Temporarily Closed

DONN MARTEN HAS MOVED TO TITANIC BRASS

Donn Marten has moved over to titanicbrass.com. I have been doing this for a damned long time now and need a new place to hang my hat. That is why I started Titanic Brass and am in the process of transferring my stuff over there now - new material will be posted daily.

For the time being I have decided to write less about imperial evil, wars of aggression, the surveillance state, the economic rape of America by Wall Street and corporations and just focus on politics from a non-partisan and non-ideological standpoint. For those familiar with my work when I only wrote only from a progressive view you will probably be disappointed but the political system in this country is fucked and is never going back to anything that is remotely functional. The clown car is full to the brim and it is a totally bipartisan vehicle anymore.

I call it like I see it, disdain political correctness - which often got me into trouble with my more liberal friends - and there are no sacred cows. Whether we all agree with each other or not I have come to appreciate at least giving both sides a fair hearing because we are ALL being hosed by the same oligarchy.

The world will burn regardless of who gets elected in this grossly stupid and corrupt star-spangled lemming colony but we may as well just kick back and enjoy the fucking show because that is what it is.

It''s as the late, great George Carlin once so famously put it:

 'When you're born into this world, you're given a ticket to the freak show. If you're born in America you get a front row seat.'

Hope to see you all around, I'll be updating Twitter and other feeds as time permits.

The Beginning of the End for Trump? The Donald Signs RNC Loyalty Pledge

Hated insurgent Donald Trump has finally bowed to pressure and signed off on the Stalinist loyalty oath concocted by the Republican party establishment. The pledge was delivered to him by RNC boss Reince Priebus who was under mounting pressure by the big money donors to bring the bombastic billionaire outsider to heel. How the pledge will affect the Donald’s lead in the polls and whether it will give the green light for the entire stable of establishment candidates to go for his throat has yet to be seen. However, to those who ardently supported him due to his independent status, the agreement to not run as a third-party candidate and support the nominee – effectively surrendering his leverage –there has to be more than a bit of a feeling of betrayal.

Trump’s acceptance of the new rules of engagement are reported by CNN in the story “Donald Trump signs RNC loyalty pledge”:

Donald Trump has signed the pledge.

The Republican presidential front-runner met privately with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Thursday afternoon, and soon after, came out to the lobby of Trump Tower to declare that he has signed a loyalty pledge. This means Trump has promised to support the party's eventual nominee -- whoever that may be -- and that he will not run as a third-party candidate.

"The best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge," Trump said, holding up the paper. "So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and for the conservative principles for which it stands."

He added: "We will go out and fight hard, and we will win."

All 17 Republican presidential candidates have now pledged to support the GOP's eventual presidential nominee, Priebus announced Thursday evening in a statement, billing it as a sign of "party unity."

But if Trump's official declaration of allegiance to the party serves to calm the nerves of establishment Republicans -- at least for now -- it could also invite backlash from some of the bombastic candidate's die-hard supporters.

Trump has propelled himself to the top of the polls by casting himself as an anti-establishment, outsider candidate, railing against career politicians and the Washington political class.

Signing an RNC pledge complicates that image.

The enthusiasm that Trump brought to a large segment of the party base struck mortal terror into the hearts of Priebus and the elite who much like the Democrats with Queen Hillary had already decided on their 2016 standard bearer “Jeb!”. Now a lot of those folks are naturally going to feel that they have been sold out again with the memory of the Boehner-McConnell backstabbing of November 2014 still fresh in their minds. While the Trump public relations team talked it up as a victory it may soon prove to the moment when the wave crested and then began to recede as the establishment has reasserted control over the process.

I Pledge Allegiance to Jeb!: RNC to Introduce Loyalty Oath to Address Trump Problem

The Republican National Committee, under increasing pressure from the big money donors has now apparently decided to confront the Trump problem head on. According to multiple media sources the party power brokers have decided to implement a loyalty oath to be taken by every one of the seventeen candidates to swear to not mount an independent bid and to essentially pledge allegiance to Jeb!. The oath is the most serious effort yet to sink the renegade campaign of billionaire Donald Trump and get on with the business of forcing the Bush restoration down the throats of voters.

As reported by Politico “GOP Circulates Loyalty Pledge to Box Trump In”:

The GOP is taking its most aggressive step yet to force Donald Trump's hand.

The Republican National Committee on Wednesday privately reached out to GOP presidential candidates to ask whether they’d be willing to sign a pledge stating they would not run as an independent candidate in the event they fail to win the Republican nomination in 2016.

The move is an implicit challenge to Trump, who pointedly refused to rule out a third-party run during the first GOP debate. He was the only candidate who declined.

The language of the draft pledge speaks directly to the issue vexing Republicans – the possibility that the billionaire could choose to wage a third party bid if he fails to win the GOP nomination, a prospect that could seriously damage the GOP’s prospects of reclaiming the White House. Tapping into deep anti-establishment animosity among the conservative grassroots, Trump has surged to the lead of the deepest presidential field in recent memory. If Trump were to pull just a fraction of the vote as an independent, write-in or third party candidate, it could be enough to sink the eventual Republican nominee.

“I [name] affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the pledge reads. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

It is a damning indictment of our already dysfunctional democracy when it has come to the establishment demanding loyalty oaths to prevent any serious outsider from challenging the existing racket. According to some sources, Trump will agree to the demands of RNC boss Reince Priebus and the paymasters which would represent an enormous tactical blunder on his part. He may be leading the pack now, but signing off on such a deal would make it far easier for him to be Bushwhacked. There is an old saying that one should never give an enemy the knife that they will use to cut your throat with and by taking the pledge the Donald is doing exactly that.

Trump to Jeb!: If You’re In America Speak English

Responding to jellyfish Jeb! who has gone all negative this week and who blasted him to an adoring Miami audience en español, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump had a simple message: if you are in America you should be speaking English. While the establishment continues to bemoan the sullying of their entitled golden boy who represents the Bush restoration by a vulgarian the likes of Trump, El Jebbo is testing Newton’s law of gravity with his free fall in the polls. Perhaps his castigating of the Donald to a crowd peppered with those who are sympathetic to illegal aliens makes him feel like a man but he will continue to be flogged like a dog with mange by the insurgent billionaire.

Trump’s counterattack came during an exclusive interview with the conservative website Breitbart News and is detailed in the story “Donald Trump Fires Back at Jeb Bush: He Should Lead by ‘Speaking English’ While in the United States” from which I excerpt the following:

2016 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump told Breitbart News that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should be speaking English—not the Spanish he spoke to attack Trump in Miami this week—on the campaign trail.

Trump had harsh words for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in this interview as well and lit into the donor class, all while saying that the “silent majority” in America is waking up and fighting to take back the country from the political class.

Trump also predicted that he will not only win the White House in 2016, but that he will be re-elected in 2020–predicting he will be a two-term president–and that at the end of his eventual eight years in the White House he will be known to all as a “great conservative” just like Ronald Reagan.

“I like Jeb,” Trump said. “He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

Trump continues to pummel the former Sunshine State Governor who may be a “nice man” but he lacks the cojones of his older brother who could fuck up a two car funeral but never came across as a eunuch. It is pretty damned obvious that Columba is the one who wears the pants in the John Ellis Bush hacienda. Trump however saved some of his sharpest rhetoric for the neocon’s favorite cabana boy Marco Rubio who he referred to as “Jeb’s plebe”.

According to the Breitbart interview Trump said of ‘Lil Ricky:

“If Marco thinks that the country is great now, he’ll never be elected president because it’s not what it was and it’s not great enough—and we will make the country great again,” Trump said. “But if Marco is satisfied—I like Marco, but that means he’s satisfied. You can’t be satisfied [with where the country is now]. You have to use the word ‘again.’ It’s very important, because if he’s saying that, then that means there’s no room for improvement. That means he’s satisfied, that means he’s unelectable.”

Trump thinks that no matter who the establishment puts forward as the donor class candidate—whether it be Bush, or if Bush continues failing then Rubio, or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, for instance—that “they are all controlled” by the paymasters funding their campaigns.

“They are controlling the politicians—and I used to be one of those people, at the highest level, I was one of them,” Trump said. “Nobody knows the game better than I do. I think part of the reason I’m resonating with the public is that I don’t want money. I feel oftentimes foolish when people want to give me millions and millions of dollars that I’m turning them down. I feel foolish. I just hope the public appreciates what I’m doing.”

Trump said that the donor class paymasters who he says are controlling the politicians like Bush and Rubio “are looking to benefit themselves or their company, whereas I’m looking only to benefit the people of the United States.”

While giving both the master and the plebe a deserved thumping, it is Trump’s comments about the big donors who are the “paymasters” bankrolling the dynamic duo from Florida that should resonate. The high-rollers and wheeler-dealers who shovel money into the coffers of career politicians who have the morals of pederasts, whores and used car salesmen are going to want favors once their candidates get elected. Trump understands this because he was one of the guys shelling out the dough before he decided to run for the presidency.

It is a big reason why many Americans are snatching up pitchforks and joining the Trump revolution, they are sick of being dicked over by the professional liars and flim-flam men who lie to them every election cycle and then sell them out once the votes have been counted. Mr. Trump isn’t beholden to the “paymasters” which is why they are getting ready to go to war with him in September although with a feckless pussy like Jeb! leading the charge they stand a good chance of being slaughtered on the beach.

Bandito Bush Attacks El Diablo Donald Trump En Espanol

Looking to prove that he isn’t a spineless, whishy-washy marshmallow candidate, John Ellis Bush aka “Jeb!” has gone into attack mode against Donald Trump. Following the launching of a new negative advertising campaign, Bush V.3 made an appearance in heavily Hispanic Miami where he tore into the Donald en español. The big donors were getting restive about the inability of Jeb! to be running away with the Republican race despite his famous family brand name and must have put the cattle prod to his ass because he is now in full attack mode. When it comes to pandering to Latinos Bush has no peer with the exception of neocon favorite Marco Rubio, and he was preaching to the choir at the La Progresiva Presbyterian School on Tuesday.

As reported by the Washington Post in the story “Jeb Bush slams Donald Trump in Spanish over his ‘barbarities’”:

Jeb Bush is "en el ataque."

That's Spanish for "on the attack" -- and the former Florida governor certainly is, as he confronted and mocked businessman Donald Trump in English and Spanish on Tuesday.

Trump now enjoys a commanding lead over rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, while recent polls suggest that Bush is on a precipitous decline in Iowa -- where he sits in the single digits -- and in New Hampshire. A Granite State poll released on Tuesday showed Bush slipping into the single digits there for the first time.

The Bush campaign released a new 80-second Web video on Tuesday that strings together clips from interviews Trump has done over several decades that show him praising Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and voicing support for abortion rights, tax increases on wealthy Americans and the 2009 economic stimulus program.

After a town hall meeting at a Presbyterian school here, Bush explained his decision to go on the offensive, using explanations he's voiced before in English. But in Spanish, in response to questions from Spanish-speaking reporters, his tone and choice of words was sharper.

"He attacks me every day. He attacks me every day with barbarities," Bush said in Spanish in response to a question. "They’re not true. What we did today was to put out in his words to show that he’s not conservative. He supports people like Nancy Pelosi. He’s given money to Hillary Clinton. He was a Democrat longer than Republican. He’s said that he’s more comfortable being a Democrat. He doesn’t have a record, because he hasn’t been a person who has served like me, who served for eight years as governor. He’s not a conservative. That’s my point."

"He’s not conservative. He doesn’t have a career that you could say is conservative," Bush said later in Spanish.

But El Busho is hardly a “conservative” either. Rather he is just one more RINO who has hijacked the word conservatism as a vehicle for his own political ambitions and when it really comes down to it, the only substantive difference between himself and Hillary is a set of cojones. 

The Republican establishment seems to have settled on attacking Trump as not being a conservative and putting together clips of past statements to show that he is more closely aligned with Nancy Pelosi than Ronald Reagan. This is very hazardous because people do evolve in their views, hell Reagan himself was once a Democrat and even campaigned for Harry Truman and trashed Republicans. Focusing too much on Trump's past statements could not only alienate his supporters and force him into running as an independent but could ultimately attract those Democrats who would rather drink turpentine than line up behind Mrs. Clinton. It is playing with fire or as Jeb! would put it mucho caliente.

Whining Pays: Rules Changed for Fiorina to Make Debate as Knives are Out for Trump

Former Hewlett Packard CEO turned presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has successfully forced a rule change in order to qualify for the big stage for the upcoming Republican debate. Fiorina’s triumph is the result of her “going to war” with the RNC as well as the need for an establishment hellbent at destroying runaway leader Donald Trump on the stage in two weeks. It’s sad to say but CNN and the RNC have been bullied into using some of that affirmative action that most conservatives are vehemently opposed to and other than her ugly public whining campaign it was ultimately her vagina that facilitated the backtracking. 

Once the millions of dollars of anti-Donald advertising are launched into the airwaves like toxic sewage into a pristine body of water, it is incumbent upon those on stage to brutally pummel Trump in front of a huge national television audience. Carly will bring the misogyny club and will wield it like an avenging Valkyrie in order to bludgeon the billionaire outsider.

Politico reports on the flip-flop to accommodate Ms. Fiorina in the story “CNN changes debate criteria, clearing path for Fiorina”:

CNN announced on Tuesday that it has changed the criteria for its upcoming debate, making space for Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on the primetime stage.

Fiorina had argued for weeks that CNN's debate criteria unfairly weighted early field leaders over contenders like her who have polled better since the Fox News debate on Aug. 6.

According to CNN, any candidate who ranks in the top 10 between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10 will be included in the primetime debate on Sept. 16. Also allowed in the main show will be candidates who scored in the top 10 averages of all approved national polls between July 16 and Sept. 10, as the original criteria released in May stated. This means it is possible there will be more than 10 candidates on the primetime debate stage.

The new approach allows the network to avoid looking like it's favoring Fiorina at the expense of candidates such as Chris Christie and Rand Paul who would have been at risk of getting bumped to the earlier debate if CNN had more heavily weighted later polls, as Fiorina had suggested.

Still, CNN warned in an announcement that final podium placements won't be known until Sept. 10, after all national polls have come in.

"In the event that any candidate is polling in the top 10 in an average of approved national polls released between August 7th and September 10th, we will add those candidates to our top tier debate, even if those candidates did not poll in the top 10 in an average of approved national polls between July 16th and September 10th," CNN said in a statement. "We have discussed these changes with the Republican National Committee and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and they are fully supportive."

The horse-faced Fiorina was regaled by the mercenary media after her ‘winning’ of the “kid’s table” debate in Cleveland last month and has been a strident critic of Mr. Trump. While it is debatable as to whether being able to out talk six stammering stumblebums is really winning, her public relations team has worked hard to float the idea that she is a legitimate candidate for the presidency. 

The establishment is going to do everything in their power to turn the next debate into Trump’s Waterloo so changing the rules in the middle of the game isn’t even an issue. It should be one hell of a show though because Jeb! is blasting Trump in Spanish and Chris Christie has vowed to “go nuclear” onstage so be sure to have plenty of popcorn on hand for what will be an exercise in the same incivility that the establishment selectively decries.

Will Mitt Romney Ride In On a White Horse to Save GOP from Trump?

You just had to know that Mitt Romney wasn’t going to just piss off and go away gracefully. He didn’t just slink off into the sunset to a life of political exile and great material wealth after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2012 election and when he announced that he wasn’t running this time around it was hard to take him seriously. Now, just like that recurrent case of incurable herpes that can never be vanquished, the Mittster may be getting ready to re-enter the scene as the man on the white horse who will rescue the GOP establishment from the hated Donald Trump. There are reports that the deep-pocketed donors are less than thrilled with the current field and are practically down on their knees begging God that Romney will reconsider and carry the day since it is getting pretty clear that Jeb! is in way over his head.

Romney is said to be appalled at how Trump has rocketed to the lead in polls and like the typical elitist snob, thinks that the Donald is uncouth and unsuitable as the GOP nominee. According to a story from New York Magazine entitled “Romney Is Horrified by Trump — and That’s Restarting ‘Mitt 2016’ Talk”:

As Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential race, frustration and panic have become high enough to make some inside the party Establishment pine for a candidate they roundly rejected as recently as January: Mitt Romney. Romney himself has become one of Trump’s most vocal detractors inside the party. “He’s someone to whom civility means a lot. The whole Trump thing really bothers him,” a close Romney adviser told me — and some Romney-ites are only too happy to talk up the prospect of their man jumping into the race if the Establishment fails to stop Trump, whose support in Iowa and New Hampshire is currently greater than Jeb Bush's, Scott Walker's, Marco Rubio's, Chris Christie's, and John Kasich's combined.

“Mitt wants to run. He never stopped wanting to run,” a senior member of his 2012 team told me. Other Romney-ites, watching this cycle’s candidates falling short, feel a sense of vindication after all the attacks they endured after Romney's failed 2012 bid. "These guys like Walker and Perry, they were big deals in their states, but you get them onto the national stage and it's a different story," a former Romney adviser told me. "It's like they were in middle school, and now they're freshmen in high school and they're getting their faces slammed in the toilets."

Mitt is either an egomaniac or a lunatic who believes that he is the chosen one to fulfill the Mormon “White Horse Prophecy” but the man is driven by something. The establishment is going to spend millions of dollars in a shock and awe barrage of negative advertising against Trump in September in the hope that something can finally stop him even though he has survived several concerted attempts to take him down already. If the September media onslaught fails to mortally wound Trump and voters don’t start to warm up to John Ellis Bush, then Romney may be just the man to take on the varmint. 

It would almost be like a real life version of Clint Eastwood’s “Pale Rider” with Mitt as hired gun Marshal Stockburn being brought in to solve a problem for the wealthy town boss and anyone who saw the movie knows how well that turned out.

Establishment Jubilant as Ben Carson Ties Trump in Monmouth University Poll

The anti-Trump coalition finally has that one poll that they have been longing for where the Donald is not leading the GOP pack. They were likely exchanging high fives and fist bumping at RNC headquarters over the results of the Monmouth University poll that showed retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson - a favorite of Evangelical Christians - has tied the meddlesome billionaire outsider at 23 percent in the critical state of Iowa. The Monmouth poll will be flogged relentlessly by a mercenary media that is getting their marching orders and preparing to go all in on that post-Labor Day negative advertising onslaught that the establishment is hoping will finally slay Trumpzilla.

CNN is reporting that “Ben Carson ties Donald Trump in new Iowa poll”:

For the first time in more than a month, mogul Donald Trump is not leading the field in one of the first four nominating states in the Republican primary, according to a new poll.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has surged up in the pack to tie Trump in Iowa, Monmouth University found in a poll out Monday.

Trump and Carson are tied at 23%, according to the survey, making it the first time since July 26 that a poll in the first four states to select a Republican nominee did not find Trump substantially ahead of all other candidates.

Farther behind Trump and Carson were former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, at 10%; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 9%; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, at 7%; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 5%; Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, each at 4%; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, at 3%; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at 2%. No other candidates topped 1%.

The downside of the Monmouth U. poll is that golden boy Jeb! (aka John Ellis Bush) is pulling a horrid 5 percent and the neocon stooge Marco Rubio is at 4 percent. Despite the fact that Carson isn’t exactly the preferred choice of the elite he will be more malleable than Trump could ever be. If it can be pulled off and the token black candidate Carson can be pumped up and sold as the anti-establishment candidate, then he could easily be taken down by the pro-Bush forces because nice guys finish last. Swapping out Ben Carson for Trump as the choice of the conservative base is essentially a bait and switch and is a testament to how little esteem that the establishment snobs have for the intelligence of voters who they feel can be easily hornswoggled like they were last November.

But if anything has been established it is that Trump is extremely resilient and the coming blitzkrieg may just backfire and do so in a spectacular manner. Despite his being despised by the GOP leadership and the big money donors, he would hammer a wounded Hillary Clinton in the general election. That doesn’t seem to matter to the big shots and the thousands of operatives whose livelihoods depend on a squishy moderate getting the nomination. They would rather expend their energy trying to kneecap Trump and damn the collateral damage to the ultimate goal of a Republican taking up residence in the White House come January 2017. If the September media bombardment fails then the establishment may just try to pull a Mitt Romney out of their hat as a last ditch effort to keep the rabble from taking over their process.

Rand Paul Promises to Shut Down NSA Data Center if Elected President

Desperately trying to remain relevant as he sinks in the polls, the amazing shrinking candidate Rand Paul has vowed to close down that massive NSA data storage center in Utah if he becomes president. Paul has proven to be an enormous disappointment to many who saw in him someone who would take a stand to restore our lost civil liberties and reign in the American Stasi and the surveillance of millions of law-abiding Americans. At this point it is hard to believe anything that comes out of Senator Paul’s mouth because he has spent all of his once bountiful political capital by flip-flopping, compromising and engaging in acts of Clintonian triangulation to the point where it is hard to tell where he stands on anything anymore.

Paul’s comments were reported by the website The Inquisitr in the story “Rand Paul Promises to Shut Down NSA Data Center if He Becomes President”:

Republican Senator Rand Paul has been one of the few vocal critics of the U.S. government’s spying programs. He’s the only presidential candidate that has made NSA spying a central topic of their campaign.

NSA spying is so important to Rand that he’s promised to shut down the NSA data center if he becomes president. After he stops the indiscriminate collection of Americans’ data, he’ll convert the data center into a “Constitutional Center” where the Fourth Amendment will be studied.

“I’m on my way to the airport, but we decided to stop by the NSA facility in Utah. When I become President, we’ll convert it into a Constitutional Center to study the Fourth Amendment! Bulk data collection must end!”

Questions of whether the spying programs were unconstitutional have been swirling since 2013 when Edward Snowden made details about the programs public. Snowden is the NSA contractor who copied large amounts of classified documents onto a thumbdrive and leaked the information to journalists.

For those that are bothered by the NSA spying programs, Paul seems to be the only candidate that would work to stop it. For the Senator, it’s a major problem that affects virtually all Americans.

Last year, Paul filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. Paul hoped that his class-action lawsuit would bring the issue of bulk collection of phone records to the Supreme Court.

Paul also staged a filibuster to delay the renewing of the Patriot Act, which authorizes bulk data collection. He was only partially successful in his efforts. While Congress decided to let the Patriot Act expire, they replaced it will a very similar bill. The new bill, the USA Freedom Act, put a few more restrictions on how the government conducts its spying.

The federal government's snooping on Americans is indeed a travesty and a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment but it isn’t going away – especially after a federal appeals court just put the kibosh on a lawsuit brought against it's illegal spying on a technicality. The game is rigged and when it comes to controlling the NSA the horse has long since run off and it’s too late to close the barn door now. 

Talk is cheap, especially to Rand Paul who continues to be a disappointment to those who supported his father who was a man of deeply held principles unlike his flaky son with the hairdo that resembles Woodstock's nest. You can file this latest one of his promises under the moon is made out of green cheese category.

Republicans Caterwaul as Obama Renames Mount McKinley

The political correctness brigades haven’t been able to force the Washington Redskins to change their team nickname yet but now Mount McKinley is no more. To commemorate a visit to Alaska, Emperor Barack Obama has announced that he would be changing the name of America’s highest mountain from the one given to it in honor of the nation’s 25th president back to its traditional native name “Denali”. It marks the culmination of efforts by Alaskans to restore the original name and Obama will be treated like a god my many during his visit to the land of the midnight sun.

The Guardian provides detail on Obama’s surprise announcement “Barack Obama to give Mount McKinley back its Native American name” from which I excerpt:

Barack Obama has said he will be changing the name of the highest mountain in North America from Mount McKinley to Denali.

He announced that he will be returning the mountain’s traditional Alaskan native name on the eve of a presidential visit to Alaska.

Denali is an Athabascan word meaning “the high one”. The name has long been a sore spot for Alaskans, who have informally called the 6,200m high mountain Denali for years.

The mountain was more recently named after a former US president, William McKinley. There have been several efforts by Alaskan politicians to change it back to Denali but politicians from McKinley’s home state of Ohio have always opposed the move. Obama is citing the Interior Department’s authority to make the change.

The decision has brought praise from Alaska’s governor, Bill Walker, a Republican turned independent, and Republican elected officials, who more typically are critical of an administration they see as hostile to their state’s oil and gas interests.

“I’d like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honour, respect and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who led the fight for the name change in Congress.

Alas, it is just more of Obama’s pandering to harvest votes for the Democrats next year but it set off howls of outrage, especially in Ohio where President McKinley hailed from.

As reported by Politico in the story “GOP blasts Obama's Denali Name Change”:

Republicans are criticizing President Barack Obama's decision to rename the tallest mountain in the United States to Denali, after the peak bore the name of Republican President William McKinley for more than a century.

The outcry was particularly strong in Ohio, McKinley's home state.

House Speaker John Boehner, who has represented his Cincinnati-area district for more than two decades, decried the decision in a statement.

"McKinley served our country with distinction during the Civil War as a member of the Army. He made a difference for his constituents and his state as a member of the House of Representatives and as Governor of the great state of Ohio. And he led this nation to prosperity and victory in the Spanish-American War as the 25th President of the United States," the speaker said in the statement. "I’m deeply disappointed in this decision.”

While renaming a major landmark isn’t something that happens very often, it can’t be all bad if it pisses off the gutless orange-tinted juicer Boehner. The sob sister RINO Speaker of the House will be crying in his beer today as he curses Obama but you can bet your bottom dollar that they will soon kiss and make up in order to keep the federal government open later on in September.

With the entire country going to hell in a bucket you would think that Barry would have other priorities but he is determined to spend his last year or so in office doing his victory tour and poking his bony finger into the eye of opponents. Hell, it could always be worse – at least he didn’t name it after the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, just think of how Boehner's head would have exploded then.

Chris Christie Wants to Hire FEDEX CEO to Devise Immigrant Tracking System

Governor Flounder aka Chris Christie may be doomed as far as having any chance to win the 2016 GOP presidential nomination but that won’t stop him from spouting asinine nonsense. In an attempt to overcome his dismal poll numbers, the boss man from the Sopranos state is taking a whack at putting his own stamp on the illegal alien problem. Christie is proposing that a Federal Express style tracking system be implemented in order to keep tabs on foreign visitors and that a Chris Christie administration would contract devising the system out to FedEx CEO Fred Smith - likely at a steep cost to taxpayers. You have to hand it to the guy, he is great at pulling stuff out of his big fat ass that are the wet dreams of a totalitarian state and this system could be the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent leading to the tracking of far more folks than only the illegals.

As reported by CNN in the story “Christie: Track immigrants like FedEx packages”:

Chris Christie said Saturday that if elected president, he will track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages.

"I'm going to have Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months. Just come for three months to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and show these people," the New Jersey governor said at a town hall event here.

Christie added that while FedEx can track boxes, the U.S. can't track undocumented immigrants.

"You go online and at any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is," he said. "Yet we let people come into this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them."

Christie added, "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in and then when your time is up," he said. "However long your visa is, then we go get you and tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me, it's time to go.'"

Smith is the father of Samantha Smith, a Christie spokeswoman.

Governor Christie doesn’t bother to mention how he would implement his brilliant system on the millions of illegal aliens and their relatives who are already in the U.S.A. thanks to the failure to secure our porous southern border. What this scheme would more likely lead to is a tracking system that would be a failure when it comes to illegal aliens but would work like a charm when it comes to the federal government keeping tabs on millions of law-abiding American citizens and especially political dissidents.

Just look at how the NSA’s anti-terrorist programs got out of control and have been used to monitor the phone calls, internet activity and financial transactions of American citizens who have never done one damned thing wrong. The terrorists (or in this case immigrants) will end up being the last priority when something like this is rolled out. God forbid, this could even be the beginning of a debate leading to the implanting of microchips into people so that the government can be sure that they aren’t engaging in political activism or behavior deemed to be critical to the establishment.

National security is the last refuge of a scoundrel and Christie, the very definition of a big government loving fascist pig is going to whip up a sense of fear and dread to make a last ditch effort to close the distance between himself and Donald Trump. Pardon the pun but fat chance.

Scott Walker Advocates Canadian Border Wall

Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican race has exposed his competition as a gaggle of not ready for prime time players. With the Donald soaring in the polls and on the cusp of gaining a stranglehold on the 2016 GOP nomination, the rest of the pack has been turned into stammering stumblebums who are having a very serious problem when it comes to going off script. 

The latest victim of Donald Trump derangement syndrome is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the union slayer and early winner of the lottery for the Koch Brothers campaign funding, and his self-immolation is getting uglier by the day. Walker hit the Sunday morning McNews show circuit and in attempting to out Trump the Donald seemed to advocate for the building of a border wall between the United States and Canada.

Walker’s comments were made during an interview on NBC’s Press the Meat (aka Meet the Press) and are reported by CNN in the story “Scott Walker: U.S.-Canada wall a 'legitimate' idea”:

It's not just the southern border: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says it's "legitimate" to discuss building a wall separating the United States from Canada, as well.

The Republican presidential contender said the idea of a northern border has come up while he has campaigned in New Hampshire.

In an interview for NBC's "Meet the Press" available online, Walker said his tough talk to securing the borders and enforcing U.S. laws extends to the 5,525-mile Canadian border as well.

It's a shift from most campaign-trail rhetoric, which has focused on the United States' border with Mexico, where millions undocumented immigrants have entered the country.

"Some people have asked us about that in New Hampshire," Walker said. "They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at."

Terrorist attacks have been plotted in Canada -- including the so-called "Millennium plot," a foiled 2000 plan in which an Algerian national planned to cross into the United States from Canada and bomb the Los Angeles International Airport.

Walker has focused his immigration remarks on enforcing U.S. laws already on the books in recent weeks.

There must be much consternation going on over at Koch Industries right now, Trump is poaching talent and Walker can’t stop saying dumb things as he tries to close the gap now that he is trailing in Iowa, a state that he presumably had locked down. There is also that thing about using $250 million in taxpayer funds to pay for a new arena for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks that reeks of crony capitalism. Now Walker is invoking the terrorist bogeyman to float the idea of what would be an extremely costly northern wall along the Canadian border that does zilch to address the millions of illegal aliens coming up from Mexico to take jobs, drop anchor babies and commit crimes. Trump should have a heyday with this.

This dude is either dumber than a bucket of shit - my suspicion - or he is getting some very, very bad advice from his staff. While Walker can’t be called out as a RINO like Jeb! and so many of the rest of the field, he is going end up as road kill run over by the Trump express just like the others unless he gets a clue and gets it quickly. Charles and David Koch must be pulling their hair out as they watch their longtime investment go up like a flaming bag of dogshit before their eyes. 

TSA Gestapo Goon Fired After Airport Bathroom Molestation Incident

One of the more disgusting aspects of the transformation of this once great country into a fascist banana republic is the presence of government goons in the nation’s airports as was typically customary for a Soviet bloc satellite. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is another one of the blights on America that grew out of the 9/11 attacks which were exploited by those both within the government seeking more control as well as outsiders who saw their opportunity to cynically cash in big time off of the deaths of over 3,000 people. The TSA is a combination of the two as Leviathan was able to capitalize on the fear that gripped this country to put checkpoints in our nation’s airports and the agency was an easy target for corporations looking to rip off taxpayers for things like those failed naked body scanners.

But the worst aspect of the TSA were the uniformed thugs who were given carte blanche to use their newly found authority to humiliate hapless passengers, steal personal items, make old ladies take off their medical diapers and engage in acts of a sexual nature that would have others not in the employ of the federal government thrown in jail. The TSA has continued to be haunted by the actions of those who abused their positions to fondle women and children and it has now happened again, this time at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport where a screener was fired for sexually assaulting a 22 year old Korean student in a bathroom.

Reuters reports on the incident in the story “New York TSA Agent Charged With Molesting Traveler in Bogus Search”:

A Transportation Security Administration agent at New York's LaGuardia Airport was arrested after being accused of luring a woman to an airport bathroom under the pretense of a security search and molesting her, authorities said on Friday.

The suspect, identified by officials as Maxie Oquendo, 40, was wearing a TSA uniform when he brought the 22-year-old traveler to an upstairs bathroom and molested her on Tuesday night, according to Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"Supposedly he took her into another area using his official position, being in uniform, and she thought it was a part of his official duty," Pentangelo said.

Port Authority police arrested Oquendo on Thursday on charges of forcible touching, official misconduct and unlawful imprisonment, he said.

Oquendo has since been fired by the Transportation Security Administration, officials said on Friday.

An attorney for Oquendo could not be immediately identified.

"TSA is working in close partnership with the Port Authority Police Department in support of this investigation," TSA administrator Peter Neffenger said in a statement.

Mr. Oquendo is another one of those glorified door-shakers who typically work as low wage security guards because their wannabe cop fantasy just doesn’t play out but who were able to find employment with the government as members of the airport goon squads. He now is going to be made an example of for his indiscretion in picking the wrong passenger to grope, given his long tenure with TSA she is probably not the first young girl (or boy) that he felt up either.

New York City’s WABC TV reports that the local DA is looking to make sure that Oquendo doesn’t slither off the hook because he happed to work for the feds:

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown on Friday announced Oquendo's arrest on charges of second-degree unlawful imprisonment, official misconduct, third-degree sexual abuse and second-degree harassment.

"The defendant is accused of an egregious abuse of his position as a government screener at LaGuardia Airport to sexually victimize a young woman," Brown said. "Such alleged conduct cannot, under any circumstances, go unpunished."

If convicted, Oquendo faces up to one year in jail.

Jail would be a very good place for this dude who needs to see what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a body cavity search for a change.