In order to avoid protesters Donald Trump is visiting Poland, who promised to bus in "cheering crowds."

Courtesy of the AP: 

President Donald Trump is headed back to Europe hoping to receive a friendly welcome in Poland despite lingering skepticism across the continent over his commitment to NATO, his past praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his decision to pull the U.S. out of a major climate agreement. 

Trump arrives in Warsaw, Poland, later Wednesday for a brief visit that will include a speech in Krasinski Square, near the site of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. He’ll also meet with the leaders of Poland and Croatia and hold a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

You may be wondering why Trump chose Poland of all places to visit first.

Here's a hint:   

According to Polish media reports, Poland’s government promised the White House a reception of cheering crowds as part of its invitation. To make good on that pledge, ruling party lawmakers and pro-government activists plan to bus in groups from the provinces to hear Trump’s speech. 

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on those reports.

Busing in crowds that will cheer and not boo Trump, nor erupt in protest.

Now why does that sound familiar?

Demanding that crowds only contain supporters, vilifying the media, and exhibiting spontaneous outbursts of frustration and anger.

The similarities are almost unavoidable at this point.

Donald Trump apparently demanded an investigation using taxpayer money to prove that his inauguration was bigger than Obama's.

@POTUS Obama inauguration photos on the left, Trump on the right--'nuff said: pic.twitter.com/7DIUYNLYoW

— Vilmos Nagy (@PunjabNagy) March 8, 2017

Courtesy of Share Blue:  

Donald Trump and his allies triggered an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General that ended up proving, at taxpayers’ expense, that he is not nearly as popular as former President Barack Obama. 

After Trump’s sparsely attended inauguration, he and his team put on a full-court press to prove that it was the most attended inauguration event in Washington history. The claim was the focus of press secretary Sean Spicer’s first briefing, during which he infamously claimed, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”

Now the Inspector General has released its findings after it received a complaint, which alleged that National Park Service employees had been instructed to alter official records on crowd sizes. The complaint also insinuated that public relations employees of the service had leaked the details of calls between Trump and the acting director of the park service about his disappointing crowd size. 

Unfortunately for team Trump, the Inspector General’s investigation came up empty. 

“We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations.” The report further indicates, “All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the NAMA official instructed staff to alter records for the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the President’s phone call.” 

The facts of the case remain the same as they were on the day Trump was sworn in: There were more people at Obama’s inauguration. Period.

Unbelievable!

This idiot just cannot let things go.

Don't forget he also spearheaded the search for the park service employee who first pointed out that his crowds were significantly smaller than President Obama's.

Here we are over six months into this debacle called the Trump presidency and due to his vast and debilitating insecurities we are STILL talking about the inauguration crowd size.

This is going to be a long four years. 

Donald Trump personally involved in hunt for park service employee that pointed out small inaugural crowd size.

Courtesy of CBS: 

Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump was "directly involved" in the search for the person who, using the official National Park Service account, retweeted side-by-side comparisons of the crowds at Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony and former President Barack Obama's 2009 ceremony, CBS News has confirmed. 

The retweet was deleted soon after it was posted and the Twitter accounts of the National Park Service and other U.S. Interior Department agencies were briefly shut down. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told CBS News two days later in an email that the White House neither demanded the retweet be taken down, nor ordered the Interior Department accounts to be suspended. 

But emails released by the National Park Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the new president was "concerned" about the retweet. 

"Obviously, this has become a very sensitive issue, especially since the President has gotten directly involved and contacted Acting Director Mike Reynolds concerned about one of the images that was retweeted," wrote Tim Cash, Chief of Digital Strategy at the National Park Service in a Jan. 21 email to Shaun Cavanaugh, the agency's Chief Information Security Officer.

You know if this idiot's skin were any thinner you could take his x-ray by holding him up in front of a bright light.

And his inability to let things go, or to take the high road, should terrify every person living in the country that he supposed to be leading.

Trump's campaign style rally in Florida. Melania reads the Lord's Prayer, Trump makes up a terrorist attack in Sweden, and only about half the usual people show up to hear them.

And that is how this bizarre, ego stroking, campaign style event started off.

(Did you notice that Trump found some of those non-white folks to stand behind the stage?)

 Personally I when I hear Melania speak I don't think "First Lady," I think "Bond villain."

However that was not he weirdest thing about this rally.

There was also this:

Trump, discussing terror, seamlessly mentions incident "last night in Sweden".

There was NO "incident" in Sweden last night. pic.twitter.com/XtcC4PRiNU

— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) February 19, 2017

Now to be clear there was NO terrorist attack in Sweden.

Just like there was never a Bowling Green Massacre.

They just make this shit up. (The New York Times identified a number of other lies during the rally as well.)

But this crowd gladly swallowed all of the bullshit whole.

It should also be noted that while 9,000 people DID show up to be directly lied to by Trump, that back in September that number was 15,000.

That is a 40% decline.

However there was nothing smaller about the crowds that showed up to protest Trump. In fact they set a record:

Hundreds of demonstrators — the largest group of progressive protesters in Brevard County in more than a decade — lined Apollo Boulevard before, during and after President Donald Trump’s rally, stretching from the AeroMod International hangar entrance to Airport Boulevard.

A loud chorus of boos erupted when Air Force One descended for landing across the street at Orlando Melbourne International Airport. 

“Lock him up! Lock him up!” hundreds of demonstrators chanted in unison shortly before Trump took the stage. 

Yeah I know, hundreds of demonstrators are a lot less than the 9,000 who showed up to hear Trump spew his bullshit.

True, but I never claimed that Melbourne, Florida was a bastion for intellectuals.

Besides one has to wonder how many of these folks were paid, or bribed, to show up?

I think the takeaway from this is that Donald Trump loved it when he was RUNNING for the presidency, but fucking hates BEING the president.

I mean just look at his face before the rally.

And it's real. I just took it watching Cnn live. https://t.co/CnJB8GGoSI pic.twitter.com/heHWbTpLPA

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) February 18, 2017

That does not look like a mentally stable person. 

Trump transition team sends out list of things banned at the inauguration. Pretty much everything.

Welcome to Trump's America. Everything for me, and fuck everybody else.

Courtesy of Gizmodo:

Below is the complete list of things that are banned from the inauguration ceremony. Again, leave your drones at home. 

• Aerosols 
• Ammunition 
• Animals other than service/guide animals (What? No puppies? Fascist!)
  
• Backpacks and bags exceeding size restrictions (18” by 13” by 7”) 
• Bicycles 
• Balloons 
• Coolers 
• Drones and other unmanned aircraft systems 
• Explosives 
• Firearms (And yet this was the NRA's go to guy in 2016.)
  
• Glass, thermal, or metal containers 
• Laser pointers 
• Mace / Pepper spray 
• Packages 
• Selfie Sticks (Okay I hate these things too, but still this is supposed to be America.)
  
• Signs exceeding the size restrictions (20” x 3” x 1/4”) 
• Structures (No lemon aide stands kids!)
  
• Supports for signs and placards 
• Toy guns 
• Weapons of any kind 
• Any other items determined to be potential safety hazards 

And of course they close out the list with: “Any other items determined to be potential safety hazards.”

Well so much for Donald Trump the freedom president. 

They might as well just write a list with the words "Don't bring nothing" at the top.

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin sell snake oil in front of a dwindling crowd while outside protests turn violent.

Picture courtesy of the Daily Kos: 

As you all settle down for the long weekend, here’s a picture that speaks a thousand words. From MileHighBrendan’s Twitter via Red State (that those guys hate DJT even more than Kossacks do is just another confirmation of how truly bizarre this election is). 

“I can hardly see with the bright lights, but this is a tremendous crowd, wow!"

Oh yeah, "tremendous."

Of course this appearance at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver did make news but mostly because of the ignorant word salad spewed by a certain Wasilla Wendigo.

Courtesy of Biz Pac Review: 

Calling the #NeverTrump crowed “threatened,” Palin said, “That gang, they call themselves Never hashtag, whatever, I just call ‘em Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short.” 

In answering the question of why Trump is winning, Palin quipped, “And you know it was really funny, to me, the ‘splodey heads keep ‘sploding over this movement because it seems so obvious. [Colorado Republican Senate candidate] Darryl [Glenn] wins, Trump wins, America will win because voters are so sick and tired of being betrayed. Politicians campaign one way and they govern another and that’s become the status quo.” 

The #NeverTrump people “want to take their [Denver] Nuggets ball home and stay home instead of vote because their guy didn’t win this time around. Now, you know, I shouldn’t call them thumbsuckers because they’re not all bad … I’m kidding. They are. And Hillary thanks them because she cannot win without them.”

I think the higher altitude always makes her especially hyperbolic.

Who am I kidding, she is always like this.

In other news the crowd outside the convention center was a little livelier than the one inside: 

Anti-Trump protests outside the Colorado Convention Center turned violent as presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump spoke inside to a crowd at the Western Conservative Summit. 

At least three people were arrested after protesters began pushing and shoving outside the venue, home of the three-day conservative conference, according to 9News Denver. 

Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, warned attendees about the melee after Mr. Trump spoke to the gathering inside for about an hour. 

“I do want to make a very important announcement about what is happening outside right now,” Mr. Hunt said. “There are protesters out there, there are arrests, there are fights taking place. I want you to be very careful.”

Speaking to mostly empty venues while the crowds outside call for your oddly coiffed head. 

Yep, things are going great for the Republican party right now.

Inspirational image of the day.

Whether you think Bernie will ultimately be our candidate or not, it is still exciting to see that there are this many people involved in the process on the Democratic side.

Is anybody drawing larger crowds than Bernie Sanders right now?

Courtesy of Time Magazine: 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addressed more than 11,000 people in the biggest rally of his campaign in Phoenix on Saturday, building on the growing tide of enthusiasm for his campaign. The 

Democratic candidate for president spoke for nearly an hour, focusing on the central themes of his campaign, including income inequality, money in politics, and growing wages. 

Though he remains 40 percentage points behind Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the Real Clear Politics average of polls, Sanders has seen a surge in interest among liberals in the Democratic base with a message of economic populism and a defiant tone.

As far as I can tell Hillary has only attracted crowds numbering around 5,000. Which is still quite impressive, but Bernie is blowing the doors off right now.

It should also be mentioned that this rally was in Arizona, which is not usually considered a bastion of liberalism to say the least.

We also know that Trump bragged about drawing larger crowds than Sanders and apparently drew one estimated to have been around 5,000 strong.

However we also know that he had to pay people to show up.

Somehow I doubt that Bernie Sanders has to pay people to overfill his venues.

People are stunned at the size of the crowds that Bernie Sanders attracts, including Bernie Sanders.

Courtesy of Alternet:  

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has drawn huge crowds recently. He packed Drake University's auditorium, drew 1,000 people in New Hampshire, and the attendance was estimated at 5,000 at a stop in Minnesota. 

Sanders has indicated that the numbers have surprised him. He told NPR that he's, "Stunned. Stunned. I mean I had to fight my way to get into the room. Standing room only. Minneapolis was literally beyond belief." 

Sanders isn't the only one who has been stunned. Kurt Meyer, a tri-county Democratic Party chair in Iowa, helped host a Sanders rally in his area. "When we had something in excess of 300 people show up, I was astonished," Meyer told NPR. Meyer sent a text to a one of Clinton's senior people in Iowa indicating that Sanders was potentially a lot closer to the frontrunner than he appears. 

On that note it is also worth sharing that recent polls show Sanders closing the gap on Hillary quite rapidly:  

A Suffolk University poll of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire finds the former secretary of state Clinton garnering 41% of the vote. Fellow Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is surprisingly close in second place, grabbing 31%. 

"Don't underestimate the power of the progressive nerve network," David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a statement. "It is alive, far reaching, and it is translating into political muscle in the New Hampshire Democratic primary." 

The Suffolk poll is the second of the Granite State in a matter of days that displays Clinton in vulnerable position as a front-runner. In a Morning Consult poll released last weekend, Clinton led Sanders by just 12 points.

I always feel I need to end a post like this with a qualifier saying that I don't think that Bernie Sanders has an actual chance of defeating Hillary in the primary. However it is still important to remind ourselves that his policy ideas are NOT on the fringes, and that Hillary would be well served to pay attention to that.

Video of massive Black Friday crowd outside Urban Outfitters.

Seriously aren't we better than this?

Allowing retailers to turn us into animals fighting over table scraps is pathetic.

Here is another one from yesterday featuring fights and at least one arrest.

President Obama's recent visit to Denver, Colorado was rather.....interesting.

What else can you expect from a state once they legalize marijuana?

Sarah Palin's latest book tour is providing an opportunity for the world to see just how far her star has fallen.

Sarah Palin with the Ghost of Christmas on Oxycontin.

Courtesy of Villages News:  

When former Alaska governor Sarah Palin visited The Villages in 2008, more than 30,000 people turned out. 

Emotions ran high for good reason—The Villages was Palin’s first public appearance since her nomination as the Republican Party’s Vice Presidential candidate. 

The crowd at her book-signing engagement earlier today at Barnes & Noble was more modest—about 500. 

A Barnes & Noble manager who asked not to be named wouldn’t estimate the crowd size—that’s against corporate policy—but admitted the store did not hand out all 750 arm bands on hand for the event. 

That didn’t bother Villagers stood in line for upwards of two hours to shake the hand of the conservative icon and get her signature on a fresh copy of Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas. 

The $13.92 price tag was modest as well.

Ouch that had to hurt!

Yep nothing like a book tour by a dried up old has been to remind people of just what a train wreck their life has become.

Perhaps Palin is beginning to feel that sense of desperation creeping up on her as her book continues to tumble down the Amazon rankings. (Now at 252, which is 20 slots below where it was this morning when I wrote my earlier post.)

And that might explain what this is all about as well.

I think we all know that the ONLY time that Palin deigns to rub shoulders with her fans is when she is becoming desperate to repair her image and fill her bank account.

Gee, I wonder how many will even bother to show?

Much like the Virgin Mary, Sarah Palin takes her ass to Bethlehem in order to reveal to the world her creation. Another stupid book. Update!

"OMGD! You people ARE gullible enough to buy anther ghostwritten book."

Courtesy of The Morning Call:  

It was everything red-blooded Americans love: politics, Christmas and 20 percent off. 

There was a hum of anticipation Tuesday evening at the Barnes & Noble at Southmont Center in Bethlehem Township. It was too early for Black Friday. Stephen King's new thriller was already out. Bill O'Reilly's latest effort was old news. 

The buzz centered on Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, and her new book, "Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas." 

Bethlehem being the Christmas City, it was a fitting kickoff for Palin's new book. 

The Fox News pundit met her fans — at least 600 of them — shook hands and emitted a million-watt smile behind a table strung with ornaments and beside a lighted tree. The men and women, babies and great-grandmothers swooned and giggled. 

"She is the embodiment of American exceptionalism," said Ronnie DelBacco of Easton. (Clearly a Fox News viewer.)

DelBacco was first in line to see Palin. He arrived at the store at 5 a.m. to secure his spot. As he approached Palin at 6 p.m., gripping two copies of her new book, he shook hands with her and her husband, Todd Palin. 

Only six hundred? Those numbers are almost as bad as the ones from her Anchorage book tour in 2010, and we hate her ass!

These are clearly the percentage of people who either get all of their information from Fox News and Right Wing radio, or who are so uninformed that they simply do not know very much about Sarah Palin.

That does not seem to bode well for a book that she has been on literally EVERY network trying to sell.

 I like this quote:

Christopher Collopy of Chester County, wearing a red shirt and a star-spangled-banner top hat, said he got to the store early enough that he killed the hours before the signing by reading the first few chapters of the book. 

"It's good," he said, "though most of the stuff I already knew."

Yeah, I would not look for any originality coming from a book written for Sarah Palin to hawk to the paint chip eaters. It is hard enough for the ghostwriter just to wade through her bizarre ramblings and edit them down so that they some kind of sense.

I will hand it to Palin for going all out this time in order to drum up interest, but let's face it MOST of the interest will be of the kind that circus sideshows attract when Jo Jo the Dog Face Boy is a featured performer.

Update: Chelsea Handler's segment on Palin's book ("Sarah Palin hates Jews!") is not to be missed.

Update 2:  I also think this article by the Atlantic Wire is a must read: 

For the people I spoke with, Palin was no longer a politician. She was a communicator, a symbol of conservatism and Christian forthrightness and traditional values. Of the three or four people I asked, none could remember who they'd voted for in the 2012 Republican primary. Politics, for most of us most of the time, is a clunky, complex irrelevance. For many, it seemed, Palin had moved outside of that sphere into the realm of symbolism. They showed up to buy a book that hadn't been widely reviewed, that, for all they new, contained nothing but blank pages. But its message and the name on the front were good enough. Buying the book and meeting Sarah Palin were reinforcements of a world view — central to who they are and what they believe.

Typical Sarah Palin supporter?

Man attempts to kill political leader in Bulgaria with gun, is subdued and beaten by unarmed crowd. Gun - 0, crowd - 1.

(Warning video is fairly graphic.) Courtesy of HuffPo:  

A gunman reportedly attempted to assassinate the leader of Bulgaria's Turkish ethnic party during a televised conference on Saturday. The leader of Bulgaria’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) party, Ahmed Dogan, was assaulted by a gunman while on stage at the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in Sofia, according to the Sofia Globe. 

The assailant, 25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, climbed onstage and held a gun to Dogan's head, but the gun reportedly got stuck and was unable to shoot.

In the video it looks like just about everybody in the room takes their turn kicking and punching this asshole.  That may seem brutal, but compared to what this guy tried to do he got off easy of you ask me.

In America he probably would have been shot full of holes and a number of innocent bystanders would have been killed or wounded as well. I think I prefer Bulgaria's method.

Let's start the day on a high note. What do you say? Update!

Here is the President yesterday speaking in front of an estimated crowd of 15,000 supporters in Richmond, Virginia.

According to a PPP poll the President leads Romney 51 to 46 in Virginia, though of course the Fox poll still has Romney leading by two percentage points. However judging from the size of that crowd I tend to agree with PPP and Nate Silver that the President has some O-mentum in the "Old Dominion."

That is not the only place that Obama has started to put some distance between himself and his flip-flopping opponent. Currently in what is considered the focal point of this election, Ohio, Obama now leads Mitt the Twit by five points among early voters, according to a Time magazine poll.

All of this is of course great news, and I have a feeling the news will only get better.

However we still have eleven more days before this long journey comes to an end, and even after that I think we all realize that in many ways it will only be the end of one skirmish, with many more just over the horizon.

Update: Here is a graphic, that I borrowed from Andrew Sullivan, which demonstrates all of the various pathways to victory possible for President Obama in November.

As you can see it is looking pretty good.

The debate certainly does not seem to have negatively affected enthusiasm for the President.

This was the crowd that turned out to see the President at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus yesterday.

Estimates are that there were 30,000 people that attended the rally, and according to this newscast there were an additional 6,000 that were turned away.

I guess the President's "poor" debate performance did not have any affect on THEIR feelings toward him, now did it?

The two Chuck's may be the two last people in the country to recognize that NOBODY cares about Sarah Palin anymore.

The crowds were almost twice the size of the entire population of Wasilla.

I have not discussed it much because, well why would I? However Sarah Palin's father and brother, both named Chuck, have had the "Palin book birthing mill" pop out a book for them to take credit for, and they are currently traveling on a book tour attempting to further lowering IQ's all around the country.

As you can imagine, since you ACTUALLY realize that nobody gives a crap about the Palins anymore, their has been an embarrassing palc of enthusiasm.

This from Chuck Jr's Facebook page:

We arrived at the store and got a lesson in humility. I have been with Sarah at some of her signings and there is usually a mile-long line outside the stores, full of people that have been standing there for up to two days. I thought we must have pulled up to the wrong store because there was no line outside. We got out of the car and entered the store. Yes, this was the right place. There was a display set up in the front of the store with our books on it and a poster of us in front of it. We were ushered upstairs to a signing area. We were early so we walked through the line of people and introduced ourselves. The first person in the line was Katie, a long time supporter from that area. She had been in line for four hours so we were happy to sign her book first and take a picture with her. She came back later and introduced us to her parents. 

We were grateful for the people that showed up to see us and happy to hear that they were loving the book. We wish that there were more people there, but we didn't do a very good job in notifying the public. 

I like how Chuck Jr, is trying to convince himself this was due to a lack of adequate publicity.

These two remind me of the stories you sometimes hear of family members keeping the corpse of their mother in the house long after she has died, in absolute denial of her passing.

Even though everybody else recognizes that Palin's popularity is dead, and the stench of her decaying career is overwhelming, these two continue to insist that she is just resting and will be back stronger than ever in the days to come. 

What they seem not to realize is that a book which is supposedly dedicated to "telling the truth" about Sarah Palin is not going to attract any real attention because people already KNOW the truth. They read it in Joe's book "The Rogue," saw it for themselves as she attacked the President day after day on Fox News, or are currently reading about it as HER career is used as the determination for how badly the Romney/Ryan campaign is doing.

I think the only people who DON'T actually know Sarah Palin are the people who think they can make money by ignoring the facts, and peddling lies on her behalf.

President Obama has an enthusiasm problem. Apparently in some alternative reality.