Donald Trump goes to West Virginia to mock Russia investigation on the same day we learn that Robert Mueller impaneled a Grand Jury.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

More than eight months after winning the election, President Donald Trump on Thursday declared Hillary Clinton's defeat "the greatest loss in the history of American politics," while painting the Russia investigation as a "total fabrication" by Democrats to distract from their failure to win the White House and lack of message.

 "The reason why Democrats only talk about the totally made-up Russia story is because they have no message, no agenda and no vision," Trump told a raucous crowd of supporters gathered for a campaign rally-style event in Huntington, West Virginia. 

The president called probes into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election "demeaning" and "fake." 

"Most people know there were no Russians in our campaign — there never were," Trump said. "We didn't win because of Russia. We won because of you, that I can tell you." 

"Have you seen any Russians in West Virginia or Ohio or Pennsylvania?" Trump continued, listing states he won last year before quizzing the crowd: "Are there any Russians here tonight? Any Russians?"

Trump then fired up the crowd by throwing them some Hillary Clinton flavored red meat:

"What the prosecutors should be looking at are Hillary Clinton's 33,000 deleted emails," Trump said, prompting chants of "Lock her up! Lock her up!" from the crowd, a common occurrence during the 2016 campaign. 

Democrats, he said, "can't beat us at the voting booths so they're trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want."

Apparently Trump went to West Virginia because these the most simple minded simpletons on the planet and he still has tons of support there.

In front of that sympathetic crowd Trump frames this as an "us against them" situation where his own Justice Department is going after him on behalf of the Democrats and everything being revealed in the press is manufactured to make him look bad.

It is essentially the rantings of a crazy person. But it is given power due to the fact that it is said in front of a crowd of stupid people.  And then broadcast into the homes of even more slack jawed morons.

However as I pointed out in the headline while Trump is inciting the short bus crowd, Robert Mueller is moving forward with an investigation that seems to be picking up speed everyday.

And now it appears that things are starting to come into focus:  

Federal investigators exploring whether Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russian spies have seized on Trump and his associates' financial ties to Russia as one of the most fertile avenues for moving their probe forward, according to people familiar with the investigation. 

The web of financial ties could offer a more concrete path toward potential prosecution than the broader and murkier questions of collusion in the 2016 campaign, these sources said.

Rabid crowds of supporters don't mean squat when up against growing piles of evidence. 

Sovereign citizen convicted of plotting to overthrow the West Virginia state government.

Thomas David Deegan

Courtesy of Metro News:  

A Wood County jury quickly convicted the man Friday who had threatened last fall to seize control of the state capitol and the state government of West Virginia. 

The prosecution’s case centered on a conference call recorded last September where Deegan talked about his plan. 

“The conversation was the actual crime itself,” Wood County Prosecutor Jason Wharton told MetroNews Friday morning. “The jury was able to hear the entirety of the conference call as well as some recordings from the regional jail and some other testimony.” 

“He made statements with regard to a plan to essentially bring many individuals to the state capitol in Charleston in an attempt to overtake the offices in that complex,” Wharton said. 

Deegan told those on the conference call they should shoot those who offered any resistance.

Oh he seems nice.

Here's more from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Deegan is accused of laying out his overthrow plans in a series of conference calls -- one of them as recently as Sept. 14 -- where he called on like-minded armed extremists to grab their firearms and assist him in an attempt to overthrow state government, according to court documents. 

His intended plan was to remove several state government leaders from their offices, charge them with treason and replace them with sovereign citizens. After apparently setting up a sovereign citizen-style court system, those found guilty of treason would be put to death.

Gee who could have guessed that this might be the result of constant anti-government rhetoric pouring out of  right wing radio and conservative news outlets 24 hours a day?

West Virginia man calls 911 and turns himself in after watching President Obama talk about drug addiction.

"That's right buddy. I'm talking to you."

Courtesy of WSAZ: 

Like many West Virginians, a man from Cross Lanes watched President Obama address the drug addiction problem during his visit to Charleston on Oct. 21. 

Later that day, he called 911 and said he needed help for a drug addiction and asked that deputies be sent to his home. 

The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office released details of the incident Wednesday in a release that ended with, "We applaud this person's self-initiated efforts and wish him well in his recovery." 

The Sheriff's Office said after repeated calls back from 911 operators that day, their deputies went to the man's home. They said he put his hands on the wall and said he needed help. 

The man, in his mid-30s, then showed Deputy J.A. Smith a cooler full of drugs that included included digital scales, 16 Suboxone packs and patches, marijuana, 19 grams of ecstasy and 158 pain pills. 

The man admitted he was a heavy drug user, had watched the President's speech and wanted to live a drug-free life for his mother.

It is kind of hard to call a President "ineffective" if just by talking on TV he can get drug abusers to turn themselves into the police.

I mean there is regular inspirational, and then there is President Obama inspirational.

Train carrying crude oil derails, and explodes, causing the evacuation of residents in a one mile radius.

Damn look at that!

Courtesy of the Charleston Daily Mail:  

Residents who were near the derailment of a crude oil train in Fayette County say it shook and rocked their community like a Biblical judgment. 

Around 1:20 p.m. Monday, a CSX train carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken formation derailed in the Mount Carbon area of Fayette County, sending oil tankers off the tracks, with some reaching the Kanawha River. 

The train, consisting of two locomotives and 109 rail cars, was en route to Yorktown, Va. As of Monday evening, it was unknown how much oil spilled from the train. 

According to a statement on its website, CSX is “working with first responders to address the fire, to determine how many rail cars derailed, and to deploy environmental protective measures and monitoring on land, air and in the nearby Kanawha River. The company also is working with public officials and investigative agencies to address their needs.” 

It was also reported that residents within a one mile radius had to be evacuated and the fire burned for over nine hours. 

The Governor of West Virgina, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, declared a state of emergency.

According to NPR two local water treatment plants closed their intakes and have asked residents to conserve water as thousands of gallons of crude oil pour out of ruptured tank cars.

Oil spills, explosions, contaminated water. Gee you know what might be helpful right about now?

A new source of energy.

West Virginia Republican lawmaker argues that women who become pregnant due to rape should still be denied abortions because, though rape is "awful," babies that result from rape are "beautiful."

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

A Republican state lawmaker said Thursday that women who become pregnant from sexual assault should not be exempt from an anti-abortion measure, because childbirth resulting from rape is "beautiful." 

"Obviously rape is awful," West Virginia Del. Brian Kurcaba (R) said during a committee hearing on a new abortion restriction, according to David Gutman, a Charleston Gazette reporter. "What is beautiful is the child that could come from this." 

Kurcaba, a financial adviser, was elected to the House of Delegates in November. 

The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. State House Republicans revived the proposal after West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) vetoed it in 2014. The House Health Committee voted down an exception for rape and incest victims on Thursday and approved the bill for a full vote in the House.

Hell I'm the first to point out that rape babies are especially beautiful. 

I think it's the haunted lost look many of them have in their eyes because their mothers cannot hold them without crying or due to the issues of bonding with the progeny of a man who defiled them.

And you know beautiful children like these, and their mothers, could really benefit from social services that would provide counseling to the mother or financial support to help her to pay her hospital bills or put food on the table to help her feed her rapist's child.

But Republicans don't really go for that kind of thing do they?

Nah once the baby's born, their work is done.

Update: Perhaps the great George Carlin said it best.

The idea that red state tax dollars pay for blue state social programs, is in no way supported by the actual data.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

One of the most hilarious talking points coming from far-right Republicans and the Tea Party is that when “red states” like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are asked to bail out California or Massachusetts, that’s when they will finally become “fed up with socialism” and secede from the Union once and for all. 

The problem with that meme is that it has no basis in reality: the more prosperous and Democrat-leaning areas of the United States are likely to be subsidizing dysfunctional “red states,” many of which are suffering from insufficient tax revenue and an abundance of low-wage workers who don’t have much to tax. Tea Party Republicans like to point out that poor cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Camden, New Jersey are run by Democrats, but they neglect to mention that some of the most affluent parts of the United States—from Manhattan to the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to Cambridge, MA to Seattle to Chicago’s North Shore suburbs—are dominated by the Democratic Party. People in those heavily Democratic areas pay a lot of federal income taxes, and quite often, their tax dollars go to red states.

Raw Story then lists the ten worst offenders, including Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Indiana, Montana, South Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and of course Alaska.

Concerning Alaska they have this to say:  

Alaska didn’t become part of the U.S. until 1959, and since then, it has gone Republican in every presidential race except 1964 (when Alaska favored Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater). A bastion of hard-right politics, Alaska is the state where Sarah Palin was elected governor in 2006. But when it comes to “small government,” Alaska Republicans don’t practice what they preach: according to WalletHub, Alaska receives $1.42 from the federal government for every dollar it contributes. Tax Foundation’s research showed Alaska receiving $1.93 from Uncle Sam for every dollar paid in. Alaska Republicans love to rail against the federal government, but the reality is that Alaska needs federal tax revenue badly in order to function. 

Alaska is infamous for its harsh winters, which put considerable wear and tear on the state’s infrastructure—and the money for that much upkeep and maintenance has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is Boston, Santa Monica, Brooklyn, Seattle and all the other places that are full of upscale Democrats Palin considers “un-American.”

Still burns my ass that my state is now synonymous with Sarah Palin, and Tea Party politics.  However they are not wrong that we are indeed parasites feeding off the largess of America's tax payers.

And in years past we were well aware of that fact, and grateful for the support.

Ted Stevens did not typically rail against big government, but instead made sure that when money was doled out that Alaska was at the top of the list. In fact for a time he was the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and made sure that Alaska got more than its fair share of federal moneys.

He was famous for working the system, not working against it. And in those days Senator Frank Murkowski, and Rep. Don Young were working right along with him toward that same goal.

However it must be remembered that this state is only one year older than I am. So it is, by comparison, only in its infancy. (Much like I am.) Hopefully when we reach our teen years we will become more capable, and finally get off our lethargic asses and start contributing a our fair share to this country.

However until then, much like Tennessee, Mississippi, and Montana we need to shut the fuck up about reducing the size of government and start demonstrating more respect for our federal sugar daddies.

Here is your quick Ammosexual round up for today.

First from Colorado Springs we have a five year old who shot a three year old: 

Colorado Springs TV station KRDO reported that a 9-year-old boy found a handgun inside a Pueblo, Colo. home. Another 5-year-old child then got ahold of the gun and accidentally shot the toddler. 

The 9-year-old told police that he learned how to handle the gun and get it ready to fire by playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops," according to the news station. 

The 3-year-old underwent surgery at a local hospital and was in critical condition.

Of course the gun nuts will blame the video game for familiarizing the nine year old with guns,  and while I agree that nine is too young to be playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops," video games do not fire actual bullets at children.

This was a case of a deadly weapon being left within reach of a child, and that is why this baby girl is in a hospital fighting for her life.

The next story is from Arizona, where a neuroscientist explains that the reason he carried an AR-15 around an airport was to make a "political" statement:

 "I am a peaceful political activist, and my purpose in walking around the airport with my AR-15 rifle was entirely political in nature," he said in a news conference outside his attorney's office. "Put simply, I decided to make the point that a peaceful citizen can openly and responsibly carry a firearm, including an AR-15, for the protection of themselves and their community." 

"I wanted to help educate the public and the employees at the airport about this point by allowing them to see a peaceful person responsibly carrying an AR-15 while doing things that people normally do there, like waiting for someone, drinking a cup of coffee," he added.

Sadly for this politically motivated ammosexual, he was arrested because as he was demonstrating his peaceful nature his weapon ended up being pointed at two women who did not find his actions terribly peaceful.

Come on! How hard is it to figure out that if you carry an assault weapon around a public place that people are going to have a negative reaction and contact the authorities.

I mean that's not exactly brain surgery.

Wait...

SuperPAC using Republican candidate's ties to Koch brothers in attack ad in West Virginia. Ooh, I like this!

Courtesy of The Hill:

House Majority PAC is launching a new ad hitting Rep. Nick Rahall’s (D-W.Va.) Republican opponent for his support from the billionaire Koch brothers. 

The ad, from a super-PAC working to elect Democrats to the House, charges that Charles and David Koch have spent more than $1 million to elect state Sen. Evan Jenkins, and outlines a series of negative impacts from Koch spending and influence in West Virginia. 

“The Koch brothers wouldn’t be billionaires if they didn’t get what they paid for,” a narrator says in the ad. “In Washington, Evan Jenkins won’t work for us.” 

I think it is a great idea to use ties to the Koch brothers, against the candidates that they are supporting.

If you can't outspend them then at least make that money so tainted that the smell of it sticks to their chosen candidate and makes him unelectable.

And that one tag line is the kicker. The Koch brothers wouldn’t be billionaires if they didn’t get what they paid for." THAT is the gospel.

West Virginia Governor vetoes 20 week abortion ban. Rightfully labels it unconstitutional.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Late on Friday, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) vetoed House Bill 4588, a measure that would have outlawed abortions after 20 weeks in West Virginia. In a statement regarding his decision, the governor explained that the abortion ban would be a “detriment of the health and safety of expectant mothers,” and noted that it violates the constitution. 

“I believe there is no greater gift of love than the gift of life,” Gov. Tomblin said. “However, I have vetoed HB 4588 because I am advised, by not only attorneys from the legislature, but through my own legal team that this bill is unconstitutional.” 

Under Roe v. Wade, abortion is legal up until the point of viability, which typically occurs around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Twenty-week bans — also often called “fetal pain bans,” since they’re based on the scientifically disputed theory that fetuses can feel pain after that point — seek to narrow that window. It’s an effective method of gradually chipping away at women’s reproductive rights. 

Abortion opponents have furthered this incremental strategy in states across the country, capitalizing on the emotional outrage about later abortion procedures to enact 20-week bans in nine states. West Virginia would have represented a particularly significant milestone in this push to limit abortion access. If Tomblin hadn’t vetoed HB 4588, it would have been the first 20-week ban to become law in a Democratic-controlled state — ultimately, allowing the anti-choice community to construe this policy as moderate by pointing to bipartisan support for fetal pain restrictions.

Whew! Really dodged a bullet with that one!

 In 2013 twenty two states enacted a total of seventy abortion restrictions, and there are no indications that these attacks on Roe vs Wade are going to stop anytime soon.

This is yet ANOTHER reason why Democrats in local elections need to get out the vote and work to elect politicians who respect a woman's right to choose.

If the demographic predictions are accurate than time is on our side, however until then we have to fight to preserve the rights that so many fought so hard to attain.

Snake handling preacher, whose father died of snakebite, dies of snakebite. Boy God works in mysterious ways, doesn't he?

Courtesy of NBC News:  

West Virginia preacher Mark Randall "Mack" Wolford, who believed Christians should handle snakes to test their faith, died after a rattlesnake bit him over the weekend. 

Wolford was bitten on the thigh about 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon, but he didn't come to the hospital until 10:30 p.m., a nursing supervisor at Bluefield Regional Medical Center told the Charleston Daily Mail. The incident occurred during an outdoor service at Panther State Forest, about 80 miles west of Bluefield in southern West Virginia, the paper said. 

Wolford had turned 44 on Saturday. He had seen his father die of a snakebite when he was teenager, the Daily Mail reported. 

The Washington Post Magazine had profiled Wolford in a story in November about the snake-handling faith. The Post said adherents cite Mark 16:17-18: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 

Snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, and Wolford was trying to keep it alive there and in neighboring states where it is not, the Post reported. 

The Daily Mail reported that Wolford was bitten Sunday by a yellow timber rattlesnake -- named Sheba -- that he had often handled.

And do you know what? Next Sunday the church will be filled with people handling snakes, speaking in tongues, and blaming Satan for taking away their preacher.

Cause believing all of that is so much easier than facing reality for some people.

West Virginia Professsor hands out syllabus forbidding students to use questionable reference material, like the Onion or Fox News. Seems fair.

Image courtesy of Fox News.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

A syllabus for a political science course at West Liberty University instructs students that they must filter out two potential research sources, reports WTOV, a nearby NBC affiliate. 

Here is what the syllabus says:

 DO NOT use 

1) The Onion — this is not news this is literally a parody 

2) Fox News — The tagline “Fox News” makes me cringe. Please do not subject me to this biased news station. I would almost rather you print off an article from the Onion 

No other media or research sources — such as, say, just for example, MSNBC — appear to be prohibited outright. (Why would they be? They actually report the news, and are aggressive fact checkers.)

Stephanie Wolfe, the visiting assistant professor, behind the ban, has a one-year contract with the university in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. She is replacing another instructor who is on leave. 

Upset students and some parents complained to local press outlets about what they perceived as forced political bias.

Really they're upset? I don't see why.

My question is what is biased about demanding that your students use reliable reference materials during their assignments?

You know there is a reason that Fox News is constantly being mocked on late night television and the Daily Show. Because it is nakedly a propaganda machine for conservatives, big business, and the Republican party.

Personally I think that the only people who take issue with this syllabus are Fox News viewers.

Everybody else would simply say, "Makes sense to me."

You know sometimes the only REAL difference between Fox News and The Onion, is that The Onion admits that it is doing parody.