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Requiem for the Obama Administration, Trump Edition
The problems many are now predicting under the Trump administration did not start on November 8. The near-unrestrained executive power claimed by the Obama administration will be transferred to the president-elect. Here’s what that means.
Torture
Obama did not prosecute, fire or discipline anyone for torturing people on behalf of the people of the United States. He did not hold any truth commissions, and ensured almost all of the government documents on the torture program remain classified. He did not prosecute the CIA official who willfully destroyed video tapes of the torture scenes. He has not specifically disavowed secret prisons and renditions, just suspended their use.
As with the continued hunting down of Nazis some 70 years after their evil acts, the message that individual responsibility exists must stalk those who would do evil on behalf of a government. “I was only following orders” is not a defense against inhuman acts. The purpose of tracking down the guilty is less to punish and more to discourage the next person from doing evil; the purpose is to morally immunize a nation-state.
Because of these failures President Trump can, as he has proposed, restart the torture program at any time. Some claim the CIA won’t participate. Some always will of course, and if not at CIA, then a contractor will be found. And if another terror attack or two take place, then people at CIA and elsewhere in government will be lining up to conduct the torture as they did last time. They know they will never be held accountable. Indeed, Trump is apparently considering the CIA official who destroyed the torture tapes, Jose Rodriguez, to head up the agency.
Assassinations
Obama legalized, formalized, and normalized drone assassinations on a global scale, including the killing of American citizens without due process in direct violation of the Fifth Amendment, on the president’s order alone. The only real restraint he codified is self-restraint. When you leave a door open, you never know who will walk in.
Because of this President Trump can do the same thing. Trump is unlikely to blow up the entire world with the nuclear codes, but please do not act surprised when his choice of American citizen targets may not match up with yours.
Guantanamo
Obama never closed Guantanamo as he promised. He could have, simply by depopulating it regardless of what Congress might have said. In 2014 when Obama needed to trade five Taliban from Gitmo for U.S. Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan, Obama simply ordered those Taliban freed. He could do the same with anyone else there. He could have applied the full pressure of the U.S. on various countries to accept freed prisoners. He could have ordered the show trials to be conclude.
Obama did not do these things. He instead normalized indefinite detention as a policy of the United States, and alongside that, as with torture and drone assassinations, the use of secret, convoluted legal opinions to justify such executive powers.
So if President Trump choses to start refilling the cells at Guantanamo, and reminding the world of the lengths a frightened America is willing to go to imprison a single man, it should not be a surprise. And with the “legal” opinions, including ones still secret, behind such policies, stopping Trump will require years of counter-litigation never even begun under the Obama administration.
Espionage Act
Obama prosecuted more federal whistleblowers as spies under the Espionage Act than all previous U.S. presidents combined. He sent to jail people who exposed torture, and people who allegedly leaked information to journalists showing American complicity in dangerous acts abroad. He had Chelsea Manning prosecuted for exposing war crimes in Iraq. He used the Espionage Act to destroy the lives of others who under any definition except his own would be considered political heroes.
Obama and his Justice Department created the playbook for how to use the hereto obscure Espionage Act to do these things.
So if President Trump, perhaps with an attorney general Rudy Giuliani, uses that playbook to lock up whistleblowers, journalists, and people you might call dissidents and political prisoners, remember to again look the other way.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The Obama administration set a record for redacting government files or outright denying access to them in fiscal year 2014 – some 77% of FOIA requests were redacted or denied outright. More than any previous administration, Obama took longer to turn over files, said more often it couldn’t find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over newsworthy files quickly absent lawsuits brought to force the government’s hand. In the case of Hillary Clinton, files considered “unclassified” in one context were redacted in whole in another.
Though the backlog of unanswered requests grew by 55%, the administration cut the number of full-time FOIA employees by nine percent. Despite the critical nature of the documents, the State Department was allowed to do its FOIA screening of the Clinton emails largely with an ad hoc crew of retirees. The impact on journalists, and the right of the people to know, was immeasurable.
So don’t be surprised if the Trump administration does not end up as the most transparent one ever.
NSA
Obama never realistically reigned in the NSA after the Bush-era Patriot Act allowed the agency to turn its surveillance tools on the Homeland. Absent a few cosmetic changes, NSA continues to gather the full spectrum of Americans’ communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment, abetted by the secret FISA court and vaguely Constitutional tools such as National Security Letters and parallel reconstruction. Information lives forever, and the NSA is building bigger data warehouses to keep storing it.
President Trump will have that information about you at his disposal. And so all who bleated “they had nothing to hide and thus have nothing to fear” during the Obama (and Bush) administration, out of trust for a president or fear of terror, well, now you can join the rest of us who have been terrified for a very long time.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Mitch said...
1Peter,
Thank you…. For having the courage to put every bit of that in print.
Every bit, are things I have argued for years. And you are absolutely correct.
M
12/7/16 1:34 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
2OMG!!!!!!!!
Now they have something else to blame Trump for…….
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/07/fine-whine-now-trump-is-being-attacked-for-ruining-womans-dating-life.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
Personally though….. As a single parent, one son, 20 years,( and, YES, that allows me to be critical of her), I’m thinking if she was going on 6 dates a week, she sure as hell is not that great a parent in the first place.
Great title though… “Fine Whine”.
Someone should send her a case of cheese to go with it.
M
12/7/16 6:13 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
3PS
If you search her name, look at her feeds…. ” thanks to ….. I have all the dates now”…..what a loon…
Now, she will NEVER spend time with her kids.
M
12/7/16 6:17 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
4Thank you PVB for printing the true “Obama Legacy”. He is such a smooth talker that yesterday he had the balls to say he wants Gitmo closed!
12/7/16 6:21 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
5Due to the Holiday spirit, I did not respond to a relative who emailed me “Isn’t it great Obama stopped the pipeline at Standing Rock”.Wow…What a guy. I will not send this PVB truths to them! Maybe Clean Coal! Obomber is a …Ho Ho Ho.
12/7/16 6:25 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
6Chuck
I’ll respond for you, if you would like…..
PS..
Send them this article….. Bet it hurt like hell to write.
http://topstories.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=17224&content=118533127&pageNum=-1
M
12/7/16 6:28 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
7Btw, Peter,
Love the graphics…. And thank you…. Stole them from you.
M
12/7/16 7:00 AM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
8I borrowed them from somewhere online, so use with appropriate caution.
12/7/16 8:52 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
9Trump also inherits, and has promised to increase, heavily militarized police forces around the country. He wants what he calls a “law and order” nation. This is curtesy of Obama as well.
And wait’ll Trump discovers the unlimited booty available to him and his cronies with the “civil asset forfeiture program”; begun under Bush, and expanded under Obama.
Unfortunately, I think that we have few in the police or military who see the population as their flock. Most see us as the prey. This may be partly (PARTLY) due to the now-common use of mercenaries, once considered anathema to our government, which are competition to the police and military, who become more mercenary and less protective as a result.
12/7/16 7:12 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
102 POINTS to TERI !!!!!
Exactly right…. Factor policing for profit, courts for profit, child support for profit, traffic cameras for profit….
End up with a hell of a mess….. And… It gets bigger, and far worse.
M
12/7/16 7:47 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
11Obama is so great he pushes the TPP (I am for The Pirate Party also!!!)Go TPP! 😉
12/7/16 7:59 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12Wow, that’s a lot of facts for the Trumpies to have to deny exist. Of course, all your fears are just your opinion, so there’s that.
Speaking of living in fantasyland is it a fact that generalissimo jack d ripper Flynn wacko son was booted from the Trump transition team before he got his security clearance just for tweeting about some conspiracy fake news? If so, does Trump get disqualified too?
12/7/16 8:09 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
13Trump is not an aberration. Hillary would bee a worse POTUS. Hillary and Bubba might be working furiously with Stein (no meetings in tarmaced or hangered planes of course). This autocratic selection thingee may not be over.
12/7/16 8:52 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
14Mitch, Thanks for offer ! A holiday link from Mitch… and they both wonder who is Mitch? If your last name was Miller it could be Mitch Miller’s Christmas Carol ! Changey Hopey Believey…
12/7/16 9:09 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15While we are at it, let US not forget Trump wants to change laws to address the very serious threat of news reporters and bloggers who write terrible things about Jim. Wow, Peter, you could be the enemy of State again.
12/7/16 9:33 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
16Who will get the “Black List” 2017 Award?!!! What a goal. Thanks again Peter.
12/7/16 10:57 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
17Will Obomber sign the Rx bill? If so, it may be his last fu to people, and kiss to Pharma. Have a nice day! ” Meet the New Boss, same as the old Boss” ? We will see. Hope, Change, Believe. Is Gitmo closed yet? Will we get rid of AP News, and bypass that for tweets? Jobs may be lost! What is Truth?
12/7/16 11:07 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
18Look at these asshats on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Show calling for the news to be censored:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foRwAlr74_s
“Yeah, we all kinda like that old first amendment, but gosh darn it all anyway, something’s gotta be done about all this fake stuff that fools even college graduates into spreading false stories. ” (paraphrasing) – said by some college graduates who had no trouble believing in and repeating deliberate outright lies to the public ad nauseum, such as:
– Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,
– the claims that Ghaddafi was feeding viagra to his troops,
– the second and/or third deaths of Osama bin Laden,
– all bin Laden tapes since 2001,
– the explanation of 9/11 in its entirety as presented by Congress,
– al Assad’s use of sarin gas on civilians,
– Russia invading Crimea,
– Iran’s nuclear weapons program,
– the number of civilians killed by the US drone program,
– the unemployment numbers every month,
– all the jobs lost since ’08 have been replaced,
– what caused the USSR to break up,
– the inexplicable rise of al Qaeda and later, ISIS,
– Greece’ debt situation,
– Puerto Rico’s debt situation,
– the number of gallons spilled during Deepwater Horizon,
– Fukushima meltdown is contained,
– it’s safe to eat seafood tainted with corexit and/or radiative fallout,
– spraying pesticides randomly around your neighborhood will prevent the zika virus but not harm humans,
– the dangers of the zika virus in toto (which has mysteriously disappeared),
– gmo’s have no ill effects,
– glyphosate is safe to consume,
– the missing trillions of dollars in the Pentagon fund,
– the Clinton emails,
– the Clinton Foundation,
– Bill and Loretta were only talking about their grandchildren when they accidentally met on the tarmac,
– mass shootings are always related to terrorism (leaving out any info about FBI planning the events),
– the derivatives products that collapsed the economy in ’08 are no longer a problem thanks to Dodd-Frank (snort),
– anything said about Russia and/or Putin,
– Obama and the Democrats had no choice but to pass everything the Republicans wanted, even when the Dems controlled both houses of Congress,
– Wall Street bankers broke no laws,
– the economy is rebounding,
– the number of countries the US is illegally bombing,
– the US is the exceptional nation and only wants to spread democracy around the world.
12/7/16 11:10 AM | Comment Link
Bruce said...
19Unless the Donald turns up as a Poppy Bush (CIA) Company sleeper double agent; at least we’re dispatching the myriad PNAC-Attacking $0N$-0F-BU$H$ !
12/7/16 11:24 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
20Teri, exhale, and ty!
12/7/16 11:40 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
21Burn the flag? Burn the Constitution? We are #1 and if you are grieving about Mr. T, where have you been (D and Hillary Bots). Reality sucks. Smile…
12/7/16 11:49 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
22Have a nice day. Change (Be lied to for eight years) Believe (Santa is on his way. Be good) Hope (Now that is special !).
12/7/16 11:52 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
23“Vangard of new world order” O, zerO
12/7/16 12:09 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
24Damn Teri,
I didn’t think you did sarcasm.
Well Done !!!
But, you of course, realize those are all ” conspiracy” theories.
There for to be discounted.
But, you forgot building 7.
M
12/7/16 1:00 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
25The only thing this incompetent government is competent at is lying to US. Practice macht perfect.
12/7/16 1:03 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
26This is too funny…
Rich… Which part of the country are you in?? As I needed to ask.
http://topstories.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=17224&content=118533819&pageNum=-1
M
12/7/16 1:20 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
27The Defense Dept -the one that wastes the most money – is the best at lying. Recently deep sided the waste fraud report that revealed it wastes more money than the ENTIRE Russian defense budget.
How about Donald contract out our defense to his good buddy Ras-Putin? Putin could do it for less than an eighth of what we spend now.
12/7/16 1:25 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
28Teri- Pitch blew me off when I mentioned we are living in the Tower of Babel times. Close to the End Days? Well, you are free to believe such nonsense. Fake news has always been with us.
Too many people with only a lone skill at wielding a pen to make a livlihood so expect lots of odd stuff to happen.
12/7/16 1:36 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
29Bauer- you never answered my query of: do you have children- a wife? Divorcee? Gay, straight. a floater? Come on now. Nothing should be hidden here at PVB’s site.
12/7/16 1:39 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
30Trolls are like incompetent government agencies. DON’T FEED THEM AND THEY WILL GO AWAY.
12/7/16 2:18 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
31Hey John,
Check it out…. Bauer just labeled himself.
M
12/7/16 2:31 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
32Mitch, Has Bauer truly outed himself. I don’t know.
I also don’t know what the tradition is regarding the swearing in of a new POTUS. Do the losing candidates show up and offer congratulations at the site?
Obama has to be there but perhaps alone. Maybe Michelle and the girls will stay away. Hillary and Bubba might have to let the dogs out so they won’t be able to attend.
12/7/16 10:39 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
33John,
Don’t worry, Bauer will be back, after he falls off his meds again.
I, honestly don’t know either. I’m thinking…..
TERI !!!!! Yes! Teri will know the answer. the Oracle Teri, knows all about these things.
And how they go about sacrificing their honor, dignity, and honesty at the temple of the great god, “democracy”. (not to mention the losers).
But, on the “bright” side….. Killary can go on, (if she can remember) to receive a noble prize, for rasing awareness to the world that killing people is bad.
(and, nope,…. That is not a shot at Dole and his global warming campaign, and his electric bill that is more than all of Long Island.. Nope….nada… No…. Not a shot )…(did that sound sincere???? Been working on my delivery).
M
12/8/16 4:47 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
34Mitch,
I didn’t need to specify building 7 separately – I said the entire story as presented by Congress to the American people. That includes building 7.
Here’s a fun and TRUE fact, as opposed to the bullshit we get force-fed every day: On Sept 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon had “lost” $2 trillion that they couldn’t account for. The next day, the towers came down. Guess where the Pentagon kept all their financial records? Yeah, they went down with the towers. The topic was never raised again. Well, until recently, when they admitted they had lost another few trillion, but they acted like it was the first time and didn’t mention the missing trillions from pre-9/11.
And, hey, dude, what’s with picking on the other commenters? Rich Bauer doesn’t have to give details of his personal life on a public forum to strangers. Live and let live. There are targets who are worth taking aim at, but I don’t think they post comments here at Peter’s blog.
12/8/16 4:53 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
35Hey Teri,
The whole ofiical story of 9/11 smells.
Including how did a plane get inside the most heavily guarded airspace in the world and not get shot down.
And , Rich…. He just bugs me. He takes little, insane half formed shots and disappears.
Near as I can tell, he just likes stirring the pot, making a mess, then disappear. Zero accountability.
I mean, come on, his idols, supporting information, etc… Are people, persons, etc… Like this clown….Michael Moore…. Calling for “disruption”…
http://topstories.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=17224&content=118534998&pageNum=-1
Just irrates me, is all…. Besides….. A while back…. He started trying to bully John Poole….
And I have never done well around bullies.
Kind of surprising… Your always about accountability.
M
12/8/16 5:11 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
36Peter, not to worry about the NSA abuse or the other alphabet soup intell agencies. Trump believes the Russians over these clowns anyway. OMG! I said something positive about our dark lord and savior.
12/8/16 5:20 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
37Well, Teri,
Rich’s comments directly above…. Pretty much answer all the questions…. I would think.
M
12/8/16 5:49 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
38PS.
Teri,
Who do you think Rich Bauer was really taking a shot at, with his “dark lord and savior”??
Sorry, but i’m the only that gets to mess with Pitchfork.
Brilliant, pain in the ass that he is.
M
12/8/16 6:00 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
39Yeah, Mitch,
I get that. But it’s one thing to call him out when you want to rebut something he wrote about and another to harass him just for showing up.
Hell, I get tired of scrolling through a dozen or so comments that read like bumper stickers in order to get to something that actually means something, but I don’t bother with expressing umbrage at all the silliness.
– Teri
PS: and now I sound like some schoolmarm comment nanny. Ew. Carry on, as you were, and all that.
12/8/16 6:01 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
40Teri,
No sweat.
But, to make sure the “record ” is clear… A few essays ago,
Rich actually put something up that was clear, supported, with viable complete thought and information…
I immediately complimented him, and encouraged him….. And, he went back to LALA land….
I keep hoping he will see the difference between the two approachs.
He clearly studies the news, but, its almost as if he is having a conversation in another room, and posts sentences from that conversation, with out the context of the previous conversation.
Who knows…. I went business rather than psychology for a reason
.
Beyond that…. Isn’t insomnia a wonderful disorder??
M
12/8/16 6:15 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
41We’re typing at the same time, Mitch.
And nobody should pick on Pitchfork, if that’s what he’s doing.
To be honest, I don’t understand what half the commenters on Peter’s blog are talking about on any given thread. But I’m sure that’s just me. (Seriously. I sometimes think everyone has some inside scoop that I ain’t getting or something.) Rich’s comment (at number 36 above) for example; I don’t have a clue. And I don’t intend to spend more time than it took to read it to ponder about its “hidden meanings”. Life’s too short.
12/8/16 6:16 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
42PS.
After going through the list of topics to be edited/ censored….
Killary’s missing 6 billion is not on the list….
So, is it safe to speculate on how much if not all of that went to Iran?…. Or just the Bill and Kill them foundation?
Without having the internet kill squads come after me, like they did to that kid in “Die Hard – 99” ?
M
12/8/16 6:22 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
43Heh, I don’t have insomnia. I just got into a habit, back when the kids were little. Neither ex-husband paid child support so I worked two jobs from home (damned if someone else was going to raise my children); I did my accounting work and I ran a day-care at home. So I got up at 2 a.m. to do my accounting before my own rug-rats got up and the daycare kids were dropped off. After years and years of that schedule, it stuck. I go to bed really early, though, and sleep hard now that I don’t have to listen for a baby crying in the night.
If only I could teach the damned cat not to walk on my head in the middle of the night……..
12/8/16 6:26 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
44Teri,
Trust me, Rich is picking at him. He’s done it before.
Me, I will argue with Pitchfork, all day…. And learn quite a bit, but…. Attack him…. Nofuckingway….. Pitchfork…. Good guy….
Hell, a while back, Pitchfork was really worried about what was coming, told him pointblank, what to look for, as I would be headed in his direction to pick up some friends. As in big 4×4’s. Bring him and his back to Texas.
Meant it, and mean it.
I used to think that he had an insider angle…. Then, when he never clarifies, (John’s questions about prefences, that was bait) it happens pretty much… All the time…. As in Rich’s statements.
Hell, a few days ago…. He was going off the air, because he wanted to be at ground zero of the beginning of the end….
Who knows what that meant….but….
I took it as he was taking a shot at Pitchfork, as Pitchfork was Very active that day.
M
12/8/16 6:34 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
45Teri,
I understand, far better than you know…..far better.
Single father, 20 years now. Have not seen or heard from the monster in 16 years now.
A lot of people who have not lived it, don’t understand…. Single parents never really sleep…. Always have to be ready to be up in a second. No one else there.
Now, my son is at college, and the habit holds.
Lucky me, I just, like 3 months ago, got remarried….(never thought I would EVER do that again). And my wife understands.
She’s been my best friend for a decade.
She used to come by, ‘kidnap’ my son for a weekend, and say. “Sleep… Damnit!!!!!!!”
Cats…… You should try having 2 beagles, 4 wolves, and 2 chows decide where YOU are sleeping. It is after all … Their bed.
They are better than electric blankets though.
M
12/8/16 6:43 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
46Note to self.. save Peter’s entire post for letter to great-grandchildren.
Meanwhile,
teri said…
“And nobody should pick on Pitchfork, if that’s what he’s doing.”
Yeah…quit picking on me. I mean… I’ma have rights! You know..right to bitch.. right to cuss …right to roll my eyes… and most of all.. my right to get shitfaced and then post stupid comments. So there. You picka on me.. you gonna get me pissed. And you know what that means. I’ll tell my wife. And then you be in a world of pain!! I mean..if she gives you the “one eye” stare… she’ll kill ya instantly! So ya better watch out!
(btw…thanks teri.)
Mitch said:
Cats…… You should try having 2 beagles, 4 wolves, and 2 chows …”
Ha!! Try THIRTEEN cats, three dogs, two racoons, and half a dozen strays. For TEN years! Insert two rolling eye smileys here.
Spent more money on animal food than survival. sheezus.
My wife refuses to even step on a spider.
12/8/16 9:49 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
47Ok, on a more serious note. While reading Peter’s post, it reminded me of a video I recently watched that reinforces the point of his post.. that the Obama administration was simply the latest to embrace AND expand the Gangster State…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkSJBffuxBM
Fascinating video.
12/8/16 9:59 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
48Teri- Bauer was asked a few personal questions by me because he seems to be praying for empire implosion. Hell, one doesn’t have to pray for just about an assured thing. I have loved ones and don’t pray for total chaos. So why does Bauer want total chaos. Doesn’t he have loved ones he cares about?
12/8/16 10:56 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
49Hiya Pitchfork,
How the hell are ya?
And don’t forget the rights to bitch, moan, whine and complain….
Especially when its your turn to buy the next round.
M
12/8/16 1:48 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
50As this is a Very open site…
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A legend, and a personal Hero of mine passed today.
John Glenn, age 95, senator, astronaut, pilot, hero… The list goes on.
He will be missed.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/08/lawmakers-react-to-john-glenns-death.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
Mitch
12/8/16 4:35 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
51Bumper sticker! I will close Gitmo. Off to watch soap operas. Peace. Help your neighbors. GL all.
12/8/16 4:47 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
52TY PVB. Will you sue me if I print this as a Holiday card to Dem. friends and others? BONUS Think… ” Food Not Bombs”. Google if uneducated. Bonus Bumper sticker. “Imagine” also Educate, Organize. and agitate. Educate me pleae. Have a nice day. C
12/8/16 4:56 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
53Does medicare cover blogging here? Where do we donate to Peter? (is Chuck a capitalist pig?). If he does not accept it he must be a Rusky. Off to watch ….Why am I supposed to watch stuff? Why not do good stuff? Help Wanted.
12/8/16 5:02 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
54What happened to the Torture Videos the man had? Why no prosecution for destroying them? Did that happen in BLDG 7? Can’t get a room at Trump DC. Could not afford it anyway. Legend Obomber. Smooth. Will the Donald get the Tuws Kill List as a duty for Homeland Security? He could do it a Coast Guard. Time out.
12/8/16 5:22 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
55chuck- the American sheeple are a sensitive bunch. You don’t want to expose them to what their government is doing in their name when it torture humans. Best to get rid of that stuff. Too upsetting!
A new exhoration by the glorious American empire leaders:
“Ask not what your country can do for you- ask only to be kept innocent of what they are doing in your name.”
12/8/16 5:29 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
56Wounded Knee. Black Rock. Bumper sticker? Educate. Join us.
12/8/16 6:02 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
57Hollywood ! Will Mike Moore, Beyonce, Katy Perry, etc. have a rally Jan. 2oth ? Wow (that’s mom upside down). God save u.s..!
12/8/16 6:09 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
58Ok… This is just…. Out there…. Lala land… Outer limits…. Left turn and reality… Wth????
So…. Who wants to get there hair cut and dyed???… Pitchfork…. Your cats???? Little purple dye, spiking it… (I would… But the precious little I have left…. From pulling it out after stupid crap … Like this…OMG!!!!)
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/12/women-make-dramatic-beauty-moves-after-trumps-victory.html
Just …. Nuts!!!!!!!=
Pitchfork, meet me at the bar…. First TWO rounds, your choice…. Are on… You…
M
12/9/16 12:08 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
59Peter,
Ever thought about doing a column , self help style, on the effects of mass hysteria surrounding election cycles????
Maybe shopping tips?…. You know… Best places to buy, (smuggle, now days ) tranquilizer’s….
Best 24/ 7 lock door psychology intervention shops….
Maybe an indepth look at the true benefits of the “Darwin Awards”?
M
12/9/16 12:19 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
60Yo, Chuck,
What does “ty” mean? (You told me to exhale and ty.)
– Teri
12/9/16 3:30 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
61Alright folks. Here is the answer to what you and the rest of the planet have been wondering about since Nov. 8rh.
It’s real, and it’s a total mind fuck. This is how Trump won. We are DATA. PERIOD….
https://medium.com/startup-grind/how-the-trump-campaign-built-an-identity-database-and-used-facebook-ads-to-win-the-election-4ff7d24269ac#.l73s4yf1c
Mindfuck is a massive understatement. Imagine Trump now, with his OWN database ADDED to the unimaginable amount of USG data at his fingertips. Imagine what he will do with it. He’ll redefine Fascism.
However.. there IS something you can do. At the end of the article, is a link to a page, where you can “opt out” of every stinking Dark Marketing corporation’s databases. I just did it. Took almost an hour. Btw, send them a short email too. Tell them to go FUCK THEMSELF…like I did.
ps.. I hope Zuckface dies from a long term, unending pain and misery cancer of the brain.
12/9/16 5:24 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
62oh…I forgot the link to these stinking Dark Marketing corporation’s “opt out” links.
http://www.stopdatamining.me/opt-out-list/
btw Peter.. I have a suggestion for your next post’s title.
Name it Requiem for Amerika.
12/9/16 5:27 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
63Teri,
ty = thank you.
Pitchfork,
Tried your links twice, virus software came crashing down HARD on them.
Something wicked is on those links.
I would suggest running a scan on your machine ASAP!!!
But, from your comments, you have only confirmed what I have suspected ever since Katrina.
Data is the only explanation that makes sense to the response of the Fed to that storm.
The storm, it could not have been avoided.
The response….. No one or nothing is that inept.
Only possible logical explaination is data collection, specifically, how fast, and to what level, will society as a whole deprecate when all systems fail
Unless someone else can give any better explaination.
M
12/9/16 6:24 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
64Guessing Killary has not got the message….. No one wants to hear from her anymore.
Little thing called an election proved that….
But…. Here she goes…. Her agenda…. And the first amendment.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/09/clinton-decries-fake-news-in-first-speech-since-election-loss.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
M
12/9/16 8:04 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
65Wellll……….. DUH!!!!!!!!!!
“The Clinton campaign ran a fundamentally flawed campaign, they had a fundamentally flawed candidate and they refuse to take any blame for the way the campaign turned out,” he added. “They blame everybody except themselves for it.”
http://foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?content=118533339&page=22995&pageNum=-1&intcmp=obnetwork
M
12/9/16 8:10 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
66And… Maybe….
http://topstories.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=17224&external=3838197.proteus.fma
M
12/9/16 8:22 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
67teri, T hank Y ou !
12/9/16 9:17 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
68Hillary talks about danger of “fake news! Hope she reads Glen Greewalds article today on “fake news” and I’m with her pals !
12/9/16 9:37 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
69(sorry glen greenwald) “The Intercept” is real news.
12/9/16 9:39 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
70I just reread PVB’s words and thoughts. It suddenly occured to me that he said he is afraid now that Trump has become POTUS
and we all should be afraid. I’m not afraid. I would be had Hillary won.
12/9/16 9:55 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
71John,
If Killary had won…. I was thinking… costa Rica… Maybe….. Mars….
M
12/9/16 10:13 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
72Just an interesting parable that needs to be re-read.
The Ant and the Grasshopper…updated version
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2016.
M
12/9/16 10:15 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
73Pitchfork,
Don’t get bent…. Real question… :- p
Is it a sin to misquote one of the coolest people on the planet?
Francis…. Way cool. Love the guy….
But… To misquote the Pope…. Who does so much….that has got to be a sin.
http://foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&external=3838973.proteus.fma#quickPage_html_page_22995_content_118538149_pageNum_1
M
12/9/16 11:22 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
74OMG!!!!!
Exactly…. How do you spell. ” pathetic”?????
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/09/obama-orders-review-election-hacking.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
M
12/9/16 12:36 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
75“American exceptionalism is a lie”. Glen Ford. Black Agenda Report yesterday. Good article on fake news.
12/9/16 12:37 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
76Mitch- Obama has a slight pang of guilt knowing he jumped the line in 2008. He is indeed pathetic. He then was burdened with “helping” czarina Hillary for 2016. Let them both eventually reside in my suggestion for an added circle of hell.
12/9/16 6:58 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
77As of ten minutes ago Obama seems determined to call the election invalid. The Boogie Man Putin caused Trump to win.
So it isn’t just czarina Hillary who is angry. Welcome 1776 redux.
12/9/16 10:22 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
78Hey John,
I think you give Obama too much credit for anything resembling emotions.
More like paying a debt.
Do you have a link for that? I’m not seeing that anywhere.
M
12/10/16 1:26 AM | Comment Link