Archives for December 2018

Day 720 December 27, 2018       871 Days to Go

I remember being in a 16 week training class. We were halfway through and one of the principals of the company leading the training asked how it was going. It had been a rough few weeks and many in the class opened up about what they thought was wrong. It got so bad that the guy finally laughed and said as the onslaught continued, “You aren’t telling me anything new, I’m just stroke counting.”

And so it is with Donald Trump, there’s nothing new; we are just stroke counting. 

Is he a liar? Yes.

Is he obstructing justice? It is decidedly so.

Is he profiting personally from being in office? Yes.

Is he committing crimes? Yes, openly.

There really is nothing new to report, just that same old stuff in a different form.

Earlier these last two months the narrative seemed to be that people were surprised that he was openly committing crimes, that he was selling out the country, that he found more in common with strongmen than democracies and our allies, that he’s a terrible business man and criminal, that he can’t negotiate well in anything he does…But that narrative is now changing.

Now we are hearing from responsible people that he is a danger to the country.

To which I say, “Duh.”

And as far as all the earlier stuff I say we knew all that before he took office.

Yet. Some are still sending me jokes about Hillary or Nancy being bitches or Obama being a terrible president. Yet, here we have wonder boy Ryan on his way out trying one last time to screw over the people on Social Security or Senator Mike Enzi from a state that doesn’t have as many people in it as a county in California holding up a bill to provide for Veterans because it would cost seven billion over ten years; yet he had no problem passing a 771 billion dollar bill for defense contractors. 

The only reason Republicans are still in power is because they cheat. They don’t give a damn about average folks. They all seem to be on the take. Yes. I know. Dems do it too is the argument. Yeah? Not like Trump, or any of the – how many is it now that have resigned, been indicted, fired or left this administration? 35? 55? I forget. 

Compare that to the Obama administration. What was their number? Zero. (I’m sure we can dig up one or two. But no one in his cabinet was dead set on destroying the agency he or she was running. Can you name anyone in the current cabinet who is not?)

I just hope that justice will be served and the whole bunch will be hauled off in chains. Nice chains, beautiful chains, fake diamond studded or gold painted, but chains none the less. 

871 Days to Go

PS Shelby and Claire doing the important work of the Christmas Season – Baking Cookies!

Day 717 Monday December 24, 2018   874 Days to Go

It’s been ten days since I last wrote, which is a good thing in that it is easier to add and subtract ten from my counts up and down than it is to do other numbers, and given my current state of health I am thankful for that. My health? Glad you asked, let me go into long detail. I got sick in Mexico with a scratchy throat, which moved into my chest and sinuses and has left me weak. I’m on my second round of antibiotics, which is typical for me to shake these things. I still have a wracking cough to bring up phlegm and am in a weaken state, but I’m losing weight! I attribute this to not drinking due to the antibiotics. However, I’ve been helping with the Christmas cookie making, and sampling, which is starting to reverse the weight loss gains. (Hum, that seems an odd turn of phrase.) 

Okay, before we get into it, let me give you my impressions of my trip to Mexico in a few concise examples:

Shelby and I went down a few days early, before the archaeological trip got started. She got food market tours and cooking classes. Our tour guide, Juan Carlos, is a magician at arranging things and making them work out. Shelby got a little taste of David Stuart and the rocks. Not her thing, but she got to see what it’s all about.

Speaking of David, our group was in the National Archaeological Museum and David was in front of a stella (those vertical rock slabs the Mayans carved glyphs in) and started talking. I like to record what David says and came a few seconds late to what he mini-lecture. I asked him if he’d mind reading the glyphs again. He looked at me and said, “In what language?”

I shrugged as if to say – Dealer’s Choice.

He continued, “Mayan or English?”

I demurred.

He then read the glyphs in Mayan. No stopping, no hesitation, just boom – boom – boom.

Then he went back to the beginning and read them in English.

It reminded me of watching Horowitz play the piano, or his producer and my friend Jack Pfieffer play. Both did it so easily and effortlessly. They made me think I could do it too.

I was in a museum with Shelby a day or so before and tried to explain to her some of the Mayan things we were seeing. I discovered how little I could actually say about what we were seeing, other than to say, “This is a famous lintel” (or stella, or glyph, or whatever.) It was humbling, but also thrilling, to realize what I really knew and what I didn’t. 

There are other people who can read glyphs. I am probably at a first grade level. Others can sound out and tell you what the passage generally means, but I’ve never heard anyone just read ‘em. David once said there are six people in the world that do what he does, and I’ve met most of them. They are all nice folks. Some are still in that one-upsmanship mode. David is way beyond that. 

It’s similar to computer geeks. I’ve met some of the best programmers in the world. When you are at the top, you no longer play those bait and switch tech games, because you no longer have to prove yourself. 

It’s a pleasure to watch and listen to a person at the top of their game in the prime of their life.

Okay, so we were in Teotihuacan, the necropolis north of Mexico City, that has The Pyramid of the Sun, and the Moon, and many other temples and pyramids on its grounds, including The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, which is the third largest pyramid there. A decade or more back the square around the pyramid filled with water and then drained through a 30 inch hole that opened up in front of the pyramid. An archaeologist was lowered through the opening, which was a man made culvert, and discovered a tunnel, which went right to the middle of the pyramid. The hole he was lowered through was an air shaft. It took them years to clear all the mud and debris.  They discovered thousands of artifacts. The tunnel’s ceiling had been plastered with black plaster and mica to look like the night sky. Not many people get to go into the tunnel, but we were with David, so natch, we get to go.

At one point you have to bend over and hunch down. Ann Stuart, David’s sister and tour organizer extraordinaire was behind me. We discussed that it seemed a good time to do a little yoga. I stood on one foot, extended the other behind me and place both arms extended in front of me like I was holding a beach ball. I stated the name of the pose by saying, “Yeah, how about a little Warrior III.” To which Ann said, “I didn’t know you were a yogi.” (Oh man, my yoga instructor will have a big smile when I tell him this story.)

Speaking of Ann, we were touring a church. I was weak from being sick and sat in a pew. I was seated by the left side and there was a little confessional booth near by. I said to Ann, “Hey, I’ll take your confession, if you like.” Without skipping a beat she shot back, “We don’t have time for that!” 

Okay, so there’s the impressions of Mexico City and the tour. Now onto the usual.

Fortunately, not much has gone on. NOT! But okay, if you’ve been reading my screeds for the last 874 days you know that what has happened in the last month is not surprising. It’s pretty obvious. Before the 2016 election, in October of that year, Slate magazine ran an article that said servers in Trump Tower, registered to the Trump organization were talking to servers in a Russian bank, and that there was a lot of traffic on those servers before each Republican primary and before the Republican Convention. As we learned Russian banks aren’t like  banks in other countries. They are extensions to the government and the criminal enterprise of the people in charge of the government. This particular bank, Alfa-Bank, is linked directly to Putin and to money laundering in Cyprus. Wilbur Ross, our Secretary of Commerce, was a VP at the Cyprus bank, and the guy who is now in charge of the criminal division of the FBI, was the lawyer hired by Alfa-Bank to clean up its image at some point.

What the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank were doing has never been explained. I’ve speculated, but we haven’t really known.

This was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump and Russia. The events of the past month have made some wonder if the Trump organization isn’t so far in hock to the Russians that they are really owned by them and by that I mean owned by Putin. Trump certainly seems to be (owned by Putin). 

Then we get to the crazy for the month:

– Trump says he’ll own the shutdown, them blames the Dems for it.

– He tweets that he is pulling the troops out of Syria.

Okay, let’s stop there and review, analyze, and speculate.

John  Heilemann commented on Trump’s negotiating ability, saying that Trump is the kind of poker player that turns up all his cards and tries to bluff. I think this is an apt metaphor for everything Trump. He commits his crimes openly, and then says he didn’t do it, or if he did it wasn’t a crime, or if it was its no big deal because its a little crime and everybody does it when, in fact, no one else does it and it is a big crime.

As to the tweeting about pulling the troops out. Why are people making a big deal about this? Did the military get an order? No. I would advise saying nothing if I were in the military and distracting the prez with a new thing, you know, like a helicopter that shoots missiles or flames or laser beams.

As to the shutdown? Third time this year. What does that tell us? Wonder boy Paul Ryan and turtle Mitch McConnell can’t govern to save their asses. 

As Bill Clinton said way back when he was campaigning for Hillary, “The biggest complaint the Republicans have about us (the Democrats) is that we don’t clean up their messes fast enough.”

As for Trump and the right right wing of the Republican party, well they got what they wanted. It’s a dream come true. They shut down the government over their principles! No Wall, No Government! Stand tough. Fight for what you believe in! Right on!

I go back to what Nancy Pelosi told Trump, “You don’t have the votes.”

Or what Barrack told the Republicans gathered in Baltimore with Ryan’s first budget, “You can’t govern from this!”

Here’s the thing. It’s one thing to say what you are going to do when faced with a situation; it’s another when you are faced with that situation. This is especially true when your premise is based on BS. 

What happened to the terrorists in the caravan? When those folks got to the border all there were were mothers and babies and people wanting a better life. What happened to the Middle Eastern Muslims embedded in the caravan, or the diseased folks coming to infect us? Did they melt away like Frosty the Snowman? No. They never existed.

What about the great Trump economy? You know, the raging stock market and all that? Obama’s economy took two years for Trump to wreak, but he did it! All the gains made in the last year have been wiped out and we are just beginning the descent. Where will we be in two years when Trump leaves office? 

Of course, maybe before then we’ll see him arrested and hauled off in chains, but then we’d have that sanctimonious liar, Pence, to deal with. Pence reminds me of the joke about Agnew as supposedly told by Nixon. The threat from Nixon to Congress, “If you don’t pass my legislation, I’ll shoot myself.” 

Just to be perfectly clear, that would mean Agnew would become President and that was thought by many to be worse than Nixon. I have to wonder what happened to all those Agnew supporters? They didn’t believe he was guilty. That he had been railroaded. That it was only a minor mistake on his taxes. They conveniently forgot about the forty page memo that outlined his bribery and extortion crimes in detail.

History has a strange way of repeating itself.

As person after person is indicted, forced to quit, or turns on Trump you have to wonder how long the supporters can cling to their dashed hopes and dreams that this man and his cabals of crooks and cronies are going to help them.

874 Days to Go

PS Descending into the tunnel of the Feathered Serpent to practice my yoga.

Day 707 Friday December 14, 2018     884 Days to Go

DATELINE: Mexico City

For those of you who have been reading my screeds you probably know I’m in Mexico right now. We got back to Mexico City from visiting various Aztec and pre-Aztec sites in the area a few days ago. Yesterday, we visited the ruins of the major Aztec temple in central Mexico City, The Temple Mayor. It was rediscovered in the 70s and they tore down a city block above it to expose some of what is left. This was the center of the universe and even the remains are very impressive. I was here in the late 80s or early 90s and there was a little bit to see then, but not much. Last year they opened a new museum on the site and it is fabulous, (if you like ancient Aztec stuff).

In my room last night I ran across this article:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/10/17929460/paul-ryan-speaker-retiring-debt-deficits-trump 

It outlines Paul Ryan’s political legacy as it relates to his economic ideas and fiscal policies. Anyone who has read my screeds probably knows that I think very little of the boy-wonder. Anyone who creates a document called a budget and doesn’t put in any numbers except page numbers is an idiot, and Paul Ryan qualifies. Remember when Obama went to Baltimore to see the Republicans who had gathered there? John Boehner was holding Paul’s budget to his chest like some Hasidic rabbi holding the Torah. Fox carried the proceedings live, because it was 400 some odd Republicans versus the black President. Obama took a copy of Ryan’s budget, opened randomly to a page and read “an item.” It was a wishy washy statement of what, I guess, Ryan would like to see done – sort of. After Obama read the paragraph he looked up and said, “You can’t govern based on this,” or words to that effect. He was met with dumb struck silence. It seemed to me that no one had bothered to open the big government document and look at what was in it. Shortly thereafter Fox found more important things for the girls with blond hair, short skirts, and tight blouses to report on.

The Vox article lays out Ryan’s economic legacy:

– Leaves an increased annual deficits over three years by 80%. This in a time of economic growth. (btw When an economy is doing well, government deficits should come down, but not with fiscally responsible Paulie at the wheel.)

– Will increase the national deficit over ten years by $1.5 trillion.

– And wants to make those changes permanent so the deficit will increase by $4.0 trillion instead of the $1.5.

This from a man who ran on cutting the deficit and reigning in spending. When asked about it Ryan said essentially, “Yeah, I wish we could have done something about that.”

Done something about it? You were in charge! You idiot. He’s acting like he was watching a parade go by, and he was standing on the sidewalk waving a flag. He was on the front of the beer truck leading the parade, which wandered aimlessly around the halls of Congress.

884 Days to Go

PS The kid at the center of the universe.