The Buffoon Landed ... With A Thud

Just when you thought _____ was a national embarrassment, he takes off for the Middle East and Europe, thus becoming a global humiliation.

And how did he do that?

For one, after campaigning against “radical Islamic terrorism”, and threatening to ban Muslims from coming to this country, he spoke before a mostly Muslim nation and stopped using his pet phrase and never once mentioned his Muslim Ban because ... lying pandering hypocrite.

He may have also offended Saudi Arabia by referring to “Islamic terror” rather than “Islamist terror.” But, hey, the man who claimed everyone is low energy and Hillary has no stamina, was exhausted that first day out so he cancelled some events and took a nap instead.

And maybe his sleepiness is the reason he called Saudi Arabia’s King Salman “King Solomon”— he was off by 3,000 years—and turned the Strait of Hormuz into the “Straits of Hormuz.”

Or, maybe he meant the heterosexuals of Hormuz? Hard to tell what a buffoon really means when he speaks.

And the buffoon, who once scolded President Barack Obama for bowing before a Saudi ruler, bowed before a Saudi ruler; _____, who once criticized Michelle Obama for failing to wear a headscarf in Saudi Arabia, gave a speech there while his bareheaded wife and daughter listened.

Points, though, to Melania for, not once, but twice, smacking away her husband’s hand as he reached for hers.

And then it was on to Israel, where _____ announced that he “just got back from the Middle East,” apparently unaware—because, yes, he’s a buffoon—that Israel is in the Middle East.

He visited the Wailing Wall and wondered how they got Mexico to pay for it; he visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, spending fifteen minutes remembering the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II, and left a note that read:

"It is a great honor to be here with my friends! So amazing and will never forget!"

Oy. 

And then it was on to the Vatican and that awkward photo op with the Pope, where _____ beamed like a buffoon, while the Pope grimaced at the idea of posing with a climate-change denying adulterer and his third wife, apparently dressed for a funeral.

After Monday night’s attack at that concert in Manchester, England, _____ reacted by saying:

“I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. . . . I will call them from now on losers because that’s what’s they are. They’re losers.”

Yes, he has decided to call murderous terrorists by the same name he calls Rosie O’Donnell, Cher, Rihanna, Mark Cuban, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Maher, Ana Navarro, Chuck Todd, the attorney general of New York, an astrologer in Cleveland, Gwyneth Paltrow, Howard Stern, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Karl Rove, Megyn Kelly, the Huffington Post and the New York Daily News ... among others.

Then the buffoon jetted off to attend a meeting of NATO—an alliance he calls “obsolete”—in Brussels—a city he called a “hellhole”—where it was one gaffe after another ...

Remember that wildly uncomfortable handshake with new French President Emmanuel Macron—whom _____ said he always supported even though he never did—that lasted even longer than creepy eye-roll inducing handshake with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

And what about the video where _____ shoved Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic out of the way so he could be at the front of a photo op?

That shove, heard ‘round the world, was taken in stride by _____’s victim, Dusko Markovic, who said:

"It didn't really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks. It is simply a harmless situation."

Markovic then took the high road and thanked _____ for supporting Montenegro's membership in NATO and said, "it is natural that the president of the United States is in the front row."

Except he shouldn’t shove his way to the front.

The buffoon spoke in front of NATO’s new headquarters, and scolded our allied for not paying their bills; this from a man who has been sued more times than I can count for stiffing contractors who have worked for him:

“NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. And many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.”

He went on ranting that “with these chronic underpayments and growing threats, even 2 percent of GDP”—the amount NATO members pledged to move toward by 2024—“is insufficient to close the gaps in modernizing, readiness, and the size of forces. We have to make up for the many years lost.”

And so, he then closed out his classless speech by thanking Germany for contributing a portion of the Berlin Wall, and the 9/11 Museum for donating a remnant from the North Tower, to become part of the NATO headquarters’ new grounds, and then adding:

“I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refuse to do that.”

Awkward ... and then awkward-er ... when the buffoon decided to air his grievances over Germany's trade surplus with the US:

“The Germans are evil, very evil. Look at the millions of cars they sell in the U.S. We’ll stop that.” 

Now, I’m not saying that this was _____ being petty and vindictive and spiteful and petulant and spoiled and bratty, toward Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, but his little tirade happened shortly after French President Macron greeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and several others, before deigning to take _____’s fat tiny hand in his again.

And finally, after berating our friends and allies in Europe, the buffoon spoke with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and complained that he has had difficulty building golf courses there.

Oh, so that’s why he took the trip ...

See, right before running for the presidency, Citizen ____, threw a tantrum when he learned of plans to build off-shore windmills within sight of the Trump International Golf Links in Scotland. He tried to buy politicians to fight for him before scrapping the Scottish project and building a resort in Ireland instead; and then he took his whining to the Supreme Court where he lost the battle against the clean energy windmills.

Another source—and it might be mu new hero, French President Emmanuel Macron—was baffled by the exchange with Belgium’s leader:

“Every time we talk about a country, he remembered the things he had done. Scotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two and a half years to get a license and that did not give him a very good image of the European Union. One feels that he wants a system where everything can be realized very quickly and without formalities.”

As long as it pads his bank account because _____ has just proven himself to be the Ugliest American.

Sorry world.

I Didn't Say It ...

Pete Buttigieg, on those Notre Dames grads who walked out on Mike Pence:

“What I appreciate about it is it’s clear that the students want to express their commitment to tolerance and the values that they believe a Catholic University ought to uphold, and that this administration is not compatible with those values. And at the same time, I think they found a very respectful way to do it.”

Let me make this queer: the school has a right to ask Pence to speak, and Pence has a right to speak, and the students have a right to walk out in protest.

It’s called Free Speech for a reason.

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Wilbur Ross, U.S. Commerce Secretary, on the absence of protestors in Saudi Arabia:

“There was not a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. Not one guy with a bad placard.”

Saudi Arabia often beheads protestors, something Wilbur didn’t really seem to care about.

PS Wilbur is the same f%k who called _____’s bombing of Syria the “after dinner entertainment” at Mar-a-Lago.

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Billy Bush, trying to revive his career after being _____’s sidekick in PussyGate:

“My [then] 15-year-old, Mary, called me ... in tears: ‘Dad, Dad, Dad,’ and I said, ‘Everything is going to be fine, Mary. Everything’s going to be OK.’ It’s just instinctively what you say to your daughter. And she said, ‘No, why were you laughing at the things that he was saying on that bus, Dad? They weren’t funny.’”

Odd that a fifteen year old girl knows how disgusting that conversation was and Dad had no idea, even though he was raising daughters.

He never once thought that this could be _____ speaking about his girls, his wife, or any woman he worked with; he just laughed.

And now he’s trying to redeem himself.

Sorry Billy, you’ll always be the guy who laughed about sexual harassment.

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Mo’Nique, actress and comic, who won an Oscar for Precious, on being shunned by Hollywood:

“What is that black d—k connected to? That black man? So no, I was not blackballed. I was white-balled by some black d—ks who have no balls. Thank you, Mr. Lee Daniels. Thank you, Mr. Tyler Perry. Thank you, Ms. Oprah Winfrey. I know they like to say, ‘Mo’Nique, you talk too motherf—kin’ much.’ It would kill me not to say the real s—t … You are not paying me equally. You are not treating me fairly, so you can suck my d—k if I had one. I got a phone call from Lee Daniels [in 2015] and he said to me, ‘Mo’Nique, you’ve been blackballed.’ And I said, ‘I’ve been blackballed? Why have I been blackballed?’ And he said, ‘Because you didn’t play the game.' There have been people that have said, ‘Mo’Nique, she can be difficult.’ They could probably be right. One of the networks said to [Daniels] that I was ‘really difficult to work with.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s funny, because I’ve never even worked with them, but OK.’ I was offered the role in ‘The Butler’ that Oprah Winfrey played. I was also approached by ‘Empire’ to be on ‘Empire.’ And I was also offered the role as Richard Pryor’s grandmother [in a new biopic about the late comedian]. Each of those things that [Daniels] offered me was taken off the table. They all just went away. But that’s just part of the business, you know? I can’t be upset at anybody, ’cause life is too good. It’s just what it is.”

Strong opinionated black woman.

Just sayin’.

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Jason Chaffetz, saying that people who leak information, even about crimes like colluding with Russia to steal an election, should be punished:

“I don’t care who it is. Democrat or Republican, you cannot have that happen. You probably ought to put some handcuffs on them and put them in jail.”

Yeah, the people who speak out about the crime, even anonymously, should be punished, while those who commit the crimes go free?

And then what about _____ who leaked confidential information to the Russians, Jason? Where are your cried of ‘Lock him up’ now. You pandering f%k?

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Random Musings

After the attack in Manchester this week, our President-For-Now came out strong against ISIS ...

He called them “losers.”

Yes, nothing strike fear into the hearts of an international terror organization, that has just murdered children, faster than having a bloated bullying billionaire call them “losers.”

Stunted narcissistic asshat.

PS You promised to get rid of ISIS in your first thirty days ... you’re one hundred days behind schedule.

UPDATE: Richard Henry Patterson, the Florida man who claimed his girlfriend choked to death during oral sex, was found not guilty this week of second-degree murder.

At least now I know that, if Carlos were to, ahem, suffer the same fate, I'd get off ....... again.

I’m a horrible person.

Hot Men Duo ... Daddy and Son ...

Tony Goldwyn, who played President Grant on Scandal, until this last season when his two terms in office ended. Goldwyn was always handsome, but every so office you’d see him with his shirt off and suddenly it was, Oh, Mister President!

And Dylan Minette, who played President Grant’s son, Jerry, until he was murdered a few years ago. He’s got a show about teen suicide—Thirteen Reasons Why—and, well, he’s just so darn pretty ... even if he is young enough to be the president’s son, and my son, too.

Just sayin’.

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton logged nearly a million miles in travel around the globe and never once complained.

Not so with President-For-Now _____, who, in his first foray overseas, in his first few days, cancelled an event because he was tired.

Yes, the man who called Jeb Bush “low energy” and said Clinton didn’t have the “stamina” for the job, had to take a time out and a nap because traveling is hard.

Asshat.

The Resistance—and the Democrats—just scored their first win of 2017.

And it might just be the beginning of the end for _____ when Edie DesMarais, a Democrat, won a State Representative seat in deep-red Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Donald _____ won that district by a wide margin in November and here, just a few months later, the people said, Oh hell no and elected a Democrat.

Keep Resisting!

So, at work, we have one computer that most of us use from time-to-time because of its proximity to the front of the office. One co-worker, however, uses it to monitor his Facebook page, and then leaves Facebook open under his account.

Big mistake. Huge. One day, a co-worker and I were looking for information on a new business opening in Smallville, and, as we were at the front, used that computer. She was on her phone searching while I Googled some information on the computer. I found a link to the Facebook page of the business and clicked on it; it opened right up and I thought nothing about it.

I told my co-worker that I had found what we were looking for and she stood next to me and read from the page.

Then she says, “Are you reading this?”

Down on the right, was a private message from our co-worker who keeps Facebook open under his account, where he was speaking to his girlfriend who lives in Pennsylvania and this is the first thing I read:

“Cum on my face and tits.”

Yes, our co-worker was having a sexting private message chat on his Facebook page at his home while it streamed live on our computer at work.

I looked at my co-worker as our friend typed, “I’m finished,” and I said, “Should I join in and say ‘Well, I’m not finished yet?’”

Just a note to people to close out your Facebook page when you leave the office lest you want a slew of co-workers to know your sticky business.

Oops ... _____ and his team thought that all of his Russia problems might go away while he was out of the country but, yeah, not so much.

Now it appears that Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials, in his security clearance application, Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year and failed to note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list “any contact” he or his family had with a “foreign government” or its “representatives” over the past seven years.

Oops. Sessions, the Attorney General lied ... under oath. And now Representative John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has called for an investigation into Sessions.

The dominos are falling ...

So, the CBO score on the new GOPDon’tCare healthcare plan came in and it’s worse than expected ...

Fifty-one million uninsured by 2026 and premiums rising for the poorest among us while billionaires get tax breaks and the military gets more bombs.

And don’t forget, the GOP celebrated the House passage of this mess with a beer party.

This is who voted to take healthcare away from people and gouge the rest of us, while giving themselves more coins in the bank.

Resist.

We’ve all seen the crowds at GOP Town Hall meetings as constituents question their Representatives about Healthcare and Donald _____; these meetings often get very loud, with all kinds of screaming and shouting, but, until now, have remained non-violent.

But, yesterday GOP House candidate Greg Gianforte in Montana’s special election body slammed Ben Jacobs from the Guardian after he was asked about GOP plans for an Obamacare repeal.

And this morning, Election Day, Montana law enforcement has charged  Gianforte with misdemeanor assault, according to Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin:

“Following multiple interviews and an investigation by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office it was determined there was probable cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanor assault. The nature of the injuries did not meet the statutory elements of felony assault.”

Gianforte faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail, a $500 fine, or both.

The Guardian released an audio recording of the incident during which Gianforte tried to deflect Jacob’s questions about the CBO score of GOPDon’tCare:

Gianforte: “We’ll talk to you about that later.” 

Jacobs: “Yeah, but there’s not going to be time. I’m just curious about it right now.”

Gianforte: “I’m sick and tired of you guys. The last guy who came in here you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here!”

Jacobs: “You just body slammed me and broke my glasses.”

Gianforte’s office offered an alternate account of events, saying Jacobs encroached on “a separate interview in a private office” and “aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face” except ... other news agencies, including Fox News, have come forward to not only verify Jacob’s account, but to say the assault was much worse than previously thought.

Fox reporter Alicia Acuna said:

“Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of ‘I’m sick and tired of this!'”

I’ve been saying a while now that since _____ began playing up this Fake News Bull Shiz reporters will come for the GOP and now they have; Gianforte ought to quit the campaign, rescind his candidacy, and prepare himself for trial, and hopefully, jail.

Architecture Wednesday: Margaret River

This is a house is made for “getting away from it all.”

Located in an existing clearing within a section of Australia’s marri/jarrah bushland near the Margaret River, this “bush pavilion” was created to mimic camping under a simple sheltering tarp.

The home’s simple rectangular plan is separated into sleeping and living zones and delineated by a change in floor level, as well as a grounding rammed earth wall that continues through the house into the outdoors.

Taking cues from the Californian cases study houses of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, a structural grid of prefabricated steel frames allowed the main support structure to be erected in a day and for infill timber framing to be subsequently carried out by the owner-builder under the protection of a simple single roof plane. The galvanized steel framing is expressed both internally and externally and its mottled patina continues to change as it ages.

And because you’ll be wanting to get away from anything and everything, environmental sustainability is intrinsic to the design: passive measures like cross flow ventilation cool the home in summer cooling, while calculated eave overhangs allow warm winter sun to heat the house; in addition, there are active measures such as power self sufficiency from a ground mounted solar array, a solar hot water system and a worm farm blackwater filtration system that irrigates the garden with nutrient rich water.

It’s back to the simple things in life, and away from it all.

HomeDSGN

Another One: Gabriel Taye

Gabriel Taye was just eight-years-old; he was just using the bathroom at his school, Carson Elementary, near Cincinnati, when he, according to the school, fainted.

Several minutes later, assistant principal Jeff McKenzie found Gabe unconscious on the floor and took him to the school nurse, who called Gabe’s mother, Cornelia Reynolds, to say Gabe had fainted and asked her to come pick him up.

At home, when Gabe began to vomit, Reynolds took him to the hospital. He stayed home from school for a day, but returned to Carson the following day; after school that day, he came home and hanged himself using his necktie.

After Gabe’s suicide, Cincinnati homicide detective Eric Karaguleff began to investigate and what he saw on a school surveillance video horrified him enough to write to the principal and assistant principal at Carson Elementary, and to Child Protective Services, saying he was alarmed at what took place:

“I saw some concerning events, and I don’t even have a child at that school.”

In the video, Karaguleff saw a young boy with “with dyed hair sorta O’Dell Beckham Jr. style,” enter the restroom; instantly several other kids ran out, but the boy with the dyed hair stopped one kid and punched him so hard in the stomach that the boy fell down on all fours.

“I witnessed behavior that in my belief is bullying and could even rise to the level of criminal assault.”

A few minutes later, Gabe entered the restroom and appeared to try and shake the hand of the boy with the dyed hair, perhaps in an attempt to get him to stop bullying the child on the floor.

But the bully slammed Gabe so hard against the wall that he fell unconscious to the floor, which is when, according to Karaguleff, the bully seemed to “celebrate and rejoice in his behavior” as Gabe lay motionless.

Several other young boys came into the restroom and took turns kicking Gabe, still unconscious, while other boys just step over his body like he was garbage. Others stop and stare at Gabe, poking him; this goes on for about five minutes until an adult enters the bathroom. Then at least three other adults come in and look at Gabe; some kneel down to get closer to him.

Eventually, Gabe is able to stand up and leave with one adult, assistant principal Jeff McKenzie.

According to the boy’s family lawyer, Jennifer Branch, the school told Cornelia Reynolds that her son had fainted; there was no mention of the attack in the bathroom. But school officials maintain that the nurse told Reynolds to take Gabe to the hospital, though she says they never mentioned it.

 “If the school had told her what had happened to him in the bathroom, that he was unconscious for such a long period of time, she would have taken him to the hospital immediately, reported that to the medical professionals, and she would have the called police.”—Jennifer Branch

And now, the Cincinnati Public Schools superintendent has announced that, after an investigation by the district, no linkage had been found between Gabriel’s death and bullying.

No link; what about the video? What about him being slammed against a wall? What about him being kicked and poked while he lay unconscious on the ground?

Well, the district maintains that the jerky quality of the video makes it hard to tell exactly what happened in that bathroom, but 8-year-olds don’t kill themselves for no reason.

And now, because of Detective Karaguleff’s investigation, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco is reopening the investigation. When she first learned of Taye's death she was shocked that an 8-year-old would commit suicide and, at first, asked for his death to be investigated as a homicide. But the autopsy report concluded that Taye died from asphyxiation and the manner of death was, in fact, suicide.

"It was very hard for me to believe that an 8-year-old would even know what it means to commit suicide and so I asked Cincinnati police to treat this as a homicide until proven otherwise and investigate it fully."— Lakshmi Sammarco

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here; a police detective sees a video with a boy, with dyed hair, beating up at least two other boys, one of whom falls unconscious to the floor, and yet the school district says the video evidence is inconclusive?

And why does an eight-year-old boy kill himself for apparently no reason? I mean, if Gabe wasn’t beaten in that bathroom, and if he wasn’t bullied at school upon his return, why take his own life?

The school, and the district need to be held accountable; if only for the fact that Gabe Taye—if there was no beating by the boy with the dyed hair, and how easy must it be to find that kid—collapsed, either from a beating or from a sudden fainting spell, in a bathroom, and several other boys kicked him while he was down.

Part of the school’s job is to protect these kids while they are in their care, and this school didn’t do that; they apparently looked the other way. And with this video evidence it just seems like the school is as responsible as those boys in Gabe Taye’s death.

He was just an eight-year-old kid using a bathroom.

CNN

The Root

Crime Online

The Ego Cannot Land, So He Won't Go To The Mountain

There are all kinds of stories that when President-For-Now _____ visits London this fall, he’s demanded to ride in a royal, golden, carriage to his visit with the Queen.

He does like golden things, or so I’ve heard from Russian hookers.

See, _____ likes to think of himself as so extra special that he cannot do things like a normal person, or even a normal president, and now he’s showing that when he visits Israel.

President-For-Now _____ has opted out of visiting the ancient Israeli mountain fortress Masada because he couldn’t use a helicopter to get there, but would have to take a cable car like, you know, normal folks.

He was set to give a speech from Masada, but since he cannot make a grand entrance he’ll now speak at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

And why can’t he helicopter in? Well, there’s an Israeli Air Force regulation barring helicopters from landing at the summit of the Masada site because the wind from helicopters creates too much dust, making landing difficult, and perhaps causing damage the ancient ruins.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton landed helicopters at the base of the mountain and rode cable cars up but President-For-Now _____ has refused to do that.

Just sayin’.

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