By Dennis Hartley
As they say in the biz…comedy gold:
Poor Jeb. He’s starting to remind me of one of my favorite movies:
Change the “ud” to an “eb”, and you’ve got a new campaign song:
Pore, pore Jeb.
Tag Archives: On Politics
Dennis Hopper explains the Trump phenom
By Dennis Hartley
OK, it’s official. The Clock has moved one minute closer to midnight:
What he’s been able to accomplish, with his um, it’s kind of this quiet generosity. Yeah, maybe his largess kind of, I don’t know, some would say gets in the way of that quiet generosity, and, uh, his compassion, but if you know him as a person and you’ll get to know him more and more, you’ll have even more respect. […] God bless you! God bless the United States of America and our next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump!”
Ah! So this is how the world ends. Suddenly, this makes perfect sense:
Bury my heart at the visitor center
By Dennis Hartley
Oy, vay. Disenfranchised white men with guns Patriots are takin’ a stand ‘ginst them revenooers. An’ don’t call ’em terrorists! From CNN:
Armed anti-government protesters have taken over a building in a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, accusing officials of unfairly punishing ranchers who refused to sell their land.
One of them is Ammon Bundy, the 40-year-old son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is well-known for anti-government action.
He spoke by phone to CNN Sunday morning. Asked several times what he and those with him want, he answered in vague terms, saying that they want the federal government to restore the “people’s constitutional rights.”
“This refuge — it has been destructive to the people of the county and to the people of the area,” he said.
“People need to be aware that we’ve become a system where government is actually claiming and using and defending people’s rights, and they are doing that against the people.”
The group is occupying part of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns after gathering outside for a demonstration supporting Dwight and Steven Hammond, father-and-son ranchers who were convicted of arson.
Prosecutors said the Hammonds set a fire that burned about 130 acres in 2001, to cover up poaching. They were sentenced to five years in prison.
The Hammonds, who are set to turn themselves in Monday afternoon, have said they set the fire to reduce the growth of invasive plants and to protect their property from wildfires, CNN affiliate KTVZ reported.
The Hammonds have been clear in that they don’t want help from the Bundy group.
They’re getting “help”, nonetheless. Apparently, an infinite amount:
When asked what it would take for the protesters to leave, Bundy did not offer specifics. He said he and those with him are prepared to stay put for days or weeks.
[…]
“We are using the wildlife refuge as a place for individuals across the United States to come and assist in helping the people of Harney County claim back their lands and resources,” he said.
Oh, I see. “Their” lands, and resources. I know this may be American History 101, and you’ve heard this a million times before, but if I am not mistaken, the only “people” who can truly claim original “dibs” on the United States of America’s lands and resources are these guys:
The above photo was taken in 1973. That’s the assistant Attorney General of the U.S. at the time, being escorted by members of the American Indian Movement into Wounded Knee, South Dakota, during the the organization’s armed occupation of the village.
The two and a half month-long standoff was ostensibly triggered by frustration over the failure of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization to impeach a tribal president, who had been accused by tribal members of corruption and abuse of opponents. However it soon doubled as a platform for the activists to air ongoing grievances regarding the United States government’s failure(s) to honor treaties. By the time it all ended, 2 people had been killed, 15 were wounded.
Obviously, armed insurrection has not proven to be the most sensible method for airing grievances here in the USA, at least since we became a democracy following the Revolution (and I think we can all agree that, generally speaking, the Civil War was a very bad idea).
That said…on a sliding scale of “injustices” (I’m just using the 1973 Wounded Knee incident comparatively here, not excusing or condoning the AIM activists’ ill-advised decision to carry guns), and from a purely academic standpoint, those Native American folks at least had some historically documented reasons to get all “up in arms” about it.
But these guys?
Not so much.
I just hope this situation ends peacefully. Erm…Happy New Year?
###
UPDATE: Via Digby retweet…
Today I learned:
plural of armed black people is thugs
plural of armed brown people is terrorists
plural of armed white people is militia— koush (@koush) January 3, 2016
Through a glass, darkly: The Tainted Veil ***
By Dennis Hartley
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on December 19, 2015)
In my 2013 review of the documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali, I wrote:
[…] Ali’s vilification was America’s pre-9/11 flirt with Islamophobia. Ali was “safe” and acceptable as a sports celebrity (as long as he played the face-pulling, poetry-spouting ham with Howard Cosell), but was recast as a dangerous black radical once he declared himself a Muslim and began to publicly speak his mind on hot-button issues. The Islam quotient is best summarized by an interviewee who says “…Since 9/11, ‘Islam’ has acquired so many layers and dimensions and textures. When the Nation of Islam was considered as a ‘threatening’ religion, traditional Islam was seen as a gentle alternative. And now, quite the contrary […]
What Ali went through back in the 1960s was a romp in the fields compared to what every day law-abiding Americans who happen to be Muslim have to put up with in our current political climate; particularly in the wake of the San Bernardino mass shooting incident.
Between the vile hate rhetoric spewing from certain presidential hopefuls and wingnut commentators, and the only slightly more subtle notes of hysteria ginned up by mainstream media outlets who should know better, I would imagine many of these folks are involuntarily compelled to look over their shoulder as they go about their daily lives.
Am I being shrill? Alex Wagner interviewed Dr. Suzanne Barakat on MSNBC’s All In this past Thursday. She is the sister of Deah Barakat, one of the 3 Muslim students who were slain by a neighbor this past February in Chapel Hill (authorities have not ruled out a hate crime).
At one point in the interview, Wagner asks Dr. Barakat (who works at San Francisco General) what her personal experience has been, as a professional who happens to wear a head scarf. She recalls fellow hospital workers making comments like “…she mustn’t be a terrorist…because she has a badge.”
Apparently, this is not a sporadic occurrence; she adds “I was almost run over the other day in the parking lot by a patient leaving the hospital, who stuck out his middle finger and called me [an] ‘effing B’ [sic].” She’s a doctor. An American citizen. All her attacker saw was a woman wearing a hijab.
All the more reason for me to bring a rather timely new documentary to your attention. While ostensibly a PBS Frontline-styled, multi-viewpoint treatise “about” the venerable Muslim tradition requiring a woman to wear a head scarf in public, The Tainted Veil is also a kind of litmus test that subtly prompts a non-Muslim viewer to step back and take stock of his or her own autonomic response when encountering a person who is so attired.
When a modern-day Muslim woman dons a hijab, what does it telegraph to the world? Does it denote a personal spiritual conviction? Is it a cultural/ideological symbol; a kind of uniform? A fashion statement? A feminist statement? A symbol of male oppression?
With their eclectic array of interviewees, which includes scholars (Islamic, Christian and Jewish), clergy, educators, liberals, conservatives and a cross-section of Muslim women around the world who have worn the hijab, co-directors Ovidio Salazar, Nahla Al Fahad and Mazen al Khayrat demonstrate that the answer to all those questions could be “yes.”
Some viewers may be flummoxed that the film doesn’t adhere to any specific point of view; but that is precisely what I liked about it. It doesn’t take sides, and by not doing so it stimulates the kind of open-minded dialogue that we need to have in a day and age of such acute political and cultural polarization.
As one of the interviewees observes (paraphrasing Edward Said), “We are not living in a clash of civilization, but a clash of ignorance…people don’t approach each other, even though we live in a ‘connected’ world.” We’d best find a path to connecting with one another soon, because as one of the religious scholars cautions, “When Earth lives in misery, the heavens bloom.” Er, amen?
Bat s#!+ fever: Trump gets Nuge nod
By Dennis Hartley
Brothers-in-arms
So the Nuge is a yuuge Trump fan. I’ll be damned! From Billboard:
“Know it, Donald Trump is the hellraiser America has needed for a very longtime [sic],” Nugent wrote today (Dec. 16). “He & Ted Cruz may be the only hope to end the criminal jihad on America by our own corrupt punkass government, media & bigBiz goons.”
Twin brothers from a different mother. 2 peas in a pod. 2 in the chamber, 32 in the clip…and 2 tacos short of a combination plate.
Reminds me of a song:
America’s in yuuge trouble. Is there a doctor in the house?
Oh god. We are in YUUGE trouble…
This. Is. Americaaa!!!
By Dennis Hartley
I don’t know if you managed to catch the glorified paintball game Republican debate last night, but the Hateful 9 candidates were sure layin’ down the gauntlet on them evil tear’ists. Here’s a quick recap:
I feel safer. How about you?
“I like you, Donny…there’s no lying in you.”
By Dennis Hartley
With the announcement this week that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be now be facing a military court-martial on the charges of desertion from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009, newscasters have seen fit to re-run one of Donald Trump’s Greatest Hits on a continuous loop:
Yeah, just shoot him! No trial. Lovely message to convey, with our country ensconced in a 24/7 cycle of gun violence. Very presidential.
The Commander-in-Chief of the 101st Chair-borne went on to riff, “As far as I’m concerned, send Bergdahl back, drop him right in the middle of [his former Taliban captors] and they will take care of it.”
Of course, his supporters react with wild cheers to such “straight talk”. I suspect that this is how they perceive their Fearless Leader:
But in reality, Trump’s sense of justice seems more in line with this:
Coverage of your weekly mass shooting…
By Dennis Hartley
…will resume following this public service announcement:
Programmes of violence,
As entertainment,
Brings the disease into your room.
We know the germ,
Which is man-made in metal,
Is really a key to your own tomb.
Prevention is better than cure,
Bad apples affecting the pure,
You’ll gather your senses I’m sure
Then agree to,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.
Children will want them,
Mothers supply them,
As long as your killers are heroes.
And all the media
Will fiddle while Rome burns,
Acting like modern-time Neros.
Prevention is better than cure,
Bad apples affecting the pure,
You’ll gather your senses I’m sure
Then agree to,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.
I’m speaking to the justice league of America.
The U S of A,
Hey you,
Yes you in particular!
When it comes to the judgement day and you’re standing at the gates with your weaponry,
You dead go down on one knee,
Clasp your hands in prayer and start quoting me,
‘cos we say…
Our father we’ve managed to contain the epidemic in one place, now,
Let’s hope they shoot themselves instead of others,
Help to civilize the race now.
We’ve trapped the cause of the plague,
In the land of the free and the home of the brave.
If we listen quietly we can hear them shooting from grave to grave.
You ought to,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more to fire them.
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
Melt the guns,
And never more desire them.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…
Tommy Udo for President!
By Dennis Hartley
Let’s see. He’s publicly insulted women, Muslims, Mexicans and Syrian refugees. He’s had an Hispanic journalist and an African-American protester somewhat pointedly ejected from his Nuremberg rallies. At this point, who hasn’t he offended?Just when you thought presidential hopeful Donald Trump had exhausted all possibilities…
Who is he starting to remind me of?
Best Thanksgiving origin story ever
By Dennis Hartley
Enjoy. And please pass the yams…