Here's a Halloween scare for you!

Damn, I'm sorry I know this exists. Now you know it exists. I guess it's like the cursed VHS tape in The Ring. Here's the Wikipedia link if you're a masochist.

Trump Tower is a work of fiction by Jeffrey Robinson, originally credited to Donald Trump, and billed as Trump's "debut novel" by the publisher. It was first published in 2011 by Vanguard Press. Trump had previously attempted to create a television series titled Trump Tower, modeled after Dallas, Dynasty, and Upstairs, Downstairs. He worked with MVP Entertainment, contracted a writer in Los Angeles, and successfully had Showtime Networks develop a television pilot. After receiving a payment for television rights to Trump Tower, he marketed the idea to Lifetime. The book by this title was developed in 2011 listing Trump, but when released in 2012 credited Robinson as sole author.

The plot of the book is set within a fictional version of Trump Tower, with Trump himself appearing as a character in the work. Detailed sex acts are depicted including BDSM and the rape of a woman. An employee of the building is described having sex on the set of The Celebrity Apprentice.The plot moves from erotica to murder mystery, and the building manager is initially a suspect before later being cleared. Bill Clinton and other celebrities appear in cameo appearances.

Sorry.

This Modern World - The Astonishing Magaverse

By Tom Tomorrow.

Guaranteed return of 1000%!

The Felon Donald Trump announced this week that he's selling limited edition gold watches with his name engraved for the low, low price of $100,000.

People have, of course, been mocking him for the obvious grift, but I think it's a canny strategy. 

After all:

One of Adolf Hitler’s watches has just fetched over a million dollars in a private auction.

The watch was sold by Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland for $1.1 million (€1.07 million) to an anonymous bidder, and is believed to be a gift, given to Hitler for his 44th birthday on 20 April 1933.

In a few years, these watches should be worth over a million dollars! And honestly, who doesn't want to wear a watch symbolizing a sexual assaulter, con artist, serial liar, racist, misogynistic piece of shit who has made this world much, much worse by his presence in it?

What a bargain!

Burdensome safety regs

WTF?  Seriously, what the fuck?

Convicted Felon Trump's VP pick, the delightful and wonderful J.D. Vance, said this in a March 2023, Senate Commerce Committee meeting.

One thing that I really worry about, and I think both Democrats and Republicans should worry about, is we have some real demographic problems in our country. American families aren’t having enough children. I think there’s evidence that some of the things that we’re doing to parents is driving down the number of children that American families are having.

In particular, there’s evidence that the car seat rules that we’ve imposed—which of course, I want kids to drive in car seats—have driven down the number of babies born in this country by over 100,000.

So as we think about how to make kids safe here, I think we should do it in a way that’s accommodating to American families and I encourage your organization to do that.

First, we don't have a demographic problem in our country. What he means is that we have too many icky minorities and white families should have more children to Keep America White. 

Then, there's the creepy fixation on women having babies. We don't need more and more Americans, and if we do, how about granting citizenship to the millions of people trying to find a safe and free place to live? We're not competing with other countries to "have the most babies," you weirdo.

Finally, there's the idea that protecting existing children is somehow preventing non-existent children from being born. As in, we weren't going to have a second child, but since our first was killed in car accident while not in a car seat, we've decided to have another? What "evidence" is there for that?

The fixation among Republicans to make sure that babies are born by preventing abortion, and IVF and contraception if the Felon is reelected, but totally ignoring the children that result by attacking programs and laws that protect and feed children, is all about controlling women. They don't give a damn about children. If they did, they wouldn't say shit like this.

These people are deeply stupid, creepy and weird.

The Press Won't Save Us

If you're counting on the press to save us from the encroaching fascism of Convicted Felon Trump, should he win back the White House, don't. (Spoiler: Almost all of the "liberal" mainstream media is owned by rich conservatives.)

Jeff Tiedrich posted an article on the various press failures covering Trump, just this weekend.

elderly golfer spent the weekend spewing dangerous lies. the press snoozed through it.

It's worth a read.  (Another spoiler: Jeff is ALWAYS worth a read.)

As another data point, here are screenshots of the AP News articles fact-checking the Republican and Democratic conventions. See if you can spot the bias.

Trump has "claims"  Harris has "false and misleading claims". Most people don't read the articles; they see the headline and move on. But the impression that one side is being "false and misleading" and the other side isn't, lingers.

Liberal media, my ass. Just another decades-long conservative lie to manipulate the media into being harsher on Democrats while giving Republicans a pass, and sowing distrust of the press to the American people.  

VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO

Good riddance to bad rubbish

Gonna make this a quick one.

RFK, Jr. is an asswipe. His anti-vaccine advocacy likely resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. He started out running for President as a Democrat, likely because he perceived weakness in Biden and was counting on his family name, but when that didn't pan out, he switched to Independent. Since it looks like he's pulling votes from Trump, he is stopping his campaign and endorsing Trump. He recently approached both Trump and Harris to ask for a cabinet spot, but when Harris wouldn't even talk to his stupid ass, he threw his support behind the convicted felon.

Below is John Oliver making mincemeat out of RFK, Jr.'s worm-ridden brain. If you don't have too much of an idea who RFK, Jr. is, it's definitely worth a watch.

No, these people are definitely not weird

Warning. The behavior in the article linked below is not exactly disturbing, but really, really weird. And, okay, a little disturbing.

Weird Maga

Perfectly normal.

Argle Bargle

Really, these just write themselves.

From Tom:

As always, if you find value in this work I do, please consider helping me keep it sustainable by joining my weekly newsletter, Sparky’s List! You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon, the content is the same. And don’t forget to visit the Tom Tomorrow Merchandise Mall!

If you say so

Come on people!  It says he "did not"!  Link

The die is cast

Joe Biden deserved better than what he got from "leading" Democrats and the clearly not liberal mainstream media. It took a LOT of courage and patriotism to do what he did today.

That said, I will support Kamala Harris all the way to the White House. She deserves the nomination.

I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces.

Fundamental rights at stake

Just one of the many things on the line this November.

[Senator Elizabeth Warren] said if Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2025, “the first vote Democrats will take in the Senate, the first substantive vote, will be to make Roe v. Wade law of the land again in America.”
...
“We can make Roe v. Wade law of the land if we have, and I have to be clear, we’ve got to have a majority in the House — skinny majority. We can take a really skinny majority in the Senate, I’ll take fifty. And a Democrat in the White House. We have those three things we will suspend the filibuster,” Warren said.

Link

Two morons walk into a bar . . .

Convicted Felon Trump called independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the other day to ask Kennedy to drop his candidacy and endorse him. The Felon probably thought that since someone had shot at him, Kennedy would be in a mind to do what he wanted. It didn't work.

At the start of the conversation, in an attempt to connect with Kennedy, Trump tried to bond over a shared vaccine skepticism. Below is what Trump said.

"When you feed a baby a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines and it looks like its meant for a horse, not a 10 pound or 20 pound baby ... Then you see the baby starting to change radically, I've seen it too many times. Then you hear that it doesn't have an impact, right? You and I talked about that a long time ago."

We know this happened because apparently someone in Kennedy's campaign leaked a video of the call. Probably because what Trump said was JUST. THAT. STUPID.

Sheesh.

Takeaways

I'm sure you know that some troubled young, REPUBLICAN, man tried to assassinate Convicted Felon Trump last weekend. An attempted Presidential assassination hasn't happened since 1981 and it's a horrifying, yet not surprising, development in America.

Here are my takeaways.

Some people are saying this gives Convicted Felon Trump the election. I don't think so. There are still months to go, Trump's vile personality and horrific ideas haven't changed, and abortion is on the ballot. Plus, there probably aren't a lot of people in the "I wasn't going to vote for Trump, but now that someone took a shot at him, I'm going to," demographic. Any bump from this will be temporary.

I've heard people say that if Trump had died, he'd be a martyr and a smarter and more competent MAGA person would be elected in his place. I disagree for the simple reason that there are no smarter and more competent MAGA folk who could actually take Trump's place. His VP pick, JD Vance, isn't especially respected within MAGA land, nor is he smart or competent. Who else is there? Matt Gaetz? Marjorie Taylor Greene? Don Trump, Jr? The attempted elevation of any one of these to replace the Convicted Felon would result in a MAGA civil war. Plus, establishment Republicans would try to regain control of the party. MAGA is a cult of personality. It doesn't survive Trump.

There have been calls for both sides to tone down the threats and violence. Such obvious both-sidesing is utter bullshit. Republicans were responsible for the Jan. 6th violence that killed nine, the attack on the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the plot to kidnap and murder Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Republican congresspeople wear AR-15 pins on their lapels. Republican Reps. and Senators frequently call for violence against Democrats.

Trump himself MADE FUN of the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi. He has also frequently praised the Jan. 6th insurrectionists. He has called for the EXECUTION of people on his enemies list, including everyone involved in his various court cases and former Rep. Liz Cheney and The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. You may be able to find Democratic voters making violent remarks about Republicans, but you won't find elected Democratic officials or President Biden doing it. The two parties are NOT the same. Trump sowed what he reaped.

On Sunday night, President Biden said this:

Violence has never been the answer, whether it’s with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump. There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.

Over the past 48 hours, Republicans blamed Democrats for the assassination attempt because Democrats have called Trump a threat to democracy. This is ridiculous because Trump's "policies" aka Project 2025, *are* a direct threat to democracy. That's a fact and Democrats shouldn't stop saying it. Democrats need to make clear, and they have, that violence isn't an option or a solution, but Republicans trying to gaslight them into ignoring Trump's fascist-leanings or his desire for a dictatorship would be political suicide if followed. If Republicans want Trump not to be seen as a wanna-be dictator, maybe he should stop being a wanna-be dictator.

I'm glad he's not dead, but he's responsible for over a million COVID deaths, the taking away of a Constitutional right, and taking America to the edge of a dictatorship, among other horrors. He gets no sympathy from me.

Don't discount this

We still have a chance to avoid this future.

Attribution: Ruben Bolling.

Classic Joke

This is one of my favorite jokes of all time. I still remember it some 40+ years after I saw it on The Muppet Show with guest star Christopher Reeve. It's queued up to 47 seconds.

I thought about the joke today and thought I'd share.

The Supreme Court just fundamentally changed our democracy

Do you want some explanation and context for this week's incomprehensible Supreme Court decision giving American Presidents absolute immunity for criminal conduct? (We all know this decision was directed at Convicted Felon Trump). 

This video puts the decision in context. It's worth ten minutes of your time.

Like a poor marksman, they keep missing the target

Some political pundits and newspaper editorial boards have called for President Biden to drop out of the race due to his bad performance at the debate. None of them ever called for Convicted Felon Trump to drop out because he's a wannabe dictator and convicted felon, who tried to overthrow the US Government and does nothing but lie and commit additional crimes. Seems to me that's more disqualifying than "needed a nap".

The Philadelphia Inquirer got it right.

To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race

Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?

To build himself up, Trump constantly tears the country down. There is no shining city on the hill. It’s just mourning in America. [...]

Trump told more than 30 lies during the debate to go with the more than 30,000 mistruths told during his four years as president. He dodged the CNN moderators’ questions, took no responsibility for his actions, and blamed others, mainly Biden, for everything that is wrong in the world.

The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage.

Trump attacks the military. He denigrates the Justice Department and judges. He belittles the FBI and the CIA. He picks fights with allies and cozies up to dictators.

God Damn straight.

The Debate

I watched the entirety of the debate tonight between President Joe Biden and the Convicted Felon Trump. It was a terrible debate by Biden, as the media is really anxious to tell you. He lost his train of thought a couple of times, he seemed older than he has in the past, and he seriously turned some home run topics into singles (for example, abortion should have been an easy grand slam). I didn't like all his answers and he let himself get pulled off-topic way too often. 

The convicted felon still spoke from crazy town, took credit for a bunch of Biden's accomplishments, got increasingly unhinged and racist, and lied and lied and lied. (Good job with the NO FACT CHECKING, CNN).

But, on election day, the choice is still between a caring, knowledgeable, competent civil servant, who is obviously a bit past his prime, but who has thoughtfully served the American people for decades, and a compulsively lying, ignorant, narcissistic, racist, convicted felon who's only running because he's too psychotic to take a loss, and it's the only way he stays out of jail for the rest of his life.

I only hope enough of the American people see that. Because if the Convicted Felon wins again, we're screwed.

Compare this to the convicted felon

Link.

Preview of a long-awaited reunion

Last week, Convicted Felon Donald Trump returned to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republican caucus. Despite having sent a mob to kill them in 2021, the Republicans embraced him enthusiastically, even though many of them held him personally responsible for trying to kill them three years ago.

Of course, Republican hypocrisy and perfidy is not news.

What is news, is this:

I really didn't expect to see this until Mitch McConnell and Convicted Felon Trump met in hell. I guess they're ahead of schedule.

Since it was Convicted Felon Trump's birthday, they also had a present:

House members paid tribute to the ex-president with a bat and game ball they won after trouncing Democrats in the annual congressional baseball game Wednesday.

I will give them credit, presenting Convicted Felon Trump with a bat took a lot of courage, the way many of them had bad-mouthed him over the years. I really expected the bat presentation to go like this:

Lucky for them, Convicted Felon Donald Trump probably doesn't have the strength to lift a bat.

The FDA should say that they SHOULDN'T jump off a cliff

At this point, let's just stand back and let natural selection sort them out.  

A conservative advocacy group headed by scam artist Charlie Kirk is pushing Americans to drink raw milk at a time when a widespread flu outbreak makes this potentially fatal. This is just one of several moves by right-wing groups and media pundits since the Food and Drug Administration cautioned against drinking raw milk following the rapid spread of H5N1 bird flu among dairy cattle.
...
It is well-established by the FDA that there are absolutely no health benefits from drinking raw milk instead of pasteurized milk. Raw milk was dangerous even before the rapidly spreading flu and is known to spread multiple diseases, including tuberculosis.  Link

Blasé GIFfrom Nathan Fillion GIFs

They're also selling a t-shirt that says, "got raw milk", because of course they are. Hilariously, the picture on the t-shirt is clearly a BULL. With horns.

I don't think Republicans know where milk comes from.

Some nice news

I've seen this guy on Instagram, and his videos are wonderful and heartwarming.

This influencer keeps taking day laborers to Disneyland. One thing always catches his attention

Someone doing something nice for others, and treating migrants like human beings is, unfortunately in this terrible country, news. But that doesn't take away from his kindness.

Go read the whole thing.

The dumbest Trump clearly understands African-Americans

"in spades."

I've heard all of these

By Tom Tomorrow. 

GUILTY

Note: I didn't use the "politics" tag for this post because this trial wasn't about politics. It was about crime and justice.

FAFO is the lesson for today.