Archives for February 2019

Day 772 Sunday February 17, 2019

624 Days to the 2020 election and 702 Days to Inauguration Day

Tis a good day to reflect. 

The president gave a long rambling (speech?) dialogue in the Rose Garden. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been real quiet of late. It has been revealed that she has been talking to the Special Counsel. The right is going after AOC with a fervor usually reserved for Hillary Clinton. Why? Why attack AOC? Well, it’s understandable. If you listen to what that young woman says and not what the right wing says about her, one will find that she is factual, cogent, and saying things that make sense. This, in the estimation of the billionaires and lunatic Republican party, can not stand. If it did imagine what would happen?

People could actually be able to see doctors and pay for their visits. A single health event would not bankrupt them. Prescription drugs would be brought down to reasonable prices. A person wouldn’t have to work two jobs just to pay their rent. Everyone would pay their fair share in taxes. The negative side of this for the Republicans in Congress is this: They would no longer be able to make massive amounts of money via insider information and legislation to favor companies that support them or that they bought stock in. They could not take “dark money” without someone finding out. They could no longer rig elections by limiting who could vote, where they could vote, or how the voting districts were made up.

It’s scary. I know. On both sides of the aisle.

As to Trump’s Rose Garden wall speech. Well, what can one say? He’s basing policy on a metaphor, which is not based in reality (ie facts.) He has now moved to saying things that have moved way beyond lies to outright fantasy. If one goes back and looks at things he has said previously, this is nothing new. When his casino in Atlantic City first opened half the slot machines weren’t working. His explanation? “They were getting so much use they broke down.” This was a total fabrication. He has managed to surround himself with a small group of yes people, who allow him to indulge in these lies and fantasies. The only question seems to be can he distinguish reality from what he purports? Evidence suggests it is highly unlikely. This allows him to be easily led, as it seems Putin is doing. The only time I have seen him get a smack of reality was when the U.N. members laughed to his face. Then he got a wry smile and for a few seconds seemed to come face to face with a truth. “Well, I didn’t expect that reaction,” was what he said. But therein is the problem with Trump. He doesn’t understand basics of how most people function. He doesn’t understand humor, or empathy, or sadness, or why someone would not like him after he has disparaged them publicly for years and then calls them up and asks for something. “Why would they be upset?”, “Why are those people laughing?” (Oh, it must be funny.) “Lock her up. You like that? Okay, we’ll use it.” These are all examples of a person who can not discern for himself and must depend on others to understand, what for most of us, is obvious. It’s sad. Having a person like this in charge is dangerous.

We are now coming to a climax. Will the Republic survive? Can we keep it? Our democracy hangs in the balance. 

Will good people come to the fore? Will those sitting on the fence, uncertain of what is going on, weigh in? Will some who have allowed themselves to be soiled and stained by this plague stand up and do what is right? 

It remains to be seen.

624 Days to the 2020 election and 702 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Nagas! (I mean, “SNAKES!”), Angkor Wat

Day 771 Saturday February 16, 2019

625 Days to the 2020 election and 703 Days to Inauguration Day

Having weathered the latest national emergency, I’d like to thank all those who posted that they were 

Safe. I, unfortunately, have sad news – None of you MFers are safe! We are all doomed! The advice from the right? “You’re screwed, why can’t you just enjoy it?” (I call this the right wing rape victim advice.)

Well, the pace is quickening and the threads are being pulled and things are coming together. 

Like:

– William Barr is now AG. He was last in this job when he advised Papa Bush to pardon all those criminals in Iran-Contra, which Bush did on his last day in office. Will the same happen again?

– We are being edumucated on sentencing guidelines. There’s a formula that judges can use to understand the range that is appropriate for a crime. This formula relates to a chart that gives a range as to how much time a person should serve. There are mitigating circumstances that can reduce the time, and aggravating circumstances that can increase the time. which a prosecutor can spell out for a judge to consider. In the case for Paul Manafort, the case that he was tried in Virginia the sentencing guidelines suggest a range of between 19 1/2 years to 24 1/2 years. The prosecution has made it very clear that there are NO mitigating circumstances and a boatload of aggravating circumstances. He has yet to be sentenced on the charges from the trial that has not taken place because of his plea agreement, which is now null and void. Turns out olde Paulie was committing crimes as late as last fall going into the winter. Besides lying to the Special Prosecutor, Congress, the FBI, numerous banks and the American people he was the driving force behind a series of criminal schemes to defraud. Why? So he could continue his high flying lifestyle. This the prosecutors have called greed. Aside from the time in jail he’s on the hook for some $50,000,000,00 in fines and restitution. That’s just for this one trial.

– Roger Stone’s lawyers tried to get a change of venue or something like that in his case. See there’s tiny little detail, this minuscule little thing, hardly worth noting, that his lawyers were arguing to change. His case is being linked to another case and they, his lawyers, wanted that removed. They didn’t want his case to be linked to that other case. Come on, what’s the big deal? Oh. Wait. The other case is the one that all those Russians that were hacking our election and putting out disinformation and leaking Hillary’s emails etc. is the case they don’t want to be tied to? Oh, because if his case is tied to that case then the same judge gets to hear his case? Oh, and worst of all that judge is a woman. OMG! (Okay, that’s not the worst thing, but it will be fun to see the drawings from the courtroom artist of Stone groveling to a woman. No, that’s not the worst thing – hold on. Here it comes.)

– Apparently, the Special Prosecutor’s lawyers are arguing that the two cases are linked because they have the actual communication between Roger Stone, Guccifer 2.0 (the Russian GRU folks), and WikiLeaks. In these communications they say Stone discusses not only the content of the emails but the timing of when to release them to maximize the benefit to Trump and the damage to Hillary. Currently, Roger says he did nothing wrong. When do you suppose he’ll start saying, “Well, yeah we communicated but so what? That’s not illegal!”  (Watch for it, and remember, you heard it here first!)

– Just to be clear, if what the Special Prosecutor’s lawyers are alleging about Stone is true and I have every reason to believe it is (you now like Bobby three stick’s 1000% batting average) then we have the actual first evidentiary link between Trump and the Russians. This is what one would call COLLUSION. (or Conspiracy – okay Conspiracy. don’t give me that “collusion isn’t in the law” crap.)

– Andrew McCabe has written a book that comes out Tuesday. If he is to be believed then Jeff Sessions is a racist asshole. Who would have thought a Senator from Alabama could be that? I mean he’s the guy that gave Trump his immigration policy statement when Trump was first running. Well, actually it was Stephen Miller who was working for Sessions at the time. Stephen has gone on to bigger and better things by working in the White Hose and coming up with the terrific idea of ripping kids out of the arms of their parents and throwing them in cages. Let us not forget that while at Duke he vociferously argued that he shouldn’t pick up his own trash because he would be denying janitors work. I’m going to buy McCabe’s book on Tuesday. At least that way he gets some money from me, and after what Trump went out of his way to screw him out of his retirement, it’s the least I can do. 

– On the Senate floor the question has been raised, “What does Vladimir Putin have on Donald Trump?” Hopefully, the various Congressional inquiries will begin to reveal all. As far as I know, there are inquiries and/or investigations into Trump’s: campaign, casinos, hotels, real estate projects, dealings with Russia, inauguration committee, taxes, hush money payments to cover up affairs, lying (too many to detail), family, presidency and … and … that’s about it. But now the evidence is piling up.

– While the Senate has raised the question the news media is asking, “Is Trump a Russian asset?” When they ask their experts the replies they get are either: “What else could he be?” or “Walks like a duck. Quacks like a duck…”

– The right’s heads are still exploding over AOC. Seems they don’t want to talk about real issues, like she does. Howard Shultz (Mr. Starbucks) says AOC’s Green New Deal is immoral. Wow. And what she’s put out is an aspirational resolution. What would Howard do? I guess he’d get the smartest people he could find and put them in a room. That’s what Trump said he was going to do. But he didn’t do it. Maybe, Howard will? Let’s bet on him, shall we? No? He managed to make a shitty cup of coffee a world wide phenomena, don’t you think he could do the same for America? I mean otherwise we’d have to bet on a smart woman.

– Some people are already saying they can’t wait til Ms. Cortez can run for President. I think that would be in 2024. When she does, the tidal wave will sweep away the Cruzs and the McConnells and the liars and prevaricators and fore-flushers …

– Hey, one last thought. Part of the evidence against Manafort is linked to his accounts in financial institutions in Cyprus. That wouldn’t effect anyone else in this administration would it? Oh right. Wilbur Ross, the Mr. Smithers look-a-like. He was on the board of a bank in Cyprus. Banks in Cyprus were favorite places for Russian oligarchs to move their money out of Russia and into the west. What’s that called? Money-Laundering. What Paul Manafort did for them. That’s it. (We haven’t even gotten to those crimes.) You don’t think the guy that said he sold his stake in various questionable companies but really just transferred it to his relatives would do something like money laundering or take kick-backs do you? Besides 1) he never did those things, and 2) if he did, what he did was not illegal, and 3) if it was illegal, it’s no big deal because everybody does it. (Let me run that through the Trump-o-translator: 1) He did it. 2) It is illegal. 3) It is a big deal and do you wear an extra small in an orange prison jump suit?) 

(Remember Mr. Ed? The TV show with the talking horse? “WILBUUUUR” 

Role the “Bad Boys” sound track: “Bad Boys, Bad Boys,, what cha gonna do when they come for you?”

625 Days to the 2020 election and 703 Days to Inauguration Day

PS We need a good session.

Day 769 Thursday February 14, 2019

627 Days to the 2020 election and 705 Days to Inauguration Day

There were many interesting legal things that went on yesterday. Rachel started off her show by making the point that when it comes to batting against Robert Mueller the score is zero. No one who has come up against him has won. They have all lost.

A judge has ruled in the Manafort plea agreement that he did not live up to his side of the agreement and therefore the prosecution team is not bound by its terms. Just on what Manafort has been found guilty of so far this means that the sentencing guidelines change from eight to ten years to now 24 to 30 years in prison. Manafort turns seventy in six months. He might have been out of jail before he was 80, but now? We are looking at closer to age 100. The speculation as to what he was thinking centers around Manafort’s trying to play both sides of the case. One, working with the Special Prosecutor to get a lighter sentence and two, trying to do what he can to help out team Trump so he’d be in line for a pardon. All the while he’s doing this he’s still trying to do work for Ukrainians and he’s witness tampering by trying to get his and their stories in line. 

It came out in court the other day that while Manafort was campaign chairman for Trump he met with the Russian associated with the GRU, his – what we thought was former client, but apparently not – Konstantin Kilimnik. Where did they meet? In a cigar lounge in New York City. Besides these two, Rick Gates was there. What makes this meeting really suspicious? Other than the question of what is a chairman of a presidential campaign doing meeting with a foreign adversary? (This little tidbit was mentioned by a former prosecutor.) The thing that makes it really really suspicious is the fact that all three left by different doors. Why would you do that, unless, of course, you didn’t want to be seen in the company of the others?

The other question that comes up is why would Manafort risk more time in jail, ostensibly for the rest of his life, unless whatever the truth is, is even worse. By not revealing that is he vying for a pardon?

The whole Russian interference question has moved from, “Did the Trump campaign collude with the Russians?” to now asking, “Is whatever colluding the Trump campaign did with the Russians rise to the level of a crime?”

As one little exhibit of this take Sam Patten, a rather minor player in this drama so far, but it was he that got money funneled from Russians to the inauguration committee. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has heads of conservatives exploding over her Green New Deal. Amazing. A resolution that is “aspirational” is being attacked from every conservative quarter that isn’t busy attacking Elizabeth Warren for her tax the ultra-wealthy plan (or her being an Indian, or not; or claiming once that she was, or not.)

Meanwhile more Presidential hopefuls are lining up. Amy Klobuchar has gotten into the fray. I was predisposed to not want her to run. Just before she announced there were rumors that she was mean to her staff. This kind of turned me off to her, but then there was a piece about her that reviewed her accomplishments, and her likability among Republicans in the Senate. I had to ask myself if the stuff about her not being a likable boss was in fact a right wing hit job ahead of her announcement?

Now Corey Booker has jumped in. Likable guy, but seems sort of one note, like Warren. Now Eric Holder might run. WTF? As someone wrote, all the candidates would make good VPs. 

Howard Schultz has called the Green New Deal immoral. Really? Others on the right say it’s unworkable, etc. etc. etc. My buddy who sends me pieces a day or so before the regular press picks up the right wing stuff says Cortez isn’t wrong that we should be concerned about climate change, but that she’s way off on what to do. (btw He always seems to be channeling Dan Akroyd’s SNL “Jane you ignorant slut” attitude when setting me straight.) His solution seems to be that we should adjust to the change, that it isn’t as big a deal as others that he suspects have a motive at being overly work upped (both scientists and politicians) have claimed. His attitude seems to be one of the person that says rape victims should lie back and enjoy it. Not that we should truly try to change the course that we humans seem to have put our Earth on. Just adapt. 

There’s more, but how much can one do in a day?

Brett Kavenaugh sided with the other three justices that have no reason to be on the Supreme Court on that abhorrent law in Louisiana copped from Texas about abortion providers. This should be able to say to Susan Collins that once again she’s been duped. But I think she is too stupid to understand.

I wonder if anyone is going to say to the president, “Bull Shit,” when he tries to say he’s been building lots of wall? Or will it come to a point, like at the United Nations where they just laughed to his face? Maybe, someone should say, “Gee Wilikers Mr. president that’s super great. When are you going to take us down there to see the new construction? 

 627 Days to the 2020 election and 705 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Stiripen water purifier on fire! (ie doing it’s job.)

Day 768 Wednesday February 13, 2019

628 Days to the 2020 election and 706 Days to Inauguration Day

The other day Nick Ackerman was on one of the news shows. He, btw, was a prosecutor during Watergate. He was asked about a little something that Mueller’s lead prosecutor revealed to a judge. That being that something was at the heart of the Mueller investigation. That something being a meeting between Trump people and Russians. 

The question being posed to Ackerman was, if this is a question of collusion, “Is there a quid pro quo?” In order for there to be “a favor for a favor” one would have to ask what each side wanted. Trump wanted to win the election and people around him were busily trying to ask or get help from the Russians to do that. Something the Russians were more than willing to do. But what did the Russians want? Putin had invaded the Ukraine and Congress had passed The Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012 and came before the Ukrainian invasion. It said that the U.S. could freeze the assets of those that committed human rights abuses. Putin retaliated by not allowing Russian children with disabilities from being adopted by U.S citizens who wanted them and could give them aid and comfort that Russia did not have the capabilities to do. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 President Obama imposed stiffer sanctions on Russia.

See if you can figure out what Russia might possibly want from a president Trump and his administration. Here is what Ackerman outlined, in part:

There were five known meetings between Russians and Trump people. 

Meeting 1 – topic: sanctions,

Meeting 2 – topic: sanctions,

Meeting 3 – topic: sanctions,

Meeting 4 – topic: sanctions,

Meeting 5 – topic: sanctions.

There were numerous Trump advisors who met with Russians, including Michael Flynn who has pled guilty and is going to jail for lying to the FBI. What did he lie about? 

Sanctions.

There is a long line of communication before and after these meetings with various Trump people. What was the topic they discussed?

Sanctions.

The well known Trump Tower meeting (#3 above) was ostensibly about adoptions, which is true, in that the discussion was “Hey Bubby, You lift sanctions we let you adopt, good deal? Yes?”

So what was it that the Russians wanted? Can you take a guess? 

Former CIA chief John Brennan was on yesterday and he was asked why all these Trump officials were lying about sanctions. That is – lying about meeting with Russians, and discussing sanctions with Russians.

I’ve come to really like John Brennan. Try this piece of Brennan logic on:

“Well, people typically lie to hide the truth.”*

It’s obvious, once someone says it. But he didn’t stop there.

“And the truth is that they probably did something illegal, or what they thought was illegal, and therefore they wanted to lie to cover up what they did.”*

* I am paraphrasing here. This is my recollection of what he said.

Hum, so if Ackerman and Brennan are right then the Trump people knowingly participated in quid pro quo scheme which on the one side was to help Trump get elected and on the other was to help the Russians get the sanctions lifted. While talking with the Russians about lifting the sanctions may or may not have been a crime, lying to the FBI certainly is and for that one person has been sentenced.

Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee has wrapped up their inquiry into Russian meddling and both the Democrat and Republican chairmen have made statements that they did not find “direct evidence” of Trump or his people colluding with Russians in the 2016 election.

While some Trump supporters may be crowing that this exonerates him, nothing could be farther from the truth. What numerous commentators have said is:

– that it is not the Senate committee’s job to discover if there is “direct evidence” of Trump or his associates guilt or criminal behavior. 

– The Senate committee’s job is to discover if there was meddling in our election system and to recommend what to do to protect our election system(s). They are to issue a report on that, which may take six or seven months to write. (Slow writers? I dunno.)

– prosecutorial commentators pointed out repeatedly that in collusion cases there is rarely or never “direct evidence.” If there was such evidence there would be little reason for a trial.  Typically, what you have is a series of meetings and communications that all center around a known objective, even if that objective is not stated. Why state the objective when everyone already understands that?

– It has been pointed out that Benedict Arnold was found guilty of passing secrets to the British by the fact that he was in the same room as a British general. There was no direct evidence. He was hung none the less.

So, I dunno. Prosecutors say they don’t believe in coincidence. There seems to be a lot of coincidence in plain sight. The only argument that I can see that can be made is, “Hey, it’s not a crime because we were doing it where everyone could watch – in plain sight.”

Moving on:

There were rallies in El Paso last night. One held by Trump and one by Beto O’Rourke. One person reported that Trump said he had 30,000 people and Beto 300. The actual numbers seem to be slightly different. O’Rourke had 7,000 – 8,000; Trump had 6,500 in his arena and another number outside (maybe 7-10,000? I’m not sure. I’ve heard various estimates.) 

One reporter at the Trump rally was attacked for being in the media. Don’t you love it when Roger Stone is upset by Nazi like tactics when he is arrested yet Trump and his supporters find it okay to attack people trying to cover their events? 

According to Trump he’s built lots of wall, and now we need to “Finish the Wall,” which he will do, with or without Congress’ help. 

The reality is that he has built no wall, zero, while in office. I guess that’s why we aren’t going to the wall to look at the big beautiful wall that he’s built, because it doesn’t exist? Meanwhile, Congress has worked out a way to not shutdown the government and Sean Hannity isn’t happy about the deal. Of course, he hasn’t seen the deal, but he’s not happy about it. Not that it matters what he thinks. We are still waiting, as far as I know, for the real negotiator in chief to weigh in, and that’s Ann Coulter. Mark Meadows, now being touted as the head of The Freedom Caucus (what happened to Jimmy Jordan? I thought he was the head? Oh well.) the deal stinks. Both Sean and Mark say there isn’t enough money in the bill to build the wall. Trump says he’s not happy, but he’ll do other things to finish the wall. Okay. Great. We aren’t happy, but the president will continue to finish his wall. There are fools who can’t see the wall, but if I were the president I’d send some people to the closest Home Depot to the wall where for five bucks you can get an HD pail. Get some illegal immigrants to haul those pails to the border, one in each hand. I mean when you send them back there’s no reason they should walk back empty handed after hauling all that marijuana over the border, besides they have those cantaloupe sized calves! Once they get to where the fence is not, they can take out that concrete that no one can see and slap it up on that wall that doesn’t exist, making sure they are on the Mexico side as the finish the task.

Where would we get the first batch of illegals to do that work? Well, I suggest we start at the Trump golf courses. The ones that have been hiring illegals for years. Wouldn’t that be a great place to start?

I’d like to see Congress pass a law that says if any person is caught working illegally here, before they are deported they have to be paid the legitimate wage a U.S. citizen would have been paid for that job. This could be touted as a way to discourage employers from hiring illegals and paying them less. The excuse of “We didn’t know!” Too bad, ignorance is no excuse. You know like when you try to tell the police officer you didn’t see the speed limit sign? Same thing. “Oh you thought those phony papers you helped that person get as a fig leaf was going to save your ass?” Naturally, we couldn’t send those illegals back right away, we’d have to keep them here to testify. What’s it costing us to keep those kids in cages? $800 to $1,000 a day per person? I think that’s right. While we are waiting for the illegals to testify I think the companies should be forced to pay that amount that to said illegals while they wait to testify at the same rate it costs us to incarcerate those kids. It’s too bad our courts are so backed up. It might be months before a case gets heard. Oh well, that’s the way it would go. 

Oh yes, don’t you love how the right wing reporters want to call Beto by his baptized name, even though he’s been called Beto since he was a kid? Let’s not forget Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Okay, fair is fair – president Drumpf.  

Now they are going after AOC and her Green New Deal. Never mind that it is a resolution, not a law. Never mind that it is describes as “aspirational” in other words, something to strive for. Never mind that there are general statements and not specifics, that it is outlining goals to work toward. It is touted as socialist, unworkable, and that she is dangerous. (As dangerous as Lenin!) Wait. Huh? Oh I don’t get it? It’s all a plot for her and Elizabeth Warren (gotta throw her in here too) to use as a power grab? Boy, I don’t remember the Republicans being upset about wonder boy Ryan’s first “aspirational” budget. I mean it must have been aspirational because it contained no specifics (like numbers) but only vague things he wanted to see happen.

Speaking of Paul Ryan, they are replaying clips of his saying how people were already seeing the great effects of the Republican tax cuts because their withholdings were less. Do you think he knew he’d be out of office when those self same supposedly happy having to pay less in withholding people were told they owed more money at tax time? Or that they were getting less money back as a refund? Or that the tax cuts didn’t cut their taxes, or boost the economy, or shrink the debt? I think a committee ought to haul Paulie’s ass back in to explain. Where is Henry Waxman? We need a pince-nez glasses guy like Waxman to hold Ryan’s feet to the fire. I don’t want those feet held there for long. Only til they are burned to the knees.

628 Days to the 2020 election and 706 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Koh Ker Temple, Cambodia