Breaking: Trump White House Trolls for "Obamacare Disaster Stories"

I've gotten a lot of emails from The White House. The Obama White House, mostly. But apparently, Cheetolini must've inherited the mailing list. And just minutes ago, he used it to push out the most hyper-partisan, push-poll-feeling email I've ever gotten from that source.

"Share Your Obamacare Disaster Story"


That's the subject line. Isn't that nice? It assumes that you have such a story. Or, that if you have an Obamacare story, it must be a disaster. Or, more likely, that they only want stories from people who consider it a disaster. And here, ladies and germs, is a primo example of how the Trump White House differs from Obama's.

Firstly, the Obama version wouldn't have been so ham-handed and obvious about the desire to get only one sort of response. But secondly, the Obama team would have wanted examples of all types. They'd want to know if you have had good experiences or bad experiences. They did so. They helped people who were having difficulties and obstacles with that plan, and other issues. Not Trump! Tell me how awful it is!

In truth, clearly, this is about bolstering the need for (Please Don't Call It) TrumpCare. Trump's claims that it would cover everyone regardless of income, and that it would be cheaper and better are. Not. True. But in Trumpland, that's a minor detail. His followers have been remarkably willing to give him massive latitude on the exact wording of his promises. They will on this as well. And if you give them a few juicy stories to repeat ad nauseam for the next 8 years? Even better.

The letter:

---

Obamacare has been a complete failure since the beginning, and things are only getting worse.

Today, President Donald J. Trump held a listening session to hear directly from Americans who have experienced significant hardship as a result of Obamacare's poor coverage and rising prices.

President Trump wants to hear from hard-working Americans like you. How has Obamacare affected you? Share your Obamacare disaster story.


During the meeting, one woman revealed that she had her health insurance cancelled three times since Obamacare became law. Another attendee had her insurance jump from $17,000 a year to a devastating $52,500 a year for her struggling family, while yet another said her health insurance now costs more than her mortgage.

Obamacare came packaged as the healthcare solution for all Americans. Instead, the country was given hundreds of pages of broken promises.

Millions of hard-working Americans have been impaired by soaring costs, cancelled plans, and overbearing mandates. As one of those innocent Americans, President Trump wants to hear your story about how this disastrous law has affected you and your family.

Share Your Story

---

So, I propose we share all kinds of stories! Who's with me?

Miss Me Yet? --Barack Obama

At last, a meme around this subject that can be answered with an affirmative YES!

Some may say "too soon" (in fact The Other Half did). Not me. Missed the moment I knew he was being replaced by an unqualified, sociopathic narcissist.

Bulletproof: Hillary Clinton Clear of Email "Scandal"; Benghazi

The way my posts (when I actually get around to writing them) go is, a bit of editorializing on my part, followed by a story in today's news that backs up my point. And if I get another story about this up today, I'll probably do that. But for now, on this subject, I'm just going to say something loudly and clearly that I believe to be true:

FOR HILLARY CLINTON, BENGHAZI AND THE EMAIL "SCANDAL" ARE OVER.

That's it. They're wrung out, they're exhausted. Right Wing World is furious, but when are they not? The thing is, they're not furious about four dead Americans, or the political consequences of what happened in Libya. They're not furious about a former Secretary of State potentially endangering state secrets, or leaving the country open to a attack, or any other potential pitfalls or consequences. They're furious that it didn't stick. They're furious that their Fitzmas didn't come, and that it didn't send Hillary Rodham Clinton to jail, or to obscurity.

Remember, there was no fury over any other prior email scandal, attached to George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Rick Perry or Jeb! Bush. Remember also, that Benghazi was a) originally used as an albatross around President Obama's neck, not Clinton's. It was tried to prevent a second term. It didn't work. Then, someone got the bright idea to attach it to Hillary Clinton instead. They've been trying ever since. Along the way, they picked up the email "scandal," which--let's face it--had to be known to anyone who cared for literally years.

Hillary Clinton sent thousands upon thousands of emails. Each time she did, there was a recipient, whether it was an underling, a family member or the President. And whenever she did, it would say who it was from. It could not have gone unnoticed if she didn't have an official ".gov" or whatever designation the officially correct one was. That's been the great mystery to me. If this was such an obvious, grievous breech of protocol, why didn't anyone she sent mail to ever question it and/or her? Why did it take muck raking to decide this was a terrible, terrible thing?

Anyway, this thing; these things are now dead. Right Wing World will continue to bellow and bleat. We'll continue to hear things about decision making and trustworthiness and the lot of stuff they already throw at her. But nothing is looming anymore. The subjects as headwinds are gone. This was a great week for Hillary Clinton, I don't care what pundit says otherwise.

Hillary Clinton to Announce 2016 Presidential Run This Weekend?

Image from source, Business Insider

In 2008, I wasn't campaigning for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Having seen all of the early candidates up close and personal at a campaign event in Las Vegas, I'd hitched my wagon (however briefly and embarrassingly) to John Edwards. Hey, he had a great presence and message, his wife was fighting a cancer battle with poise and dignity and he was cute. Sue me, I didn't know he was a scumbag. In any event, when we caucused (a bizarre little event in itself), Edwards didn't get enough support, so--as was required--I had to realign with another candidate.

Here, I was presented with a coin toss. I really liked both Obama and Clinton. I considered our slate of candidates an embarrassment of riches (not knowing what Edwards had been up to, naturally), so ranking them was tricky business. What sealed the deal for me, was the caucusing. The Edwards people (and the rest of the scattered re-aligners) were for the most part of good spirit, and happy to realign. The Obama camp was cheerful, energetic, enthusiastic. And the Hillary contingent was strident, pushy and borderline rude. Remember that air of "inevitability" everyone talked about then? That's how they were treating the caucus, and it gave their pitches a feeling of aggressive entitlement.

Maybe I was inferring a little too much negativity to them, I don't know. But at the time, their attitude was enough to influence my decision to side with the Obama camp. When your choice is a 50/50, you have to find a reason, and that was mine. And afterward, from Clinton supporters throughout the primary, I saw a lot of that same sort of behavior and attitude. It was a bruising primary, and throughout it, my feelings of negativity from Team Clinton grew, and solidified. Though I didn't assign them to the candidate--merely her team, and her supporters--a bit of that couldn't help but rub off, and sour me a bit on Hillary.

So, I'm glad that there have been two presidential terms between then and now. In that time, Clinton had time to grow as a candidate, and distance herself from her 2008 persona. I imagine there are still some from Team Obama who nurse hurt feelings and resentment over that primary, but am confident that Hillary will be able to grab the lion's share of the president's supporters easily, and the rest grudgingly. A surprise entry by--say--Elizabeth Warren might change my mind. But barring that, I'm prepared to hop aboard the Clinton train. But something tells me this is going to be a bumpy ride.

[Excerpt]

Hillary Clinton will announce her 2016 campaign this weekend

A source with knowledge of Hillary Clinton's plans has confirmed that she will officially announce her 2016 presidential bid on Saturday or Sunday. This will be imminently followed by campaign travel. . .

Read more: Business Insider

It's Impeachable (A Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

To anyone who lived through the Clinton impeachment imbroglio, I for one would like to say, knock it off, GOP. It's exhausting, you'll overplay your hand, and you'll ensure Democratic success in 2016. On second thought, "Please proceed, Governor."

Rocky Mountain Mike has put the idea to music, to the tune of Perry Como's It's Impossible. For more Mike, go here. And buy his album, Politically Incoherent on Amazon!

 

Vote for the WHITE Guy

I am the Honorable Reverend Stu' of the Stupid Monkey Planet Church of Primatheism... And I fully endorse Chris Rock's opinion of white guys worth voting for on Tuesday.

Sarah Silverman's Proposal to Sheldon Adelson (NSFW)

Image from Jewcy

As a Las Vegas resident for almost 18 years, I'm of course familiar with Sheldon Adelson, the rich dude who owns the Venetian. His name is big in town, as you'd expect. I knew that he was a conservative, and a bit eccentric. But I think for a while I had him confused with John Cleese's portrayal in Rat Race. Which means, I thought he was a harmless billionaire.

And then there was Newt. Adelson pretty much single-handedly kept Newt Gingrich in the Republican Primaries long past his expiration date. That's one guy (two if you count his wife) keeping a candidate in the race, through largesse. It's just odd. And now that Newton has bounced, Adelson is pumping money into supporting Mitt Romney. In this case, it isn't single-handed, but it could be. And it's all so puzzling. Before Obama was president, Adelson's holdings were hemorrhaging cash. In the last 3+ years, he's rebounded. Why does Obama scare him so? And should one guy have this much power?

Sarah Silverman has a proposition for Mr. Adelson. And being Sarah Silverman, she's not exactly ladylike about it. Or maybe she is, it depends upon your definition. But I will tell you that this us not safe for work. So, don't complain to me that it's dirty and tasteless. I just told you that.

Cory Booker Incident Highlights Problem of False Equivalence

Cool guy. Bad day. Image from The Nation.

Mayor of Newark managed to step in it pretty big on Meet the Press on Sunday (in a discussion in an episode I watched, and didn't manage to notice). Cory Booker's problem--besides going against President Obama's message when he is an Obama surrogate--was a classic on: false equivalence. It's one of the most infuriating issues in politics and in modern news-info-tainment. "They all do it." "They're just alike." "Both sides of the aisle are guilty."

 Mama might have told you that there are two sides to every story, but she should have been more precise. Both sides are not always equal. Rachel Maddow is not merely the flip side of Sean Hannity. Creationism isn't as scientifically valid as Evolution. And the Jeremiah Wright "issue" is not the equivalent to Mitt Romney's history at Bain Capital.

[Excerpt]

Et Tu, Cory Booker? The Pathology of False Equivalence

There is a disease spreading across our political punditry, and the beloved mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, seems to have contracted it. On Sunday’s Meet The Press, Booker disavowed the new ad campaign attacking Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, and in doing so, compared the Obama team’s decision to air the ads to the right-wing invocation of Reverend Wright to take down the president. Booker released a retraction video hours later, but the incident indicates just how advanced the sickness of false equivalence is in our national dialogue. The plague has now infected a normally sharp public official unlikely to confuse a thinly veiled racist play against the first African-American president with an examination of the economic track record of his challenger. . .

Read more at: The Nation

Presidential Idol: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

Honestly, no contest. Obama--though we only get a snippet--has obviously got a pretty good voice, or at least can do an Al Green impression. Mitt Romney manages to sound like your Dad embarrassing you.

Vote Satan 2012

Official Campaign Poster - Pass Around Or Die.

The Reverend Stu' & The Stupid Monkey Planet Church of Primatheism have decided to endorse Satan for 2012.

There is no questioning his stance on many issues. As he is the only candidate that has maintained his message consistently... Never a flip-flopper.

His hands-on experience & vast knowledge of the systems are beyond reproach. He has been at this type of work for thousands of years.

Much like Huntsman or even Ron Paul earlier, the media offers very little time for Satan to get his message out. Although he has been present at every GOP debate,  he is most often ignored by the moderators. (Even when it's obvious he is right there.) Yet he remains a very viable candidate, whose name is widely recognized.

Thankfully, his presence is clearly felt, at the debates, each time the audience laughs, cheers & applauds death, blood, mayhem, starving children & evil in general. With that, you can safely bet that Satan was their inspiration.

So, for myself & the church it is a no-brainer. Vote Satan 2012... otherwise beg for mercy & maybe he'll just fucking reap your souls.

All hail & bless Satan. ~The Reverend Stu'

Visit the church on Facebook.

We're having a bake sale & Bingo on Sunday... And don't forget that we have sacrifices every Wednesday. ~Bless you all.

Google Instant Is. . .Revealing!

I got this idea from a commenter at Joe.My.God.com [Editor's Note: my pledge to leave Joe alone for a while was written after this post!] who goes by the moniker of dave02657. Basically, just go to Google, and start typing. "Google Instant" tries to guess what you're going to type next. For instance, type in "Rick Perry is [blank]" and you get:

Hmmm. . . gay, an idiot, crazy, nuts and stupid. Okay, how about Mitt Romney?

 

Okay, Mormon, that's true. The Baptist bit, I dunno. A tool? Sure. Liberal? Not really. Idiot? I'll go for that! Okay, this is fun. How about Michele Bachmann?

I'll go for all of these, idiot, crazy, hot (okay, not to me, but I get it), a moron. But I'd have guessed that "batshit crazy" would make the top of the list.

So, just to be fair, I Googled Barack Obama. And, well. . .

 

Yeah, I don't know.

Barack Obama: Born in the USA!

Well, now. This ties a bow on the "birther" issue, and takes it away from the nutters. The issue is now officially the joke some of us already knew it was. And President Obama gets to bank the proceeds for his reelection campaign. Keep zooming in on pixels, birthers!

[From Obama's Campaign]

“You’ll Like This”



This week, Jerome Corsi released a new book that his publisher says will be a bestseller "of historic proportions." The title is "Where's the Birth Certificate?" —yes, really.



There's no way to make this stuff completely go away. The only thing we can do is laugh at it—and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke. . .

Read more at: BarackObama.com

Hat tip to: AmericaBlog

FOX "News" Reports That Pres. Obama is Dead

This is not really a dig at FOX "News." Goodness knows they bring enough derision and shame upon themselves deservingly. It's a strange twist of fate that a man named Obama ordered the execution of a man named Osama. And it totally crushes any predictions of a person not being elected president due only to his name. Well, unless his name is Adolph W. Hitler, or something. So, it isn't surprising--in fact it's happening so often that Jon Stewart had an "Osama/Obama" penalty jar on his show--that people of all stripes are tripping their tongues on both names this week.

But leave it to FOX to announce that President Barack Obama is announcing his own death on live TV.

Obama Didn't Land on an Aircraft Carrier in a Flight Suit

If you have listened to right-wing talk radio this week, or watched FOX "News" you have heard a lot of talk about President Barack Obama's demeanor after Operation: Dead Osama. He says "I" too much. He's arrogant. He acts like he did it all! Because, as you know, Presidents rarely take credit for the good things that are going on in the country. It's unheard of.

"I'm the decider!"



Premature announciation.



But here's what Barack Obama didn't do: He didn't land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier. He didn't wear a flight suit and codpiece. He didn't swagger across the deck. He didn't have the aircraft carrier positioned so that it looked like it was out to sea rather than coming in to port. He didn't have color-coded service members arranged artfully behind him. He didn't stand under a professionally-printed banner that proclaimed "Mission Accomplished!" And he doesn't have a collectible doll action figure of his carefully orchestrated publicity stunt available at Toys "R" Us or on Amazon.com.

"I'm the commander guy, yes sir!"



Perspective, people.

Debunking the Birthers: Scanning a Certificate, Birth or Otherwise

As I've said here in the past, I'm sympathetic to conspiracy theorists, because I was briefly taken in by one: the 9/11 truthers. I exited out the other side with some swiftness, when things got a little too crazy to process. I still have problems with the "official" story, but have far more with most truther theories. It became clear to me that any contrary information to the truther story would be explained away, or somehow folded into the storyline. There is nothing that will dissuade them.

This is my reimaging of Obama's COLB. Have at it, Birthers!

Such it is with the birthers. When Barack Obama released a scan--repeat: a scan--of an authenticated "long form" birth certificate from the State of Hawaii, the birther brigade went into high gear. Starting with one of their biggest flaws in understanding--that an internet-ready file is the document, rather than a scan of it--they went over the White House's PDF file with a fine-toothed comb. And within minutes, there was a new addition to the birther catalogue: The birth certificate has LAYERS!

Like any good conspiracy theory, there are a few nuggets that grab you. Hey, there are layers! I downloaded my own version, opened it in Adobe Illustrator, and--I'll be damned--the document was made of many incongruous layers.  You could remove "clipping paths", ungroup it, and it was actually made of nine different parts! Why, this must be a forgery! FAKE! FAKE! FAKE! But wait a minute. . .

Why on earth would a forger do this? For what purpose would you separate out the background (but leave white holes where the letters were)? Why would you break up the word "BARACK" to "BA ACK" and a lonely "R"? You wouldn't, that's what. A forger would make a fake document, not a fake scan. The idiots. . .ahem. . .ignoramuses believing this theory don't think far enough out to realize that the document they are looking at is not an original, but merely a digitization of the original. If there are any fake elements of the document, they would not be discoverable in the PDF file.

But can I prove it? I believe I can. But I had to tread into semi-unfamiliar territory to do so. The only PDF scanning software I have is on my Mac PowerBook. And the only official document on safety paper I could locate easily is my Certificate of Marriage (my gay marriage, birthers!) from California. So, I set it up, scanned the document, and saved it. Here is what I found:

This is a reduced image of the scan of the entire document.
(I reduced the resolution so you vultures can't read it!)

I scanned the entire document in high resolution into Adobe Acrobat Professional. I set everything to "automatic," and scanned it in. After saving the file, I opened Adobe Illustrator CS3, and opened my saved PDF. Immediately when it opened, I saw the document assemble itself!

After some right-clicking to "release clipping masks" and some ungrouping, I was left with four distinct layers. This is short of the nine from the Obama birth certificate, but I didn't even change any of the automatic settings. There are many options you can tweak. Also, my certificate has a very elaborate, different background and border, which may have affected my results.

But I think I've proven the point that yes, a scan of an official document does separate into layers when you scan it. They aren't predictable layers either. There were two very small bands of the border at the bottom of the image that separated themselves out for no particular reason. I didn't retouch, sharpen, blur, enhance or otherwise make any changes. The low resolution image at the right is merely a screen capture of my zoomed out screen, so that it can't be read (do you really need to know my business? No, you do not!).


This is the full scan of the corner of the document. Then, I ungrouped it. . .


Now, it should be noted that the most current birther theory about these scans is that there are duplicate letters in the document. Namely, they found two "E"s or two "1"s or two check boxes that look identical in different areas of the scan. Does that seem hinky? Maybe. Could I recreate it if I fiddled with enough settings, and ran enough tests? Maybe. Probably. Don't know, don't care.



Looky there! I can delete the foreground! But notice, some artifacts
are left that are not part of the background image.



The reason I don't care is that there would be no reason to make a forgery that way. I already explained that the forgery would be on the paper document and not the scan, which should be obvious. But if a digital scammer was going to fake the form, why on earth would he need to assemble his forgery from a bunch of tiny scanned elements? If that was all you had to work with, I'd get it. But it isn't. Barack Obama has the most awesome governmental apparatus in the entire world at his disposal. He could order up a document so perfect, so flawless, that its authenticity could bear the strongest of scrutiny. To assume that all they had to work with was low-res scans of little check boxes, and they had to duplicate them to complete their ruse is, in a word, stupid.



This is what happens when you delete the background. Look at all the
random elements that were part of the background, but are on a layer with
the text. Did I forge my marriage certificate?



All of this ultimately leads to the conclusion that no matter what is offered up, or what points of logic are used, the birthers will never be satisfied. There will be a (smaller and smaller) group of them who will continue to believe that their conspiracy theory is true. And the same goes for the brand new "deathers" who are convinced that Osama Bin Laden is still alive, or was not killed this weekend. The release of authentic photos of the corpse would do nothing to change their minds. You'd just have 100 threads on FreeRepublic dissecting the photo. Excuse me, dissecting a low-res JPEG of the photo.

I cannot with this test declare the Obama birth certificate to be genuine. But I can definitively declare that there is no obvious reason to believe that it is not, nor does the "layers" argument hold any water whatsoever.  When some FReeper tells you that a scan cannot produce such a result, they are either lying, or they are wrong.

A NOTE TO MY READERS: If you venture into the comments section below, be warned that a troll who is too cowardly to leave his/her name has infested the blog.  But he/she/it unwittingly proved a point. This troll is fixated upon the signature of Obama's mother, and how the software separated it into pieces. A similar thing happened to some of the lines and graphic elements in the document I scanned. So, while "Anonymous" is still focused like a psychotic laser beam on the signature!!!, I on the other hand am completely satisfied that the document offered online by the White House could indeed be produced by scanning a real document into a PDF software program. No hanky panky.

"Anonymous" has copious links to YouTube videos that "support" the forgery conspiracy theory, but don't fall for it. Anyone can produce and upload a YouTube video, as I found out with my new phone this weekend, when I almost accidentally uploaded an action shot of the floor of the house I was staying in. And if you get sucked in by the "facts" presented by these loons, please ask yourself what would motivate a forgery artist to use a low-res PDF scan to fool the public. The storyline hasn't even been articulated, because there is no scenario that would make any sense. And this is my final word on the subject. I think.

The Lighter Side of Serious: Obama's Been Busy

We Americans can find the humor in almost any situation. This made me chuckle. No apologies for that.

Found at: VoenixRising

Photo of the Day: White House Watches Osama Bin Laden Strike

History as it happens. Photo found at AmericaBlog (Click to embiggen)

This is going to be one of those photos that recalls an era, mark my words.

Found at: AmericaBlog

Stupid Monkey Planet on the Red Carpet

SMPN was lucky enough to have a photographer swoop down from the canopy at the White House Correspondents Dinner. We happened to catch a quick photo of "The Don-ald" on his way out...
He wasn't taking any questions.

On a footnote, his hair does look better.

Steven Weber: Impossible Truths, Racism and Tea Parties

Photo from AOL

I've piled enough compliments upon the writings of actor/blogger Steven Weber in this space in the past. This time I'll just say. . .what he said.

[Excerpt]

Impossible Truths



. . .It's deeper and darker than the Right's dislike for, say, Bill Clinton who, while an out n' proud Democrat was also very clearly a good friend to big business (NAFTA) and a thorn in the side of the poor (his welfare reform initiative) and despite his being brought down in a concerted effort by genophobic forces bent on instilling morality at the expense of governmental effectiveness, he was always regarded by the Right with respect, however grudging.


And that speaks to the glaring double standard which was and still is at the heart of the lion's share of Right Wing opposition to Barak Obama:

He is a black man. . .

Read more (and you know he's right) at: Huffington Post

Iowa Republicans on FOX "News": Obama's a Muslim!

Yes, this is on FOX "News," is on Hannity, and features Republican pollster Frank Luntz, but still. This is just a paranoid, alternate reality. Right-wing world is a scary, scary place.