Grania sent me this tweet with the note, “Reality is officially worse than satire now.”
Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
Yes, that’s the Donald with the world’s biggest Media Strumpet, talking about policy. In reality, Kardashian wasn’t in the Oval Office to talk about prison reform and sentencing, but to try to get a pardon for one Alice Marie Johnson, a 63 year old great grandmother who has spent 21 years in prison after conviction for a cocaine trafficking operation and a sentence of life in prison without parole. It was Johnson’s first offense, and she’s reportedly been a model prisoner. I’d say she’s no longer a danger to society, and my guess is that 21 years in the pen for a first offense has served its value as a deterrent.
I don’t know all the details of this case, but kudos to Kardashian for trying to use her undeserved fame to get a pardon for Johnson. What stinks about the case, though—and this is not Kardashian’s fault—is that she is able to get a personal audience with the President to plead her case. How many prisoners who have been unjustly sentenced don’t have advocates like her to help them get justice? It doesn’t hurt, of course, that The Donald, like John F. Kennedy, has an eye for the ladies. The difference is that Marilyn Monroe never discussed government policy (at least publicly) with JFK. Well, good luck to Ms. Johnson, but I wish the system of justice were more equitable.
In other news, I reported yesterday that New Orleans preacher Jesse Duplantis had asked his flock to ante up $54 million dollars to buy him a fancy new jet (his fourth) so he could preach the gospel around the world with only a single stop for refueling. After all, he said, if Jesus were preaching now, he wouldn’t be sitting on his ass trotting slowly from town to town; he’d be flying in a spiffy Falcon 7X.
This was reported on the NBC News last night, and I was startled to see them use a bit from the YouTube video showing Duplantis wheedling people for donations. Although the anchorperson, Kate Snow, made no remarks about it, it was clear that the point of the story was that this was a ridiculously stupid waste of money being raised by a venal Christian evangelist. When I was a child, this never would have made the evening news, and to me it’s a sign that at least the more extreme versions of Christianity can be mocked, if only implicitly, on national television.
What’s equally interesting is that Duplantis has taken down the video; when you go to the site, you see this:
Copyright claim? I thought Duplantis wanted this video disseminated as widely as possible. Nope, it was taken down out of sheer embarassment.
Surely Donald is the world’s biggest Media Strumpet?
Yes – & seen this?
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16259555.Gien_Donald_a_big_twa_fingers_up_wi_wind_fairm/
Google translate doesn’t seem able to cope with the Doric 😉
Trump the strump?
Definitely!
He’s talking about a man that the Bible says washed the feet of his close followers. I seriously do not think that the Jesus depicted in the Bible (yes, a fiction, but Duplantis doesn’t think so) would have a private jet.
Unfortunately there are thousands in prison around the U.S. for exactly the same thing as her grandmother. Life in prison. Just the way Sessions likes it.
Indeed. If I had one bit of advice for Ms. Kardashian, it would be “please, make sure nobody tells Trump or Sessions that Johnson is black.”
Donald J. Trump, interested in improving the prisons.
Hmmmm….
Prison … Trump….
There’s some connection here I almost see…. gee, what could be the explanation…..
There was a joke about our former dictator: he allegedly inspected food in the largest prison and the university cafeteria and ordered prisoners’ food to be improved. His closest advisor wondered why not the cafeteria food as well, and the dictator replied, “You and I will never again be university students.”
Why would we expect anything else from the nation’s first Reality Show Presidency? Trump’s never gotten past being a network tv star; everything’s about viewership ratings, guest stars (Kim! Kanye! Omarosa!) and teasers for the upcoming episode (“we’ll see what happens”).
Whoa, undeserved? You think that badonkadonk just magically grew itself?
“badonkadonk”. The bestest word that ever was and to see it on the intertubes first thing in the morning…all is well in the world.
The difference is that Marilyn Monroe never discussed government policy (at least publicly) with JFK.
Yeah, sure, that we know of. They probably saved the discussions of monetary policy and Cold-War-era revanchism for pillow talk.
I read somewhere that while it was Alice Marie Johnson’s first offense, she ran a $50M “large cocaine distribution ring in Tennessee”. It isn’t a cocaine use bust that people might assume. That said, I am not sure what a proper sentence should be. In general, I’m for prison reform and decriminalizing drug use.
Last night on the news they said it was a large ring connected to a South American or Mexican cartel, so it wasn’t just selling a bit of cocaine. Still, a mandatory life sentence without parole seems harsh for that.
Perhaps so. It will be interesting to see if Trump pardons her since his rhetoric and Attorney General are moving in the opposite direction.
In related news:
Trump tweets he will give full pardon to Dinesh D’Souza
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/politics/trump-dinesh-dsouza-pardon/index.html
The federal Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) statute imposes a mandatory life sentence for “super kingpins” in drug cases. (Regular old garden-variety kingpins can get life, but it’s not mandatory). I’ve got a guy doing life without parole — a living-death sentence, as it’s oxymoronically known — for smuggling pot (a whole lotta pot, freighters-full on numerous occasions, but still).
She’s married to Kanye West. I’m reasonably certain that’s why she gets access, given the todo about West supporting Trump, not anything to do with Trump’s “eye for the ladies”.
Reblogged this on The Logical Place and commented:
The message here is that females with large behinds get a personal audience with this president.
I was going to say “Here’s a picture of Kim Kardashian with the big ass” but decided that that would be juvenile, so I won’t.
I see trump has expanded his interests from fake boobs to fake butts.
A regular polymath, that guy is.
Speaking of butts, tell all of my friends at the Pit that I said hello
Call me old-fashioned, but does anyone finds it odd that a 63 year old woman is a great grandmother? Nobody in the lineage bothered to wait until 25?
Have you been to Tennessee?
Hmmm. My personal experience has been different from yours. My guess would be that the age of 1st child birth was younger on average in past generations. For example my mother had her 1st child at 17 or 18 and had all three by 22. That seemed to be not unusual in my experience for women of her generation.
Yes, a quick search bears that out. According to the graphs in this document, Trends in first childbirth, the median age of 1st child birth took a long dip down starting around 1935, reaching a low around 1955 and then rising pretty steadily from there. Most recently, the twenty-teens, the age of 1st child birth has risen to historic highs according to the CDC.
These days? Maybe.
There are old Inuit stories of grandmothers, and they are in context usually women in their 40s. So, add another generation …
I know a woman that was a great grandmother at the ancient age of, wait for it…FORTY FIVE !!!
I have an aunt who died at 50, already a great-grandmother by 48, but you have her well beaten!
Trump’s meetings for the rest of the week
https://twitter.com/haveigotnews/status/1002229231613566976
There ain’t no way Fraggle Rock would ever invite Trump! And the Cookie Monster?!?!? The slightest implication that he would ever have anything to do with Trump is scandalously slanderous!!11!!1
I mean, come on. Tell me that the guy who says things like this, Cookie Monster on Philosophy and the ‘Perfect Cookie’, would give Trump the time of day?
+1
No meetings about gun control with Ted Nugent ?
“… due to a copyright claim by a third party.”
“Copyright claim? … Nope, it was taken down out of sheer embarassment.”
While it’s possible he filed a fake DMCA request against himself to get YouTube to take down his video, I think it’s more likely that a third party actually did assert copyright over his video and get YouTube to take it down. It’s a common tactic, used by Twitter mobs and others, to get people’s videos removed. Unless you’ve got a famous channel, YouTube usually complies without verification, and while it’s technically a crime to file a false DMCA request, in practice you’d have to jump through a lot of hoops to prosecute, and since YouTube doesn’t actually verify the identity of the claimant the trail is almost invariably a dead end, making it an easy and safe way to silence your opponents.
Whether or not Jesus would have a jet is irrelevant, unless he’s pushing the delusion one step further and claiming to be Jesus.
The more I hear about this, the more I’m convinced my supposition from yesterday is correct. He wants to be able to fly non-stop to NZ when Armageddon comes. It’s a common plan amongst the super-wealthy whether they’re religiously deluded, extreme preppers, or just frightened by what Trump might do next.
What makes them think that NZ will survive the end of the world?
I don’t. I just know that the wealthiest preppers are buying land in NZ.
In my meanderings around the internet recently, I ended up on a prepper site which raised the issue of which member of your family to eat first, and on through the family. Makes me glad I live alone. Can use the tactic from Candide (don’t like fat, but if starving…)
I was told (by an Inuk) that the Inuit actually do have (variable but still) traditions on the “eating order”.
The NY Post headline and various comments (‘Kim Thing Un’) had me laughing – I could not help myself. After all, Kim is the one who always put it out there!
https://etcanada.com/news/333115/alyssa-milano-slams-new-york-post-for-disgusting-headline-about-kim-kardashian/
Kim Thong Un
Ooops! That’s what I meant to type. 🙂
A panel on New Zealand national radio discussed the televangelist’s appeal for funds to purchase the plane today. I know they aren’t supposed to make snarky remarks about others on the air, but one of the panel members said at the end of the piece, “It looks like the Americans have a high tolerance for insanity. Witness the recent elections there.” The whole world is watching.