GOP warmongers circle the wagons to block Trump

It was D (for desperation) Day among the GOP establishment today.

There was the Mittster warning America that security and prosperity would fly out the window with a Trump nomination. Romney doesn't get the fact that, from the point of view of street-level folks, America's security and prosperity has already been squandered by the perpetual-war establishment types.

Then, to prove that they're just as clueless as Romney, seventy-some charter members of that establishment posted an open letter on the War On the Rocks website. Yup, a president who could get along with Putin and be neutral on the Israel - Palestine conflict would be bad news indeed. That this clique of war cheerleaders feels threatened by Trump tells me he must be doing something right. A "Dump Trump" plea signed by the likes of Daniel Blumenthal, Michael Chertoff, Eliot Cohen, Robert Kagan and a few dozen like-minded Washington insiders isn't going to make much of an impression on the millions of regular folks who have begun to realize that the trillions pissed away on unnecessary wars at the urging of these people has only made America poorer and less secure.

In fact, it's these war cheerleaders who have brought America down. Bill Kristol gave the game away when he revealed that the GOP elite would be better served by having Hillary in the White House. Unlike Trump, Hillary is a reliable advocate for senseless military interventions and endless weapon sales to all sides in virtually every conflict. What that should tell the Republican rank and file is that their party has long since been hijacked by the military-industrial complex.

It's no wonder the elite feels threatened by a candidate who is bringing democracy back to the party.

TSA announces new airport security measure; colonoscopy for every passenger

Ouch!

That's gonna hurt! Bad enough when a licensed professional does it - I grow weak in the knees just imagining that operation in the hands of those eleven dollar an hour TSA types.

And not in a good way.

This is a prudent response to the latest threat to the Homeland; undetectable bombs being smuggled onto airliners. After the shoe-bomber and the undie-bomber, former Homeland Security big Michael Chertoff made a fortune selling airport bomb-detectors to governments, to keep the flying public safe and himself rolling in dough.

That was a transparently stupid strategy all along. Even the manufacturers conceded that the terrorists could defeat their bomb detectors by cramming the bombs up their "bodily cavity".

And while there's not been a bombing or a hijacking of an American passenger plane since 9-11, you can never be too careful... or too scared.

So stop complaining and bend over - it's for your own good.

Just in time for July 4, Homeland Security warns of "undetectable" bombs

That should keep the public on their toes!

Notice how this story is always accompanied by pictures of grim-faced security types, weapons at the ready, on the lookout for these undetectable bombs.






Hey dudes, lighten up already! They already told you the bombs are undetectable!

Guess the billions spent on all those airport screening systems Michael Chertoff was peddling were a waste of money!

In praise of smuggling: world's second oldest profession

They say that prostitution is the world's oldest profession. The second oldest is smuggling, invented by a Natufian pimp in 6100 BC when he sneaked two Sumarian hookers into the ancient walled city of Uruk. And it's been going gangbusters ever after.

When I worked at the drydock in Saint John there'd be a guy coming round every Thursday to take your order for liquor from the other side of the line. You could get a forty pounder of Canadian whiskey for about half the price from the smuggler than what you'd pay at the liquor store down the street. Twenty-four hours later, payday, your order would be waiting for you in the parking lot at the shipyard.

Passamaquoddy Bay was the "border" between Maine and New Brunswick. Beautiful country. Home to a couple thousand lobster boats and two Border Patrol vessels. Pulled up at the Canada Customs shack on Deer Island once, where the ferry comes in from Maine. They had a sign in the window, back in 15 minutes. Alrighty then... I'll just sit tight! Or not...

Up in Woodstock N.B. there's a golf course. Half of it is in Maine and the other half in Canada. Fore! Just gonna step state-side to find my ball, boys, back in a minute. I'll just leave my golf bag with the ten pounds of premium bud in the rough over there...  And now we got Republican contenders who are going to build a five thousand mile fence to put an end to this stuff?

Fellow I know crosses the border all the time. Called me up on his cell one night. Hey man, I'm in Michigan, half hour from the border. Didn't want to have anything on me when I got there so I just burned my last joint.

Know why he didn't want to have anything on him?

Dogs.

Smugglers avoid the dogs whenever they can. Anything else, all the high-tech stuff, smuggling becomes a math problem. You do the math and you figure out the odds. If you know the border crossing has dogs, you go somewhere else. So what does the Border Patrol do? Get rid of the dogs and buy more high-tech stuff.

It's part of the high-tech hypnosis that we've all fallen prey to. If it's got dials and screens it must be better than a dog. And the tech lobby knows how we think. There is no dog lobby. Best example I can think of in terms of effective lobbying is Michael Chertoff. Went from Secretary of Homeland Security to being a lobbiest for the outfit that puts body scanners in airports.

Body scanners do work. If you're a really dumbshit terrorist like the undie bomber, the scanners will catch you. If the undie bomber was a tad brighter and shoved the explosives up his butt, the scanner wouldn't catch him. That's why Israel doesn't use body scanners. They're useless. And the Israelis probably know more than we do about terrorism. Yet every airport in America now has body scanners, and Michael Chertoff is a wealthy man.

But I digress. Smuggling is Economics 101. Where there is a market, people will take risks to meet that need. We've been fighting the war on drugs for over thirty years. The market is still there. So are the drugs.

So let them build fences.