Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

By now, you've probably seen the front page of Sunday's New York Times which lists 1,000 or the 100,000 and counting virus victims. While normal people have a normal reaction to this ongoing nightmare, President Psychopath really seems to have a deep need to always put an exclamation point on the fact that he really doesn't give a shit.

Well, perhaps that's not really fair of me. You see, it's obvious to me that he does give a shit in that his whole reaction to the threat of COVID-19 has been to ask himself not what he can do for his country but what can he do to it, or, what he can do for himself and his donors. That's me generously assuming that President Psychopath even considers this country to be his country. His response to the threat of the virus can only be seen as the response of a madman hellbent on maximizing the number of dead Americans. Not even the dumbest of dumbfucks would do so little or do so wrong. This is not ignorance. What Trump has done or not done can only be reasonably seen as deliberate psychopathy.

President Psychopath is a man so full of contempt for us that he asks himself "How can I catapult the destruction?" He has done that with everything. He's even fighting the very idea of healthcare in our courts while this plague rages. He could have responded to the virus threat two weeks earlier than he did and prevented the deaths of over 50,000 Americans. Likewise, he could have prevented a huge percentage of the non-fatal cases. He could have prevented a ton of grieving for so many of us but that's not who he is. Instead, he exponentially explodes the destruction just as his henchmen in the White House and $enate do when they follow his every psychotic wish. Even now, $enate Majority Leader Moscow Mitch is refusing to have the $enate address serious aid to small businesses and middle and working class Americans while he smugly boasts that there will be no more unemployment insurance. It's all I got mine. Why don't you just die time. We're in a deep state of emergency and McConnell goes home and sits on his thumb while Trump goes golfing not just at taxpayer expense but at the expense of taxpayer life, liberty and the pursuit of economic well-being. All that matters to these two Putin capos is the confirmation of more Neo-Nazi judges and getting more tax breaks to their donors in eager anticipation of "campaign contribution" kickbacks.

I get emails from the Trump/Pence 2020 campaign. They want me to contribute money. They invariably start out by throwing around words like "socialism," "big government," "lamestream media," and the like, often randomly combining two or more as epithets. These emails name drop too. It's all Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, Crooked Comey, Shifty Schiff... He now calls President Obama "Obamagate" instead of the usual "Obamanation," his former appellation for his predecessor. Then the emails tell me that they are asking for a donation from me because I am a "patriot that loves Trump and America." His name always comes first.

Yesterday (Saturday), I sent Howie a couple of the emails and I noted how they now seem to be more and more intensely desperate and read more and more just like President Psychopath's insane tweeting. Clearly he's writing them himself now. They are coming more often and they more than hint at a mind that is coming undone at a faster pace. One of the deranged emails opened with the line "Obamagate is the biggest political crime in our nation's history." But wait, there's more and it's coming with more projection on his part-

Barack Obama will forever be remembered as the disgraced former president who used federal law enforcement in an attempt to hurt his political opponents. His administration, including Sleepy Joe Biden illegally spied on President Trump and his 2016 campaign and then LIED about it-- we can't let them get away with it.

In the email, "Illegally spied" is in quotes and highlighted in yellow for extra frenzied emphasis. As you can see, the email is indeed an amazing example of projection. President Psychopath not only fails to detail what the hell "Obamagate" is, he accuses his opponents of doing the kind of things he's telling Attorney General Kneepads Barr do. Putting 'lied' in caps is an especially ironic touch. Oh, and the whole thing is "the greatest HOAX of all time."

Then, not 3 hours later, another email came with the header "Should Hillary Clinton Be In Jail?" He added six bright red exclamations, three on each side. I won't even get into the rest of the derangement expressed in the email.

Ah, but, today (Sunday) came the sickest Trump/Pence 2020 email to date. It's nothing short of using the corpses and souls of the American military dead of past wars in order to sell Trump MAGA merchandise to raise campaign funds-

The brave men and women who fought for our freedom and laid down their lives for our Nation are truly exceptional and I wanted to do something special to honor them for Memorial Day. There is nothing more Patriotic than Americans proudly wearing USA gear for everyone to see, which is why I wanted to do something special to honor them for Memorial Day. For a short time, you can take 25% OFF your ENTIRE purchase at the only Official Trump Campaign Store with code: USA25.

Yeah, he wanted to do something special to honor the dead; sell merchandise! I can just see him laying a wreath at the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier on July 4th and then selling replica wreaths for his campaign right then and there.

The email then provides a link directly to the "Official Trump Store" to "shop the Trump Memorial Day Weekend Sale NOW. Yes, you can tell by what the email puts in bold letters and caps what is most important to President Psychopath. The sale code is actually not just bold, it's even highlighted in yellow; no such emphasis for the "brave men and women who fought..." In his twisted mind, they are mere props.

So, it wasn't just enough for brave Cadet Bone Spurs to go golfing at taxpayer expense in his celebration of 100,000 dead American virus victims. He just simply HAD to obscenely make use of those who died defending a country he is determined to destroy for his own purposes and those of his supporters and handlers. Well done, sir, and well done to those who keep you where you are. May you all burn, not in Hell, but right here in the real world where we can see.

U.S. Covid-19 Deaths Will Pass 100,000 Before the End of May

The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., built to honor the 58,000 Americans killed in that war (Getty Images)

by Thomas Neuburger

It's appropriate to remember, as the end of May approaches, the nation's honored dead. It's also appropriate to remember its forgotten dead, those whose sacrifices are and will be ignored.

The number of Americans killed in-theater in Vietnam was more than 58,000, and we, to honor them, erected the moving memorial shown above in the heart of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The number of Americans killed in World War I passed 116,000. The U.S. has done a just-adequate job of memorializing the dead in that war, but still, memorials exist. In Washington, D.C., there's this modest affair, here being advertised as a place to get married.

A more striking WWI monument is soon to come to Washington, though true to these neoliberal times, it will be built entirely with private money, and the "Founding Sponsor" is a foundation established by the Pritzkers, a troubling Chicago real estate family whose members were major financiers of Barack Obama's political career. (The Chicago Sun Times recently noted that "there would not have been an Obama presidency if not for Penny Pritzker’s fundraising abilities. ... The money she raised for his first quarter report was an impressive enough haul to make Obama a viable [2008] presidential candidate.")

The Pritzkers didn't get naming rights for the memorial, at least not yet, but I'm sure their branding will be easy to spot — a tasteful sign, something like "Brought to you by the Pritzkers, because we're the billionaires who care."

The number of Americans killed by Covid-19 will reach 100,000 by the time the May dead are counted. And at 1,500 deaths per day — our average these days — Covid-19 deaths will surpass WWI deaths by the the end of the following week.

What will the nation's Covid-19 Memorial look like when it finally gets built? Like this perhaps?

How many will have died to make Wall Street great again? As one longtime investment banker put it, "'people with no stake in the economy' are talking about keeping it closed." Shame on them.

So maybe this memorial is appropriate. It's not quite a golden calf, but close enough. Perhaps an inscription, "To the unknown Uber driver" could be etched on its side, a stand-in for the 100,000 (and counting) who gave their lives so the billionaire economy could live.
 

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Happy Memorial Day to all. All except the Nazis and their totalitarian brethren everywhere, that is.

A word of advice: Civility has no place in this fight. We didn't beat down the nazis of the 1940s with politeness and moderation and we won't now. The meek do not inherit the Earth. Got that, Ms. Pelosi?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

As we remember those who died in military service, let us remember that, among other things, they gave their lives for our right to vote, so use that right in November or this mentally ill fascist dirtbag gets to make their sacrifice a sacrifice for nothing.

Some gave all. Some gave nothing. One got a doctor to write a note about fake bone spurs and then set off on a career as a con man.

Honoring the true spirit of Memorial Day: Everyone bought a mattress, right?

Shaun Hiltner, manager of the Rockville Pike Mattress Warehouse, begins his Memorial Day commemoration by posting sale signs in Rockville (MD). Darting through traffic to post signs, says Shaun, is "the most deadly part of being a mattress salesman," which is widely known to rank with tight-rope walking, bomb defusing, and census-taking as one of the highest-risk occupations.

by Ken

As the Memorial Day weekend draws to a close, most Americans staring at themselves in mirrors or selfies will be asking themselves the question that looms so large for us during this holiday season: Did I buy a mattress over the weekend?

The Washington Post's Monica Hesse was all over the story ("It’s Memorial Day weekend, and these mattress salesmen will not rest").

Early on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, at approximately the same time that a Rockville mattress salesman named John Pattammady was telling himself that the decision not to hire the cheerleaders had been the correct judgment for this particular mattress event, another Rockville mattress salesman named Shaun Hiltner was blowing up a 35-foot-tall inflatable vinyl giant whose official name was Mattress Man.

“Nice,” he said, appraising the figure, which dominated the front of the Mattress Warehouse where he was store manager.

Already this morning he had darted into traffic to stake six dozen “sale” signs along the highway exit. (“The most deadly part of being a mattress salesman,” he said.) Already he had lofted a promotional weather balloon 40 stories above the shopping plaza. John, for his part, had spent the previous evening staking his own signs in front of his store, Mattress Fame, as well as acquiring many small American flags for appropriate festivity. (“You can get them down at the dollar store,” he said.)

It was one of the mattressiest weekends of the year on one of the mattressiest stretches of the region. A three-mile strip of Rockville Pike contained Shaun’s store, John’s store, a Sleepy’s, another Sleepy’s, a Mattress Discounters, another Mattress Discounters, a Savvy Rest and a Healthy Back, and every store was competing for the customers who trudged between them carrying holiday circulars or humming jingles. . . .

Those trudging customers are, of course, the living embodiment of the Spirit of Memorial Day. But the true mattress professional that those trudgers can never be taken for granted. "If the weather's too nice," cautions John Pattammady of Mattress Fame, "everyone will go to the beach." And John knows, reports Monica Hesse, that among the Memorial Day observers who shun the beach,

when it came to mattresses, you never could guess with a customer. He had seen men driving Jaguars and wearing $300 shoes come in and demand to spend no more than $200 on a mattress.

John's Rockville competitor Shaun Hiltner of Mattress Warehouse also knows the rigors of dealing with participants in the Memorial Day mattress ritual. Here's Monica again:

To be a mattress salesman over Memorial Day was about being an educator and a therapist, Shaun believed. Peering behind what buyers said they wanted, into the depths and desires of the long-weekend suburban American psyche.

This is clearly not a vocation for the faint of heart. Brian Foley, the assistant manager at Mattress Warehouse, learns the hard way that shoppers are not to be trusted. He had to seek counsel from Shaun, his boss, to deal with a young couple who --

were trying to make their first joint mattress purchase — a very firm one, please — but they tried several without success, and eventually Brian was stumped. “Shaun?” he called. “Do you have any suggestions?”

Shaun had a feeling, related to a salesman slogan he’d once heard: “Buyers are liars.” It didn’t mean people intentionally lied. It meant sometimes they didn’t know what they wanted until they were lying on it — so he tried the firm-mattress couple on a slightly softer bed.
“Oh, this is nice,” the boyfriend said.

“You want to feel something really nice?” Shaun said, and led them across a few aisles.

“Oh, wow,” said the girlfriend, lying down on the appointed mattress.

“I never expected this out of a bed,” said the boyfriend.
Instead of buying something very firm, they’d fallen in love with a $2,000 “luxetop plush microcoil,” one of the softest beds in the store.

Is it any wonder that Memorial Day is such a fraught holiday? Oh, the horror! The mattress wars are hell, and Monica has many more war stories to share, from just the first day of this year's commemoration. Why, it's a wonder that any of these folks make it through the whole weekend to tell their tales.



What could say "Memorial Day" more than the age-old ritual of the Tying of the Sale-Priced Mattresses on the Car Roof?

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YESTERDAY WAS MEMORIAL DAY-- THINKING ABOUT OUR SOLDIERS-- ALIVE AND DEAD-- SHOULDN'T BE A ONE DAY OCCURANCE

Yesterday was the commercialized version of Memorial Day. The real Memorial Day is Friday, May 30. But what would you say if I told you that Memorial Day started as a subterfuge for treason? Hard to believe that this most patriotic of American holidays had its roots in a bit of a conspiracy among Confederates to gather and talk crap about the Union after they were defeated in 1865. Afraid that they would be arrested for treason, Confederate officers had their wives and daughters organize activities around honoring fallen rebels and "the men were figuratively hiding behind the skirts of these women." Sometimes as many as 60,000 white southerners would gather at these reveries for their accursed "Lost Cause." After the Spanish-American War and World War I, the Confederate finally started observing Memorial Day with Americans.

Their sick and perverted "Lost Cause" isn't what Tom Allen had in mind when his campaign sent out a tribute from Maine veterans for their fallen comrades. Tom's powerful and aggressive support for veterans and, recently, for the GI Bill, has forced Bush rubber stamp Susan Collins to break with Bush and McCain, something she rarely does, and vote with the majority to the Senate to update the GI Bill and give Iraq and Afghanistan war vets an opportunity to get an education after serving-- even though McCain was hysterical about Republicans not falling into line and following his leadership.

Back to the "Lost Cause" for one moment. Not all Southerners-- and none I know-- are unreconstructed Confederates. One southern lady sent me a heartfelt note this morning about killed and wounded servicemen and women from Georgia. Unlike me, my friend Regina Thomas organizes a good deal of her life around church. She's a devout and dedicated woman whose belief in Jesus' message has led her in a very different direction from the so-called "Religious Right." Hers (and Jesus') religion is about the Gospel of Love and Inclusion, not the ranting of hatred and bigotry. The first e-mail I read this morning was Regina urging me to pray.

Pray especially for our families of all military personnel and by all means our troops. I read a very sad story today in the Savannah paper. A young (22) trooper who had been burned over 97% of his body 3 years ago-- German is the name-- fought for his life as he struggled to overcome the burns, the surgeries and the pain-- the feeling of not ever being loved by a woman and of all things what he saw when he looked in the mirror and the image looking back. The story will bring tears to your eyes.

This story happens far to often-- the world needs to be able to share the pains of all the families of the fallen, the slain and the injured. God Bless them all and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

This Memorial Day weekend is intense for so many-- this war-- this one war has changed America; it has changed and adversely affected so many lives. Our troops are tired, our families are weary, our children are losing parents, parents are losing children, spouses are losing spouses and the list goes on and on.

Just think... when it is time for a soldier to be relieved of his duty because the time has come for either getting out or staying in, this president issued a "Stop Loss Order" - holding our very own American citizens against their will. And what can be done about it? Congress must act to change this; legislation can change this. If soldiers (no matter the branch) want to get out, then they should be able to do just that. I cannot imagine what they are going through. What are our congressman/women thinking. If they would only put themselves in the shoes of our troops. Maybe those that support the war need to go over to Iraq, sleep where the troops sleep for one night, I can assure you that they will not get any sleep. May God have Mercy on us all!

Regina is a state Senator from Savannah challenging a Blue Dog, John Barrow, who has supported Bush every step of the way-- who brags about supporting Bush every step of the way. Listen to him bragging on the floor of Congress halfway through this song we turned into a viral video for Regina's campaign:



Yesterday, Ken posted a very powerful Memorial Day message from U.S. veteran Bob Geiger, Dead Troops Remembered By President Who Had Them Killed. If you missed it yesterday, I assure you it's relevance hasn't diminished at all since then and I urge you to go back and read it.