Initech

Initech's Journal

January 18, 2017

Colbert Trashes Trump's Approval Rating In Latest Monologue

President-elect Donald Trump has been dismissing findings about his historically-low approval rating on Twitter lately, so Stephen Colbert used his monologue during Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show to mock the president-elect’s tweets.

“He’s got the lowest approval rating of any incoming president in modern history, but hey it’s not a popularity contest and neither was the election,” Colbert said. On Tuesday, Trump, whose approval ratings recently hit a low of 40%, according to new polls, tweeted “The same people who did the phony election polls and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.”

“Yes, evidently any bad news for Trump is rigged,” Colbert said, referencing the tweet. The host even created a fake Trump tweet of his own in the event of rain on inauguration day. “Fake weather. Clouds are rigged. Apologize!”

Colbert also took on Trump’s tweet attacking Democratic Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis on Twitter Saturday with another parody tweet that lampooned the incoming President’s comments on President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, this time with an Easter twist.
http://time.com/4637492/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-approval-rating/

Colbert is awesome, Trump is not!

January 18, 2017

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #2-9: The Election From Hell: Wall Of Meat Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #2-9: The Election From Hell: Wall Of Meat Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! We are back! You know if there's one thing you can count on, much like a Donald Trump Tweet getting proven wrong just a few minutes after he angrily tweets from the toilet at 3:00 AM (sleep is for stupid losers, OK?), is that Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP website is full of good ideas. Of course I say that with the utmost sarcasm. Because this is the site that claims bras cause cancer, advocates for something called "vaginal steaming" (I don't even want to know what that is), and now the latest. Have you seen this thing called the "Jade Egg"? I mean what the fuck is this thing? They claim that "queens and concubines used this to stay in shape", and - I'm also quoting - "cure incontinence and cause strong orgasams", but what you're really doing is shoving a giant egg up a place where it doesn't belong. And that can't be good for anybody - especially you, or the ER doctor who will be operating on you after you perform the "installation" as the object is intended for. Can we show this thing?

Yeah you do not want to know. I'm pretty sure it's a 100% grade A steaming load of bullshit. And it has to be a steaming load of bullshit, because only people stupid enough to believe it would try something like that. And the last thing we need is more people going to the ER for this bullshit. And believe me, my brother, an ER doctor, has definitely seen his fair share of people sticking things where they don't belong. And in case you were wondering, why yes, there was an article from a gynecologist who destroys Paltrow's theory (you can read it here ). Yeah enough of the intro, I'm not going down that hole any further. Hey o!!!!

But first, Green Day has an awesome new album out called “Revolution Radio”. If you don't have it, I highly suggest buying that ASAP. It might be their best album since American Idiot. We might try to get Green Day on this show at some point! But they might have better things to do than my dog and pony show. But anyway, they just dropped their new video for the song off that album called “Troubled Times” and it’s awesome:

So where do we begin? Well in the top slot of course is going to go to future president Donald J. Trump, and we only have 4 days until the inauguration, or as I’m now calling it the in-arrgh-uration. Emphasis on the “uration” part. I kid I kid! So for the number one slot -we’re going to talk about how Donald Trump spent MLK day – and if you guessed it was attacking a black representative, you are correct sir / madam! In the second slot, we’re going to talk about the forthcoming train wreck that is the Donald Trump (2) inauguration. In the number 3 slot, we’re going to talk poll numbers. Because Donald Trump is out there spewing nonsense once again about how great his poll numbers are. They’re not. In the number 4 slot, of course is also going to be returning champion Donald J. Trump (4). We’re going to call this one “Donald Trump Vs. The World” because he seems to be pissiing off everybody and everything especially the CIA. In the number 5 slot, we’re going to introduce you to Trump’s security for the big shindig on Friday called “Bikers For Trump” (5). At the number 6, the Bathroom Police (6) are back once again. They’ve been silent for a while, but now it looks like Texas may be following North Carolina’s lead with a newer and scarier law aimed at Texas’ trans folks. At number 7, we’re going to introduce you to the guy who Trump picked to spearhead the replacement of Obamacare, Tom Price (7) and once again, Trump attracts criminals because he is one. In the number 8 slot, we’re going to lighten things up and talk about football. Particularly a team that I follow somewhat closely – the San Diego Chargers, who are now going to be the Los Angeles Chargers, complete with a logo design fail that would make Trump – Pence blush! In the number 9 (NEIN!!!) slot we’re going to once again dedicate this slot to the Trump effect (9). This time a mayor in Michigan outbursts at women and minorities, while a Neo Nazi website collapses after finding out the sites’ owner has a Jewish wife. Or maybe… had a Jewish wife? And Martin Shkreli and Milo Yiannopolous get shut down after protests at UC Davis. Finally this week we’re going to conclude our 5 part lecture series “How To Talk About Trump For Dummies”. This time the fruit of our labor – the dictator comparisons, and the conclusion. Plus we have a final exam for your amusement! And for finishing the exam, we have some live music for you, and this time it’s from Florida’s Against Me! They have a new album out called “Shape Shift With Me”, and they might be stopping by to play something from it! Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

Before we get started, I must briefly mention that Donald Trump's pick for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, thinks we should allow guns on campuses, because, wait for it... bears! Seriously? Did Stephen Colbert influence her opinion?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/betsy-devos-grizzly-bears-donald-trump-guns/index.html

snip:
Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's education secretary nominee, said it should be up to states whether guns are allowed in schools, citing grizzly bear protection as part of her answer.

We'll talk more about the confirmation hearings next week. But first, we have to talk about how Donald Trump spent his Martin Luther King Day – of course in his golden tower. And of course he took to his favorite toy to spout nonsense. Can we throw that Tweet up there, please?

Now let’s flash back about 24 hours earlier. Can we get the flashback cue? Here’s what he did just prior to that:

In the past year, Trump has gotten into public disputes with a beauty queen and the Muslim parents of a dead soldier. But on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Trump went back and forth with a man whom John McCain once called “one of the most respected men in America.”

It's a widely held opinion. For a lifetime of civil rights work, Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Last year, the Navy announced it would name a ship after him, making Lewis one of just a few " to get that honor.

The Lewis-Trump fracas started Saturday, when Lewis told NBC's “Meet the Press” that he didn't see Trump as a legitimate president and wouldn't be attending the inauguration for the first time in 30 years.

Trump struck back on Twitter, saying that Lewis needed to focus on his congressional district in Georgia, “which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/15/in-feud-with-john-lewis-donald-trump-attacked-one-of-the-most-respected-people-in-america/?utm_term=.76995041a281

Yup! He went there! Boy, you know for a president who represents a party who likes to make fun of us liberals for needing “safe spaces”, they sure do need a lot of safe spaces, don’t they?

I mean remember in the early stages of the campaign when Trump said he was the only one strong enough to take on Isis? I mean he can’t take the slightest hint of criticism!

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Thank you. But this whole thing is very ill timed because we are literally hours away from him being inaugurated on Jan. 20th, and despite our best efforts to stop him, he will become our 45th president. I mean this is real.

The timing was particularly unfortunate: As Americans prepared to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., President-elect Donald Trump tore into one of the civil rights movement's most iconic figures.

Trump — who drew only 8% of the black vote in the general election last November — appeared to hit a new low in his already fraught relationship with the black community.

After Rep. John Lewis questioned his legitimacy in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump dismissed the Georgia Democrat, who was brutally beaten and repeatedly imprisoned as he protested for voting rights alongside King in 1965, as "all talk" and "no action." The president-elect also described Lewis' district, which includes the Atlanta metro area, as "crime-infested."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-trump-s-attack-john-lewis-came-particularly-bad-time-n707371

Can we throw that tweet up there please?

Dude needs to stop Tweeting, or he could potentially start World War III. But president Man Baby continued in the way he always does:

Trump met with King’s son on the holiday marking the life of the assassinated civil rights icon, just days after the president-elect had gone on Twitter to strike back fiercely at Lewis for questioning the legitimacy of the billionaire businessman’s election as president. Lewis and the elder King were among the Big Six civil rights leaders of the 1960s.

In a post on his Twitter account, Trump had accused Lewis of being “all talk” after the Georgia Democrat said he didn’t think Trump had come to the presidency legitimately. Trump also tweeted that the Southern congressman should pay more attention to his “crime ridden” Atlanta-area district.

Trump’s comments drew widespread criticism, and have done little to reassure those uneasy about the transition from the Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, to a president-in-waiting who struggled to connect with many nonwhite voters during the campaign.

The younger King downplayed the incident Monday, saying that “in the heat of emotion a lot of things get said on both sides.” King, who said he pressed Trump on the need for voting reform to increase participation, called their meeting “constructive.” King said that while he disagreed with the president-elect’s comments where Lewis is concerned, he believes “at some point in this nation, we’ve got to move forward.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tries-to-calm-dispute-with-john-lewis/

He’s all talk, OK? Nobody talks more than John Lewis does. I have the best words! Nobody uses better words than I do! This is a disgrace! Sad! And by the way, has Trump not heard of this new thing called Google? I mean not doing some research before you say something means you will wind up saying something you will regret:

In a photograph from his youth, President-elect Donald J. Trump poses in the dress uniform of a New York Military Academy cadet. He’s posed next to his father, real estate mogul Fred C. Trump, and his mother, the Scottish immigrant/social climber, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.

He graduated from NYMA in 1964, and with all due respect to the class of ’17, at the time his school had the reputation as little more than a holding pen for rich, disaffected young men who’d reach a level of incompetence unwelcome at other institutions.

During that same time, John Lewis, the son of the sharecropper Eddie Lewis, and Willie Mae Carter Lewis, was running the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and he was a keynote speaker at the 1963 March On Washington, the gathering where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream Speech.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/314413-trump-shouldve-googled-john-lewis-before-he-tweeted

Yes that would definitely be worth a Google, you know? Thank you Zach Galafinakis! But my favorite thing about this whole John Lewis mess – if you guess that Trump’s tweet backfired on him BIGLY, then you are correct sir / madam!

Donald Trump may not think much of Rep. John Lewis, but his tweet attacking the civil-rights icon has sent Lewis' book sales skyrocketing.

On Friday, NBC News released a Meet the Pressinterview clip in which the the Georgia congressman said he did not think Trump was a "legitimate president" and was not planning on attending the inauguration.

[It is worth noting that Lewis' district, Georgia's 5th, includes parts of Atlanta's wealthy Buckhead neighborhood, Morehouse College and Emory University (plus other colleges). The poverty rate is slightly above average, but the median income is also slightly above the Georgia average. Atlanta was not one of the 25 cities in the top 100 The New York Times cited in a story about rising crime rates].
http://www.aol.com/article/2017/01/16/trump-tweet-sends-john-lewis-book-sales-soaring/21655318/

[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

That guy is going to be our new president! I mean he can't even figure out what day he's going to start working because we all know what a hard partier Donald J. Trump is! He will keep this thing going 24/7 ladies and gentlemen! This will be off the hook! It will be insane!

So we got to talk about the inauguration. Yes it’s real. Yes it’s a thing that is happening starting tomorrow and continuing through Saturday. Yes, Donald Trump is going to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. No, you’re not dreaming. But the inauguration, folks, is shaping up to be a colossal disaster. For one thing, you know if Hillary Clinton had been elected president, she could have got the actual Bruce Springsteen to perform at the inauguration. What does Donald Trump get? He gets a Z grade cover band called “The B Street Band”.

(Some of) the Rockettes, America's Got Talent's Jackie Evancho, and (some of the) Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, but one New Jersey group’s gala will get a little Springsteen.

Just not directly.

The New Jersey State Society has booked the B Street Band, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, for their Garden State Inaugural Gala, an event in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration taking place Thursday, Jan. 19 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Bruce Springsteen superfan and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will serve as the event’s honorary chair along with wife Mary Pat Christie, according to an event page.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/music_nightlife/Springsteen-tribute-band-B-Street-Band-to-play-NJ-groups-Trump-inaugural-ball.html

Oh yeah there ain’t no party like a Chris Christie party! Woo! They are gonna tear the roof off that sucka! Woo! Woo! Or maybe not. The B Street Band bailed:

The Bruce Springsteen cover band scheduled to play a Donald Trump inauguration party has dropped out of "respect and gratitude" for Springsteen.

The B-Street Band, a popular Bruce Springsteen cover group that's performed nearly 200 gigs a year since 1980, convened in the dressing room Sunday night before a typical late-afternoon gig at Bensalem, PA's Parx Casino.

Will Forte, the group's 63-year-old keyboardist, manager, agent and publicist, among other roles, was telling the band about the "thousands of emails from both sides" he had received after news broke that the group would be playing the Garden State Presidential Inaugural Gala on January 19th as part of Donald Trump's inauguration. "We're standing out in the storm right here," he told the band. "We gotta get out of the storm."
https://www.yahoo.com/music/bruce-springsteen-cover-band-drops-190747454.html

But what else happened this week in the inauguration of the world’s biggest snake oil salesman? Well another act that was scheduled to play Donald Trump’s inauguration also bailed:

Jennifer Holliday has canceled her appearance at Donald Trump’s inauguration event next week, calling her decision to perform a “lapse of judgement.”

In an open letter, provided exclusively to TheWrap, the “Dreamgirls” star apologized to the LGBT community, saying she was “uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history and for causing such dismay and heartbreak to my fans.”

Holliday, considered a longtime LGBT ally, explained that she changed her mind after reading a Friday Daily Beast story titled, “Jennifer Holliday Will Perform at Trump’s Inauguration, Which Is Heartbreaking to Gay Fans.”

“My only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!”

Read more: http://www.thewrap.com/jennifer-holliday-trump-inauguration-lgbt/

And then Donald is apparently so desperate to get people to attend his shindig that he’s actively campaigning to get people to come to his inauguration by giving free tickets to his biggest supporters. I am not shitting you here:

President-elect Trump has sent out the following message via text to Trump’s subscribers, and on social media, giving away free Inauguration tickets for both the Inauguration Welcome Concert and the swearing-in ceremony of Trump’s Inauguration on January 20.

“I want to personally invite you to come to Washington, D.C. Friday to witness history, when I, along with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, will take our oaths to serve you – the people of this great country. These tickets to attend are free to my best supporters, but they are going fast, and we have very limited quantities.”

The link to the free Inauguration Day tickets can be found in the below tweet from Trump’s Inauguration Twitter page.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3891175/trump-sends-out-invite-for-free-inauguration-tickets-for-january-20-video/

In case you were wondering how not normal this is, allow me to quote the Joker’s famous monologue from The Dark Knight: “You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds! “

Protesters distraught over Trump’s victory will be flooding into Washington next weekend, creating a potent – and potentially tense – mix as they collide with the billionaire’s die-hard supporters at hotels, restaurants, and on the National Mall. Like much of Trump's campaign, the festivities and crowd descending on Washington for the inauguration will not neatly fit into Washington's norms.

"These are unprecedented numbers," said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said about the protests. "We're trying to help the groups find suitable alternate locations."

The park service has credentialed at least 28 groups on the national mall and is expecting more than 350,000, according to an internal agency spreadsheet. That’s compared to the five or six requests from groups that they usually receive for inaugurations. The service has struggled to accommodate all of the protesters, which includes a large demonstration of about 200,000 women protesting Trump and others who will sing and fast, for next weekend, Litterst said.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-inauguration-dc-bookings-233564

And by the way, you want to know how many of them are coming to protest the inauguration instead of attending it?

Donald Trump's voice won't be the only one heard at this year's inauguration.

Tens of thousands of people are preparing to hit the streets of Washington D.C. during the 45th president's inaugural week. While some will march in support of the president or various causes, a growing number will be on hand to show their opposition to the newly elected president and his administration.

The National Park Service has provided 22 permits for First Amendment events that will take place over inauguration week on park service land that includes the National Mall and the White House. Each protest ranges in size from 50 people to 200,000, however, any protest less than 25 people does not require a permit.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-inauguration-dc-braced-for-900000-protesters/ar-AAlWcZ0?li=BBnbcA1

And by the way – Lee Greenwood stopped being patriotic for a few minutes to say this:

Lee Greenwood, who will perform at inaugural events this week for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, suggested that those who turn down the chance will later regret missing the opportunity.

He said that he had not heard that Jennifer Holliday, announced as a performer at the opening concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, backed out of the appearance on Saturday, citing the negative reaction she got on social media.

“She is going to regret not going in the future,” Greenwood said. “You don’t get this invitation very often.”

He added, “To say no — I can’t imagine the embarrassment she might have later on” for passing it up.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/lee-greenwood-says-performers-may-regret-passing-on-chance-to-perform-at-inauguration/ar-AAlVrWT?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp

Really Lee? I bet this thing will be more boring and less exciting! I mean we have 3 Doors Down! They haven’t had a paying gig since 2007! And we have a biker show outside! I mean this like the weird alternate reality 1985 from Back To The Future Part 2!!!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwjAVIsBS3M/U8scWfga4yI/AAAAAAAABEo/PTNJqZAxuK0/s1600/Facepalm+Mashup.gif

[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

Before we get into this entry, we first have to talk about Donald Trump once again letting his egomaniacism get in the way of critical thought, or any kind of thought. Let’s throw that tweet up there, shall we?

President-elect Donald Trump seems to be setting a trend that when he doesn’t like the news about him he cries that it’s fake news. It certainly happened with the Russian hack story and #GoldenShowerGate.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows that Trump set a record for the lowest poll numbers (40 percent) for a president on Inauguration Day. According to the poll, only 14 percent of Democrats think that Trump will do well as president and only 4 percent think he’s handled the transition well.

In an Associated Press poll of young people, 52 percent of whites, 72 percent of Latinos, 66 percent of Asians and 70 percent of African-Americans think Trump will create more divisions.

Another shocking statistic released this week revealed that 74 percent of Americans want to see Trump’s tax returns.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/internet-unleashes-hilariously-brutal-mockery-on-trump-for-whining-low-approval-numbers-are-fake/

And then Van Jones warns of the forthcoming Trump Kleptocracy - which is fitting given the cabinet of insane billionaire thieves he's appointed to loot this country stupid:

CNN commentator Van Jones on Sunday predicted the U.S. is “on the verge of a kleptocracy,” insisting we “will see a horrendous abuse of power” under the Donald Trump administration, the Wrap reports.

Less than a week before Trump’s inauguration, Jones spoke on a panel about the Netflix documentary “13th,” which centers on race in the criminal justice system. Director Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey were also on the panel.

Asked about the incoming administration, Jones said he expects “mostly bad things” to come from the new president, arguing while “both parties have a challenge,” Trump “will prove to be authoritarian.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/van-jones-warns-of-a-trump-kleptocracy-you-will-see-a-horrendous-abuse-of-power/comments/#disqus

But now we’re going to talk about poll numbers. And the inauguration. This story dropped and it is very telling about who is going to attend Donald Trump’s sham of an inauguration:

A growing group of Democratic lawmakers will boycott President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Friday as a protest of Trump’s worldview and his criticism of civil rights icon John Lewis, congressman of Georgia.

There are now more than 30 House Democrats — 35, at last count — who have declared that they will not attend the inauguration on Capitol Hill this week. The number rose sharply after Trump tweeted Saturday that Lewis is “all talk, talk, talk” and should “finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/16/more-than-30-democratic-lawmakers-now-skipping-trumps-inauguration/?utm_term=.c0db4c781ea2

And he’s not stopping there. Oh no good sir / madam! In fact he’s going even further! Further down the spiral as his poll numbers are at a historically low approval rating! See what I did there?

According to a new ABC News/Washington Post survey released Tuesday, just 40 percent of Americans view Trump favorably, compared to the 79 percent who viewed Barack Obama favorably when he took office in 2009.

Trump trails each of his six predecessors — Jimmy Carter (78 percent), Ronald Reagan (58 percent), George H.W. Bush (65 percent), Bill Clinton (68 percent), George W. Bush (62 percent) and Obama (79 percent) — in terms of favorability. And Trump is the only president-elect of the last seven to be viewed unfavorably by a majority of Americans, with 54 percent currently holding that view.

A CNN/ORC survey, also released Tuesday, showed Trump with a 40 percent approval rating on the eve of his inauguration, or 44 points below the 84 percent who approved of Obama at the start of 2009.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-decries-phony-polls-showing-him-with-a-historically-bad-approval-rating-143804996.html

And in fact – take a look at this chart that shows where Donald Trump falls on the list of incoming presidents – also one of the lowest of all time! I mean seriously, America, what the fuck did you get us into?

Ouch!!! I mean how bad can it be, folks?

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that approval rating polls are rigged against him, as a series of polls show him with historically low approval as he enters office.

"The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before," Trump wrote.

A CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday morning showed Trump with 40 percent approval - six points lower than it was after Election Day, and lower than the last three presidents.

More than half of respondents said they are less confident in Trump's ability to do the job of president due to his statements since becoming president-elect.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll also released Tuesday found just 40 percent respondents approved of how Trump has handled his presidential transition, and 54 percent viewed him unfavorable.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-approval-polls-are-rigged-against-me/ar-AAlWCCz

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[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

So Donald Trump really, and I mean really hates intelligence. And we’re not talking his war on smart people which he declared by appointing Betsy DeVos as the USA’s education secretary – a billionaire who advocates voucher systems for schools and thinks that science textbooks should be replaced with the Bible. No, I’m talking about James Bond, Secret Service type of intelligence. Let’s explain.

President-elect Donald Trump appeared to suggest that outgoing CIA Director John Brennan may have been behind the publication last week of unverified and salacious intelligence connecting the president-elect to Russia.
The comments on Twitter came hours after Brennan, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” called the Republican’s recent remarks about the U.S. intelligence community “outrageous,” and suggested that Trump’s overtures to improve relations with Russia are naïve.
Trump retorted to his 20 million Twitter followers, “@FoxNews ‘Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand.’ Oh really, couldn’t do much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?”
Brennan’s earlier comments came amid escalating tensions between the president-elect and the intelligence community following a series of insults and allegations by Trump in recent weeks.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-15/cia-director-airs-warnings-for-trump-amid-intelligence-tensions

But can you guess where this is going from there? Well quite a few things actually. In fact even the Russians are mocking their boy Donald J. Trump. If you can guess, the prostitution scandal that we covered last week isn’t going away any time soon!

President Vladimir Putin cracked raunchy jokes on Tuesday as he poked fun at claims that Russian secret services filmed US President-elect Donald Trump with prostitutes.

Showing he is familiar with the claims in the explosive dossier, Putin launched into a series of ribald jokes about prostitutes, riffing on Trump's former role as owner of the Miss Universe beauty contest.

The unsubstantiated dossier published by American media last week alleged that Russia had gathered compromising information on Trump, namely videos involving prostitutes at a luxury Moscow hotel, supposedly as a potential means for blackmail.

In his first public comments on the claims, Putin rubbished the idea that Russian secret services would have spied on Trump during his 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe final, as alleged in the dossier.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-mocks-claims-that-trump-was-spied-on/ar-AAlWw4x?li=BBnb7Kz

Does this mean that Donald Trump is Putin On The Ritz? Hey o!!!!

Thank you I'm here all week! Don't forget to tip your waitress!

Moving on! Thank you!

Yes that’s a stylized intro from the Daily Show mocking Trump as a James Bond villain. In fact – this is so huge that even John McCain – a man who we normally disagree with on just about everything is definitely right about this one!

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told Morning Joe that Russian president Vladimir Putin poses a greater threat to the United States than ISIS.

Said McCain: “I think when you look at Russian increasing capabilities and, by the way, they are closing the gap as far as military capabilities is concerned rather dramatically between themselves and the United States. And that should alarm us all. But look at his behavior, look at what he has – what he has done. He has made no bones about what he wants to do. And he’s done it, but he’s played a very weak hand in the most clever fashion. He’s got the world’s 15th largest economy and yet he’s now a major player in the Middle East.”

Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2017/01/17/mccain-says-putin-greater-threat-isis/

And the shit is about to hit the fan in regards to Trump pissing off the CIA. I mean Trump is doing his best to really screw the pooch here. You don’t compare the fucking CIA to Nazi Germany. I mean what, are we treading into Glenn Beck territory here?

President-elect Donald Trump has long flirted with an adversarial relationship with our country's intelligence community. And now he apparently has gone too far for at least one of its leaders.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Monday night, CIA Director John O. Brennan had finally had it. Brennan said Trump crossed “the line” by invoking Nazi Germany while talking about the intelligence community having, in Trump's words, “allowed” a dossier full of unconfirmed and salacious allegations about him to leak into the public domain.

Brennan didn't hold back, saying Trump has a right to challenge the intelligence community — but not in this manner.

“It’s when there are allegations made about leaking or about dishonesty or a lack of integrity, that’s where I think the line is crossed,” Brennan said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/17/the-director-of-the-cia-just-went-off-on-donald-trump-it-was-a-long-time-coming/?utm_term=.379426c2d74d

And guess what? Donald Trump returned the favor! He’s getting into some deep shit here folks!

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump on Sunday night slammed outgoing CIA Director John Brennan for imploring the President-elect to put his confidence in the intelligence community and develop an "appreciation" for the effect his words could have on national security.
The CIA chief defended his agency and said in a Sunday interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that the CIA was not trying to harm the incoming President or his team.

"There is no interest in undermining the President-elect and the team coming in. It's our responsibility to make sure they understand exactly the dangers that are out there," Brennan said.
Trump has slammed the intelligence community repeatedly over the past few weeks in response to what he said was unfair coverage caused by leaked information from intelligence officials. On Sunday evening he even pointed fingers directly at the CIA director over Twitter.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/15/politics/john-brennan-cia-donald-trump/

[font size="8"]Bikers For Trump[/font]

So who do you get for security for your inauguration festivities if you’re future president Donald J. Trump and you’ve already pissed off just about every government organization there is – from the CIA to the FBI to the EPA to the Department of Education, to the Parks Department, to the Press, is there anybody that Donald Trump hasn’t pissed off? Well there’s a group calling themselves “Bikers For Trump” that plans to build a “wall of meat” around Donald Trump. I really wish I were making that sentence up!

One of president-elect Donald Trump's biggest supporters is taking it upon himself and his group of bikers to make sure the inauguration event goes smoothly, promising to form a "wall of meat" to guard against any protestors.

Chris Cox is founder of the pro-Trump organization "Bikers for Trump," and is expecting more than 5,000 bikers from his group to be in attendance at the inauguration.

On Sunday, Cox spoke with news show "Fox & Friends" and said that should there be any rowdy protesters in attendance, his group will be there to back up security.

"In the event that we are needed, we certainly will form a wall of meat," Cox told the show.

"What does that mean?" interrupted co-host Abby Huntsman. "What does that mean, 'A wall of meat'?"
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Bikers-for-Trump-will-form-wall-of-meat-to-10859328.php

Yeah seriously! What the fuck does “wall of meat” even mean? And they do realize that they’re setting themselves up for endless mockery, am I right? I mean this is the age of the internet here, and I can already hear the sound of 1,000 comedy writers at 1,000 Macbooks. I wouldn’t even expect that the Epic Meal Time guys could build a giant wall of meat!

That’s pretty close. But getting a giant wall of bikers around a place that’s already packed with security to begin with is getting something you didn’t ask for and don’t want. It would be like booking a hotel room, and then all of a sudden a giant tub of Omaha Steaks shows up at your door. I don’t even have a grill! How am I supposed to explain that to Radisson? And there’s more – even these guys are divided:

Three bikers who support President-elect Donald Trump but dislike each other are organizing separate inauguration rallies, confusing would-be participants and causing turmoil within one of Trump's most enthusiastic and visible bases of support.

The three have not joined forces for a large ride into the nation's capital or a unified rally as robust counterweights to anti-Trump activists because of clashing personalities.

In conversations with U.S. News, the three men traded various personal attacks, ranging from claims of alcohol abuse, financial mismanagement, disrespect and fame-hogging to allegedly not owning a bike or riding one very often.

The disunified gatherings are likely to yield smaller numbers than a combined show of support, as they pull from a finite pool of inbound bikers excited by Trump's unorthodox candidacy. The announced rally locations also are not conducive to intermingling.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-01-04/bitterly-divided-pro-trump-bikers-split-3-ways-over-inauguration-plans

These guys can’t even keep their own agendas straight! Holy shit! Alcohol abuse? Financial mismanagement? Sounds just like the kind of crowd Trump attracts! But he’s going to make America great again! Bigly! But here’s my favorite part of this whole thing – they will be out… wait for it… IN FORCE!!!

‘Bikers for Trump’ will be at RNC in ‘force’
Chris Cox of “Bikers for Trump” joins MSNBC’s Alex Witt to discuss what his organization will be doing to “calm” the protests that may occur outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
http://www.msnbc.com/weekends-with-alex-witt/watch/bikers-for-trump-will-be-at-rnc-in-force-726475331811

And in case you want to see a pic of the Douchebag Brigade:

Oh by the way we're being told this picture is fake. Wait, what? Where's my producer at? Excuse me a minute, I need to go yell at my producer!

[font size="8"]The Bathroom Police[/font]

OK we're back! You know the conservatives love to talk a good game. Especially when it comes to LGBT rights. You know conservatives are praising the fact that Donald Trump picked America’s Got Talent winner Jackie Evancho to sing the national anthem. But they have overlooked one tiny little detail – oh wait it’s a major one, and an actual trans person will be in attendance at the inaugural – Jackie’s trans sister Juliet.

Parents Mike and Lisa Evancho submitted a video of Jackie singing “Panis Angelicus” to the TV competition show, “America’s Got Talent” -- and Jackie got the call.

She was 10 years old, with a voice way beyond her years. She came in second, but either way, a star was born.

Since then, Evancho has sung duets with Tony Bennett and Andrea Boccelli … released seven albums … and performed for President Obama and adoring crowds around the world.

Back home near Pittsburgh, life is a lot more ordinary. Jackie drives her two sisters and brother to school each day, and attends a public high school where, she admits, stardom comes at a price.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jackie-evancho-and-sister-juliet-on-bonds-and-bullying/

Now young Juliet is only 17, but she might want to know that the people who her sister are supporting are people who do not have the best interests of the trans community in mind. Let’s go to Texas where they might be fucking up bigger than North Carolina when it comes to LGBT rights:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Top Texas Republicans are eager to bring a fight that sparked upheaval and business boycotts in North Carolina to the country's largest conservative state, unveiling Thursday a bill that would ban transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice.

The "Texas Privacy Act" requires all Texas residents to use the bathroom or locker room according to the gender on their birth certificates and prohibits local governments from passing ordinances designed to protect gay rights in public restrooms and other "intimate settings."

"It's the right thing to do," said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who oversees the state Senate and quoted Martin Luther King Jr. while promoting the proposal at the Texas Capitol. "The people of Texas elected us to stand up for common sense, common decency and public safety."

Bill sponsor Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Republican from rural Brenham, said her "thoughtful and unique" bill won't create a "bathroom police" and will allow anyone to lodge complaints upon seeing something in public restrooms that makes them uncomfortable. She added the bill was written "not to start a controversy but to end one."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e80e8279b8ef41b6adc2361c0fa4b244

It’s the right thing to do? Really, Dan? Have you seen what’s been going on with North Carolina and HB-2? You know we should profile Dan Patrick for a future edition of “People Who Somehow Got Elected”, that would be great.

But there’s more this week in regards to the bathroom police, and yes, like all shitty things, it’s also in Texas:

A graphic of the state showing the percentage of LGBT people in each state. Gallup estimated in 2012 that about a half-million Texans identified as gay or homosexual. A Texas lawmaker hopes to eliminate that language from the state's criminal code starting in January.

Every day in Texas, more than an estimated half-million people are breaking a law that's on the books, but unenforceable.

It's technically illegal to be gay in Texas.

The law, passed in 1974, makes homosexual conduct a class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/It-s-still-illegal-to-be-gay-in-Texas-in-2016-A-10779941.php

And Texas just keeps on bringing the hate, and while these should get overturned in SCOTUS, we don’t have a SCOTUS right now, and we can thank Mitch McConnell for that one!

A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services.

The decision sides with Texas, seven other states and three Christian-affiliated healthcare groups challenging a rule that, according to the judge, defines sex bias to include "discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy."

In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing rule-making practices.

The judge also ruled that plaintiffs were likely to prevail in court on their claim that the new policy infringes on the rights of private healthcare providers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN14L0OP

But we do have some good news this week! Obama did the right thing and commuted Chelsea Manning’s brutal 35 year sentence:

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/us/politics/obama-commutes-bulk-of-chelsea-mannings-sentence.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=64803734&pgtype=Homepage

Now normally this is where I would turn the tables on the bathroom police due to their stupidity and the fact that they’re just plain fucking evil by showing you stories of sex offenders who air on the side of Jesus, but they’ve been oddly silent lately. And we don’t want you to think the Top 10 is all doom and gloom! Instead, going back to the beginning of this entry, Jackie and Juliet both should know that high end clothing stores have run out of ball gowns. This, I shit you not! This is a thing!

President-elect Donald Trump, in a Monday interview with the New York Times, took issue with Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech in which the actress slammed Trump without actually naming him.

But it was an offhand remark the president-in-waiting made after his Streep-bashing that caught our eye: Trump played hype man for his own inauguration, boasting that the turnout would be record-setting. “There will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars,” Trump told the Times. “All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”

Hang on — is Trump actually saying that Washington’s racks are bare of formal gowns? That there are scant “great” frocks left? Putting aside the old-timey reference to “dress shops” (ladies wear all manner of clothing these days, including pants), we wondered if it was possible that the city’s shops actually had been cleared out of ball-worthy wear.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/01/09/donald-trump-says-d-c-s-dress-shops-are-sold-out-of-inauguration-gowns-wrong/?utm_term=.4d53065030aa

Except, like everything Trump has done so far, once again he’s wrong! And we need some old timey piano music and cue cards for this one! *puts on handlebar moustache and top hat* Why yes, Trump once again has not evolved with the times! He keeps thinking he’s in the 1930s! What? Do you want to go down to the speakeasy and throw down some fisticuffs?

Ladies in Washington planning to celebrate Donald Trump's inauguration as the next president won't, it turns out, need a fairy godmother to find something to wear.

The president-elect told The New York Times in an interview published Monday that enthusiasm was so high for the arrival of his administration that turnout for the Jan. 20 events will be "unbelievable, perhaps record-setting." So much so, he said, that "all the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It's hard to find a great dress for this inauguration."

Not true, according to many boutiques and stores in the business of selling formal wear to those who make their home in the nation's capital.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/DC-Dress-Shops-Dispute-Trumps-Claims-They-Are-Sold-Out-410185275.html#ixzz4W3Yl0Z7J

[font size="8"]Tom Price[/font]

Sadly, we’re still 3 days away from Donald J. Trump being inaugurated as our 45th president. And all serious hell is about to break loose. Really, sometimes I wonder if we’re in the end times because Satan won the election this year. And this is the kind of people he attracts. They say in the Bible that the dark one will pose as a creature of light. But the people who wrote the Bible obviously never met a guy who quotes “Two Corinthians”. And here’s the kind of people who Trump attracts. I give you Tom Price – the guy who Trump picked to lead the department of Health And Human Services and pick Obamacare’s replacement:

President-elect Donald Trump is ready to name an ultra-conservative surgeon, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to run the Department of Health and Human Services, multiple media outlets are reporting.

The choice would appear to signal Trump’s determination to proceed with a major overhaul of federal health care programs ― including not just repeal of Obamacare but also, perhaps, the privatization of Medicare.

And Price has said he wouldn’t stop with Obamacare. In mid-November, not long after the presidential election, Price said that Republicans could also use reconciliation to change Medicare, as well.

Price has also endorsed transforming Medicaid into a “block grant” ― in other words, giving states a fixed sum of money with which to run the program and then reducing the federal government’s spending on it.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2398295.1444924087!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/usa-election-trump.jpg

But who is Tom Price? What does he want? Was that a good move? Um… like everything else Trump has done so far – NO!!!! Here’s what happened this week:

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Donald Trump's pick to quarterback the replacement of Obamacare, Tom Price, may have broken the law with a questionable stock purchase.

"If he knew about it, it could very well be a violation of the law," Schumer told CNN. "Now they say there's a broker, it's kind of strange that this broker would pick this stock totally independently of him introducing legislation that's so narrow and specific to this company."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/chuck-schumer-tom-price-may-have-broken-the-law-in-stock-transaction/index.html

And Trump actually surprisingly isn’t firing Price – the exact opposite of what we’ve come to expect from that man!

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team defended his nominee for health and human services (HHS) secretary, Tom Price, from charges that he bought shares in a company days before introducing legislation that would have benefited the firm.

A Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday for Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia who, if confirmed, would be a lead agent in carrying out Trump's plans to overhaul President Barack Obama's signature health care law.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-idUSKBN1510EZ

By the way, in case you were wondering, why yes, this guy does belong to a crazy anti-vaccination group!

Yet despite the lab coats and the official-sounding name, the docs of the AAPS are hardly part of mainstream medical society. Think Glenn Beck with an MD. The group (which did not return calls for comment for this story) has been around since 1943. Some of its former leaders were John Birchers, and its political philosophy comes straight out of Ayn Rand. Its general counsel is Andrew Schlafly, son of the legendary conservative activist Phyllis. The AAPS statement of principles declares that it is “evil” and “immoral” for physicians to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, and its journal is a repository for quackery. Its website features claims that tobacco taxes harm public health and electronic medical records are a form of “data control” like that employed by the East German secret police. An article on the AAPS website speculated that Barack Obama may have won the presidency by hypnotizing voters, especially cohorts known to be susceptible to “neurolinguistic programming”—that is, according to the writer, young people, educated people, and possibly Jews.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/11/30/the-new-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-is-a-member-of-a-fringe-medical-organization-heres-what-that-means/#.WD9p1D0_rBY.twitter

[font size="8"]Los Angeles Chargers[/font]

Go Super Chargers! Wooooooooooo!!! Woooooooooooo!!! Woooooo! Woo. Let’s lighten things up and talk about football shall we? So it’s long been proven that owners of sports teams are generally assholes. Doesn’t matter if you’re Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, the Ricketts Family of the Chicago Cubs, Arte Moreno of the Los Angeles Angels , or Alex Spanos, the owner of the formerly San Diego Chargers.

The Los Angeles Chargers unveiled their latest, not-so-greatest logo on the video screen during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, and the Staples Center crowd welcomed it with lusty boos.

Jeff Cumberland, the Chargers' tight end, fared no better when he was shown.

Welcome to L.A.!

Dean Spanos, the team's chief executive officer and president, was there to hear it in person, along with his wife and two sons. He announced last week that the team was moving after 56 seasons in San Diego, making him the most hated man among football fans since Art Modell. They'll be playing for the next two seasons in the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/ct-nfl-chargers-los-angeles-relocation-spt-20170115-story.html

Which by the way came with a ridiculous change in logo design. Can we show that?

San Diego fans were extremely quick to Photoshop the logo and it came out with all kinds of modifications, my personal favorite being this:

And man LA fans are definitely not welcoming the Chargers with open arms. Take a look at what happened when quarterback Justin Cumberland was introduced at a recent Lakers game:

LOS ANGELES -- The Chargers' first public presentation in their new city didn't go over so well Saturday.

During Saturday's game against the Lakers, the Clippers showed the new Los Angeles Chargers logo on the video screen, and the Staples Center crowd promptly booed.

After a few seconds, the screen cut to Chargers tight end Jeff Cumberland, who briefly waved but was also booed.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18475653/los-angeles-chargers-jeff-cumberland-booed-los-angeles-lakers-la-clippers-game

But some good news – the San Diego moving companies are not exactly lining up to give the Chargers a proper send off, but rather a middle finger:

The Los Angeles Chargers have received an ice cold reception upon the announcement last week they were moving from San Diego to the city of Angels.

To make things even more difficult, the organization is having a tough time trying to find help for their big move.

Two dozen moving companies from the San Diego area have vowed not to assist the Chargers in their move to Los Angeles. The group of movers publicly expressed their displeasure and their stone-cold commitment to not lending a helping hand on the website WeWontMoveYouChargers.com.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2017/01/17/moving-companies-refuse-to-help-chargers-relocate-to-los-angeles.html

[font size="8"]The Trump Effect[/font]

In the interest of time, I will make this entry short. Because there wasn’t so much racism in the last couple of weeks especially with last week’s horror story from Chicago that I fucking hate everyone involved in, but there were a couple that we need to get to before we get to the 10th spot this week. Let’s go to Michigan for this one.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/michigan-mayor-caught-on-tape-calling-black-people-chimps-and-women-dried-up-cnts/

Mayor Jim Fouts of Warren, Michigan came under fire on Monday after audio surfaced of him allegedly using disparaging remarks against African-Americans and women. In recordings obtained by Motor City Muckraker, Fouts reportedly uses the N-word and refers to older women as “dried-up c*nts.”

“Blacks do look like chimpanzees,” the voice says in one recording. “I was watching this black woman with her daughter and they looked like two chimps.”

In one piece of audio, the 74-year-old mayor allegedly explains that he does not date older women.

“Think I want to date a f*cking 60-year-old hag?” Fouts opines. “F*ck that shit. I’m not interested in any old ugly hag. I think after a certain age they are dried up, washed up burned out.”

And then there’s this:

Several members of the white nationalist movement are despondent after learning that one of their leaders is actually married to a Jewish woman.

As Salon reports, neo-Nazi icon Mike Enoch — the pseudonym used by the man who created the pro-white nationalist website The Right Stuff — has resigned from his role at the website after being outed by rivals as a New York website developer named Mike Peinovich.

The real shocker, however, wasn’t the identity of Peinovich, but the identity of his wife, who happens to be a Jewish woman. This is particularly surprising because Peinovich often makes “jokes” about the Holocaust on his podcast, where he also regularly talks about killing Jewish people.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/neo-nazi-media-outlet-collapses-after-fellow-racists-discover-the-founders-wife-is-jewish/

We also have to briefly mention that one of our favorite punching bags here at the Top 10 - Martin Shkreli and Milo Yiannopolous were scheduled to give a talk and got quickly shut down, which means they'll both be retreating back to the troll cave that they came from to whine about how liberals are big meanie heads:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article126629829.html

Five years after the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters swamped UC Davis with negative publicity, another free-speech controversy thrust the normally quiet campus into the national spotlight this weekend.

On Friday, the Davis College Republicans canceled speeches by a far-right website editor and a notorious former pharmaceutical executive after raucous protesters created an atmosphere that campus administrators and police deemed dangerous.

The editor, Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart News, returned to campus Saturday, leading a counterprotest march of sorts and accusing the university on Facebook of forcing Friday’s event to stop before it started.

Oh and here's the Trump Effect taken to new extremes. You know we've been railing about white supremacy and the alt reich since the Top 10 began. And well, to use the late great Frank Zappa's words, it can't happen here. Can it?

Several Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. were evacuated Wednesday after receiving near-simultaneous bomb threats, according to various local reports, just nine days after a nearly identical incident targeted 16 Jewish insitutions across the eastern U.S.

Bomb threats were reported in Miami and Palm Springs Garden, Florida, Birmingham, Alabama, West Hartford and Woodbridge, Connecticut, Newton and Worcester, Massachussets, Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Albany and Syracuse, New York, Detroit, Michigan, San Rafael, California and Nashville, Tennessee.
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.765875

Yeah I can imagine Mr. I Hate Intelligence now:

"Uh sir, we have received reports that lunatic fringe groups are on the verge of attacking Jewish centers across the country."
"It's fake news, OK? It's a political witch hunt!"

[font size="8"]How To Talk About Trump For Dummies: The End[/font]

OK class!!! Settle down!!!!! Quiet!!!! This is it! This is the very last and final part of our ongoing lecture series “How To Talk About Trump For Dummies”, and as far as I’m concerned – you get an A, and you get an A, and you get one, and you get one! Everybody gets an A! Everybody gets an A! But not quite, and we’re not quite done yet. We’re now less than two days away from the nightmare that is the Trumpocalypse that is beginning. And this next chapter is something that we’ve wanted to talk about since it began. How do you compare history to a guy who now has his finger on the trigger and could be the catalyst to start World War III? What does history side with? Well let’s get out our textbooks, shall we?

[font size="6"]Chapter 13: The Dictatorial Comparisons[/font]

The family Deploribus Tweeter Interruptus is a very strange one indeed. And Newt Gingrich recently crawled out of the same troll cave that Julian Assange and Ron Paul live in to say this:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/newt-gingrich-trump-ethics-laws-congress-232828

In an interview with NPR Newt Gingrich stated the following: "We’ve never seen this kind of wealth in the White House and so traditional rules don’t work, we’re going to have to think up a whole new approach.”

“In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon, it’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”

Please Read Before Commenting: I realize that Gingrich will not be in Trump's administration. I also realize that he is not Trump's spokesperson. I want to ask however what Trump supporters thought about Gingrich suggesting that Trump use his power to pardon to basically bail out his advisors or anyone else close to him for that respect? Would that be something that would diminish your respect for Trump if he indeed engaged in such deeds?

And you know what? He really isn’t that far off – while he may be one of the most disgusting and repulsive human beings alive, he is right that we really haven’t seen this kind of money in the White House before – especially with the team of millionaires and billionaires that he’s assembled in his cabinet. So how do you compare him to past and present dictators like Kadyrov, Stalin, Mussolini, Kim Jong Un, Fidel Castro, and everyone’s favorite – Adolf Hitler? Let’s start with Bill Maher, who actually did compare Trump to Hitler on a previous episode of Real Time:

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released today reveals that despite what President-elect Donald Trump has said regarding the American public’s interest in seeing his tax returns, the vast majority of people would like for him to release the documents.

Per the survey, 74% of respondents said the incoming POTUS should show his tax returns. 93% of of Hillary Clinton supporters were in favor of this as were 83% of independents. Even 49% of Trump voters feel he needs to release the returns.

The poll also covered some of the concerns over Trump’s compliance with ethics laws and guidelines. 43% feel the soon-to-be president is doing enough right now to comply with ethics laws compared to 44% who believe he isn’t. 52% state that Trump’s proposed plan to have his sons manage his businesses is sufficient while 42% state that Trump should sell his businesses. As one would expect, these divide largely on partisan lines.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/poll-74-of-americans-feel-donald-trump-should-release-his-tax-returns/

However, we here feel that Donald Trump’s maniacal behavior is less like a world dictator and more out of a super villain from a comic book or James Bond movie. In fact can we get some appropriate music to discuss this?

Nah. I’m thinking more:

Yeah that’s it. You know who Donald Trump really reminds us of? I mean sure, you can make all the comparisons to Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pinochet, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Un, and any of the world’s dictators that you want to make. And most of them are justified. He’ll be bringing down the world’s economies with a single Tweet, and he’ll be starting World War III in the South China Sea, while Russia takes over Europe. But in the end he’s less like them and more like Heath Ledger’s Joker. He talks a good game and causes most people to enter panic mode at the sound of a Tweet being posted. Let’s explain.

Perhaps there was a time when politics and popular culture inhabited two entirely separate spheres, but those days are long gone. Back in 1995, when John Kennedy, Jr., launched George magazine, he acknowledged that politics had crossed over into the world of pop culture and vice versa, and that you had to begin thinking of pols the way we thought of celebrities and entertainers.

While that may be true, we don’t often consider how popular culture, specifically the movies, has come not only to invade politics, but also to shape the contours of our politics. I doubt that Donald Trump’s candidacy — even his nickname “The Donald” is something out of a movie — could have survived if it hadn’t been for the way the movies conditioned us to accept someone like him.

I already have said on this site that Trump is the first “pseudo-candidate,” borrowing a page from the late historian and social analyst Daniel Boorstin. But Trump may also be the first pop culture candidate, crafted from movie conceptions, not least of which is Trump as what you might call an “authoritarian populist.” That is not a political category; it is a movie mash-up of two very popular archetypes.
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/21/donald_trump_is_the_joker_forget_mussolini_and_hitler_the_gop_strongman_is_an_authoritarian_populist_straight_from_hollywood/

Pro Tip: In fact – Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hammill, doubled down on the theory that Donald Trump is the Joker. I mean he only voices the Joker in the Batman Animated Series!

As you know, Hollywood has stepped up their verbal attacks against President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters since election day. They can’t seem to accept that America did not want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her baggage in the White House. I won’t even get into the divisive speech by Meryl Streep last night.

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker has not hidden his disdain for Trump as he has been bold to speak out against the new Commander-In-Chief. For those who didn’t know, Hamill also voiced The Joker in the Batman Animated Series.

Hamill took his attacks to the next level when he was challenged to read President-elect Trump’s Happy New Year’s tweet in his Joker’s voice. He thus associated our new incoming leader of the free world to a criminal, psychopath.
http://www.tmn.today/2017/01/mark-hamill-attacks-donald-trump-worst-insult-date/

[font size="6"]Chapter 14: Conclusion[/font]

We hope that you enjoyed this lecture series. Really. We started this because it was the holidays and the outcome of the election that nobody was expecting turned our world completely upside down. And we began by telling how you should talk about Donald Trump to your relatives. And we’re concluding with comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. So I guess the question is, how did we get everything wrong? Where do we go from here? To conclude we’ll talk about a couple of events happening right now that could very well trigger World War III, and it would happen under Donald Trump’s watch!

Pro Tip: For our very last and final Pro Tip, if you are not concerned this far that Donald J. Trump has the power to start World War III, check out what China is warning us about!

In weeks that have been saturated by a presidential farewell address, cabinet confirmation hearings, a press conference from the presidential-elect, and new revelations of possible scandal, there has been little time or bandwidth to analyze the new administration’s perspective on international affairs.

But amidst the media bonanza, a glaring flaw in the Trump foreign policy approach has begun to emerge. One statement by the president-elect and another by the secretary of State nominee suggest that the Trump administration may soon find itself in a serious credibility quandary in Asia.

On North Korea and the South China Sea — two of Asia’s most pressing security hotspots — the Trump leadership has begun to make promises that could be disastrous to keep, but also costly to abandon.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/314622-in-china-north-korea-trump-admin-drawing-a-dangerous-red

Not to mention he can tank economies with a single Tweet!

The dollar slid to a one-month low Tuesday after President-elect Donald Trump described the currency as “too strong” in an interview.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against 16 others, fell 1.2% to 91.09, its lowest point since Dec. 8. The dollar was down nearly 1% against the Japanese yen and Mexican peso.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump said the U.S. dollar was already “too strong” in part because China holds down its currency, the yuan. “Our companies can’t compete with them now because our currency is too strong. And it’s killing us," he said.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-comments-send-dollar-reeling/ar-AAlX6WE?li=BBnb7Kz

In short we say:

[font size="6"]Final Exam[/font]

OK ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you made it this far in our lecture series! Now it’s time to take the final exam. You have 45 minutes. Here you go. Remember – cheating is against the Top 10 policy but perfectly acceptable in Donald Trump’s America! Let’s put the timer on the clock – and begin! Thanks for taking this class and not dropping out. We here at the Top 10 will begin another lecture series very soon!

Part 1: Dissect this 2-part Trump Tweet (20 points) :

Part 2: The following questions and statements are True / False (HINT: Think like a Donald Trump supporter would!) (10 points)

1. Calling Donald Trump a “man baby” is perfectly acceptable by his standards.
2. Donald Trump is always right, no matter what his detractors say.
3. Facts matter in a world where conspiracy theories have taken over.
4. Donald Trump wants his name and face to be on everything.
5. Everything is failing according to the eyes of Donald Trump.
6. Fake News sites like Prison Planet and Infowars are better than MSNBC and CNN according to Donald Trump supporters.
7. Trump and his followers think that you should move along and that there’s nothing to see here in regards to Russian hacking.
8. Julian Assange is god.
9. Nazism is acceptable.
10. Narcissists love to talk about themselves in the third person by their name and initials.

Part 3: The following questions are multiple choice. Again, think like a Donald Trump supporter would. (30 points, 3 points each) :

1. What type of behavior best suits Donald Trump as defined in the DSM?
A. Delusional disorder
B. Narcissistic Personality Disorder
C. Infantilism
D. All Of The Above

2. When is the best time to use a well-researched article about Trump in an argument with his supporters?
A. Always
B. Never
C. Rarely
D. Sometimes

3. Identify the following fake news site out of this list.
A. Infowars
B. Prison Planet
C. MSNBC
D. Breitbart

4. What should one do when Russian hacking is brought up in an argument?
A. Tell the person who is arguing that they’re wrong.
B. Deny that video footage exists
C. Deny facts
D. All of the above

5. Who are Donald Trump’s favorite punching bags?
A. The “mainstream media”
B. The “dishonest media”
C. You
D. All of the above

6. What would be considered a “safe space” in the eyes of a deplorable?

A. Boycotting a company who you disagree with
B. Needing your own news network because the other one doesn’t share your values
C. Living in your own bubble and not wanting to hear the other side
D. All of the above

7. Donald J. Trump is the hardest working man on the planet. He even worked on Thanksgiving.

A. This is a correct assumption because he said so.
B. This is a correct assumption because his supporters said so.
C. This is a correct assumption because I said so.
D. This is a correct assumption because the media said so.

8. The writers of the film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” slam Donald Trump, causing a Twitter firestorm. What is the correct reaction to this?

A. Wait it out for the correct facts before Tweeting
B. Wait for the official response from @realDonaldTrump before judging the Twitter firestorm.
C. Wait for the media to fact check the official response from @realDonaldTrump before judging the Twitter firestorm.
D. Join the boycott

9. It was revealed that the Russians hacked @realDonaldTrump. How do you respond?

A. You gloat to the Trump fans that we were right.
B. You gloat to the Trump fans that we were right.
C. You gloat to the Trump fans that we were right.
D. You gloat to the Trump fans that we were right.

10. A Trump supporter sends you a death threat on Twitter because you properly report the facts. How do you respond?

A. Report it to the proper authorities.
B. Send him one back.
C. Use a funny meme to piss off the death threat sender.
D. Hit the “alert” button on Twitter.

Part 4: Using the Fake Trump Tweet Generator ( http://www.faketrumptweet.com ), create a fake Trump Tweet for the following hypothetical scenarios. Again, it helps to think like Donald Trump would, using the points we have outlined in all chapters of this textbook. (40 points, 10 points each, 2 additional points per answer for extra credit for creativity)

1. Best Buy announces that it is closing two central distribution centers and laying off thousands of employees. Donald Trump prevents one of them from closing and gives Best Buy some nice tax breaks .

2. Snoop Dogg records a new song with guest Cypress Hill in which they diss Donald Trump in regards to his stance on marijuana.

3. NBC cancels the current season of “Celebrity Apprentice” due to low ratings.

4. Nissan builds a tiny fraction of a percentage of its’ new model of Sentra and Versa in Mexico for overseas purchases.

[font size="8"]And now this:[/font]
[font size="8"]Against Me[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, playing their song “333” from their new album “Shape Shift With Me”, available everywhere music is sold, please welcome Against Me!

Yeah how about that?

See you next week!

January 15, 2017

No they'd prefer that food stamps be used for nothing at all.

January 12, 2017

The Daily Show Goes There! (1/11/17)

January 11, 2017

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #2-8: The Election From Hell: Donald Trump In: Goldmember Edition

Top 10 Conservative Idiots #2-8: The Election From Hell: Donald Trump In: Goldmember Edition

Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! We are back everybody! Whew!!! First off, I want to say congratulations to the Clemson Tigers for securing the BCS championship! That was awesome wasn't it? I mean it was a dramatic last second that got stretched out for over what seemed like an hour and a half! Alabama, you put up a good fight, and you can rest easier knowing that your championship gear is going to clothe starving kids in Africa. Oh miss, give it a chance, I just got up here! For you watching at home there's people already leaving! Moving on. OK there’s some people who you shouldn’t interview and Jerry Lewis is definitely one of those people. And if you haven’t seen this whole thing it’s an absolute gem. I mean this might be the craziest thing I’ve seen all year, and we’re entering a year that is seeing Donald Trump become the 45th president of the United States. So this reminds me a lot of the Marshawn Lynch interviews from the Seattle Seahawks where he kept repeating “I’m just doing this so I don’t get fined”. This whole interview is one of the craziest things that I’ve ever seen. But my favorite part of this is where the reporter asks Jerry what Vegas was like back in the 60’s, and he says “It’s the same!”. Uh… Jerry have you been to Vegas lately? This thing – well, the only thing that would make it more awkward would be if Zach Galafinakis was the one conducting the interview. Roll tape.

Ah, that’s enough of the intro. We got a lot of conservative idiocy to get to this week. But first – Stephen Colbert nails it when it comes to the lunacy surrounding Donald Trump’s now infamous New Year’s Eve Tweet:

&t=16s

So where do we begin this week? By the way as we’re speaking, Jeff Sessions is getting grilled on the Hill, but we’ll have to wait a week for everything to start coming out about it. Well to start with, the number 1 slot is of course going back to our future president Donald J. Trump. Taking the number one slot, we've got some last minute late breaking news to report to you about Donald Trump and holy shit, the CIA dropped the big one here, or as Donald Trump would say "bigly"! In the second slot, Donald Trump is a very petty man, and it is showing with his post Golden Globes rant against one of the great actresses ever – Meryl Streep, and well Donald is only proving her point. Taking the number 3 seed, we’re going to talk about another celebrity beef, this time between actual future president Donald Trump (3) and host of the Celebrity Apprentice, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the fourth slot we’re going to talk about Donald Trump supporters. There’s been some great and very well researched articles about them published lately and we will post a few of them. Taking the fifth slot, Alex Jones (5) went from denying that mass shootings like Sandy Hook happened to profiting off them. In the number 6 slot we’re going to take a dip in the International Conservative Idiots file and head to the Philippines (6). Their war on drugs has become self aware, and it’s a conservative’s wet dream here. We will tell you all about it. Taking the number 7 slot, we’ve got a brand new installment of “People Who Somehow Got Elected”. This time, it’s Kansas governor Sam Brownback (7) – who not only got elected, but also somehow reelected! In the number 8 slot, we’re going to talk about Bo Bice (8). You might not know the name – he was an American Idol finalist back in the day – he was dining at the Popeye’s Chicken at ATL terminal 3, and is claiming a rather bizarre case of reverse racism. In the number 9 (NEIN!!!!) slot, we’re going to once again talk about the Trump Effect (9). And normally we have a variety of stores to tell you about concerning the racism and white supremacy coming out of everyone, but we have just one story, and holy shit it is insane. I don’t even want to talk about it – fuck this story and everybody in it! Finally this week I hope you guys remembered to do your homework! Because we’ve got just two classes left before the final exam in our ongoing lecture series about How To Talk About Trump For Dummies! This week we’re going to cover chapters 10 part 2, 11 and 12, and next week we will conclude with chapters 13 and 14, so I hope everyone remembered to do their reading. Plus we’ll end this week’s edition with some more live music, this time from a favorite band of ours here at the Top 10 home office - Fitz & The Tantrums. They were responsible for that wildly popular hit a couple of years back called "The Walker" and they have a new self titled album out that is amazing. And they will be stopping by to play something from it. Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!

[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have some urgent late breaking news to report you to! May we have your attention please? So I'm sure you heard by now that Donald Trump is in some deep shit with the CIA and Russia over something. So we'll present the news to you as we found out about it here at the Top 10 home office last night, and if anyone was as glued to the Twittersphere, TV and the internet as I was, well... you already know what is in store!

The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.
The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.
One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html

Holy shit indeed! I mean what could the CIA possibly have on Donald Trump that we don't already know? It's got to be something very damning! What could it possibly be, I wonder?

Donald Trump was 'briefed on claims Kremlin spies hacked Democrats before the elections last week'
Details of classified documents allegedly presented to president-elect have emerged in a report by CNN - including memos given to the FBI
The memos claim the Russian secret services had a file on Trump of 'kompromat' - damaging material Kremlin could use to blackmail him
Dossier included claims he ordered prostitutes to commit degrading sex acts in the presidential suite of a Moscow hotel - because the Obamas stayed there
Dossier was reportedly drawn up by ex-British spy once stationed in Moscow - but its contents cannot be verified and include errors, Buzzfeed reported
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4107738/Intelligence-chief-told-Trump-Kremlin-spies-claim-compromising-material-personal-life-including-claims-degrading-sex-acts-Moscow-hotel.html

Holy shit! I mean seriously... holy shit! He responded by having degrading sex acts in the same bed in the presidential suite of a Moscow hotel where the Obamas stayed! Those sex acts by the way - golden showers, I shit you not! This is Donald Trump In: Goldmember!

So how did Donald J. Trump respond to these potentially catastrophic allegations? If you guessed "Move along, nothing to see here!!!", you are correct sir / madam! You get points! In fact let's throw that Tweet up there, shall we?

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed he has "nothing to do with Russia" and argued that he is the victim of political attacks after reports that intelligence officials possessed briefing material with damaging accusations about ties to Moscow.

The FBI is not actively investigating the information, which was initially circulated among Trump opponents and has not been verified by intelligence agencies, two U.S. officials told NBC News. Those sources did not comment to NBC about the nature of the allegations.

On Twitter, Trump called the reports "unfair" and said, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me." Trump claimed that he has "no deals, no loans, no nothing" with Russia, an assertion that is difficult to verify because he has not released his tax returns, unlike every president since Jimmy Carter.

He argued that political opponents "try to belittle" his electoral victory. Trump asked, "Are we living in Nazi Germany?"
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/11/trump-melts-down-on-twitter-are-we-living-in-nazi-germany.html

And this guy becomes president in 9 days folks! Let's put up some of the tweets that Donald Trump has been doing:

In other words... "move along, nothing to see here"! I mean seriously, we elected a James Bond villain as president of the United States! By the way, next week we'll detail Donald Trump's insane press conference that he had this morning. Get out the butter.

[font size="8"]Donald Trump[/font]

Before we get into Donald Trump’s beef with the Golden Globes this weekend, I do have to mention this story. So you know among other things that Donald Trump slaps his name on and assumes that he’s going to be a good product. I mean he’s a real life Krusty The Klown!

So with that in mind we’re going to show you the story that Trump brand vodka was pulled from shelves because, well…

http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2017/01/trump-vodka-pulled-from-israeli-retailers/

Bottles of Donald Trump’s defunct vodka brand have been pulled from shelves in Israel after the country’s Chief Rabbinate found them to be non-compliant with kosher regulations.
trump-vodka

Founded by the US president elect Donald Trump, Trump Vodka is now only sold in Israel

The Times of Israel reports that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel – the supreme authority for Judaism in the country – ordered a batch of Trump Vodka to be pulled from supermarket shelves, claiming the bottles had been imported without proper kosher licensing.

So the Golden Globes are a thing that happened over the weekend and in case you haven’t heard, Meryl Streep trashed Trump in her acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award. And Donald Trump is pissed because, well, he should have got that lifetime award, damn it! Let’s roll tape and then discuss!

Meryl Streep was honored at the Golden Globes for a lifetime of notable work, and she took the opportunity to make a sustained attack on US President-elect Donald Trump.
In a nearly 6-minute address while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the actress denounced Trump's campaign rhetoric and criticized him for mocking a disabled reporter.

As the audience of Hollywood stars and executives sat in silence, Streep said: "There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good, there was nothing good about it, but it was effective and it did its job.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/08/entertainment/meryl-streep-golden-globes-speech/index.html

So how did Trump respond? Let’s throw that Tweet up there, shall we?

I’m pretty sure that I know the word he would like to use to finish that sentence. Considering that he’s the new leader of the free world, he probably won’t be able to use that word the next 4 years. But I shall refrain from saying it as well. But how exactly did he finish it?

So on Monday morning, Trump emitted a series of tweets that read in total: "Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him 'groveling' when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!"

There are those who believe that Trump himself is very dishonest in respect to his treatment of Kovaleski.

It seems impossible, though, for the president-elect to let even the slightest slight go. Worse, it's always personal.

In evening hazes, I find myself occasionally wanting to advise Trump on his tweeting. Streep did leave herself wide open to scorn with these words: "Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."

Yes folks! Meryl Streep is a Hillary flunky! By the way, USA Today does some fact checking on Trump’s insane Tweet storm, and guess what? He’s wrong! Again!

On Twitter, President-elect Donald Trump falsely wrote that a reporter “totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad.” As we have written before, the reporter never changed his story about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Trump’s tweet was in response to a speech given by actress Meryl Streep at the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 8. Streep, who supported Hillary Clinton for president, said that “it kind of broke my heart” when she saw “that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter.” She did not mention Trump by name.

Trump tweeted that he “never ‘mocked’ a disabled reporter” but did show him “groveling” as he “totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad.”

Streep and Trump were both referring to New York Times investigative journalist Serge Kovaleski, a disabled reporter who suffers from arthrogryposis, which primarily restricts joint movement in the limbs.

Kovaleski co-authored a story for The Washington Post in 2001 that said “a number of people” in Jersey City, N.J., were “allegedly seen celebrating” the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. During the Republican primary, Trump cited that story as evidence for his discredited claim that he saw on television “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey celebrate the terrorist attacks.

Trump made his claim about the celebrations during a speech in Alabama on Nov. 21, 2015. Two days later, Trump tweeted a link to Kovaleski’s Post article from Sept. 18, 2001, and demanded an apology from those who wrote that his statement was false.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2017/01/09/fact-check-trump-serge-kovaleski-meryl-streep/96364654/

By the way, in case you were wondering, why yes two years ago – Donald Trump did in fact praise Meryl Streep. In fact, I have coined a new term for this – I think we should call this phenomenon “Trump Flopping”, because Donald Trump flip flops more than any Washington insider politician they accuse us of doing. Who knows what position Donald Trump is going to take next? :

Any actress you love?

Julia Roberts is terrific, and many others. Meryl Streep is excellent; she's a fine person, too. The problem is I'll name three or four or five and then the hundred that I know will be insulted, and I don't mean to insult them.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/donald-trump-murdoch-ailes-nbc-816131

[font size="8"]Donald Trump [/font]

If I remember correctly from Top 10 history, the Cyborg icon was created during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reign as the Governator of California, my home state, during that whole batshit insane chapter in American history. Well irony has come full circle because Arnold Schwarzenegger is now the host of Celebrity Apprentice. Can we roll some tape of that?

Allow me to do my Schwarzenegger impression for a minute. Yah you are terminated! Now get to ze choppah!!!! Thank you! So here’s how this whole Twitter beef between Schwarzenegger and Trump got started:

When news broke that Donald Trump would remain an executive producer on The Celebrity Apprentice (redubbed The New Celebrity Apprentice after Arnold Schwarzenegger took over as host), some wondered if those duties might cut into time Trump should be spending, you know, running the country (or preparing to). But never fear; apparently, the president-elect not only has time to executive produce the show, but to bash it on Twitter as well.

In two tweets Friday morning, Trump wrote that Schwarzenegger “got ‘swamped’ (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT.” He said that he was comparing Schwarzenegger’s first-season ratings to Trump’s last turn as Apprentice host, but added, “who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary.” (Schwarzenegger voted for Kasich in the primaries, but did not publicly endorse Clinton during this election.)

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/donald-trump-celebrity-apprentice-ratings-arnold-schwarzenegger

Yes! Donald Trump bashed his own show! Can we throw that Tweet up there? Actually it was one of Donald’s cryptic “…” Tweets! Can we show that?

Ah, who cares that the show that Donald Trump has his name in a producer credit on is tanking? I mean his host supported Hillary Clinton!

But what did Ahnold himself say about this? Well let’s talk about that one, shall we?

Don’t mess with The Governator.

Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Twitter on Friday to slam Donald Trump after the president-elect criticized the actor’s Celebrity Apprentice ratings after Monday’s premiere.

After ratings indicated the reality show had dipped 44 percent from the 2015 debut when Trump was host, Trump took to Twitter to bash new host Schwarzenegger, claiming that he got “swamped” and “destroyed” in comparison to “the ratings machine, DJT” (referring to himself).

“There’s nothing more important than the people’s work, @realDonaldTrump,” Schwarzenegger, 69, tweeted in response. “I wish you the best of luck and I hope you’ll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings.”
https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/arnold-schwarzenegger-fires-back-donald-172626379.html

Now that’s how you deal with a narcissist like Donald Trump! Boom! Drop the mic!

[font size="8"]Donald Trump Supporters [/font]

So we’ve been covering Donald Trump and his supporters ad nauseum this week. The truth is Donald Trump changed everything and the end of America may be coming sooner rather than later. But Trump supporters have been getting a lot of coverage lately with people just trying to get inside the mind of a Trump voter. And no there’s no racism, sexism, mysoginy or anything else happening here. I mean you can say Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter a 1,000 times and even show you the video like this:

They’ll come back and say “wrong” a 1,000 times. So here’s one instance of trying to get inside the mind of Trump supporters. We go to Covington, Louisiana, for this one.

COVINGTON, La. — “Sour grapes,” explained Bob Marino, 79, weighing in on the recent spycraft bombshell from the corner table of a local McDonald’s.

“Sour grapes,” agreed Roger Noel, 65, sitting next to him.

“Bunch of crybabies,” Reed Guidry, 64, offered from across the table.

“From the parts of the report I’ve seen,” said Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel who twice ran for Senate here as Tea Party favorite, “it seems silly.”

“I don’t believe it,” Mr. Yates, 78, said flatly of the intelligence report. He was standing in the yard under his “Make America Great Again” flag, which he bought at a gun show several months ago. “Why would Putin even want Trump?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/us/russia-hacking-election-trump-voters.html

Oh they’re perfectly fine with treason happening on their watch so much as those pesky liberals who want things like regulations don’t win! But this isn’t just a local problem – it’s a national problem! Let’s go to Mt. Airy, North Carolina for this story:

And yet even as this city of about 10,000 nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains fills its coffers by selling nostalgia, many of its residents would agree with the now-popular saying “We’re not in Mayberry anymore.”

If only the real Mount Airy, which has experienced decades of economic and social decline, were like the Mayberry facade, muses Mayor David Rowe. If only his city and the rest of America could return to the 1950s again.

“Now it’s about secular progressivism, not the values you get out of this book,” such as honesty and hard work, said Rowe, 72, jabbing his finger at the leather Bible on his office desk.

But as Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House, Rowe and many of his constituents are hoping for a return to the past.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/how-nostalgia-for-white-christian-america-drove-so-many-americans-to-vote-for-trump/2017/01/04/4ef6d686-b033-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html?utm_term=.0e3e87153a9d&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1#comments

But you know what? They hate us! They really hate us! I think the deplorables hate us more than they love Trump or the GOP. And these fucking people get to run the country the next four fucking years! But how much do they hate us?

It has always been ironic that a country founded by Enlightenment philosophers and bookish intellectuals like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton has long been a hostile environment for intellectuals, who are widely distrusted by much of the populace, not least because they are often irreligious or skeptical of religion (as were many of the beloved founders).

So Trump’s anti-elitism is directed more at climate scientists (after all, everyone knows that scientists are atheists), smug technocrats with Ivy League degrees and left-wing intellectuals espousing politically correct nonsense, than at wealthy oil company executives like Rex Tillerson, predatory Wall Street bankers like Steve Mnuchin, and powerful real estate tycoons like, well, Donald J. Trump.
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/07/donald-trumps-glorious-victory-for-anti-intellectualism-drain-the-swamp-just-meant-the-eggheads/#.WHEp6zJsGJs.facebook

And they’re perfectly OK with overturning separation of church and state:

A policy proposal touted by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. could unleash the vocal cords of nonprofit and religious leaders — along with their donors’ pocketbooks.

Trump and Falwell consider the “Johnson Amendment,” a 1954 tax law barring tax-exempt organizations from overtly supporting or opposing political candidates and limiting their ability to lobby, as a suppression of free speech.

While Trump has broadcast his support of the repeal to evangelical voters in particular, it applies to a broad swath of “charitable organizations” receiving tax-exempt status for charitable, religious, scientific, educational and other purposes.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/education/higher_education/trump-falwell-team-up-to-repeal-johnson-amendment/article_23c13301-f1a5-5303-abb3-82215e6d482e.html

[font size="8"]Alex Jones [/font]

So by now you heard of the horrifying shooting that happened at the baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale Airport. There’s nothing funny about that. And Alex Jones is continuing to prove to be the classless asshole that he is. And the Florida state legislature definitely isn’t helping to ease our fears about what the NRA now calls “active shooter” incidents. Gee, thanks NRA for making these types of situations far less nerve racking! Um, last I checked, nobody wants to live in a world where anybody can be killed like this at any time!

So the shooting happened like this:

The suspected gunman in an airport shooting rampage in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — Esteban Santiago, 26, an Iraq War veteran — has been charged with federal crimes and could face the death penalty, the Justice Department announced Saturday night.

Santiago showed signs of violence and what authorities called “erratic behavior” in the months before they said he traveled 4,000 miles from home, loaded a gun in a baggage area and killed five people in some 80 seconds.

“The area was crowded with newly-arrived passengers retrieving their luggage, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. “Santiago started shooting, aiming at his victims’ heads until he was out of ammunition.”

Santiago is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday at 11 a.m. before a magistrate judge in Fort Lauderdale.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/08/fort-lauderdale-shooting-suspect-claimed-government-was-controlling-his-mind-months-before-shooting/?utm_term=.91c2414494d7

And here’s how the Florida State Legislature responded – by cancelling a planned vote that would allow guns in airports! Seriously that’s their solution to everything – throwing more guns at it! You don’t throw a Molotov cocktail at a burning building that’s already on fire, do you?

Last week, a man named Estaban Santiago entered the Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida, and opened fire on civilians, killing five. While some lawmakers like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz are looking to make having guns in airports completely illegal, two Florida lawmakers are looking to make the laws much more relaxed.

Florida state Sen. Greg Steube and state Rep. Jake Raburn, both Republicans, have both introduced bills into the Florida Senate and House respectively that seek to eliminate gun-free zones from places such as the areas in airports where firearms are prohibited.

While Raburn’s bill, House Bill 6001, deals exclusively with allowing concealed carry permit holders to enter into non-secured parts of the area with their firearm, Steube goes a step further. His bill, Senate Bill 140, would allow gun owners to not only carry in airports, but college campuses, public schools, courthouses, legislative committee meetings, and local government meetings
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/01/09/fla-lawmakers-introduce-bills-to-eliminate-gun-free-zones-at-airports-after-ft-lauderdale-shooting/

And in case you’re wondering how Alex Jones ties into all of this, remember all the harassment and bullshit that Sandy Hook “truthers” that he inspired to prove that the mass murder of 20 children and 6 teachers didn’t happen and was a false flag? Well, he went from that to seeing a monetary opportunity at Fort Lauderdale:

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio show used the January 6 mass shooting at an airport in Fort Lauderdale, FL, to urge viewers to buy body armor from Jones’ online store.

On January 6, a gunman killed five people and wounded six others when he opened fire with a handgun in the baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, legally checked the firearm used for the shooting in his luggage on a flight from Anchorage, AK, to Fort Lauderdale.

The day of the shooting, two guest hosts on The Alex Jones Show -- Infowars’ Owen Shroyer and David Knight -- used the violence to urge viewers to buy body armor.

Citing the shooting and claiming “gun control areas are killing zones,” Knight said, “You need to make sure -- if they’re going to take your gun away, if they’re going to keep you defenseless -- you need to make sure that you can at least shield yourself. That’s why we’re selling tactical nanotechnology body armor that was previously available only to the military, only to law enforcement, is now available exclusively at InfowarsStore.com.”
http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/09/alex-jones-infowarscom-attempts-profit-fort-lauderdale-mass-shooting/214962

Yup! He’s selling weapons grade body armor! So he went from denying mass shootings happen to profiting off them! Bravo! Well done, Infowars! You’ve officially sunk to a new low!

Come on sing it with me!

[font size="8"]Philippines’ War On Drugs [/font]

So just as it is our duty here at the Top 10 to talk about conservative idiots here at home, so must we do so when talking about conservative idiocy abroad. Only talking about conservative idiocy here at home, when talking about it abroad, you realize hey ours here at home aren’t this batshit fucking crazy! And that’s about the most positive thing I can say about them! So we go to the Philippines for this one. You know, you may have heard something about a “war on drugs”. Well not so much here a war on drugs as it is an excuse to lock people up for profit. But here it’s really only a dialogue. The Philippines have declared a literal war on drugs. Well maybe not so much war as it is some uh… light… genocide. And there’s nothing we can do to make this story funny. So let’s proceed.

Newly elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a war on drugs about seven weeks ago. The grim result? More than 1,900 dead and counting.

Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the country's national police force, said at a Senate hearing in Manila this week that only around 750 of those people have been killed by police and that the rest of the deaths are now under investigation. Whether it's 750 or 1,900, the Philippine government has made no effort to mask the intentional targeting of anyone believed to be dealing drugs.

But according to dela Rosa, police were never given "shoot-to-kill" orders for those suspected to be drug dealers.

Funny he should claim that, because Duterte himself told a group of reporters the exact opposite earlier this month.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-philippines-drug-war-analysis-20160823-story.html

Holy fuck!!! We’re dealing with a crazy mad man here folks. This guy makes Erdogan or Kadyrov look like Sascha Cohen’s character from “The Dictator”.

But as we go down the wormhole, the scarier it gets! In fact they’re doing something that Donald Trump would just love to do here, and he’d probably get away with it too if it wasn’t for that pesky 1st amendment!

A PHILIPPINES provincial newspaper publisher has been shot dead after writing a column alleging official negligence over a recently discovered methamphetamine laboratory, in the first killing of a journalist during the country’s war on drugs.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned Monday’s murder of Larry Que, publisher of a news site on the island of Catanduanes, and said it “challenged” President Rodrigo Duterte to find the perpetrators and utilise a special task force he set up to protect media.

The Philippines enjoys one of Asia’s most liberal media environments, and one of the most dangerous for journalists.

Scores have been killed in the past three decades, with radio broadcasters who cover provincial politics among the most common victims. Investigations of killings have often been inconclusive.

Read more: https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/12/philippines-journalist-slain-dutertes-war-drugs/

I mean seriously this is a new level of insanity. But what else could they be up to in the Philippines?

...Maria, not her real name, now carries out contract killings as part of the government-sanctioned war on drugs.

She is part of a hit team that includes three women, who are valued because they can get close to their victims without arousing the same suspicion a man would.

Since President Duterte was elected, and urged citizens and police to kill drug dealers who resisted arrest, Maria has killed five more people, shooting them all in the head....

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37172002

Dude, is it me or does this woman remind me of either Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad or Machete?

But guess what? You know who approves of this sort of thing? If you guessed that he approves then you are… absolutely correct sir / madam! You get points!

US President-elect Donald Trump has praised Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte for his controversial war on drugs in which thousands have died, Duterte said on Saturday following a phone call between the leaders.

The Philippine president called Trump on Friday evening to congratulate him on his victory and Trump wished him “success” in his controversial crackdown, in which 4,800 people have been killed since June, according to Duterte.

“He was quite sensitive also to our worry about drugs. And he wishes me well ... in my campaign and he said that ... we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way,” Duterte said in a statement.

An aide to the Philippines president earlier said Trump invited him to the White House next year during a “very engaging, animated” phone conversation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/03/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-white-house-invite

[font size="8"]Sam Brownback[/font]

Politicians at national, state and local levels who are so terrible , you wonder how they got elected in the first place. Or in this case reelected. It’s now time for another installment of:

This week – Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, who takes the concept of corporate greed to dangerous and terrifying new levels. In fact, Sam Brownback is so greedy that he decided that he wanted to simply do away with Kansas’ higher education system, which includes the University Of Kansas:

Kansas tax receipts fell $53 million short of estimates in February, and Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday immediately announced a $17 million cut to the state’s university system.

The latest revenue results are a dramatic blow to recent moves by the Legislature to shore up the state budget.

Individual income tax revenue last month was about $27 million below projections, and sales tax receipts missed estimates by about $12 million, according to the state’s Department of Revenue. Corporate income taxes were $7.7 million below estimates.

Brownback said the state’s budget problems reflect economic woes, not tax policy problems. He said he would focus on managing spending, not on raising taxes.

Brownback said he notified the Kansas Board of Regents of a 3 percent cut in the allocation of state tax dollars to the higher education system.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article63347152.html#storylink=cpy

That’s right – he cut education. Remember when Rick Perry said that he wanted to cut 3 government run departments, and that education was one of them? It seems that people in government really hate smart people! In fact, Brownback’s tax policies are so extremely right wing that it’s scaring some very prominent members of the party:

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article5004057.html

After Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback narrowly won re-election in November, University of Missouri political scientist Peverill Squire warned that the Republican’s close call could have a chilling effect on tax cutting.

“It will probably give a lot of Republicans nationwide pause,” Squire told The Star after Brownback won Nov. 4 with just 49.8 percent of the vote. “It’s not that they don’t want to push the same conservative policies, but they might not want to take them to an extreme.”

Now, true to Squire’s prediction, Politico said Friday that Republican-led states are getting nervous about tax cuts. It’s being called the “Brownback effect.”

Kansas, after exhausting its reserve funds, faces more than $700 million in budget cuts as a result of plummeting revenues brought on by Brownback-supported income tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013.

And remember when Liberty University pledged unwavering support for the NRA last year during all those mass shootings and decided to allow guns in dorms and pledged to build an on campus firing range? Well, Sam Brownback is considering allowing guns in public places and is actually overwriting the clause in the law that prevents concealed carry weapons on campus:

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Gov. Sam Brownback says he’s not rethinking his support for a Kansas law that will allow concealed guns on state college campuses starting in July.

Brownback told reporters Wednesday that he’s “not inclined to think about” revising the law enacted in 2013.

The law expanded the rights of gun owners to carry concealed weapons into public buildings, but allowed campuses to exempt themselves for four years.

The state Board of Regents last week approved policies for how the state’s six public universities will implement the law.
http://ksn.com/2016/12/21/governor-brownback-not-rethinking-support-for-campus-guns-law/

And there’s so much more. But you know what folks? Just like Donald Trump – Sam Brownback continually says that his policies are misunderstood. Like this one where he claims more money for schools despite that we just proved that he cut money for schools:

Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday that many Kansas voters misunderstood his policies during the recent election, when victorious legislative candidates made opposition to the governor’s policies the key issue.

Brownback enters the next year facing a budget hole and a Legislature where he has significantly reduced clout, but Brownback pushed back on the notion that he stands in opposition to the ideals that many of the incoming lawmakers based their campaigns on.

He rattled off a list off a list of common campaign promises: more money for schools, more money for the state’s pension system, an end to transfers of highway construction money into the state general fund and a fairer tax system.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article120984588.html

https://static1.fjcdn.com/comments/4355024+_5311b45db9177059bab9ae8a32aa063c.jpg

But Sam Brownback does more than just fail. He fails quite hard and quite feverishly. And you want to know how hard Brownback fails? He cost the state of Kansas nearly a billion – yes, a BILLION in wasted tax revenue. You know – wasteful government spending. That thing that the republicans accuse the democrats of on an almost hourly basis? Yes the hypocrisy reeks here:

Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s “experiment” in supply-side economics has been a disaster for his state’s finances — and his latest proposal to keep the government funded is getting panned by lawmakers in both parties.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Brownback wants to use money from the state’s long-term investments to cover a budget shortfall that’s projected to be a whopping $930 million over the next 18 months.

The goal of tapping into the investment fund, says Kansas Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Dennin, is to “to get out of the crisis” the government is now facing “without having to do deep, deep cuts to K-12” education.

However, at least one member of Brownback’s own party is not ready to sign off on such a plan — and has even compared it to shady financial engineering.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/like-taking-a-payday-loan-kansas-lawmakers-rip-gov-brownbacks-shady-new-budget-plan/

Yes – shady financial engineering. You know we’d expect that from Donald Trump. You know that sounds very Trump-esque. Oh wait yes, he’s actually encouraging Trump to recreate his tax policies for the national level, despite that oh yes he failed hard:

When recently asked what was the matter with Kansas, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback ignored the steaming pile of economic wreckage that his supply-side experiment has caused in the state, and suggested that President-elect Donald Trump should take the Kansas model nationwide.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Friday, America’s least popular governor urged Trump to mimic the massive spending and tax cuts he implemented in Kansas — which have led to growing budget gaps, missed growth projections and two credit downgrades for the state.

Critics “won’t look with any depth or detail at the impact on small business growth or private-sector job growth,” Brownback said, brushing aside the evidence that his policies have failed disastrously. “That’s the target, that’s what we’re after.”
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/23/sam-brownback-urges-donald-trump-to-replicate-his-kansas-disaster-on-a-national-scale/

Which – the few sane lawmakers Kansas actually has left are calling on him to fix the economic mess that he himself is responsible for:

TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers hope Gov. Sam Brownback will make a firm commitment to permanently fix the state’s budget woes in his State of the State address.

Republicans and Democrats expressed a desire for the governor to acknowledge the state’s current fiscal shortcomings. Yet one Democratic legislator predicted the second-term chief executive would continue to stand his ground on budget and tax policy.

Brownback will deliver the annual State of the State address at 5 p.m. Tuesday. State officials are then expected to unveil his budget proposal Wednesday morning.
http://www.hdnews.net/news/local/lawmakers-want-brownback-to-commit-to-fixing-budget-problems-in/article_6d865327-cc65-513c-9152-57c659b95750.html

And you know how Sam Brownback paid back the working class in Kansas? By giving the workers and tax payers of Kansas more questions than answers:

Gov. Sam Brownback’s holiday gift to the hardworking Kansas statehouse press corps is the end-of-the year sit-down he grants reporters, who are invited individually or in pairs to his inner-office sanctum. There, like an understuffed Santa, the sweater-clad governor dispenses a bag full of excuses, falsehoods, underwhelming plans and promises he can’t keep.

Brownback is always a pretty unjolly Santa, but he was especially whiny this year. The media are unfair, he complained. Legislators don’t understand him. The state Senate president calls him names.
http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20847322/sam-brownback-at-christmas-the-lonely-governor-with-so-much-to-give-the-rest-of-america

And not only did he get elected, but somehow he got reelected. Which makes us wonder how Sam Brownback is one of the:

[font size="8"]Bo Bice[/font]

We might need the Sad Hulk Music for this one, can we get that please?

So I’m sure you’ve heard by now Bo Bice. Has claimed a case of reverse racism. So he’s at the Atlanta Terminal 3 Popeye’s – which I’ve been to many times – and then this happened.

Former ‘American Idol’ contestant Bo Bice says that he was the victim of a racial epithet from a Popeye’s restaurant employee, and he’s being mocked on social media for even suggesting such a thing is possible.

Bice documented his version of the story in an angry Facebook post that has since been removed for alleged failure to meet Facebook standards. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

Shawana is such a model Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen employee! After laughing at and mocking my name (Bow-Bow, Boo-Boo, Bo-Bo) for 5 minutes straight with other employees, then when my order came up for a 2nd time (because she rang it up twice, goes to show how on top of things they were) they called out “BO-BO”, to which she refereed to me in a condescending tone as “The White Boy” to her other fellow Popeye’s teammates. “He already got this, that White Boy there” they all had a good laugh over it, even the so-called manager you see in the photo beside Shawana. Now, if the tables had been turned and I as a white male treated any person of ethnicity anyway resembling how she spoke to and treated me I’d be considered insensitive and racist.
www.theblaze.com/news/2017/01/04/american-idol-alum-bo-bice-says-hes-victim-of-racism-from-popeyes-employee/

Well OK there’s so much wrong here that it’s hard to know where to start. I’m a white guy, OK? And as you can guess, I am the type of guy who does not get out in the sun much. So if someone calls me “white” then you know what I’m OK with it! And people like Bo Bice are exactly the kind of thin skinned people who make Donald Trump possible. Let’s continue:

In a deleted Facebook post, Bice claimed that he was the victim of “racist behavior” because one female employee said to another, “He’s already got his [order], that white boy over there.”

Bice threatened legal action against Popeye’s, and also called out Facebook for allegedly deleting his initial post about the incident. In an interview with Fox 5 news on Tuesday, Bice tearfully recounted his story, saying:

“If the tables had been turned and I had used something...and been as insensitive as to say something like that, I would be boycotted. There would be people not buying my albums, there would be people coming and picketing at my shows, and everything else.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-american-idol-contestants-cries-over-being-called-white-boy_us_586d0e19e4b0eb58648b5445

You know what Bo? The first thing they teach you about starting an argument in debate class is that when you’re in a hole, stop digging! And people would stop buying your albums? I haven’t seen you on the Top 10 on iTunes in years!!! I mean really? That’s what you’re concerned about? If you’re concerned about image, I get that. But seriously… this is extremely bad form.

But the best of this POS came from Stephen Colbert:

The American Idol season 4 runner-up made headlines this week when he complained about having to endure “reverse racism” at a Popeye’s fast food restaurant located in the Atlanta airport.

The singer sounded off on Facebook, then attacked the site when they deleted his post at Popeye’s request. He broke down in tears during a FOX 5 interview claiming the situation had “forced” him to air his grievances in public.

Colbert did a masterful job of skewering Bo’s petty white man resentment.

Responding to Bo’s claim that if the roles had been reversed, the public would boycott his album sales, Colbert snarked, “I don’t even want to imagine a world where people don’t buy Bo Bice albums.”
http://www.mjsbigblog.com/stephen-colbert-skewers-american-idol-bo-bice-late-show-video.htm

Can we roll the tape on that?

&t=5s

[font size="8"]The Trump Effect[/font]

So there was a story that happened last week in Chicago. And I don’t even want to talk about it. I hate this story so much. Fuck this story and everybody in it. I’m not going to talk about it. What????????????????? OK fine. Make me. I know you are but what am I? It takes one to know one! But mooooooooooooom!!!! Damn it! OK fine I’ll just run it, but that’s about it. No I am not going to add any commentary! Or jokes or memes! Because there’s absolutely no way you can make this story funny!

Four suspects have been charged with a hate crime in the brutal attack of a mentally disabled man that was recorded and posted online.

Police arrested the four alleged assailants Wednesday evening after they posted streaming video of the attack on Facebook Live, and authorities announced charges on Thursday afternoon, reported WGN-TV.

Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary.

Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/four-suspected-assailants-charged-with-hate-crime-in-video-attack-on-disabled-white-man/

That’s the extent of the shit that the Trump and anti-Trump crowd have been up to this week, but I’m not touching that with a 10 foot pole. Now moving on. There’s two more stories about the Trump Effec t that I want to mention before we get out of here and move onto the 10th thing this week – heading of course back to Kansas where lots of racism in the National Guard appears to be taking place. We’re going backwards at an alarming rate folks!

Kansas National Guard Lt. Col. Barry Thomas spoke of black soldiers under his command with a harshness perceived by investigators to inflame racial tension.

The white officer, who led the Kansas Army Guard’s recruiting battalion among other assignments in a career spanning more than 25 years, told a soldier, “I thought I would never meet a black man that did not like watermelon.”

On a separate occasion, according to investigation documents obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal, Thomas said he believed African-American men universally favored oral sex. Investigators reported he referred to a black sergeant major as a “tongue-chewing retard” who dressed like a “pimp.” He questioned why a black soldier would possess a home more valuable than his own.

A multifaceted internal inquiry by Kansas military officers into alleged malfeasance within the Kansas National Guard found that Thomas held “little regard for soldiers under his care” and led to a recommendation he forfeit a chance for promotion. Thomas was elevated to colonel despite violating a zero-tolerance Kansas Guard order against bullying subordinates. He still holds a leadership position among 7,500 Kansas Guard employees who serve in combat, respond to Kansas disasters and perform humanitarian missions.

http://cjonline.com/news/state-government/2017-01-07/internal-investigation-kansas-guard-pinpoints-toxic-leadership

And then there’s this:

Officials at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark said they will investigate an incident in which the Plainfield High School girls basketball team arrived at the school for a game Saturday and found a black dummy hanging from its neck in the room they were given.

When Plainfield arrived for the 11 a.m. game, it was met by what appeared to be a black dummy hanging from its neck by string with a basketball attached to it, according to a posting on Facebook.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/union-county/2017/01/07/officials-investigate-black-dummy-hanging-plainfield-game/96297268/

Yeah. We’re going to hell.

[font size="8"]How To Talk About Trump For Dummies Pt 4[/font]

Now class! Settle down and pay attention! HEY QUIET!!!! So we’ve got just one more class in our ongoing lecture series about how to talk about Donald Trump for dummies. By now you’ve most likely left home to return to the grind. And said good bye to your racist aunts and uncles. But now you have your coworkers to deal with, and just 9 (NEIN!!!!) days until the nightmare that is the Donald J. Trump administration begins. I’m sure his inauguration will just be him maniacally laughing for an hour and a half, if he does laugh at all. So let’s get out our textbooks shall we?

[font size="6"]Chapter 10 Part 2: Dissecting A Trump Tweet[/font]

So when we left off last week, we showed you how to dissect a genuine Donald J. Trump tweet by reading beyond the headlines looking for actual facts. Because now that we live in a world where facts don’t matter, it helps to have backup in these types of arguments. So with that in mind, let’s take a recent Tweet from his Tweetness, Donald J. Trump where he talks about Toyota. I’m sure most of you here either own a Toyota or have owned a Toyota at some point in the past, am I right?

Phew. Those are some pretty strong words, am I not right about that, class? So we’ll show you the whole story and then tell you how to dissect the tweet.

TOKYO — Donald J. Trump sent shivers across the Japanese auto industry on Friday after warning Toyota on Twitter that he would impose a “big border tax” on the company if it built a new plant in Mexico.

It appeared to be the first time he had taken on a foreign company for plans that did not directly involve the United States. The effects were immediate: Shares in Toyota and other carmakers fell in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday. And Japanese government officials hustled to respond to the rhetoric with soothing reminders of the jobs that the country’s auto manufacturers had created in the United States.

“Toyota itself has tried to be a good corporate citizen in the U.S. to date,” said Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Daily Gendai, one of Japan’s leading tabloid newspapers, declared in a front-page headline that “Trump tries to smash Toyota,” and another tabloid, Evening Fuji, hinted at a coming battle with its headline, “Trump vs. Toyota.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/business/trump-toyota-mexico-twitter-threat.html

So Toyota is hopping mad here! Now here’s how you can dissect the Tweet. Yes there’s nothing that makes Donald J. Trump or his supporters madder than when you use actual facts to back up an argument. Even from his favorite “dishonest media” sources like the New York Times or Washington Post which they will almost instantly discredit as being wrong.

President-elect Donald Trump continued his Twitter tirade against the auto industry on Thursday, slamming Toyota for investing in Mexico but appearing to misstate key details of the company’s operations.

Trump warned the Japanese carmaker over Twitter that it could face hefty fines for building a plant in Baja, Mexico, to sell the popular Corolla sedan to American consumers. But Trump’s tweet looks to be incorrect: Toyota’s factory in Baja assembles Tacoma trucks, according to the automaker. A new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, will manufacture Corollas.

That factory broke ground in November, and production is expected to begin in 2019. The work is being shifted to the plant from a facility in Canada. In a statement Thursday, Toyota said that there is no change in employment and production in the United States as a result of the new operations.

“Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years,” the company said. “Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/05/donald-trump-threatens-toyota-but-it-looks-like-he-got-the-facts-wrong/?utm_term=.4fef2376b9fe&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

Pro Tip: You can almost instantly guess how Donald Trump is going to discredit this story with a Fake Trump Tweet.

[font size="6"]Chapter 11: The Dishonest Media[/font]

Donald J. Trump *LOVES* to talk about the “dishonest media”. So now we’re going to take a dip in the international Conservative Idiots file and head to Germany. See we here at the Top 10 are not afraid of covering events abroad because conservative idiocy isn’t just limited to these United States of ours. No, it’s an international problem that stems far and wide, reaching around the world. So Donald Trump cant stop Tweeting about the “dishonest media”. It’s his mantra. It’s the thing that makes him well, Donald J. Trump. So how does that tie into Germany, you may ask? Well I answer you good sir / madam with this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pwa/?utm_term=.1987400386fa#https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/24/the-ugly-history-of-luegenpresse-a-nazi-slur-shouted-at-a-trump-rally/

BERLIN — When a video of two Donald Trump supporters shouting “Lügenpresse” (lying press) started to circulate Sunday, viewers from Germany soon noted its explosive nature. The defamatory word was most frequently used in Nazi Germany. Today, it is a common slogan among those branded as representing the “ugly Germany”: members of xenophobic, right-wing groups.

Its use across the Atlantic Ocean at a Trump rally has worried Germans who know about its origins all too well. Both the Nazi regime and the East German government made use of it, turning it into an anti-democracy slogan.”

Where’s Aldo Raine when you need him?

So now Nazi-ism has come full circle. It started out in Germany after WWI. Then after WWII, it supposedly put an end to it. Now it’s resurfaced in the US under the title of “alt right” (or “alt reich” as we call it here at the office). Now thanks to America’s alt right it’s picking up steam back in the Fatherland. So how bad is it? Well let’s ask our great vice president Joe Biden:

Vice President Joe Biden has a very simple message for president-elect Donald Trump: “Grow up.”

Biden made the comment during an interview with PBS News Hour, when asked about Trump’s Thursday morning tweet calling Senate minority leader Chuck Schemer “head clown.”

“Grow up, Donald,” Biden said. “Grow up. Time to be an adult, you’re president.”

“You gotta do something, show us what you have,” the Vice President continued. “You’re gonna propose the legislation, we’re going to get to debate it, let the public decided. Let ’em vote in Congress. Let’s see what happens. It’s going to be much clearer what he’s for and against and what we’re for and against now that it’s going to get down to actually discussing, in detail, these issues that affect people’s lives.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/joe-biden-blisters-trump-over-childish-tweets-grow-up-time-to-be-an-adult-youre-president/comments/#disqus

Pro Tip: It helps when arguing about anything involving Donald Trump, to Donald Trump supporters, that it helps to stoop to their level. Like when Alec Baldwin recently trolled Trump supporters by wearing a “make America Great Again” hat in Russian:

[font size="6"]Chapter 12: Behavioral Theory[/font]

Here’s the other part of where all the pieces start coming together. We’ve talked about Trump’s reckless behavior since the election ad nauseum. Now that it’s a new year and he’s 9 days away from the presidency barring some unforeseen catastrophe, he will become the 45th president of the United States. So before we get into this section we’re going to first use the DSM to define what disorder we think Donald Trump has.

Delusional disorder is one of the less common psychotic disorders, in which patients have delusions but not the other classical symptoms of schizophrenia (thought disorder, hallucinations, mood disturbance or flat affect). There have been some changes in diagnostic criteria for this condition in the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, intended to improve the reliability and stability of the diagnosis and facilitate consistent treatment (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

A delusion is a belief that is held with strong conviction despite evidence disproving it that is stronger than any evidence supporting it. It is distinct from an erroneous belief caused by incomplete information (misconception or misunderstanding), deficient memory (confabulation) or incorrect perception (illusion). The psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers proposed 3 criteria for delusional beliefs in 1913: certainty (the belief is held with absolute conviction), incorrigibility (the belief cannot be changed with any proof to the contrary) and impossibility or falsity (the belief cannot be true) (Jaspers, 1967). Delusions are associated with a variety of mental and neurological disorders, but are of diagnostic importance in the psychotic disorders.
http://www.theravive.com/therapedia/Delusional-Disorder-DSM--5-297.1-(F22)

This pretty much describes Trump and his supporters in a nutshell. No matter how much you try to dissuade them, they are always convinced that they are right 110% of the time, and anyone who goes against the narrative is wrong. You can roll the tape on them, you can point out facts, you can repeat actual news or whatever you feel like, but they’ll come back with this.

This describes how narcissists like Alex Jones and Donald Trump operate. And how Donald conducts himself on Twitter? Well one CIA analyst said that Donald might want to refrain from doing this when he takes the oath on January 20th, his tweets could have the potential to start WWIII!

When he officially takes office next week, Donald Trump should really think twice about tweeting, James Woolsey, ex-CIA chief and former senior advisor to the president-elect, told CNBC on Monday.
Trump should re-evaluate his use of Twitter (TWTR) with "fresh eyes" after the inauguration, because "governing in 140 character transmissions is a lot harder," Woolsey said on "Squawk Box."
Without elaborating, Woosley argued there could be some circumstances in which Twitter would be effective for Trump as president.
The Constitution has survived many tests, but figuring out how to deal with Twitter is a "whole new ballgame," he said. To ensure security, it's going to take "creativity" to manage a tweeting president, he said.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-cia-chief-warns-trump-to-beware-of-tweeting-after-inauguration-day/ar-BBy50QR?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

And in case you’re wondering what exactly makes a narcissist tick, what allows someone like Donald Trump with no conscious or sense of decency to sleep at night, there’s a technique called “Gaslighting” that is a common technique of argument among your modern narcissists:

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse used by narcissists in order to instill in their victim’s an extreme sense of anxiety and confusion to the point where they no longer trust their own memory, perception or judgment. The techniques used in “Gaslighting” by the narcissist are similar to those used in brainwashing, interrogation, and torture that have been used in psychological warfare by intelligence operative, law enforcement and other forces for decades.

The intention is to, in a systematic way, target the victim’s mental equilibrium, self confidence, and self esteem so that they are no longer able to function in an independent way. Gaslighting involves the abuser to frequently and systematically withhold factual information from the victim, and replacing it with false information. Because of it’s subtly, this cunning Machiavellian behaviour is a deeply insidious set of manipulations that is difficult for anybody to work out, and with time it finally undermines the mental stability of the victim. That is why it is such a dangerous form of abuse.

http://narcissisticbehavior.net/the-effects-of-gaslighting-in-narcissistic-victim-syndrome/

Pro Tip: In chapter 13 we’ll discuss the inevitable dictator comparisons. Because you can’t have too many of those when talking about a narcissistic crazy person who can start a nuclear war!

Pro Tip: When a Trump supporter talks about jobs, you can talk about the few that he’s created, or the many that he’s taken away . Talking about the latter helps, usually with proof!

Between the Trump transition team’s infighting, incompetence, and high-profile resignations, any decisions that signaled even a modicum of stability for the country would come as a relief at this point. Unfortunately, the nascent Trump Administration isn’t inclined to calm anyone’s nerves. According to an official within the Department of Energy, this past Friday, the President-elect’s team instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th.

The NNSA is the $12 billion-a-year agency that “maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.” It’s unclear when the two officials will be replaced.

Traditionally, all political appointees of an outgoing presidential administration turn in resignation letters effective on noon of inauguration day, January 20. But appointees in key positions—like the people who make sure our nukes work—are often asked to stay on in their roles until a replacement can be found and confirmed by the Senate, helping ensure a smooth transition and allowing our government to continue functioning. In fact, for the entirety of Obama’s first term and into part of his second, the NNSA Administrator remained a Bush appointee.

Trump, however, appears determined to immediately push out everyone who was appointed by Obama, regardless of whether or not he has anyone in line for the job. Or, as our source put it: “It’s a shocking disregard for process and continuity of government.”

Read more: http://gizmodo.com/trump-just-dismissed-the-people-in-charge-of-maintainin-1790908093

That’s it for this week class! Your homework is to pre-read chapters 13 about dictatorial comparisons and chapter 14 – the conclusion, for the conclusion for when we reconvene next week! And there will be a written final exam!

[font size="8"]And now this:[/font]
[font size="8"]Fitz & The Tantrums[/font]

Ladies and gentlemen, playing their song “Complicated” from their album “Fitz & The Tantrums”, available in stores everywhere music is sold, please welcome Fitz & The Tantrums!

Yeah how about that?

See you next week!

January 10, 2017

Stephen Colbert Calls For A Million Meryl March

January 10, 2017

Trump Takes Credit For Fiat / Chrysler Expansion, Gets Smacked Down

resident-elect Donald Trump took credit for Fiat and Chrysler’s $1 billion expansion in Michigan and Ohio in a series of tweets on Monday morning; however, parent company FCA US clarified that Trump had nothing to do with it, ThinkProgress reports.

The company announced on Sunday, Jan. 8 that its expansion would also create 2,000 U.S jobs. “It’s finally happening – Fiat Chrysler just announced plans to invest $1BILLION in Michigan and Ohio plants, adding 2000 jobs,” Trump wrote in a tweet on Monday morning.

The president-elect also referenced Fiat and Chrysler’s decision to expand while speaking with reporters at Trump Tower. “You just saw what happened with Fiat where they’re going to build a massive plant in the United States in Michigan. And, we’re very happy,” he said.

Jodi Tinson, a spokeswoman for FCA told ThinkProgress, “This plan was in the works back in 2015. This announcement…was just final confirmation.” Tinson also confirmed that neither politics nor the presidential election was at all related to the company’s expansion.

The company’s press release acknowledged that its latest announcement was the “second phase of an industrialization plan” that FCA US first announced last January.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/fiat-chrysler-smacks-down-trumps-boasts-president-elect-not-involved-in-companys-job-creation/

January 9, 2017

Mark Hammill Reads Trump's New Year's Tweet As The Joker

January 6, 2017

Who Loves Tucker Carlson? Mysoginists and Neo Nazis!

Following the news that Megyn Kelly had left Fox News for NBC, a commenter at the pro-Donald Trump subreddit “r/The_Donald” -- a key gathering place for the “alt-right” -- posed a question: “WHO DO WE WANT IN HER PLACE?” The subreddit’s denizens quickly coalesced around a single option: Tucker Carlson.

“TUCKER FOR ANOTHER HOUR!” reads the thread’s top comment. “Then start spamming fox with emails and comments letting them know,” wrote one Redditor. “You can’t cuck the Tuck,” commented another.

Twenty-four hours later, the trolls seem to have gotten their way, with Fox News announcing that Carlson will take over Kelly’s 9 p.m. timeslot. Carlson -- a preppy son of privilege who has incongruously become cable news’s most favored host among neo-Nazis and white nationalists -- will now have a prime-time venue to continue giving Fox News a bigger foothold with the “alt-right” audience.

Carlson is a career member of the press who first wrote for establishment conservative and mainstream news outlets like The Weekly Standard, The New York Times Magazine, and New York magazine, and has spent nearly two decades as a host and commentator on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, and finally Fox News. While Carlson has regularly promoted a conservative brand of commentary laced with misogyny, misinformation, and factually inaccurate attacks, many on the left remember him as the bow tie-wearing Crossfire host who Jon Stewart pummeled in his searing 2004 demolition of the program.

But since landing his 7 p.m. Fox News program Tucker Carlson Tonight in November, Carlson has built a strong following among the worst racists, misogynists, and anti-Semites on the Internet.
http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/05/fox-news-new-prime-time-host-tucker-carlson-beloved-neo-nazis-and-misogynists/214933

They really don't care. The GOP does not look out for the people.

January 6, 2017

Colbert Does It Again - This Time Suggests Calling It "Trumpcare"

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