Archives for February 2017

Yesterday was the Super Bowl. I took the day off from writing about what’s going on because I didn’t have much to say. I spent my time listening and observing. It was interesting to listen to the weekly morning talk shows and listen as Tavis Smiley said – watching Mike Pence tie himself in knots to explain what the Trump administration was and had been doing. The amount of simple denial of reality, gas lighting, or – to be kind, which I don’t really have much truck with, the ability to see things in a very different light.

There was talk of the Super Bowl Budweiser ad, which illustrated how German immigrants were disliked and persecuted. It was said that Hillary supporters were more likely to drink Bud then Trump supporters. A fact I find hard to believe. Then if not Bud, what beer are Trump supporters drinking? Also, interestingly German immigrants were the ones that started brewing beer in America. It was considered low class and it was beer that caused the rise of the temperance movement. Who knew? What were the other Americans drinking, whiskey? Also, the last time a second language was proposed for this nation it was German.

There were illustrations both on TV and social media of Trump supporters taking a twisted kind of joy in exclaiming (trumpeting???) the fact that they won and you lost – ha, ha, ha. Various essays and graphs tried to show how Obama hadn’t done a good job, but Trump was going to turn things around, etc. There was talk of how Trump was “fixing” non-existent problems and that his fixes might actually create the problems he claimed he wanted to fix, then he could really turn up the heat on his fix. This was compared to how fascists worked in the 1930s, and actually how they always work. Speculation, ran as to whether this was the plan, and if so all fingers pointed to Bannon, whom reports late in the day said Trump was furious that he learned he had signed an order appointing Bannon to the National Security Counsel.

There was an article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone that chronicled the meanest of Mike Pence toward the poor and oppressed in Indiana. How his religious fervor and ineptness plus outright lying, and two faced hypocrisy all contributed to this. There was discussion on social media and radio about the protests in Berkley. What seems clear now is that the racist guy who was kicked off Twitter for saying such offensive things that Twitter couldn’t allow him to stay on was scheduled to speak at Berkley. There were protests and a fire. The talk was cancelled and the Republicans on campus bemoaned the fact that freedom of speech had died. It is now clear that 150 masked people, not students, showed up on campus and caused the violent part of the protest and the fire. This is right out of the fascist playbook. (Just sayin’)

I have been taking a Great Course entitled “Peoples and Cultures of the World.” Yesterday’s lecture dealt with language. All languages can be used to communicate, some communicate certain ideas better than others, some “don’t have a word for it.” Some have many words for say snow or lava, depending on whether you are an eskimo or a Hawaiian. Some languages tightly couple meanings to certain words, some are looser. An example of a very tightly coupled language (and that was not the term the professor used, but I think it was the idea) was the language described by George Orwell in his book “1984” where the state proclaimed a new language and that language had particular meaning and if you spoke that language only those meanings could be discussed and others would not; not be discussed, allowed, permitted, or even thought about. Interesting, that I should listen to that lecture at this point in time.

Let’s get to something fun and exciting, shall we? I’ve been curious about Trump Wine, ever since it was rudely shoved in my face by a prominent display in a grocery store that is now going out of business in our area. (Coincidence? I think not. But you never know, right? Am I right? Lemme hear an Ah Men! isn’t that the way it’s said?)

I’ve never been impressed with Virginia wines. I’ve tried. I went to Monticello and saw a beautiful winery on the next hill, complete with NAPA style adobe stucco tasting room and cute girls to ladle out the stuff. Not having time to taste I bought several bottles and was disappointed in all of them. The stuff just wasn’t very good. Not as bad as some Maryland wines I’ve had that seem to feature a heavy concentration of what I can only think is a preservative, suitable for using in you RV to keep lines from freezing but otherwise why buy it? Patricia Cornwell, a Richmond native, has also written unflatteringly about Virginia wines, so I’m not alone. But let’s dig in, first the back story as revealed in two minutes of googling.

The Donald bought the Kluge Winery. Why he didn’t keep the name is beyond me. He claimed the property was once listed for $100M, was 1300 acres, and one of the largest wineries in the state. He got the place for $6.2M. It had a mortgage of over $20M on the place and it’s not clear who got stiffed. The acreage is really 776, whether he bought some other property to make it up to 1300 is not clear, but I could find no evidence that he did. He doesn’t drink, and turned the operation over to his son. They kept the Kluges on to manage the operation, not sure if they are still there or not. As far as being one of the largest wineries in the state; it’s not. They have 200 acres under vine (is that a term? I don’t know. I just decided to use it, sounds cool, like “It’s a good read.”)

I had to noodle around to find a review of someone who actually tasted the wine. The main taster in the article is a woman from New York City who is in the restaurant business. No doubt, she’s a liberal Trump hater because all people in New York City are Trump haters, am I right? Well, it’s the only review I could find. Actually, it was the first one and I said that was good enough. BTW if you google Trump Wine and ask for wineries in the area their winery gets the lowest rating, except for some guy who appears to have a shack in the woods that he calls a winery. (Again, Just sayin’) But for those of you who might think a Clinton would hate this wine please be informed that Kluge wine was served at Chelsea Clinton’s rehearsal dinner.

Okay onto the reviews, I’m only going to pull out adjectives and phrases that describe the wine tasting experience, and let me just say right up front, I was not disappointed. It was everything I expected, and more!

Let’s start with the whites:

• The Blanc de Blancs 2009, $24 – “Isn’t bad, acidified, like it’s been toyed with, kind of Botox-y, disjointed, trying to be a champagne.”
• The Viognier 2014, $24 – “actively dislike, like being sprayed in a department store with cheap perfume”

On to the reds – After her experience with the above whites she commented, “I’m terrified of the reds.”

After tasting, she commented, “They both taste the same.”

Let’s break it down:

• Heritage 2014, $24 –
  “on the nose. I’ve smelled worse.” (Note: I think ‘on the nose’ means she smelled it. Love the term!)

  “This could actually be much more offensive. not great, nor is it terrible.” (Don’t you wonder how it could be ‘more offensive’?)

  In a blind tasting “I would think it a cheap Bordeaux,” “tastes super cheap, really boring, painfully boring,” and “a porch pounder” (which means something you guzzle on the porch, pounding it down.)

• New World Reserve 2013, $30 –
  “Still disjointed, feels played with,” like lemonade made with Splenda “weirdly sweet”, “just feels off.” There was a discussion of “artificial tannins” being added, not oak chips, but “a big bag of white stuff”
  Also “tastes expensive,” but “has no soul”

I think Trump Wine is a perfect reflection of Trump in general: disjointed, cheap, no soul, Botox-y.

Good times!

Here’s the article from vinepair.com.

1444 Days to go

Congressional switchboards jammed, representatives hiding from constituents, what a couple of weeks.

Betsy DeVos, the most unqualified candidate for a cabinet position that anyone can ever recall might get voted in. Why? Money. It turns out she has contributed to most, if not all, of the Republican Senators’ campaigns. Two ‘Go Fund Me’ campaigns have started to try and raise as much money as Betsy has given two senators in an effort to “buy back” their votes. It has come to this. By the way – Tom Cotton, you sold out at way too low a price. Eight grand? Surely you can do better! Tell Betsy fifty grand minimum. Don’t be a cheap whore. Show some class. Not that you ever had in your rants, but come on, give it a try.

One former national security team person was asked the other day about the relationship between Donald Trump and the intelligence community. The response, with tongue firmly inserted in cheek, was “It’s perfectly normal for the intelligence community to consider the President of the United States a national security risk.”

Oh, and all those protesting at the airports and the questions about why are they making it such a big deal? You know only 109 people out of 325,000 were held for questioning. Just a few questions, what’s the big deal? Isn’t that worth the price to keep America safe? And besides, Green Card holders weren’t detained by this Executive Order, or at least they weren’t supposed to be. If they were that was a mistake on the people carrying out the order but not the intent. Remember that? Can you imagine when the lawyers pressing their case to have this order stopped learned in court that their had been another order? And that other order had not been made public? It was that secret order that stopped 60,000 people according to the Department of State from entering this country. In court the Judiciary Department said no that wasn’t correct, the number was more like 100,000, actually, over 100,000 people were detained, or turned away. One hundred thousand legal vetted citizens – green card holders. Did the administration lie? Well, maybe not, maybe they just forgot to mention it? Maybe, they are correct that the Muslim ban order didn’t, or wasn’t supposed to, stop green card holders, but the one they didn’t mention sure was supposed to do that!

Moving on…

One former administration official said, when asked about this and the claims of its effectiveness, “It’s easy to fix a crisis when there isn’t one.” (not verbatim, sorry, don’t have the source here.) I think that’s the point. Trump started his campaign by stating there was a problem where there wasn’t one. It played to people’s fears that had been stoked by false narratives from sources like Fox and Breitbart, and it is a well known fact among advertisers and propagandists that if you tell someone a lie often enough they will begin to believe it because that’s the way our brains are wired. Now, the administration is claiming that they are doing a great job in regard to a non-existent problem. However, their “efforts” may actually be creating the problem they sought to stop, and as many strongmen or their henchmen have pointed out (and are now being quoted on social media) this gives them the opportunity to squash opponents. So is this Bannon’s end game? To create chaos, destroy our institutions, and suppress the people?

1446 days to go

Not even two weeks old and what have we wrought?

Some wonder if this is on purpose or if this is ineptitude or more charitably “Getting to Know the job?” As has been pointed out numerous times this is a president’s honeymoon period, when his rating should be the highest they will ever be. Mr. Trump’s are the lowest of any president in modern history and seem to be lower than most presidents at their lowest point.

My daughter, a math PhD, told me about hedonometer, a website that looks at how happy or sad people seem to be for the day based on what’s going on via Twitter. Christmas is the happiest, followed by Thanksgiving and Mother’s Day. Low points include several mass shootings, the U.S. ban on muslims, and the election of Donald J. Trump. So to say there is a mandate is clear. He should resign and make it one of the happiest days, but I digress.

Also, there are quotes about this new leader and his administration on Facebook. Interestingly, those quoted are fascists, nazis, Mao Zedong, and the like; not Lincoln, Jefferson, or Washington. I should amend that to say the first group is quoted to show what the administration is most like and the latter to show what it is not.

Other countries are responding in different ways, as are our politicians, diplomats, military and government personnel. I’d sum it up as saying when the alternate worlds imagined by Donald Trump meet the real F’cking world it ain’t pretty and that America won’t be made great by it, but rather will shrink from the world stage. But what do I know? Let’s dig in.

Rex Tillerson showed up at the State Department today and seems to have a sense of humor. I think he’ll need it. Let’s see what he’s got on his plate: over 1,000 dissenting State workers, the green card holders held or in some cases sent back (laughably, or tragically, one to the wrong airport, but hey, it kinda sounded like the airport from which he came). Meanwhile there’s a real life and death crisis. Turns out Putin tried to poison an assistant Russian deputy who holds dual U.S. and British citizenship. Last time he tried the U.S. and Britain jumped in and saved the guy. He’s now on a ventilator in Russia. Will Rex jump in or let him die? Also, the leader in Hungary who has subverted their constitution so he can remain in power, has had a meeting with Putin, and appears to be moving away from NATO and the west. Iran’s navy has been annoying our ships again, will he respond? Remember candidate Trump said he’d declare war for such actions. btw Iran has given a hall pass to the Trump admin for the “being put on notice” thing, saying the new admin are naive and I guess young and stupid. Nothing like being treated like an adolescent child. Meanwhile Putin is on the move in Eastern Ukraine, will the man who got the Friendship Medal from Russia stand up to his presenter or not?

Leaks and Blame – Transcripts of the President’s conversations have found their way out to the press. In fact, those who deal in leaks say that it is a flood of leaks and not a trickle. The president’s inner circle says they aren’t the ones doing the leaking, which is interesting because they would be the only ones having access to this information. Speculation is that the only way to get the president’s attention is via T.V. Certainly, not via a memo because if it’s not a tweet, he doesn’t read it. Let’s look at a sampler of yesterday’s leaks, blame, and screw ups:

The Raid in Yemen – Not their fault, approved by Obama. In fact they weren’t even in the Situation Room when it was going on because The Donald was seen as being elsewhere when it was happening. Also, the approval happened while the President was having dinner. The usual overly talkative Kellyanne Conway (hereinafter KAC) was silent when directly asked if this was true. It’s not clear if the president okayed this or if it was his 32 year old son-in-law or Steve Bannon. They were the only ones from the National Security team at dinner with the president at the time of the approval. As far as Obama approving it, this held up until the press interviewed someone on Obama’s team about it. You’ll be surprised to hear that Obama never knew of this raid. He did hear about this type of raid, and his team determined that it was too close to the new president coming in for them to take any action. They noted that this needed more scrutiny and left it for the next administration to deal with. Huh? Imagine that, seems the Trump team can’t read either.

Trying to clean up the mess from the previous day Senator McCain contacted the Prime Minister of Australia and made nice then issued a statement that sounded like he was President. I’m surprised Spicer or someone didn’t dress McCain down, but I guess they realized that McCain was trying to plug another leak in the dike. (I’ve got this image of the president running along the dike poking it with a stick and water springing through and multiple Hans Brinkers trying to plug the holes.)

Invade Mexico? He was joking. Okay? Stop taking things so literally. Situation resolved. Right?

There was suggested via twitter that Dennis Leary play Kellyanne Conway. I guess because he did such a good job in the Snicker’s ad where he played a “you’re not you when you’re hungry” Marilynn Monroe. Leary responded that he wanted an Oscar for the role.

Protests Continue – Representatives are getting overwhelmed with constituents phone calls and showing up at their district offices. Representatives are turning to Facebook and other electronic media so they don’t have to face angry crowds, and that way they can pick and choose their questions and not be put on the spot. Our Congressman, Dave Bratt, held a Facebook townhall two days ago. The questions he choose to answer were none of the ones we saw being asked by his constituents. Brett, a tea party Republican who unseated House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, is an economist. He claims that entitlements are the bulk of the Federal budget. Really? I thought it was the Defense Department. But it’s how you frame it. If it’s total spending he’s right. If it’s discretionary spending then it’s the military hands down. So Mr. Bratt wants to cutdown on things that were promised to the American people like Social Security, and Medicare. Nice.

In one funny and sad video voters came to meet with their representative and the staff wouldn’t even unlock the door, forcing them to talk to them via a metal box on the wall. Gutsy! Whose office was it? Tom Cotton (senate R-Arkansas) who has made some pretty strong pronouncements in the past about being tough and not liking what Obama had done. He cancelled a town hall meeting but after continual berating agreed to reschedule it. Let’s see if he shows up.

Speaking of cowering our president was going to go to Wisconsin home of that pussy Scott Walker. He and fellow motorcycle riding buddy Make ‘em Squeal Joni Ernst, have been real quiet of late. Remember that motorcycle rally? The one where Walker wore a helmet that made him look like Mike Dukakis in the tank? Well, tough guy Donald Trump was going to go to Wisconsin to Harley Davidson and he chickened out. Afraid of the protesters. Not bikers. He’s such a manly man. Instead he had Harley come to Washington where he made a speech about how HD had tariffs to protect the industry. It was motorcycle owner Lawrence O’Donnell that corrected the record on all that. (i never thought of him as being on a motorcycle, let alone a Harley.) Harley Davidson did get tariff protection when Japanese motorcycles were kicking there butt. Harley apparently was making a crappy oil leaking bikes. They needed time to revamp and they did. They asked the government to lift the tariff a year early. Once they got their act together. Trump missed the point.

BTW if you get a chance the Harley museum is well worth spending a day at and the food at their cafe is good too. The museum has a large panel showing every Harley motor ever made.You can push the picture of the engine and hear its sound. Harley is an American comeback story. Swallowed by a conglomerate they started making golf carts and scooters. The division was losing money. Finally, some of the employees bought the company. It was rough going for several years but now they are back. Their most profitable part of the business? Clothing.

1447 days to go

Have you ever heard of a Koenigsegg?

It’s a Swedish “super car.” Street legal in the U.S., tops out at a little over 241 miles per hour, and costs $2.1M ( that’s “two point one million.”) There’s one owned by the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea. He has a $35M mansion in California and numerous other cars like Ferraris. He bought Michael Jackson’s glove. He’s got money. How did he and the family get their money? Oil. Who paid them? Exxon Mobil. At his confirmation hearings Rex Tillerson said that they hand a check over to the heads of lots of states, what they do with the money after that is up to them. Kind of like a block grant program, I guess. Well the Mbasogo family, the ruling family of Equatorial Guinea, what they have done for decades is to keep it. Meanwhile the general population lives in squalor. We’re talking tin roofs, cardboard or scrap wood siding and mud streets, if you can even call them streets.

The father of this playboy kid is well known for the use of imprisonment, torture, kidnappings, and arbitrary arrests, etc. Nice guy. Their constitution said he had to step down in 2011. He didn’t.

In an effort to curb such abuses of money not going to the people of a nation, groups have worked to have governments around the world pass laws that require extraction companies to reveal their payments to such individuals and nations. You’ll be surprised to know that extraction companies: oil, gas, and coal are rated the most corrupt in the world, cause ya know, ya gotta grease a few palms to get things done and then turn a blind eye to other things going on – that’s reality. Right? Come on. Everybody knows that.

Well, you’ll be happy to know that our Republican legislators yesterday were busy with their repeal efforts to lift the undue burden on corporations so the companies can get back to business without government interference by voting to get rid of our law that requires companies to reveal what they pay folks like Mr. Mbasogo and his son. It now goes to the Senate for passage.

Also Rex Tillerson was sworn in as Secretary of State. He couldn’t be a better pick for Vladimir Putin. Yes, he’s supposedly divested himself of his holdings or put them in a blind trust, do you think that he’s forgotten the five hundred billion dollar deal he did with Russia for his old company ExxonMobil? When it comes to keeping sanctions on Russia, which keep them in need of money from the west, do you think letting ExxonMobil drill in Russia and hand over a ton of money will make America Great Again? Just asking.

Oh yes, there are reports that Putin is again on the move in Ukraine.

Also, the Democrats did not show up for the committee votes for two of Trump’s cabinet nominees. This means that their nominations can’t go forward. What to do? Why suspend the rules and push them through to a full Senate vote. So Lying Steve Mnuchin and Double-Dealing Tom Price go to the Senate for a full vote. Okay, he’s not really lying is he? Just because he admitted for the record that he forgot to disclose $100M in Cayman Island accounts and that he wasn’t “completely truthful” about who owned that money he oversaw. Oh wait. That is lying? Who knew? And Tom Price didn’t double deal, not really, he just bought stock in companies days before he introduced legislation that directly helped those companies. Maybe that’s called insider trading? Maybe, he didn’t know that he was going to introduce that legislation? Maybe, he didn’t know that the legislation was going to directly help those companies? So many unknowns.

Meanwhile, Betsy DeVos, perhaps the most unqualified candidate for any cabinet position ever in the history of our country might get approved. She’s one vote away from not making it, which means she has at least one vote necessary to make it. Good times.

Meanwhile, Iran fired a ballistic missile, Michael Flynn had a press conference where he said Iran was “put on notice.” Then he left the room without taking questions. Questions like, “What does that mean?” Tough guy. One thing it doesn’t mean is that our military command in that area has gotten any change of status orders. Maybe, the White House doesn’t know we have a command center out there? Hard to say.

Trump has been busy. Yesterday, he threatened to invade Mexico, and hung up on the Australian Prime Minister. That will show them.

A CNN reporter contacted a department for comment on how some order would affect that agency. Sorry, I can’t remember which one at the moment. The order would directly affect that agency. CNN asked the typical “How?” and “Why?” type questions a reporter would ask to learn more. The department asked “What?” Apparently, they hadn’t been told. The “Who?” was obvious. That would be the White House. I think those folks should be fired (“You’re Fired!) because they didn’t tow the line. Kinda reminds me of the stories of James Brown who would change a routine in the middle of a performance and if a dancer didn’t pick up on it he’d fire them. Ow. Hold me back, Mr. Funky President, it’s Getting’ Too Hot in Here! Yeah. What I say!

It seems more and more clear that Bannon is tightening his control over the president and the levers of power. In a positive note, apparently there’s a law that specifies who has to be on the National Security Committee. It includes some of the people kicked off. It remains to be seen if the president will abide by the law or if like President Mbasogo will ignore it.

As far as the Supreme Court nominee goes, Democrats are divided how to respond. Some say this is a stolen seat and unless the Republicans give Merrick Garland a hearing and vote then they intend to hold the seat open. Other Dems say two wrongs don’t make a right, but give us someone we can vote for. Trump says he told McConnell to suspend the rules of the Senate on the 60 vote threshold and go with a simple majority, known as the nuclear option. This will be an interesting test for the majority leader of the Senate, a place where he has spent most to his life. Will he screw over the tradition and rules of the Senate to get a nominee through or not?

He might be looking at the political landscape and how quickly it is changing. Protests in every state: red and blue, cold and warm, and in cities and towns: big and small. Political representatives are finding their local offices besieged by numbers they have never seen before. There are now polls that show the effect of all this as compared to the Tea Party at its height. The Tea Party at the time of its rise compared to the Women’s March both get about a 60 percent awareness of each movement in the general population with a few percentage points going in favor of the Women’s March. However, when you ask if you are in favor of each movement you get 29% for the Tea Party at its height compared to an over 60% favorability rating for the Women’s March and we are just seeing the beginning of this movement. It hasn’t reached its peak. There are questions of how long can this go on, will people get exhausted protesting? etc. It remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Rex Tillerson will have his hands full when he gets to the Department of State. Over 1000 State Department personnel have registered their dissent through the official channel for doing so. The point of the dissent channel is that they are guaranteed no retribution. The White House has weighed in – Fire Them! Good luck Rex. At least he has experience with running a large organization.

In Saudi Arabia there’s a music video out with a very catchy tune. Women in burkas are singing, then they are doing all kinds of activities: like riding bikes and wearing day glo colored clothes. What are they singing? Something about “Men are the sickness” and “they are causing us pain” or something like that. The video has taken off around the Mid-East.

There is hope.
Don’t give up the fight.
Stay Vigilant.

1446 days to go

1449 days to go

So far we’ve had one or two Constitutional Crises depending on how you want to count. In fiction writing you always want to increase the stakes and the tension and this administration has been doing that, but in reality.

We’ve also had a selection of cabinet nominees who are by just about any measure the most unqualified group that’s ever been put forward by a president. Makes me wonder when “the really good people” are going to be put forward. Most of the nominees have a history of not liking the missions of the departments they’ve been asked to head and have in the past sworn to oppose them, dismantle them, and have actually fought against them. One nominee, Rick Perry, seemed to not understand what his department does. Most of these nominees have ties to businesses that would benefit if those departments didn’t demand that they do things. Things that improve the well being of this country. Things like not destroying our air, water, land and the planet. But they got to make a profit right?

So much for the really terrific people pledge.

This is a review of what happened yesterday and I wish yesterday had been Monday, not Tuesday, because then I could have called it Mangled Metaphor Monday, which has a nice assonant ring to it. Unfortunately, I’m Left with Mangled Metaphor Tuesday (MMT) or Terrible Analogy Tuesday (TAT) one sounds like a designer drug made from bath crystals and the other from an odd sexual practice, but that’s what we’re stuck with.

Yesterday was breathtaking. Not as in “beautiful” but as in “OMG can you believe this sh*t! ???” It was kind of subtle at first, but when you sit back and consider the entirety of it, “It blows your mind, Man.” (Thanks Cheech.)

I was sitting in the car dealership while getting the cars inspected and I was watching the committee considering Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary. When I first started listening the Democratic senators were making their arguments as to why they found her wanting. I’ll leave their reasons alone for a bit while I go to Richard Burr (R-NC) and his thoughts on why her nomination should go forward. He, to me, epitomizes what is wrong with Washington. Years ago, when he was my senator and the Dems were in charge. The Senate Armed Forces Committee was meeting. Apparently, if you go past 2 o’clock or within two hours of quitting time (not sure which it is but it has something to do with two hours.) The chairperson, in this case Lisa Murkowski, has to ask if the members of the committee would mind staying. In other words Do you mind working a full day? On this day a front line general fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan was on the docket to testify. He needed to get back to the war effort, you know to keep America safe and all that.

What do you think Senator Burr’s response was? “I don’t have any objection personally, but some in my party do, so I must object.”

I usually try to stay away from ad hominem arguments (i.e. personal attacks) but I make an exception for this person, because as I said he represents what is wrong in Washington: a mealy mouthed, spineless hunk of protoplasm doing his masters’ bidding. I hope he never visits Russia because Putin would make him his lap dog.

Burr needed to stay in the good graces of Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell so he could stay on the Veterans Affairs Committee and do the good work of blocking every bill trying to provide aid to veterans with his wimpy reasoning of “Gee, I’d love to but we can’t afford it” response. War? oh sure no problem.

Let’s listen to Senator Burr’s response to the Democrats’ objections to DeVos. Here’s the basic shuck and jive, “Gosh, here’s a woman who saw a problem (Detroit schools) and tried, really tried, and you don’t want to give her a chance? She even contributed some of her own money, and Senator Franken I find it unconscionable that you went on The Rachel Maddow Show and said you Democrats had been on a retreat and came up with a strategy to block her nomination and all the nominees.”

Pretty devastating right?

If you’re going to take on one of the best comedy writers of one of the most successful satirical comedy TV shows of all time I’d advise you to at least have your facts straight. But before we get to Senator Franken’s response let’s hear from Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA). Take it away Johnny!!!

“Ya know, a person coming into a new job can’t be expected to know every little thing about that job. My wife’s been a teacher for 48 years and I pledge that I will personally help Ms. DeVos with whatever she needs to learn.”

Well isn’t that special? (to quote Church Lady) The Democrats’ main problem with Ms. DeVos was that she knew nothing: nothing about the job. So old Johnny would be mighty busy. He’d have to object to staying a full day because he’d have to run over and explain to Betsy what was what and we have no idea what he knows about education. Was he offering to run between his teacher wife and Ms. DeVos with whatever he had learned? Hard to say.

Somewhere along the line the Democrats must have been accused of not liking charter schools because Ms. DeVos was a big advocate of them. At least if they were Christian and she had a stake in the business, and if it drained money from the public schools.

Here were the Democrats concerns:

• Warren: DeVos has no public school experience, She didn’t answer any of the questions satisfactorily. She has no loan experience and the Department of Education oversees a one trillion dollar student loan program.
• Franken: Echoed Warren’s concerns and elaborated that not only could DeVos not answer a single question competently but she showed no understanding of the basic education issues facing the country.
• Murphy: (I think it was Murphy) Yes, DeVos had done some charter school work in Detroit, which had funneled money out of the Detroit public schools leaving them worse off, and which he believed she had a financial interest in those charter schools. Those schools performed more poorly than the Detroit Public Schools. (That’s saying something if you are doing worse than one of the worst public school systems in the country btw imho.)
• Murray: Wanted to change the committee rules to come in line with other similar committees and demand three years of tax returns of any nominee. DeVos had not been properly vetted by the Ethics Committee and they still didn’t know the extent of her finances, especially in regards to for profit charter schools. (Republican chairman Alexander said she had given the committee some paper with numbers on it that were her stated income etc. so he was satisfied.)

Another Democratic Senator whose name I didn’t catch has a son with special needs. She said she was shocked to learn that DeVos didn’t know much, if anything, about the Child with Disabilities Act.

Several of the Democratic Senators made a point of saying they weren’t opposed to charter schools as the Republicans had suggested. Some had some very good well functioning ones in their states. DeVos had drained money out of the public school system to put money into religiously based charter schools that didn’t do a good job. Also, the senator with the special needs child pointed out that if you were forced to enroll in a charter school because the public school didn’t have the facilities for your child you had to give up your rights for that child to get the care they needed from the public school, and if you couldn’t afford the charter school because the voucher you got didn’t cover the tuition completely and you were poor and couldn’t make up the difference – too bad, so sad.

Then Senator Franken responded to Senator Burr. (This was the only sort of discussion that I saw. Otherwise, it was Senators talking into microphones with no response from the other side.) What did Al have to say to Richard? Well, yes he had been on The Rachel Maddow Show, and he was asked a specific question and he has the transcript if the senator would like to see it. The question he was asked was had the Democrats decided on a strategy to block all the nominees? He had told her, “No.” In fact, as evidence he had already voted for three of the nominees. The problem with DeVos was she not only knew nothing about the job, what it entailed, or how to deal with it, she had a demonstrable record of failure in the area of education. As far as Democrats going on a retreat and coming up with a strategy. Yes, they had done that. He asked, “Have you ever done that?” This was the only time I heard laughter and it came from the peanut gallery.

I was wondering if they were laughing thinking about the time Obama, early in his Presidency, went to a Republican retreat in Baltimore to try and work with them, to get their support. This is where I first saw the work of Paul Ryan. He was praised as one of the up and coming stars of the Republican party, the boy wonder. He had created a budget, and that was printed up and on display at this retreat. I remember Boehner holding it up to his chest like he was carrying a holy book, or maybe he wanted to make sure it would catch any bullets to the chest. Obama shows up and says, “Let’s work together.” Okay, fine. They’ve got this budget. Fox News is covering it live. What was it 440 Republicans to 1 Democrat? Obama says, “Great you got a budget. Let’s see it.” He flips to a page and reads. It says something like “We want to reduce the cost of government.” Obama says, “You can’t govern from this.” There’s silence. Fox News all of a sudden has something else to do and cuts away. It turns out Ryan didn’t include any numbers in his budget other than page numbers. This is the boy wonder who’s going to save the Republican party? God help them. Or was the laughter because they were thinking about the famous steakhouse conference before Obama got inaugurated where the leadership of the Republican party decided they would block and obstruct everything Obama tried to do? Screw the people. It’s hard to say. Franken went on to say, “If you don’t (have a strategy) you better.” It was left unsaid that the orange one was in the White House signing Executive Orders like he’s an emperor, not consulting with anyone.

This brings up the question of who actually wrote the executive orders?

Had the president seen them before he signed them? Why was he reading part of them out loud before signing?

Could he even see them? It had been reported that he has a fear of stairs, but that might be explained by poor eyesight. He had to grab hold of the British Prime Minister at one point when walking down a flight of stairs.

Now we get to the Muslim ban. It’s not a Muslim ban it’s an immigration order, remember? I love boy wonder Ryan’s statement, “We need to pause to get it right.” Get what right? What plans do you have to do that? You know to get it right?

There is, was, no problem. (Except and until the mind of Donald Trump said there was and lo there was a problem. And the Donald said there was a problem and the minions said Yes, there is a problem. What they asked “is the problem?”)

So I’m betting after a pause they’ll announce they’ve solved the problem or they’ll double down and put us on red alert or some such and throw a few more countries on the list (but none where Trump has business ties.)

Then it came out that Republican staffers has volunteered to work on the immigration ban and they had signed non-disclosures. According to a lawyer who had actually read the EO (Executive Order) and argued against it in court, he said the order was vague and it wasn’t clear whether it applied to green card holders or not. See, this is the funny thing about lawyers, they read. Then based on what they read they go into court and say, “According to what I read.” Strange huh? If there was a team of Republican staff volunteers working on this EO and the best they can do is come up with a vague statement that a judge, and all the lawyers in the room aren’t sure of its meaning then I’d say they need to go back to law school or something. Wait? What? They didn’t actually write the order they just advised? Maybe, Steve Bannon is getting a little OJT? (On the Job Training) Who knows. The one person I’m sure didn’t write the order was the president.

It will be interesting to see how the new temporary Attorney General (AG) has his lawyers argue the ban, and even more interesting how Jeff Sessions would argue it, if he gets appointed, because there is now a tape of Sessions questioning the woman who was fired if she had to choose between backing the President or following the law, which would she do? She said she’d follow the law. She did and got fired.

Here’s another interesting tidbit. Usually, executive orders are created within a department and sent to the President. Typically, the President and the departments talk about how to word something and how they, the department, will carry out the order. Not now. Not this White House. I’m guessing Bannon writes it up, Trump has a big ceremony and signs it and then they give it to the department. If the department says, “What is this?” They’re fired. Yeah, run the White House like the reality show you used to host. And what’s up with that weird gold giant star medallion with green bunting behind the president when he’s doing his little signing ceremonies? It looks like Kremlin throwaway stage props.

It’s interesting how the right wing talking heads and websites say if she couldn’t do the job she should have resigned. What she did, was her job. She showed courage, moral fortitude, and backbone. Something oddly missing in most of the Republicans elected to Congress. (Speaking of which where is “Make ‘em Squeal” Jodi Ernst? I haven’t heard a peep or a squeal out of her.)

It’s frightening to think that perhaps our best chance to save our democracy lies in the hands of “sane Republicans.” I’m not sure there are many. I’ve never thought much of Lindsey Graham until recently, but he’s leading the way in decency with humor, conviction, and spinal strength.

Supreme Court Nominee, anyone?

Trump was given 21 names of folks from a religious right wing radical Christian group. All willing to overturn Roe vs Wade.

In a stage setting reminiscent of the Apprentice or the NFL Draft night Donald picked Gorsuch. The argument given for why we should support him was, “He’s the best of the bunch.” i.e. He’s not as bad as . . . But he’s still bad!

Then there’s the laughable statement from Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell that “the American people won’t stand for” (in this case) holding the seat open for four years. Really Turtle Man? You were willing to hold it open for almost a year, and pledged that if Hillary Clinton was elected you’d hold it open for another four. There’s a term for what you are; something about a sack of excrement lying on the floor. No wait, that’s not quite right.

Gorsuch is the son of Anne Grouch Buford, former director of the EPA under Reagan. Nixon signed the EPA into law with the purpose of cleaning up our air, water, and toxic waste sites. If you need to know why this was a priority look at pictures of downtown LA or the NYC skyline in the 1970s. They were clouded in a brown haze. Reagan came in on a wave of “too much regulation” and Anne Buford was put in charge of the EPA to do something about it. She proposed cutting the budget by 45% and gutting as much of the agency as she could. I’ll bet that made for interesting dinner table conversation for little Neil. But that’s not him. What’s he done? In a single word – Hobby Lobby. (How many of you picked up on the fact that it was two words?)

You know Hobby Lobby? Those nice Christian folks who have been on the forefront of pushing a radical Christian agenda? They had been paying their employees health care for years, decades, and then came that devil incarnate, muslim black man and his right wing Heritage Foundation based health care system and all of a sudden they dug deep and found even more religiosity.

“Certainly, you can’t expect us to trample on our new found religious principles because of the law?” Gorsuch agreed and it went to the Supreme Court where they won and the American people lost.

(I’m sick and tired of these deeply religious people of whatever stripe who think because they deeply believe something they have a moral duty to inflict it on the rest of us. There was an internet meme with one of the Downton Abbey ladies pictured and it said, “Religions are like penises. It’s all right to have one, but don’t go waving it around in public.”) I might add don’t hit me over the head with it or slap my cheeks with it and try and make me swallow it. This does make me think that there could be a new line of work: Religious Porn. Wow, think of the ad in the church bulletin, “Have you considered being a religious porn star? Immediate openings for our full length feature movie . . .” But I digress.

Let’s quickly review the recent history of Supreme Court nominees. There’s been lots of talk about good olde Anthony Scalia. What an affable guy he was. How he and Ruth Bader Ginsberg were buds, etc. Have people forgotten “Argle Bargle” and other quotes?

I suggest folks go to the Supreme Court website and read the Heller decision. That’s the D.C. gun law case. The decision starts with the dissenting opinion, which is clearly written. It gives a good history of gun laws, not only in this country but in other countries at the time of the writing of the Second Amendment. It makes several cogent arguments for upholding the D.C. law. Then comes Scalia’s majority opinion. It starts by disagreeing and arguing with the dissenting opinion. It wanders into some of the most tortured grammar and sentence structure I’ve come across and then it winds up with “It is so ordered.” Talk about “Argle Bargle” What is so ordered? What does it refer to? I went back and reread but ultimately gave up.

Recent Supreme Court appointees include:

• Roberts – asked by W to find a good nominee and ta da he came up with himself (in the Cheney school of appointments.)
• Alito – known as a great legal mind. He gave W legal cover saying that he could make signing orders that contradicted the laws he was signing because there were areas of this that had never been legally examined. Boom, on the court.
• Thomas – Papa Bush wanted a black man. He got one. One that was accused of sexual misconduct. There was a woman waiting to testify to them about this but somehow the Senate didn’t know about her and confirmed him. What? This is when I learned we the people may have better intel than our elected officials. (Remember Papa Bush being stunned by the use of barcodes? Years and years after they had been in use?)

Many have pointed out that Scalia was an “originalist” that is he tried to ferret out the original intent of the Founding Fathers. So I suggest that if we want to keep his flame alive we got back to original intent and only have six justices or if you want to get radical move to seven as the court did a little later on.

There’s so much more but how much can you or I take in a day?

As a cheap sci-fi movie would no doubt say, “We must remain vigilant!” Or would that be a greek fictionalized drama?

Still to come, but it will have to wait: McConnell’s wife. We haven’t heard from her since Enron. There’s also Munchkin or however you spell his name. He admitted he wasn’t completely truthful at his confirmation hearings. That money in the Cayman Islands? The ones that were almost all for non-profits and churches? Yeah, well not exactly true. There’s a lot of foreign money in there. Hum. There’s a word for not being truthful, completely or otherwise. It escapes me at the moment. When a person isn’t being truthful they are said to be … What’s the word?