Do Trumpsters Think Hillary Is Actually President

Here's one guy who thinks Hillary Clinton should be
impeached from an office she doesn't hold

Jimmy Kimmel's team pulled one of his stunts this week, sending a roving reporter out onto the streets to ask Trump supporters whether Hillary Clinton should be impeached.

Of course you and I know that she can't, because she's not president.

However, as you'll find out in this video, the fact that Clinton does not currently hold an elective office is not going to stop the impeachment bandwagon against her.

I will be charitable and assume that the people interviewed in this clip were confusing the definition of the word "impeach" with that of "prosecute."  Because I suppose if Clinton or anybody else did something illegal, they could be prosecuted.

Watch the video and you be the judge of what these people were thinking:

Elmo Gets Fired In Saddest Parody Video Ever

In a sad parody video, Elmo gets fired because of Trump
anti-education, pro-war budget cuts

The other day, I waxed enthusiastic about a new character on Sesame Street, the little redheaded girl named Julia, who has autism.  

What I didn't feel like talking about at the time was the budget cuts that could afflict public television.

As we know, President Donald Trump thinks war is terrific and education is worthless.

It takes a dumb person to think that, and there you go.

The parody video, which you can see at the bottom of this post, imagines the beloved Elmo from Sesame Street being laid off because of the Trump budget cuts.

Elmo, like anyone in this situation, is devastated. He's worked at Sesame Street for over 30 years. Doesn't that mean anything? Not in Trump world.

Elmo says he has a pre-existing condition. How will he get health care? Well he could get Obamacare, until that's repealed pretty soon.

How will Elmo make a living? Well, he could entertain people in Times Square for tips. Like that's a good way to make a living.

And, keeping with the ruthlessness of Trump and his Congressional minions, the video ends with the budget cuts stripping Elmo of his ability to make any kind of living, his dignity, and literally what he is.

Here's the video, to help coax you into supporting public broadcasting:

Heroic Rescue Of Baby From Hot Car, But......

"Ainsley" an incredibly lifelike
doll. A police officer broke a
car window to rescue an infant from
a hot car only to discover it was Ainsley the doll. 

Everybody did the right thing.

A woman in a Walmart parking lot in Keene, New Hampshire recently saw what looked like a baby locked inside a hot car on a scorching summer day.

Keene police arrived on the scene, and Lt. Jason Short saw the kid in a child car seat, says television station WMUR. 

"It was draped with a light blanket, and I could see little feet with the no-sole shoes and a bottle of milk," Short sakd.

So Short broke out a car window to rescue the baby. The kid appeared to be lifeless, so the officer tried to revive the kid. He began CPR.

That's when he realized what was going on. It was a doll. An incredibly life-like doll.

Says WMUR:

"The doll was a 'reborn doll,' manufacture to look exactly like a baby. Most reborn dolls cost a few hundred dollars, but this doll was valued at over $2,000."

The back story is almost as sad as a baby being left in a hot car to die.

The doll belongs to a Brattleboro, Vermont woman who collects these life-like dolls to cope with the death o her son years ago.

In a statement to the TV station, the woman said, "I've been laughed at and embarrassed by all the fuss. You can't know bow people choose to deal with their losses in life."

Very true. This was one of those cases where everybody did the right thing, but it still turned out weird.

The woman who called the cops, the cop who broke the window, and the woman trying to cope with her grief all did what we would expect and want people to do.

Still, it's an odd and sad story.

For the record, Keene Police said they would pay to repair the woman's car window.

If you do see a baby in a hot car, even if you don't know whether it's fake, call the cops anyway. Better safe than sorry.

It Must Be Terrible To Be Ted Cruz

Everybody hates this guy  

I suddenly have just the teeniest, tiniest bit of sympathy for Ted Cruz.

It's miniscule, but it's there.

It seems everybody hates, HATES Ted Cruz. This is probably not fair, but when I Googled "Ted Cruz hated" I got 20,600,000 results.

Think about it. All we've heard in the news for months is how much everybody hates Ted Cruz. I'm sure he's heard it, too.

His presidential campaign collapsed in a heap Tuesday in Indiana, and the end was a mess. Donald Trump managed to get into Cruz's head just by repeating the bullcrap from the National Enquirer about Cruz's dad somehow being involved with the JFK assassination.

Even Cruz's erstwhile, brief running mate Carly Fiorina fell off a stage, which seemed like an omen a day or two before the Indiana vote. Cruz also accidentally punched his wife while hugging one of his very few supporters the other night.

Cruz was hated in college. There's an interesting article in Slate written by a person who remembers what a slog it was to be in a debate club with Cruz.

"Most of my memories of debating Ted Cruz involve being hollered at," writes Dahlia Lithwick.

As a young lawyer, In the Senate people hated him.  Didn't former House Speaker John Boehner just call Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh"? 

Senator Lindsey Graham said: "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."

Congressman Peter King of New York said he would take cyanide if Cruz won the nomination.

Not exactly loving words.

Almost all politicians are rejected by voters from time to time. You need an amazingly thick skin to get into that line of work.

But the word "hate" comes up so often when people are talking about Cruz, and he must be aware of it. This has to sting.

Lithwick, in Slate, sees the same "qualities" in Cruz now as she saw in the college debate gatherings:

"Watching Cruz's halting rise and crushing fall on the campaign trail this season, I've seen so many of the same behaviors: the canned absolutists lines, the just-add-water-outrage machine the too-loud, too-much quality that thrums through every venue until your face hurts."

Politico suggests that maybe Cruz likes to be hated:

"He wants to be hated. He draws strength from the attention it delivers and he has sought the hatred of others since high school......"

"From the view inside Cruz's skull, once you get people to like you, your job has only begun. Additional acts of kindness, consideration and fairness must be extended or your likability will fade into the background.

But hatred is a much more efficient use of emotional energy. Often, a single does of malice can seal the impression among most people that you're a terminal prick. By acquiring as his enemies the Washington political establishment, Cruz figures he can inherit their enemies and the 2016 campaign has proved him right. Nobody until Cruz had the stomach to build his political foundation on a bedrock of loathing."

This obviously was written before Cruz's campaign crashed and burned.

So now what?  If Politico is right, then being the most hated person in the room didn't get Cruz very far.

Does being hated hurt Cruz emotionally? What is it like to have everybody say they hate you. It has to be crushing.

It would be for me and you, but for Cruz, I have no idea.

It all makes you want to give poor Ted Cruz a teddy bear to hug.

Sad, Brief Visits To Fukushima Earthquake Nuclear Disaster Haunts

Five years ago, that epic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster struck Japan.

Fukushima, the town where the nuclear plants basically imploded and leaked like crazy, was abandoned, perhaps never to be resettled. Or if it is, not for awhile.

People who lived there sometimes return for brief visits, but they have to try to move on with their lives the best they can.

Photojournalists Guillaume Bression and Carlos Ayesta have been periodically going to the Fukushima disaster zone to document the deteriorating, abandoned ruins.

In their latest release of photos, called "Retrace Our Steps," people who had fled returned to once familiar surroundings and posed as if they were doing what they would normally do before the disaster hit.

The photographers asked their subjects to act as normally as possible, and at least pretend to do what they would do if things were normal.

The photos in this post are examples of Ayesta and Bression's work. Click this link for more. 

Reports Featureshoot.com: 

"Ayesta and Bression asked that they sit how they would have years earlier, before the catastrophe, when daily life lumbered on as usual. It was a process, says Ayesta, of 'reconstituting normal life in chaos,' a 'life that will never be the same as before.'"  

Earlier, they photographed vegetation taking over everything in the post-apocalyptic landscape.

The photographs are haunting and terribly sad. There's something about images depicting normal life interrupted, destroyed and abandoned that send shivers down my spine.

H/T to Bored Panda for this. 

People Of Walmart Hit A New Low

A video still of that pathetic Walmart fight
between two women and a little boy.  

I admit it: I'm afraid of Walmart, and I don't like the store.

Yesterday, I was forced to shop at one in Yankton, South Dakota while visiting this town. It was the only place in Yankton that would fill my medical prescription, so I had to go.

It was fine. There were no "People of Walmart" those incredibly weird people that seem to hang out there. The staff was cheerful and helpful. One of the employees chatted us up about our visit to town.

We were lucky. Luckier than the folks at a Walmart in Beech Grove, Indiana. Everything these days is captured on video, and uploaded to YouTube. This incident is no exception.

I'll set up the pathetic scene:

A woman in a motorized scooter and another woman exchange words in the shampoo aisle. (Note: judging from the video, both women could have used the shampoo.)

The woman in the scooter then stands up and challenges the other woman to a fight. They quickly start brawling.

The saddest part is the six year old son of one of the women, who joins in the fight by hitting the woman that had been in the scooter with his fists, and a shampoo bottle. The boy's mother, in the midsts of the brawl, yells to the kid, "Johnny, punch her in the face! Johnny, punch her in the fucking face!"

The video goes on and on with no signs of store security. Bystanders pause and watch. The guy taking the video says "This is white trash at its finest."

Sigh.

Police are investigating whether to charge anyone with a crime. Beech Grove police also said, with considerable understatement, that they are deciding whether to involve the Department of Child Services in their investigation because of the behavior of the kid and the possible environment where he is being brought up.

My objections to Walmart mostly have to do with how they treat their employees. Obviously, most people who shop there are nice and normal, and just hunting for a bargain. But some people....JEEZ!

Here's the sad video:

Cop Pulls Over Nice Mustang; Idiot Truck Driver Slams Into Mustang

This guy waiting for a traffic ticket is
about to get much worse news.  

Here's a young guy who had a really bad day recently.  

A cop in Texas pulled over a young man driving a sweet Mustang.  While waiting for the cop to process the stop, the guy stood next to his car.

Then an idiot in a pickup truck spilled his 32 ounce Big Gulp or whatever, and focused so much on his soda that he slammed into the Mustang.

On the bright side, the kid who had the car jumped out of the way in time. On the negative side, the truck really trashed the Mustang.

Even worse, the driver of the white pickup truck was charged with having no insurance.

You can see in the video the kid looks really unhappy, but I would have reacted more strongly than he did, so kudos for the self control.

Here's the sad video:

Weird Creationist Guy Says Space Exploration Waste Of Time Because Aliens On Other Planets Are Doomed To Hell

I wonder if it's a sin that Ken Ham
doesn't seem to use his God-given gift
of intellectual curiosity.  

I don't know about you, but I always get a bit of a thrill when astronomers find something way out in space that's cool.

More planets, more strange places, even parts of the universe that could support intelligent life.  

Ken Ham doesn't get such a thrill. Maybe because his world doesn't support intelligent life.

He's that famous creationist who says God created the world something like 6,000 years ago, that evolution doesn't exist. He notably debated Bill Nye (the science guy) on this subject not long ago, and from my perspective, it didn't go well for Ham.

But Ham is back! He's got an op-ed, timed the other day for the 45th anniversary of the moon landing He said space exploration is a complete waste of money and time.

Especially since space aliens probably don't exist, and if they do, they're damned to hell.

He writes: "Of course, secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that they would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions!"

The exclamation point is Ham's.  He's flabbergasted that anyone would have any curiosity about anything going on beyond Ham's tiny little fundamentalist Christian world.

Ham goes on:

"And I do believer there can't be other intelligent beings in outer space  because of the meaning of the gospel....You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam's sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam's sin, but because they are not Adam's descendants, they can't have salvation."

I'm confused by so much of this, I'm afraid. First of all, I've always wondered why some people thing God is such a control freak and a passive-aggressive guilt tripper that when this Adam guy supposedly screwed up once, it's everybody else's fault as well.

Even if Adam was there and improperly ate the apple, you and I weren't there. We had nothing to do with it. So don't tell me I'm a sinner, at least for that reason.

It's probably good that space aliens are not descendants of Adam and Eve. The only way Adam and Eve could have propogated the human race is through incest.

That's one reason evolution works better for me. (The more important reason is science seems to have more evidence on its side)

Ham also throws in some lines that are slightly off topic, but still reflect his deep, deep lack of intellectual curiosity. I have to wonder if some people who are that into extreme religion use it as crutch so they don't have to think.

Anyway, there's this gem:

"The Earth was created for human life. And the sun and moon were created for signs and our season - and to declare the glory of God."

Well, yes, the Earth, the sun and the moon are pretty impressive. But so are the zillions of stars and planets and other known and unknown objects in the universe. Don't all those things declare the glory of God, too?

Here's more: "Many secularists want to discover alien life hoping that aliens can answer the deepest questions of life. 'Where did we come from?' and 'What is the purpose and meaning of life?' But such people are ignoring the revelation from the infinite God behind the whole universe. The Creator has told us where we came from: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'  And He told us what life's purpose is 'Fear God and keep his commandments'

What do I know? Maybe there is a God who created the whole universe.  And for that matter set in motion evolution. If that's true, there's a truly impressive God right there, let me tell ya.

But are purpose in life is to "fear God and keep his commandments."  Life is to be feared? No boldly going where no man has gone before?

I like to think God, if there is one,  wants us to go boldly where no man has gone before. Might bring him closer to him, for all I know.

As Salon points out, the most infuriating thing about Ham is he thinks all the answers are in the Bible, or at least his interpretation of it. His world does not extend beyond that book.

He has no intellectual curiosity at all. He'll never ask why about anything, which is totally sad. Even worse, other people buy his argument and they won't ask questions as well.

Which begs the point: If there is a God, why did he give us the ability to be curious, to ask questions, to explore? Why bother if if God doesn't want us to use these skills.

Look, believe what you want. Don't be that curious if you don't want to. Find all the easy answers through religion. It's your right. Go for it.  But leave me out of it.

Salon goes on to quote Neil deGrasse Tyson, who caused a great stir earlier this year with his series "Cosmos : A Spacetime Odyssey."

In it, Tyson said: "It's OK not to know all the answers....It's better to admit our ignorance, than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there."

Ham his closed his door tight. And if you shut the door to your own curiosity, your life becomes stilted, meaningless, and in my view, not what God intended.

My favorite type of kid are those youngsters, maybe four or five years old, who constantly pester you with "Why?" questions. About everything.

When those kids do that, it makes me feel like the kids are alright.

Ham, sadly, is not.

Most Unfortunate Middle School Music Performance Award Goes To...

From Mashable, we get this video of some middle schoolers at the Grosse Point Music Academy Spring Recital launching into a song by the group Weezer, but the performance turns into something of a wheezer.

Damn keyboards never cooperate.

Here's the video:

News Anchor Learns Of Friend's Suicide While Reading TelePrompter On Air

My heart goes out to Lee Chingua, a television anchor for Next TV News in Taiwan, who quite possibly had the worst, saddest and most public bad day on the job.

This news anchor in Taiwan learned of her
friend's suicide as she read a TelePrompter
during a newscas. Add caption

She was reading the news off a TelePrompter for a television audience when the scrolling words revealed the breaking news that Taiwanese reporter Erich Shih of CtaTV was found dead of an apparent suicide. 

Chingua was a close friend of Shih. When we learn the news that somebody close to us has died, we want the moment to be private. We want to absorb the huge loss alone, or with a few loved ones near us.

Chingua had to absorb the news while reading the news to a national audience. And somehow she had to remain professional and composed.

Someho, she did it. I don't know how. The words are in Taiwanese, and you can't understand them, but you can see her heart breaking as she reads the news.  (You can click on "cc" at the bottom of the video to get subtitles in English. )

I hope she was taken off the air right after this broadcast, and given the privacy and love she needs.

Her professionalism, though, is incredible. Watch:

Sad News: Devo Guitarist Bob Casale Has Died

A guitarist for the group Devo, Bob Casale, died of heart failure Monday at the age of 61.

Devo guitarist Bob Casale died Monday
at the age of 61.  

I often make references to Devo, talking about those famous red hats they wore, basically flower pots.

But really, Devo was amazing. Strange, for sure, but that's what I like. I'm definitely saddened by Casale's passing.

Devo was, is certainly much, MUCH more than wearing flower pots on one's head.

The band's name, by the way, comes from the word, or their word "de-evolution" the idea that mankind has stopped evolving and is actually regressing.

When they formed way back in the late 60s or 70s, they used as evidence of "de-evolution" the dysfunction of American society.

Given how much worse some aspects of American politics, media and society are now compared to a generation ago, Devo maybe had a point.

Rolling Stone has a good article on Casale, and some awesome links to past articles on Devo.

You probably remember Devo for the song "Whip It"

I personally like their reworking of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." The video is awesome and entertaining and weird and wonderful, too. Watch:

Dumb, Mouthy Woman Manages To Get Judge To Increase Jail Sentence From 0 To 300 Days In Minutes

In what could be the ultimate instructional video on how not to behave in a courtroom, a woman finds herself getting a longer and longer jail sentence as she continues to mouth off at a judge.

You can hear the defense lawyer trying to shut her up, to no avail.

The first part of the court arraignment goes well enough, but the disaster comes in the second half.

I wonder if she will continue to mouth off in her jail cell

Watch the pathetic court proceeding here:

Booby Trap: Most Ridiculous Self-Inflicted Medical Crisis Ever

Elizabeth Starr wanted to make it big. Really big.

The sad case of Elizabeth Starr, a big porn star.  

To do that, Starr became a star in the porn, or at least the porn-ish world, of having the biggest fake boobs ever.

(Note: If you click to her web site in the hyperlink above, do realize its NSFW)

Yes, her breasts are humongous. Two heavy beach balls affixed to her chest. Yes, she looks ridiculous.  But who cares, she figures, they're her money maker.

The bizarre fake boobs are from these weird procedure in which they absorb water, and get bigger and bigger over time, over years. It looks like she's going to flop over any minute now.

And she might. Possibly not from top heavyness.

Anytime you alter your body to some extreme, there's health risks. Doctors have told her  she must have a double mastectomy or be at great risk of losing her life.

According to the Daily Mirror, this type of breast enhancement, if you want to call it that, is pretty much never seen outside the porn industry. It has over the years been banned by the United States and the European Union because of the obvious danger.

But she says she's not going through with the mastectomy because the enormous boobs are her livelihood.

What'a poor, top heavy girl to do?

Said Starr:

"It's hard when you have been a victim of something and it's even harder when you choose a path in life where people might look down on you and think, 'She deserved it.' But I wouldn't wish this on anyone and I hope my story will act as a warning. 

I won't pretend to be an expert on what would lead someone to do this to their body, or feel like they have to.

Her quote to me is a little cryptic. She hopes her story will act as a warning. Against what? Abusing your body to make extreme fetish enthusiasts happy? Choose this kind of odd career path?

All I know is Starr looks cartoonish and people probably laugh at her. And she probably knows that.

I feel sad for her. I wonder what her life would have been like if it had not been dominated by boobs and porn, but rather her brain, or talent or whatever else she would have had to offer.

And I really have to wonder if there's a lot of people who are into porn who like boobs that big. If there is a sizable (ha!) number of people who admire Starr's boobs, I definitely have reason to worry.

I, along with a lot of other people, are making a joke of this situation, but honestly, I hope Starr finds health and better chapters for the rest of her life.

Scariest Moore, OK Tornado Vid Yet: Seen Overhead From Shelter Window

This video just popped up from that huge tornado in Oklahoma.

Somebody had a small window in their storm shelter in Moore and filmed what went on. They were just outside the outer edge of the huge tornado.

You can see that although it wasn't hitting them directly, it was causing quite a bit of damage in their neighborhood. But at least the houses are still (sort of) standing

Funny and Tragic: She Robbed Bank, Talks it Up on YouTube

There's a young gal in Nebraska who police say has been busy lately. She robbed a bank and stole a car.

The police investigation was easy. The woman, Hannah Sabata, 19, went on YouTube and discussed her bank robbery and car theft, according to Omaha.com

Hannah Sabata displaying money from her bank robbery
in her YouTube video

The video has her holding up signs describing her bank robbery and theivery.

She even chose her wardrobe carefully. She wore the same outfit in the YouTube video as she did during the bank robbery.

So the cops arrested her pretty quickly, , given it was all laid out for them on YouTube and all.  At first glance the whole thing points to extreme stupidity. That's probably involved. But while all the Web sites and blogs (including this one, to be honest) are picking on Sabata, there seems to be a lot of sadness behind the odd humor of this story.

If you watch the whole video, it's plain that the girl is messed up, and has  given up on pretty much anything. It looks more like a break with reality than anything else.

It's not like I want to give Sabata a free pass. You do the crime, you do the time. But the girl does need help.

 In the video, Sabata explains, in captions superimposed on the blurry images about her reaction to her own bank robbery. "I told my mom today was the best day of my life. She just thinks I met a new boy," it reads, while she displays some of the more than $6,000 she is said to have stolen from the bank.

The picture on Omaha.com of Sabata being taken into custody makes it appear as if she's having a grand old time with this whole experience.

On her deviantArt page, we learn this about her, from what she wrote a year or so ago:

HELLO! My name is Hannah Sabata, and at the time I am 18 years old.

I live in Hicktown Nebraska in a small, sinking home surrounded by many trees and broken-down cars.
I was born 12-08-1992
My social security number is 504-31-5555   
Hahaha just kidding.

Interesting facts:

I can stretch both legs behind my head at the same time
I can do the splits
I can stand on my head
I have HIV
I'm married
I'm pregnant
I've been to jail
I've been to Boys Town
I've been homeless
I have ran away
My hair has been every color (Yes. I promise you.)
I've saved my grandmother
I'm often mistaken as Asian :0
But I do have 11 different nationalities!
I get straight A's in school

Apparently, she had the kid, and things didn't go well, if you take what she says in her YouTube video. She says:

 "The whole system is just a game. But more specifically, because the goverment stole my baby and they took him away before I could even gake him home and they charged me with neglect. I may not be a mother anymore, but I can still find purpose."

So there's a huge, sad backstory going on here. The whole bank robbery/YouTube thing is an obvious cry for help, but she also probably thinks at some level she's beyond help.
Yes, I suppose we can laugh at how easy it was to catch Sabata. All the cops had to do was watch YouTube. But even though we don't really know her, we still want her to somehow get back on track.

For what it's worth, here's her YouTube video:

Sad, Pathetic, Aggressive Prostitute of the Day

In Savannah, Georgia, recently, a local television reporter was doing a story on a prostitution problem. He was interviewing an undercover cop, who was wearing plain clothes, when a woman walked up.

She propositioned the reporter. 

Live. On camera.

She was only charging $10, too, for a bit of fun below the waistline, sunshine.

The reporter declined the offer, which is good, because I don't think anybody watching the evening news wanted THAT much information.

It seemed pretty clear to me the guy the reporter was talking to was a cop, but not to our dear prostitute.
She  just plunged in, so to speak. Or tried to.

The whole thing is simultaneously funny, sad, and cringe inducing. I think it's just best to let you watch television station WTOC's report.