Six People Who Revolutionized Their Sports

I'm not talking about superior athletes like Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky who changed their sports by their very existence. These are people whose innovations changed the way the sport was done. (I was going to write this earlier but Donald Trump couldn't keep his pie hole shut.)

Candy Cummings - Curveball (Baseball)

In 1867, a small, skinny teenager was playing for an amateur baseball club in Brooklyn and experimenting with different ways to throw seashells when he discovered a way to make the shells curve. Being a pitcher, he tried to do the same thing with a baseball and it did. Problem was he couldn't use it in a game because his catcher, as was standard practice, stood twenty feet behind the batter and a curving pitch would skip past him.

In 1870, a new catcher, Nat Hicks, brought the new technique of crouching right behind the batter where he could catch Candy's curves. Batters have been cursing the curveball ever since.

Duke Kahanamoku - Modern Freestyle (Swimming)

In 1844, two Native Americans traveled to England where they competed in a London swimming race. Flying Gull won easily using a crawl stroke that outraged the European swimmers. The European swimmers used the genteel breaststroke and rejected the heathen stroke that splashed "grotesquely." A stroke similar to what Katie Ledecky uses.

Later swimmers like Brit John Trudgen and Aussie Dick Cavill relearned the stroke from Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. American swimmer Charlie Daniels added the "six-beat kick" while winning early Olympic contests. In the 1912 Olympics Duke further modified the stroke into the freestyle form still used today. Oh, and Duke introduced surfing to the world, so there's that too.

Sonja Henie and Dick Button - Figure Skating

Prior to Sonja Henie women's figure skating was mostly carving highly specific designs. Ladies wore long thick dresses and moved around the ice purposely if not gracefully. Sonja changed that during the 1920's. She wore short skirts, part ballerina and part flapper. And she moved with style, flair, artistry, and elegance.

Ulrich Salchow invented the jump that bears his name in 1909, towards the end of his career, but it took Dick Button in post WWII competitions to demonstrate that skaters can add power to grace. He landed the first triple jump and invented new routines like the flying camel.

Jacques Plante - Goalie Mask (Hockey)

In 1959, the Montreal Canadians goalie was hit in the face by a shot, breaking his nose. After a quick stitch-up Plante returned to the ice wearing a hand carved mask he had been wearing during practices. The team's coach hated the mask but he had to allow Plante to wear it because at the time NHL teams seldom dressed a backup goaltender. The mask was slow to be accepted by goalies because of tradition and whatever is the Canadian word for machismo. Now that the mask has evolved to something close to a welder's helmet, it has fundamentally changed the sport.

Prior to the mask goaltenders stayed on their feet because dropping to your knees to block a slapshot was an invitation to having your face redesigned by frozen vulcanized rubber. With the mask goalies can fearlessly be on their knees with their legs spread in the "butterfly" technique making it virtually impossible to score a goal along the ice.

Dick Fosbury - Fosbury Flop (High Jump)

It's been almost forty years since any champion high jumper has gone over the bar face down. In 1965, a 16 year-old high school hippie started experimenting with new techniques because he couldn't master the traditional side-straddle jumping style. He found he jumped better going over headfirst and upside down. For years his high school and college coaches tried to get him back to tradition but they couldn't argue with his success at setting school and meet records.

The unknown Fosbury went to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and set a new world record. Within a couple of years most high jumpers had switched to the easier and more efficient flop.

Trump Wants His Supporters to Kill Hillary

My fucking God! Is there no insanity beyond this man?

Trump wants to recruit a fifth killer.

In a North Carolina rally today Donald Trump suggested that "Second Amendment people" could stop Hillary Clinton from appointing judges.

I've seen a lot of crazy things in my life. I've seen one president assassinated and seen two other attempted assassinations of presidents I've seen one presidential candidate assassinated and another attempted assassination of a presidential candidate.

I've never seen a major party presidential candidate urge the murder of his opponent. In American history, no major presidential candidate has has ever stooped so low. In the 1860 election that preceded the Civil War none of Lincoln's three opponents suggested that Lincoln be murdered.

It is not just insane. It is not just beyond the Pale. Even Hitler didn't suggest assassinating President Hindenburg. This is a whole new world of horror that the Republican Party has presented to the American people.

Can Trump Be Replaced?

The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Trump's fate?

Ladbrokes, a London betting parlor, has set the odds at 6 to 1 that Donald Trump will be replaced on the Republican presidential ticket. Those are remarkably short odds, less than half odds that bettors gave the Belmont Stakes winner Creator (14 to 1). Can it, will it, happen?

The Republican Party can't kick Trump to the curb; he would have to leave and there are only three ways out.

1. Trump Quits the Race - Trump has the most extreme case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder I've ever seen. Quitting would be a humiliation that no narcissistic could tolerate.Trump would only voluntarily leave the race if he could anoint his own successor and the only person he would pick would be his first born son, Donald Trump Jr.
2. Trump Dies - I can envision a cabal of vulnerable Republican senators thinking that surrounding Trump and stabbing him repeatedly is the only way to save their seats. Or, they could publicly assassinate Trump and set up some drugged and brainwashed Muslim as the fall guy. But, seriously, would Republicans really murder their own candidate? Possibly, not probably.
3. Trump Is Hospitalized - Trump's children, seeing how he is screwing up the campaign and, worse for them, demolishing the Trump brand, have him forcibly committed to a mental institution. Trump's court appointed executor would then withdraw him from the election. Or, more likely, this same scenario with a cover story of Trump having a serious ailment forcing his withdrawal from the campaign.

If Newt Gingrich's intervention happens the result will be Trump losing his cell phone privileges, no more tweets. Trump will be forced to read off teleprompters at all public appearances and he will be punished every time he goes off script perhaps with an electric shock collar strapped to his thigh (watch for it). And he will mysteriously catch the flu for each of the presidential debates.

Donald and the Giant Mushroom (Cloud)

Donald Trump is nuke curious. That fact has been floating around for months.

• Back in December, his spokesperson Katrina Pierson said, "What good does it do to have a good nuclear triad if you’re afraid to use it?"
• Trump advocates nuclear proliferation expressing the desire that Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia should all have their own nuclear arsenals.
• Trump has said that using nuclear weapons against European countries is a card he won't "take off the table."
• Repeatedly, Trump suggested that he might bomb cities in Iraq and Syria controlled by ISIS with nuclear weapons.
• This morning, Joe Scarborough revealed that three times during a one hour briefing from a foreign policy expert Trump asked why the US can't use its nuclear weapons.

Trump is obsessed with nukes and, like a child before Christmas, badly wants some of his own to play with. Maybe he will just use them as a threat to get the trade deals he wants (the phrase is nuclear blackmail) or he sees them as a quick, cheap way to end the war against ISIS. Or maybe he just wants to get his hands around the world's largest phallic symbols and stroke them and love them.


Perhaps this country has reached the point where it will take a military coup to prevent the country from descending into a nuclear holocaust.

Trump Kicks Baby Out

Presidential candidates cuddling up to babies is an election cliche. Presidential candidates consoling the families of fallen soldiers is a tradition dating back to George Washington. Presidential candidates, as a rule, tend to speak in complete sentences and have a rudimental grasp of English grammar.

Donald Trump is taking all these foundations of presidential elections and blowing them up bigly. Last night Trump had a baby thrown out of his rally for upstaging him by doing a baby thing, crying.

Trump continues attacking a Gold Star family, saying that they have no right to speak in public. Trump surrogate Roger Stone went farther and accuses the family of being terrorists and implying that the fallen soldier was planning a terrorist attack himself.

Trump's daily degrading of the English language is well known. His latest assault on Shakespeare's tongue is repeatedly saying about the New York Times that "They don't write good." They certainly write gooder than Donald speaks. Trump's speeches have been analyzed at a third grade reading level while his grasp of grammar and syntax would embarrass a toddler.

Donald Trump may be the first person elected President before he is properly potty trained.

Trump's Zero Sense of Decency

My reaction to Donald Trump's attack on the Khan family and especially Mrs. Ghazala Khan reminded me of this pivotal moment in US history.

Between Joseph McCarthy and Trump, McCarthy at least had the excuse of being a raging alcoholic. There is no excuse for the absence of any semblance of  humanity in Trump.

Only a very small man feels the constant need to diminish others. Donald Trump may be the tiniest homunculus to ever hide his puny soul behind a black cloud of bluster.

Clinton v. Trump - We versus I

Presidential campaigns work best if they have a central theme around which they are built. Both campaigns have settled on central themes that couldn't be more different.

Clinton - "We Are Stronger Together"

The noun, We, is the key. It speaks of inclusiveness, a national family, working together to better ourselves. Hillary sees herself as part of something larger than herself. Something we are all a part of. It is a theme at the core of the concept of democracy.

Trump - "I Am Your Voice"

The noun is I. Trump is the Übermensch, the superman. He speaks for you, you need not speak for yourself. "I alone can fix it." You need not lift a finger because I stand alone, the colossus who will do everything for you. It is a theme at the core of the concept of authoritarianism.

It is a stark choice. We Americans have a choice between being part of a larger community or pawns to a strongman who will dictate his will upon us. 

Rudy's Yellow Badge of Cowardice

Trump's mad monk, Rudy Giuliani, has proposed forcing Muslims to be electronically tagged by the government. This builds on Trump's early proposal that all Muslims in the United States, including US citizens, be required to wear special identification of their religion.

Rudy, Trump's terrorist advisor, didn't go into details where the electronic device would be. Would he force them to all wear ankle bracelets like paroled sex offenders, place RFID chips in their religious ID badges, or forcibly insert a device in their arm?

Rudy would restrict the electronic surveillance to Muslims on the terrorist watch list, a list certain to grow exponentially once Trump is elected, which we are supposed to consider reasonable. Unanswered is whether the movement of those people tagged by the government would be restricted. Perhaps they would be required to stay within a walled ghetto, Trump builds the best walls.

This wall was build in 1940 to keep members of a "dangerous" religious minority separated from decent people.

Will 'Never Clinton' Bernbots Vote for Trump?

The petit bourgeois Social-Democrat and the trade-union boss will never make a National Socialist, but the Communist always will. ~ Ernst Rohm, the leader of Hitler's Brown Shirts (the SA), circa 1930

The sight of some of Bernie Sanders most enthusiastic supporters booing their hero at the Democratic National Convention for the crime of endorsing Hillary Clinton reminded me of the above quote. They seem more interested in punishing Clinton, even if that means getting absolutely nothing they want, than getting most of their agenda.

When I did something stupid out of childish greed my mother would tell me I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. So it is with these holdout Bernbots. At this point I can't even tell what they want. Sure, they hate Clinton. I get that, I dislike her too. But they seem to have no goal other than hate and that plays directly into Trump's tiny hands.

I remember the Democratic PUMAs of 2008 who vowed to vote McCain instead of the evil man who defeated their beloved Hillary. For the most part they returned to the fold leading to Obama's victory. Perhaps these Bernbots will do the same. Or perhaps they will turn their enthusiasm to the only man remaining who shares their hatred even though he promises to destroy everything they hold dear.

The meaning of the above quote is that the Communist will easily become a Nazi, his exact opposite. The shared hatred that Nazis and Communists have for moderates will bond them. Even though Hitler ended up sending those same Communists to the concentration camps.

I refer you to something I wrote in March, Trump's True Believers. Trump succeeds if a plurality of voters gravitate to his campaign of hate. If the hate obsessed among Sanders supporters end up throwing the election to Trump then they will be the authors of their own destruction.

Email and Foreign Election Influence

The best advice I have ever given was to a friend and newly elected city councilwoman.

Never put anything in an email you wouldn't want to see posted on a bulletin board in the city hall lobby.

That was a couple decades ago and the advice is even more relevant now. Email is convenient but so is every other fucking booby trap ever invented. It is no place for ill-considered musings or secrets. No firewall is a certain defense against hacking The DNC learned nothing from Watergate (Republicans like spying) and Battlestar Galatica (isolate your computers from the web).

Trump's Best Friend.

Which brings us to the indisputable fact that the Russian government is trying to influence the US election in favor of Donald Trump. Trump's ties to Russia are deep. His campaign manager is a known Russian agent and Trump's financial stability is tied to massive loans from Russian banks. Trump has gone so far as to openly suggest he would stand by passively and allow a Russian invasion and conquest of NATO eastern European countries as Putin rebuilds the old Soviet Empire.

This is not the first time an American presidential candidate conspired with a foreign government to help his election. In 1980, the Reagan campaign held secret negotiations with Iran's mullahs. Iran agreed to hold until after the election the embassy hostages they had taken, thereby making them a debilitation millstone around President Carter's neck, in return for billions of dollars in weapons.

RNC Impressions

I've crawled out of my hole. I admit I didn't go cold turkey like I promised, I took occasional hits of convention news from Huff Post and Talking Point Memo, but I stayed away from the hard stuff like the network coverage. What I saw.

Ingraham Salute

Sure looks like the traditional fascist salute followed by waving at the crowd. Her defenders say she was just visually misquoted so let us take a step back. Where was she facing when she snapped off that famous stiff armed hail?

Okay. She was saluting a bigger than human image of her Leader. From this angle there can be no mistaking the message. She was throwing red meat to the rabid white supremacists who worship Trump and signaling that she and he were unified with them.

'Lock Her Up'
In what sort of country does one political party promise to imprison and execute the leaders of the opposition party? Yet that exact thing was the theme of much of the convention. The Trump Republican Party is promising an authoritarian rule where opposition to Trump is treason.

The Baltic States
Trump clearly signaled to Vladimir Putin that under Trump, the United States would stand aside if Putin wants to rebuild the old Soviet empire by reconquering the independent Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. The irony is that for seventy years the Republican Party has aggressively, frequently crazily, fought against Russian expansionism. Republicans under Trump are now a meek and subservient kitten to the Russian bear.

Trump also criticized the United States for preventing Korean unity. This is bizarrely true. Were it not for American interference North Korea's invasion of South Korea in 1950 would have succeeded and the entire Korean Peninsula would be under the brutal control of Kim Jung-Un.

That Cruz Thing
Ted Cruz's non-endorsement of Trump went off just like Trump wanted. He wanted a second virulent lynch mob display like the previous "lock up" Clinton frenzy. It was a World Wrestling Federation type of frenzy that Trump considers the height of entertainment.

Conclusion
It was worse than I thought possible. This was a rally of enthusiasts clamoring for an authoritarian dictatorship.These four days in July are the days that laughter died.

Where Are the Clowns? Don't Bother, They're Here

The Republican Convention is starting so I'm finding a deep hole, jumping in, and burying myself. As a news junkie and I know I'll try to score a fix but this shit is a hot mess that will fuck me up bad (Really, Paris Hilton wannabe Tiffany Trump is on the speakers list).

So I'm going into hiding and hoping to survive with my sanity intact.

Turkey's Decadal Coups

Kamel Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey. Buca, Turkey.

When you strike at a king, you must kill him. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Turkish coup failed in its first moments when they didn't capture or kill President Erdogan. Since he is extremely popular in his country, a free Erdogan was able to rally the people against the coup plotters.

Americans on the 24-hour news channels were prattling for hours yesterday how unprecedented a military coup in a NATO country was. Poppycock. Turkey averages a coup every decade. Kamel Ataturk founded Turkey in 1922 (in a coup) as a secular democracy and since then the army has seen itself as defender of secularism.

1960 - The army stages a coup in reaction to lessened restrictions on Islam and a deep economic recession. The prime minister is arrested and executed. The army rewrote the constitution and held power for 16 months.

1971 - The army chief of staff announced a coup via a memo sent to the civilian government. This was a time of global unrest and violence (picture now times 100) and the army sought to restore order. For two years the army controlled the government, repeatedly installing brief periods of martial law to quell turmoil.

1980 - In the preceding years the civilian government would call for martial law because of clashed between right and left wing gangs and political assassinations at a rate of ten per day. This coup has a violent aftermath with hundreds of thousand of people arrested and tortured by the military government. Officially, the military returned governance to civilians in 1983 but they kept the government on a tight leash long afterwards.

1997 - Another memo coup. The army sent a memo to the prime minister ordering him to resign or face a coup. He resigned and the army, having reasserted its control, did not bother dissolving the rest of the government.

2010 - The first failed coup against then Prime Minister Erdogan. The coup plot, Operation Sledgehammer, was discovered before it could be implemented and the plotters arrested.

There you have it. A coup a decade for over sixty years. Mark your calendars, you can expect another Turkish coup sometime after the year 2025.

Trump and Nice

In March, while in Israel, I was asked if Donald Trump could be elected President. My reply was that all it would take would be a Reichstag Fire moment, some shocking tragedy that could be blamed on Muslims for the nation to turn its fearful eyes to a strongman who intends to do "unthinkable" things to Muslims.

Source: Baltimore Sun

Contrary to the last words of our national anthem, the United States is filled with millions of people so afraid they would joyfully embrace a dictator who promises to keep them safe at whatever the cost.

Mystic Polls

The Oracle of Delphi, the first pollster.

It's that time of the election cycle that pundits obsess over each minor fluctuation of the bewildering mass of polls released daily. Clinton leads Trump by 3 points in Florida; Trump is dead. Trump leads Clinton by five point; Hillary is in trouble. One reason I like Nate Silver's 538.com is that they see polls for what they are - not pinpoint accurate but suggestive of a range. Even then, their predictive accuracy can only be determined after the election is completed. Before the election, polls are really just educated guesses.

Pollsers are the modern oracles and fulfill our childish need for mystical seers who can predict fate and calm our terror of an unknown future. And like the ancient oracles, pollsters are as much smoke as science. In November, some of today's pollsters will be declared master diviners who accurately predicted the future. Others will be proven charlatans who couldn't predict a coin flip with 50% accuracy.

Pythia was the virgin priestess of Apollo at his temple in Delphi. She would would meditate surrounded by  mysterious vapors and utter something incomprehensible which her priests would interpret as a prophesy. The only difference between this and modern pollsters is the use of hallucinogenic vapors but we don't know what the pollsters are smoking.

America's Danse Macabre

Think of it as the Devil's square dance. Many participants, none leading but all performing together to create a rhythmic whole. Prose requires a linear construct but you can look at these performers from any angle, in any order and the dance is the same.

Gun Fetishists - The NRA is no longer an association of hunters but a lobbying group for perverts. The NAMBLA of guns. Their mission is to insure that deadly weapons are pervasive through all levels of society.

Gun Dealers - If Sig Sauer were a responsible business they would have withdrawn their MCX assault weapon from the market when they discovered a design flaw that allowed it to be easily smuggled into crowded gatherings. They didn't. Instead sales of the weapon have skyrocketed because mass shootings are the greatest advertising that a gun dealer can have.

Prohibitionists - Drug cartels couldn't exist without without the prohibitionists granting criminal gangs monopoly control of the drug trade. Because of the prohibitionists drug availability is unregulated and under the control of violent thugs.

Militarized Police -

One can hardly blame the police for dressing and behaving like stormtroopers. They are tasked with enforcing the law in a nation teeming with high powered weapons. Yet, here we are with police wearing more body armor than war zone soldiers, driving armored personal carriers topped with machine guns, and gunning down citizens at a moment's provocation. It is only a matter of time before some urban police force acquires an army surplus AH-1 attack helicopter.

Politicians - Masters of the curtsy and bow, politicians are the craven whores of the dance. In the words of a current presidential candidate, "some, I assume, are good people" but many are fetishists themselves and many other join the dance hoping to hook up with money.

And so the dance continues - hopelessly, thoughtlessly, always more and more frenetic. Will it end? Can it end? Does it lead to peace or ever more violent bloodshed?

Helter Skelter

I was in college in 1972 when an assassin tried to kill noted racist presidential candidate George Wallace. The initial reaction of a professor friend of mine was to hope the shooter was not black as that could trigger race riots. I had a similar wish last night with the news of the sniper attack killing five Dallas police officers. I had hoped the shooter was not black.

Fortunately, in 1972 the shooter was the ever so lily white Arthur Bremer, a pathetic loser who just wanted to be noticed. The country was not so lucky last night.

Arthur Bremer stalked Wallace before shooting him.

It was a violent time, much more violent than today. In the ten years starting with the Dallas assassination of John Kennedy in 1963 we had the Vietnam War, killings of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King (1968), the Watts Riots (1965), the massacres of students by the National Guard at Kent State and by police at Jackson State (1970), and Charlie Manson's Helter Skelter attempt to trigger a race war by murdering innocent families in 1969.

Ohio National Guard preparing to shoot tear gas at Kent State students. They later switched to bullets.

There was the Long Hot Summer of 1967 when 159 race riots raged across the country. In each case the superheated rage festering in the country would erupt into violence due to a seemingly minor trigger. For a scientific example of how this can happen we turn to the Mythbusters.

Newark, 1967

Texas has a history of sniper murderers. There was the most recent incident and Oswald's sniper killing of JFK. In 1966 Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin and shot 49 people, killing 16.

I wish there were some conclusion or lesson to draw from all this. There isn't. The United States of America is a very violent place and has been for a very long time. It is a nation where guns are valued more highly than human life. It is a place where police are trained to believe they are at war with the American people. And it is a place where minorities know that is a very real, ever present war with daily casualties.

The 1% Final Solution

In 1933, less than one percent of the German population was Jewish. In 2016, less than one percent of the American population is Muslim.

For the Jew was still characterized for me by nothing but his religion, and therefore, on grounds of human tolerance, I maintained my rejection of religious attacks in this case as in others. ~ Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

Later in that same book...

The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. ~ Hitler, Mein Kampf

And by the way, many, many, most Muslims are wonderful people... ~ Donald Trump 2011 CBN interview

 Later that same sentence...

but is there a Muslim problem? Look what’s happening. Look what happened right here in my city with the World Trade Center and lots of other places. ~ Trump, same interview

The "Muslim Problem." The "Jewish Problem." Both political leaders needed a tiny, mostly defenseless scapegoat to blame for any difficulties their followers have. Both needed a foreign threat living among us to be removed so as to make their country great again (machen Amerika wieder groß). Both sought to tap into the xenophobia brewing in the body politic.

I think Islam hates us. ~ Donald Trump, CNN interview, Mar. 10, 2016

In Hitler's Germany, Jews got Germans into World War One and then stabbed them in the back. In Trump's America, Muslims are forcing Sharia Law on Christians and will then murder us in our sleep. It is silly to imagine that less than one percent of a population could wield such power but in both cases a substantial portion of the population believed it. And psychopaths in both audiences found champions in these two politicians.

Other Independence Days

Lots of nations celebrate the day then gained their freedom from some foreign empire - usually either Britain, Spain, Russia, or France.

Mexico - Grito de Dolores

Beer drinkers in the United States will be surprised to know that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day. That day, commemorating the defeat of an invasion force of French troops near the town of Puebla in 1862, isn't even an official national holiday in Mexico.

Mexico's real independence day is September 16, 1810. On that day a priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, in the small town of Dolores in central Mexico addressed a gathering outside his church where he urged the townsfolk to rise up in revolution and kill their Spanish rulers (the "Cry of Dolores").

He marched his people across Mexico gathering more followers as he went, growing from 600 to over 80,000 rebels. They killing Spaniards wherever they found them. In 1811 his rag-tag force of peasants was met and routed by a few thousand trained Spanish soldiers. Hidalgo was captured and executed by firing squad. The rebellion Hidalgo had started could not be quenched and Mexico was declared independent of Spain in 1821.

Israel - Yom Ha'atzmaut

This falls in April or May, the date is 5 Iyar on the lunar Hebrew calendar. This is the date of the end of the British Palestine Mandate when David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and 25 members of the Provisional State Council, 11 members were in Jerusalem besieged by Arab forces and could not attend, signed a declaration creating the state of Israel. It was a quite ceremony with only 250 invited guests attending because the Israelis did not want to trigger an invasion from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

Vietnam - Ngày Quốc Khánh

At the end of World War II Vietnamese rebels under Ho Chi Minh expelled the puppet emperor controlled jointly by Japan and Vichy France. On September 2, 1945, Ho declared Vietnam independent of foreign rule. Of course, that was just the start of a thirty year war against multiple colonial powers.

Later that month, Nationalist China invaded northern Vietnam to hold that part of the country until the French could re-exert their colonial power. In the south, British forces invaded and freed captured Japanese soldiers to help them subdue the Vietnamese. This began the partition of the country that would be the crux of the prolonged war.

By 1950, France had reinstalled the puppet emperor that Japan had used in Saigon while now Communist China supported Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi as the true leader of the country. Eventually, the United States replaced France as the colonial power controlling a puppet government. The final defeat of the US in 1975 is only considered the culmination of the independence struggle begun 30 years before.

Latvia - Two Independence Days

If you live in the countries surrounding Russia there is a good chance you get two independence days. Latvians, for example, celebrate Proclamation Day on November 18.

World War I and the Communist revolution shattered the Russian Empire. Latvia and the other Baltic countries had been part of Russia since the early 18th century. In March, 1918 the new Communist government of Russia was desperate to end the war with Germany, The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave Latvia and the other Baltic countries to Germany.  Germany's surrender several months later allow the Baltic states to declare their total independence.

Fast forward twenty years. The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 divvied up eastern Europe between them. The Soviets got the independent Baltic states and shortly afterwards Russia sent in unwelcomed troops to "protect" Latvia. They forced Latvia to hold an election where they were given the choice of joining the Soviet Union peacefully or joining the Soviet Union violently. World War II did not change that annexation.

Fast forward a half century to 1990. Like the Russian Empire before it, the Soviet Union is collapsing. Latvia declares the Soviet annexation of their country null and void and that they are again an independent state. May 4 is now celebrated as Restoration of Independence Day in Latvia.

Why the Clinton-Lynch Meeting Is Meaningless

Some media outlets, like FOX News, and political conspiracy theorists are all atwitter about a brief meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch in Arizona. The theory is they were conspiring to cover up an FBI bill of indictment against Hillary. This is nonsense for one simple reason.

If I wanted to have a clandestine conversation with the Attorney General I'd pick up my phone and call her. There is absolutely no reason to organize a meeting on the tarmac of a Phoenix airport.

This is another Occam's Razor moment where the simplest explanation (I just popped in to say "hi.") is preferable to a finely weaved and convoluted conspiracy theory.

Trump's Illegal Fundraising

I've seen a lot of bizarre things come out of the rancid lump of protoplasm known as Donald Trump's brain but sending fundraising emails to foreign legislators is particularly peculiar. At minimum, he has sent appeals to Scotland, England, Iceland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, and Finland. Those are just the ones reporting to date.

The most generous excuse is that Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort hired one of those sleazy Russian spam gangs he's friendly with to send out billions of messages to everyone on their list regardless of country or politics.

The second quarter ends tomorrow and the next FEC filing deadline is just three days before the start of the Republican convention. His campaign has said they've had millions of dollars in contributions in just a few days. If that money isn't there, and I suspect it isn't, then Trump is struggling to find the money somewhere to cover his empty promise. He doesn't care if the source is illegal.

And, of course, what Trump did is illegal. Previous far less pervasive cases of campaigns soliciting foreign money have been met with huge fines. If I were Hillary, on July 16 I'd demand an FEC audit of the Trump campaign to discover the extent of foreign funding of his campaign.

Veepstakes!

If I were Hillary I would wait until after the Republican Convention to announce my Veep choice on the off chance the rebels execute a coup and dump Trump and I'd need to rethink my strategy. Still, everybody else is talking about it, so...

Democrats

Liz Warren, Cory Booker, Tim Kaine

I love Elizabeth Warren and really, really like Cory Booker. Both would make excellent picks. Liz is the better campaigner, especially her ability to throw Trump off his game and make him spend an entire news cycle mumbling "Pocahontas." Booker is younger and oozes charisma. The downside for both is that they are senators from states with Republican governors meaning gaining control of the Senate would become more difficult.

Kaine is the establishment pick. He is so establishment he has "Beltway Insider" tattooed on his chest in inch high gangsta font. In a time where establishment insiders are held in contempt and Hillary already fills the insider niche, Kaine would signal to both Bernie supporters and independent voters that their voices would not be heard.

Republicans

The question for Trump is not who he will pick but who won't say "no." The list of people who've said "don't even ask" to Trump is huge. Of those left, you've got the unemployed con artists (Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry) who desperately need a job, the embarrassing sycophants (Chris Christie, Ben Carson) who have been demeaning themselves before the great Trump butt, and a small Trumpish handful of officeholders who seem willing to be Trump's fourth wife (Jeff Sessions, Mary Fallin, Bob Corker). 

At this point my best guess is Liz Warren and Sessions but I wouldn't wager a farthing on the subject.

Please Laugh

The United Kingdom is leaving Europe. Scotland, almost certainly, will now divorce from England. The same ultra-nationalist fervor could elect Donald Trump. We need to laugh.

The History of Indecorous Events At The US Congress

To hear Speaker Ryan talk, the Democratic protest against gun violence on the floor of Congress is an unprecedented breach of decorum. That's a lie. 

Republicans Did It First
On August 1, 2008, Rep. Paul Ryan was one of the Republican members of Congress to do exactly the same thing. Republican leaders occupied the well of the House to protest the then Democratic majority's refusal to bring Republicans bills to a vote. They chanted, sang songs, and cheered when Speaker Pelosi had the lights turned out. The only difference is that Republicans lacked the stamina of Democrats, they could only last five hours.

But things have gotten much more indecorous than that in American history.

Strom Thurmond's Piss Pot
In 1957, Congress was considers a rather tepid Civil Rights Act that would set up a commission to investigate minority voting and allow blacks to serve on federal juries in Southern states. But it was more than enough to rile the segregationist from the not so great state of South Carolina. Strom took the floor and, with a brief respite provided by Barry Goldwater, talked non-stop for over 24 hours.

Buck Kilgore

The interesting thing about this still record-setting filibuster was that Strom had an aide standing by with a bucket in the event that Strom needed to take a piss so he could pee while remaining on the Senate floor and still talking.

Kicking Down the Doors
In 1900, Speaker Thomas Reed was having a hard time getting a quorum. The minority, led by Southern segregationists, were trying to prevent four new African-American congressmen from being seated. They would demand a quorum call and then race for the exits. No quorum, no business can be done. Speaker Reed decided to get a quorum by locking all the doors. Some congressmen tried to hide under their desks but one, Congressman Buck Kilgore of Texas tried to run only to find the doors locked. Kilgore proceeded to kick in the door like a drunken ex-boyfriend.

Congressional Brawlers

May 22, 1856 - Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina took exception to the fact that abolitionist senator Charles Sumner was still breathing. He walked over to the floor of the Senate, approached Sumner from behind, and began beating him with a cane. Congressman Laurence Keitt also of South Carolina drew a gun and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to stop Brooks beatdown of Sumner. Sumner spent two years in a hospital recovering and was reelected to Congress while bedridden.

Later, Brooks challenged another anti-slavery congressman to a duel. When it was accepted, Brooks chickened out.

Feb. 5, 1858 - Larry Keitt was at it again. He took exception to Congressman Galusha Grow wanting Kansas to be slave free. Keitt tried to choak Grow which triggered an all out brawl on the floor of the House.

'I Feel Like a Supermodel'

I feel like a supermodel, except like times 10. It's true. I'm a supermodel. I'm on the cover of these magazines — I'm on the cover of the biggest magazines. I don't even know about it. I can't even read the story, because if I did, I wouldn't get any work done. ~ Donald Trump, June 18, 2016

Maria, West Side Story

If you listed all the crazy stuff Trump has said and printed it on paper it would sink the continent, but this egotistical preening would be on page one. In Donnie's spongified brain he is the greatest thing to ever happen to the world, ten times better than the greatest person he can possibly imagine - a supermodel like Heidi Klum.

It's beyond bizarre and I really don't know if it's dementia, Mad Cow Disease caught from a Trump Steak, or just a shitload of Nose Candy. But at least I now know what the Trump campaign song should be.

I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me tonight.

I feel charming,
Oh, so charming
It's alarming how charming I feel!
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real.

By the by, last summer candidate Trump opined that Heidi Klum was no longer a ten because that is the kind of issue that requires presidential judgement. Heidi's response was a perfect 9.99.

Living In Trump's America - Part Five

Cult of Personality

The Rome headquarters of Mussolini's Fascist Party

I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things. I know what I'm doing, and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people, and at the appropriate time I'll tell you who the people are. But my primary consultant is myself and I have, you know, a good instinct for this stuff. ~ Donald Trump, March 16, 2016 (responding to the question "who are you consulting with" on foreign policy)

Everyone who runs for president has an inflated ego. It's a job requirement. Trump's ego is inflated to the size of Jupiter. Whereas candidates normally speak as members of a community (us, we, our), an analysis of Trump's speeches reveal that his favorite words are self-referential (I, me, Trump).

It's "I will build a great, great wall." Not we, I. And because he will build it, it will be not just be great but "great great."

It's "I will make America great again." Not, "with your help we" just I, alone as a singular superhuman individual.

In Trump's America, Donald J. Trump is Alpha and Omega, the morning and evening star. He will accomplish mighty deeds all by himself while the rest of us must shut the Hell up and get out of his way.

And if we will our country will be full of sparkling unicorns and we'll get tired of so much winning.

Living In Trump's America - Part One
Living In Trump's America - Part Two   
Living In Trump's America - Part Three 
Living In Trump's America - Part Four 

Living In Trump's America - Part Four

Wars and Torture

A few of the 28,000 Chileans who disappeared into Augusto Pinochet's torture chambers.

I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. ~ Donald Trump, Feb. 8, 2016

Trump has been especially clear in his intention to institute torture as American policy. He has even bluntly stated that he will compel American servicemembers to commit war crimes such as the torture and murder of family members of suspected terrorists.

There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am. ~ Trump, June 16, 2015

Trump considers himself a military genius who will bomb, encircle, and crush ISIS then go in and "take that oil." He promises to bomb Iraq and Syria with Trident nuclear missiles. Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson justified this position by saying what's the point of having nuclear weapons if you are afraid to use them. Trump has refused to rule out dropping nuclear bombs on Europe. Trump has expressed his desire for nations like Japan and Saudi Arabia to have their own nuclear arsenals. By scrapping the Iran nuclear deal, Trump also wants Iran to own nukes.

Beyond his desire to nuke much of the globe, Trump wants to engage in trade wars with our biggest trading partners by imposing a massive 45% tariff on Chinese goods and a 35% tariff on goods produced in Mexico. Economists have analyzed his plans and predict the result will be a debilitating global recession/depression.

All this is not to suggest that Trump doesn't see potential allies abroad. While Trump foresees an adversarial relationship with Great Britain he has nothing but praise for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He has invited North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un to the United States and praised China's violent suppression of dissent, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

Since this series is getting me depressed, here is an article from the Onion. U.N. Warns Trump May Be 7 Months Away From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons.

Living In Trump's America - Part One
Living In Trump's America - Part Two   
Living In Trump's America - Part Three 

Living In Trump's America - Part Three

Political Prisoners and Censored Media

Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. Alright I said it. She has to go to jail. ~ Donald Trump, June 2, 2016

Trump has openly promised to arrest his Democratic opponent after he is sworn in as President. He has accused her long time aide, Huma Abedin, of terrorist ties and suggested that the current President also has terrorist connections.

Trump wants to expand the already massive American prison system. Trump's supporters are calling for multiple political arrests. Couple that with Trump's desire for a pervasive surveillance society where neighbors spy on neighbors and are threatened with arrest if they fail to report their neighbors to police and the prospects are that people other than Clinton, Obama, and Abedin will be arrested for their politics.

These are the media outlets Donald Trump has banned to date for being "unfair" to him:

• Washington Post
• Huffington Post
• Politico
• Univision
• Des Moines Register
• BuzzFeed
• Daily Beast

Trump has promised to change libel laws to make it illegal to criticize him. He only wants media that say nice things about him. Fail that and be blacklisted or sued.

Living In Trump's America - Part One
Living In Trump's America - Part Two

Living In Trump's America - Part Two

Mass Deportations

In 1949, Stalin deported 42,000 Latvians from their homes.

The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. ~ Donald Trump, July 5, 2015

Trump says he will have a "deportation force" to expel eleven million immigrants from the United States within 18 months. He has said that American citizen children born of immigrants will be expelled along with their parents so as to "keep families together."

Trump believes that having foreign heritage is the same as being an alien. Hence, a 63 year-old man born in East Chicago, Indiana is a "Mexican" while a 29 year-old man born New Hyde Park, New York is an "Afghan."

Trump has written that he intends to triple the size of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) which would make Trump's deportation force the largest agency of the federal government, excluding the military, exceeding in size both the TSA and FBI. Trump's deportation force would deprive people of due process, quickly expelling people from the country without hearings to determine whether they were, in fact, American citizens.

If somebody walks in, they don't bring them to court, they send them back. ~ Trump, Nov. 21, 2015

Trump wants to ban all Muslims entering the country; he only wants to restrict Hispanic entry. Since Trump believes that Muslims are at least as dangerous as Hispanics it is difficult to believe he would not point his deportation force at the 3.3 million Muslim-Americans eventually.

To achieve Trump's plan for the complete purging of eleven million Hispanics from the United States in 18 months would require expelling over a half-million men, women, and children from the county every month for a year and a half. That is 130 cattle cars filled with humans a day using the Nazi figures of 150 deportees per rail car. Trump states these expulsions will be "humane"

One can only speculate how Trump will use his massive deportation force after he has expelled all of his undesirables

Living In Trump's America - Part One

Living In Trump's America - Part One

Every Man a Spy

People move into a house a block down the road, you know who’s going in. You can see and you report them to the local police. Most likely you’ll be wrong, but that’s OK. That’s the best way. Everybody’s their own cop in a way. ~ Donald Trump, Nov. 27, 2015

Trump has long held that people should spy on their neighbors and report everything they see to the police. On July 13, 2016, Trump upped the ante stating the people who fail to successfully spy and report on their friends and neighbors should be arrested and punished.

At its most benign, that would be a return to McCarthyism as specifically proposed by Trump sycophant Newt Gingrich. Gingrich has proposed recreating the House Un-American Activities Committee that succeeded in tormenting thousands of innocent Americans while failing to uncover any Nazi or Communist agents.

Trump's stated goal is to compel Americans to inform on their neighbors, even if those neighbors have done nothing wrong, or face arrest themselves. This would create a hyper-suspicious society where the only way to be considered a Good American is to turn in your neighbor to the police before your neighbor can turn you in.

There are historical examples of this type of society in the Stalinist countries of eastern Europe. The Soviet Union, East Germany, Romania, and Albania all required their citizens to diligently spy on their neighbors, friends, and family members. Failure to report anti-communist thoughts or behavior was punished as severely as the actual behavior. The East German secret police had dossiers on 40% of the country's population.

In Trump's America people will learn to fear their neighbors and even their closest friends will report them to the police for any slight or imagined thought or deed. Americans will be afraid if they don't report friends and neighbors to the police for something, anything, they themselves will be suspected and arrested for un-American activities.

In Trump's America every citizen will be considered a potential enemy of the state. Family get-togethers and dinner parties will be frightful affairs where any unguarded moment could lead to arrest for a thought crime, arrest under suspicion of having anti-American feelings.

Living In Trump's America - Part Two   
Living In Trump's America - Part Three 
Living In Trump's America - Part Four
Living In Trump's American - Part Five 

Confluence of Evil

Last night combined the hatreds instilled by religious zealotry with Florida's "shoot thy neighbor" policies and traditions to create a horror beyond comprehension.

American neo-fascists are orgasmic in their glee, simultaneously celebrating the violent deaths of so many homosexuals while joyfully laying the blame at the feet of a religion they wish to exterminate.

Trump supporters happily hope to turn this into a Reichstag moment that will catapult their Beloved Leader into the White House.

I awoke this morning from a mild nightmare dream to a real living nightmare infinitely more ghastly than anything my dreams could compose. The greater living nightmare is the knowledge that this has all happened before and will all happen again.

Sometimes you need a kitten pic.

Trump's Last Refuge

Religion is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Patriotism is next to last. ~ Andy Rooney

Donald Trump is such an extreme narcissist he considers himself equal if not superior to God so when he spoke to the Faith and Freedom Coalition about restoring "faith to its proper mantle" it's probable the worship he will compel out of the American people is toward himself.

After being revealed as a racist asshole and a thieving asshole from his Trump U victims it was totally predictable that he would try to rehabilitate himself by pretending to be a Bible-thumping asshole.

If elected, I am certain the president he would most closely resemble is Emperor Caligula.

I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God.

I don't know what else to do to revolt them. (Speaking of his Senators.)  ~ Malcolm McDowell as Caligula

Historic Firsts

Hillary Clinton is the first woman nominated for President by a major party. This is an important milestone that will only be exceeded by her being elected President. It will rank along side of the election of Barack Obama as the first person of color to be elected President.

Since I don't want to ignore Donald Trump, because we all know how whiny he can get, if Trump is elected he will be the first person with absolutely no prior experience in public service (elected office, cabinet post, victorious general) to be gifted the presidency.

Here are a few other notable firsts:
First Woman Elected To Congress: Jeannette Rankin

Elected from the state of Montana in 1916, four years before the 19th Amendment granted universal suffrage to women, Montana had granted suffrage to women in 1914. She ran again in 1940 to defeat a pro-fascist scoundrel named Jacob Thorkelson. Rankin is also notable as the only person to vote in Congress against the United States entering both World War I and II.

First Woman Elected to the Senate: Hattie Caraway

In a special election in 1932, Caraway was elected senator from the state of Arkansas, filling the seat of her recently deceased husband. She was reelected to a full term in November of that year. She was reelected again in 1938. The first woman Senator was Rebecca Felton, but she only served one day in 1922 before being replaced by a man.

First Women Elected Governors of a State: Miriam Ferguson, Nellie Ross

1924 saw two states elected women governors. In a special election, Nellie Ross ran for governor of Wyoming to complete the term of her husband who had died in office. She lost a reelection bid.

Then there was "Ma" Ferguson of Texas. In typical Texas fashion, her husband, James "Pa" Ferguson, had been governor when he was impeached and removed from office in 1917. When she ran a common campaign slogan was "Me for Ma, and I Ain't Got a Durned Thing Against Pa." She lost a reelection bid in 1926 mostly because her husband had again got caught with his hands in the public till. She ran and won again in 1932.

First Women Senator Elected on Her Own: Margaret Chase Smith

Up to 1948, every woman to become senator had been replacing her deceased husband (except Dixie Graves who was appointed by her governor husband) and none had been elected to a full term. While Margaret Smith had replaced her dead husband in his congressional seat eight years previously, she won her senate seat totally on her own merit and served for 24 years as a respected member of the upper body. Although also a Republican, in 1950, Sen. Smith publicly denounced Joseph McCarthy at the heights of his Trump-like popularity. In 1964 she also the first woman to run for the presidential nomination of a major party.

Trump and His Judges

In November 1933 in New York, Mrs. Maria Griebl refused to be questioned by a Jewish lawyer or appear before Jewish judges saying, "I am asking for a neutral district attorney or judge, preferably Christian." Mrs. Griebl was an American Nazi.

That same year in Munich, a Jewish lawyer went to the police to file a complaint over the arrest of a client. He was beaten by the police who cut off his trousers and forced him to walk the street wearing a sign reading, "I will never again complain to the police." By 1938, all Jewish judges in Germany had been removed from office and disbarred and it was illegal for Jews to practice law.

On June 3, 2016 Republican nominee for President Donald Trump declared the judge in his Trump U fraud case was prejudice specifically because of his Hispanic heritage. On June 5, Trump declared that he believed any Muslim judge was incapable of impartiality.

Trump and his acolytes suggest the judge is a disloyal American because he is a member of a Hispanic law association (La Raza Lawyers of San Diego). They also incorrectly tie him to the National Council of La Raza (NCLA).[Note: "La Raza" is Spanish for "The People." The NCLA is an advocacy group similar to the NAACP or B'nai B'rith.]

It's a weird world where if you hate Jews you get to demand a non-Jewish judge and if you hate Mexicans you can demand a non-Hispanic judge. It's a weird world but one we have seen before. The next step is mobs of loyal nationalists dragging judges from the hated group from courts to be beaten. Then disbarring them. Then comes mass deportations. Anyone who claims that the judiciary will stop Trump's mass deportations are ignoring the fact that bravery is suicide when the world has gone mad.