By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor
Yes. our state was graced by the presence of SFB at an event in White Sulphur Springs (home of the Greenbrier Resort, which is coincidentally owned by our governor) on Thursday.
He was flanked by Evan Jenkins (who IMHO is a dweeby snake) and Patrick Morrisey, who is just a borderline corrupt politician.
From the Charleston Gazette coverage of the event:
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — President Donald Trump broke from a tax reform-centered message Thursday to rev up West Virginia’s already heated Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
Speaking at the White Sulphur Springs Civic Center, Trump, flanked by two front-running candidates in the primary, alternated between taking shots at incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and forwarding a sprawling immigration and border security plan.
Although Trump’s administration billed the event as an official visit to tout the benefit of the tax cut package Trump signed into law last year, the president literally threw away his single page of prepared remarks and delved into 20 freewheeling minutes, alternating between policy points and political jabs.
“Joe, he voted against,” Trump said of the new tax law. “I thought he would be helpful because he talks … but he votes against everything, and he voted against our tax cuts.”
The president was flanked to his right by Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., and to his left by state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, both of whom are seeking to take on Manchin in the November general election.
Manchin didn’t attend the event Thursday but emailed a statement later in the day.
“Instead of the political posturing back and forth, West Virginians deserve answers and the only thing that matters today is did these questions get answered in White Sulphur Springs,” Manchin wrote. “The people of West Virginia badly want to know: What will the 200,000 West Virginians do when they lose healthcare coverage? How much will Republicans cut from Medicare and Social Security? What happens when our rural hospitals go bankrupt? Why is this plan causing insurance premiums to go up? Why are the middle-class tax changes not permanent? Why is Mitch McConnell blocking coal miners’ pensions?”
There was of course the predicted blathering about Mexicans and caravans of South and Central American immigrants through Mexico headed for the US (which of course is a half truth at best), but this is what caught my eye.
“This is what the Democrats are doing to you,” Trump said after telling the account of a man who he said was dismembered by immigrants while jogging along the Hudson River, in New York. “They like it because they think they’re going to vote Democrat. Believe me, they’re doing it for that reason. They are doing it for that reason, and other reasons. But they are doing it for that reason.”
One small problem with this racist xenophobic screed – that isn’t what happened. He’s probably referring to the case of a New Jersey woman, Jennifer Londono, whose body parts were discovered floating in the Hudson. Her boyfriend, Raphael Lolos, is accused of killing her. While he has a Hispanic name, he ain’t a gang member and he ain’t an illegal immigrant by any account I can find.
But I can assure you the WV Republican rubes in White Sulphur Springs went home and started bombing the internet with reports of immigrant dismemberments in NYC.
My friends, we are in deep doo.
More Posts by Pogo
pogo, thank you for painting such a vivid picture of the state we seem to be in…. “West Virginia ….Life is old there, older than the trees” as john Denver sang.
here’s an update on what’s happening a little east of you on the Russian front
ny times via msn: He Says He’s an Innocent Victim. Robert Mueller Says He’s a Spy.
[….]
nd last week, Mr. Mueller turned over a card in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia by asserting in a court document that this person “has ties to a Russian intelligence service” and was in contact with a senior member of the campaign, Rick Gates, during the 2016 election.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation special agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016,” the filing said.
As Person A, Mr. Kilimnik, a 47-year-old former Russian military interpreter, has appeared now in multiple court filings by the special prosecutor, which suggests that he could become a pivotal figure in the investigation. For about a decade, he worked as an office manager in Kiev for the political consulting business of Mr. Manafort, acting as a go-between and fixer for the American and the Russian-leaning politicians who were its clients.
[….continues…]
Someday a hundred psychologists, spread across many countries, will get together and decide to pool their skills and create the deepest look inside the skull of SFB to see what might be in there. This effort might lead to a new chapter in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. From what we have been hit with so far, I am sure it will be a humdinger of a chapter.
pogo, your west Virginia pols Thursday seem downright normal compared to this one from flatus & sturge’s state.
wapo:
A lawmaker from South Carolina pulled out his loaded pistol during a meeting with his constituents Friday to make a point about gun safety, according to advocacy group members who were present.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) placed the gun on a table for “several minutes” while arguing that the presence of the weapon in the room made his constituents safer, according to volunteers for the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“Rep. Norman’s behavior today was a far cry from what responsible gun ownership looks like,” said Lori Freemon, a volunteer who attended the meeting, in a news release. “I had looked forward to a respectful dialogue with my representative about common-sense gun violence prevention policies.”
“Instead, I felt unsafe when he insisted on showing us his loaded gun and keeping it out on the table for much of our conversation,” she said.
[…continues…]
[am surprised he didn’t follow up his pistol exposure by bragging that his was bigger than his opponents]
Bill in SC congress to secede from the union if the govt tries to take away guns in SC….
What dweebs these yokels be.
My diagnosis of Trumpsky:
Bat-shit God Complex
…compounded with a low IQ
Patd, pulling out a loaded pistol at a gun safety talk may be the one thing our idiot pols haven’t done that may make them appear somewhat normal compared to the SC idiot. No, ours haven’t done that but campaign season is young. Ours are just stoopid and corrupt. Jenkins (reptile) has a campaign ad featuring him (a) with a hunting rifle and (b) Standing next to his marine kid, both I civvies holding assault rifles in what I can only describe as stern defensive stances. Morrisey is simply corrupt. I’ll see if I can locate an article explaining it.
GOP ……the party of Bad Samaritans
If the reports of Trumpsky being prepped for a grilling by Mueller are true, his team must be peeing themselves.
Can they expect him to control his mouth during the interview?
Is he going to throw away the script, as he literally did this week?
What I ~love~ are Repug ads featuring a gun-toting candidate with a voiceover about their pro-life record.
Here’s a Fact-check.org article about Morrissey’s lobbyist wife.
While I take no issue with the issues her firm lobbies for, it is hard to justify a lobbyist spouse the primary breadwinner for the family of the attorney general of our state and the potential republican challenger to be one of West Virginia’s US senators.
Blue, that’s our reptile Jenkin’s ads. They feature gun rights, anti-abortion, Nancy Pelosi and anti-librulism. Of course they’re really tailored to take shots at Morrissey’s wife’s firm’s lobbying positions for gun law reform and abortion rights.
*
TX’ Atty General, Ken Paxton, was brought up on securities fraud charges (dismissed with prejudice) and now his wife is running for office. They have become very rich being public servants. Now, how does that happen?
the twit as described by Shakespeare:
…..a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
patD – Wouldn’t that be nice if pig farmers and cattle ranchers found something new to do with their land? Maybe they could do something crazy like grow food that doesn’t create methane and pollute the environment; produce something that isn’t inhumanely fattened up, only to be killed.
That goes for manufacturing, as well.
Why are we shipping stuff around the world, anyway? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for everyone to produce and consume as locally as possible?
Why ship raw goods around the world (oil tankers), only to ship it back (more oil) to be sold to the folks who had the natural resources to produce it in the first place?
It certainly isn’t a very green way to do things.
npr
Analysis: In Trump’s Twitter Feed, A Tale Of Sound And Fury
Roger Stone claims he was poisoned…with plutonium. Now why don’t I believe him?
It was 87 yesterday; it’s 37 this morning.
Although SFB trade war is only at the tariff stage right now, the time to be very concerned if you are an exporter is if China expands limits on imports. It is one thing to have a 25% tariff and allow all that people want to bring in, it is very different when the tariff is there and a quantity limit. So maybe after a few more weeks and seed is in the ground China says it will only import 1/4 of the soybeans it did last year. That is going to make voting this fall interesting.
Yep. Trumpsky is blowing any tax benefit folks may feel.
Keep your tiny hands offa our livelihoods & 401(k)s.
Why does this have the stench of Bannon all over it?
Expedited shipping doesn’t allow for consolidation/full loads, so that is worse for the environment, as well.
Online shopping is greener than conventional shopping, but speedy delivery wipes out the benefit & makes it even worse for the environment.
BB, I reckon the current inhabitant’s brain will be a curiosity for the ages. I expect it will find its way to the
Smithsonian before the end of this century. When I was a youngster, they had John Dillinger’s syphilitic penis on display; would this brain rate an equal presence?
flatus, our present day mad king. but they will need a whole wing in the museum for the treacherous tyrant trump
@MichaelAvenatti
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Expect a major announcement in the coming days regarding our efforts to identify the thug who threatened Ms. Clifford in Las Vegas in 2011 to “leave Trump alone” while making reference to her little girl. You can run but you can’t hide.
#thugsearch#seriousconsequences#basta5:40 AM – 7 Apr 2018
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Promotes Donald Trump-Trolling T-shirt
Its slogan reads “Can’t Build A Wall If Your Hands Are Too Small.”
VicenteFoxQue
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Thank you for all your support!
@centrofox was built on the foundation of empowering leaders to take charge and give back to their communities. Help me continue to spread the message of compassion for others, by getting this apparel at http://represent.com/vicentefoxPat,
I wouldn’t buy or peddle those shirts. Certainly he is infantile and has small hands and is incapable of building a wall. But, an infant can’t pin an American Flag on its ass. In this case the former president of Mexico did. A plurality of Americans didn’t. If Mr Fox wants to pin the GOP flag on the infant’s ass, so be it.
Yep. First thing I saw was our flag with stink coming offa it. Not cool, Vincente, not cool.
Nothing says, “We don’t want you here, kid. Go be a failure.” like Oklahoma’s education system.
Of course, Oklahoma is merely a temporary encampment while the oil lasts.
flatus & BiD, those vicente t-shirts are made and sold by 2 American companies.
I agree that the flag should not be worn as any apparel we sit on no matter whether it’s a baby diaper or adult shorts.
Remember the American flag textiles debate in advance of our bicentennial?
There was a lot of outrage over making/wearing items with the stars & stripes. I was young & didn’t understand why some thought it wasn’t the best idea. I get it now.
While American companies may have manufactured those tees (yay, First Amendment), folks should give more thought to tying in Trumpsky with America. Maybe use the old, Soviet hammer & cycle flag on his poopie behind.
There’s a scathing editorial in this morning’s Journal focusing on the economic plight of our Farm Belt states under the Trump Administration; and, the probable “Punishing America First” effects of the trade war with China.
Unfortunately, my subscription does not allow me to copy an open link to the editorial.
Flatus – I cannot find the link where I read the WSJ (Murdock) opinion piece. It was to the point, the
guyman-child has no clue what he is doing. Just like a little child who learns a phrase and keeps repeating it. At some point someone will have to step up, so far though it looks like we have to wait until the next Congress is sworn in. My take away is Wall Street is not happy, but, it was in writing on a Saturday and as we know if it is not on faux snooze it does not exist. Weather report in swamp is upper 80’s today. Fatso should be pouring out a lot of cola if he does hit the course.flatus & bbronc, some of that wsj editorial is quoted here by the investor village:
The conservative Wall Street Journal lashed out at President Donald Trump on Saturday morning with a blistering editorial, hammering the President for plunging the U.S. into a trade war with China which is hurting American farmers and businessmen.
Under a very pointed headline reading, “Punishing America First,” the editorial board at the Rupert Murdoch-owned WSJ, was unsparing in it’s criticism of Trump’s tariff moves that have plunged the markets into chaos, while the president has offered the cold comfort that Americans will have to suffer a bit as he figures it out.
“Donald Trump and his advisers spent much of Friday telling everyone that the U.S. is not in a trade war with China, but investors weren’t buying it,” The editors wrote. “Equity markets took a major header, falling by more than 2% across the board. Maybe investors are starting to look at the damage Mr. Trump may do to the Farm Belt states and to the GOP’s chances of holding Congress.”
“We’ve been warning since Mr. Trump first emerged as a candidate that his nationalist economics should be taken seriously,” the piece continued. “This is one policy he seems truly to believe in, he has empowered protectionist advisers, and previous Congresses have given a President wide latitude to act unilaterally. Trade was always the biggest economic risk of the Trump Presidency, and now we’re living through his punch-first policy as he tries to stare down Xi Jinping.”
“Mr. Trump doesn’t even seem to mind if the tariffs do some economic damage while he’s supposedly fixing the U.S. trade deficit. ‘I’m not saying there won’t be a little pain, but the market has gone up 40%, 42%, so we might lose a little bit of it. But we’re going to have a much stronger country when we’re finished,’ the President told a New York radio show on Friday,” the opinion piece added before following with a sarcastic, “Nice to know it will all turn out for the best.”
Taking up the cause of American farmers who are looking at taking a huge economic hit, the Journal hammered Trump over what his administration proposes to do now that China has retaliated.
“Someone in the White House seems to know the risks because its press shop spent Friday sending out missives telling farmers not to worry. Mr. Trump’s $100 billion tariff threat on Thursday included that he had told the secretary of agriculture ‘to use his broad authority to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agriculture interests,” the editors wrote. “What’s [Agriculture] Secretary Sonny Perdue going to do—buy up all the soybeans China no longer buys? Order farmers to slaughter their pigs to produce less pork that will also be subject to Chinese tariffs?”
“China’s trade abuses need to be addressed, but Mr. Trump’s tariffs first strategy risks punishing America first. He—and we—had better hope Mr. Xi is willing to bargain,” the piece concluded.
You can read the whole thing here, subscription required.
Amy McGrath pulls ad from Sinclair-owned TV station in Lexington for ‘fake news’ message
[…]
Amy McGrath, a retired Marine pilot who is challenging Republic incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in the District 6 election in Kentucky, issued a statement asking her campaign to pull all funding from Sinclair-owned Fox station WDKY-TV.
“Sinclair’s corporate-mandated ‘must-read’ right-wing script on its nearly 200 television stations about ‘fake news’ is itself an extreme danger to our Democracy,” McGrath said on Twitter,” and (it) eerily mimics the propaganda efforts that authoritarian regimes often use to control the media in their own country.”
[….]
n addition to taking on Barr, McGrath faces a crowded Democratic primary that includes Lexington Mayor Jim Gray as well as state Sen. Reggie Thomas. The primary is on May 22.
“I call on all Democratic across the country to take a firm stand against this frightening development to our Democracy and refuse to buy advertising time on all Sinclair-owned TV stations,” McGrath said.
the Denver post Editorial: As vultures circle, The Denver Post must be saved
At The Denver Post on Monday, more than two dozen reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, page designers, digital producers and opinion staff will walk out the door. Our marching orders are to cut a full 30 by the start of July.
These heartbreaking instructions raise the question: Does this cut, which follows so many in recent years that our ranks have shriveled from more than 250 to fewer than 100 today, represent the beginning of the end for the Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire?
The cuts, backed by our owner, the New York City hedge fund Alden Global Capital, also are a mystery, if you look at them from the point of view of those of us intent on running a serious news operation befitting the city that bears our name. Media experts locally and nationally question why our future looks so bleak, as many newspapers still enjoy double-digit profits and our management reported solid profits as recently as last year.
We call for action. Consider this editorial and this Sunday’s Perspective offerings a plea to Alden — owner of Digital First Media, one of the largest newspaper chains in the country — to rethink its business strategy across all its newspaper holdings. Consider this also a signal to our community and civic leaders that they ought to demand better. Denver deserves a newspaper owner who supports its newsroom. If Alden isn’t willing to do good journalism here, it should sell The Post to owners who will.
A flagship local newspaper like The Post plays a critically important role in its city and state: It provides a public record of the good and the bad, serves as a watchdog against public and private corruption, offers a free marketplace of ideas and stands as a lighthouse reflective and protective of — and accountable to — a community’s values and goals. A news organization like ours ought to be seen, especially by our owner, as a necessary public institution vital to the very maintenance of our grand democratic experiment.
Yes, for years now, large media chains have struggled to responsibly downsize newsrooms. But some have done so less responsibly than others.
Here in Colorado, Alden has embarked on a cynical strategy of constantly reducing the amount and quality of its offerings, while steadily increasing its subscription rates. In doing so, the hedge fund managers — often tellingly referred to as “vulture capitalists” — have hidden behind a narrative that adequately staffed newsrooms and newspapers can no longer survive in the digital marketplace. Try to square that with a recent lawsuit filed by one of Digital First Media’s minority shareholders that claims Alden has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars of its newspaper profits into shaky investments completely unrelated to the business of gathering news.
Coloradans feel the insanity of it in their bones. And what a sad history.
[continuing the above Denver post editorial]
In 2009, the large chain that owned the Rocky Mountain News closed that storied paper’s doors. In 2010, Alden bought the chain of papers that features The Denver Post. The hedge fund gained a talented team of journalists reporting from all over the state, the nation and some of the biggest hotspots in the world, a winner of numerous Pulitzer Prizes, including newsroom-wide awards for its coverage of the massacres at Columbine and, more recently, a theater in Aurora.
Since Alden took control, the decline of local news has been as obvious as it’s been precipitous. The editor who oversaw coverage of the Aurora theater shooting, Gregory L. Moore, decamped in 2016, unable to endure the new fund’s directives any longer.
This year began with The Post recovering from more bloodshed as it packed up to leave its namesake city, its journalists clinging to the hope that a newly launched initiative to charge for online content would improve its fortunes. Before journalists were even in their new headquarters, our publisher and former editorial board member, Mac Tully, resigned.
Still more reductions came, and they did so as fast and as chilling as a high-desert storm.
The cuts come despite constant adaptation and innovation within our organization that grew our online reach exponentially.
This in a city that has seen more than 100,000 newcomers since Alden took control, and in a country where other cities Denver’s size and smaller enjoy larger newsrooms and papers. (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s newsroom, for example, has upwards of 170 managers and staff.)
This in a state and region thrumming with energy and enthusiasm for its future.
This in a market filled with hyper-educated citizens ready and able to afford great journalism should it be offered them.
The inevitable result is that the reduction in quality leads to a reduction of trust. So when errant politicians and public figures push back against even the most credible of reports, they find a fertile environment for doubt.
Yes, other media chains and operations haven’t been spared the same market realities Alden faces. The transition from print to digital publication is a challenging one.
Another factor: Critics on both sides of America’s ever-widening political divide heap blame for the loss of readership on claims — too many of them credible — that newsrooms have lost sight of their responsibility to be truly objective. Such criticisms help fuel spectacularly successful social media companies, which also reap profits from links to traditional newsroom offerings.
Another regrettable result of the fracturing of newsrooms has been the rush by political interests to lavish investments in echo-chamber outlets that merely seek to report from biased perspectives, leaving the hollowed-out shells of newsrooms loyal to traditional journalistic values to find their voice in the maelstrom.
Still we take the moment to acknowledge fundamental truths. When newsroom owners view profits as the only goal, quality, reliability and accountability suffer. Their very mission is compromised. The course correction that needs to come for the benefit of communities across the land depends on owners committed to serving their readers and viewers and users.
We get it that things change. We get it that our feelings are raw and no doubt color our judgment. But we’ve been quiet too long.
We believe without question that if community leaders and our readers care about our mission, and what our newsroom ought to be instead of this shadow of what it once was, it’s time for their voices to be heard.
The smart money is that in a few years The Denver Post will be rotting bones. And a major city in an important political region will find itself without a newspaper.
It’s time for those Coloradans who care most about their civic future to get involved and see to it that Denver gets the newsroom it deserves.
Thanks, Pat, for the excellent retrieval of the Journal thoughts.
I recognize who owns the paper and his biases. Fortunately, the wall between opinion and news continues to be strong and; the Journal is a fine read. Its weekend (Saturday) edition belongs in the family room because of its uplifting content of review, critiques and joy. There are no traces of Mr Murdoch there.
How can Pruitt just hire security agents and vehicles, etc., without any oversight…until we are at this point?
Just like the pork-weasel from TX who paid hush money with taxpayer dollars. How is that even allowed to happen & will he ever actually repay it?
Come to think of it, to be unhinged you had to have been hinged in the first place. I saw his performance art in WV Pogo, it was out there even for him. A stream of unconsciousness.
Vicente Fox can say or do whatever he damn well pleases, just like trump.
I mean, food for the goose is just juice for the gambler.
Hey BB did you ever read The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth?
Trump Tower New York on fire starting on 50th floor.
Once I know for sure everyone is safe and no FD people have been injured, then bring on the Schadenfreude.
They’re burning shit
Sturg, that’s not the way ‘we’ say that. To wit, this afternoon spontaneous combustion occurred within soiled cleaning supplies stored in the maintenance area. Unfortunately the sprinkler system was ‘down’ for modifications resulting in the adjacent records storage area bursting into flames.
It appears as if the records area is a total loss. Fortunately, much of the mechanized cleaning equipment had been temporarily relocated from the cleaning area, so that equipment will not need replacement. Kudos to our emergency responders for their effective response.
So SFB AGAIN tries to make the fire about himself tweeting about it being well built. What. An. Ass. Wipe.
…a tale told by an idiot, signifying the end of the American Empire, the rise of American fascism, explosion of American stupidity… it signifies a lot, actually. Blue wave ain’t gonna save us.
Homeland Security To Compile A Database Of Journalists, Bloggers And Influencers
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/homeland-security-searchable-database_us_5ac7f41de4b07a3485e4bb1d?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313
Don’t worry, that’s no one, here. Haha.
Cause of fire: Trumpsky’s giant pants
They’ve started airing ads to join the National Guard here.
People don’t die from fire in properly sprinklered buildings–it just doesn’t happen. Trump is nothing but a money-grubbing pig.
One person dies. Four FD people injured. Suspicion of arson. It seems there is also lots of evidence of money laundering through the apartments on 59th & 51st at least.
One of the tenants who had defaulted on mortgage because she could sell a place in Trump Tower is the famous “cat lady” who tried to make herself look more feline with plastic surgery.
It’s the Reichstag fire all over again. dirty don will order the round up of Hispanics ‘suspects’.