Archives for August 2018

Day 566 Wednesday August 8, 2018   1,012 Days to Go

It’s time to clear up a few questions many of the pundits have had, and I suspect many of you have had as well.

A.

1. Is Don Jr. in trouble? Did he commit a crime?

Answer: Yes, and No, and Yes yes.

Yes, Don Jr. is in trouble. No, he did not commit a crime; he committed many crimes.

2. Will Don Jr. go to jail?

Answer: Yes.

3. Will his Dad pardon him?

Answer: Yes, if he can, that is if he is still in office.

You don’t have to be much of a legal beagle to figure this out. Don Jr. met with Russians for the purpose of getting something of value from them to help his father win the election. That is against the law. He lied about it. That is against the law. He tried to cover it up. That is against the law.

Next.

B.

1. Are the Republicans in trouble?

Yes and Yes.

Why two yeses? They are in trouble politically in terms of the upcoming election. The chance of them holding onto the House is 29%. Therefore the chance of Dems taking the House is 71%. They only need 23 seats. The chance of the Dems picking up a lot more seats, like 45, is 50%.

If yesterday’s special election in Ohio’s 12^th Congressional district is any indication, the chance of the Dems picking up more that 45 seats is better than 50%.

Ohio’s 12^th has been Republican for decades. In the last redistricting the Republicans gerrymandered it so they’d be guaranteed to win the seat. The Democratic challenger has come within 1% of taking the seat, and he may still win it. This with little or no help from the Democratic National Committee, while his challenger got millions of dollars of support from the Republican National Committee and from the president and vice president.

The Republicans won’t be able to spend that much time, money and effort in November when that seat comes up again and the same two guys will be running against each other.

That takes care of one of my “yeses” in terms of whether the Republicans are in trouble. The second yes refers to the complete moral and patriotic failure of these elected officials.

They have stood placidly by as the president has done one dangerous and stupid thing after another. They are complacent in the destruction of our democracy.

The one thing they weakly mention is that the economy is doing well. To which I ask, “Is it?”

Have wages gone up? NO.

Do people feel economically more secure? Not that I’ve heard or seen.

So if the economy is doing so great why aren’t people seeing it?

I think this comes back to economics 101.

The president and the Republicans in Congress have passed a massive tax cut for the rich. Not that the rich needed this, or really asked for it. A lot of money got freed up in companies and for rich individuals. The Republican economic types (not economists, but those in the Republican party who claim to know something about economics) claim that when money is freed up it will be invested in new equipment and buildings. This is called “capital investment.” This is not true (of course.) Money is put into capital investment when there is a need to do so, called in economic terms “demand.” If there is demand for a product or service and there isn’t enough of that stuff then, hopefully, someone will invest in the equipment and materials to make more of whatever it is. This has not happened as far as I know. There is no more demand, or very little. So what do you do if you have a wad of money and no need to invest it in capital improvements? You either hold onto it or you put it in the stock market. If you are a company you can buy back some of your stock that is on the open market. If you’ve been given a trillion dollars, like the president and this Congress has done then you’ll see the price of stocks go up, and that is what has been happening.

For the average person? The economy is still suckey (technical term.)

There is another problem for Republicans – the complete abdication of their Constitutional authority to be a check on the Executive branch. We’ll get to that in the next segment.

C. What about the Russian probe? Is Donald Sr. in trouble? Why the big deal over Paul Manafort?

Despite what Donald says, tweets, etc. The fact that people on his campaign staff were talking with Russians os a problem. No other campaign has ever had communication with Russians, let alone met with them. Is Trump Sr in trouble? You bet. He’s been taking money from Russians for years, and laundering it. That is what Manafort was doing too. Yeah, they’re dirty.

What I find surprising, and many other people do to, is the degree to which Republicans in Congress have gone along with it.

1,012 Days to Go

PS Sisal drying (to make rope)

Day 565 Tuesday August 7, 2018  1,013 Days to Go

This just in. An exclusive. You’ll hear it nowhere else!

I have just obtained a script from the Not Yet Ready for Prime or any Other Broadcast Company.

It’s labelled “Super Duper Secret” and “Viewer Discretion Advised” BW & SLT (Bad Words and Shit Like That). Be forewarned! This is not for the faint of heart!

Picture if you will, the cast:

Alex Baldwin as Donald Trump (because he does a better Trump than Trump),

and all the usual SNL players who play the Russians and Mike Pence,

with special guest star –

Melissa McCarthy as Joe Arpaio (heavily made up, but she could pull it off.)

Trump: (I mean Baldwin) “I’m really worried about Don Jr.”

Sarah Sanders: Why sir?

T: He may be in trouble with Mueller. Witch Hunt. There was no collusion.

SS: Yes sir, he may be.

Aide #1: He could be looking at time in Federal Prison.

T: Yes, I know. But I can pardon him.

SS: Yes you can sir. It may look bad.

T: He’s my son, my wonderful son.

Erik Trump: What about me?

T: What about you?

ET: If he’s the wonderful son what am I?

T: Good question. Let’s see. You’re my other son.

Melania Trump: What about Barron?

T: Melania, please!

Aide #2 (whispering):

T: What was that?

A2: Nothing sir.

T: Out with it!

A2: I was just saying that there are a lot of AFs in jail.

T: AF? What is that?

SS: Ass F’ers, sir.

Stephen Miller: Many of them are Mexican.

T: Mexican Ass F*ckers!!!?

All (except Trump): Yes sir.

Stephen Miller: Mexican Ass F*ckers!

T: Mexican Ass F*ckers?

SM: Yes sir.

T: We need to get them out of our jails, quick.

(more snickering)

T: What is it now? Out with it.

A2: We understand the term is MAF, sir.

A1: They have an International Association sir. MAFIA.

(more snickers)

T: This isn’t funny.

SS (holding back a laugh): No sir, not funny at all. There’s also M – B – J – S.

T: What’s the S for?

SS: Society, sir.

T: A BJ society of Mexicans?

SM: Yes sir.

T: This isn’t funny.

A1: The MAFIA has a mime out with Don Jr in it. Would you like to see it sir?

(Holds up phone to Trump’s face.)

T: No!

A2: So does the MBJS.

T: I don’t want to see it either.

SS: Then the two societies joined up to make another mime.

T: Stop it!

(Melissa McCarthy enters as Joe Arpaio)

T: Hey Joe, Good to see you.

JA: (mimics what the mimes would be doing)

T: That’s not funny.

JA: (snicker) not funny at all. (laughs) I saw it all the time in my jails.

T: You did?

JA: All the time.

T: Poor Don Junior.

JA: Yeah, when they get done with him, he’ll be a bigger bitch than …

T: Than who?

SS: Whom sir. Than whom? I believe that’s correct…

(To be continued …

Maybe not. )

1,013 Days to Go

PS Grass Fed Milk

Day 564 Monday August 6, 2018  1,014 Days to Go

Last night I listened to a 28 year old woman who gave me hope for the future of our country.

She said:

– We need to reprioritize. What is important to us?

– Health care is important.

– Education is important.

Whoa, wait a sec, the interviewer asked that’s all well and good but how are you going to pay for it?

She said:

– Everyone pay their fair share.

– Stop giving money to people who aren’t asking for it.

There you have it. She’s been attacked, maligned, call names; but her message is pretty straightforward.

What other choice do you have?

Well you can go with the man and the party and people who see enemies and problems that don’t exist. who when they wade into any situation make it worse. Who want to destroy our air, water, children, health, and security. You can go with them.

The choice is yours.

I’ve made mine.

I’m going with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Here are a sampling of what she has said:

– If people like Warren Buffet paid as much in taxes as their secretaries we’d have a trillion more dollars.

– If corporations paid 28%, which is less than they were paying before, we’d have another trillion.

– We gave the military 700 billion dollars that they didn’t ask for last year. Let’s stop doing that.

– We could give health care to all if we make it a priority.

– We could make college affordable to all if we make it a priority.

Radical, huh?

What she is saying is, “Stop looking for the boogie man under the coach and face your situation.”

No wonder she’s been attacked by the Republicans, and the right.

She has ideas!

Ideas that can work, that could help people.

Wow.

Better nip that in the bud. (“Hey did you hear, the country, I mean the whole world is being run by a ring of child molesters headed up by Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks? Yeah, it’s true. It’s being run out of a pizza parlor in Washington D.C.”)*

*Yup, that’s what’s going on on the right. They show up at Trump rallies, where the president tells more lies, attacks the media, and rails against imaginary foes.

Make up your mind.

1,013 Days to Go

PS The youth of America, coming on strong

Day 563 Sunday August 5, 2018 1,015 Days to Go

We were playing catch up on some of the shows we like to watch. Man oh man, a week in this environment is like a month or a year any other time. Trump throws out so much crap in a week that you forget the awful things he did and said the week before. Some people try to act like this is normal, but it’s not. Some folks are exhausted, I am told, don’t be. This is the time for vigilance and activism.

Last week was what? What was going on?
Helsinki has happened the week before, and Trump was dealing with the fallout. He looked weak in Helsinki, and he was.
I watched Bill Maher’s show from that week. Wow, how much you forget. He had on Malcolm Nance, who bills himself as a terrorism expert (he was a linguist in the intelligence community and was not then nor is he now held in high regard by those folks – just a word of caution.) As far as rigging an election, in this country it would be pretty easy to hack the voting machines, as has been demonstrated by various hacking conventions having contests to do it. (45 to 90 minutes is the usual time. Ninety minutes is required if you want the voting machine to play a song.) However, Nance said the easier place to do it would be at the district level where someone has a laptop and is tabulating the votes. Get into their machine and change the vote totals.
Then Bill had his panel, one member of which was Steve Schmidt, the former Republican and GOP strategist. He said there are five points to consider when looking at what is going on:
1. – Mass rallies to incite fervor, and where the people are lied to.
2. – Make victimization honorable. The people are told they are victims. They are all victims.
(Chris Rock and David Chappelle have had a field day with this one.)
3. – Allegations of Conspiracy. The Deep State. The hidden nefarious movements that only the leader can see.
Meanwhile, there are real nefarious organizations such as the Klan, the American Nazies, etc.
At Trump rallies there are now people wearing Q tee shirts and displaying Q signs.
Apparently, the far right is pushing an idea that the world is being run by a ring of child molesters and they are referred to as Q.
4 – The scapegoating of minority populations and of the most vulnerable among us.
5 – The need for the president to exercise extraordinary powers. Powers no other president has ever had.
(If this isn’t right out of Hitler’s playbook, I don’t know what is.)

Steve went on to say that this assault on truth, on objective reality, if and when people surrender their sovereignty (as over 30% of our population has done) then whatever the leader says is true, they believe to be true. Even then the truth is staring them in the face. When this happens we no longer have a democratic society.

The other guests on the panel pointed out several other things:
– Remember Sarah Palin complaining about “The Lame Street Media”?
– or Newt Gingrich bitching about the media in the South Carolina primary where he did very well by attacking the news organizations?
– Charles Blow, a NYT journalist, pointed out that this is who and what the Republican Party is and always has been. They, the Republican Party, had thought they could control this monster. That they could keep it in the attic and only have it come out on election day. To feed it scraps, and everything would be okay. Trump has let the monster out of the closet and it has devoured the party.

Bill played a clip of a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who, after Helsinki, said he was embarrassed. He said, “Do you stand for democracy or do you stand with that ganster in Moscow?”

There’s the question.

But it didn’t end there. Nancy MacLean was the final guest. I’ve written about her and her book “Democracy in Chains.” She pointed out that you have to look at the long game the Koch brothers are playing. Why she asked are the Kochs saying they’ll back other candidates? Why are they being docile? Because they are close to getting their hand picked nominee on the Supreme Court.
They are angling for a constitutional convention where they want to radically change our constitution. How close are they? They’ve got 30 states locked up. Bill pointed out that by 2040 eight states will have 50% of the population and 16 states will have 70%. That will mean 30% of the population will control 68 senators. The Kochs are headquartered in Kansas. There’s a reason for that. They can control the state, a very weird state.
MacLean went on to explain the radical agenda of the Kochs. They want to change our constitution. They have ten “Liberty Amendments” queued up. These amendments would transform our country from a democracy to an authoritarian regime that the legislators would not be able to change. Don’t believe me? Look at Chile, the folks the Kochs like, the ones that gave them these ideas, and the Kochs weaponized went down to Chile when Pinochet was in power and helped him push through a radical constitution. When a new leader came to power, she promised sweeping changes, only to learn once in power that most of the changes couldn’t happen until they could change their constitution.
What are some of these amendments the Kochs like?
– A balanced budget. Lots of folks think this is a good idea. It’s not. Why? In the study of economics you learn that an economy goes through cycles of boom and bust unless it is controlled. How do you control it? The government pumps money into the economy or takes money out of the economy. They do this by varying the interest rate on treasury notes. They also can spend money. Franklin Roosevelt spent a lot of money to help our country pull out of the Great Depression. He also spent more money to fight WWII. If there was a balanced budget amendment the government would not be able to do those things. Not only that but things like Medicare and Social Security as we know it would end. Why? The Republicans, starting with Reagan have been raiding the Social Security Fund (and the Highway Fund) so that the money in there are now replaced with treasury notes. That would not be allowed to continue and hence those programs would cease to exist as we know them.
– They want a voter ID amendment. This allows them to control who gets to vote. It’s a form of voter suppression.
– They want to revoke the 17th amendment. That is the amendment that says that Senators are elected by the people, not appointed by the state legislatures.
They want to return to Senators being appointed by state legislatures. They know state legislatures are the easiest to control. With a strong state legislature you can influence the Federal government and you can subdue local governments. Don’t believe me? Remember Michigan? Remember how they took over Flint and ruined the drinking water there? How about Detroit? Remember how that city almost sold off its art collection?

Don’t be complacent.

Then I watched John Oliver’s latest show. His main theme was on sexual harassment in the workplace. He showed an educational film that dealt with the topic. It was from the 1980s. Then he showed stuff from the 1990s. All promised the same stuff, yet here we are still in the same place.
He showed the Clarence Thomas hearing where Anita Hill was interviewed for eight and a half hours by the Senators about Clarence Thomas’ sexual harassment of her. The Senators, the Republican senators, didn’t believe her. They attacked her character, her reputation, her testimony. Anyone who doesn’t know that Orin Hatch is an asshole only need listen to his comments about Anita Hill.

Will things change? You bet they will. They will change for the worse. Our only chance is to get everyone out to vote. We have to get rid of this swine. (Swine plural, not singular, just to be clear.)

1,015 Days to Go

PS Unintended Consequence – A photo from the book “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat-Moon. Notice the political poster behind the folks.