Death Wish

So on December 23rd, we watched the Extras Christmas special series finale, which has a brief cameo from George Michael. The next day we watched the Rosemary's Baby episode of 30 Rock.

So I've spent the last several days seriously considering watching a few episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, especially if they have a Kanye West appearance.

True Lies

From the "Least Expected News of the Month But In a Weird Way It Kinda Makes Sense" file, it turns out that the Next Big Clownstick Revelation is in the hands of none other than Tom Arnold:

Last week, comedian Tom Arnold came forward with the information that he has in his possession outtakes from Celebrity Apprentice in which the show’s host, United States President-elect Donald Trump, can be seen and heard “saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children,” among other delights. Arnold has said he will not release the tapes, which he received from Apprentice producers who meant it as a joke years ago — before anyone thought the perpetrator of such comments would be the president of the United States — because he fears for his own safety and that of his family. And, according to Arnold, those same producers fear the repercussions of the tapes’ release professionally (presumably, there are strict contractual considerations).

Well today, according to The Hollywood Reporter, there are developments: In a series of tweets directed at actor Michael Rapaport (who essentially asked Arnold to step up and release the tapes), Arnold somewhat clarified his position, stating that the content of the tapes was “disgusting but not illegal.” Furthermore, he said, “smart Watergate level journalists are on top of this.” While Arnold does not clarify what that means, exactly, the implication is that a larger story, one with criminal implications, may be developing here.

[emphasis mine]
Really, what "Watergate level journalists" are there? Only a few names distinguished themselves throughout the campaign, off hand I can only think of four: David Fahrenthold, Kurt Eichenwald, Julia Ioffe, and maybe Katy Tur. In reverse order, Tur basically became a penned punching bag for Clownstick at his hate rallies, in with the rest of the media veal. She had a book planned to shine some light on her experiences tracking the Clownstick scampaign, though it's tough to see just how it could have been any worse. Ioffe got anti-Semitic death threats after writing an article gently criticizing a few things about Melania Clownstick. Eichenwald, who has epilepsy, had to suspend his Twitter account temporarily after some fine Christian folk put strobe GIFs on his feed, hoping to trigger a seizure, plus they started parody accounts of their own to troll him.

Fahrenthold keeps on trucking, but for what, to see more good work go completely ignored? The fix is in, has always been in, and for every solid reporter out there running down a real story, there are dozens of "analysts" and "commentators" and gatekeepers to ensure that either the story never sees the light of day, or gets diluted by disinformation and bullshit commentary.

So Tom Arnold has a recording of Apprentice outtakes that has El Caudillo saying the n-word, the c-word, the r-word, and more. I'm saying that said tape could be indisputable high-definition video and audio, verified by the ten most reliable sources you could dream of (or by Clownstick himself), of Clownstick using all those words in reference to, say, Oprah Winfrey or LeBron James or Barack Obama or whoever. And it won't make a goddamned bit of difference. It won't matter. He wasn't far off when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and they'd still support him. They would.

That's the real problem. That's what we're not getting. Facts, words, deeds, responsible governance, ignorance, lies -- none of it matters to these people. They don't care about their country, or the US' vital role in a dangerous world. The only thing they care about is rubbing your nose in shit, the stankier the better, for as long as possible.

The New Political Correctness

Pro-tip for all you academic types out there thinking of making a half-assed joke about whitey: if you include an image of Pepe the Frog or Hitlery in a gas chamber with Clownstick throwing the lever, it'll go over with the Breitbart rage hamsters that much better, or at least confound them while they wait for the dickless scrivener's e-pellet to hit their Skinner box. In the meantime, you can probably count the hours before another public servant in Pig Fuck, West Virginny cracks wise in an email about the simian and or male features of the First Lady. Or better yet, have an armed, explicitly anti-joooo neo-Nazi march in Whitefish, Montana. But yeah, Professor Fuckface's dumb tweet is the problem here. Right.

I hate to poach the slogan of a perfectly respectable strip-mall steakhouse chain, but when it comes to figuring out the operating principles of these whiny freaks, No Rules, Just Right fits about as well as anything else. Theirs is the logic of a four-year-old in sore need of a juice box and a nap. There is no logic or consistency to anything they do or say, they are simply addicted to the rage pellet that legitimizes to them the voices in their heads.

This is in direct alignment with the backlash against "safe spaces" and campus activism that underwrote a great deal of their assumptions and misinformation during the campaign. As Erik Loomis at LGM has posted, they're building a watch-list of professors, checking it twice and all that. We'll see if Drexel has the balls to stand up for their professor or not. I'm thinking they will, but this is the beta phase of testing this tactic; the Breitbart animals, like good marketers, will continue refining and recalibrating, honing their tactics for things like this, looking for episodes of #doubleplusunMAGA behavior to beat the mow-rons over thhir pointy heads with, while the Dummycrats keep re-litigating the election and whinging about Russians infesting their emails.

Spreading the Word

If you're able, give Jurassic Pork a helping hand this holiday season.

Season's Beatings

This week in stoooooopid:

In Phoenix, two middle-aged women in the Trump-only focus group said they wouldn’t support him for re-election if he signed away funding for Planned Parenthood. “It’s a deal-breaker,” said an earthy 58-year-old in a plaid work shirt. “It will rob women of basic fundamental rights. I’m talking about female health care, which includes abortion. Which includes birth control. I think birth control is the greatest gift that they gave for womankind.” Added a 44-year-old, if Trump attacked Planned Parenthood, “I’d be pissed off as hell.”

This leads to an obvious question: If these women think defunding Planned Parenthood is a deal-breaker, why did they vote for a candidate who promised to do exactly that? After all, in a September letter addressed to “Pro-Life Leaders,” Trump pledged to strip Planned Parenthood’s federal funding unless it stops performing abortions. But many of the people in the focus groups didn’t know he’d made this assurance, and those who did didn’t take it seriously. It seemed as if Trump’s lasciviousness, which Clinton hoped would disqualify Trump with women, actually worked in his favor. The focus group participants couldn’t imagine that Trump would enact a religious right agenda. “He’s probably paid for a few abortions himself,” said the 58-year-old in Phoenix, eliciting a roomful of laughs.

Durrr....hyuk hyuk hyuk. That shore is funny, I tell ya what. Not as funny as watching these fucktards get exactly what they voted for, but high-larry-us nonetheless. They'll need that brilliant comedic wit to sustain them in the coming months and years, as they reap the whirlwind in so many different ways.

Over the Edge

Not sure what the hell's going on over at Robb's jernt these days, but the commentary's off-base, and half of the commenters seem to have truckled over from whatever shithead white-power joo-baiting  site serves their insane purposes these days. You have to read it to believe it; these are the sorts of rubes who spout racial slurs at the workplace, whether in anger or in "jokes," and then seriously wonder why no one will hire them after they're summarily fired.

Anyhoo, Robb's contention is that the nascent (and ill-fated, let's face it) Electoral College upset tomorrow would signify the transmogrification of our Jebus' Favrit Nayshun into a banana republic.

Decent Exposure

The Rude Pundit has this one right: it's all well and good that Obama held a press conference yesterday to take a few lame rhetorical jabs at the coup-disguised-as-democratic-transition currently underway. But it will do nothing, it will change nothing.

I don't expect Obama to go nuts and scream or declare martial law or anything. But this is about the fate of the nation, quite possibly the world at large, and at the very least a presidential legacy that Obama worked very hard for. Everything he struggled for, uphill for eight years, all gone, washed away like a sandcastle under the encroaching tide. About the only one of Obama's legislative benchmarks that doesn't seem to interest Clownstick is marriage equality, but with a religious nut like Pence at his side, even that's not safe. Hell, he'd undo it just to be a dick, just because it wasn't his, a hyena killing a pup he didn't sire.

We all like the old norm of Reagan sitting in the Oval Office with Tip O'Neill over a couple tumblers of Scotch, discussing like grown-ass adults where they might reach common ground over some things. The idea was that people could agree to disagree on issues, and still acknowledge the other's humanity and basic decency. That norm is long out the window, well before the Clownstick regime came along, and only a complete fool would still be operating under that old way of thinking.

These people are fucking indecent, proudly so. It is time to address them as such, and not wait and hope that they won't be quite that bad. I'm pretty sure every victim of every serial killer held out that same false hope, right up to the moment that the killer's weapon broke skin, and they watched their lifeblood spill to the floor.

But Obama seems strangely passive, almost complacent, as if he had no agency in affecting events. He probably thinks that if he behaves himself, he can leverage that into having some sort of emeritus counsel to Clownstick and his entourage. This is a problem, and his party shares the same problem. Republicans lose an election, and they immediately get to work and start fucking things up. Democrats lose one and they start acting like a punk on the cell block, trying to figure out what will get their man off most quickly, so as to avoid a beatdown.

Well, fuck that shit. The phrase "better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" may be a cliché, but those things are true by definition, and if they really want any chance at future viability, they had all best unfuck themselves and see the storm(front) approaching. They still think this is some sort of contest of ideas that can be won with logic and reason, but we are apparently in a "post-truth" era where facts no longer have value, and so having a simple, powerful narrative and posture is much more important.

Count on this more than anything: you will know that the Dems have figured this out when their donors start pulling. This is a money game after all, and when the money dries up, the pencil-pushers get the message and change their approach. In the meantime, get ready for Chuck Schumer to assume the position and sell it all down the river, instead of doing what McConnell did from day one and just turning into a fucking doorstop. It's as if the Republicans didn't just spend the last nine months stonewalling the incumbent president's selection for the Supreme Court, just waiting out his term.

Say it again -- these people are fucking indecent, and it is time to stop pretending they can be reasoned with. They cheat and lie and steal, openly and brazenly, and the Dems fire back with their empty bullshit handjob "when they go low we go high" platitudes. Enough with that shit.

There's no shame in saying no, folks; in fact, it's in your own best interest to make that your new favorite word. Fight anything and everything, by any means necessary.

They Ask Questions

Steve asks rhetorically:

Will media dupes ever stop predicting that Trump might govern as a non-conservative?

And of course the answer is no, and of course we all know it. There will always be some professional journamalists out there who need to occupy column inches and/or time in the sainted 24-hour news cycle.

When we plaintively ask what's wrong with the media, this is really the main part of the problem -- the incessant need to fill, constantly, relentlessly, with less and less quality control. The sad and hilarious irony of it all is that the corporate media monkeys keep genuflecting faster and more furiously to the wingnuts douchebags who don't even read them anyway, who show up only to troll and lob impotent threats from the comfort of their couches. Meanwhile, they betray the people who actually do read their reporting and analyses every time they do shit like that.

All real journalism, excepting feel-good kitten-in-a-tree Bart's people type schtick, should boil down to one of two things:

1. Objective reporting of facts and events -- what was done and said, and by whom. Statements that are factually inaccurate should be pointed out; statements that have already been corrected and are still stated as before are called lies.
2. Objective opinions based on facts and evidence at hand, in order to analyze and synthesize the confluence of events and people that occur on a regular basis. There is generally some assumption or expectation of expertise, or at least a higher-than-average level of knowledge about the subject(s) being discussed.

These are modest definitional expectations, and more and more the "media" collectively fail to meet even that bar. Robert Frank's piece that Steve is responding to in the link is basically a textbook version of the "contrarian" clickbait one sees a startling prevalence of these days. Frank seems to be pinning his analysis, such as it is, on past vagaries of Clownstick seeming somewhat "liberal" on some issues (for example, not being a homo-crucifying closet-case fundie, woo-hoo!).

But Clownstick has never indicated any clear opinion on any major national policy issue, if you look back. He feints and bobs and weaves and head-fakes, but aside from wanting to machine-gun the so-called Central Park Five into a mass grave in Central Park and plop a monument to himself over it, he's never really been definitive about much of anything at all. Clownstick's defining characteristic is a sincere belief that he is smarter and better than everyone else, that he's the biggest swinging dick in the room simply because he repeats that he is over and over until the dullards start to believe it. Again, though, no policy opinions or details, on anything, certainly not on the health care system.

As Steve points out, there is absolutely no reason, based on Clownstick's recent history as a campaigner either, and certainly not with his prospective appointments so far, to even speculate that he might be planning to "innovate" the health-care system in any way that would help the most vulnerable. And since it seriously appears that Clownstick does not even read anything that isn't about him, it's entirely likely that he doesn't even know anything about what a clusterfuck of collusion the health-care system is in this country.

And since he's nothing but a cheap two-bit grifter who lives for fleecing suckers and fools, it's pretty much a slam-dunk guarantee that if someone had the time and patience to explain to him how the health-care racket works, Clownstick's only question would be how to get in on some of that for himself.

N8r B8rs -- 2016 Edition

Lolwut. Jesus H. Christ, people, as ludicrous a person and politician as Jill Stein is, she didn't cost you your sainted fucking election, Neither did Gary "Cheech" Johnson.

Nor, for that matter, did Hillary Clinton. She was a solid candidate with a good message. But there was a brutal confluence of various and nefarious factors, most of them out of the candidate's control. But yeah, maybe visiting Wisconsin even once during the general election might have helped, who knows?

I don't mean to pick on Paul Campos; I like his writing a lot. But I think the linked piece is a forerunner of what's to come, as FVC takes office and makes GWB look like FDR. There will be many bitter recriminations like this along the way, and it will not be pretty.

And so I think it's important not to jerk oneself off and fall into that same trap as the Dems did in 2004. Fucking wake up already and realize that the corporate media represent corporate interests, not the peoples'. They are always going to chase the dollar, and never worry for a second about what's "right" or "useful." They were never on your side, or his. They're on their side, and everything else is incidental. Realize that the Democratic Party itself is little more than a vestigial appendage in many states, at the state and local level, and that there's not much of a bench even at the national level.

Or you can spend the next couple electoral cycles bemoaning the hubris of protest candidates daring to contest the Holy Duopoly, and see what that gets you. How'd all those long, cold years of Thanksralphery go for you?

GIGO

Not that a recount in the Rust Belt states was ever going to do any good -- as even overturning the results in favor of HRC would have simply created more (and more serious) problems of legitimacy -- but this is a worthwhile peek into what can charitably be described as a seriously flawed process.

It's easy to see the intrinsic appeal of indulging a lawyerly tactic in order to thwart what is already turning out to be every bit as awful a person as he was a candidate. This fucking guy -- he'll never be my president, probably won't be yours either. But these people -- and worse yet, their base -- are, as we've seen over the past month, sore winners. What sort of losers do you think they'd be, especially if they think it's all been snatched away from them through legal chicanery?

And, in fact, there should be no doubt at all that even if HRC had won the Electoral College by a true landslide, as opposed to the limp-dick mediocre victory that Clownstick and Conway are lamely claiming, there would be protests in the streets, there would be harrumphing from Paul Ryan and Bitch McConnell about how they wouldn't be able to work with her, blah blah blah. These people fucking cheat as a matter of course; it should be no surprise at all that they would also, in the event of a loss, go nuts. The old adage about playing chess with a pigeon holds true with these assholes. They are not to be trusted. Ever. They love money and re-election far more than their country or its people.

Maybe if the gubmint and media spent as much time covering the tragic mechanics of the electoral system as they do worrying about who's paying for what, you might get more logical results.

Mr. Blue Sky

At its cold mathematical heart, the schism between Clownstick voters and Clownstick haters is that of the red states and the blue states, the takers and the makers, moochers and producers. So for those of us in the godless librul elite states, this could actually work out well.

Red state voters may talk a good game about small government and low taxes, but in reality they are socialist moochers.

Rather than wallowing in the hypocrisy of all this, however, Democrats should see the opportunity here — an opportunity to turn the Republican program to their selfish advantage and create the kind of society where people look out for each other and business interests are not allowed to run roughshod over workers and consumers.

After all, if Republicans cut taxes — in particular, taxes on investment income — then the biggest winners are going to be the residents of Democratic states where incomes, and thus income taxes, are significantly higher. Governors and legislatures in those states — home to roughly half of all Americans — will now have the financial headroom to raise state income and business taxes by as much as the federal government cuts them — and use the additional revenue to replace all the federal services and benefits that Republicans have vowed to cut.

....

In time, however, blue state Democrats could look forward to the satisfaction of watching Trump's voters stew in their own political juices as Red State America finally frees itself from the evil grip of global elites and big government and turns itself into a low-tax, low-wage, low health paradise where it's every man for himself.

This is what they wanted out there in Real 'murka, since they are the only True Americans and the rest of us are not. And the right thing is for them to get what they voted for -- deregulation of business and environmental practices, no minimum wage or pensions, filthy air and water. Hell, maybe those precious coal jobs will come back after all -- but they'll be $8.00/hr., no benefits, no pension, shit health care, and routine mine collapses and pollution.

In this way we Cali heathens can get back to working on nice things for our own state and citizens, rather than subsidizing a bunch of fucking whiny ingrates. Frankly, the only thing we're not completely self-sufficient on is water, and that can be resolved -- or at least improved, in the midst of a multi-year drought -- with a couple more dams and better water management. Too bad we'll never be real 'murkins.

I'm With Stupid

The exciting auditions for Celebrity Fuckface continue! Who will be crowned 'murka's reigning Fuckface?

It figures that someone just released from a mental hospital after treatment for a nervous breakdown would be good to go for playing the Clownstick inaugural bawl. They can have each other; I'm sure the Pepe the Frog acolytes are looking forward to overlong filler sets from Kanye, Kid Rock, Andrea Bocelli, and whatever goat-fucking country hacks get roped into this. Maybe they can all band together for a bro-country rendition of The Horst Wessel Song.

In the meantime, nice distraction on Drumpf's part in dodging the press conference he was supposed to have, in which he was going to clownsplain how he was going to plunder the treasury while pretending to keep his conflicts of interest under control. The motherfucker's entire existence is a conflict of interest, and he revels in knowing that everyone knows it, and there's not a goddamned thing anyone can or will do about it.

Hopefully any other do-gooder celebritards out there have learned by watching what happened to Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio, who made the pilgrimage to kiss the ring over climate change, only to have Okie oil-blower Scott Pruitt tapped to head the EPA. Keep devaluing your own currency by currying empty favor with this fucking guy, see what that gets you.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

There are precious few certainties in this life, but I can guaran-goddamn-tee y'all that I will never get tired of reading these things over the next four, eight, twenty years, however long this new dark night turns out to last.

The Kentucky voters I spoke with constantly mentioned "change" as a reason they supported [Drumpf].

"That man has a head for business," Atkins said. "He will absolutely do his best to change things."

Still, Oller acknowledged she took a leap of faith with [Drumpf].

"It was Russian roulette," Oller said of her vote. "But I felt that we needed change."

Welp, you're about to get all the change you can stand, sweet-cheeks. If there's one thing I am in 100% agreement with self-styled conservatives on, it's that people should bear the consequences and be accountable for their stupid decisions, so bon appetit, assholes.

Bonus points for the inadvertent "Russian roulette" pun. Сделать Россию Великой Снова!

Buyer's Remorse

Let the beatdown of the simpletons begin:

A woman who voted for Donald Trump is now regretting her choice after the President-elect chose Steve Mnuchin to be his Secretary of Treasury.

Teena Colebrook explained to the Associated Press that she had voted for Trump hoping he would keep his pledge to remove the elites from Washington. However, she became truly disenchanted when he chose Mnuchin, partly because it showed he’s “now backing his buddies.”

But also because Mnuchin was responsible for the loss of her home and source of income.

Mnuchin used to be an owner of OneWest, a bank formed in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08 that acquired the assets of subprime mortgage lender IndyMac. Shortly after acquiring the loans from IndyMac, OneWest began foreclosing on thousands of them.

I am honestly wondering what in Clownstick's extensively covered history made people like Colebrook think he could be trusted to look after their interests. There is literally no point in that history where he looked out for anyone but himself, and more often than not it came at the expense of the peons.

The coal miners are finding out the hard way too, and it is hilarious. These folks are getting exactly what they begged for, good and hard, and this is only the beginning for them. The fucker's not even in office yet and it's getting snapped off in their asses.

At The Movies

Hell Or High Water -- Tightly plotted and superbly executed, this old-school crime drama evokes the classic prose of Cormac McCarthy and James Lee Burke. Ben Foster and Chris Pine play a pair of siblings robbing rural Texas banks, in order to pay off the reverse mortgage on their mother's ranch and claim the newfound oil rights. Jeff Bridges plays the Texas Ranger tracking them down before riding off into retirement. The cast is outstanding across the board, and even though you know where it's headed, the ride is bumpy and entertaining, thanks to the richly drawn characters.
Grade: A

Captain Fantastic -- A waaayyyyy off-the-grid family of six kids and a dad are forced to adjust to the "real" world when they travel to the mother's funeral. Viggo Mortensen underpins the role of dad Ben with his stubborn charm and fierce intelligence, and the kids are outstanding as well. You hate to use the hack phrase "quirky little indie" but it applies here in a good way. Writer/director Matt Ross (Gavin Belson from HBO's Silicon Valley) helms his project with care and sensitivity. Ben's clear conflict of conscience -- if he is raising his kids to be in the world but not of it, why bother versing them in mundane worldly verities such as the Bill of Rights -- is never quite explained, nor how he came to reject the world so completely, but these are minor quibbles in a terrific movie.
Grade: A-

The Infiltrator -- The true story of US Customs Agent Robert Mazur's successful undercover effort to bring down Pablo Escobar's drug network, as well as the money laundering of BCCI, is compelling enough, and with Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, and Diane Kruger leading the way, solidly cast. But at 127 minutes, the movie feels about twenty minutes too long, and its climactic scene, a mass bust at a fake wedding between Cranston and Kruger, rings false when the feds expose Cranston and Kruger as undercover operatives by not busting them as well. It's still pretty well done overall, but mainly reminded me of how good a Power of the Dog movie would be.
Grade: B

All Or Nothing

Okay, this bullshit meme about taking Clownstick "literally but not seriously" versus the other way around has to stop. Right. Fucking. Now. For the media's sake, and for their consumers' sake.

I'm still kicking this notion around, and will expand on it in an upcoming post, but the bottom line is that if a journalist, or anyone who is supposed to be dealing in objective facts and informed opinions, starts letting their subjects dictate the tempo and tone of actual coverage, then there is literally, seriously no fucking point in said coverage.

Of course his entire scampaign was an extended troll, and it worked, so of course he's going to keep doing it, for as long as they keep falling for it. They are devaluing their own currency, and getting spun hard in the process, to the point where many of them do not seem to know how to cover him.

There are rules to the job of president, basic rules and norms which all holders of that position must follow, if this thing is to work. Probably the most basic of those rules is that while what the president says may fall within a greater context, the minimum expectation is that he speaks for all Americans. Literally. Seriously. This is not a new expectation, and we are not changing the rules and expectations because a reality-teevee pro-wrestling hack squeaked in by his hairpiece.

In Other Fake News

Well, at least the mentally ill face some obstacles in getting dangerous weap -- oh, wait, no, they absolutely do not. (Does it even need to be said that if this asshole was black, he'd have been gunned down in the street like a rabid dog?) Guess we'll just wait around and twiddle our thumbs until the next one of these losers actually kills someone because they're too stupid and rage-choked to discern between facts and trolling. You know, like the average Drumpftard.

Coupled with the fact that Michael Flynn, the Russian-bought general selected to head the National Security Agency, and his adult son have been propagators of this "Hillary is running a pedophile ring" bullshit.

If there's one thing you need to keep in mind over the next four years, it's that all of these clowns -- Drumpf, Flynn, Kellyanne Conway, Newt, Rudy -- every single one of them hates you, hates me, hates America and its inhabitants, those who oppose their cheap lies and toxic nonsense. Oh, they talk a good game, but they never tell the truth, they're in complete thrall to the highest bidders, they engage in the rankest of hypocrisies routinely. All of those are things that this country was supposed to stand for. But times, as they say, are changin'.

Fail to the Chimp

Even Fredo Arbusto, bless his simian muzzle, wasn't this fucking stupid:

[Drumpf] had an opportunity at the start of his presidency to begin with a more or less clean slate with China, and he has now very likely frittered that away for nothing. At best, [Drumpf] has pointlessly antagonized Beijing in a way that will have lingering effects on his dealings with them for months and possibly years to come. At the very worst, his careless freelancing could produce a real crisis between China and Taiwan that could end up dragging in the U.S.

It's hard to conceive of any "stupider like a fox" reason to do something like this. Why would a brilliant bidnessman needlessly jeopardize his yuuuge bidness interests in another country, a vital trading partner? There is no percentage whatsoever -- strategically, geopolitically, financially -- in doing something like this.

This is not to say that there aren't issues that need to be worked out with the Chinese. They are building a deep-water fleet to secure their place as regional hegemon, the ultimate goal of which would probably be to control the Strait of Malacca (through which most of the world's oil travels). Additionally, they are building artificial islands near the Senkaku (aka Diaoyu) Islands, under and around which lie large deposits of oil and natural gas, in conflict with Japan. The violent thug that has taken over the Philippines is sucking up to the Chinese, which runs counter to our purported strategic interests.

Hell, it may be time to back away and concentrate on tilling our own field anyway. This century is likely going to gravitate toward the Indian Ocean nations anyway, based on demographics and yet another book our non-reader-in-thief will never read and wouldn't understand anyway.

The last time a preznit fucked the dog unnecessarily with China, a few months later 9/11 happened. Those two events are not directly connected, but if this regime got too much attention for the sheer incompetence and belligerence of its dopey figurehead, you wouldn't put it past them to cook up some false-flag event as a distraction. And it would work.

Old Times There Are Not Forgotten

Only in the south could a cop get caught on video shooting an unarmed, fleeing suspect -- on a traffic stop, mind you -- in the back, plant a weapon on the corpse, and still be given the benefit of the doubt. It's not like anyone coulda predicted that or anything.

Also, too, it is now okay to execute someone in the middle of the street in a fit of road rage, as long as the killer is white and the victim is black. Any questions?