What If We Threw a Rally and Nobody Came? Realism and Cynicism in Charlottesville

Joy cometh in the morning....

Yesterday was horrible.  As we examine the aftermath of what happened in Charlottesville we are seeing some pretty simple things that can be pieced together only in the light of the morning.  Three people are now dead in the wake of this event and many more injured.  This did not start on Thursday.  It started years ago of course.  It started before Donald Trump was even born.

We cannot regale you with the history of racism in America nor can we hope to disentangle who did what and when and why back then.

This whole thing started the moment someone thought of the idea to have a rally.  The rub comes in the difference between what was said and what is intended.  These are the things that no one is talking about.

What was said was "Let's have a rally where we express our views because we are fast becoming a minority in our own country and we are disenfranchised white people!"  What was actually being said either in their own head or aloud in meetings or on social media was:
We are going to have this rally and stoke up hatred and anger until a fight breaks out.  That way, once we enrage people so much that they throw the first punch, we can say that we did not start it but we will be justified in fighting, and possibly even shooting and killing them.

Then a supposed liberal "Anti-Fa" heard about the rally and immediately began to make plans to go.  This person went out and bought all the gear; helmets, baseball bats for "self defense" even though their mere presence would incite anger.  They were going to fight.  They bought mace.

Then came the screaming match leading up to the event.  People on both sides were saying they were going to be there and the message on both sides said:
I dare anyone to touch me as I scream in their face and call them names! Although I know they will!

The voices began to meld, left and right.
I'm gonna start a fight!
I'm gonna start a fight!
I'm gonna start a fight!

I will start a fight! I will be on TV.  I will be on Youtube!

What about the issue?  Who cares!  This is a chance for me to be popular.  How many "likes" will I get for being there!  This is the new party.  This is new rave!

James Alex Fields Jr. planned to drive his car into a crowd of people.  When exactly he had the idea, who knows.  His lawyers will tell him when it will sound best to say he had the idea.  Did he plan it weeks in advance or was he so irritated at the actual rally that he just went back to his car and decided then?  Temporary insanity or premeditation?   A lot of things will be said, but who knows.

We knew it was going to happen.  Everyone could see it coming from a mile away.  We all made it happen.  There were no unintended consequences.  We have made the payoff too enticing.  Fame.

People were posting about the event all day and night, waiting to get a glimpse of some violence.  People saw other people and got closer and closer and those who could not get on tv broke out the cell phones and selfie sticks and said "Look at me!  I am here! I am doing something!"

Peace and understanding were the last thing that we wanted at this thing and the moment Fields Jr., turned the ignition on the car that drove through the crowd was the moment everyone got what they wanted.  Someone was going to get hit.  Someone was going to the hospital.  The chances were more slim that someone was going to die, but there was still a chance.  It was more likely than not and became more so as he pressed down on the accelerator.

Then when it happened, did people drop their cameras and help? Nope.  Many people kept filming. The first video to hit showed a man angling for position when the car struck the crowd.  He was holding his phone in his hand screaming for someone to call 911 as he worked to get a better angle.  He yelled at the cops for not being there as they came to see what had happened.  Take a moment to let that sink in.

Anyone watching as it happened saw that there was a rush to be the first.  The same article posted on numerous sites over and over without any in depth analysis, just "I was there." or "I am so sad."

The messages then evolved and the topics migrated.  The simple message of being anti-white supremacist turned into discussions of how gays and women and even white people are affected by these events and it became "Ooooh a thing is happening to someone else and is trending, how can I apply it to me and the thing I want to talk about?"  It was amazing how quickly the memes showed up.   People read or watched it and said, "This is sad.  I have to capture it in picture form making sure to put my watermark on it in case it starts trending."

Politicians and celebrities spoke up.  It is a relatively safe position.  "Hating minorities is bad and aligning yourself with a movement that hundreds of thousands of people gave their lives to defeat, is not American." The governor called for them to get out.

The President, of course, could not do that, causing the issue and the message once again to morph into simple condemnation of his lack of spine.  We asked if he is trying not to alienate his base?  David Duke was kind enough to remind him that he was essentially elected by those Nazis.

But what if no one showed up?  What if we just let them walk around in circles, shouting?  What if we saved the gas money that was spent for some driving hundreds of miles and put it towards funding another cause we believed in?  What if we threw a rally and nobody came?  That was not an option.  Everyone there was looking for a fight, either to get in one or see one.

The only good thing is that lightning rarely strikes twice.  For all of the bluster, there were a relative few people there.  The numbers are not in yet but only a few thousand people showed up.  Given the results of this event two things will likely happen.  First, zealous people will attempt to duplicate the event in numerous places and dilute the numbers and the same goes for people on the other side.  Rather than have numerous groups getting past their desires to lead the event and forming one large group, what will likely happen will be numerous small events events and people's attention spans and willingness to engage will wane exponentially each day.

In a week or two, no one will remember and we will be on to the next thing.  Selfies will get fewer likes and a new atrocity will appear.  Trayvon who?  Can you believe it's been three years since Michael Brown was shot?

Confessions of a recovering Anger Porn Addict

I am a recovering anger porn addict...

The first step is admitting there is a problem.
This morning I got a notice about an incident in Atlanta where a server at a local restaurant treated the guest badly and was not tipped.  The guests were black women and the server was a homosexual male.  It is funny to look at the different versions of what played out.  It turns out that the women did not tip the server and he in turn gave his partner the receipt who went on to track down the women and send them a series of harassing messages as well as post their slight on social media.  The day after the incident that happened three weeks ago, the owner of the restaurant came in on his day off to personally fire the server, ban him from the restaurant, and issue the guest a gift certificate.  Problem solved?  Well yes, but I just heard about this incident this morning so what does that mean?  That means that people are still trying to push this narrative and are still very mad about an issue that was addressed and remedied.  People are still calling for the boycott of this particular restaurant...three weeks after the incident.

John McCain made a scarred return to the floor of the Senate to vote to move the Republican Health Care Bill forward.  He delivered a stirring speech about the responsibilities of the Senate and the imperative that we move forward,  Cue the anger.

Many people were angry that he was even able to speak about these issues.  People brought up the fact that he would not be there making that speech but for having great health care himself.  McCain's speech was largely self effacing and looked at the fact that he was guilty of engaging in purely partisan hackery himself, but above all it was time to get on to doing what the people sent them there to do.   And then he went and voted for the bill to move forward.

Regardless of what happened next, the speech was rousing and spoke to a lot of the issues that are holding up so many issues in our country.  Aside from that, there was really nothing in the speech that contradicted him then going to vote to put the Republican's bill or lack thereof to a vote and amendment.  He even said he would not vote for the bill as it was and later, he didn't (he voted no in spectacular fashion, but...) The backlash from the left was swift.

What we are seeing is a need or want to be outraged and angry.  Looking at the things that have happened in the last week could give you an anger overdose.  Trump is trying to ban transgender people from the military.  He is trying to fire the Attorney General or maybe not.  He is trying to fire the independent counsel or maybe not.  More young black people are getting shot and or harassed by the police (even as I am writing this, a notice appeared in my feed telling me that Trump endorsed police brutality in a speech).  Women are getting discriminated against and on and on and on.

I wonder about the things that are showing up in my Facebook feed along with a message that says essentially "like" this if this  post makes you angry. Are these the things that I bring on myself based on what I look for and at?

More than that, what are we supposed to do with all of this anger?  Let's take a moment to look at what we are seeing even from the White House and the new communications director.  Anthony Scaramucci apparently called Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker just to complain about how hard his new job is and how everyone is out to get him... Oh and how everyone ELSE is paranoid.

Apparently, he hates Reince Priebus.  Reince hates him. They both hate Steve Bannon and he hates them both.

Are we not playing into his hands?  Note in his recent speeches he is talking a great deal about what the media will say when he makes a comment, signaling that he knows that what is about to come out of his mouth is going to be divisive.  During one of his recent speeches, he said "he could be on Mt. Rushmore."  I doubt it will ever happen but what was most telling was what he said before that.  He made it a point to say that the media would skew his words.  He is at times leaving his language intentionally vague and annoying so that people will pick it apart and find something to get mad about.

He will say something angry and hateful and immediately his army of surrogates go out to tell liberals that we did not hear what we heard so not to get up in arms about it and that same army of surrogates will go out to tell conservatives that they heard EXACTLY what he said and that we liberals just don't get it.

Hate is starting to be profitable, too.  As soon as Trump banned transgender people from serving, there was a race to get to Youtube.  Tomi Lahren could not even wait to get to any kind of studio so she appears to have posted a video from her car about how the military is not a social experiment.  I might note how she posted this from the safety of her car while transgender people are knee deep in sand and dodging bullets and IED's wondering if their country even wants them there as we speak.  How do I know she posted this video?  Rest assured it is not because I am a Tomi Lahren fan, but because someone I know posted a video from someone who posted a video rebuttal to her.

And then comes the posts and reposts.  "So and so shuts down so and so on Twitter" or "So and so just responded to so and so and the the response was epic!"

Over and over and over and over again.  I find myself in a constant state of anger over something but I also find myself wondering what we are going to do about it for the next three years.  Impeachment may be coming, but not for some time.  We have some victories coming but when all is said and done, what good is all this anger doing?  Do I have the energy and the adrenaline?

Oh, and by the way... Reince Priebus just resigned...was fired...at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday... *sigh*

And Anthony Scaramucci's wife filed for divorce....*sigh*

The Trump Bandwidth Test...Trumpwidth?

As of this writing, the senate is scrambling to wrangle votes for the repeal of the ACA but yesterday, he made a speech at the Boy Scouts Jamboree in Virginia and it was truly what we thought it would be.

Trump made a series of comments about how he won the election.  He talked about President Obama not attending a jamboree in person, but not the fact that President Obama was himself a Boy Scout.  He talked about fake news, loyalty, and draining the swamp or rather the "sewer".
It is really very odd that he would make such a speech the day before voting to begin debate on the bill to repeal Obamacare and this lends itself to a bigger question; do we have the bandwidth to deal with all of this?
Kellyanne Conway debated Reliable Sources anchor Brian Stelter a few days ago and each of them looked at a graphic that said that only 6 percent of people in the U.S. were interested in the Russia story.  Conway pointed out that there was a disproportionate amount of coverage for something so few people were interested in.  Stelter replied with something that I have often thought but rarely is presented; can't we care about more than one thing at one time?

The motion to bring the repeal vote forward has been passed with a 50 to 50 vote pushed forward by Vice President Pence.

I am still outraged by Trump's self serving and petty speech made in front of a 40,000 boys at the Jamboree but I can also think about what we are facing as this bill moves forward to the debate phase. I am also very still very interested in Russia, Trump's tax returns, the fact that he claims millions of people voted illegally and so on and so on. The bill is moving forward, but can we learn about it?  Can we talk about what it means as it becomes public?

Rest assured Donald Trump is going to say or do something in the next week or more.  New revelations will come out about Russia.  Jeff Sessions is getting roasted in the media by his boss.  Jason Chaffetz is even engaging in a war with Hillary Clinton AND Chelsea Clinton about, of all things, Benghazi for goodness sake.  Are we so attracted to or distracted by shiny objects?

Is this part of a larger strategy?  Are we seeing that the goal is to so overload our liberal outrage to make it nearly impossible to focus our outrage?

Trump: Strength in the Negative

A couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump told The Christian Broadcasting Network that Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to win.  I have to say that I agree with him.  Rather, it is not so much that Putin wanted her to win, but that he did not anticipate her loss.  In that respect, he is a lot like me, the rest of the world, and most of all, Donald Trump himself.


To understand this we have to look at the world the way that Donald Trump and Putin see the world; in the negative.  Their power comes from two places.  First there is what they say has happened.  Appending reasons and explanations to things that have happened that either are not true or could not be proven is the source of their influence.  In this respect, time is their friend.  President Obama is a secret Muslim?  He was not born in this country?  No, he is not and yes he was.  Still enough time has passed that he can say that he never said that or that Hillary Clinton started the rumors or whatever without ever taking responsibility for what part he has had in it.  As a function of time if he waits long enough or talks long enough, whatever he says is true or at least cannot be proven wrong especially to anyone who does not want to believe he is wrong.

Second, there is the more powerful aspect of what he says will happen.  Here, their power is in the ability to say things could have happened or would have happened if they were in charge.  This is the more powerful aspect of their influence yet it is the finest line they can walk.  During the campaign, Trump painted a picture of chaos and the apocalypse if Hillary Clinton won and people were willing to believe it.  He walked a fine line of having people scared enough to believe these things would happen yet not so much that they would actually elect him to solve those problems if he was actually elected.

Vladimir Putin did have a hand in hacking the election and was going to try harder.  I have a theory and this is just a theory, that this was to be a dry run.  The 2016 election was supposed to just be a pass at hacking to find weaknesses in the system and harrow Hillary Clinton on her way to a narrow victory.  I think the real "attack" would have come in 2020 when Hillary Clinton, fresh off of three years of a hard first term would run for re-election against a more qualified Republican candidate than Trump.  Then would be the hardest hack plans aided by an internal ally, Donald Trump.

Somewhere, in an alternate universe, Donald Trump lost that election.  In that alternate universe he is happy as can be because he lives in the negative.  Imagine an existence where Donald Trump is doing what he has always wanted to do; be in the public eye and catering to a demographic that is his base now; the "deplorables" without the responsibility of having to actually do anything.

If Trump had lost right about now he would likely still be on a whirlwind tour throughout the U.S. speaking to packed stadiums full of hardcore right wingers who swear he DID win and that Hillary Clinton stole the election somehow.  "Rigged" would be on t-shirts all over the country.  Every thing that Hillary Clinton did as president would be parsed and debated through his twitter account and his emerging television station and that old standby, Fox News.  He could rant daily and talk about how she should be arrested and how she is an embarrassment to the U.S.  all day, every day, from the safety and comfort of one of his ever packed properties.

Trump has even been tweeting on a regular basis lately that Jeff Sessions should be investigating Hillary Clinton and that she has gotten away with something.

If anyone said anything about his shady business dealings, he could chalk it up to political retaliation and somehow it would be Hillary Clinton abusing her power.  He and Putin could hang out as much as they wanted and plan for 2020 with Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, or whomever by the poolside.

In the alternate time line, Donald Trump is suing Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign, railing on President Obama and more, all because he can and it would build his ratings and his empire.

Instead, he won.  He is in an awkward position because now he has to make good on all the promises and we are seeing that he simply cannot do it.  He promised a better health plan that is not happening.  He promised a huge wall and while a wall is forthcoming, it is nowhere near what he promised.  He promised that ISIS would be ended in 30 days... nope.  He has been nothing but an embarrassment since day one and now he cannot work in the negative.  He can say that it is the media.  He can say it is the obstructionist Democrats, but it is not.  At a certain point, he is no longer going to be allowed to work in the negative and is going to have to own what says.

The irony is that now Hillary Clinton can now work in the negative.  That is not to say that she should "go low" but she, based on this relatively new way of looking at things, can make a good case for how things would be totally different if she had won.  There are debates about whether or not she made the right decisions while running and how those decisions led to her loss, but soon, those too will go away.  She is free to make speeches or not.  She is free to attack the Trump administration (goodness knows he is presenting a large enough target) and go hiking in the woods on the weekends.  She owes no one, anything.  The same is true for President Obama.  It must all be so liberating for them.  For Trump though?  Not so much.

In this time line Trump and Putin are under tremendous scrutiny.  They are the ones being watched and investigated, as well as their family and their businesses.  Rachel Maddow and MSNBC now have higher ratings than FOX.

I am going to keep writing about this phenomenon in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of it and what is happening to our country.  We are seeing that people are leaving things at the water's edge when maybe we should be taking a deeper dive.

Follow on Twitter at @writlargepdcst

Donald Trump has successfully sparked the economy in many ways

Remember a little more than a year ago when everyone thought Trump was a joke.  There was even a rumor going around that he was a Hillary Clinton plant and that he and Hillary were working together to ensure her victory by making a mockery of the right.  Looking back, this may not be far from the truth if not from intent.

The bottom line is that Donald Trump is sparking a lot by being a focus of irritation.  This past week Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate agreement citing the notion that the U.S. doesn't get anything out of the deal and that China and India will not have to do much.  Forget the notion that we all need breathable air and that the climate is changing rapidly.  The fallout has been amazing and boon for the left.

Trump means big business, both for his family and the left. After pulling the U.S, out of the deal, businesses stepped up to talk about how they oppose it and how many of them will continue doing the things the agreement required without actually being a part of the agreement.  Elon Musk has been criticized for being a Trump adviser but now says that he will no longer work with Trump because of this.

California governor, Jerry Brown, was quick to step up and say that California will go along with the agreement and plans to go to China to talk with them directly about things the U.S. can do.  As of this writing, 61 mayors and counting are "adopting" the Paris Agreement.  Michael Bloomberg offered $15 million to the U.N. to support the movement.

For many it is simply good branding to hate Trump now.  Opposition and resistance organizations have seen spikes in sign ups.  People are subscribing more to news and podcasts. I am willing to wager there has been a spike in t-shirt and bumper sticker sales.

It is interesting to look at the impact Trump has had on the economy.  When he first took office, we saw that he would threaten a business via twitter or at one of his rallies.  Soon, as his popularity flagged so too did his ability to make good on his threats.  Now we are beginning to see the other side of that equation where those threats are almost an endorsement.

Trump hating is driving tv ratings. Trump is the start of many monologues, comedy routines, and skits.

Prior to last week, I personally, only knew of Kathy Griffin as the annoying woman standing next to a drunk Anderson Cooper on New Years Eve.  Then she posed in a picture holding a mock up of Donald Trump's severed bloody head and people got upset.  Let's just say she misread the market.  The boon comes after the issue though.  The initial waves are seen in the memes that surface.  She apparently lost that job at CNN.  Then comes the discussion.  There are articles and commentaries where people applaud or denounce her and then the rare combination of people both applauding THEN denouncing her.  She got everyone talking though and ratings went up for everyone.  My guess is that in a year or so she will have her own talk show.

So, when all is said and done, Trump is keeping his promise to boost the economy.  There is no way to really know how much hating him will pay off, but it looks like business is good.

For the Trump haters in the world it presents an awkward problem. With all the liberal good in the world, will the spin win?  Tell me you cannot imagine a day in the future where Donald Trump is standing at a podium speaking from prepared statements about how many great things were done under his administration; how people stepped up and did amazing things while leaving out that they did those things in spite of not because of his administration.  Trump has successfully privatized and monetized liberalism.  He has decimated if not destroyed our faith in the government, led by the president, to solve social ills.

Tom Cruise Called Up As Prosecutor In Trump Scandal

Noted actor Tom Cruise has been asked to get ready for a reprise of his role in 1992's A Few Good

Men.  Cruise was reportedly surprised at the request saying, "I am just an actor and while I will indeed jump at the chance to serve my country in whatever way asked, I merely played a lawyer and am in no way qualified."  Officials close to the investigation told Cruise that did not matter and the final cross examination speech that he made famous in the award winning movie and play of 1992 fits very closely with how they plan to approach Donald Trump when and if he ever has to take the witness stand.

Jack Nicholson has also been asked to be a stand in for Trump during mock trials.  Nicholson was reportedly surprised at the request saying, "I am just an actor".

Sources are saying that President Trump may himself be looking at the movie as a way to build his defense.  Trump has reportedly said, "Col. Jessup [Nicholson's character] doesn't seem like a bad guy.  Let's see if we can hire him." The President had to be informed that Col. Jessup is a fictional character.  Staffers are, however, busy modifying the final monologue, changing key sections in little ways like altering the phrase "You want me on that wall.  You need me on that wall!" to "You want me to build that wall.  You need me to build that wall!!!"

Trump staffers are saying that the movie is a treasure trove of information for the fake news media.  Trump liked the strategy laid out by his defense team and tweeted a cut and pasted line from the movie to Robert Mueller and his investigating team.

  I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous.

Sources say he toyed with the 4000 Cubans line, wanting to change it to "6 million illegals who voted against me...illegally.)

In a closed meeting on investigatory staff member is reported to have said, much like Cruise's character in the movie, " I think he wants to admit he made a command decision and be done with it."

Both Cruise and Nicholson have said they are ready, if needed but each actor noted that they are just actors and this real life case is a lot less believable than the movie.

Trump Fires Yet Another Obama Era Appointee

The president is under scrutiny again for firing yet another Obama era appointee.  Lawrence Lipscomb, the famous "fist bump janitor",  was let go by the Trump administration this week.

It appears that prior to being let go, he had asked for additional funds stating, that, "the sheer number of documents being shredded lately caused him to have to work extra hours."  He has also said that he has had to take additional time off due to back problems from having to lift trash outside of the Oval Office.  "As soon as people come out of meetings with Trump, they load down the garbage cans with printouts of electoral maps and unsigned loyalty oaths."

Elijah Cummings and the Senate select committee are said to be in talks with Lipscomb over what he may have seen while working for the Executive.  When asked if he was the source of the recent leaks, Lipscomb said that he had no desire to be involved but recent reports show that Trump would often pull Lipscomb aside and tell him about his electoral victory and his dealings with Russia after which, Lipscomb would write his own memos of the experience.
We have some exclusive excerpts

November 8th 2017
President Trump seems like a very nice guy and I think I am going to enjoy working for him."

November 11th, 2017
President continues to call me "Lippy" and often will not let me leave the Oval Office.  I am very scared.  Met a nice guy named Michael Flynn today, apparently he really likes turkey, won't shut up about it.  I am a big fan of deli meats myself but come on!

January 26, 2017
Met a lovely woman named Sally Yates today.  She apologized profusely when she exited the Oval Office and kicked the trash can across the room.  She looked at me and said, "can you believe this?" gesturing to the Oval Office.  I suspect she told the president something interesting.

February 14
President Trump said he wants to meet with me after his meeting with FBI Director Comey.  He has told me to wait for Comey to leave and then come in so we can "shoot the shit."  I think he is lonely without his wife.

Comey left, shaking his head for some reason.  Looked at me and said, "can you believe this?" gesturing to the Oval Office.

President Trump told me to come in and locks hands with mine. His hands are clammy and he wants me to look at the electoral map.  Hits button at desk for coke.  The steward comes in and does not offer me a Coke.  We both look down.  Trump tips him with signed electoral map.  He exits.

As of this writing, Lipscomb is unemployed but has received a six figure book deal.  He has been subpoenaed to testify before Congress at some point in June though he has been quoted as saying that he really cannot tell them anything more about Flynn.  He says what he knows, EVERYONE knows and encouraged the panel to simply get Trump in a room for five minutes, give him a Coke, and let him talk.

Trump Announces Right Wing Friends From High School Will Receive New Presidential Medals

"In recognition of their hard work and dedication, I am going to be issuing several million
Presidential Medals of Making America Great Again to right wing friends from high school all over the United States." Trump said in a series of edited tweets.

Millions of right wing friends from high school have been invited to the White House where they will receive their medal, a handshake photo opportunity, and a pat on the head.  Winners will be broken down into "Best Facebook Post", "Bigliest Tweet" and "Best Dinner Table Rant"

Commemorative pamphlets are being printed that appear to show crowd size on inauguration day, an electoral map, with a space on the back for a signature, not that the president will sign but where recipients must sign to receive their medal.

"I am deeply honored to receive this great honor.  Just honored " one right wing friend from high school said.  "Am I insulted that I have to pay cash in advance for it?  No not at all. I am honored.  So what if I have to drive to Washington myself?  I am honored, just honored."

When asked about the medals and where they will be made, the president said proudly that they will be made in America.  Rumors purport that they will be made by a company that he owns.  Sean Spicer said that was ridiculous and that the medals are being made by a company Ivanka owns so that there is no conflict of interest and, unprompted, stated "No they are not being made by kids in the basement of a Mar-a-lago storage facility."

The president noted that in order to boost the re-emerging coal industry, they will be designed to be a small nugget of coal encased in lead because "the American lead industry has been flagging for years and we need to bring it back."

Right Wing Friend From High School Shuts Down Democratic Party With Comey Tweet.

It proved to be a sad day for liberal lawmakers as Democrat Maxine Waters stood solemnly at the
podium to offer a brief statement before she stepped down and renounced the Democratic Party.  Complete transcripts are unavailable as most of her staff had quit after last night's tweet in reference to former Director of the FBI James Comey.

Right Wing Friends From High School to receive new presidential medal...

It seems that Republicans are touting an exchange that Comey had with Representative Hirono of Hawaii (where ousted former President Barack Obama claims to be from).  Below:

HIRONO: So if the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?

COMEY: In theory yes.

HIRONO: Has it happened?

COMEY: Not in my experience. Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that — without an appropriate purpose. I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don’t see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But I’m talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my experience.

Right wing friend from high school then posted the last paragraph on his Facebook page and this led to the collapse of the Democratic party and the liberal media elites, contending without comment, that this statement proves without a doubt that Donald Trump is innocent of everything ever.

Robert Mueller, newly appointed special council (we are now obligated to spell it "council" instead of "counsel") was quoted as saying that "...In my many years of service in the Marines, my time as a lawyer, litigator, and as Director of the FBI, I have never been so thoroughly "owned" as the kids say.  I hereby resign as independent COUNCIL."  With that and what appeared to be a tear in his eye, he walked away, flinging a stack of papers in the air.

Comey, when asked for comment, state simply, "You got me."

Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway stood, embracing, in the White House Press room where confetti and balloons dropped from the ceiling.  On the balloons were stamped the words "Suck it, bitches, ---DJT"

Legal scholars are bewildered at the simplicity of the post and how Right Wing Friend From High School was able to so adroitly state the case.

"The problem with our legal system is too many words.  What Right Wing Friend From High School was able to do was take a comment, REMOVE context entirely and brilliantly whittle the comment down to its base argument thus proving his point.  The legal community and the "elites" have been doing too much "reading" and attempting to get meaning from words.  This FEELS like a point and that being said, once you get to the point where something FEELS like what you want it say, can no longer argue." said one legal historian.

The fallout continues as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the other justices on the Supreme Court make only sporadic public appearances.  We caught now former Justice Ginsburg sobbing on the steps of the Supreme Court building muttering incoherent phrases about a "wasted life" while Neil Gorsuch was spotted on a corner of Pennsylvania Avenue holding a sign that said "Will Judge For Food"

Right wing friend from high school could not be reached for comment.  Rumors abound and many are wondering how often he checks his Facebook account or if it is even his full time Facebook account or just one that he keeps so that he can make comments.  We will keep up with this story as developments unfold.

President Trump Announces New Press Secretary:Siri

May 12, 2017 Washington DC.
In yet another stunning development from the White House, President Trump has seemingly fired Sean Spicer in favor of a newer, more accurate White House Press Secretary, Siri.

Trump said in a tweet earlier today that surrogates cannot accurately report on such a dynamic presidency as his so he has hired Siri to manage his press briefings about the day to day inner workings of the White House.

Trump says, "Only Siri can accurately report on the day to day inner workings of the White House and not get miss any of the details of such a great presidency, bigly."

Siri was reportedly chosen for her accuracy as long as questions are posed loudly and clearly and her ability to speak in complete sentences.  She even spell checks.

When asked for comment Siri replied, "Only Siri can accurately report on the day to day inner workings of the White House and not miss any of the details of such a great presidency, bigly."

Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giulianni, Chris Christie, and Sean Spicer are reportedly elated with the new hire.  In future public engagements, they will simply hold the phone to the microphone and let Siri respond to the questions.  In the meantime, a special podium is being designed so that Siri can respond to reporters questions in the briefing room.

When asked if they will still be drawing a salary for simply walking around carrying a cell phone and holding it to the microphone, Conway and Spicer replied that it was more difficult than the job they have been doing before and implied that they would be asking for a raise.

Many have derided the move as cynical and claim that mocks the press. Meanwhile Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper claim that the move could be the best one yet from the White House and will save them both lots of money on headache pain relievers.  Kellyanne Conway replied that Dee Dee Myers was the first female press secretary, followed by Dana Perrino, and CJ Cregg and the media should be happy to have another woman at the podium full time.  She went on to say it was "sexist" to say that Siri is a bad choice for the position.

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Mike Flynn as FBI Director. Who is the joke really on?

I am going to be teaching a class on Politics and Media this summer at a university in D.C. and I thought I would talk a little about it here.

So I posted a little piece, out of anger, posing that Mike Flynn had been chosen to replace James Comey as director of the FBI.  I thought it was funny.  Many other people thought it was funny.  Many people did not find it all amusing.
As quickly as a half an hour after posting, it had nearly 1000 page views and people had begun to sound off in the comments section (and still are).

 The breakdown was pretty much as follows...
About 70 percent thought it was funny and took it as the joke that it was.  About 10 percent did not think it was funny at all.  What about the other 20 percent?

That 20 percent explains a lot about who we are as a country.  Most of the time this blog serves as a place where I and others can voice my opinions on politics and elaborate with just a little depth.  This one time, when I had an idea, born of frustration, I wrote something that I thought would be funny and lighten the mood about Comey being fired.

Several people sounded off with the comment that it was not "productive".  I beg to differ. Some read it and thought it was just not funny, but as I said, about 20 percent wondered whether or not it was real and began to go off on other tangents.  Within that 20 percent were people who did not read the comments above theirs and did not read the blog post itself.

Trump has often said that even if Putin interfered with the election (he did) it did not change a single vote.  With an off hand joke, about 20 minutes of thought and writing, I was able to untintentionally get about 3000 people to think differently about something and essentially fool them with a free account.  A few people said that is how they recognized it as a fake post was the fact that this is a blogspot account, not the fact that I said that Sean Spicer threw a smoke bomb after the press briefing and exited the briefing room via a cable in the ceiling.

Also wrapped up in that 20% were the Trump supporting trolls who enter these groups so that they can undermine them from within.  The post was used in some circles to show that we liberals were making stuff up despite, I say again, that it was obviously fake to anyone who took the time to read it.  To people who fell for it, I apologize but I also ask a very big "what if".

Some people say that Vladimir Putin is worth about 70 billion dollars and other reports estimate $200 billion.  So at a minimum, he is one of the richest people in the world if not the richest person in history.  So if a person could do something like this in a matter of minutes, what if a billionaire decided to engage in something of the sort full time?

Also something to consider is that this is a process that refines itself.  What worked, what did not work?  Many people recognized it as a joke right off the bat and pointed out the flaws.  First, that it was a blogspot post.  Easy fix, pay $20 for a web domain.  Done.  Second, the piece led with a comment that "Trump tweeted..." and many people noted that there was not a picture of the tweet and that there were too many characters in the comment.  Got me.  Third, was the fact It became apparent that too many people did not actually click on the post, they just read the headline and blurb beneath it.  In literature, it is called a narrative hook.  So, the takeaway is that if there is a good picture, a grabbing headline and a blurb beneath that is intriguing enough, the rest of the article is irrelevant for many.

In the coming days, if I can, I am going to post this piece in some right wing groups and see how it goes over.  The objective is the same, though.  How hard is it to fool someone?  How difficult is it to engage someone in a narrative that simply ramps up what they wanted to believe in the first place?  Cast your mind back to a year ago when people were saying that Hillary Clinton was on the verge of death and that in her spare time she was raping children in the basement of pizza shop that has no basement and wonder whether or not Putin's antics had an impact on the election.  Take a moment also to think about how easy it was and how much of that is on us.

There are two components at play, the trick and our willingness to be tricked.  I have written my opinion about injustices and the work we do in inner cities, immigration, etc. etc. etc. but by far the greatest response I have ever gotten is over a fake post.

Elijah Montgomery

We tweet at WritLarge
Contact at 9of9productions@gmail.com

Mike Flynn being considered for FBI Director.

In a tweet today, Donald Trump suggested that he might bring back Mike Flynn to be FBI director
now that James Comey is out, having apparently happily resigned from the postion. Trump stated,"Let's be honest, no one knows more about the inner workings of the Russia investigation than Flynn, aside from Jeff Sessions and the two will be working closely together, bigly."

Flynn is reportedly considering the offer saying that there is someone he has to check with first, but he is nearly certain there will be no problems with the appointment.

Republicans on the hill are saying that this is a stunning show of leadership from the President and given that Flynn was vetted by the Obama administration, there should be no problem with him taking the office.

When asked about Flynn's dismissal as NSA director and whether or not it should be considered when choosing him for the FBI position, Sean Spicer said, "No, next question."

When pressed for further comment, Spicer said, "I find it interesting...I'm answering your question...I'm answering your question!  I find it interesting that a hero that was vetted by the Obama administration would all of the sudden be "unqualified" now that he is being considered for a position for which he alone is uniquely qualified."

Spicer then threw a smoke bomb and exited the press room via a cable in the ceiling.  He was spotted later hiding in the bushes as many in the press exited the building.

Is this out of the realm of possibility?  Given everything that has been happening lately, I would say no.

What Can Our Children Teach Us About the World

About a week ago, I tried to do something I thought was pretty simple.  There was a meme floating around that suggested people go and give money to their local schools so that students won't have to worry about lunch at least.  I work for an organization that works with schools and helps them build school gardens.  I went to them and said, "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They said they don't have that problem in that district.  All of the lunches and breakfasts are taken care of.  Yay taxes!

Still not daunted, I called the next district over and said. "I want to put $20 on a kid's past due lunch account."
They asked, "Which child?"
I said, "Is there some sort of master past due account or something?"
They said, "No.  You can pay for a child you know or pay for all of them.  Do you know a child in the district?"
I said, "No.  I just thought it would be a good deed."
They said," Let me get back to you."
That was a week ago and after several phone calls back and forth, mainly, I assume to make sure that I am not some sort of weirdo, I got a call asking me if I wanted to meet with the principal about the matter.

I work in the adjacent school district (kinda) and once they found out who I was they became suspicious, as though I was spying or something.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.  Then came the debate about whether or not this was some kind of publicity stunt.  Nope. I just wanted to help a hungry child.

I only had about $20 in my wallet and more than likely I was going to spend it at Starbucks so I had thought, "Why not?"  I believe that I am on some sort of watch list somewhere now and though we have no idea what kind of ties Donald Trump has to Russia, somewhere someone knows that I wanted to donate $20 to a local school and is wondering why.

Well if you are reading this, NSA or whoever, it is because we should have an urge to help others, children especially, even if they are not related to us or in our orbit.  As a society, we all benefit from a well educated population and electorate.  Paul Ryan, whose family received public aid notwithstanding, I would hope that a child would grow up and remember that someone unrelated to him or her did something for the them and the good of society.  Karma and all that jazz.
So, as a teacher (kinda), I wanted to see where our children's minds are in reference to society at large.

Last week on Earth Day, I ended a morning covered in dirt and stale beer.  We had collected A LOT

of aluminum cans for our kids' can drive.  We ended up turning in $234.17 worth of aluminum cans. Then this morning came the question of what to do with the money.  The adults sat around Starbucks this morning thinking.  We looked at the little things that we had to pay for and we looked at how we wanted to proceed with our gardening project for next year and beyond.

We decided the best thing that we could do was to leave it up to the kids.  100 3rd graders in Seattle, Augusta, Atlanta, and Greenville SC have until Monday to decide what to do with $234.17.  On Monday, I leave for Haiti to help a small village join our network of schools with gardens.  They were told they could send it along with me to Haiti.  They could use it and the $20 I was throwing in to help pay for school lunches.  They also have until Monday to write a bill for whatever they want to do with it.  As long as 51 of them agree, they can do whatever they want.  They could have a pizza party, save the money, or even have me light it on fire.

I like to believe that we are teaching them a lesson, but I believe it is more the other way around and we are learning from them.  The results of this vote will tell us a lot about who we are and where we are as a nation.  I think this is far more interesting than any recent vote in our history, more important that District 6 in Georgia, more important than the national election because I think it will tell us a great deal more about the state of our nation overall.

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Have We Reached The Pinnacle of Protest?

This weekend was Tax Day and we were supposed to revolt, right?  Well maybe not revolt, but at least get together and shout about how much we want to see Donald Trump's tax returns.  People did, for the most part.  What I am hearing now on Monday is a lot of regret and irritation on both sides.

Trump, of course, is upset because he is likely hiding something and this issue won't go away.  He took to Twitter to acknowledge it as though it were a recurring issue when in fact it is just the same issue that it has always been.  Then he talks about how there are a number of paid protesters incited by the media.  So as he sat at Mar A Lago complaining about how he won fair and square and the election is over and there is nothing to see here, people were out protesting.

Why are WE upset, though?  Is Trump going to release his tax returns?  No time soon.  Is Planned Parenthood any better off than it was the day before he was elected?  No, in fact they are faring worse for federal support but better in private donations.  The Keystone Pipeline is moving forward.  Gorsuch presided over his first day on the Supreme Court today.  We are facing military actions in Syria, Korea, and let's remember that we just dropped the Mother Of All Bombs in Afghanistan.

So what is happening?  What is being done?  Can we say that message is beginning to get watered down?  Who are the Black Bloc and groups like them?

It is getting safe to say that the messages may be getting lost in all of the wannabe messengers.  We are getting reports of events starting off pretty focused but then falling apart as speakers take the mic to talk about taxes at a Planned Parenthood rally or Black Live Matter at a environmental protest.

Then you have the Black Bloc vs. Black Lives Matter.   The problem is that you have two different groups with decidedly different goals but they are welded together in the minds of outsiders watching because their structure is similar and tying them together can be convenient for those wanting to smear someone.

The Black Bloc is a group of anti fascists who wear all black and go to protests to, for lack of a better term, start trouble.  They wear helmets and masks and show up prepared for "battle".  As we saw in Berkeley this weekend, when the fighting starts, it is hard to tell which side is which.  The Black Bloc is an open movement though.  They do not have real uniforms or any kind of leadership structure; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

When we look at Black Lives Matter, we see they face the same problems.  There are people who can say that they started it and claim an origin, but are unwilling to own any kind of structure for it.  In fact, they openly eschew ownership.  Without that ownership, any one person can do any thing in their name causing the entire group to take responsibility; just a bunch of people doing stuff.

For a protester, this is and should be a disturbing trend.  The Occupy movement had noble beginnings but without any cohesive body or a spokesperson, it was quickly diluted and became a bunch of people sleeping on the street.

The other side is learning and the methodology has been very effective.  Let's look at the #NODAPL movement.  The Dakota Pipeline was something that was in the works for quite some time before the protests began and the Native Americans began to dig in.  There were lawyers and engineers working on the best way to route this pipeline through that land long before the first temporary tents were set up.  Time and consistency were their best weapons and they worked.

They saw a harsh winter coming and set a deadline.  While people were marching in circles in the cold and snow, they had lawyers hard at work and engineers creating multiple designs.  The uproar many were seeing on line was real but that is all it was...online.  As we approached the deadline, people showed up to show support.  Keystone knew it would not last though and at just the right time (the time when it would have been too cold for even their own people) they agreed to try to work it out.  People left, those who wanted to stay were forced out.  Days later, it was back on track for the build with protections being endorsed by President Trump.

So it seems we have reached an interesting space in the world.  The waters are so muddy that we cannot see the bottom, or the top.  The one thing that we can take from all of this is that everyone wants to speak.  Many say that the reason that Donald Trump is our president is because so many people out there felt that their voice was not being heard.  With his election comes  a flood and all of those people who were not being heard, now won't shut up.

Have we reached the pinnacle of protest; the point at which running out into the streets with a sign does no good or worse, does more harm than good?  I think that now we have to start thinking about what we are going to do with that voice.  We are heading towards something but what do we do when we get there?  The general idea seems to be to keep going; to always be campaigning and never solving the problem but making damn sure everyone knows there is a problem and whose fault it is.

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How do you resist? Being a Resistance Early Adopter (explicit)

How does it start and where does it end?  Well, I can tell you it was not necessarily November 8th 2017.  For some people it started a long time before that and will go on a long time after.

On November 8th, I was coming back from Haiti, a place still devastated after an earthquake and worse still Hurricane Matthew.  I am going back in about two weeks, but I am not going back empty handed.

Weeks before we had started a compost pile.  Weeks before that we had started working on gardens in schools and how to get kids more involved in where their food comes from.  We started working on lowering food waste and discussing the environment.  We talked to 3rd grade teachers in Seattle and Atlanta and got them talking to each other and got the kids talking to each other.  We got them talking about what they can do in Haiti and what they can start doing about climate change and more.

As the compost pile started  break down, we talked about food and growing food for people in Haiti and how the people
in Haiti could grow their own food and food that can be exported.  It turns out the people in Haiti grow a lot of peanuts which is good in the short term but horrible for the land and caused a lot of erosion during the earthquake and worse still after the hurricane.  How do they manage waste?  How do they get electricity?  We talked about all that.

We had to catch our plane out of Port Au Prince early in the morning on November 9th.  Where we were staying, a little town in the mountains called Inviter, there was no cell phone reception and the monastery had wi-fi but not very powerful. We had to hike out because the roads were washed away.  So for several heart wrenching hours, we trekked through the dark in a strange land, thinking about how hard what we had planned would be, blissfully unaware that Donald Trump was winning the election.  Soon, as the sun began to break and we got closer to Port au Prince, cell phones began to buzz with the pick up of signal and moments of elation (many in our small group were certain Hillary was going to win) turned to screams of OH Fuck!  We had stayed with a really nice family there in the mountains, and a few in our small group considered staying.

As we prepare to go back, we wonder what a Trump presidency is going to mean.  It is going to mean working harder on this project, we thought, but also many other projects that we could only partially see coming.  How do you get support for a climate change push from an administration that does not believe it exists?  How do you reach out to a government coming from a country that is now more isolationist?  You can't edge the word Haiti in sideways when all we can talk about is Syria and Russia and China and Korea.  Once again, they are shoved to the back of the line.  They do not have oil.  They are not of strategic importance.  They are merely an island where people are suffering.

We can do something though.  We can resist.  We can realize that we are in somewhat the same boat as they as soon as we land.  When we land we start to talk about people who think that global climate change is a real and bad thing.  When we land we start to talk with people who think Black Lives Matter.  When we land we hear about children in the schools where we are building gardens who cannot afford food.  When we land we start talking about how to prepare these kids for a world where coal mining is promoted over tech, science, and innovation.

When we look back, we have been resisting since before it was called resistance.  Every Thursday, at ten a.m. we work in a garden behind a local elementary school.  25 students come over with their teacher to work with us, learn how to grow their own food and work on ways to get involved in their community.  Then they get to talk to 25 students in Seattle and 25 students in Augusta, GA and 25 students in Greenville, SC and talk about what they learned.

In that same garden, one of my students found three bullets and brought them to me.  In that same
garden, one of my Hispanic students told me that she was scared that her parents were going to be deported.

So we resist by doing what we have always done only amping it up a lot.  We have to understand the problems have not changed, they have only gotten help in becoming more problematic.  This week, next week and for as long as we can, we are going to be giving away plants grown by our kids so that people can grow food.  We resist by gardening and writing and teaching.  How do you resist?

Let us know how you resist at thelifecooperative@gmail.com

Letter to an Angry Liberal: Cynicism and Crying BS in the Face of War

 Dear Angry Liberals,
One of the things that I have been hearing a lot about this weekend is that Trump bombed Syria to distract from the Russia investigation.  This could be true, but several things are also happening.  My last post about Ann Coulter sparked a lot of debate and that is a good thing.  A lot of people spoke about what a vile person she is and that too, is a good thing.  The core of what I was saying is that despite the content of what she is saying, she has the will to say it.  That is the key to why they are winning; the will to speak, knowing nothing while we don't.

Sometimes, speaking what may be true feels icky, for lack of a better term, because of the timing.  The people who get the message out do not have such compunction and that may be why the bad guys win.  These are the people who are in the trenches, the Deplorables and the trolls whose first thought when seeing a Hillary Clinton stumble at the 9/11 Memorial was not, "Oh my goodness, I hope she is ok." but immediately begin working on screen captures of the moment and memes that only they think are funny.  These are the people who think up things like Comet Pizza has a basement where children are being molested by the Secretary of State who somehow slips her Secret Service detail along with many other higher ups to go and do some nefarious thing in a crowded pizza place.  These are the people with the disgusting will after children were killed at Sandy Hook to start spreading the rumor within hours that it was completely fake.

Trump bombed Syria on Friday.  Why?  A number of articles came out immediately as we began to get battle damage assessment (BDA) of the ordeal.  First, we see that not too much damage was inflicted on the airfield as they were up and running again the next day.  He told the Russians that he was going to do it so they could move their equipment and personnel.  No doubt Assad's troops knew as well and were able to think about a three day weekend they were likely to get.

What was the intent?  Were we meant to stare in awe as missiles flew into the night and be dumbfounded by the might of the U.S. military to the point that we would forget the myriad things going on?

Logic like that is predicated on the notion that the American people do not have the bandwidth to think about more than one thing at a time.  I am still peeved about the Yemen debacle which Trump seemed to only engage in because President Obama would not authorize it when he was in office.

Let me state that I do not think that Trump is a thoughtful man.  By that I mean that I was unmoved by his moment in the White House Rose Garden talking about the "little babies" that were harmed or killed in Assad's gas attack.  More people in Syria die from regular ole bombs than from gas attacks, so why the change now?  In fact, earlier in the week, both Secretary of State Tillerson and Ambassador Haley said that the administration's position would basically to leave the Assad regime be.  Also, keep in mind that Trump screamed that intervention in Syria would be a big mistake in 2013.  The Republicans were ready to sue Pres. Obama over intervening without congressional approval. What changed?  "Gas Attack" was trending.  That is all.  Trump is running the administration based on what is most popular.  End of story.

This is also very telling about his personality and temperament as well as ours.  In light of Thursday and Friday's events, what is our policy on Syria?  Who knows?  We will apparently find out the next time something happens.  If it gets enough "likes" America will do something.  If not, well...

This whole administration is being run moment to moment and the best many of us can do is hang on for the ride.

It seemed the biggest goal of the attacks on Syria were pretty simple.  To get Americans to snap-to, salute the flag, and forget about everything else that has ever been said or done by Trump.  He didn't "become Presidential" as Fareed Zakaria put it.  He muddied the waters.

We need to be able to say so in the moment.  Sometimes it feels bad.  Sometimes it feels wrong to talk about the motives of a president in the moment, as bullets are flying.  The interesting thing is that never stopped anyone on the right from taking the opposite position and that may be part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now.  That may be part of the reason that mess will get worse.  We need to be able to speak out about things as they happen. We need someone to be the a-hole, in short and call BS ...and keep calling BS...When these things happen.

Having been called a "liberal snowflake" and many other things in the past year, we see that the core of the right-wing is to condemn those who are nice and good.  So, Angry Liberal, if I can say something, don't feel bad especially if you are speaking the truth.  Do it quickly and forcefully, because the bullies and the liars will not wait.

Be faster than the lies and spin,
Writ Large

The Angry Liberal... #Itoldyouso and the troll battle continues.

I tend to pick on the right quite a bit and I am considering upping my game.  I have been caught up in the idea of the angry liberal lately.  It is becoming more difficult to be the
soft and kind, touchy feely, hippie type.  Ann Coulter is the best model for what the left needs.  She is a person who makes little to no sense, yet says things anyway.  Without the anchor of a network, she can go on any show and say whatever she wants and sell books to those who want to read and listen to her.  Nice work if you can get it, right?

The reality is that without an anchor, she can play into the standard view of the conservative white person and enjoy being what people expect.  The problem with the left and the liberal snowflakes is that we are supposed to represent the softer side and the positive world view.  Donald Trump has turned that on its head.

In terms of debate, the liberal line is tough to hold.  How do you stand up for yourself while still being the caring loving individual you are?  The answer is simple, in my humble opinion.  We need the liberal equivalent of Ann Coulter.

Case in point: Helen Baristain is married to an undocumented immigrant.  She is a Trump supporter.  Her husband was just deported, despite having no criminal record and being an upstanding citizen (or rather being an upstanding person living in the U.S.).  What is there to say?  The soft, snowflake wants to say that I am sorry that happened.  I want to say that she  and we should do everything in our power to get him back into the arms of his loving family.  The angry liberal in me wants to tell her tough and launch a new hashtag, (#Itoldyouso).

We are seeing more and more of it; people falling victim to their support of Donald Trump and the Republican regime.  The interesting thing is that if something good happens, Trump takes credit.  If something bad happens, he places blame everywhere but himself.  I think we need someone to take him and others to task without trying to be politically correct.  For the record, that person is not Bill Maher.

I am not saying that everyone should be mean to trolls.  I am saying that someone should be mean.  Someone needs to listen to some of the things these people are saying and say, "That is stupid."  The inevitable reply to that will be, "Oh, I thought you liberals were supposed be all sweetness and light." Do we care and is that the line that lets people off the hook for the silly things they say?  The idea that people should allow others to say what they want without consequence or rebuttal because it is the nice thing to do.

The problem is a simple one and easily solved.  One of the reasons why we lose these debates and the commentary is because we have cede the lower ground.  We all rise above when someone needs to get muddy.  Also we assume that people are open to convincing or simply the viewing of relevant facts.  I do not want to believe we are past the point of serious debate, but...

In my opinion and my wildest dream, we need a liberal goon.  In hockey, often teams have a goon or an enforcer whose sole job is to punish players on the other team who foul them.  The right has many such goons who come out of the woodwork when it is time to bash a liberal.  We don't really have anyone.  I would like to see someone sink to their level.  Let's have a reporter with a White House press pass who just screams, "BULLSHIT!" when Sean Spicer said something that was untrue.

Fundamentally, the left has been on its back foot since November 7th or so.  We have been in a defense posture where we are replying to the things that have happened as opposed to launching our own initiatives and building our base.  We have been called on to work with Trump and those in the know are unwilling to do so, despite how many people it would help, because he would likely take credit for any progress made on the left and if anything fails, put them in a place to take the fall.

So I ask, where is the angry liberal out there yelling and screaming about the alt-right and telling people to STFU?

Hillary Wins! (conspiracy theory #2) ...This was never supposed to happen.

I think that Putin was the only person more surprised that Donald Trump won than Donald Trump himself.  In retrospect, it seems rather obvious that Trump was woefully unprepared to become President of the United States and if Hillary Clinton had won, he would have been a lot happier.

From the moment Trump took office he seemed surprised to be there.  During the campaign, he had made vague campaign promises about destroying ISIS in 30 days, repealing and replacing Obamacare, bringing back jobs in a horrible economy, and building a great big wall to keep out the Mexicans who are killing us and taking our jobs.  Now that he is in office, he has to live up to those promises or take another route; tell you whose fault it is that he cannot (because it is definitely not his).

I contend that he was never supposed to be there.  It was not what he or Putin wanted.  Do I believe that Putin and the Russians messed with the election?  Yes.  Do I believe that Trump had something to do with it?  Yes and no.

Given Trumps strengths, his best position is to be the guy standing at the podium telling you what is wrong.  He is a mouthpiece.  I suspect that Putin wanted to mes with America and the election and the best way to do that would be to have someone to harangue Hillary Clinton for the duration of the campaign.  Still, I think he wanted her to win and expected she would so that she would be under the microscope for the next four or more years, as Trump is now.

Putin has far more to gain if Hillary wins than having Trump in office, especially with a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  If Hillary had won, right about now, she would be sitting in front of Congress defending every action she has ever taken.  Bill Clinton would be accused of something new.  There would be talk of independent counsels and impeachment and blocking Supreme Court nominees and more.  There is talk about those things now, the only difference is those accusations are being leveled by Democrats.

Trump would have benefited far more if she had won also.  Imagine Trump in Trump tower tweeting about how horrible a job she is doing and IF he was president, everything would be great right about now and everyone would have a pony.  He would be launching a new TV station designed specifically to target the left without actually saying it and essentially becoming FOX 2.0.  He would be free to move about the country, play golf, make deals and suck up all the goodness that comes from saying you could do a better job without ever getting the chance to do it. No one would be asking for his tax returns or phone records.  Trump thrives in the "IF".  Trump was expecting to lose.

There is more value in insinuation and innuendo than there is in proof these days.  Before the election even happened, he was talking about rigging.  Imagine if he had lost.  Every five minutes he would be in tweeting about how "Crooked Hillary" had worked to steal the election.  Look at the troll reaction when Bernie Sanders lost the primary to Hillary.  Retribution was immediate and constant.  In many circles it goes on to this day with people taking any chance to bash Hillary for "stealing the primary".

We are finding out more and more every day about links to Russia but the trail seems to go cold after the election and we are given to wonder how the social media campaign would have changed if she had won.  Was there a larger campaign in place to further tear at her administration?  It would have been a lot easier because no one would be looking at that actual perpetrators as much.  Attempts by President Hillary Clinton to point at the Trump campaign and the Russians would have been dismissed as her trying to cover her tracks and deflect from her "failing presidency".  Trump would have made deal after deal and more and more money.

People keep using the analogy of a dog chasing a car and not knowing what to do when he catches it.  It is apt but I think it goes deeper than that.  Much like that dog, the thrill for the Right and for Trump is in the chase.  It is the exercise that comes from running.  It is the intimidation that others see from a ferocious dog chasing anything.

Putin has no intention of blackmailing President Trump.  He can't, really.  There would be too many people looking and watching a president. He wanted to blackmail and own Trump the private citizen.  Trump the private citizen is where the money and the power are.  He wanted someone powerful in the U.S. not to have power, but to erode and undermine that power over time using a television station, a social media network, and a voice from within the U.S.

The problem was that Putin was too good at it and though the idea was to get as close as possible without actually winning.  He was looking at the same polls we were.  He was listening to the same people we were; people who insisted they were independent and undecided, but not.  Instead he ended up winning and now, shutting down all of those avenues that were constructed to bash Hillary for four years, are leaving a trail.  And speaking of trails, Hillary is probably out hiking right now as the Trump administration collapses.