Archives for June 2019

Day 900 Tuesday June 25, 2019

496 Days until the 2020 election and 574 days until the Inauguration

Push Back Tuesday

I’ve gotten a number of different inputs from friends that are Trump right wing supporters. I think it’s time to push back against this wall of crap they keep throwing up. 

There’s the guy who sends me a long list of terrible things Hillary did, and Obama did, along with snide childish remarks. There’s the person who keeps posting headlines from right wing sites that are about anti-abortion, the need for guns, how the Dems are terrible, etc. And there’s the person who posts how president Trump is working every day tirelessly to protect us and why can’t we just leave him alone and let him do his job?

Okay, let’s review the most recent headlines and stories:

The 16^th woman has come out and accused Trump of sexual assault, in this case rape. The story is corroborated by two people she told at the time and follows a similar pattern to the other women who said Trump assaulted them.

Texts between Sean Hannity and Paul Mannafort have been revealed. Apparently, they had ongoing communication before, during, and after his trials. It is well known that Hannity enjoys an especially close relationship with the president. If this isn’t witness tampering and Obstruction of Justice then how about…

The Mueller Report, which details ten instances of Obstruction of Justice by Trump. In every instance, all the criteria for Obstruction of Justice are met. Former prosecutors have said they could make a very credible case for obstruction. In fact one even went so far as to say he could do it with his eyes closed (or something like that.)

The scientists at one agency have been told their jobs have moved to Kansas City. They have one month to move, on their dime. This would put them away from the resources they need to do their jobs. Why the move? Seems the administration doesn’t like their reporting various facts, scientific facts.

The DNI and other agencies have stated global warming is a threat to national security. What does Mike Pence think about this? Well shucks, it’s an opinion right? Well, they’ll follow the science. That’s great, do you see it as a threat? Somehow, Mike can’t say those words.

Meanwhile another scientific report on climate change has been released. Let me summarize the conclusions of the report for the people and the regions, all the regions, of the United States of America (including Hawaii, Alaska, The Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico) – we’re fucked. NE – warmer weather less snow, severe flooding; SE – big hurricanes, severe flooding, many parts permanently underwater; Midwest – dry, hot, huge crop failures, flooding, Texas and that area – tornadoes, hail, flooding, big big storms; SW – dry parched earth; NW – less snow, less fresh water, more rain; West – fires, floods.

A news report says 350 immigrant children are being housed in an adult facility meant for 155. They are forced to sleep on concrete floors, have no soap, toothpaste, or tooth brushes. Ten year olds are caring for two year olds. To get fresh air you have to stand on a toilet. The facility has recently undergone an expansion to a metal windowless shed. There are outbreaks of lice. We, the taxpayer, are being charged upwards of $750 a day for this service. The administration response? Well it’s the Dems fault because they won’t give us more money. 

Financial reports show that the Trump tax bill enriched the rich and did nothing for the economy.

The deficit has increased at a record pace. Two trillion dollars in two years – a new record.

The pro-death movement (sometimes called pro-life, but they ignore the fact that their charade of every life is sacred really kills women) is getting encouragement because of all the right wing justices Mitch McConnell has steamroller through. Mitch used to be pro-choice to first get elected then switched sides. 

Speaking of Mitch, what has he done? Blocked any legislation that would help people, and put through onerous hateful legislation that makes the middle class poorer, and less healthy.

Meanwhile Mitch’s wife has been busy helping her dad, enrich himself at the public trough, and siphoned money to Kentucky for her husband’s re-election via various highway projects. She also had a huge stake in a highway gravel company, which she didn’t divest herself of until caught.

Kelly Ann Conway is guilty of running afoul of the Hatch Act. This says you can’t do political business on the government property or their dime. I don’t know, do you think doing so in the White House or it’s driveway counts?

Trump was asked if he’d accept information from a foreign power that could help his re-election. If you haven’t seen the clip I urge you to do so, because it shows you what this guy is all about:

He’s asked would he take the information or would he call the FBI?

He says he’d do both. Well, maybe both. He’d certainly listen to what they had to say. (He left moot whether he’d call the FBI.)

Then he justified this by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with listening.” Yeah, except it’s against the law, but that’s a trifle the prez doesn’t know (?), believe (?), or care about (+++).

When it’s pointed out that it’s agains the law and his own FBI director says so, he then steels his position, “He (the FBI director) is wrong.”

So we go from facilitating, to thinking out loud to reach a conclusion, to cementing one’s position to an illegal act.

Trump has picked up the rhetoric against Iran. Since backing out of the Iran Nuclear Deal what does he have to show for his efforts? Nothing. Zero, Nadda. Iran is close to violating one of the parts of the deal. Great job Donald! Trump is threatening war. Great job Johnnie Bolton. Meanwhile the U.S. had imposed more crippling economic sanctions and it’s resulted in pissing off the Iranians. I’m sure they are ready to negotiate with Bolton and crew now! (NOT.)

Meanwhile the economic trade war with China is really hitting our farmers. They are going deeper in debt because of it. Trump has given them millions to help, but they have lost billions. (Too bad we can’t find money for soap for those immigrant kids we kidnapped. Oh well.)

The right has gone crazy over AOC’s comment that we are running concentration camps. We are. What’s the debate? Oh, right, Kevin McCarthey (the guy who wanted to be speaker of the House and made up names of countries) says Ms. Ocasio-Cortez should learn some history and then he goes on to demonstrate his lack of knowledge on the subject. Hey, guess what? AOC is right on the money and the right wing and Republicans got it totally wrong. What a surprise! (NOT)

In the weekly Prince of Whales award Mr. Trump has said they are freezing the assets of the leader of Iran and names the dead Ayatollah. Great job, Mr. president!

In other news, I saw that there is actually a re-election team for Trump. They report being “Flexible” because they really don’t know what The Donald will do next.

Oh yeah, and there’s a report out that shows that the transition team knew about the problems with many of the picks for cabinet posts and the like and the administration went ahead and picked them anyway. So much for getting the best people. And some of those people? They had come right out and said what they thought of Trump. None of it was positive. The administration took them on anyway. Yet, they were willing to work for this man anyway. I mean at least long enough to enrich themselves as much as possible.

There’s also the report that an actors were hired to attend a recent Trump rally. Maybe, we can hire actors to attend too? The signs and t-shirts I would suggest might be slightly different than those the folks who were told they would be paid $50 would say. (We haven’t gotten confirmation that these people were paid, btw. I mean if we know anything about Trump we know he stiffs people.)

There have been more shootings. What was the number this week? Three? Somehow we can’t seem to stop them.

The level of hate crimes is at record numbers.

The number of immigrants has risen sharply. So much for deterrence.

This is mainly just the news of the last few days. 

So what has Trump done for us? I mean what positive thing has he done for you or me in the last week? 

If you have anything, I’d like to hear it. 

I’ve listed what I know, and none of it is positive.

There is one positive note. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched their heavy rocket. The two side stages were recovered and it is going to deploy 24 payloads in three different orbits. To bad Trump wasn’t president when this immigrant came to our country. He might be in a cage, instead of building a rocket company, a car company, a solar company, and founding Paypal.

496 Days until the 2020 election and 574 days until the Inauguration

PS Yeah! (I have no idea.)

Day 5 million

Someone recently wrote to me and said, “I didn’t know you were a socialist?” To which I replied, “I’m a what works kind of guy” (or words to that effect. I believe in a level playing field and in giving everyone a chance. I believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. Many folks I know who seem to want to hurry out and label people socialists don’t seem to believe in those ideas (call them principles if you like). They seem to believe that “they made it on their own.” While they worked hard, granted, they did so within a system or framework that allowed them to prosper. That framework is a controlled system. The question becomes “who do you want controlling that framework?” People who espouse free market systems don’t seem to realize that most of those systems are really government regulated. There have been times when individuals (ie capitalists) controlled those systems. J.P.Morgan, Fiske and Gould, the Robber Barons are all examples of that. How well did that work? If you look at the history of the U.S. from an economic perspective there were a series of boom and busts when those folks were in charge. They worked hard to keep others out and poor, but they also caused huge panics and runs on the banks, etc. I think the question becomes, “How much do you want someone regulating the system within which we operate?” one person I know calls it “bridled capitalism” Another calls it “democratic socialism.” Whatever you call it we are talking about a system that has rules and regulations of some sort and we are asking “Whom do we want in control of those systems?”

I keep going back to the history of Constantinople and the end of the Roman Republic. In the case of Constantinople it was a struggle between the landowners and the church versus the middle class. Whenever the landowners and church came to power they changed the tax laws so they didn’t have to pay anything. The weight fell on the middle class who then left the city. They literally “took to the hills.” In the case of the Roman Republic (and I’d say Constantinople too) the Republic fell due to two underlying conditions 1) as far as anyone alive knew the Republic had always been there so they thought it always would be, and 2) many in charge were chipping away at the republic, taking a little bit for themselves (who would notice?) Most democracies last 200 years. They are considered transitional times by historians. If we wish to survive as a democracy then we need to stand up for the principles that our country is. We need to get back to helping our fellow man, helping the less fortunate and giving everyone a chance.

Meanwhile, Hope Hicks testified in front of Congress and refused to answer any questions about her time in the White House, including, “Where was your office?” She did however corroborate that the president paid off two women with whom he had affairs for political reasons. 

And now another woman has come forward and said that Trump raped her. He says he never met her. Except, there’s this photo of him with her in the picture. 

Now there have been released hundreds of messages between Sean Hannity and Paul Mannafort. Those messages deal directly with Mannafort’s trial. Now Hannity talks directly to Trump, so if Sean is relaying messages to Paul from Trump and Paul is relaying his responses to Sean and Sean is talking to Trump is that what I think it is? Wit … wit … ness tampering? Or Obstruction of Justice? 

Then Roger Stone may be going to the pokey until his trial. This is hard to believe (NOT) that Roger couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Oh yes, and Mike Flynn fired his legal team and hired a Fox News person who says the Mueller Inquiry is illegal and all bunk, etc. etc. etc.

Meanwhile, there is a hew and cry for impeachment proceedings from both the left and the right. The Republicans seem to think it will bolster their chances in 2020 and the other folks who want it because it seems to them the right thing to do. But there is hesitancy on the Dem leadership side to go forward. Because history has shown that impeachment hurts the folks who bring it. The question here, I think, is “would it really hurt those who bring it?” Somehow, I don’t think so.

This is so flagrant, so criminal, that the proceeding would show what has been going on to a segment of the population that has been consistently lied to. I think it could serve as the turning point. The point at which those diehard Trump supporters might – might – say, “Hey, wait a minute.” 

I dunno. I’d like to believe that they are good people who believe in the principles that this country was founded on, like The Rule of Law, and No One is Above the Law.

Oh yes and we were 5 minutes away from war with Iran (yawn.)

Day 897 Saturday June 22, 2019

499 Days until the 2020 election and 577 days until the Inauguration

PS Good Vibrations

 

Day 3,578,328 or something like that.
God, will it ever end?
I’ve been away for almost a month, when I got back it’s the same old, only different. I’m just not ready to do the math for the countdown. I was in Indonesia and there I saw references to some of the goings on, but not much. I asked for news. I got “Trump is being an idiot.” It didn’t matter on what area or subject. He was being an idiot. The biggest news thing about him seemed to be his ill-fitting tux.
When I got back I was stunned at the criminality and the lack of concern by the Republicans. They seem to like to purposely mispronounce Mueller, calling him “Mule – er.” Then there was the news about Elaine Chow and her criminality. Plus Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows unconcern about the very things they were so distraught over during Obama’s term in office. And Sarah Sanders is resigning. What a loss (Not).
One thing Trump is good at is wearing people down. That’s what he did in New York and what he is trying to do to the country. There are the ten items in the Mueller Report that as lawyers say “fulfill” every part of the criminal statue of Obstruction of Justice. It makes me wonder, if Trump were to shoot someone dead, would he be arrested?
Then there was a right wing friend who posted some nonsense. Oh yeah, I remember it compared a city in Texas to Chicago. Both about the same size, same population makeup. However, Texas had more gun stores than Chicago, but Chicago had many more murders. She asked the question, “Tell me again how having fewer gun stores makes you safer?” Well, by this logic then the answer to Chicago’s murder rate is to open more gun stores. Every time the Chicago murder rate comes up in the news typically the report points to the fact that many of the guns used in the murders come from guns bought outside of Chicago and outside of the state of Illinois. Many of the guns come from Texas. In fact, I think there are three gun stores on the Texas border that are responsible for many of those guns. The Texas border has 1900 gun stores. Obviously, for the sheep farmers living on the border.
Then she posted something else, I can’t remember exactly what it was but it was supposed to be some horrible thing I guess in her mind. To which I responded “Hooray” or some such, and the response was “I didn’t know you were a socialist.” Kind of a “when did you stop beating your wife?” sort of comment. To which I responded that I’m not; I’m a person searching for answers and solutions. Then her friends got in on it and I raised the question, “are you opposed to the military or Federal roads?” and that got the “It’s in the Constitution” response. (Spoiler alert: Federal Highways aren’t in the Constitution! In fact, it’s a German idea. Eisenhower, a Republican, liked the Nazi highway system and modeled the Federal highways after them. So I guess that makes him and by extension all Republicans Nazis – right?) So I’m making a silly extension of logic to make a point.
Those who think that socialism is a bad idea typically embrace socialism on some level. Let’s define the term. The use of tax dollars and government assistance to help a group of people. That to me is socialism. For me, I’m a believer in “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Others believe in what I call the myth of rugged individualism. That says you appreciate things if you do them all by yourself without help from anyone else. The problem with that idea is that in every example that such people give they got help from somewhere else. Typically, their parents or the government or a benefactor of some kind.
As examples: it was Glenn Beck or someone of his ilk who said he was poor and he made it one his own. He went to the library where books were free and they lived on food stamps. Wait a second, the books aren’t free, as Jon Stuart pointed out. Someone paid for those books and the government paid for the food stamps. Then there are the farmers who people like to point to as examples of salt-of-the-Earth hard working blah blah blah. And they are, no doubt, but they get help, a lot of help from the government. Be it grain subsidies, or the rural electrification project in FDR’s time or low interest loans via The Agricultural Department. Michael Lewis pointed out in his book The Fifth Risk that a big time Fox News contributor who hated big government and socialism, etc. etc. etc. had a farm project that he was doing and very proud of because he had done it all on his own. He had a big press conference and there was a lady standing there and he asked who she was. She told him and said she was from the Agriculture Department. Really? he said and why are you here? She replied that she was the one that got him the loan so he could do his project. So much for rugged individualism and doing it on your own. Lewis also points out that if the Ag Department didn’t help rural America it would look like rural China.
The there was the George Bush time that one of the staff was in a tough spot and George passed the hat to get them some money. Tip O’Neil said that the week before Bush had vetoed a bill that would have helped thousands that were in similar situations.
That I think sums up the problem with this “I didn’t know you were a socialist” argument. Yes, it would be great if everyone could make it on their own. The reality is that we all need help. That we rise on the shoulders of others who came before us.
A Sequoia tree on it’s own will easily be blown over. It needs a group, a network of roots and fellow trees to be able to stand tall. It can’t do it on it’s own.
We need to realize the simple human fact that everyone needs help at some point. I’m reminded of the Inca Empire. No one starved. Everyone was cared for. Yes, you had to pay tribute and it was figured out by what you did and could do. Everyone contributed and everyone was taken care of.
We can argue about how much one should be taken care of by government entities or regulated entities, and how that should be done, but there really is no question that there is a need for such care and help.
Perhaps, you disagree. That’s fine. You can go live by yourself in the woods I suppose. But if you come out of the woods. If you walk on a road, drink from a fountain, work for money – you owe. You need to give back.

Meanwhile, Trump has so embarrassed us that no one seems to care. “Prince of Whales.” How do you get to be his age and still be such a rube? Such a simpleton? So unsophisticated? So pathetic? So unwilling to learn? So uncaring as to not want to do even a mediocre job? It is staggering.
There have been some interesting statistics that are really reverse sort of psychology I guess is the best way to put it.
The NRA is in trouble financially.
So is the supplier of guns to Cabella and others. They stocked up big time knowing Hillary was going to win and there would be a run on guns because she was going to take them away. Trump stole the election so no need to buy those guns. Whoops. bye bye.
Immigration is up big time. Why? The smugglers are telling folks they better get in quick before the border is sealed. Obama had the numbers at a fifty year low.
The problem and the reason people are coming here from Central American countries is the conditions in their home countries are deplorable. This isn’t any secret. Henry Kissinger pointed this our over fifty years ago. The solution was to dump money into those countries to bolster their infrastructure and their fragile institutions. What did Trump do? Cut the little aid we give them.
Then there is the corruption and the graft. We thought we were above this sort of thing. At least, I did. Surprise. Is there any member of Trump’s cabinet that isn’t trying to personally enrich themselves?
I don’t know. I don’t think so.
Then we get to the screwing with the Constitution. There’s the Republican gerrymandering specialist who wants to suppress the Census count by asking a citizenship question. To be clear, the Constitution makes it clear that everyone gets counted. Period. In fact, you might say that the reason we fought a war for independence was largely due to this question. The question of being counted. Remember, “No taxation without representation”? Yeah, well, see back in the 1600s the British decided that one county looked like another so why bother re-apportioning them just because the population moved around. When folks started to moved to formerly sparsely populated areas, they didn’t get any representation. Other areas that had few people or even got flooded did have reps. It was very unfair. The Brits extended this idea to the colonies and America got no voice in Parliament. So we dumped some tea in Boston Harbor, fought a war, and wrote a Constitution that directly addressed that problem I.e. everyone gets counted and representation is reapportioned based on that count.
The Republican don’t like that. They want to make sure minority groups are under counted so they won’t get the services they need. A treasure trove of emails has revealed this is exactly why they are doing it. They tried to say other things and when the folks at Census said, oh we can get you that data cheaper and easier and faster than putting it in the Census the Republicans weren’t interested.

Speaking of Republicans, I think the party should be renamed the RussoRepublican Party. I mean, is there a Republican who hasn’t taken money or intel or meetings with Russians?
And what’s with the nasty mispronouncing of Mueller’s name to “Mule – Er” ? Clever huh? Just like their saying “Democrat” party. WTF? How petty and nasty can you be?
I was re-reading my copy of the Mueller Report the other day. Their was an additional article in my copy about Robert Mueller and his time in Vietnam. He spent a year there. Took heavy fire. Got shot in the leg. Much of his group got wiped out. He directed the counter attack and rescued wounded men while under heavy fire. All this while Trump was getting a medical deferment for non-existent bone spurs.

Then there’s the taking his kids to England fiasco. He has no shame.

PS Me with The Donald.
No wait. It’s a big fat lazy dragon. (On Komodo Island, Indonesia.)

3,578,328 days, minutes, seconds, something until this nightmare is over.