Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I used to live in Washington, DC. It was many years ago. I lived in a large house in the Dupont Circle area, an area which was known then for its large populations of stray cats and junkies. The winters never got very bad so both were able to survive. I like cats and, as for the junkies, they never stole as much as the politicians and police so it was a live and let live kind of neighborhood. There were others there though that were a true marvel of nature. I'm speaking of Washington's monstrous-sized rats, the four legged ones, not the Capitol Building and White House variety. These rats were really, with no exaggeration, bigger and healthier looking that the stray cats. Apparently the mild winters were good for them as well. It was also said that some of the junkies and homeless of Washington were known to catch them and eat them. Washington's rats had beautiful, sleek grey fur and, if rodents could be bodybuilders, well... These rats were ripped!

The reason Washington's rats were so extra large and healthy looking became apparent once Washington started to build its subway system in the early 1970s. It turned out that the city's rats had broken into some very, very large stores of grain and food supplies under places like Dupont Circle and several downtown parks and traffic intersections. The food had been placed there back in the post WW2 period as a food supply in case the Russians launched their nukes at us. The dumb assumption was that there would be human survivors in need of food if the nation's capital was nuked. No matter, the rats flourished and profusely multiplied; how much so became apparent when their subterranean homes were disturbed by all the blasting and digging for the subway tunnel construction. Millions of rats took to the streets, and they were pissed.

One of my favorite stories about all of this had to do with Farragut Square, a pleasant park at the foot of Connecticut Avenue, just a short stones throw from the White House. It was a lovely place where, in those days, government workers and even White House staff could take a break and have their lunch sitting on a bench in the shade of an old tree. The pissed off rats changed all of that though. Once they had only come out at night, but with their underground homes being demolished to make way for the subway, they were out and about 24 hours a day and lunchtime was their favorite hour of all! They were psychotic. They had no fear of humans whatsoever. They quickly became known for literally stealing your lunch faster than any human punk could. They terrorized the humans and the city parks became no-go zones.

Of course, Washington has always had and still has 2-legged rats as well; rats with a variety of political party affiliations that act like the nasty punks that they are by nature, but now, the Republican Party has upped the game in the 2-legged rodent world. The rat infested GOP elephant in tonight's meme isn't even stealthy. It operates in the open. American voters welcomed it into the city.

The Republican Party now features a real Pied Piper. Pied Piper Trump hasn't led any 2-legged rats out of the city though. No, instead he has attracted more and more of them into the "service" of his growing dictatorship, into Congress, and the into the courts. He talks of infestations in other cities as a means to distract and deflect. He has placed his team of rats in charge of various departments, including the Justice Department, and he's going to place one in charge of our national security and what was once our intelligence community. It will soon be Trump's own private intelligence community. It will do his sick bidding. It will be an arm of the authoritarian dictatorship of his anti-American dreams and fantasies. A Trojan donkey full of corrupt in their own way, timid little Democratic mice choses not to act and hardly stands in his way.

Rep. John Ratcliffe may have gone down in flames but how long before Moscow Mitch and his fellow bought and paid for fellow travelers in the $enate confirms some other Russian lackey like Devin Nunes, Dana Rohrabacher, or some other Putin suggestion whispered into Trump's ear? It's the Grand Old Putin Party now. Moscow on the Potomac. The best infestation rubles can buy.

Trump, The Republicans And Baltimore

Rats by Nancy Ohanian

In 2016, Trump won the Republican primary in Maryland with 236,623 votes. On the same day, Hillary beat Bernie in that state, 63.0% to 33.2%... but Bernie's 281,275 second place finish was still enough to beat Trump. In Baltimore City. It was even funnier. Hillary beat Bernie by a lot-- 81,115 to 38,710, but in the GOP primary that Trump won, he only got a little more than a tenth of what Bernie got, 3,950 votes. and in the general election, Hillary crushed Trump statewide, 60.5% to 35.3% but really eviscerated him in Baltimore-- 85.4% to 10.9%. So, apparently, the feeling is mutual.

Remember when Trump promised he would help cities like Baltimore if he was elected? Maybe someone believed him... but no one I know. Yesterday, John Wagner, reporting for the Washington Post, wrote "Four years ago, in the aftermath of rioting in Baltimore, Donald Trump criticized then-President Obama for not doing enough to address problems in the city and claimed that 'I would fix it fast!' if he were president."

But what does Señor Trumpanzee even know about Baltimore? Anything at all? Well... maybe. It turns out that Kushner-in-law is a slumlord there, reviled for mismanagement. Ellen Cranley reported that Kushner "has continued ownership of several Baltimore-area housing complexes that have been so embroiled in housing violations and mismanagement that Kushner has been called a 'slumlord.'nA 2017 investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times called The Beleaguered Tenants of Kushnerville detailed how a subsidiary of the real-estate firm Kushner Companies functioned and the poor living conditions that plagued residents in complexes bought under Kushner's oversight. The investigation reported decrepit conditions including leaking ceilings, maggots in living-room carpet, and raw human sewage coming from a kitchen sink. The report also includes mention of multiple retaliatory lawsuits against tenants who tried to move out. Residents said in lawsuits they noticed near-constant but largely unexplained fees that would end up aiding their eviction if they weren't paid. The cases are ongoing, as Kushner Companies switched the suit to state court after a federal judge ordered the company to reveal the identity of mysterious company investors."

Whether Trump is aware of the complexes where it seems "no human being would want to live" or not, the housing troubles tied to Kushner haven't gone unnoticed by the city.

Baltimore County officials took notice of Kushner's powerful status while announcing in 2017 that he was to be fined for more than 200 code violations in apartments owned by Kushner Companies.

"We expect all landlords to comply with the code requirements that protect the health and safety of their tenants," county officials said in a statement at the time, "even if the landlord's father-in-law is president of the United States."

The Post Greg Sargent noted that whenever Trumpanzee "unleashes one of his racist attacks, the political world tends to go through a now-predictable cycle. We are first told Republicans think Trump’s latest racist display is brilliant politics, a view often pushed by Trump himself. Then gullible pundits echo that claim. And then persistent digging by reporters shows that Republicans are actually worried that his racism poses a serious problem for the party, unmasking the initial confidence as false bravado." Yesterday two other Post writers, Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane, reported that Republicans might not agree with Trumpanzee's assessment of Baltimore. "House Republicans have scheduled their yearly policy retreat for a downtown Baltimore hotel in September… That could present an uncomfortable situation for Trump, as sitting presidents customarily speak each year at their party’s House retreat." Who will play Winston in the Trump reenactment of Room 101 for the convention. I'm sure he would have loved to have gotten Justin Amash. House Republicans with the lowest Trump adhesion score so far this year are Will Hurd (R-TX), John Katko (R-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Fred Upton (R-MI)...