Archives for June 2018

Day 511 Thursday June 14, 2018    1,067 Days to Go

Are you a betting person? Do you play the odds or are you more inclined to go for the long shot?

I was in an island in the Bahamas once. There was a news broadcast about a bank being robbed. The report finished with the comment that the rate of arrest for bank robbery was 100%. Those are not good odds. And so we get to Donald Trump and one has to ask, “What are the odds?” Odds of what?

Let’s try a few questions:

If you are seventy years old and have never successfully run a public company what are the odds that you will? Especially, if you’ve already failed at it?

If in business negotiations you’ve always caved right from the beginning, what are the odds that you will change?

If you are easily persuaded by flattery and false reports that you like, what are the odds that truth, reality, and sober reflection will suddenly take hold of your decision making process?

But let’s give Donald his due. He has managed throughout his life to slide by on bluster and lies, will it work for him in his presidency? So far it has. Nothing else has worked with North Korea, so maybe this will work. But what are the chances? Given North Korea’s behavior in the past, it has broken every agreement it has made, then I’d say the odds are pretty good that it will do so in the future. Of course, given that Donald gave them everything they wanted and that they are claiming more than that and we have no way of verifying any of it; I’d say the odds ore good that nothing positive will come of this.

The con that Trump has pulled for years has the same effect on whomever is being conned:

“He must know something” (that we don’t),

“He’s a businessman” (and therefore knows how to run a business, an economy, etc).

He used the same sales job and techniques to run for president that he used to sell his phony university.

When caught on the university scam he used the tactics of destroying evidence, having lawyers threaten to sue people, using lawyers and thugs (or lawyers acting as thugs) to intimidate people, and he bribed people to not bring charges and or to keep silent.

He is trying the same tactics as president. He is pushing a narrative that is a complete lie and there are those that believe it.

You can fool some of the people all of the time.

That number seems to be around 37% plus or minus two percent.

1,067 Days to Go

PS A total eclipse of the sun

Day 510 Wednesday June 13, 2018 1,068 Days to Go

Before we get into it a word from a potential sponsor.

TRUMP CONDOS – NORTH KOREA
Yes, coming soon. Lovely condos, right on the beach! These are the beaches featured in the cannon shot videos. The same cannons used to strap artists and dissenters that displease the leader. Just down the beach from the gulag that has been compared to Stalin’s and Auschwitz! Yes, imagine yourself in a chaise lounge under an umbrella on one of these beaches just out of earshot of the groans and whips of the gulag that imprisons three generations of a family for listening to the radio, playing a CD, or watching a western movie. All this could be yours!

Back to our regularly scheduled screed.

Well, hum. So many things have happened recently we probably only have time to list them.
A bunch of folks were freed from Boca Harum in Africa. Many of them children. The teenage girls were used as sex slaves and two of them are pregnant. I wonder if the Donald will go there next to heap praise on them like he did Kim? In fact, he has spoken of Kim in more glowing terms than Putin. More than anyone else. This praise after dumping on Trudeau. Canada is our closest ally not only geographically but when it comes to committing to help and our president castigated their prime minister. I mean, why not? They run a trade surplus with us. They buy more from us then we do from them, so why not humiliate them?
Paul Manafort was indicted yet again, but with another person named in the indictment. Pop quiz: how can you guess with a high degree of certainty if someone is a spy? Here are a few tips. You can ask them. You can kid them about it and if they confirm your kiddings that’s a pretty good indication. You could ask them if they went to spy school or if they ever worked for the spy agency. If they say yes to any of these questions that’s a good indication; if they say yes to all of them it’s pretty darn certain. Well, turns out the guy indicted with Manafort is all that and more. He’s Russian. He was trained at their spy school, that’s where he learned to speak such good English. He admitted working for the Russian spy agency. In fact, he lost a job because of it. A job with a Republican government funded agency working in Russia. And he has another distinction, he is the only person to step forward and say that he was responsible for getting the language changed in the Republican National Convention platform on Ukraine.
Think about that. A Russian spy says he was the one to get changes made to a political platform in the United States.
He’s indicted along with Paul Manafort. If Trump wants to pardon Manafort, he’ll have to pardon a Russian spy. Will he do it? Sure. Why not?

Oh yes, a little tidbit from overseas, one of the people involved in Brexit, a billionaire I believe, has admitted that they got a “little” help from the Russians.

Ivanka and Jared filed financial disclosure forms. Ivanka made 82 mil last year, at a minimum. It could be as much as 220 million. The forms allow for a range. Big range.

Speaking of that fine woman* Ivanka, she is implicated with some nasty Russian body builder to try and get Trump Tower Moscow built. This went on well into the campaign, much longer than anyone had suspected before now. Apparently she was approached by this body builder about the tower and lovely Ivanka turned the matter over to … wait for it … Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen, by the way, is expecting to be arrested any day now. He may be joining Paulie M. in jail, that is if Paul Manafort’s bail gets revoked for witness tampering.

Who was Paul tampering with? Why the aforementioned Russian spy. In fact, that spy was dubbed “my Russian Brain” by Manafort. He ran Paul’s Ukraine operation for ten years.

*The term “fine woman” was coined by Rudy Giuliani in describing Ivanka. I would use the term “pretty woman” myself as being more descriptive of her. You’ll remember that the movie Pretty Woman was about a whore.

Oh now we are kind of caught up. Perhaps the funniest thing on the news was Nichole Wallace repeatedly asking for the NSC propaganda film to be played and her uncontrolled laughing. How sad that a major intel agency was forced to make that suitable for Saturday morning cartoon video. The only question is did Donald have it played for Kim.

Now that the big summit is over there are questions and analysis.
In short, (not to make fun of Kim), but there are some big fat (once again this is not to make fun of Kim), questions that are being asked. Like:
What did the U.S. get out of this? I’m a little prejudiced so I’ll go with the Congressman that is a big Trump supporter. We got Kim to sign a piece of paper. The paper has the words nuclear disarmament on it.
There are according to the Congressman details to be worked out.
Details like – I’m guessing here – in what decade or century would this disarmament happen?
and – What do you mean by disarmament?

Some in the analysis business have pointed out some niggly little details, hardly worth mentioning, but for the sake of fair and balanced reporting I’ll mention here:
North Korea has signed documents before calling for nuclear disarmament. Then they built nuclear bombs, missiles, and reportedly a hydrogen bomb. So yeah, they’ve signed papers before calling for nuclear disarmament.
Trump has said he was calling off war games in South Korea. This according to reports – caught South Korea off guard. I guess because we don’t have an ambassador to that country we had no one to tell them. Maybe, Newt’s wife, the ambassador to the Vatican, could have jetted over to let them know. This also caught the Pentagon unawares. They have said they have received no such orders and until they do will continue with their planned exercises. I would say that it’s a safe bet that things will continue as they have for the last six to seven decades. Why? It’s not clear to me that Trump knows how to give the military an order.
Kim got back to North Korea (how did he get back? Did Donald loan him a plane?) and then said that Trump promised a whole bunch of sh*t that wasn’t in the accord. Okay, Donnie, are we back to Little Rocket Man pants on fire? Liar liar?
Oh snap, wasn’t there someone (I mean everyone) telling Trump that there are reasons to have note takers and staff in the room when you meet with a foreign leader? Something about not wanting to get into a “he said, I said” type argument. Yet, here we are!
In other analysis those who have followed Trump’s negotiations in the past have said that what happened in Singapore was completely predictable. Why? Because one only had to look at his bankruptcy negotiations to see that this was how it was going to play out. Act tough to the press and give the other side everything they asked for when you get into the negotiations. Hey, does Kim have pair of dice hanging from his missile launch site observation post? No, it’s Donald’s balls. Very small balls at that.
Then there’s the “Well, the Secretary of State needs to iron out a few details” comments, and the patting on the back that unlike Obama and others they (the Republicans) are going to sit down with the North Koreans. The North Koreans were always willing to sit down with our Secretary of State. They (the Republicans) seem to think they’ve accomplished a great diplomatic feat.
In a fascinating about face news organizations are playing the tapes of the reaction of Republicans outrage at Obama’s suggestion that he was willing to talk to North Korea (and Iran and Cuba). In fact, they’ve got the current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, as a then Congressman saying how dangerous and stupid that was to even talk about. But like the debt, it’s only a matter of concern when they are out of office.

Let’s not forget the Supreme Court, in startling news after saying that bakers could refuse to bake a cake for people they don’t like (on religious or moral grounds or whatever) they have now said it’s okay to kick people off voter roles if they didn’t vote in the last two elections. So if you didn’t vote in yesterday’s primary and you didn’t vote for president last time – bye bye!

1,068 Days to Go

PS Watch out!

Day 509 Tuesday June 12, 2018 1,069 Days to Go

Hey, What’s Happenin’?

I’ve been busy. Went to what would have been my high school fifty year class reunion. I was switched to private school and these were my old classmates in public school. I gained back most of the weight I lost the week before, but I didn’t do anything really humiliating so all-in-all it was a success.
I drove my niece’s Audi to see an old friend and, I got to hand it to the Germans, I didn’t know you could make a simple thing so complicated. I couldn’t figure out how to turn the car on, or off, and it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to play a CD. No wonder the manufacturer insists you come in for three lessons to learn how to use the car.

But I digress. Big news! Summit with North Korea! Nobel Prize in the wings! According to our fearless leader it will be “very productive” and a “huge success”. What else do you need to know?

Okay, let’s review what Mr. Art-of-the-Deal has gotten so far? Nothing.
What has North Korea gotten? Everything they wanted.
Good job Donald. Way to go.

And this before the “productive talks” even started.

Aren’t you surprised that the right wing media hasn’t gone crazy calling Trump a Commie and so forth, like they did when Obama suggested he was willing to talk to Iran, Cuba, and or North Korea? Somehow the “Axis of Evil” by Barrack’s predecessor didn’t go over so well with those countries and the idea of diplomacy was an anathema to our red white and blue conservative media types then. Now? All that has changed. Donald will come home with … with … with what exactly?

Well it’s hard to say because he hasn’t done his homework, so it will be hard for him to ask for what this country wants. He has had no low level State Department or for that matter any department meetings and talks ahead of time so nothing is worked out. So what? He’s got a good brain, right? Am I right?

So he’s meeting with the North Korean leader with just translators in the room. What will they talk about? What will they decide? Who knows? Will anyone know for sure what was said and what was agreed upon? In a word – NO. Why? Both Kim and Trump are known liars, so there is no telling what will be said or decided upon. What each tells the world can’t be trusted and, as there will be no record of what was actually said, we will never know.

There are two things North Korea already got that Trump gave away for free and there is a third thing he will, I’m guessing give away.
Thing One – A summit with Kim. This makes Kim appear to be on a par with the U.S. He’s not, but the appearance and what will run endlessly on their media will be Kim with Trump and our flag and theirs side by side – equals.

Thing Two – The photo with Kim and Trump. He has accomplished what his father and grand father could not. This is a huge success for Kim.
What did we get? Nothing.

Thing Three – This is something Trump may give away in his “very productive” talks with North Korea. This sounds odd, until you understand the significance. Peace. A formal end to the war. Technically North and South Korea are still at war. To declare an end to the war sounds good on the surface. However, if North Korea still has all its missiles, troops, and hardware just over the DMZ ready to invade South Korea at any moment, then nothing is gained by declaring peace. What would be needed would be agreements on decreasing the troops and missiles they have at the ready to invade South Korea. This would mean that Mr. Trump would have to know this, and because he doesn’t pay attention in his daily intelligence briefings and because he, by his own admission, hasn’t studied anything about the situation, nor does he have any supporting personnel from State, the Pentagon, or the intelligence community he has no way of knowing even the most basic of things about the situation. Good brain be damned.

Yes, a peace treaty would be a good thing, but only if it is negotiated with the idea of decreasing the tension between adversaries. That would require a long term view with a roadmap. If Trump is unaware and he has no support or backup then such a thing seems hard to achieve.

Another thing that could be done would be to set up a mission in North Korea and invite them to set up one in Washington D.C. The North Koreans have been focused on the threat of invasion since the cease fire was signed 68 years ago. They have s siege mentality about it. Their people are constantly told that the U.S. is ready to strike at any moment. The South Korean president has finally gotten the North Koreans to understand that they don’t want to invade or overthrow the North Koreans. Naturally, John Bolton is no help in this matter.

The North Koreans do want an economy like South Korea, or some semblance of it.
Currently, their government is very restrictive and human rights abuses are many and horrible. The closest analog to them is Nazi Germany. Any real lasting peace would have to include improvements in human rights. The local population is hungry for news from the outside world. A mission in North Korea could put our people in contact with the local population and we could also be able to observe what is going on. It’s a first step.

Let’s return to the meeting between Kim and Trump. When Kim spoke it was the first time anyone in the west had heard his voice. He has an engaging smile, something not seen before. When he and Donald were sitting in the chairs, he looked very uncomfortable. As if he had not seen this much media attention before and was unsure how to act.

Let’s hope something productive comes out of these talks but …

One analyst summed up Donald as having transformed the presidency into reality TV.

The other thing was body language. The pictures from the G-7 conference said a lot about our president and his attitude and ability: arms crossed over his body in a defensive posture while Merkel was clearly socking it to him. Then there’s Kim’s discomfort at the summit.

1,069 Days to Go

PS My sixth grade class, 1962. The Korean cease fire had been in effect by then for nine years.
(I’m the smiling kid in the flannel shirt at the front end of the second row.)

Day 503 Wednesday June 6, 2018  1,075 Days to Go

I’ve got a premonition that we are at the beginning of the end.

It’s nothing specific. It’s an accumulation of all this stuff, bad stuff that is swirling around this president and his administration. Here’s a partial list:

– Some old lawyers of Trump who handled one of his many bankruptcies said that whenever they met with him they made sure to have two lawyers present, because he lied so much that they needed two people to corroborate what he had said.

– Paul Manafort is in trouble for witness tampering. He was already in trouble and as far as we know what Mueller has charged him with is stuff that happened before the election. That is to say he was already a criminal before he joined the campaign. You have to wonder what he did that was so bad that he was willing to risk witness tampering while under surveillance.

– Rick Gates lawyers quit because of something Gates was doing that they advised against and was probably illegal. The same could happen to Manafort.

– Trump continues to say “no collusion,” while there is ample evidence that there was. The evidence continues to build, every day.

– Trump’s cabinet is made up of some of the sleaziest people. The latest is Scott Pruitt, once again, trying to use his office and his staff to arrange a private business deal. This time it’s for a Chick-fil-a franchise for his wife. Didn’t happen because his wife was too lazy to fill out the paperwork.

– Trump has pulled out of deals with Iran, and NAFTA. He is now putting tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and other allies. This is setting off a trade war. This is hurting farmers in Iowa and elsewhere. Both Senators from Iowa are pissed off at him. Also Imhoff of Oklahoma is saying there’s a lot of smoke, might even be fire. Man, when you got Mr. Climate denier of science against you – that’s bad.

– There’s this sense that Trump will go it alone. That he will be all alone, no friends, no allies.

– There’s the argument set forth by Trump’s legal team, and by Donald himself, that he can pardon anybody including himself and that he can end any investigation at any time for any reason. Nixon tried this; just before he resigned. Additionally, there is the logical flaw in Trump’s argument that he can pardon himself. If you believe, as Trump does, that he can’t be indicted or tried while in office, then he can’t be found guilty. You have to be found guilty in order to be pardoned. He won’t be in office when he is found guilty (by this logic) and therefore can’t pardon himself because there will be nothing to be pardoned for.

– Apparently, the Trump legal team tried this argument of not being able to indict the president while in office and that he can pardon everyone and anyone including himself, about two weeks before Mueller brought indictments against thirteen Russians. This is now seen as a possible safety measure. In order for all the dirt not to come out Trump would have to pardon the Russians. Unlikely, but certainly deserving of impeachment.

Remember Nixon had the backing of his party, right up until the end.

 

1,075 Days to Go

PS A fortress all alone.

Day 502 Tuesday June 5, 2018 1,076 Days to Go

Dateline: Disney World Automaton Center, Sometime in the not too distant future

Gathered in the center are the Disney brass, various members of the Intel Community (IC), Air Force & Army generals with aide de camps, the Disney Automaton Staff including managers and programmers. Not present but brought up on various TV screens are Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Sanders, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell.

Pres of Disney (PoD): “Gentlemen, and Ladies, We thought it important to bring you here to show you some disturbing developments.”
Trump (DT): “This better be good.”
PoD: “It’s not good, sir. Not good at all.”
DT: Yeah. Let’s see it.
PoD: Smithers, if you would please. Sir, Smithers is in charge of all the dolls.
Smithers (Sm): Automatons Sir.
PoD: Whatever. And he discovered a new dashboard panel that someone inserted into our doll programming.
Sm: Automatons
PoD: Automadons
Sm: Automatons.
PoD: That’s what I said. Now stop interrupting and show everyone what you found.
Sm: Yes sir. Late last week we were getting ready to upload to our active community, that’s all the automatons in the park that talk and act with our visitors, an upgrade to their software. It wasn’t much really, just a few tweaks to keep them from acting spasmodically in certain situations. But I happened to notice this.
[Brings up a Dashboard Panel on a large overhead monitor.]
It looks like our normal Dashboard Panel – almost. But something was wrong with it and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first. You know how sometimes you get that feeling
DT: Yes, I know what you mean. I get that feeling a lot. Ha ha.
Half the room: Ha ha. Ha.
PoD: Get on with it Smithers. Just show them.
Sm: Yes sir. There was a button on the dashboard that was not there before when I pushed it, I got a whole different screen.
[pushes button, new dashboard screen appears on monitor.]
Sm: If you notice several of our key automatons are listed with check boxes beside them: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Mickey, Pluto …
PoD: Yes, we can see that get on with it.
Sm: There’s also a panel of switches and dials. None of which we programmed.
PoD Assistant (PoDA): As you can see Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a switch for “Party.”
DT: I like parties.
PoDA: Yes sir. This rotor switch seems to select “Republican” or “Democrat”
Sm: There’s a position in between, which we’ve call “Republican Lite.”
PoDA: Yes. However weren’t you showing me that it isn’t quite in the middle?
Sm: Yes, it seems you can move to one side or the other and get what we call “Centrist Republican” which no longer functions, and “Moderate Democrat” which is labelled “Obsolete.”
PoDA: Yes, and you can crank the dial hard left or hard right. I guess you know what happens then.
PoD: It appears that the automa-dolls, whatever, can be programmed to specific modes of the political spectrum.
PoDA: And they can take on the personalities of current politicians.
DT: Am I in there?
PoD: Yes, mr. president you are.
DT: Who am I?
PoD: Well sir, there are a number of people you could be. There’s a selector switch. But the default is…
DT: Who?
PoD: Goofy.
DT: I don’t like that.
Sm: It can be changed.
DT: To who?
Sm: Whom. Sir. Mickey.
DT: Is he always like this? I like Mickey. Change it to Mickey.
PoD: Yes sir. Smithers is kind of like Radar O’Reilly. Sir. Change it Smithers.
Sm: Yes sir. What mode sir?
DT: Mode? What do you mean mode?
PoD: You can select the political bent of the speaker sir.
DT: Who did this?
member #1 of the IC (mIC-1): We have analyzed the work and it’s top notch. Has to be the North Koreans, sir.
DT: North Korea? Little Rocket Man?
mIC-1 (M1): Yes sir.
PoD: Set it to ‘Normal’ Smithers.
Sm: There is no normal sir.
PoD: You know what I mean. The default, and let’s hear it.
Mickey: Hello this is Mickey Mouse! [bright cheery typical Mickey Mouse voice]
[voice changes] Speaking to you now as Donald Trump. It’s going to be great. Sad. You’ll get tired of winning.
DT: Great voice. I like it.
Mickey: Only the best people. I know the best people.
DT: This is great. Kim’s terrific.
Mickey: I have a great brain. McCain is a loser. Mexicans are rapists. Build the wall.
DT: What’s the problem?
PoD: There are several modes, sir.
DT: So?
Sm: One’s called “hard-right” like this.
Mickey: We are not so innocent. We’ve got killers too. There were bad people on both sides. The Iran deal is terrible – terrible.
DT: That’s not so bad.
Sm: I haven’t thrown the switch. Why don’t I go to “full RNP” mode.
[throws switch]
PoD: Don’t do it! Not full Republic of North Korea mode!
Mickey: And the running dog lackey Americans. We will reign terror upon you with our ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.
DT: I don’t like that. What else you got?
Sm: Ivanka, sir.
DT: Who’s she?
Sm: Your daughter.
DT: No you idiot. What Disney character is she?
Sm: Cruella de Vil – by default, mode equals “stoopid.”
PoD: Change her to Snow White.
DT: Yes, Snow White. Clean. Pure. That’s good. I like that.
Sm: The default mode then changes to ‘Bee.’
DT: As in Bumble Bee?
PoD: No sir, as in Samantha.

[to be continued}

In other news – It looks like Paul Manafort might not be spending time with his family for the holidays (any holidays) but rather going to the pokey, before his trial. Something about using an encrypted app to talk to potential witnesses? Huh, they call that tampering with witnesses. They say it’s a crime. Who knew? Oh, everybody. Okay then.

Here’s a little something to consider, once again: “Does an innocent person act the way Donald Trump does?”

In even more news, (not really news but what are you going to call it?) The Trump legal team is taking the approach that the president is, if not above the law, well at least the law doesn’t apply to him if brought about by the Justice Department because he ultimately is head of the Justice Department and can thus pardon himself, kill off any investigation, fire anyone in Justice, etc. etc. etc. It’s not a novel defense. In fact, Richard Nixon used this defense. Just before he resigned.
Fox News has been saying that the Republican Party is now the party of Trump, and it sure looks that way. Remember, the Republicans in Congress were all behind Nixon. Until they weren’t.

And in one last thing to consider: “Is Ivanka a feckless cunt?” Well, consider that she is in the administration and has done nothing of note. While her dad is going along with an idiotic rip-‘em out of the arms of mothers policy on immigration she’s posting pictures of her clutching a baby. I’d have to say yeah, she’s useless. Who would do such an insensitive thing? Oh. A feckless cunt? Got it.

1,076 Days to Go

PS Between a rock and a rock.