Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Time For The Two-Minute Hate!

Dead Career for Brain-Dead Bitch: That is the world Kathy Griffin lives in.

Imagine living in a bubble so impermeable it didn’t occur to you that retailing a photograph of a decapitated president’s head would be a horrendous career move
— a bubble in which you don’t know anyone who doesn’t think the world would be a better place once Donald Trump had had his head cut off.... That’s why she initially defended the picture to the journalist Yashar Ali by claiming it was “art.” But in her heart of hearts, Kathy Griffin is no more a provocateur than Tickle-Me Elmo. Her professional life has been about making fun of people who try and fail to achieve genuinely deserved American celebrity. That’s very nearly the opposite of risky. Making fun of a Kardashian is about as daring as smoking a clove cigarette. -- New York Post
It's past time to 1) Hate these people with an iridescent hate, and 2) Make them pay and pay again for every move like this. We are not in Kansas any longer. Time to fire up the erasers. Posted by gerardvanderleun at May 31, 2017 7:13 PM
I'd like to know how this big-mouthed punk is going to make anyone "pay" for anything.

And lest we forget:

Mouthing Off At A Slumlord

Trumpy Thug, "Vigilante Bully"
Gets His

Jerry DeLemus, a prominent right-wing activist who co-chaired the New Hampshire Veterans for Trump coalition, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada.

The Boston Globe reports Chief US District Judge Gloria Navarro called DeLus a “bully vigilante” while handing down a sentence one year longer than prosecutors had requested.

The Globe spoke to former New Hampshire Republican Party chair Jack Kimball, who said a pardon from President Donald Trump is being pursued for the Trump supporter. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also been asked to intervene in an attempt to prevent the Republican activist from serving his prison sentence.

Susan DeLemus, wife of the convicted, is a former two-term Republican state representative in New Hampshire and like her husband was a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Former Representative DeLemus claims her husband signed his guilty plea to “take the fall” for his fellow conspirators.
[Raw Story]

Midget Subs Attack Sydney!

SUN 31 MAY 1942
Pacific
Japanese midget submarines from submarines I-22, I-24, and I-27 penetrate the defenses of Sydney, Australia. Their torpedoes near-miss U.S. heavy cruiser Chicago (CA-29) but sink RAN accommodation ship Kuttabul and damage Dutch submarine K IX beyond economical repair. Three Japanese midget submarines are lost in the attack.

Submarine Pollack (SS-180) sinks Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser No.5 Shunsei Maru off Murotosan, 31°38'N, 133°45'E.

Indian Ocean
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-10 reconnoiters Diego Suarez.

Caribbean
Submarine Grunion (SS-216) rescues survivors of U.S. Army-chartered freighter Jack, sunk by German submarine U-155 about 100 miles southwest of Port Saluit, Haiti, 17°36'N, 74°42'W. Three of the 9-man Armed Guard are lost.

Shut Up About Kathy Griffin's
Trump Headshot Already

From pukey centrist Michael Bloomberg's poop pile:
While Griffin apologized for the image, the Republican National Committee singled out Franken for accepting political contributions exceeding $3,000 from Griffin in recent years. The two were scheduled to appear together at an event in California in the coming weeks.

Franken spokesman Michael Dale-Stein did not say whether Franken still planned to attend the event, but he condemned Griffin's photo. The senator, Dale-Stein said, "believes this image was inappropriate and not the kind of thing that should be part of our national discourse."
Here's the kind of thing that belongs in our national discourse, found here yesterday in the comments. I decided it might be worth the effort to save them.

How much of a pin-dick/closet-case must one be to come up w/ something like this? ("#2BIGFORHER" Gee-ziz.)
Nothing "inappropiate" there.

If Duterte Said This About One Of Trump's Children ("What Was Your Reaction When Your Father Was Cheating On Your Mother?") What Would Happen?

Daily Mail:
Philippines president Duterte hits back at Chelsea Clinton  —  ‘What was your reaction when your father was fucking Monica Lewinsky?’  Philippines president Duterte hits back at Chelsea Clinton after she criticised his ‘joke’ about troops raping women  —  Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte angrily hit …
RELATED:

Stupid Schmuck's Stereotypes

Perpetual whiner Erick-Woods Erickson at The Resentment:
I think the gas tax, on a daily basis, affects President Trump’s blue collar voters more than most. They have larger families, larger cars, and pick up trucks. They fill up with gas more than once a week. They are not driving a Prius or a Tesla. And I don’t think they’d consider themselves “ideologues.”

And that’s the thing. The people most likely to pay this tax would be Trump’s voters. Rich coastal liberals have electric cars and drivers. College professors have their tiny smart cars and Priuses. One of the environmentalist left’s pushes has been for ever smaller cars as a direct incentive to produce fewer children.

It’s Trump’s voters who have the large families and the large vehicles. If you raise the gas tax like Hugh wants, you hurt them more than most. I think “everyone” can only be considered people in Washington and people who get picked up in black cars a lot.

The top three vehicles in America are the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado, and the Dodge Ram. The people who own those vehicles more likely than not would be surprised to learn that they would support a gas tax increase.
Do these dumb bastards think the roads & bridges appear by magic? And don't those overweight pick-ups fuck up the roads more than Priuses? Talk about expecting a free ride. Isn't Trump supposed to be Prez of all the American people, not just the truck-driving breeder scum Trump-'tards?

Doesn't it sound as if Erick-Woods is in favor of progressive taxation, & getting the money from those who have it? (Like a Commie!) But of course he's too dense to follow that thought to a rational conclusion.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Free Pants!

SAT 30 MAY 1942
Pacific
TF 17 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher), formed around carrier Yorktown (CV-5), departs Pearl Harbor to join TF 16 northeast of Midway.

Submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinks Japanese army transport Atsuta Maru in East China Sea east of Okinawa, 26°07'N, 129°06'E, and survives counterattack by her victim's escort.

Indian Ocean
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-10 reconnoiters Diego Suarez.

Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. freighter Alcoa Shipper, en route to New York from Trinidad, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-404 at 37°49'N, 65°15'W; three men die in the initial explosion. The rapidity with which the ship sinks prevents the crew from launching boats, and four men are lost with the ship. U-404 provides the 25 survivors with rum, cigarettes and (for one ill-clad sailor) a pair of dungarees (see 1 June).

Gulf of Mexico
Thirty-five survivors of U.S. freighter Alcoa Carrier, sunk by German submarine U-103 on 25 May, are rescued by Cuban gunboat and Navy patrol plane.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Birthday Bonus

Read all about it.

"... But Never Better Late"

FRI 29 MAY 1942
Pacific
Seaplane tender (destroyer) Thornton (AVD-11) arrives at French Frigate Shoals, T.H., to relieve light minelayer Preble (DM-20) on patrol station there. Japanese submarine I-123 arrives the same day to find the Americans already there.

Seaplane tender (destroyer) Ballard (AVD-10) arrives at Midway along with the eleven motor torpedo boats from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron One (Lieutenant Clinton McKellar Jr.); the latter are assigned to local defense forces of Midway (Captain Cyril T. Simard).

PBYs (VP 71) and RAAF Catalinas bomb Japanese base at Tulagi, Solomons.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-21 reconnoiters Sydney, Australia (see 31 May).

Submarine Swordfish (SS-193) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tatsufuku Maru at the southwestern entrance to Balabac Strait, 07°33'N, 116°18'E.

Caribbean
Destroyer Tattnall (DD-125) rescues 26 survivors (including three Armed Guard sailors) of U.S. tanker New Jersey, sunk on 28 May by German submarine U-103 (see 1 June 1942).

Free Advertising

On this Memorial Day, let us pause for a moment in our grilling & beer-swilling to remember those
who died uninsured & untreated, that the tax-payers shall keep their ill-gotten gains &
not themselves perish from this earth.

Memorial Musicale

This makes me feel old: Martyred U.S. President John F. Kennedy would have been 100 today had he not been martyred.
I'd like to see ol' J.F.K. risen from the dead & shambling along Pennsylvania Ave. (Or at the helm of PT-109, surfing a flood of Biblical proportions.) toward the Executive Mansion.
Like Trump, this reporter doesn't like losers. George S. Patton was right: The idea was to make some other dumb son-of-a-bitch die for his country, you stupid rotting corpses. Speaking of Nazis, this one's for the sacrificed war dead & for those who may not get enough north-western European high culture in these pages:
Honor our nation's soldiers in the New Era 2017 MLB Memorial Day 9TWENTY cap.
The unique military-style canvas crown is complemented by the camo-print brim.
Cheer for your favorite team over the long holiday weekend
while reminding others of the sacrifices made by many.
$30.00 (U.S.)

Mon. (Last Days Of) May Music

Saying good-bye at the station.
Three-day wknd. in Limeyland as well.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

I.J.N. On the Move

THU 28 MAY 1942
Pacific
Japanese First Fleet, Main Body (Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku in battleship Yamato) allocated to the Midway operation sorties from home waters. The Second Fleet, Escort Force (Rear Admiral Tanaka Raizo), whose composition includes 15 transports, sails from Saipan; Second Fleet, Occupation Support force (Rear Admiral Kurita Takeo) sorties from Guam.

U.S. troops (500 men drawn from the garrison at Efate) arrive at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

TF 16 (Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance), formed around carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8),
departs Pearl Harbor to take up position northeast of Midway.

Submarine Salmon (SS-182) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Ganges Maru in the South China Sea about 250 miles south-southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, 09°00'N, 111°00'E.

Submarine Seal (SS-183) damages Japanese army cargo ship Tatsufuku Maru at western entrance to Balabac Strait, 07°27'N, 116°17'E.

North Russia
In the aftermath of German air attacks on convoy PQ 16, U.S. freighter City of Joliet, damaged by near-misses the previous day, is abandoned in Barents Sea, 73°41'N, 21°58'E. All hands (including the 11-man Armed Guard detachment) reach safety on board British tug HMS St. Elstan and Free French corvette Roselys.

Caribbean
U.S. tanker New Jersey is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-103 about 90 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island, 18°32'N, 82°28'W. There are no casualties among the 36 merchant seamen and five Armed Guard sailors, and all hands abandon ship in two lifeboats (see 29 May and 1 June).

The Voice Of Cheese

Especially meaningful today.
UPDATE, 'bout three hrs. later: Alternate Facts/Universe:
Moi non plus, other than noting the desperate references to country (Ein Reich!) & the people (Ein Volk!).
Blood & Soil, baby!

Just realized that Sieg Heil! could be translated "Hooray for Winning!" As in, "So much winning, you'll get bored!"

Happy Sun Day

If the Giant Meteor won't show, this'll do.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Go Trump Yourself!

Annals of Psychiatry: Malpractice Alert!

How many more privileged entitled assholes running roughshod over everything will we get from this?
Dr. Keith Ablow / Fox News:
Trumping your life: How to be a better, stronger person by being more like the president  —  Weeks ago, I wrote the first installment of TRUMPING YOUR LIFE, delivering three ways you can change your life by following the example of President Trump.  —  This is the second of five installments I plan to share.
Five? C'mon, you need nothing but enabling wealthy asshole parents who leave you their money. Bingo, you're Trump! Anyone can do it!

We suspect Dr. Ablow has Trumped his life by following the Trump University model. (Remember, the Prez of the Electoral College is a court-determined fraudster.)

Trouble At Bear Island

WED 27 MAY 1942
Pacific
Japanese forces begin heading for Midway. Chief among them is First Mobile Force, Carrier Strike Force (Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi), which departs home waters on this date.

Japanese submarine I-19 prepares to launch her small reconnaissance seaplane off the northern side of Bogoslof Island, Aleutians, but sights what she identifies as a U.S. destroyer and submerges hurriedly, irreparably damaging the aircraft.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-25 reconnoiters Kodiak, Alaska.

Marines and Seabees occupy Wallis Island, South Pacific Ocean.

Atlantic
Destroyer tender Prairie (AD-15) and gunboat Spry (PG-64) are damaged by fire, Argentia, Newfoundland.

Arctic
German planes attack convoy PQ 16. U.S. freighter Alamar is bombed and sunk approximately 100 miles southeast of Bear Island. British corvette HMS Starwort, tug HMS St. Elstan and submarine HMS Trident rescue all hands (36 merchant seamen and nine Armed Guard sailors); Trident torpedoes and scuttles the irreparably damaged freighter as a hazard to navigation. U.S. freighter Mormacsul is sunk by a direct hit and three near-misses; three of the ship's crew perish in the attack. The survivors (36 merchant seamen and the 9-man Armed Guard) abandon ship and are rescued by HMS Starwort and a British tug. U.S. freighter Alcoa Banner is damaged by near-misses 200 miles southwest of Bear Island; there are no casualties to the 44-man merchant complement or the two Armed Guard sailors. U.S. freighter City of Joliet is damaged by near-misses; her pumps fight a losing battle against inrushing water but there are no casualties among the 37 merchant seamen or the 11-man Armed Guard (see 28 May 1942).

Gulf of Mexico
British tanker Orina rescues two survivors from U.S. tanker Halo, sunk by German submarine U-506 on 20 May 1942.

Caribbean
Unarmed U.S. freighter Alcoa Pilgrim, en route to Mobile, Alabama, from Trinidad, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-502 at 16°28'N, 67°37'W. The rapidity with which the ship sinks prevents the crew from launching boats, and 31 men of the 40-man complement are lost with the ship (see 2 June).

Off The Air At Last!

Influential KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer talks about being taken off the air
Took long enough. Like, 37 yrs., man.
Hey!

He can't read baby he can't talk/He's L.A.'s favorite punk rock jock
Glitter bands and Bowie's cock/Are his ideas of new wave rock

You're a fuckin' piece of shit now Rodney/I don't think you're so hot
You make me laugh with those clothes you wear/And those stupid teeth you've got

Get off the air! Get off the air!/You pathetic male groupie, you don't impress me
Get off the air! You fuckin' square/You're just a jerk as far as I can see

8 p.m., Rodney's on the air/He's beating off in Joan Jet's hair
Christmas Eve, what d'you got?/Four hours of Phil Spector rot

You're a fuckin' piece of shit now Rodney/I don't think you're so hot
You make me laugh with those clothes you wear/And those lame-brain teeth you've got

Get off the air! Get off the air!/You pathetic male queer, you don't impress me
Get off the air! You fuckin' square/You're just a jerk as far as I can see
Couldn't take the heat:
Shortly after the Angry Samoans formed in late 1978, Mike Saunders, Turner and Homer wrote an infamous song about longtime LA/Hollywood scenemaker and KROQ-FM DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, titled "Get Off the Air." When the song was included on the band's first record, Inside My Brain, the Samoans were blacklisted at the Starwood, Whisky a Go Go, and any other club in Hollywood/LA proper for about two years during mid-1980 through late 1982, seemingly due to Bingenheimer's strong influence with the LA/Hollywood club scene.
Little bastard.

Can You Spot The Fake News?

The Intercept:
LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL COUNTERTERRORISM TACTICS USED AT STANDING ROCK TO “DEFEAT PIPELINE INSURGENCIES”  —  A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures …

 Paul Sperry / New York Post:
How Team Obama tried to hack the election  —  MORE FROM: … New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic-spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials.  —  The irony is mind-boggling …

Reefer Madness, Redux & Re-Booted

SometimesVery very often this reporter wants only to zone out (Oddly enough, last evening when I started this it was by watching M.L.B. Network Strike Zone, but no!) yet is dragged by the massive gravity of a cosmically inane object into a dudgeon so high he must type something.

The object here is cretin Cliff Kincaid, who has climbed into the Attic of Idiocy, found the original edition of the Right-Wing Wurlitzer songbook (behind some "Video Games: Threat Or Menace?" pamphlets & under a pile of Junior Anti-Sex League material) dusted it off, tossed in some contemporary references, & added some modern anecdata to the re-mix.

MARIJUANA JIHAD LINK: FAMOUS ISLAMIC TERRORISTS WHO WERE POTHEADS

Paranoia about General Moral Decay (& providing work for former T-Men no longer enforcing Prohibition*) is right out, as are the Commies/Russkies ("We have never been at war w/ Russia!") undermining Dick & Jane's moral compasses; today's aging paranoids want to hear about jihadis & the scapegoat Emmanuel GoldsteinGeorge Soros.
Islamists are evil enough, since they act on the basis of radical religious ideology. But the evidence shows that marijuana, which is spreading across the United States through George Soros-funded initiatives, can help fuel the anti-American Jihad.
The link between "radical religious ideology" & the reefer? Look who shows up when one searches "KKK + marijuana": Att'y. Gen. Sessions!
As Sessions learned that some members of the Klan had smoked marijuana on the evening of the slaying, he said aloud that he thought the KKK was: "OK until I found out they smoked pot."

Sessions insists he was joking. But the damage was done.
He probably was. but it certainly confirms that dangerous religious radicals use the stuff. Damn you for inventing it & then popularizing it, Soros!!

*2017 is the 80th anniv. of the Marihuana Tax Act. A matter of time until J.B. Sessions III brings it back?

David Frum Points & Laughs

Trump's Moral Holiday

Fourth and finally, May 25 witnessed the “day after” reaction of Republican and conservative talkers and politicians to the violent assault on a reporter by the Republican candidate in the Montana special House election, Greg Gianforte. A remarkable number of those talkers condoned the attack, either outright or by pointing to other bad things that have happened elsewhere on earth at various points in the past. Rush Limbaugh went furthest, theatrically condemning the attack—but denigrating the reporter as a “smug and arrogant" Millennial “pajama boy” (a hugely derisive term in the conservative political lexicon) and praising Gianforte as “manly and studly.” (It’s hard to miss in some of the commentary from Trump’s elderly base a nostalgic yearning for lost physical prowess—and intense resentment of the vitality of younger generations with different views.)
Also both-sides bullshit from 50 yrs. past.
Half a century ago, conservative commentators often blamed the riots of the 1960s on the “moral holiday” declared by permissive authorities. Leaders who might have delegitimized violence instead acquiesced in it, thus inviting more of it.
Cheese & crackers, Physician Frum, heal thyself: Does "pointing to other bad things that have happened elsewhere on earth" seem vaguely familiar?

And speaking of the vaguely familiar (if not an insufferably bad thing that happened) while typing this effing earworm appeared inside the brain, as if by the vilest of suggestive magic.
Cliff Richard - Summer Holiday
Did I see the film on the telly once & mercifully forget everything but the title tune?

Friday, May 26, 2017

No Free Cigarettes 75 Yrs. Ago Today

MON 26 MAY 1942
General
Anglo-American air conference opens in London to discuss allocation of aircraft; U.S. Navy representative is Rear Admiral John H. Towers, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics.

Pacific
Aircraft ferry Kitty Hawk (AKV-1) arrives at Midway with reinforcements for MAG 22, as well as the 3-inch antiaircraft group (3d Defense Battalion) and a light tank platoon earmarked for a mobile reserve.

Submarine Salmon (SS-182) sinks Japanese repair ship Asahi about 180 miles south-southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, 10°00'N, 110°00'E.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-9 reconnoiters Kiska.

Atlantic
Eight survivors from U.S. freighter Quaker City, sunk by German submarine U-156 on 18 May reach safety on Dominica.

Coastal yacht Sapphire (PYc-2) rescues the 30 survivors of U.S. freighter Plow City, sunk by German submarine U-588 on 21 May.

German planes attack Reykjavik, Iceland-bound U.S. freighter Carlton (detached from convoy PQ 16 for repairs), under tow of British trawler HMS Northern Spray, but cause no additional damage. As in the previous day's attack, there are no casualties.

Arctic
U.S. freighter Syros, in convoy PQ 16, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-703 approximately 200 miles southwest of Bear Island, 72°35'N, 05°30'E. Of the 39 souls on board (37 merchant seamen and two Navy signalmen), 27 civilians and one signalman survive, rescued by British minesweeper HMS Hazard.

Gulf of Mexico
Unarmed U.S. tanker Carrabulle is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-106 at 26°18'N, 89°21'E. Reportedly, the submarine's commanding officer, Kapitanleutnant Herman Rasch, asks survivors if all men are clear of the ship. When told no, he laughs and orders a second torpedo launched that strikes the ship directly beneath a lifeboat as it is being lowered, killing 22 of the 24 men in it. U.S. freighter Thompson Lykes rescues the 18 survivors. Later the same day, U-106 shells U.S. freighter Atenas at 25°50'N, 89°05'E, but accurate Armed Guard gunfire drives off the U-boat before she can cause much damage. There are no casualties on board Atenas among the 54-man crew, eight-man Armed Guard and ten passengers.

Trucknutz? In 2017? Puh-leeze.
Time For GUNSTICLES!

Someone may have a tongue in a cheek somewhere, but I suspect they're just compiling a serious chump-ass sucker list.
Gunsticles Tactical Testicles are rail mounted balls for your Picatinny or Weaver rail equipped rifle! The perfect novelty accessory for the gun enthusiast - including firearms, paintball, or Airsoft! A great gift for yourself or a loved one, Gunsticles Tactical Testicles are a great way to make a trip to the range even more fun! A great gift for yourself of [sic] someone special!
Are YOU man enough? (Unless of course you're a pink patriot, whatever that may be.)

Disaster Alert!

Mike DeBonis / Washington Post:
John Boehner unloads on Trump: A ‘complete disaster’  —  Former House speaker John A. Boehner continued a streak of remarkable post-office candor during a Wednesday appearance at a Houston energy conference, telling a luncheon audience that President Trump's term has — foreign policy aside — been a “complete disaster.”

So It Was 70 Yrs. Ago Today, Then?

PickyWeedia claims 'twas 50 yrs. ago today that the album that ruined everything dropped in Britain.
Alternate shot for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Mar. 30, 1967.
From #askNat – concerning the laughter passages on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Yanks had to wait until 2 June. Or "1st June" if you believe the Beatles website. Need we add:
It’s part of the album’s Anniversary Edition – out on 26 May – which features the album newly mixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, notes from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and a whopping 34 previously unreleased recordings.
A mere U.S.$149.98. Two early takes:
Also foisted on the world zackly 50 yrs. ago (again, if one trusts the iNternet ...)
Mere coincidence? Sinister liberal plot? Or orders from Moscow?

Thursday, May 25, 2017

A Disturbing Parallel

From north of the border to (mostly) south of the equator, a glimpse of a possible North American future?
A riot police officer lies on the ground after getting hit with a brick thrown by protesters on Wednesday.
[Adriano Machado/Reuters]
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil's president on Thursday cancelled an order that sent soldiers into the streets of the capital, following criticism that the move was excessive and merely an effort to maintain power amid increasing calls for his resignation.

In a decree published in the Official Diary, President Michel Temer revoked the order issued a day earlier, "considering the halt to acts of destruction and violence and the subsequent reestablishment of law and order." On Thursday afternoon, soldiers began to leave their posts in Brasilia, the Defence Ministry said.

The troops were deployed late Wednesday following a day of clashes between police and protesters demanding Temer's ouster amid allegations against him of corruption. Fires broke out in two ministries and several were evacuated. Protesters also set fires in the streets and vandalized government buildings.

[...]

Temer's popularity has been in a freefall since he took office a little more than a year ago after his predecessor was impeached and removed. Some Brazilians consider his presidency illegitimate because of the way he came to power, and his efforts to pass a series of economic reforms to cap the budget, loosen labour laws and reduce pension benefits have made him even more unpopular. In addition, several of his advisers have been linked to Brazil's big corruption investigation, known as Operation Car Wash.

As part of the Car Wash probe, Temer now faces allegations that he endorsed the paying of hush money to a former lawmaker who has been jailed for corruption. Brazil's highest court is investigating him for alleged obstruction of justice and involvement in passive corruption after a recording seemed to capture his approval of the bribe. Temer denies wrongdoing.

Many Brazilians want him out one way or another and are calling for him to resign or be impeached. The demands for his resignation have heated up since the release of the recording and came to a head in Wednesday's protest, when 45,000 demonstrators took to the streets.

Opposition lawmakers have submitted several requests in Congress for Temer's impeachment. On Thursday, the Brazilian bar association submitted another such request in a move that carried special symbolic weight because the association is not partisan.
Srsly, what're the odds?

"Zigaretten, Ja?"

MON 25 MAY 1942
Pacific
Light cruiser St. Louis (CL-49) arrives at Midway and disembarks Companies "C" and "D," 2d Marine Raider Battalion, and 37-millimeter gun battery of the 3d Defense Battalion.

Submarine Drum (SS-228) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Kitakata Maru east of Nojimazaki, Honshu, Japan, 34°00'N, 139°00'E.

Submarine Permit (SS-178) damages Japanese transport Senko Maru, 00°20'N, 118°20'N.

Submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinks Japanese merchant tanker Tokyo Maru about 70 miles west of Naha, Okinawa, 27°03'N, 127°03'E.

Submarine Tautog (SS-199) sinks Japanese transport Shoka Maru about 385 miles southwest of Ulithi, Carolines, 04°07'N, 143°32'N.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-9 reconnoiters Kiska and Amchitka, Aleutians.

Atlantic
Destroyer Blakely (DD-150) is torpedoed by German submarine U-156 off Martinique, French West Indies.

German planes attack convoy PQ 16 as it proceeds toward Murmansk, USSR, from Reykjavik, Iceland; U.S. freighter Carlton is damaged by near-misses. She leaves the convoy under tow of British trawler HMS Northern Spray. There are no casualties among Carlton's 35-man merchant crew or 11-man Armed Guard (see 26 May 1942).

Gulf of Mexico
Unarmed U.S. freighter Alcoa Carrier is torpedoed and shelled by German submarine U-103 at 18°45'N, 79°50'W, and abandoned. U-103 surfaces and her commanding officer asks the Americans for the name and speed of their ship, and if all of her men have been accounted for, before he provides them with cigarettes. Alcoa Carrier sinks early the following morning, after which time the U-boat departs (see 30 May).

Mexican freighter Oaxaca rescues three survivors from U.S. tanker Halo, sunk by German submarine U-506 on 20 May; two of the men recovered, however, will die of their wounds (see 27 May).

Caribbean
Destroyer Goff (DD-247) scuttles the hulk of U.S. tanker Samuel Q. Brown, torpedoed by German submarine U-103 on 24 May.

Throw-Up Thurs.

Purge yourself.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Auckland Reconnoitered;
Torpedo Trouble

SUN 24 MAY 1942
Pacific
Submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinks Japanese merchant fishing boat Kotoku Maru, 25°16'N, 122°41'E.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-21 reconnoiters Auckland, New Zealand.

Caribbean
Unarmed U.S. freighter Beatrice is torpedoed by German submarine U-558 at 17°23'N, 76°58'W, but the torpedo fails to explode. U-558 then surfaces to shell the ship, which is abandoned under fire with the loss of one man.
A PBY arrives on the scene and drives off the submarine. Of the 30 survivors, 21 men in a lifeboat reach Pigeon Island, Jamaica; British patrol craft Hauken rescues the remaining nine sailors. Beatrice sinks the next morning.

Steamship Marpesia rescues two survivors on a raft from U.S. freighter Norlantic, sunk by German submarine U-69 on 13 May.

Destroyer Goff (DD-247) rescues 48 survivors of U.S. tanker Samuel Q. Brown, torpedoed by German submarine U-103 the previous day (see 25 May).

Atlantic
Fifteen survivors from U.S. freighter Quaker City, sunk by German submarine U-156 on 18 May reach safety at Barbados (see 26 May).

Real News From Stupid Central

Today in two-bit McCarthyism.

Red Francis Gives POTUS Trump Copy of His Global Warming Junk Science Book

Red Francis met with President Donald Trump Wednesday at The Vatican. The Socialist pope gave Trump a copy of his encyclical on global warming junk science.
See also. And:

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Guess We Can Just Post This Poster Everyday From Here On

So now I have to hope I'm old enough not to be fucked out of my paid-for-w/-my-damn-taxes "entitlements" (& therefore forced to strangle loud-mouthed son-of-a-bitch & Budget Director Mulvaney). Of course age won't protect me from being dispossessed when the Section Eight money goes to new Tomahawks (U.S.$85,000,000.00).

Trump Budget Cuts Programs for Poor While Sparing Many Older People

[Sharon Parrott, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities] also pointed out that as a candidate, Mr. Trump promised not to cut Social Security, but on Monday he proposed to cut millions from Social Security Disability Insurance, a program that she described as “central to the Social Security system.”

Mr. Mulvaney said the president was keeping his promises.

“He said, ‘I promised people on the campaign trail that I would not touch their retirement and I would not touch Medicare.’ And we don’t do it,” Mr. Mulvaney said of the president. “If you ask, 999 people out of 1,000 would tell you that Social Security disability is not part of Social Security. Old age retirement — that they think of as Social Security.”

“Able-bodied” people and people who are not “truly disabled” need to go back to work, he said.
Further exploration of lying about S.S.D.I.:
Republican leaders characterize the program and its recipients
in ways that do not hold up to scrutiny.
And if anyone cares, Afrika:

Cuts to AIDS Treatment Programs Could Cost a Million Lives

Too Good Not To ...

Haw Haw Haw!

Derek Hawkins / Washington Post: 
Veteran big game hunter dies after elephant, felled by gunfire, collapses on him

Go Heffalumps!

Same Dung, Different Day, 75 Yrs. Ago

SAT 23 MAY 1942
Pacific
District patrol craft YP-277 is destroyed by fire after striking U.S. mine at French Frigate Shoals, T.H.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-29 reconnoiters Sydney, Australia.

Caribbean
U.S. tanker Samuel Q. Brown is torpedoed by German submarine U-103 south of the Yucatan Channel, 20°15'N, 84°38'W; two merchant seamen die at the outset. After the U-boat surfaces and the Germans ask the identity of the ship and her cargo, the survivors (37 merchant seamen and the 16-man Armed Guard) gather in two lifeboats. Later that day, a Navy plane from the Panama Canal Zone rescues five wounded men (see 24 May and 25 May).

He's A Master Something

Now that "Radical Islamic/Islamist Terrorism" has been forgotten or noted not to make any difference, Trump had to come up w/ a new one, & the guy who created the widely syndicated Dilbert comic strip 30 or 40 yrs. ago (& has been coasting ever since) thinks "loser" is the magic word that will seal the deal.
Scott Adams' Blog:
Scott Adams' Blog  —  President Trump just gave ISIS its new name: Losers. (Short for Evil Losers). — If you think that's no big deal, you're wrong. It's a big deal. This is - literally - weapons-grade persuasion from the most powerful Master Persuader of our time.
Literally. And indeed the "most powerful Master Persuader of our time", give or take about three million votes.
Tell ya what, Scottbert, let us know when the "Master Persuader" has persuaded someone to stop investigating him, or disgraced Gen. Michael Flynn, or Russia, or Prince Jared, Lord of The Slums.

And: Always love it when memeorandum posts something idiotic like the above & there are no "related discussions".

Apparently No One Is Innocent

Here's Your Real News

Media Matters for America:
In a YouTube broadcast, Infowars host Alex Jones calls Manchester victims “liberal trendies”, claims they're the same people “promoting open borders”  —  From a May 22 video posted on Alex Jones' YouTube channel:  —  ALEX JONES: Trump didn't just sign a deal …
Why, it's as if they wanted to bomb the event themselves.
Extremist anti-LGBTQ activist Theodore Shoebat posted a video on his website reacting to the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England last night in which 22 people were killed. Shoebat, who was featured in a radically anti-gay documentary in 2015 along with various Religious Right activists and Republican elected officials, declared that he has no sympathy for those who were killed or injured because they are all “sodomites-lovers” and “sluts.”

“I really have no sympathy for these people,” he said. “The people who died, the people who were injured, the people who were scared out of their minds, who ran away [screaming], I really don’t care. The types of people who go to these concerts are the same types of people who are responsible for the degeneracy that you see in society.”

“They go to these concerts dressed up as whores, dressed up as sluts, they’re pro-sodomite, they’re pro-divorce, they’re pro-infidelity,” Shoebat said. “They want evil, they want decay, they want sodomy, they want Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Shoebat then showed photos of “some sodomite lover” who was injured in the bombing as he declared that Ariana Grande “is a nasty, evil woman.”
No condemnation of the bomber, only of the "trendy liberal" victims. Did an eight-yr. old girl deserve to die because she was a "sodomite lover", "pro-divorce", & "promoted open borders"? Guess the American Experiment is over, & a grand failure it was, too. Fuck everything to hell, now!!

Monday, May 22, 2017

Mexico Jumps In

FRI 22 MAY 1942
General
Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Caribbean
Unarmed U.S. tanker William Boyce Thompson, en route to Curacao, N.W.I., is torpedoed by German submarine U-558 at 16°26'N, 76°55'W; there are no casualties among the 37 merchant seamen and two Navy signalmen, and the ship reaches port under her own power.

Atlantic
Destroyer Blakely (DD-150), at 15°01'N, 57°38'W, rescues seven survivors from U.S. freighter Quaker City, sunk by German submarine U-156 on 18 May (see 24 and 26 May).

Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Retired), boards Swedish passenger liner Drottningholm at Lisbon, Portugal, for passage home to the United States. He will arrive in New York on 1 June.

Pacific
Submarine Tautog (SS-199) damages Japanese transport Sanko Maru southwest of Truk, 07°00'N, 151°00'E.

Submarine Silversides (SS-236) damages Japanese transport Asahisan Maru at the mouth of Kii Suido, between Ichiyozaki and Shionomizaki, Honshu, 33°30'N, 135°27'N. Counterattack by Japanese aircraft (Maizuru Kokutai) is unsuccessful.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Again, Money Over Life, Humanity, Decency & Anything Else

Not only the war crimes, the goddamn crony capitalism:

What America’s new arms deal with Saudi Arabia says about the Trump administration

It puts human rights aside to make a buck.

Second, the more libertarian-leaning members of the Republican party who have complained that many of Trump’s policy inclinations go against traditional conservative free-market principles now have yet another data point to make their case. After all, this is a clear example of the government directly interfering in the free market by trying to get a company to change its price on an item.

Even worse, one of the president’s senior advisers purposefully fought to make a US company less money in order to help another country out. I very much doubt that’s what most Trump voters expected his “America First” policy to look like.

Finally, the fact that Kushner himself was at the center of the whole thing is especially notable. Whereas foreign military sales in the past would be negotiated through multiple US government bureaucracies, countries can now apparently skip all that red tape and go right to the source as long as they forge a relationship with Kushner.

And you better believe that other countries are paying attention to that.
Believe it, or shove it!

We Repeat: "Republican Policy Paper"

Simple, w/ bullet points & a picture. The moral conclusion? Human life has value, but not much.
You can't get any starker than this.

Search Results

Mulvaney: Proposed cuts to Meals on Wheels are compassionate to ...

www.politico.com/.../mick-mulvaney-donald-trump-budget-meals-on-wheels-236144

Mar 16, 2017 - He explained that the budget proposal is compassionate to the taxpayer because it stops government spending on programs that he said have ...

Mulvaney: Proposed cuts to Meals on Wheels are compassionate to ...

www.politico.com/.../mulvaney-proposed-cuts-to-meals-on-wheels-are-compassionate...

Mar 16, 2017 - Mulvaney: Proposed cuts to Meals on Wheels are compassionate to taxpayers. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney talks ...

Mick Mulvaney defends budget cuts as 'compassionate' to taxpayers ...

www.upi.com › Top News › U.S. News

Mulvaney defends Trump budget cuts as 'compassionate' to taxpayers. By Eric DuVall | Updated March 16, 2017 at 6:27 PM ...

White House Says Cutting Meals on Wheels Is 'Compassionate'

nymag.com/daily/.../white-house-says-cutting-meals-on-wheels-is-compassionate.html

Mar 16, 2017 - I think it's probably one of the most compassionate things we can do,” ... by one, simple question: “Can we ask the taxpayer to pay for this?”.

Trump budget chief claims planned cuts to food for the poor are ...

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Americas › US politics

Mar 17, 2017 - White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney has claimed that cuts to a scheme designed to feed the poor were “compassionate to the taxpayer”.

Trump's Budget Director: It's 'Compassionate' To Cut Programs That ...

https://www.good.is/articles/trumps-cruel-cuts-meals-on-wheels

Mar 16, 2017 - He believes it's about “as compassionate as you can get” to go to taxpayers and say, “look, we're not going to ask you for your hard-earned ...

Cutting "Meals on Wheels" is compassionate ... to taxpayers - ***Dave ...

hill-kleerup.org/blog/.../cutting-meals-on-wheels-is-compassionate-to-taxpayers.html

Mar 16, 2017 - No, really, that's the argument the Trump Administration is using to support proposed massive cuts in federal funding to programs like "Meals on ...

Mulvaney-defends-Trump-budget-cuts-as-compassionate-to-taxpayers

gephardtdaily.com/...compassionate-to-taxpayers/.../mulvaney-defends-trump-budget...

Mulvaney-defends-Trump-budget-cuts-as-compassionate-to-taxpayers. TRENDING NOW. coplightsfile Salt Lake City juveniles stabbed, beaten in Friday night ...

Mulvaney: Proposed cuts to Meals on Wheels are compassionate to ...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028802659

Mar 16, 2017 - 22 posts - ‎20 authors
Mulvaney: Proposed cuts to Meals on Wheels are compassionate to taxpayers. By Louis Nelson 03/16/17 04:36 PM White House budget chief ...

Mulvaney defends Trump budget cuts as 'compassionate' to taxpayers ...

esciencenews.com/.../mulvaney.defends.trump.budget.cuts.compassionate.taxpayers

Mar 16, 2017 - White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended deep cuts to social programs like free school lunches and Meals on Wheels "as ...
Death "panels" nothing, we're not that far from actual death camps. Remember, when they come for you there won't be anyone left to stand up for you.