Wednesday July 29, 2020
95 Days until the election on November 3rd
175 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
The title of this screed sounds like a game of chess strategy, but in fact it was the Attorney General’s reasoning for not looking into the president commuting the sentence of Roger Stone. Eric Swalwell in questioning the AG at yesterday’s House hearings laid out a compelling case for investigating Donald Trump’s commuting Roger Stone’s sentence. After all it was Barr at his confirmation hearing that said that if a president commuted the sentence of an associate for keeping their mouth shut about a president’s crimes that would be a crime. William Barr said in response to Swalwell, “Why should I?” He then went on to say that Swalwell’s case, based on the words of Barr, Trump, and Stone was a Rube Goldberg case. This from a guy who went to the Ukraine to try and dig up stuff on Joe Biden and his son based on conspiracy theories promulgated be Britbart, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Info Wars, and the Russian GRU.
The AG seems to have a keen sense of when to know something and when not to. He didn’t know about the militia men with their AR-15s standing in front of the state house in Michigan or in front of the governor’s home demanding that she be shot, hung, and beheaded, but he did know that someone sprayed paint on a Federal courthouse in Portland and ordered unmarked Federal agents to the scene. He defended the snatching of protestors who were doing nothing at the time they were grabbed by saying they might have done something earlier in the evening or maybe they were standing next to someone doing something. The something in question was pointing a laser pointer at the troops. This of course required the unleashing of tear gas and rubber bullets.
Those rubber bullets by the way have steel in them and can kill and maim.
Speaking of tear gas the AG said that tear gas was not used in the clearing of Lafayette Square. Apparently, the narrative in the chamber was it was pepper gas, which has the same effect, but hey – technically he’s correct, if that is true.
What we didn’t know until the nightly news was that a National Guardsman who was there on the ground in Lafayette Square said he saw no aggressive behavior from the protestors. They were being peaceful. He said that tear gas was used and he saw the canisters marked as such. Who ya gonna believe? Toss up? Or is one person lying?
Either the Attorney General is lying or he is sadly misinformed.
Speaking of sadly misinformed, according to the president the information about the Russians putting bounties on the heads of our servicemen in Afghanistan is “fake news,” because “a lot of people are saying it.” Not the people in his intelligence community mind you, but a lot of people, you know like the Russian disinformation folks who feed the right wing media.
We’ve reached another milestone, 150,000 dead. No one wants us to come see them anymore. We are banned.
I’m tired of winning.
Speaking of winning, eleven states are now added to the list of “red zone” states for corona virus bringing the total to twenty one. One state is declared safe, maybe two, the rest are yellow. What does the president have to say about this? States aren’t opening fast enough.
Some folks have pointed to baseball and how they started to play games and had to stop due to a corona virus outbreak on one team. How people are asking can we expect schools to open if major league baseball can’t?
Now the administration is threatening schools with withholding funds unless the open up. Most of these schools didn’t have enough money to buy school supplies to begin with. Funny thing Betsy DeVos got a huge “loan” that she won’t have to pay back. Hey, maybe we should start with that money?
But I digress, the CDC says you can’t open your schools safely unless you have the virus under control in your community. Currently, nowhere has it under control, but don’t worry, only 2% may get it or die from it or something like that says DeVos. Good odds, right?
Oh and in a stunning announcement the president lied. Yeah, I know who thought they’d ever say those words three and a half years ago? Apparently, Trump made up the whole thing about throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in August. Imagine that? Yeah, he didn’t like Anthony Fauci stealing the limelight by having the honor to throw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ first game, so Trump made it up! This threw his staff into a tizzy because he was already committed that day. Not to worry; he lied. He not going. Ha ha, next?
Okay, how about the video, now taken down showing people in white lab coats? The claim is they are doctors. The video say hydroxychloroquine works and masks don’t. Yeah, who was behind that? I haven’t seen or heard yet – stay tuned.
But we do know that the guy in black with the umbrella who was filmed breaking window in Minneapolis has been identified as having ties to White Supremacist groups and in Richmond a similar thing happened with protestors pointing out the perpetrators and they too had ties to white supremacist groups.
William Barr had said at his House hearing yesterday that anarchists had snuck into the protests and disturbed them. Naturally, the word “antifa” came up. I have yet to see a person who claims to be antifa engaged in any of this stuff. It seems to always be racists. Hum, maybe there’s something here the AG could do? Naw, fake news, Rube Goldberg.
Oh and I love this, William Barr doesn’t read and isn’t aware of the president’s tweets. It was just coincidence that within the hour of the president’s tweet that he cleared Lafayette Square. I mean calling a Rose Garden press conference so all the news cameras would be there instead of in Lafayette Square, and having the square cleared with tear gas or pepper spray and federal troops in riot gear, and having the president walk across for a photo op were all just coincidental.
Oh I got it. Okay. Nothing to see hear. Move along. These are not the droids you are looking for.
I have a fantasy and that is that a protestor keeps backing up as these unmarked federalists troops advance. That said protestor warns them to back off, that he (or she) will have to arrest them (ie a citizen’s arrest) if they lay a hand on them. Agents lay a hand, and they get the shit beaten out of them, they are cuffed with their own gear and city police arrive to haul off the perpetrators (ie the purported Federal agents.)
I have another fantasy too. This one involves someone standing up at a public hearing where they are debating whether to rename a school that has been named after a confederate general. Someone has just spoken about “remembering our heritage” etc. The person stands up and says yes let’s remember our heritage. Why not name the school after Goering, or Goebbels, or Hitler, or Mussolini? I mean if you want to remember our heritage what’s wrong with them? Maybe Tokyo Rose?
This leads me to my Final Fantasy (three?) and that is what Nazi do the Trump administration officials most resemble? I know. It’s so disrespectful. But Stephen Miller? Come on. Himmler right? Am I right? And Barr? Goering? When he was fat and before he became obese. What about the little cutie who heads up the press conferences? Eva Braun? Okay. That’s a stretch.
Can I get a “Bet you won’t repost this?” Yeah.
PS The Pumpkin Patch
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