“Just when I thought
I was out, they pull me back in!”
-Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part III
The Captain has been trying to extract myself from the
various political conversations littering the American landscape these days. (See
previous post here.)
Last week I may have lost a long-time friend over this election. I
have always known and respected her conservative positions on politics and religion, and it’s
always been okay. But at this point I don’t see how anyone could possibly
support this year’s Republican candidate for President. She doesn't see how I could possibly support the Democratic candidate.
Call the Captain a “Yellow-Dog Democrat” if you want. In
previous elections I have considered candidates on both sides of the political
spectrum. Had Romney, Ryan, or even McCain (without Palin) been the candidate this year,
I could see myself voting their way. But this year I would truly choose a
yellow dog over Donald Trump (OMFG!)!
He’s getting absolutely ridiculous.
And I’m pretty sure my blood pressure creeps up a little bit
each day when I think about it.
So at the advice of a fellow pirate captain, I started
looking for nicer things going on in the world.
“Oh, look! It’s Hemingway Days in Key West!”
Every morning on Facebook I am posting a cheerful, happy song (stolen from
YouTube).
I am trying to share positive, uplifting (and non-political) memes.
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| "Ahem..." |
I’m trying.
But...
And if I don’t release it here on the Banana Winds, like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather III", either my
head or my heart will soon explode!
Over the weekend, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails stolen
from the Democratic National Committee demonstrating that the DNC was working
to promote former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Senator Bernie
Sanders as the Democratic candidate for President.
This comes on the heels of another email “scandal”
concerning Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary
of State. Republican accusations insisted Clinton did not turn over some 30,000
emails, which she claims have nothing to do with the job she was doing.
Captain’s Note: In
fairness to Clinton, Carl Rove and the Bush administration admitted to deleting
approximately 20 million emails in the midst of an investigation of the Bush
administration. There was not a single congressional inquiry and very little was
said in “the liberal media” about it.
Nonetheless, on Monday night at the Democratic National
Convention, an angry Sanders made a courageous and compelling speech in support
of Clinton as the Democratic nominee, and encouraged his faithful supporters to
do likewise.
Government officials suspect Russian hackers assisted
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in finding and releasing the DNC emails. Republican
die-hards insist the Dems are just trying to deflect attention away from the
content of the emails.
Anyone else find it odd that WikiLeaks believes there should
be no secrets in the world – their rationale for releasing the documents as
they have – but yet they refuse to release the identity of any of their
contributors / hackers?
Moving on…
So today, in an interview, the Republican’s clown prince
presidential candidate, Donald Trump (OMFG!), stated, “…Russia, if you are
listening I hope you will be able to find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails that are
missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
called his comments “beyond the pale… asking Russia to engage in American
politics.”
Phillip Reiner, former official with the National Security
Council during the Obama administration, called Trump (OMFG!) a “scumbag animal”.
“Hacking emails is a criminal activity. And he’s asking a foreign government –
a murderous, repressive regime – to attack not just one of our citizens but the
Democratic presidential candidate? Of course it’s a national security threat.”
And so you know the Captain is not simply launching a
partisan attack, hear from William Inboden, also of the NSC but during the H.W.
Bush administration: “[this is] tantamount to treason… It’s an assault on the
Constitution.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) gave yet another milquetoast
rebuke to his party’s candidate, but still supports him.
Of course, Trump’s (OMFG!) enablers insist their candidate
was joking.
That’s about as funny as when President Ronald Reagan was
testing a microphone and quipped, “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you
today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin
bombing in five minutes.”
So Trump (OMFG!) tried to cover his ass soften the
tone with a follow-up tweet: “If Russia or any other country or person has
Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share
them with the FBI.”
Yeah, that’s what he meant…
The “Law & Order Candidate”… my ass!
But Trump (OMFG!) just cannot shut up. In another interview
this afternoon, he stated, “I never met
Putin. I don’t know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me, He said
I’m a genius. I said ‘Thank you very much’ to the newspaper, and that was the
end of it. I never met Putin.”
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| Captain's Note: To set the record straight, Putin called Trump (OMFG!) "flamboyant", not "a genius". |
And yet, during a Republican Primary Debate just last
November, Trump (OMFG!) boasted, “I got
to know [Putin] very well because we were both on ’60 Minutes’, we were
stablemates, and we did very well that night.”
Of course, when called on that comment three days after the
debate, Trump (OMFG!) back-tracked in a tweet: “I only said I was on @60Minutes
four weeks ago with Putin – Never said I was in the Green Room. Separate pieces
– great ratings!”
During the primaries Trump (OMFG!) successfully portrayed
Ted Cruz as a liar. “Lying Ted Cruz” became a rallying cry against his primary
opponent.
Then Trump (OMFG!) moved on to label Clinton a liar. “Lying
Hillary”, he repeatedly says.
But who is the real liar here? Does Trump (OMFG!) know Putin
or not? He says he doesn’t know him or anything about him. Yet after all the
praise he has lavished upon the Russian leader recently:
“When people call you ‘brilliant’ it’s always good,
especially when the person heads up Russia. He’s running his country and at
least he’s a leader. You know, unlike we have in this country.”
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| (Yes, I know it's photoshopped... Or is it...?) |
Who’s lying now?
“Lying Donald Trump”, that’s who!
OMFG!
