enough, his running mate, hardcore conservative Mike Pence shared his thoughts on what kind of vice president he would like to be. If the unthinkable happens and they are elected, Indiana’s’ governor and former congressman apparently wants to be another Dick Cheney. He recently expressed his deep admiration for George W. Bush’s former vice President.

Said Pence: “I frankly hold Dick Cheney in really high regard in his role as vice president and as an American.”

Dick Cheney’s approval ratings have improved since he left office in 2010 but at the end of his eight years as VP he had “earned” a shockingly low 13% approval rating. He accomplished this feat in a variety of ways, not the least of which was seizing the  lead role in deceiving the country into the disastrous war in Iraq, expanding government monitoring of US citizen phone calls, and supporting torture. Some international war crimes experts now recommend Cheney (and his former boss George Bush) should be charged and tried for war crimes.

The conservative record that Pence established in Indiana has failed to get much attention with running mate Trump dominating the daily election news. An article in Rollcall.com spotlights some of his controversial efforts, including one that his hero Darth Cheney would just love. Governor Pence established an official state of Indiana news bureau — to be called “JustIN” – overseen by his administration, and to hire a “managing editor” to assist in the production of “news stories.”  Despite quickly abandoning the plan, Pence’s project set the media world ablaze, and drew comparisons to government-backed news outlets in communist countries.

Trump is supposed to have kind of a short attention span, and may want a VP to handle the “details.” But it seems unlikely, if elected president, that he would allow VP Pence to wield as much power as Cheney did — I doubt the Donald would share center stage that much. But it remains alarming (though not surprising) that ultra-conservative Pence would journey to the dark side and channel Darth Cheney’s spirit  as a role model.

The VTGOP is hair today

local/regional, National, , , ,

It’s “all business in the front and party in the back” that’s a description of the classic mullet hair cut,famous in the 1970’s and 80’s, infamous by the 1990’s. And now with 20,000  votes for Trump  in the primary the Vermont Republicans needed a general election strategy to cope with Trump for President in a blue state. So,by intent, or by accident the VTGOP has styled itself a political “mullet”cut.vtgopelephaint1

At the presentable front of the “mullet”, gubernatorial candidate Phil Scott has denounced Trump and pledged to write in Jim Douglas for president rather than the party nominee (Scott picked the “Donald Duck for President” ploy). So he isn’t brave enough to totally disown Trump’s deplorable basket of views and  vote for Clinton, as many well known national Republicans are doing.

Randy Brock, the VTGOP candidate for Lt. Governor had supported John Kasich for President and denounced Donald Trump, but as far as I know, remains mostly mum on a write-in Douglas presidential vote — or one for Clinton.

Meanwhile on the backside of the VTGOP “mullet” you can find caucus leader Don Turner in the Vermont House of Representatives joining other Vermont Trump supporters, including Darcie Johnston (Johnston ran Randy Brock’s 2012 gubernatorial campaign). Turner boldly declares: “I am not afraid to say that I’m going to vote for Donald Trump,”  He does add the thoroughly meaningless comment that he will not endorse Trump for president. So,Don Turner isn’t afraid to vote for him, but curiously is afraid of endorsing the man.

So, “Dude! Check out the VTGOP’s hair style! Equivocation in the front, Trump supporters in the back!!” Or maybe it’s not a mullet at all, just a bad GOP comb over.

And coming next week: birtherism goes local: Was Phil Scott born in Vermont? Of course I am not endorsing this ridiculous question, but since people are talking and questions are being asked …!

Bernie makes a binary pitch

National, , ,

Senator Bernie Sanders had a busy Labor Day in New Hampshire. The campaign visit to Vermont’s upside down doppelganger is the first since his big win over Hillary Clinton in the early spring primary. On this trip he headlined three rallies to support Clinton for president, including a Labor Day breakfast sponsored by the AFL-CIO. upRdown

Sanders expressed support for, and urged supporters to cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. “We are talking about which candidate will better represent the needs of the American people.”

He stressed the points of agreement with Clinton but made it clear what the stakes are. “I am not the world’s most partisan person,” he said. “But the truth is, if you look at Donald Trump’s record, what you find is that this guy is a pathological liar.”

Clinton, he said, “is the superior candidate, hands down.”

Speaking prior to Sanders at the breakfast event, Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen reminded voters about New Hampshire’s recent history with third party presidential candidates: “What happened in 2000 is Al Gore lost New Hampshire by about 7,000 votes, and 19,000 people voted for Ralph Nader,” she said. “And we got George W. Bush, and we got the war in Iraq.”

Shaheen translation:  “You can’t bet half a cigarette. If you break it in half, you don’t get two nickels, you get shit.”

Some random Labor Day stuff with an old cartoon

Business, National, ,

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[Note: the guy is leading with a left] 1919: 150,000 coal miners strike for higher wages, better working conditions, and recognition of United Mine Workers of America.
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. In Vermont, 1895 there were Labor Day parades and celebrations in Barre and Montpelier. After speeches in Montpelier the Barre baseball team defeated National Life, 11-7. The machinists defeated the stone cutters, 13-12.

 

Some misc. 2016 labor statistics:

16.4 million The number of wage and salary workers age 16 and over represented by a union in 2015. This group included both union members (14.8 million) and workers who reported no union affiliation but whose jobs were covered by a union contract (1.6 million). Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (24.7 percent), and South Carolina had the lowest rate (2.1 percent).

108.0% The projected percentage growth from 2014 to 2024 in the number of wind turbine service technicians (4,400 jobs in 2014), the projected fastest-growing occupation. Meanwhile, the occupation expected to add the greatest number of positions over this period is personal care aides (458,100).

6.3 millionThe number of commuters who left for work between midnight and 4:59 a.m. in 2014. They represented 4.5 percent of all commuters. The most common time was between 7 a.m. and 7:29 a.m. – with 20.6 million commuters.

26.0 minutes The average time it took workers in the U.S. to commute to work in 2014. New York (32.6 minutes) and Maryland (32.3 minutes) had the most time-consuming commutes.

And does anyone remember back when Labor Day was considered the traditional  start of the presidential campaign season?

Nobody does it better.

National,

In case you’ve missed it, Garrison Keiller has just taken Donald Trump to the woodshed as only he could.

In an open letter appearing on the op-ed pages of many American papers (including, I am happy to report, the St. Albans Messenger) America’s Grandpa has penned the ultimate response to Donald Trump’s public year of personal bad behavior.

A sample:

“You are in the old tradition of locker room ranting and big honkers in the steam room, sitting naked, talking man talk, griping about the goons and ginks and lousy workmanship and the uppity broads and the great lays and how you vanquished your enemies at the bank”

Like a modern day Mark Twain, Garrison Keillor, older than dirt and considerably wiser than the spoiled septuagenarian man/child he lampoons, has brought his unique perspective to a presidential race that has been too long on sensation and too short on self-awareness.

His letter is destined to be one of the great literary relics of our political times, a highlighted footnote to the report card on twenty-first century U.S.-style democracy that I am sure we have coming to us in the not-so-distant future.

Monster slugs are devouring defenseless baby birds in nests

National, Uncategorized, , ,

slug.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smartThat’s right, it is the month’s best (mostly) non-political headline!

It seems a certain type of slug has been found to be preying on young chicks of ground nesting birds in Europe. “The actual moment of slugs predating on nestlings isn’t easy to observe,” says Katarzyna Turzańska at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. “You are more likely to come across the traces of the ‘tragedy’: dead or alive nestlings with heavy injuries, covered in slime – and often slugs’ droppings found nearby.”

Scientists say this is an unusual but not unheard of behavior among slugs. Studies have recorded similar events before, and of course scientists observe that slugs do leave a slimy trail. “When a slug finds itself inside a nest – probably accidentally, or maybe by actively searching for this type of food – it just starts foraging on the living nestlings using its radula, or tongue covered in tiny teeth,” says Turzańska. “The nestlings are unable to defend themselves and are eaten alive.”Trumpslug

Luckily the resemblance Donald Trump’s hair and a slug-like caterpillar share was already made years ago, so it wasn’t toooo  big a stretch of the imagination to make a connection to this wildlife behavior. Notice that the tactics Trump used to take over and dominate the GOP presidential primary election are remarkably similar to those employed by the predatory slug for devouring ground-nesting chicks.

While in the GOP primary, accidentally, or maybe  actively searching them out, Trump was able to “devour” 16 rival Republican candidates. These were the GOP “nestlings” Christie, Rubio and all the others he defeated, who are now dead politically or alive  with heavy injuries – left covered in “slime.”

And if you need more evidence, look at the trail Donald Trump leaves behind – he is the alpha slug of the GOP.

“Well, I’ll eat my hat ! It’s Donald Trump.”

National, , ,

Donald Trump along with a small squad of body guards and plenty of cameras visited an ongoing Louisiana flood relief effort the other day. He actually handed out a box of food (and Play-Doh) to victims…reports are Trump was at this “tough” compassionate task for all of 49 seconds.

His visit came despite the governor suggesting he not visit the relief effort.

“We welcome him to LA but not for a photo-op. Instead we hope he’ll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of the storm.”

He also autographed some “Make America Great Again” hats for the hungry.

Trump’s recent twitter insults compiled

National, ,

It is the Wrath of Donald in 140 characters.

The New York Times compiled and has now updated a list of hundreds of people, places, and things Donald J. Trump has insulted on Twitter since he began his run for president. You have got to love the Times – they even thoughtfully highlighted the most recent of his insult tweets on the listing. trumpshoe

Trump’s rage knows no bounds, he even took an Oval Office presidential lectern to task on Twitter: “looks odd” …“not good.”  This problem with furniture must be a Republican thing. Who can forget Clint Eastwood’s historic interview with an empty chair on primetime TV at the 2012 GOP convention?

Few things are spared Donald’s limited-character wrath on Twitter. Those most recently insulted by the GOP presidential candidate include: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, the Democratic National Convention, hacked/leaked D.N.C. emails, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Tim Kaine, the system, Elizabeth Warren, the American delegate system, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Bill Clinton Democrats, The New York Times, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Megyn Kelly, Republican presidential candidates, the mainstream media, CNN, and Juan Williams.

For now, Trump has backed off the Oval Office lectern – but it was warned. Can you believe that some dare say Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president!