The latest #thepete #podcast: #Trump as President Week 1

In this episode of #thepetepodcast, I try to get to the most important stuff in the dense-with-insanity first week of the #TrumpRegime, #TrumpAdministration, #TrumpPresidency, whatever you want to call it.

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Guy who pissed off the USG wanted for rape for all of 30 seconds, but we'll never hear the end of it

coalspeaker:

“WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “no longer wanted” and not a rape suspect, Swedish prosecutor says on website”

— Huh?? .. CNN headline .. Confusing day..

Confusing day? Confusing MORNING. That’s how fast this story broke and unbroke—for me, anyway.

I woke up to this story this morning and since I woke up early, I took a nap and when I woke up, the arrest warrant had been dropped.

This is one of those ridiculous stories that pops up, distracts the crap out of us for days or weeks and then goes away forever. Sure, it’s already obvious the charges had no connection to reality, but will that stop TV’s idiot-pundits and repulsive Republicans from casting aspersions on Assange for the next week or two just to give their True Believers something to be hateful of?

I always wonder about these sorts of “Flash in the Pan” “news” stories.  They always seem so incredibly concocted and contrived that I imagine they were completely planned in order to distract from some other story that someone doesn’t want getting out.  Sure, it’s just my imagination, but these stupid stories come up and even though they’re obviously useless, the Mainstream Media makes sure that they’ll distract us for several days.  What are we missing in the meantime?  Even if this Assange/rape story wasn’t cointelpro by the USG, the time lost to this story will cost other stories face time.  What if one of those other stories was really important?

Thanks to our wonderful newsmedia of shitheads, we may never know.

It’s not like this is the first time a story like this has come along, either.  Remember that time that creepy dude claimed to be the murderer of JonBennet Ramsey?  It was fodder for all the headlines for about a week.  If you believe the MSM, everyone wanted to hear about this transgendered guy in Asia who had suddenly decided to admit his guilt. Then, as quickly as he had appeared on the national scene, he was gone.

While I don’t imagine Assange will disappear as that creepy dude has, I believe these accusations will hang around for a week or two and then disappear—just long enough to serve as another useless distraction.

it’s like a pop-up on my computer asking me some irrelevant question I don’t really care about.

Why Glenn Beck should shut the fuck up about Tom Paine (hint: he felt all churches existed to enslave.)

contrararian:

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

—

Thomas Paine, Glenn Beck’s crush (via mohandasgandhi) (via savagemike) (via danielholter)

Sarah Palin Game Changer or Scandal Bringer? UPDATED

I'm a little confused about this blurb CNN put on their main page tonight about Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice for his VP running mate. CNN makes it sound like this woman is pristine and amazing--the only thing the Obama camp can say that is bad about her is that she's got no foreign policy experience--which is kind of a useless criticism since Obama doesn't have much more and McCain has scads more than either of them.

This might put the idea in people's heads that she really is, as the blurb suggests, a "game changer."

The truth seems to be that she's just like a lot of politicians--in trouble for ethics violations. I know--someone in politics under investigation? Incredible!

Well, it's true, and she is. Simply News-Googling for "Sarah Palin ethics investigation" led me to a bunch of articles about Palin's recent problems. The following tidbits about Sarah Palin's ethics investigation were reported at NYTimes.com:

A state ethics probe that was launched just a few weeks ago is already drawing attention in the opening moments of her debut as the Republican vice presidential pick is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

An independent investigator appointed by a panel of state legislators earlier this month is looking into whether Ms. Palin dismissed a top law enforcement official in her administration because he failed to fire a state trooper, Mike Wooten, who went through a messy divorce with Ms. Palin’s sister

Whoopsie.

Now, granted, to a campaign like McCain's, lying and firing for political or personal reasons is no big thing, but for those of us who still have morals, an investigation is an investigation. Sarah Palin may be adorable, but if she's being investigated she's probably not a good bet for a VP candidate right now. However, she's young--just 44 there's always 2012 if she's innocent of these charges.

Personally, I don't think this is a huge deal and while I do admit we don't live in an ideal world, surely, we can expect our potential leaders to not be under ethics investigations while running for one of the highest offices in the land.

Given McCain's habit of looking like he's copying the Bush Administration's behavior, he might try a little harder to find a running mate that has a spotless record, regardless of gender or ethnicity. Then again, this is the world of politics so maybe I am asking too much.

Still, I don't think it's right for CNN to completely ignore this investigation on it's home page--after all, most people probably aren't going to bother reading past the main page, so they'll never know the truth.

Hell, to me, McCain picking a woman is such an obvious stunt, anyway. It's like the Obama/Biden ticket has an old white guy and a minority, and now, so does the McCain/Palin ticket. By mirroring the demographics of his opponent, McCain is forcing people to make a gut decision based on race and/or gender. Now, the entire country will have to make the decision the Democrats just finished making:

Do I want a black guy or a woman in the White House?

I mean, come on, you don't really expect the majority of the American people to look past the surface issues, do you? If they did that, they'd realize how incredibly similar the two tickets are to each other. Then they might demand actual candidates that could deliver actual change.

Nobody wants that! Come on, John! What are you thinking?? You're going to ruin it for everyone!

Well, "everyone" except for the American People. We might have a chance to elect leaders who want to solve the actual problems we're facing.

UPDATE 8/30/08 1:50am: Seems someone feels the same way as me about Palin not being as pristine as she should be to run for VP--only this someone is on her side. According to an NPR report, it looks like the day before Palin was announced as McCain's VP pick, Palin's Wikipedia entry got whitewashed, making her look better than the previous article. Specifically, references to a beauty pageant and the above mentioned scandal were edited to be less prominent. Check out the story for more at NPR's website here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94118849

Hell, I didn't even know about the beauty pageant--I guess that's what that this picture was about.

Praise be to RichPav who Twittered about this the NPR story.