Video proof that Donald Trump knows nothing about American election systems.

Anyone who believes that Donald Trump is actually an expert on voting by mail, or voting in person, or voting at all, should watch this video of a very short-tempered Trump voting in person (or attempting to vote in person) at various locations on the Upper East Side of New York in November 2004 ... with a camera crew and Billy Bush (of Access Hollywood tape infamy) at his side. While he does finally vote (or at least fill out a provisional ballot) by the end of the video, this still doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about his knowledge and familiarity with the mechanics of the process that he is now questioning every day as we approach the 2020 election (just as he had prior to the 2016 election when he believed he was going to lose).

The frame of this video is interesting too. Billy Bush and his co-host Kit Hoover are in the Access Hollywood studio on election day of 2012 looking back at Donald's antics of 2004 and giving an update about Donald's current (2012) racist attempt to get Barack Obama to release his college transcripts and passport documents.

"Your vote is one vote. His vote is a GIANT vote." --Billy Bush, Election Day 2004

______________________

NOTE:

An earlier version of this was posted here on the True Blue Liberal blog on October 21, 2016, because plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose in Trumpworld.

Rick Perry to become Secretary of Oops in the Trump Administration?

According to some reports (this link is from the CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas), Rick Perry is being considered for the positions of Secretary of Defense or Secretary of Energy.

The most famous moment of Rick Perry's 2012 campaign for the White House (before he started wearing eyeglasses to make himself look more intelligent) came at the November 9, 2011, CNBC Republican debate when he attempted to list the three cabinet departments that a President Perry would eliminate. They were the departments of "Commerce, Education and the unh ... and unh, what's the third one there?" He couldn't remember his own proposal to do away with the Department of Energy.



RICK PERRY: But the fact of the matter is we better have a plan in place that Americans can get their hands around. And that's a reason my flat tax is the only one of all of the folks -- these good folks on the stage -- it balances the budget in 2020. It does the things to the regulatory climate that has to happen. And I will tell you, it's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the unh ... unh what's the third one there? Let's see.
RON PAUL: You need five.
PERRY: Oh, five, OK. So Commerce, Education, and the.. unh unh unh
MITT ROMNEY: EPA?
PERRY: EPA, there you go.
JOHN HARWOOD: Seriously, is the EPA the one you were talking about?
PERRY: No, sir, no, sir. We were talking about the unh agencies of government -- the EPA needs to be rebuilt. There's no doubt about that.
HARWOOD: But you can't -- but you can't name the third one?
PERRY: The third agency of government I would -- I would do away with, Education, unh the unh ...
ROMNEY: Commerce.
PERRY: Commerce and, let's see. I can't. The third. I'm sorry ... Oops.

Bill & Don's Excellent Adventure in Voting

Back on August 13, I asked here, "Is there any proof that Donald Trump ever voted (before voting for himself)?" There were real reasons two months ago that I had to bring his familiarity with the process into question.

This morning, however, I stumbled on this video of a very short-tempered Donald himself actually voting (or attempting to vote) at various locations on the Upper East Side in November 2004 ... with a camera crew and the notorious Billy Bush at his side. While he does finally vote (or at least fill out a provisional ballot) by the end of the video, this still doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about his knowledge and familiarity with the mechanics of the process that he is now loudly questioning.

The frame of this video is interesting too. Billy Bush and his co-host Kit Hoover at Access Hollywood are in the studio on election day of 2012 looking back at Donald's antics of 2004 and giving an update about Donald's current (2012) racist attempt to get Barack Obama to release his college transcripts and passport documents.

"Your vote is one vote. His vote is a GIANT vote." --Billy Bush, Election Day 2004

I don't want to get all braggadocious*, but...

I saw the following favoriting of a tweet show up in my Twitter notifications today and I was a little bit confused, because I did not remember responding to a tweet of @realDonaldTrump's about Hurricane Matthew currently off the coast of Florida.

@realDonaldTrump Really?? You are now officially the worst human being now living on the planet. Congratulations on your victory.

— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) October 30, 2012

It took me a moment to note the 2012 date and realize that this was my response to Donald Trump using Hurricane Sandy as his reason for extending his racist call for President Obama's college and passport documents. Again, not to be all trumpy and braggadocious* about it, but I'd like to pat myself on my own back for pointing out that Donald Trump was "the worst human being now living on the planet" four years before that simple truth became a universally-acknowledged fact.



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*

Your Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina Veepstakes Anagram of the Day

During the 2012 election, this blog ran a number of Veepstakes anagrams tying Mitt Romney to various potential running mates (Christie, Pawlenty, Santorum, and others) until he picked Paul Ryan and we ended up with "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan = My Ultimate Ayn Rand Porn."

This year we have the strange situation of an obvious GOP loser picking another obvious GOP loser as his running mate long before the GOP convention has a chance to declare them the official losers, so here's our one chance to honor Ted and Carly with an Veepstakes anagram of their own.

Congratulations. May your Crazy Rancid Life Tour run forever.

Time for Dave to Rescind this "Apology" to Trump?

Is it time for David Letterman to repeal this half-assed 2012 apology to Donald Trump for having called him a racist on an earlier show?



In case you're wondering why David Letterman had called the slumlord dope a racist, it goes back to Trump questioning President Obama's intelligence:

 "I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?... I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records." -- Donald Trump, April 25, 2011

The insinuation plays into some of the deepest and most common racist resentments -- that somehow a less-intelligent black man was given the place at Columbia University and Harvard Law School that could have gone to a more deserving white right-wing nutjob or a rich child using the more traditional forms of affirmative action known as nepotism and family ties to grease his or her easy path through Yale University and Harvard Business School, or Wharton.

"My point is, it's all fun, it's all a circus, it's all a rodeo, until it starts to smack of racism, and then it's no longer fun." David Letterman on Donald Trump April 28, 2011.  

The quote comes at the 1'30" point in the video up above, but watch the whole thing to see how Letterman won't let Dr. Phil jokingly let his friend Donald off the hook. "If he comes back on this show -- and I'm not sure we want him back on the show under those circumstances -- he ought to be prepared to apologize ... ought to be prepared to apologize just for that kind of behavior."

Speaking of apologies now in 2016, it's time for David Letterman to rescind his "apology" to Donald Trump in 2012, even if it was glib and obviously insincere.

Today's Bible Verse for Willard "Mitt" Romney and Donald "J." Trump

As long as taxes, their routine avoidance by rich American businessmen, and hidden tax returns are back in the news, this quotation from the Gospel of Mark seemed to be the appropriate True Blue Liberal bible lesson for the day.

Mark 11:13 And they send unto him certaine of the Pharises, and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
14 And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man : for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawfull to give tribute to Cesar, or not?

15 Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he knowing their hypocrisie, said unto them, Why tempt yee mee? Bring me a penny, that I may see it.

16 And they brought it : and he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Cesars.

17 And Jesus answering, said unto them, Render to Cesar the things that are Cesars : and to God the things that are Gods. And they marvailed at him.

This is taken, of course, from the 1611 King James Version, known here at trueblueliberal.org as "The Real Bible For Real Christians."

#MittsMissingReturns Redux

Trump Endorsing Romney.
Las Vegas, 2 February 2012

I don't feel I need to add anything to this, but Willard "Mitt" Romney, the last uberrich Republican businessman who ran for the White House while going to great lengths to hide his tax returns, is now asking the current uberrich Republican front-runner to come clean on his taxes:

"We have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes [...] I think there's something there. Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay. Or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or the disabled, like he's been telling us he's been doing."

You don't need an essay from me on irony, do you? All I want to add is to suggest that you review some of the many classic 2012 installments in the #MittsMissingReturns saga that appeared here on True Blue Liberal Dot Org:

• #MittsMissingReturns [part one], July 3, 2012 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Two), July 6 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Three),  July 10
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Four) -- In a Nutshell, July 14 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Five) -- In Which Mitt Romney Gives a Typically Squirrelly Response, July 16
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Six) -- Herman Cain Weighs In, July 25
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Seven) -- Romney Finds One Issue on Which He's 100% Consistent, July 26
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eight) -- Another Lesson in Mitt's Lying Laugh, July 31
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Nine) -- Mitt Romney vs. Harry Reid, August 4
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Ten) -- In which Paul Ryan makes Mitt Romney throw up in his mouth a little, August 13
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eleven) -- Fox & CNN are ready to move on already, August 15
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Twelve) -- In which the privileged candidate tells the small-minded press which questions they are allowed to ask, August 16 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Thirteen) -- Romney may not know how to treat a dog, but he knows how to blow a dog whistle, August 24
• #MittsMissingReturn (Part Fourteen) -- False Equivalency from The Wall Street Journal, August 30
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Fifteen) -- The Donald's "Major Announcement," October 24, 2012

Expect a crescendo of Coulrophobia in the United States as we approach 2016

Bart Simpson is referring, of course, to Newt
Gingrich (2012) or Chris Christie (2016).

Smithsonian.com has an article out today on "The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary". 

They somehow managed to publish three pages on the common fear of clowns, coulrophobia, while amazingly neglecting to mention the terrifying GOP Clown Circus of 2012 or its upcoming 2016 sequel, which will be in full swing very soon.

Is "Liberal" Finally Being Removed From the List of Words That Must Be Bleeped?

The Gaspin' Flag for commemorating the 2012 Total Collapse of Teaparty (#TCOT)

Just call me Betsy Ross for my alterations to the infamous yellow snake teabag flag...

The official "Gaspin' Flag", which will soon be flying over Total Collapse of
Teaparty (#TCOT) memorial service barbecues throughout the red states.

Please feel free to use and share this variation on the old Gadsden flag that the teabaggers appropriated during their headlong rush to irrelevance.

Tomorrow is Today

“Tomorrow, we begin a new tomorrow. Tomorrow, we begin a better tomorrow. This nation is going to begin to change for the better tomorrow. … We can begin a better tomorrow tomorrow, and with the help of the people in Florida, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
-- Mitt Romney, yesterday in Sanford, Florida (not in coordination with Stephen Colbert or Colbert's "Americans for a Better Tomorrow Tomorrow" Super PAC)

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
--William Shakespeare, The Scottish Play

Vote today as if it does signify something.

Another Must-See Hurricane Sandy Video

Here's another essential video from Hurricane Sandy. I'm sure that we'd be doing much better if we had Mitt Romney's privatized Federal Emergency Management Agency working on a profit motive starting the clean-up later this week, wouldn't we?


This performance from a (pre-Etch-a-Sketch) man who would be President took place at one of the early Clown Circus performances in New Hampshire on June 13, 2011. This asshole has been on our television sets for much too long. The American voters cannot be stupid enough to keep him in the public eye for four more years, can they?

The One Hurricane Video You Must See...

I'm sitting at home with my office and mass transit closed in advance of Hurricane Sandy's arrival in the New York area later today. I haven't had any trees come down on my power or cable lines yet, so I have the opportunity to watch a lot of daytime television, with non-stop storm updates on WABC, WNBC, and WCBS. There are the predictable number of weatherpeople in suits predicting storm tracks in front of satellite maps and field reporters in raincoats standing on boardwalks in Long Beach, NY and Long Branch, NJ, but the number of mentions of the possible role of climate change in relation to these storms I've heard is the same as the number of mentions of climate change I heard during the Presidential debates: Zero.
Both sides need to be criticized for sacrificing the environment on the altar of low gas prices, but no one (especially those soon to be affected by record storm surges) should forget how one of the candidates milked sea level rise for laughs during his convention speech:

Worse than the words are the way that Mitt Romney waits for the laughs and jeers from his audience of well-heeled white "Job Creators" (one of whom may be the next crony looking for a cushy job running FEMA, or dismantling the EPA, in a Romney administration).

#MittsMissingReturns (Part Fifteen) -- The Donald's "Major Announcement"

Donald Trump's "major announcement" has been the subject of twittering speculation this week, and now he's announced his major announcement on YouTube and Facebook. If you can't stand his voice, the gist of the following video is basically this: If President Obama releases all of his college applications and records and passport applications and records by October 31, America's self-anointed Birtherist-in-Chief Donald J. Trump will donate $5 million dollars to a charity of the President's choice.




Of course this is as meaningless -- and as racist -- as the campaign for the "long-form birth certificate."

How much is Donald Trump offering to Willard "Mitt" Romney to release as many years of tax returns as Barack Obama has released? What if The Donald offers Willard one million for one year? He won't. And we won't even see 2009, let alone any tax returns from any of Mitt's years in the private sector. The press is playing dead and it's obvious that the richest man to ever run for the Presidency is going to give us the least financial information, even though his financial expertise is supposedly his main qualification for the office (Slogan: "Elect Me for My Business Experience, but My Business Experience Is None of Your Business."). Maybe Mitt's plan involves cheating America back to prosperity.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Review this past list of installments in the #MittsMissingReturns saga by clicking on any of these links:

• #MittsMissingReturns [part one], July 3 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Two), July 6 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Three),  July 10
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Four) -- In a Nutshell, July 14 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Five) -- In Which Mitt Romney Gives a Typically Squirrelly Response, July 16
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Six) -- Herman Cain Weighs In, July 25
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Seven) -- Romney Finds One Issue on Which He's 100% Consistent, July 26
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eight) -- Another Lesson in Mitt's Lying Laugh, July 31
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Nine) -- Mitt Romney vs. Harry Reid, August 4
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Ten) -- In which Paul Ryan makes Mitt Romney throw up in his mouth a little, August 13
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Eleven) -- Fox & CNN are ready to move on already, August 15
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Twelve) -- In which the privileged candidate tells the small-minded press which questions they are allowed to ask, August 16 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Thirteen) -- Romney may not know how to treat a dog, but he knows how to blow a dog whistle, August 24
• #MittsMissingReturn (Part Fourteen) -- False Equivalency from The Wall Street Journal, August 30

And keep up your small-minded tweeting with #MittsMissingReturns on Twitter.

With the Debates Over, The Task Is Clear

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-vote-obama-90/

Mitt Romney's Escalating War on Avian Americans

Debate #1, Denver Colorado, October 3:

"I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you [Jim Lehrer] too. But I’m not going to -- I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it. That’s number one."

Debate #2, Hempstead New York, October 16:

"The administration brought a criminal action against the people drilling up there for oil, this massive new resource we have. And what was the cost? Twenty or 25 birds were killed, and they brought out a migratory bird act to go after them on a criminal basis." 

Which bird(s) will Mitt Romney attack in Debate #3 next Monday?

It makes you wish that famous flock of crows in The Birds would make an appearance.

"The Liars" by Carl Sandburg

"The Day Carl Sandburg Died" is playing on American Masters on PBS tonight. Yevgeny Yevtushenko was just reading part of The Liars. Here it is in full, as relevant today as it was when written in March 1919:

The Liars
Carl Sandburg

A LIAR goes in fine clothes.
A liar goes in rags.
A liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
A liar is a liar and lives on the lies he tells and dies in a life of lies.
And the stonecutters earn a living—with lies—on the tombs of liars.

A liar looks ’em in the eye
And lies to a woman,
Lies to a man, a pal, a child, a fool.
And he is an old liar; we know him many years back.

A liar lies to nations.
A liar lies to the people.
A liar takes the blood of the people
And drinks this blood with a laugh and a lie,
A laugh in his neck,
A lie in his mouth.
And this liar is an old one; we know him many years.
He is straight as a dog’s hind leg.
He is straight as a corkscrew.
He is white as a black cat’s foot at midnight.

The tongue of a man is tied on this,
On the liar who lies to nations,
The liar who lies to the people.
The tongue of a man is tied on this
And ends: To hell with ’em all.
To hell with ’em all.

It’s a song hard as a riveter’s hammer,
Hard as the sleep of a crummy hobo,
Hard as the sleep of a lousy doughboy,
Twisted as a shell-shock idiot’s gibber.

The liars met where the doors were locked.
They said to each other: Now for war.
The liars fixed it and told ’em: Go.

Across their tables they fixed it up,
Behind their doors away from the mob.
And the guns did a job that nicked off millions.
The guns blew seven million off the map,
The guns sent seven million west.
Seven million shoving up the daisies.
Across their tables they fixed it up,
The liars who lie to nations.

And now
Out of the butcher’s job
And the boneyard junk the maggots have cleaned,
Where the jaws of skulls tell the jokes of war ghosts,
Out of this they are calling now: Let’s go back where we were.
Let us run the world again, us, us.

Where the doors are locked the liars say: Wait and we’ll cash in again.

So I hear The People talk.
I hear them tell each other:
Let the strong men be ready.
Let the strong men watch.
Let your wrists be cool and your head clear.
Let the liars get their finish,
The liars and their waiting game, waiting a day again
To open the doors and tell us: War! get out to your war again.

So I hear The People tell each other:
Look at to-day and to-morrow.
Fix this clock that nicks off millions
When The Liars say it’s time.
Take things in your own hands.
To hell with ’em all,
The liars who lie to nations,
The liars who lie to The People. 

Poor Wittle Mittens Needs a New Theme Song

I suggest Jelly Roll Morton's "Whinin' Boy Blues" (performed here by Jorma Kaukonen):

In case you missed it here's one of the latest examples of Poor Little Mittens whining that Big Bad Barack is making his inevitable ride to the White House on his White Horse unnecessarily difficult: "Romney Blames Obama for His Campaign Challenges" in the New York Times Caucus Blog.

Our Military Needs Your Fiver!

There used to be a poster back in the Vietnam years (known to Mitt Romney and the "Parisian Sightseeing Boat Veterans for Truth" as the years of French hell when Mitt could find neither good Velveeta nor real Wonder Bread!) that said something like, "What if Schools Had All the Money They Need and the Air Force Had to Hold a Bake Sale to Buy Bombers?"  Maybe that great day has finally come. Mitt Romney is asking us to give $5 to the military, but he doesn't seem to be promising us a homemade cupcake from Ann Romney's kitchen, so I say No Deal!

A Romney ad that appeared on my Rutgers Football blog earlier today.