"Cuban Americans fear socialist dictators. So why are they backing the caudillo for president?"

The answer to the above question recently posited in the Washington Post, is INCREDIBLY simple.

Many of them, having endured the Castro regime, know very well what a communist government actually looks like. And they know Biden is not that. But what preceded the Castro regime?

Oh, nothing. Just your everyday, garden variety, old fashioned, Latin American DICTATORSHIP. One those in that community old enough to remember Fulgencio Batista miss dearly.

The truth is these people do not give a fuck about freedom, they LOVE a DICTATOR. And since the Orange Turd fits the description of a wannabe despot, they're on board.

Look, obviously, it's a little more nuanced than that. But if you're wondering why the Cuban folk here in the US support this wretched PoS, it's because that's their thing. They love the smell of dictatorship in the morning.

Those who established what is now the South Florida Cuban enclave were Batista cronies, no doubt, followed shortly thereafter by disillusioned Castro allies who, hoping to establish a democratic government, felt duped and balked at his coziness with and later full allegiance to the USSR. How much overlap was there? I'm not certain.

I happen to be good friends with the son of someone from the latter group. My buddy was born in Miami and once told me how in a 'keep your enemies close' move, his old man befriended the Batista crowd down there and managed to learn about some fucked up shit. One of 'em was a doozy.

As true hucksters, these folks fundraised on a scam the gullible were more than willing to believe: that a plan was in motion to overthrow Castro and bring "freedom" to Cuba. (Something, btw, Cuba has not truly experienced since Columbus showed up.) Actually, whether they were able to or not, their true goal was to bring down Castro and...wait for it...install a dictatorship under Cuban exile and Miami resident Jorge Mas Canosa. (Look him up, he was loads of fun.) Rumor has it, Mas Canosa even had a generalisimo uniform starched and ready for the occasion. Yeah...

Anyway, fuck the whole of these scumbags.

Mirror, Mirror

We have been exposed.

Regardless of who is president on January 21, 2021, we have been exposed to the world: our failures, our hypocrisy, our weaknesses, our lack of moral standing…all of it has been exposed for the rest of the world to see. And that is ultimately the current POTUS’ legacy: pulling back the curtain and letting everyone get a good look at the rot and decay.

 

The difference between who is POTUS in late January is between a continuation along this wretched path or one of two other scenarios: initial steps towards possibly restoring this country to some sort of semblance of functionality OR a temporary delay of the inevitable crash and burn of the United States of America.

 

A Biden presidency with a Republican majority in the Senate will experience a level of obstructionism that would make that faced by Obama mere child’s play. Republicans see this as do-or-die time to completely reshape this country into a full-on, savagely capitalist, theocratic wasteland. And in many regards, they have not only laid the groundwork but are successfully taking us in that direction.

 

In the midst of this, for better or worse, we have seen ourselves in the mirror and discerned who we truly are. And we’ve seen where lies the biggest threat: we are at a seemingly insurmountable divide amongst ourselves. One that a presidential election won’t resolve. One that we may not be able to overcome. We need to rethink this thing and figure out what it is we truly want out of our country, because this present course is not only unsustainable but pointless to maintain.

 

The domestic terrorist who plays president on TV recently told his death cult that he felt like Superman. No, it’s more like Lex Luthor. And with millions of hate-filled henchmen ready to go down in flames. What are we gonna do about it? The ballot box seems like a quaint and ultimately ineffective solution.

 

“We’ll see”, said the blind man.

That River In Egypt

Blocking anti-tampering legislation. Hindering the USPS. Attempts to criminalize peaceful protest. Refusing to recognize an election loss. Admission of wanting a new SCOTUS judge to rule favorably when an election impasse reaches that point. And an “October surprise” on the horizon.

It’s clear what the intent and likely result will be. So why are we in collective denial? Because it’s too painful to contemplate?

So, is that it?

 

The United States of America

[1776-2016]

Four More Years

As of this moment, 

• Victims of C-19 are 180K and rising thanks to criminal and willful negligence of this POTUS 

• The unemployed are in the tens of million 

• More civil unrest than we have seen in decades 

• Violence is being actively encouraged and supported by the Republican candidate and his party 

And yet, the presidential race remains a competitive one. 

Election fraud aside, if we get four more years of this nightmare we will have certainly deserved it, for we live among evil, evil people. 

 #secession

Done

Republicans in all their abominable deplorability; Democrats with their cowardly lion actions and demeanor; so-called progressives and their baby and the bathwater/burn the house down attitude. 

I want nothing to do with the whole lot of them right now.

The Cowardly Kittens

Since I don’t interact with Chumpbots/MAGAts on any regular basis anymore I don’t find myself debating them as frequently as I used to, but I like to share this kind of info because sometimes folks have to rebuff the bullshit spewed by the vast right-wing conspiracy apparatus—HRC sure got that one right—and this might help.

So, now that the 69-page pandemic preparedness playbook/report left by the Obama administration has been made public, this administration’s story has shifted from ‘they left us nothing’ to ‘what they left us was not enough’. Fine. The administration that authored the aforementioned playbook, put together a top-notch global health security team and held the total of H1N1 deaths to 12,400; Ebola: 2; and Zika: 1, did a lousy job of preparing the country for a pandemic, according to the Orange Turd and his circus of sycophants.

But the current criminal outfit is doing a great job: the Obama playbook was ignored; the Pandemic Preparedness Office was closed down, and the PREDICT global monitoring system was cut by 75%. Add 2 months of labeling C-19 a Democratic hoax and you get…almost 90,000 of our fellow citizens dead, more than half of whom could’ve have been spared if even bumbling action had been taken during the first week of March. And that number will continue to rise, sadly.

Meanwhile, Dear Leader and the Trumpistan flunkies pat themselves on the back and lie to the American people 24/7 while NO ONE with any real pull calls them on it.

So why isn’t the DNC on the attack? Why isn’t EVERY SINGLE PROMINENT DEMOCRAT, along with an army of political operatives and pundits, on every possible news or political talk show making sure this info is known to every man, woman and child in this country and rubbing it in the Orange Turd’s face?

And speaking of an army, why isn’t Michigan’s governor calling out the cops, the National Guard, or whoever the fuck is appropriate under the circumstances, to let the handful of fucking scumbag, Astroturf “protesters” know that they can’t intimidate the lawful government of a state?

How long are the fucking Dems going to play the Cowardly Lion routine?!

I’m sorry, “Lion”? I meant kitten. They are cowardly kittens.

And their ineptitude in facing this disgrace of a POTUS head on, is a big reason why in the middle of a horribly botched response, bordering on criminally negligent homicide, to a pandemic that will likely kill more than 100,000 Americans, the WORST president in American history has a chance of being re-elected.

Cowardly kittens, indeed.

Time to Idiotproof the Country

This might be as utopian as my dream of secession, but safeguards must be placed to avoid any old buffon like the Trump (or worse) to become POTUS in the future. If there's one thing the Trump presidency has taught us is that many of our norms and requirements for the POTUS are not laws but suggestions based on some kind of gentleman's honor code. Ridiculous! What we've seen is what happens when a scumbag shows up and says, "Oh, yeah? Whatever. Make me."

We must learn from this putrid orange nightmare and put legal requirements in place. For instance: No income tax record, no divestment of business? Can't be a legal candidate and are precluded from being on any ballot, period. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so MUCH MORE to be done to truly have the necessary checks and balances in place, in order to avoid repeating this horrid abomination of a mistake. And if we don’t, we’ll live thru this or worse next time. (Don't kid yourself: the GOP has among its ranks MUCH WORSE than Trump who happen to be smooth, smart and cunning, in addition to evil. Imagine an intelligent, more deplorable but skilled version of Trump. Yeah, they got those.) And that is simply UNACCEPTABLE, to say the least.

The founding fathers envisioned the rise of a PoS like Trump and thought there were enough options to protect the country from such a disgrace. What they didn’t take into account was a corrupt congressional bunch who would put party before country. And so, here we are. We have witnessed the TRAGIC result of what happens when there are no safeguards to a hold back a criminal, inept, murderous, narcissist, thief and traitor. This must be remedied at the first available opportunity. The POTUS is an office TOO important to place in the hands of any old buffon, especially one who is a murderous grifter, to boot. Otherwise, it'll be worse next time.

Much worse.

Bring The Noise

If, as the old saying goes, idle hands are the devil's workshop, then idle time and an internet connection are how you fill out the job application.
 

Having always had great appreciation for those who monitor wingnuttery so the rest of us don't have to, these folks have risen even more in my esteem since I found myself falling thru a YouTube rabbit hole recently and checking out some of the nonsense that passes for discourse out there. The good news is that now I know that if I accidentally swallowed poison, or anything else that harmful, I can count on some of these conservative, right-wing clips on YouTube to provoke enough nausea to propel the poison out. But what a price to pay.

I am happy to report that (with one exception) a combined hour's worth of watching the likes of Alex Jones or Tomi Lahren or Dennis Miller or Ben Shapiro spew their nonsense did not at any point in time lead me to think “Hmm. Not a bad idea. I should look into that.” The lone exception being that Miller and I agree that this country is too divided and polarized to keep operating with its citizenry as one people. But conservative douchebag that he is, he was coy about how to do it, and avoided bringing up the largest elephant in the room today: that most of the red states would likely starve without blue state money. 

Surprisingly, even in their element, amongst their own people, where one would assume they would let their hair down and speak freely, without having to couch their responses in a certain way in order to appear more palatable and reasonable to new converts, it’s very easy to see through their shtick and how they get across their heavily flawed ideas. I don't care enough to address the hot mess that is Lahren aka Blowhard Barbie, but Jones and Shapiro have a similar approach—at different intensity levels, tho: Jones like a madman off his meds and Shapiro like the annoying little teacher’s pet despised by all, who thinks he's righteous but is actually worse than the schoolyard bullies—which is reminiscent of the endless Trump barrage of lies and scandals. In other words, they spew so much continuous garbage you could get sucked in if you tend to be swayed by false premises and straw men. Miller, on the other hand, carries himself pretty much like the hep cat who is not as cool or smart as he thinks he is and these days is indistinguishable from his old colleague Dana Carvey’s scathing impressions of him back in their SNL days.

I could go on for days, but their positions are essentially the intellectual equivalent of rank Swiss cheese. So who's got time for that noise? Also, I must stop before I get deep into breaking down Dave Rubin, a vacuous wingnut talking head who consorts and defends homophobes who openly make their distaste for homosexuality known to Rubin, which he's fine with (I've witnessed it), despite being gay himself. But hey, I get people gotta make a living. And as long as there are wealthy right wing corporate donors you are willing to prostrate yourself before in order to get some of that blood money, their like will reproduce like the pestilence they are. Anyway...

Stay safe. 

Wash those hands.

Fun During Quarantine: Challenging the Chumpbots

Once in a while your boy likes to mix it up with the right-wing nut jobs because, frankly, who’s going to lay down some truth in their Chumpbot/MAGAt world? Plus, mental exercise is good. (Although this was more like stretching before a workout.)

However, I don’t care to rumble with the intellectually impaired—they won’t get it and it’s not a fair fight, anyway. But it’s the numbnuts who think they are smart and wise because they heard Jordan Peterson speak once and think Joe Rogan is some kind of Ayn Rand hero who are most entertaining to me. (I don’t dislike Rogan, btw, but he’s a dude who gets it wrong as frequently as he gets it right, and when he’s wrong it’s a doozy.)

So, without further ado, here’s a recent, brief exchange:

Kiko Jones: OK, let's play along: liberal colleges are bad because they espouse their close-minded point of view but conservative colleges are fine even though they espouse their own close-minded point of view. Got it.

Right Wing Nut Job: First off, I defy you to name a "conservative college." Second, there may be close minded conservatives, but the ratio is inverted when it comes to the left in terms of this close minded point of view. The right does not care about cancelling people, does not believe in respecting pronouns and did not start MeToo.

KJ: Ooh, nice. Here we go...
- No conservative colleges? Here's 5 just off the top of my head...Bob Jones, Brigham Young, Grove City, Hillsdale, Liberty...there's legion.
- To be conservative is to be by nature and definition close minded. Conservative thought is reluctant to embrace change and diversity and innovation. Look it up.
- Conservatives don't call it canceling but do it anyway: just ask any conservative who is gay-friendly and/or pro-choice how they get treated by and large by other conservatives. Pronouns? You don't care about respecting the people. You don't like them so you lash out at them by focusing on pronouns to clumsily cover your tracks. And finally, who would expect the 'boys will be boys/girls ain't shit' crowd who voted for a CONFIRMED sexual predator to be POTUS to look after sexually assaulted women? The same who say women should enjoy being raped? Nah.

Right Wing Nut Job: [groan] Yeah, whatever.

KJ: That's what I thought.

We Are Already Poisoned

Yes, the Dim Reaper encouraged people to injest disinfectant this past week. And when someone in his administration I assume finally had the courage to tell him that this is idiotic and dangerous, he claimed he was simply being sarcastic and that, as his bootlickers are frequently fond of stating when he says something monumentally stupid, he was baiting the press to see if they fell for it. Hilarious, I tell you.

But in the midst of this C-19 nightmare, that's not even the worst part.

We can blame Trump all we want (the vast majority of it deserved, of course) but we cannot ignore that a significant portion of the blame falls on the shoulders of those who still follow him blindly, including about 90% or so of his party, which enables him to further drown us in deadly incompetence. How else can you explain an approval rating percentage in the mid 40s after the disastrous management of this crisis? One that, frankly, borders on negligent homicide? These are the same people who hate those they disagree with politically more than they love their country. How promising.

And so, we are a doomed, failed nation. Now with an extra layer of death and grief exacerbated by a disgusting sociopath whose followers and sycophants want to add to the death toll by reopening unessential businesses in the midst of a pandemic with no cure or vaccine in sight. This is why I believe that even if Trump were to magically disappear and C-19 miraculously eradicated overnight, our country would still be in a downward spiral fueled by ignorance, resentment and hate; racial and otherwise. Secession would be optimal if it weren't a utopian dream. I don't see a way out. God help us.

Stay safe, one and all.

This Liberal Defends and Supports Republicans (and proudly so)

First, let's get the obvious out of the way:

Yes, it’s a clickbait-y sensationalist headline purposely devised to get your attention. Here’s the catch, though: it’s true.

This week, the folks over at the Lincoln Project—a group of prominent of Republicans including constitutional lawyer George Conway; former campaign manager for John McCain’s presidential run in 2008, Steve Schmidt; and former advisor to Ted Cruz, author and political operative Rick Wilson—who have made no secret of wanting Trump defeated in November and have been actively working towards that goal, endorsed Joe Biden for president, a first for all involved.

These are the Republicans my headline is referring to, for those keeping score at home. Although, this is not a surprise to anyone who reads my commentary since I've let it be known I am quite alright with Never Trumpers, especially since many of them have been much more vocal and direct in their attacks on Trump than 95% of Democrats. (Hello! Tom Perez! Anybody home?)

But let me be clear, Never Trumper support does not mean they get a seat at the table. (Nor are they asking for one, as far as I can tell.) And I don’t want anyone to be under the impression I am whitewashing their resumés, either. (Wilson and Ted Cruz, for instance. Ugh.) But this is an 'all hands on deck' situation, so whether you're an independent, supported another Democrat or have been a GOPer all your life who wants no part of the Orange Turd, WE NEED YOU. We can sort it out later and dream of a day when we can argue about taxes and arts and education and health funding with Republicans again. But right now we need to unite in the common goal of removing this shit stain of a president from the White House.

Speaking of which, for all his bluster and acquired bravado, Needy Amin knows deep down his goose is cooked and that his GOP enablers and sycophants won't be there for him if he loses in November and finds himself leaving Mar-A-Lago in handcuffs in January of next year. Which is why he's going into 'animal backed into a corner' mode, knowing he needs to be re-elected (or God forbid, forcefully and illegally stay in office) in order to avoid a jumpsuit to match his fake skin tone. With the added plus for him and his cronies that he finally gets to destroy this country in four more years. (Or even less. As if this plague wasn't enough, that nightmare scenario is also is upon us.)

And so, at a time when we have liberals/progressives vowing to sit out this election (in the middle of a plague dramatically exacerbated by this sentient sewage masquerading as POTUS, no less) we need all the help we can get. And the Never Trumpers in the Lincoln Project can reach people our side would NEVER be able to convince to support Biden. Fact, yo.

In their formal statement this week, the Lincoln Project board made clear this was the first time any of them had endorsed a Democrat for POTUS. Well, this is the first time I’ve endorsed a Republican for anything.

God Bless America. Let’s do this.