America's War on Prevention

If America keeps failing with gun violence, that's fundamentally because she's waging war on prevention, and because the forces that feed upon these failures have faced impunity for too long.

Worse: constant mass shootings are only one of the nation's most obvious self inflicted traumas. At least, there, everybody knows the rules of the game: 

• more people die of guns in the US than anywhere else, and not just because 332M Americans own 400M of them
• implementing basic gun control laws (e.g. background checks) have always showed spectacular results, including in the States between the moment Bill Clinton signed the last batch and the moment Republicans blocked its prolongation
• even if a vast majority of Americans (including within Republicans) support these laws, the NRA and the GOP keep distorting the 2nd Amendment to push even harder against any kind of oversight or accountability. 
• the situation keeps worsening: Republicans are likely to sweep the Middterms, and the Supreme Court they reshaped against the will of the people is likely to dismantle the few remaining safeguards. This self-proclaimed 'pro-life' crew prefers to protect guns to protecting the lives of kids or pregnant teens.
  

America is not just sick, she doesn't want to heal.  

And that's exactly the same story with health in general. Even before the pandemic, America spent one third more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country, and yet saw her life expectancy plummet, the average health of her citizens being more worthy of a laggard.

Like with guns, there's a lot of money involved, but here, at least two families of lobbies are working in sinc to sink the boat: where everywhere else the focus is on prevention, Big Pharma and Big Food make sure that prevention is withdrawn from all policies, and that only the 'cures' they propose are considered. Because they couldn't gain more shares of stomachs, Big Food had the genius idea of supersizing our stomachs, and Big Pharma certainly can't complain because they make more money selling drugs that no one needs when they follow just a normal diet. And don't count on health associations to defend consumers: most of them are bankrolled by the same lobbies, and promote the very behaviors they're supposed to fight against.

The prevention of gun violence, obesity or heart diseases are national causes everywhere except in the US, where they would mean the end of the party for lobbies who need America to keep getting sicker instead of healing.

If these lobbies reach across the aisle, they've always worked in symbiosis with the Republican Party. But that party itself has given up all restraints, any ambition for common ground or common sense. And it's now waging war at all levels. 

Solutions to major problems are no-brainers? Let's dumb everybody further down, let's ban books, let's reject facts, truth, reason, and science. We want you to feel stupid, victimized, angry, we want you to replace critical thinking with systematic, blind criticism, we want you to forget about moderation and to live on a permanent conflictual mode.

The GOP not only stopped fighting racism, it's deliberately fueling it now, crushing voting rights for minorities, promoting voices that fuel hatred (exhibit A: Tucker Carson spreading the Great Replacement fallacy). The big tent has turned into a dangerous tin foil hat under which thrive the worst of the worst (Holocaust deniers and white supremacists are more welcome than ever).

Even if they know better, these guys will tell you with a straight face that the Earth is flat, that Trump won in 2020, and that arming teachers is the solution when even a squad of trained police officers are scared to face a teenager carrying assault weapons.

Pew Research on bipartisan support for gun control
NB: more data on Brady Campaign's website: bradyunited.org/resources

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Exclusive fake interview with Obstructionist in Chief Mitch McConnell

It took only a dozen money transfers to his offshore accounts for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to accept an exclusive fake interview with our Agence Fausse Presse.

blogules: "Senator, thank you for having us."

Mitch McConnell: "You're welcome, interesting to see that Fox News or Sinclair Broadcasting are not the only pseudo medias out there."

b: "How do you want History to remember you? As Donald Trump's  Paul von Hindenburg? As the man who stole the Supreme Court? As D.C.'s most morally corrupt and hypocrite politician?"

MMC: "Nice try, but flattery doesn't work on me: Elaine and I prefer bribery in cash. That said, I guess the last compliment fits best my ultimate ambition."

b: "You have a serious competitor in Donald Trump."

MMC: "He definitely would be if he were a politician. But the former and present President is a salesman. And he sells only one product: himself."

b: "The former and present President?"

MMC: "You know my motto in politics: I want it all, and I want it both ways. We all know that Joe Biden won by a landslide, but that's not what Donald Trump and his base want to hear."

b: "But his Big Lie fueled the bloody January 6th attack of the Capitol."

MMC: "Clearly, Trump is responsible for the insurrection, his inaction during the attack amounts to dereliction of duty, he is the most appalling President in our history, and a constant threat for our democracy, but we need the Big Lie fallacy to justify our voter suppression laws, to steal the 2022 elections, and to put him back in the White House."

b: "So you confirm what everybody who follows the actual news knows, which is: the Republican establishment deliberately follows Trump's dangerous lies just to help the party artificially cling to power, even if that means destroying American democracy."

MMC: "Of course that's the plan. We simply can't win if everybody is allowed to vote, and by 'everybody', yes we do mean black voters. If we managed to score key wins in the past simply by gerrymandering or redistricting, now we have no choice but to go Jim Crow full throttle."

b: "Well, you do have a choice: clean up your party, repudiate conspiracy theories, kick out Qanon, the KKK, and the Nazis, and win around restored Lincoln values..."

MMC: "But we can't go against these guys anymore, just like we can't go against Trump. At the beginning we entertained his conspiracy theories just to spare his ego and to keep him happy, but once we've understoods that Republican voters believe his Big Lie and everything he says, and that we can use this to steal the next elections, we just let the racists run our show - by the way did you see the splendid Nazi runes at the CPAC conference?"

"#CPAC stage shaped like an #OdalRune... That's the symbol US #Neonazis have picked to replace #Nazi #swastika and go mainstream in US politics. The whole #GOP is #RINO: #Republican party officially replaced by #Trump #cult &  #fascism. Sce @dailykos" (20210227 - twitter.com/stephanemot/status/1365560322858254341)

 

b: "That's abominable."

MMC: "I know, but it works. Look at the Supreme Court! If Stephen Breyer is kind enough to pass away after our triumph at the Mid-term elections, we'll go 7-2."

b: "Now Merrick Garland is back to haunt you and to clean up William Barr's mess... You have absolutely no moral compass, no ethics."

MMC: "Thank you. We have a reputation to maintain as a couple: Elaine Chao and Mitch McConnell have the highest standards when it comes to moral corruption."

b: "Don't you have anything positive to motivate you in any way?"

MMC: "Ummm... no. I'm 100% focused on blocking Joe Biden like I was to block Barack Obama."

b: "And you were ready to impeach Bill Clinton for something that was a thousand times less impeachable than what Trump did."

MMC: "The Trumpites think that the Clintons are dangerous, they even believe that Hillary eats babies! I'm proud of the fact that we got Bill and her testify for hours (all for nothing of course), while Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley and Co. can do and say whatever they fancy and get away without any hearing. Guess what: impeachment is not about justice. Everything is political. And with politics, I don't compromise. For instance, if Joe Biden wants to meet us halfway, it's not appropriate for us to help him achieve anything. Anyway we can't achieve anything with those Democrats. They're never ready to compromise."

b: "You've got some gall! John McCain would be so ashamed of you."

MMC: "If he were alive, he'd probably kick my fat bottom, and punch Lindsey Graham in the face. John knew me, so he couldn't have been disappointed. But Lindsey... going at Hunter Biden, selling his soul to Putin, to Russia... if I'm the undisputed king of all hypocrites, Linnie's the mother of all fallen angels."

b: "Is they...? Now the closest thing to a John McCain the GOP has in Congress could well be Adam Kinzinger, but he's not even a Senator..."

MMC: "Adam does have a big moral compass, indeed. Therefore, we'll have to get rid of him, just like we will with Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney."

b: "Wait. They're all Republicans. They are not your enemies."

MMC: "Of course they're not our enemies. But we don't care about the Democrats anymore - we've already fixed the next elections, remember? These rogue lawmakers are much more problematic because they make us look bad. They are conservative Republicans, and they always vote as conservative Republicans should, but that's not what we want now because it means that they can't vote for Trump or Qanon stuff, and we can't afford dissent on the very essence of our new platform. We can afford people like Elise Stefanik, people who, even if they have voted in favor of liberal issues before, are ready to sell their soul and kiss Trump's ring or whatever."

b: "And you're totally ok with your party being represented by a lunatic extremist like Marjorie Taylor Greene or a pedophile clown like Matt Gaetz."

MMC: "The Donald loves them, so we love them. Personally, I feel more comfortable with people who reflect our core values. For example, Ron DeSantis has corruption written all over this face, and you won't find a better nazi pit bull than Jim Jordan. The Donald loves them and I love them too."

b: "So why don't you invite KIM Jong-un to chair the GOP? The Donald loves him too, no? Wait... I know: you already proposed him, but he refused for some reason. Maybe because of the anti-Asian sentiment fueled by your boss and his friends."

MMC: "You're right. And you're wrong. He accepted. As Elaine often says, there's nothing Chinese money can't solve."

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Obstruction

The man in charge of the White House has yet to concede: yesterday, Vladimir Putin said that he would not recognize Joe Biden's victory until the Republican Party does. 

Of course, Republicans are too coward to state the obvious, and to acknowledge the elephant in the room (not a genuine elephant, purists would argue). Why would they do it now? They've let him cross every red line over the past four years, and they even managed not to remove him when the Constitution forced them to, by following the most obscene pseudo legal reasoning ever. Because of their lack of courage, over a quarter of a million US lives were lost. 

Will they move before December 14 and the electoral college vote? Before January 5 and the Georgia runoff elections? Before January 20 and Biden's inauguration? Before 2024 and Emperor Trump's Third Term?

Republicans are scared of a man who set a new record of votes for an incumbent POTUS (almost 74 millions so far). Even if he's been trounced fair and squared by a ticket that claimed 6M more votes, and an electoral college landslide. Even if they themselves fared much better than Donald Trump during these elections.

America has chosen Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to pivot from extremism and chaos to the center and order. Republican lawmakers have chosen to go down in History with a tandem of Obstructors in Chief that don't care one second about decency or their own legacy. Enough obstruction of justice, enough obstruction of democracy, enough obstruction of health, enough obstruction of truth. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell must go.

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Ending the Trump-McConnell Era

Donald Trump is focusing on 4 priorities to secure his reelection:

• delaying the upcoming downturn to after November 2020, even if it means destroying US competitiveness to achieve it 
• building the new sections of the wall he promised, even if US taxpayers pay for it, and double if you consider the fact that he's taking on other budgets to do it (triple if you consider the fact that he's slashing security and military budgets). 
• positioning Democrats as socialist extremists, even if some oblige by doing it by themselves (exhibit A: Bernie Sanders) 
• preventing key demographics from voting, through classic voter suppression techniques (e.g. gerrymandering) as well as through his own trademark methods (e.g. turning politics into a disgusting circus, scaring minorities away with threats of ICE raids)

For the moment, DJT seems on a much better track than in 2016. The question is: this time, how much will he be allowed to compensate a likely loss in popular vote with help from the outside through hacking or election meddling?

Until the elections, he will get the opportunity to score some wins (the wall? USMCA? China?), but risks keep piling up (collateral loan obligations? China? House commissions? post-Mueller lawsuits? Jim Mattis?)...


On a more direct electoral front, Trump is facing a different Democratic field:
- the business-as-usual candidate isn't a clear leader anymore: Joe Biden's lagging too much behind Hillary Clinton in too many ways, except maybe in his miserable skills as a presidential candidate.
- the natural liberal candidate of 2016 seems to be at long last claiming the spot she abandoned to Sanders because Hillary decided to run again: Elizabeth Warren is an energizing candidate, and embodies change much more convincingly than Bernie, who in contrast looks like an old don Quixote great at barking at windmills, but unable to get them produce anything. Sanders still has the power to crash the party if he chooses to linger once more.
- Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg seem to settle for Veep positions, but a lot can happen until IA-NH. Warren-Buttigieg? Biden-Harris? Warren-Harris could kick some serious ass.

One good news for the Democrats: if defeating Trump remains the common goal, his impeachment is now on a dedicated track, and key issues look much better separated and visible. The POTUS doesn't need anyone to draw spotlights on immigration or climate change (great idea, to invite fellow G7 members to watch Hurricane Doral from the front seat next Summer), but Mitch McConnell has at last become a prime target on issues as critical as gun control or SCOTUS nominations (mass shooting or Ruth Bader Ginsburg health scares unfortunately coming as recurring reminders). 

It is essential to target the Trump-McConnell duo, because winning doesn't stop at the White House. You need to reclaim the Senate, and to restore some dignity there as well.


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Dirt? "I'd take it"

Asked by George Stephanopoulos what he would do if Russia or China told him they had dirt on a political opponent, Donald Trump replied: 'I think I'd take it'. And when reminded that Christopher Wray told the Congress that in this situation, candidates should contact the FBI, he simply said 'the FBI director is wrong'.

When DJT says something is 'wrong', he's not talking moral compasses, but what doesn't follow his mobster principles.

'Russia! If you have dirt on Biden, tell me. I won't tell the FBI, as usual'

Donald Trump is 'right', because the GOP keeps following his mobster principles, putting him on the 'right' track to get reelected. GOP voters keep supporting him because GOP lawmakers keep enabling him, starting with the most corrupt of them all, Mitch McConnell, who not only confirmed his grand stand to block Obama's legitimate Supreme Court pick would not be applied should Trump face the same situation, but also had his state shamelessly benefit from his wife's work for the administration. Corrupt Elaine Chao. Corrupt Susan Collins, who pretends to defend women's rights, but gives the nod to Brett Kavanaugh, and countless anti-abortion judges.

DJT will be reelected if Democrats let Putin and Trump run the show, like they did in 2016. Feeding the narrrative that DNC primaries will oppose an ultra-radical, revolutionary, and an old conservative, and that only Trump represents change.

Which is true. Only not the change you want, if you care for democracy, human rights, the environment, healthcare...

Either you take a stand for decency, for democracy, for the values that make America great, or you let the worst enemies of America Make Amerika Great Again.

You want dirt? You'll get it.


blogules 2019
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Mueller Time: Trump is guilty, but I was not allowed to prosecute him

If we have yet to see the full Mueller Report, we can already confirm many elements. I'll list them just like I did after the infamous Barr 'Summary' (see "Muellerxit before more Easter Eggs?"):

- this may be a final report, but certainly not a conclusion: Mueller invites the Congress to dig further, and mentions 14 cases stemming from it, 12 of which have been masked by A.G. William Barr
- collusion: the Trump campaign sought help from Russians, and Russians proposed help to the Trump campaign, but at a legal level, a crime from Trump and his mob can't be established- obstruction of justice: Donald Trump has constantly been trying to obstruct justice, but most of the time failed, because people around him managed to prevent that. This also means that occasionally, he succeeded. Which is equivalent to say that he his guilty.
- so why did Mueller decide not to do the logical thing, and to prosecute Trump? only because of a controversial Office of Legal Counsel position stating that a sitting president can't prosecuted by the DoJ. Mueller mentions the possibility for the Congress to seek impeachment, or for the DoJ to wait for the end of Trump's immunity.

In other words: I think Trump is guilty, but I'm not allowed to prosecute him myself, yet the Congress has the power and the constitutional duty to investigate and consider impeachment. 

Expect Democrats to do just that, but in a highly explosive context:

- most people who prevented Trump from breaking the law have either been discarded or about to be purged, in the White House as well at the DoJ, with William Barr acting as Trump's personal attorney, instead of as the US Attorney General. Obstruction of justice has been beefed up by obstruction by justice!
- Trump propaganda and Barr's spin have already altered the public's perception of the whole investigation
- 2020 elections are tomorrow, and no GOP lawmaker seeking reelection is willing to fight Trump and thus certainly lose even their Republican primaries.

Bob Mueller's testimony in Congress will be the next big moment.

Beyond that, the following weeks and months will be crucial, particularly when and if we know more about the 12 cases Barr doesn't want us to see, but probably showed to his boss nonetheless.


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The Rule of Low

Reading Christine Blasey Ford's testimony was already convincing, but I don't think anyone who watched her deliver it believed one second that she was lying, including many Republican senators who will anyway vote to elevate Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. 

 In contrast, Kavanaugh exposed himself (!) as a shamelessly partisan judge with major anger management and alcohol issues, not to mention a total disrespect of fairness in justice.

This man should be not only totally disqualified for the SCOTUS, but challenged for his status as a judge altogether. Since he chose indecency, and refused to withdraw his candidacy, he deserves the fair and thourough investigation Ford was deprived by GOP Senators in the most outrageous process ever.

But no.

Even before Donald Trump officially ordered Senators to vote and confirm him, Republican members of the Committee went full throttle behind this disgraced judge, even dumping their 'female assistant' smokescreen to scream in unison with Kavanaugh the 'victim'. Because the only thing that matters for them seems to be making sure the Supreme Court will tilt to the wrong side of History, whatever the cost.

No one objects. Susan Collins just had to say it would be fair to investigate further, and to postpone the vote, but so far nothing.

It seems that Collins doesn't mind ruining her legacy, and remaining forever the betrayer who failed to stand for womens rights in America when they most needed it.

Unless Susan Collins rises to the challenge, and choses decency, the Supreme Court will be tainted even more than when Clarence Thomas joined it, decades before the words 'hashtag' and 'metoo' even existed.

Susan Collins met with Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski to decide how (whether) to vote. They brought on board Joe Manchin, one of the few Democrats able to confirm Kavanaugh to secure his reelection.

History is watching them mercilessly.

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Trump meets his maker, off the record

Unlike last month's Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki has been carefully prepared by the leader of America, who these days happens to be... not American:

Donimir Prump or Vladinald Trutin?

Before meeting his maker on July 16, Donald Trump will attend a NATO Summit starting July 11, and meet Queen Elisabeth II on July 13. And what just happened over the past few days?
- the POTUS undermining Putin's nemeses NSA, NATO and the EU, cornerstones of the Western alliance against Russia
- the POTUS defending Russia's annexation of Crimea as legitimate
- new cases of Novachok contamination in the UK, this time without the spy-vs-spy storyline, a convenient 'false no-flag' perfectly timed to torpedo the warnings Brits are bound to give DJT days before Helsinki
- the POTUS insisting on meeting Putin without US witnesses, raising many eyebrows (judging by how XI Jinping and KIM Jong-un played him last month*, how could he win his one-on-one with a supertrained KGB official?)

Now there is absolutely no doubt left about whom Trump is working for, and that's not the American people. We can also confirm that he's very much aware of the fact that he is helping Putin, even if it goes against the interests of his own country. What I'm not sure at this stage is whether he is doing it willingly and not just consciously, but I'm convinced that anyway, Vlad has dirt or kompromat on him (there's already so much of both all over the media).

This is not just about Trump's special weakness for dictators. He can be tough on Russia at times, but he never criticizes Putin.

This is personal.

Don needs to talk to Vlad off the record, and it won't be about the World Cup that ended the day before. 

We'll read declarations about this and that (including probably Syria), and once more, Trump will say that they talked about the 2016 elections, and that Putin is innocent, but 2018 elections will somehow on the agenda.

Trump is making sure no one interferes with the interference. Putin is still shaping the news, splitting democracies from the inside. Both must be happy to see Democrats fall in ideological traps, torn between an organization not yet purged from the Clinton era on one hand, and Independent-Scarecrow socialists like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the other, between reforming ICE and getting rid of it. If Maxine Waters didn't exist, Don and Vlad would have invented her.

Republicans, who have long imploded along ideological lines, face an even deeper crisis because they enabled and keep enabling Trump and Putin, with Mitch McConnell as America's Paul von Hindenburg.

Without that shameless weasel blocking Obama's Supreme Court pick, the nation wouldn't be this close to the abyss. Trump's nominee for Justice Kennedy's seat will be grilled on such issues as abortion or impeachment, but all will depend on the last GOP moderates willing to take a stand. 
The usual suspects have already made themselves heard: Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski said Roe v. Wade shouldn't be revoked.

And there's John McCain who, like Trump, had to take a fundamentalist running mate (Sarah Palin) to get his nomination. The war veteran recently confessed that he regretted that choice, and I expect him to defend his country till his last breath, particularly against Russia. 

I wouldn't be surprised to hear powerful messages from McCain and Robert Mueller on time to prevent Putin from winning these elections as well.


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 * I couldn't resist pulling, after "Donald Trump: "I never lie, I just invent my own truth"", another fake interview of DJT about that summit: "Trump: The Art of the Dealapidation (Exclusive Interview)".

'Boys with toys: Trump in cartoon being played by KIM Jong-un, XI Jinping, Putin... see a pattern?' (20180426 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/989314185338081282)

The nuclear option

Devin Nunes proves, once again with the help of Paul Ryan, that he would do anything to defend Donald Trump and torpedo the Russia Probe. And just like last year, his fellow GOP lawmakers seem ready to remain complicitly "speechless" (I seriously wonder how much kompromat Putin and his friends have on these guys).

This time, Nunes, who had to recuse himself from the case (a 'nothing burger' that already produced at least two guilty pleas from campaign members), wrote a dangerously misleading memo denounced by the very man Trump chose to replace James Comey: new FBI chief Christopher Wray warned the White House that this memo shouldn't be published. As if it weren't enough, Adam Schiff revealed that Nunes edited it without consulting the committee.

Like the POTUS he so desperately wants to protect, Devin Nunes acts guilty in a such blatant way it would be laughable if so much weren't at stake. US democracy is under attack, and Trump is seriously considering the mother of all diversions: preemptive strikes on North Korea. 

Victor Cha toyed with the concept (see "Alert!") before refusing to be the Ambassador in charge of evacuating tens of thousands of US citizens from the peninsula.

Let's be clear: there is no guarantee preemptive strikes would incapacitate Kim Jong-un's nuclear program, and there is no scenario where they wouldn't lead to mass destruction in Seoul and South Korea. We're talking hundreds of thousands if not millions of victims.

Normally, there shouldn't be any scenario where Nunes and Trump avoided impeachment. We know that Republicans won't lift a finger before mid-term elections, but the gimchi is expected to hit the fan long before that - White House hawks seem willing to strike after the Pyeongchang olympics.

Brace for a funeral March.


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Happy New Year 2019

It's that time of the year, and for the 21st time*, I have no choice but to wish you a happy next year, considering what's going to happen in 2018:

January 2018:
Full mailbox for Donald Trump on the morning of the 20th: 1 letter congratulating him for his first year in office (From Russia With Love, signed by The Former Spy Who Still Loves You), 457 letters of resignation from White House staffers who completed the full year required for their résumés, 3,580 letters of candidacy from child molesters with the required KKK kredentials.

February 2018:
As announced, the US wait until the end of the Pyeongchang Olympics to launch preemptive strikes against North Korea. The new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, 'apologizes' for not including the Paralympics: 'Our bad, but thanks to us, people with disabilities will have even more airtime'. If all targets are destroyed, they only represented a fraction of Kim Jong-un's arsenal, and Seoul is destroyed minutes after the first strike. By the end of the day, the whole peninsula is flattened. Hundreds of millions of Americans will only learn months later that, in retaliation, they've been poisoned by chemicals spread in their water systems by sleeping cells.

March 2018:

Science: the Russia Probe is successfully sent to Mars by the GOP Congress.

April 2018:
As asset bubbles keep popping, World Leaders convene in Moscow around a freshly reelected Vladimir Putin. Xi, Erdogan, Abe, Duterte, Modi, Trump, and their friends agree to focus on the reforms that should have remained their only priority: undermining their respective democracies. 

May 2018:
Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle dressed as a Minion, the mildest set she could find in his collection of Nazi uniforms, Stormtrooper gears, and Britain First Party costumes.

June 2018:
Saudi women are allowed to drive, but only driverless cars that are fully covered with an opaque burqa.

July 2018:
Not a single goal scored during the whole FIFA World Cup in Russia... an unexpected consequence of net neutrality.

August 2018:
From al Qaeda to ISIS to Idiotheocracy: the latest terror franchise to rise from the ashes of the precedent one has further dumbed down the message of fundamentalism to the most basic grunts, facilitating the merger with extremists from other religions. Their propaganda videos soon go viral among hardcore Teletubbies fans.

September 2018:
The POTUS realizes that trying to cast away investigations against him didn't work: Robert Mueller (from Mars), and Trump's victims of sexual harassment (from Venus) manage to revive the threats of impeachment. Looking for new diversions, DJT reveals the plans of the future US Embassy in East Jerusalem, inaugurates statues of the Klan Founders in the Rose Garden, and starts WWIV against Iran.

October 2018:
As soon as Theresa May resigns, the British Pound spikes to 312,788 Bitcoin, that's to say one millionth of a zimbabwean dollar, or the equivalent of half a second of work in North Korean slave wages.

November 2018:
Landslide victory for Mainstream Republicans at the mid-term elections: 'Our top donors kindly rewarded us for the generous tax cuts we offered them', triumphes Mitch McConnell. 'We're also glad that the GOP managed to end in the third position - we need all the votes of the Gropers Offshore Party'. The former Democratic Party also failed to reunite,  Progressives finishing a distant second, and the RNC fifth, far behind the Green Party, even after Hillary Clinton raised record funds for her Rhodam National Convention.

December 2018:
And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to... AlphaGo. The World's most powerful A.I. platform solved all conflicts, all famines, and all environmental and refugee crises by removing mankind.


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* see "Happy New Year 2010" (Jan 2009), "Happy New Year 2011" (Dec 2009), "Happy New Year 2012" (Dec 2010), "Happy New Year 2013" (Dec 2011), "Happy New Year 2014" (Dec 2012), "Happy New Year 2015" (Dec 2013), "Happy New Year 2016" (Dec 2014), "Happy New Year 2017" (Dec 2015), "Happy New Year 2018" (Dec 2016), "Happy New Year 2019" (Dec 2017)... and in French: "Bonne Année 2009" (Jan 2008), "Bonne Année 2010" (Dec 2008), "Bonne Année 2011" (Dec 2009), "Bonne Année 2012" (Dec 2010), "Bonne Année 2013" (Dec 2011), "Bonne Année 2014" (Dec 2012), "Bonne Année 2015" (Dec 2013), "Bonne Année 2016" (Dec 2014), "Bonne année 2017" (Dec 2015), "Bonne année 2018" (Dec 2016), "Bonne année 2019" (Dec 2017).

Politically Correct as in Post-Clinton

Donna Brazile's revelations* didn't come as a surprise. Everybody knew that the Clintons sank the party they helped reform a quarter of a century earlier. Well we knew for the political part, but the financial dimension is so much engrained in their fabric that this latest scandal makes perfect sense.

I don't feel sorry for Bernie Sanders, who would have lost anyway, but for a country that should never have lost its most vital institutions to its worst enemies.

I'm glad this comes out now. Not as a distraction to the Russia probe, but to silence Hillary, who hijacked the conversation thanks to her book tour, poisoning minds with the notion that the DNC remains totally under her spell. 

We badly need different voices. Obama yes, but only on rare occasions, and on essential issues. We don't need grandparents in the Pelosi - Biden - Sanders variety (if they're over 65, make them fun listening to, like Liz Warren or Al Franken - what a 2020 ticket!). We need fresh, new voices, like Kamala Harris, Chris Murphy, or better Deval Patrick, should he return to politics. And the Democratic Party must totally reform itself. Otherwise, the Barry Sanderses, Oprah Winfreys, or Mark Zuckerbergs will dance on its grave.

Can Al Franken draw the US electoral map as well?

Of course, same goes for Republicans, who must step into the post-Trump era before DJT destroys what's left of it. For the moment, the GOP's soul relies on a 81 year-old with brain cancer (John McCain), two senators on the way out (Jeff Flake with a better potential than filpflop Bob Corker), and the one cool guy who could change it all, Ben Sasse.


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* "Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC" - Politico 20171102 exceprts from her book

Speechless

Imagine just for one second the reaction of GOP lawmakers if we replaced in the news Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and Devin Nunes with Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Adam Schiff.

Everybody would chant 'lock'em up', and demand the immediate resignation / impeachment for agents of Putin and Russia who blatantly betray the nation. Instead, all Republicans but John McCain cower away, scared s..tless (beyond speechless) by The Bully In Chief, a Breitbart Attack, or the perspective of Alt-right Primaries.

Garry Kasparov nailed it best last week, mocking the way some fuel Trump's fake news on wiretapping instead of focusing on the outrageous case being investigated:

Garry Kasparov: 'The house is on fire, Trump is running around with a box of matches, and the GOP demands to know who called the fire department' (20170321)

With the help of Nunes, and the complicity of Paul Ryan and GOP representatives not ashamed one bit by their bruising Trumpcare fiasco, The Donald manages to survive yet another day.

Better: he keeps alienating moderates by pushing all the hardest buttons at the same time. What could you expect from a man who picked a racist for Justice (Jeff Sessions), a Russian agent for the NSA (Mike Flynn), or a climate change denier for the EPA (Scott Pruitt)?

Will the Senate intel committee fare any better? Richard Burr and Mark Warner seem a bit more serious about their investigation, and maybe GOP Senators want to send a message to their House friends: get your speech together if you want to make progress on any non hidden agenda.

In France, at least, things are getting a bit more transparent: on the nepotism side, Penelope Fillon has offically been charged, and on the mole side, Marine Le Pen has officially posed with Vladimir Putin himself.

blogules 2017
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)

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