Poll shows GOP likes Kim Jong Un better than Nancy Pelosi

There's no doubt that the image of Kim Jong Un has undergone a pretty startling rehabilitation in the wake of tRump's summit with the N. Korean despot. That took place six days ago, on June 12th.

Well, what we can say for sure is that his image is a whole lot better with tRump supporters in the GOP, anyway.

A just-released poll by IPSOS shows that Republican respondents have a higher opinion of North Korea's world-reviled, blood-thirsty dictator Kim Jong Un than Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.

Let that sink in: Republicans today like a tyrant-for-life, vicious killer, who executes his countrymen and even his blood relatives with flame throwers and anti-aircraft guns over the leader of that other party in our House of Representatives.

Now let's shift the focus from merely reporting this little factoid to examining one of the larger issues which we would quite understandably want to look at in light of the poll's results.

How can our elected reps get the nation's business done when folks belonging to one of the two major parties think more highly of one of the most despicable dictators who's ever lived over a politician whose views they don't like?

How? In God's name, how? How can you work with elected officials in a political party who, when they stand for re-election, must convince folks who see the world that way to vote for them? 

Tell me how. 

You think you see a way forward for our Republic when approximately 30% of your countrymen hold a preference like that?

"Bulldog Ben" Basile

© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile

Go to Jail! Go directly to Jail!

Well, unless you've been under a rock for the last few hours, you've no doubt heard that Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered former tRump campaign manager and the best damn lobbyist for Russian-aligned dictators EVER, Paul Manafort to go to jail!

Her order, more specifically read: "Go to jail! Go directly to jail! Do not pass Go! Do NOT collect $200!" (Sorry. As a boomer who's played hundreds of hours of  Monopoly, I just couldn't resist!)

Poor, poor Pauly! To lock-up he went! Quite the fall from the heavens, wouldn't you say?

Turns out that it's a crime--and a very, very bad thing--to try to tamper with the testimony of a witness in a criminal case where you're the defendant! Who knew?!

Who knew that some of the stuff you send around using these new, very cool apps that encode shit and auto-delete shit from texts can be read from the cloud if one fails to disable the cloud-uploady feature? Who knew that?

Well, Mr. Manafort didn't. And not knowing that is the reason he's wearing one of those stylish orange jumpsuits right now!

Poor, poor Pauly! He'll be in there for many, many months until his very-complex trial starts. Could even take a year or two...

Hey, if you're as torn up about this as I am, here's a bit of consolation: you can mail Mr. Manafort at this address while he's chillin' like a villian! Yeah, this addy right here:

Paul Manafort
Inmate #00045343
Northern Neck Regional Jail
P.O. Box 1060
Warsaw, VA 22572


Pauly's all locked up! Sad!




"Bulldog Ben" Basile


Update on Brother Pauly! Mr Manafort was moved to a lock up facility in the old town part of Alexandria, VA back on July 12th. Numerous reports came out after Bulldog posted this (June 15th), saying that bro Paul had a really sweet deal at the Northern Neck facility. Poor Pauly!


© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile

Kim Jong Un punks tRump in Singapore!

By now you've no doubt heard all about the awesome and historic summit between our Lying Loser Prez and Kim Jong Un, the vicious thug who rules North Korea with that proverbial iron fist.

Well, our Fearless Leader, our self-proclaimed Great Deal Maker just gave away the store in Singapore!

The #PoserPrez thought he was quite the negotiator when Kim put his name to a vaguely-worded pledge to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula; the fact is that it was nothing of substance, just a rehashing of  Korea's "commitment" made back in 2005 and at least two other times to pull the plug on the weapons program which has advanced light years from where it was when that "promise" was first made.

I'm not going to give the events in yesterday's summit any in-depth treatment in this post, but the specific event from the summit which has, quite justifiably, received the most treatment now that it's all wrapped up, was tRump's agreement--without actually being asked--to halt our military exercises with our South Korean allies.

Yeah. This cartoonishly incompetent, ego-driven moron many Americans thought had the skill and moxie to well represent the United States just bent over enthusiastically in Singapore and let KJU booty-root him with one of those second-generation, intermediate-range missiles in front of the whole world.

The blood-red, Donnie-commie cherry on this shit sundae of international diplomacy: while this was going on, the tRumpkins back home exploded in great paroxysms of demented delight, lauding Fearless Leader for his amazing negotiating skills and general awesomeness!

If you'd like to read a more detailed accounting of how this deal went down, here's a link to a solid article from Australian media about the summit that gives a pretty thorough treatment to Singapore without wading in too deep. (Yes, I know that's not an adverb. So sue me!)

A closing thought: here's a link to another piece which clearly, and with delicious irony, highlights how tRump went on at some length in a post-summit interview about what a great negotiator Kim is.

Well, Mr. tRump! The world certainly agrees with you on that one!




"Bulldog Ben" Basile



© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile

Our Poser Prez plays the fool at the G-7 Conference

Well, our #LyingLoserPrez is up to his usual antics. This week, the setting is the G-7 Conference, where the leaders of the seven large industrial economies meet each year to take care of business.

The biggest facet of the story about the summit has to do with our uber-ignorant and incompetent leader's insistence that the US has been on the bad end of trade policies promulgated and followed by the world's industrialized nations and that he's going to put a stop to it.

Of course, this joke-of-a-leader cannot offer any rationale or proof behind his ridiculous contentions about trade with our close allies, but so what! He never has fact-based arguments behind any of his insane, toxic beliefs. There's no reason to think that this would be, or will be, any different.

The bottom line is that our know-nothing, America-first-and-fuck-all-the-rest-of-you pretend prez puts his ignorance, arrogance and malice on display everywhere he goes and anytime he represents our once-great nation.

There's no end to his tantrums, thinly-veiled insults and perpetual eye-pokes to our closest friends every time he's in the presence of other world leaders. Well, of course, not when he's around the world's most reprehensible dictators and strong men. No, not then.

The fact that he's doing all of this again at this very important G-7 summit should surprise no one. And it will go on just like this until we get this fool, this con man, this hateful, ignorant bastard out of our White House.

Oh, and one closing thought: his insane insistence that it's time to let Russia back into the G-7 is completely unwarranted, would reward their criminal invasion of the Ukraine and is the cherry at the top of this G-7 shit sundae!

Enough editorializing! You can read a thorough summation from Reuters all about the summit and tRump's behavior there by following this link.



"Bulldog Ben" Basile


© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile

tRump clashes with Philly, looks ridiculous!

Most of you have probably heard about the back-and-forth between our #PoserPrez and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

In the unlikely chance that you haven't, a quick summary for you: several Eagles decided they did not want to come to the White House in light of tRump's many openly racist pronouncements including the time he called NFL players who choose to kneel for the National Anthem at NFL games "sons of bitches."

When tRump got wind of this development he decided to un-invite the team rather than risk what could well have been a pretty underwhelming photo op.

The tweet that he sent after coming to that decision is typical tRump drivel. It basically attempts to brand Eagle players who weren't keen on the visit as unpatriotic and depicts anyone who doesn't fetishize the National Anthem or see an immediate link from it to support for the military as un-American at best and enemies of the State at worst.

I thought tRump's tweet was a piece of garbage. Many in the media also called B.S. on Fearless Leader's irrational and one-sided view which is laid bare by reading the tweet. And here it is:

"We will proudly be playing the National Anthem and other wonderful music celebrating our Country today at 3 P.M., The White House, with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus. Honoring America! NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!"

Our unPOTUS has a long history of making illogical and bombastic statements to poke his fingers in the eyes of his political enemies or people he dislikes. Many, as in this case, come in the form of a tweet.

There is no possible way that this incident--involving the victors in this year's Super Bowl--will be the last test of wills between a hateful and publicity-seeking con man on one side and a championship sports team on the other. It will continue to play out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and on twitter with each NBA Championship, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl and World Series.

And the result will be the same. Athletes and sports franchises who see tRump for the hateful, self-centered usurper that he is will avoid allowing themselves to be used to promote another one of his megalomaniacal PR stunts. And he'll strike back at them, using twitter, another ridiculous statement uttered by the spokesperson of the week, or whatever platform is available to him at the time.

And the insane, cringe-worthy cycle, like everything we see coming from the perpetual shit show that is the tRump administration, will repeat itself over and over until--at last--we're successful at removing this charlatan from the office he and his teammate Vlad conspired to steal.



"Bulldog Ben" Basile



© 2018 Ben Lawrence Basile