As long as Trump is president, we will never—repeat, NEVER—deal with this pandemic intelligently. He is a micro-manager, which means he will not allow anyone other than himself to control how this virus is dealt with. Consequently, since he is an ignoramus who thinks he knows absolutely everything (“I, alone, can fix it.”) there’s no aspect of this battle that will be addressed with the knowledge and understanding (forget wisdom) needed to limit the damage Covid-19 will cause in the coming years.
I feel the need to repeat myself. As long as this highly unqualified, prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, is president of the United States, this pandemic will NOT be dealt with with any semblance of scientific rigor . . . at least not if the results contradict his painfully limited understanding of just about everything other than how to properly grift and enrich himself and his cronies.
Remember when he said “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” How does one pre-emptively declare victory? It’s one thing to suggest how things might go, but to declare how those very things went before they actually “went” is the height of folly or, better yet, the mark of a snake oil salesman.
As long as this man is POTUS, we’re well and truly fucked. This country is already a shell of its former self. He’s going to wreak a whole lot more havoc in the next seven or eight months (at least) and, if re-elected, we can probably kiss our nation good bye. I, for one, will be working diligently to support California’s exit. I don’t want to live in Gilead.
Taking my cue from Milquetoast Marmalade, let’s just say this is aspirational
Still working on my Photoshop skills. This was a difficult one. Finding the right pictures of each member of America’s premier crime family took some time. It’s not perfect, but you should be able to get the idea. Actually, drawing and quartering might be more appropriate, but there’s some historical significance to this method.
PS – Jared and Malaria probably ought to be in here too, but I’m tired of looking at all of them.
I am of the opinion Donald Trump really isn’t the President, he’s merely a cosplayer pretending to be one. He’s clearly not interested in actually governing the nation, only in destroying what he and Steve Bannon refer to as the “Administrative (or Deep) State.”
In furtherance of making my point, and in getting some good practice in upping my Photoshop skills, I created a couple of memes expressing how I feel. Here’s the first one, which I posted on Facebook on March 7:
Playing the Big Shot
The second one, which I posted to FB on March 19, is a bit more elaborate, but kind of makes the same point:
Milquetoast Marmalade is his Cosplay Character’s Name
Regardless of the authenticity of his costume, I maintain he’s doing a really shitty job of acting the part. In fact, based on his performance with the COVID-19 pandemic response, I’m arguing he’s guilty of 2nd degree murder, but I’d settle for a conviction of negligent homicide, even maybe reckless endangerment. Anything to remove him from any position of authority over the workings of our government.
I tend not to mince words when it comes to this guy, the absolute worst President this country has endured . . . certainly during my lifetime. Hating this worthless grifter is not a bad thing when it’s cold-blooded, steely disdain for what is tantamount to a tapeworm. Impeach the Motherfucker NOW!
I suppose, were things different, I could vote for a misogynistic, bigoted, toxic narcissistic, serial-lying sociopath, but he’d have to be much better looking—and considerably smarter—than Donald Trump.
I’ve started blogging again here at Systems Savvy and needed to do some research on my history doing so. I came across the following blog post on another, now defunct blog site, The Cranky Curmudgeon, which I wrote on October 29, 2008. I entitled it “Talk About Your Angst!” I forgot I wrote it and I’m somewhat amazed that my characterization of the Bush admin sounds quite similar to my characterization of the Trump admin. We’re doing something wrong . . . bigly!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Barack Obama Makes a point during debate with John McCain
Well, here we are . . .
what is it? . . about six days out from what I’m thinking is the most
important election of my lifetime. Any election involving Nixon, Reagan,
or either of the Bush gangster family was, of course, important, but
this one – whew! After eight years of so thoroughly screwing up
everything they touched, I am on pins and needles waiting to see if we
get a brand new start at fixing things, or if we get something possibly
worse than George Bush.
I think I need to explain something too.
Although I take the position George Bush and his administration screwed
up everything they touched, I think it’s important to note they did
exactly what they had planned to do all along. The failures were not
truly failures, as they fit into the general plan. Don’t think for one
moment these criminals weren’t working toward the dream so famously
articulated by Grover Norquist when he said his goal was to shrink
government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
I have no doubt that is exactly what has been going on, especially when
government means services for the people, as opposed to handouts for
the well-connected. We have witnessed the most massive re-distribution
of national wealth, certainly in my lifetime. Now, perhaps, we can see
some of that bleeding stanched.
Six more days! I am on pins and
needles. We so desperately need to take this nation in another
direction; to back away from the arrogant unilateralism and the move
toward the so-called “unitary executive”; the use of torture and the
spying on our own citizens; and the outright flaunting of the
Constitution when it serves the narrow interests of the administration.
Obama has created one of the flattest campaign organizations ever,
thanks in large part to his team’s understanding and use of information
technology. Let’s see if they can translate this knowledge into a new
politics of engagement and involvement . . . and – dare I say –
democracy.
When I returned from a two-month working journey to Cuba in 1973, the FBI showed up at my door with questions about my trip. I had been a member of the sixth contingent of the Venceremos Brigade, and a small part of my education for the trip was the admonition to politely refuse to speak with them, which is what I did.
It was a short, pleasant conversation. I told them I wasn’t going to answer any questions and they asked me if I was sure. I said “yes” and they said “have a nice day” and left. That was it.
My years of activism had brought me to the attention of many law enforcement agencies, chief among them the LAPD and the FBI.
All to say, there’s been little love lost between me and these organizations . . .
Yet I’m really looking forward to what James Comey has to say.
After a couple weeks of breathless anticipation, endlessly hyped by Trump TV . . . er . . . Fox News, the ballyhooed Nunes memo was finally released, creating a giant thud as it fell flat on its face. After all the buildup and breathless hyperbolating over it being set to expose the worst scandal in United States history, it was a real let down, though you wouldn’t know that by the response of the Knucklehead-in-Chief or his band of merry sycophants.
As I have mentioned before, I’ve been spending time learning how to use Photoshop to create my own renditions of the news or other things that catch my fancy. I’ve got two of them related to this debacle. One I created is based on an earlier “confrontation” where something Mueller had done was written off by the right as a “nothingburger”. I’m afraid I can’t quite remember what that something was, but I obviously reacted to it. I didn’t do much; merely found a great shot of a hamburguesa tremenda, then added some words.
The second one took a bit more work as I had to create a series of layer masks to represent what I envisioned. Generally, I put these together, then post them to Facebook and, at times, to Twitter as well. I’m working on remembering to post them here too.
Here they are, with added captions.
Wrap Your Mouth Around This Puppy
Jerky is Such a Disappointment When You’re Expecting a Thick, Juicy Steak
As I believe I’ve mentioned before, I’m teaching myself Photoshop. As far as I can tell, one of the most important things to understand and use is layers. This is one of my first creations where I was beginning to understand how to use layers to change pictures in both large and small ways.
May years ago I worked at a silk screen shop. Silk screening required the creation of (as I recall) four separate screens (layers) in order to create the colors of whatever poster was being printed. Those colors were the primary ones: Red, blue, and yellow . . . as well as black. If the poster called for orange, then the area to be that color was open on both the red and the yellow screens. Same thing for green, purple, brown, etc.
The thing I remember most about working there (I was in my very early twenties) was coming home higher than a kite at times. This was because we used a lot of toluene as a solvent for creating and cleaning the screens. There were days when I breathed in a lot of that stuff. There were no requirements to wear masks and I don’t think there were many, if any, regulations in place regarding adequate ventilation, etc. Now that I think about it, it’s a wonder I can recall anything about that job. I did enjoy the work, though.
So here’s an early picture I ginned up using PS. It consists of seven layers:
When I returned from a two-month working journey to Cuba in 1973, the FBI showed up at my door with questions about my trip. I had been a member of the sixth contingent of the 
Systems Savvy 