Stating the Obvious Part CXXVII: Trump Is An Asshole

Does this dress make my . . . ?

In Mourning

A fascist buffoon elected to the White House and the death of Leonard Cohen all in one week -- less than one week -- is about more than I can bear. If I believed in reading symbolism into everything, I'd say that Cohen died as an act of mourning for what's going on in this country. So rather than pile on with analysis and with facts, which don't mean anything in this age of blind rage and uncontrolled id, I'll let the man speak for himself. RIP, great man, great poet, great prophet:

Anthem 

by Leonard Cohen 

The birds they sang 
at the break of day 
Start again 
I heard them say 
Don't dwell on what 
has passed away 
or what is yet to be. 
Ah the wars they will 
be fought again 
The holy dove 
She will be caught again 
bought and sold 
and bought again 
the dove is never free. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in. 

We asked for signs 
the signs were sent: 
the birth betrayed 
the marriage spent 
Yeah the widowhood 
of every government -- 
signs for all to see. 

I can't run no more 
with that lawless crowd 
while the killers in high places 
say their prayers out loud. 
But they've summoned, they've summoned up 
a thundercloud 
and they're going to hear from me. 

Ring the bells that still can ring ... 

You can add up the parts 
but you won't have the sum 
You can strike up the march, 
there is no drum 
Every heart, every heart 
to love will come 
but like a refugee. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack, a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack, a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in. 
That's how the light gets in. 
That's how the light gets in.

Disabled woman beaten to bloody pulp thanks to TSA

But I'm the one who's the freak for refusing to support this insanity. Yeah, right.

From Raw Story:

Disabled woman beaten bloody by TSA agents 

after becoming confused and afraid 

at security checkpoint

(Photo of Hannah Cohen courtesy of WREG)

Why We Love Scotland

Happy Anniversary, America!

NRA Gun Fucking

The NRA's account got hacked -- again. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Can I get some Sudafed?

Of Men and Muslims

And the TSA incompetence beat goes on . . .

As I wrote earlier this month, TSA incompetence and stupidity -- combined with American populace passivity -- are causing thousands of people to miss their flights. The amount of time travelers are supposed to allow to get through airport security keeps ballooning -- from one hour to two hours to, now, three hours before their flights. And that's for domestic flights, mes amis, not just international ones. 

Not the TSA for once, just general moron America

Because the level of ignorance and stupidity in this country can never be overestimated, we have the latest incidence of one of America's fine upstanding citizens displaying her intellectual acumen for all to see. And supposed airline professionals going along with her. True, this didn't involve the TSA, but we can easily see how the stupidity and paranoia exhibited by that organization -- and constantly hyped by our "security" overlords -- has spread to the population at large. 

Belgium attacks: more proof that the TSA is useless

The bomb attacks in Belgium today -- three of them, two at different locations in the airport and one in the subway -- present in high relief yet more proof  of what some us have been pointing out for years: the TSA is a charade. The TSA does not and cannot and will never prevent terror attacks. All the pre-boarding bullying, harassing, scanning, and groping doesn't make a damn bit of difference, because -- duh -- people can set off bombs anywhere, not just on a plane. 

Trump Hilarity That Never Ends!

TSA goons steal woman’s shoes, bracelet at BWI

In the never-ending saga of TSA theft and stupidity — and did I say theft? — we have the latest episode (that we know of): at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the goons spied yet another tasty treat they wanted to sample. So they pretended that said items were dangerous and confiscated them — er, sorry, encouraged the passenger to give them up. (As we know, since they tell us all the time, especially at their main propaganda organ, they don’t confiscate anything.) From the story in the Baltimore Sun: 

More Trump Hilarity

Hard to tell which of these is the funniest. They're all so good:

Hindus for Trump? Yes, It's For Real

The sad (yet hilarious) thing is this isn't a joke. It's for real. And if you read this article by Sonali Kolhatkar, you'll see why it's not only sad, it's scary.

R. I. P., Alan Rickman

More sad news to add to the start of this year. First David Bowie, and now Alan Rickman. Both 69, both died of cancer.

Rickman was simply one of the greatest actors of our time. And a great humanist. Marvelous actor, marvelous man. Why do such beautiful people have to go, while monsters like Dick Cheney still walk about? 

DHS/TSA blink: Real ID is a bust

As I wrote in this post on January 7, 2016, Edward Hasbrouck is a consistently reliable source of information on all things security -- and faux security. His excellent website, PapersPlease, is a breath of fresh air in the hothouse atmosphere of the travel blabbosphere. So it's no surprise that he has been predicting from the beginning that the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to impose yet more stupid regulations would fizzle. He said DHS would blink, and it has. 

Satirist Jonathan Pie Skewers the News Media

Watch this hilarious send-up of a supposedly straight news report. The comedian is Tom Walker of the UK; his alter ego is "Jonathan Pie." Absolutely brilliant. No surprise that this video has gone viral.

Trump - Clinton - What's the Difference?

The Clintons at Donald Trump's wedding. If you don't see that the ruling class is the ruling class in this country, regardless of party affiliation, you have your head in the sand.

TSA to force people through scanners

As many people have discovered from the latest news, the Department of Homeland Security has suddenly decreed publicly what anyone with reasonable observational skills knows they've been planning from the get-go:  that the TSA will, at whim, force passengers through the strip-search scanners.I repeat that this has been the plan from the beginning. I said so at a now-defunct group blog where I used to write called Cogitamus, long before TSA News existed. Those who made predictions to the contrary have been proven wrong. 

Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Slams U.S. Empire

If this video doesn't knock you on your ass, I don't know what will. 

Let me rephrase that -- many of the people watching this video already get it. But to see and hear a retired U.S. Army colonel, former National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration, former advisor to Colin Powell, dyed-in-the-wool Republican, saying this stuff, pointing out that the emperor is wearing no clothes, that, as he puts it, "this ship is sinking" -- well, I'd like to say it should make an impression on all the naysayers. But in fact I know it won't. 

They'll find a way to discredit him just as much as they discredit people such as Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky. I know it won't make a dent. I'm posting it anyway. I hope people will share it.

Baltimore: Mistrial, Hung Jury in First Freddie Gray Case Trial

As everyone knows by now, a hung jury led Judge Barry Williams to declare a mistrial in the case of Officer William Porter, the first police officer of six to be tried in the Freddie Gray case.

Despite the slavering of the mainstream media for violence, there wasn't any. Neither was there a hint of it, anywhere in Baltimore, over this development. That didn't stop so-called reporters and news hosts from implying that violence was ready to break out at any minute. There was a small -- very small -- number of protesters downtown. And an overwhelming police presence. (I wasn't there, as I saw no need to protest. A mistrial is a mistrial. It's a fool's errand to try to read too much into it.) 

Land of Lunatics

I know I keep saying it, but you can't make this shit up. Once upon a time, this story would've been parody. Fodder for Saturday Night Live, The Onion, The Daily Show, any number of comedians. But you can't do parody anymore. Reality has surpassed it.

To wit: 

Yet Another Active Shooter(s) -- the Fuckupedness of the USA Continues

How can we not be simultaneously horrified and bored by yet another active shooter/shooters, this time in San Bernardino, California? I'm writing this on Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at 2:55pm EST, as this thing is unfolding. At least 12 victims so far.

These so-called "active shooter" situations now average 16 a year in the U.S., according to the Secret Service -- that's more than one a month -- though we just had one last week in Colorado Springs and another one only a few weeks before that in the same town.

But hey, gotta have our guns! After all, this is the USA!

The abject fuckupedness of this country continues. 

Nationalism = Terrorism

Another court order the TSA will ignore

Everyone keeps sending me links to this story, but I saw it when it first came out last week and decided not to write about it because it isn't news. It's the same old same old. I can't see how it means anything significant in our fight against the TSA.

John Whitehead's Rutherford Institute, which fights for civil liberties, touted the story in an email last week headlined, "Victory!" I'm on their mailing list, so I saw the message as soon as it came in. When I read the text, any initial frisson of triumph immediately fizzled. Victory? Really? 

Independent Investigation Kunduz

Another Man on a Rampage, Another Day in the USA

Yawn. Really, how can one greet these events anymore with anything other? They're so common. They're as deeply a part of American culture as baseball, Mom, and apple pie.

This is an image of an actual ad. It has not been Photoshopped. Because Bushmaster, you see, is proud of this. Irony is dead in this country. Satire is dead. Anything you could make up has already been surpassed by reality. Archie Bunker's famous exhortation on the brilliant TV sitcom "All in the Family" over 40 years ago was understood by the audience then for what it was. Today, it's being taken seriously. Archie's illogical, lunatic, yet insuperably sincere sentiments are being posted, in all seriousness, all over the blabbosphere. 

In short, the answer to so many killings and so many guns is -- 

more guns! 

Just ask Bushmaster. Of course, the word "man" should be replaced by the word "dick," but minor quibble:

2015 Airport Security Symposium – UPDATED

UPDATE: Open to the public, pay what you can. Doug says he realizes the $199 conference fee is out of reach for a lot of people.

Douglas Kidd of the National Association of Airline Passengers has organized this Airport Security Symposium for Tuesday, October 6, 2015, at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C. He’s lined up plenty of speakers, including Alaska state rep and TSA critic Sharon Cissna, consumer advocate and friend of the blog Charlie Leocha, one-man investigative research team Jonathan Corbett, security expert extraordinaire Bruce Schneier, and several of us who write for TSA News — Sommer Gentry, Wendy Thomson, and me.