Putting the entire military budget on the credit card

Think Progress:

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal budget deficit had hit $895 billion and would rise to $1 trillion before the year ends — earlier than predicted. They attributed the growth to the tax cuts and spending bills.

The military budget for FY2018 is only $717 billion, or,

Why Military Spending Is More Than You Think It Is
BY KIMBERLY AMADEO, The Balance (investment blog)
Updated September 04, 2018

Estimated U.S. military spending is $892 billion.That’s from the spending bill signed by President Trump on August 13, 2018….

Actually, that’s only the half of it. (Or, technically, two thirds of it.)

GOPs in Congress just voted to make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

Advertisements

Does He Get A Parade Too?

UPDATE: Featured on Mike’s Blog Roundup at Crooks & Liars.

Tonight, for the THIRD time, the public and oh-so-photo-oppey THIRD swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh was held.

Who is standing in the center of the picture that ought not be there?

Saturday Night, in case Russians attacked or the national legal database was overtaken by ransomware, he’d already been sworn in TWICE.

Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as America’s 114th Supreme Court justice in a private ceremony at the Court on Saturday night, hours after a 50-to-48 Senate vote to confirm him. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the constitutional oath, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy administered the judicial oath, according to a Supreme Court statement, “so that [Kavanaugh] can begin to participate in the work of the court immediately.”  ~ New York Magazine

Emphasis added. WHAT, pray tell, could be so deathly important that a normal, business-hours Monday swearing-in would be precluded?

Controlling the Supreme Court is far too important to play fair

After throwing a temper tantrum, Kavenaugh takes to the pages of Rupert’s Wall Street Journal to cry crocodile tears that he’s really a GOOD judge, yes he is, and NEVER goes off on partisan tangents or cries or weeps or engages in temper tantrums … on the court. But, understand, they were being MEAN to him. You see?

The maraschino cherry atop a cow flop sundae of unfair process, hidden documents, railroad timetables, arbitrary rulings, sudden adjournments, backroom deals and kangaroo courts, it all comes down to the next 24 hours. Just time enough for Kavanaugh to burnish his halo.

I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge
Brett M. Kavanaugh / Wall Street Journal

Yes, I was emotional last Thursday.  I hope everyone can understand I was there as a son, husband and dad.  —  I was deeply honored to stand at the White House July 9 with my wife, Ashley, and my daughters, Margaret and Liza, to accept President Trump’s nomination …

Remember how he began this quest, shamelessly lying and flattering Trump with nonsense about “nobody has ever held more consultations,” etc. when everyone knows Trump simply picked from a Federalist Society pre-arranged list. But soft. This must be placed in context: 

Kavanaugh disqualified himSELF — the hearing only catalyzed it

Kavenaugh probably perjured himself.

How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying
Nathan J. Robinson / Current Affairs
  —  This man should not serve another day as any kind of judge…  On Thursday morning, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford detailed under oath her claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attacked her and sexually violated her when he was 17.

But there’s no real need to go even THAT far.

Themis, Goddess of Justice

There is either something Ironic or Orwellian in the spectacle of a nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States of America making accusations of conspiracy and attacking the entire opposition political party.  And, if anyone believes that the histrionic, over-the-top, always attack/never defend performance of Mark Kavanaugh exhibits a “judicial temperament” then there is no hope for reason. It’s all and ONLY about Pavlovian/Skinnerian conditioning and we happy rats will all learn to pull the right lever. That was the lesson of 2016, after all.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe Dr. Ford or you disbelieve Dr. Ford. The point is, as they say, moot.

Mark Kavanaugh is not qualified to sit on the United States Supreme Court.

Two Months in the Facebook Hellhole

WARNING: Philip K. Dick spoilers. If you don’t want to read them, you probably ought to stop reading here.

You may have noticed that I have not been present much of late on Facebook.

Facebook
Enforcing Our Community Standards  —  We believe in giving people a voice, but we also want everyone using Facebook to feel safe.  It’s why we have Community Standards and remove anything that violates them, including hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others.

I guess being governed by robots with awesome powers and no appeal is making me feel “safe”? No.

I was NOT in Facebook jail. No: I experienced something much darker, which almost convinced me to roll up the writing tent and pack it away for the foreseeable future.

There is a very good and very ugly reason for this. I’ve been locked in Facebook limbo, stuck in an infinite do-loop, and lost in a Kafkaesque nightmare of our possible future. Let’s back up …

Please Don’t Ever Say I Didn’t Try To Warn You

May it Please the Kangaroos of the Court:

People’s Exhibit A:

Fresh off his felony pardon (D’Souza, not Trump):

People’s Exhibit B:

I, most respectfully, rest my case.

Courage.

Beyond A (t)Reasonable Doubt

Senator John McCain released the following press release earlier today. It is worth repeating in its entirety. It is also entirely in the Public Domain:

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on President Trump’s meeting and press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki:

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.