Sharpie-Gate

Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.

Biden Leads Other Democrats (And Trump) In Wisconsin

These charts reflect the results of the new Marquette University Law School Poll -- done between August 25th and 29th. The top chart was of 444 Democratic and Independent registered voters, and has a margin of error of 5.3 points. The bottom chart was of 800 registered voters, and has a margin of error of 3.9 points.

The top chart shows Wisconsin is very similar to national polls on the Democratic nomination. Biden is leading, followed by Sanders and Warren. The difference between Sanders and Warren is within the poll's margin of error. Buttigieg, Harris and Yang are the only other Democrats getting at least 2% support -- and they are far behind the leading three.

The bottom chart shows that Biden is 9 points ahead of Trump in a general election match-up. Sanders is 4 points ahead, and both Warren and Harris are in a tie with Trump.

Texas Madness

Political Cartoon is by Tom Curry in the Big Bend Gazette.

PolitiFact Says Trump Lies About 85% Of The Time

We know that the truth means nothing to Donald Trump. He lies repeatedly -- about 13 times each day on average. He has told over 12,000 lies since being sworn into office according to The Washington Post fact-checkers.

It makes us wonder -- does Trump ever tell the truth? Surprisingly, he does -- but only about 15% of the time. PolitiFact has checked hundreds of statements made by Donald Trump. According to them, his statements were true about 4% of the time, and mostly true about 11%.

I'm willing to give him the mostly trues (since I'm in a generous mood), but I can't do the same with the half-truths. A half-truth is just a lies dressed in prettier clothes, and cannot be accepted as a fact (even an "alternative fact").

That means that Trump is lying with about 85% of his statements. That's pretty bad. But I'll admit I thought it would have been much closer to 100%.

Sharpie Abuse

Political Cartoon is by Dave Granlund at davegranlund.com.

Pence Shows Himself To Be A Sycophant (Bigly)

There is no shortage of sycophants in the Trump administration. Trump can't stand to be corrected, or disagreed with, so he quickly gets rid of people who have a real opinion.

But there is one member among the administration's sycophants that stands out from the pack -- Mike Pence. Pence will happily cover for any of Trump's lies, and he'll do it with gusto. For him, Trump can't do or say anything wrong.

And that's not all he'll do to bend to Trump's will. He just visited Ireland -- and he stayed at a hotel nearly 200 miles from the meetings he had scheduled with Irish officials. Why? Because that was the closest Trump-owned hotel in Ireland (and his sycophancy wouldn't let him stay at a non-Trump hotel).

Here's how Jennifer Rubin describes Pence's pathetic behavior in The Washington Post:

There is not a more oleaginous sycophant in President Trump’s inner circle than Vice President Pence. Ironically, the one person Trump cannot fire is also the one most prone to elaborate expressions of loyalty that would put North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s courtiers to shame. Pence will defend any remark, make any argument and sacrifice any principle (e.g., support for federal law enforcement, get tough with dictators, free trade) to stay in Trump’s good graces.

Then it rose to a whole other level when he arranged to stay at his boss’s resort — hours from his arranged meetings in Ireland. This was not only a blatant example of Trump’s ability to induce members of his administration, members of his party and heads of state to stuff money into his pockets, but it put Pence in the position of participating into the great grifting enterprise. When caught and called out for this, the vice president argued that this was the only facility that could accommodate his large party in his family homestead (query why taxpayers had to foot the bill for a family reunion in the old country). Then, his chief of staff, Marc Short, let on that Trump “suggested” Pence stay there. Whoops!

The first rule of sycophancy is never reveal that the object of your sycophancy invited your tribute (financial or otherwise) — even when it is obvious in the case of Trump that he lives to induce (or invent!) praise from others. Doing so might make the object of your sycophancy seem, well, needy or even corrupt.

Sure enough, Trump disavowed any involvement — “It wasn’t my idea for Mike to go there. Mike went there because his family’s there. That’s my understanding.” — but did not deny outright dropping the suggestion.

A few questions, to say the least, remain: First, why hasn’t Short been fired if he didn’t misspeak and really did falsely accuse Trump of “suggesting” Pence visit the president’s Ireland golf resort? This seems like a very big screw-up, if you take the White House at its word.

Second, unless you’re on the White House payroll, a talk-radio or Fox News host, or a Trump cultist (but I repeat myself), you don’t actually believe Trump had nothing to do with this fiasco. That leaves open the question as to why Pence or Pence’s staff would ever put the vice president in this position. It does suggest that Pence is too dense even to be of use to Trump.

Third, one wonders what Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is thinking. Having spontaneously denied rumors that she was angling for Pence’s job or had a feud with the vice president, she might consider putting out a statement denying any rumors that she has done anything remotely as stupid as publicly feathering the president’s nest.

Finally, in an effort to clean up the mess, Short told the Times that Pence would pay for all his family’s expenses. (What about staff, transportation and security?) Umm, I think this is worse given that Pence now has decided to write a check directly to his boss’s company. Haley might want to start practicing a stump speech and making a highlight reel of her time at the United Nations.

British Circus

Political Cartoon is by Ed Hall at artizans.com.

The "Rising Up" Left

Liberalism Vs. Conservatism

Three New National Polls On Support For Democrats

The chart reflects the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between September 1st and 3rd of a national sample of 518 Democrats and Leaners. No margin of error was given.

This chart reflects the results of the new IBD / TIPP Poll -- done between August 22nd and 30th of a national sample of 360 Democrats and Leaners. No margin of error was given.

This chart reflects the results of the new Change Research Poll -- done between August 23rd and 26th of a national sample of 874 likely Democratic primary voters, with a margin of error of 3.3 points.

NOTE -- Candidates were included only if they got at least 2% support in the polls.

Grim Reaper Lives In The White House

Political Cartoon is by Gary Huck at huckkonopackicartoons.com.

Trump Takes Needed Military Funds To Build His Wall

Donald Trump promised his xenophobic base that he would build a wall between the United States and Mexico -- and Mexico would pay for that wall. He repeated that promise many times during his presidential campaign.

Now, after two and a half years in office, Trump has failed to deliver on that promise. Mexico has not given even a cent for the wall, and assures everyone they will give nothing in the future. And the U.S. Congress has basically done the same -- budgeting only a pittance for the wall.

To date, not a single mile of new wall has been built (although some existing parts of the current wall have been repaired or replaced).

That had Trump worried. He didn't want to have to run for re-election without any portion of new wall being built. That's because any hope he has of being re-elected depends on his followers going to the polls in very large numbers.

So, what does he do? He instructs the Secretary of Defense to use money budgeted for the military to put it towards building the necessary wall. And the sycophant Defense Secretary complied -- shifting $3.6 billion in military construction funds to the wall.

This was not "extra' Money the military had. It was money to be used for badly needed construction. The military said it was crucial they receive that money for construction (barracks, housing, etc.), and Congress believed them and gave them that money. Now that construction won't be done. The government said that construction was only delayed. But that means Congress will have to again budget that money for military construction, and the taxpayers will have to pay more (for a purpose they thought they had already paid for).

These actions by the executive branch are shameful. They should not be able to use money Congress has budgeted for one purpose to do something else. And do it so a lying narcissist can brag to his base  about building a wall. But it looks like Trump will get away with this. He will get away with it because the Republicans in Congress care more about keeping Trump happy than protecting the powers of Congress.

Trump needs to be defeated in 2020, and so do all the Republican officials who support him.

Same Book - Different Result

Political Cartoon is by David Hayword at nakedpastor.com.

U.N. Report Condemns All Sides In Yemen War (includes U.S.)

(Photo from Yemen, by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters, was found at aljazeera.com.)

A new report, put out by the United Nations Human Rights Council, condemns the actions of both sides in the Yemen War -- both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition. It also blames outside parties that are providing both sides with weapons (Iran, United States, France, and United Kingdom). The report finds all parties guilty of numerous human rights violations.

Here is some of that report:

A UN report on Yemen released on Tuesday details a host of possible war crimes committed by various parties to the conflict over the past five years, including through airstrikes, indiscriminate shelling, snipers, landmines, as well as arbitrary killings and detention, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and the impeding of access to humanitarian aid in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

The Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen, created by the UN Human Rights Council, found that the governments of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Houthis and affiliated popular committees have enjoyed a “pervasive lack of accountability” for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The report calls for the immediate cessation of all acts of violence committed against civilians in violation of applicable international human rights and international humanitarian law, and demands that the parties take action to protect civilians and ensure justice for all victims. 

It urges other States to refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict, and reminds them of their obligation to take all reasonable measures to ensure respect for international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict. . . .

Despite a lack of cooperation by the Coalition and Government of Yemen, the Group of Experts was able during the short time available this year to conduct more than 600 interviews with victims and witnesses, to examine documentary and open-source material,  and to carry out investigations into emblematic cases to establish patterns of conduct indicative of alleged violations in Yemen since September 2014. 

The Experts found reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct of hostilities by the parties to the conflict, including by airstrikes and shelling, continued to have an extreme impact on civilians and many of these attacks may amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law. The Experts further found reasonable grounds to believe that, in addition to violations related to the conduct of hostilities, the parties to the armed conflict in Yemen are responsible for arbitrary deprivation of the right to life, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, torture, ill-treatment, child recruitment, violations of fundamental freedoms, and violations of economic, social and cultural rights. These amount to violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as applicable. Subject to determination by an independent and competent court, many of these violations may result in individuals being held responsible for war crimes. . . .

The Group of Experts attributed direct responsibility to the parties to the conflict regarding the humanitarian situation in Yemen. The continued extreme impact of attacks against civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, water facilities, food transport, farms and market places, as well as the use of blockades and siege-like warfare, impeding humanitarian access, and other such measures have exacerbated the disastrous humanitarian situation. . . .

The Group expressed strong concern that the parties to the conflict may have used starvation as a method of warfare, as these acts contributed to depriving the population of objects indispensable to its survival. 

The Experts’ report calls on all States and international organizations to promote and support all efforts, notably those of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen to achieve a sustainable political solution including accountability.