Archives for August 2020

Tuesday August 4, 2020

89 Days until the election on November 3^rd

169 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

The first part of this screed is left over from a few days ago: Bill Barr. Either he is grossly incompetent or inept, or he’s a liar. When he was being questioned about the fellas standing outside the state house in Michigan with AR-15s and say he didn’t know about it is way beyond unbelievable. He can lie with that placid look on his face. In fact, perhaps that’s the tell. Then to follow it up with that dismissive comment of “there are a lot of protests in this country.” Like it’s too hard for him to know about all of them? I guess he selectively looks at the ones that he or Trump decide can best embarrass Democrats? I don’t know. He seems busy doing the president’s bidding.

But here’s the thing. Barr said he didn’t know about the protests in Michigan and that his job was to protect Federal property. If he didn’t know about the protests in Michigan how did he know that they didn’t threaten Federal property?

Okay. Moving on. Seems the District Attorney in New York may get his hands on the eight years of Trump and the Trump Organization’s tax returns. The Supreme Court had ruled on it and it will go back down to a lower court where Donnie can have his lawyers make the same arguments they made before, which have already been ruled on and against him. Why, I’d say it will be just in time for the election. 

The case really isn’t all that hard to understand. Trump and his associates told the IRS that his properties weren’t worth all that much while also telling the banks that they were worth a lot more. There’s a term for that. It’s called fraud. You can go to jail for fraud. 

There seem to be two defenses for Trump-o. One) everybody does it. Two) the bank knew the numbers were inflated so it’s not fraud.

Number two is an interesting defense. Apparently, some of the people at Deutsche Bank were outright laughing at the numbers, so maybe some knew they were not true values. If so, why did the bank lend the money? Ah, maybe it’s because it wasn’t really their money? Maybe they were just passing the money through from the Russians? Ie Putin.

There is also the whole line of investigation into former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s son Justin, who worked at Deutsche Bank for ten years and became head of their global real estate division. He loaned Trump over one billion dollars when no one else would. Why did he do that? The senior Kennedy seemed to think that he might have had to weigh in on such a case and rather than do that suddenly retired. When I say sudden I mean sudden. He had his interns all picked for the next session. His office was ready to go, and then, “Sorry, I’m retiring.” He had been the deciding vote on a number of 5-4 decisions in Trump’s favor. 

Now the talk is of a woman at the bank who they are saying did the lending and was involved in some dubious transactions with Trump and with Kushner. She bought a condo or two or three from them. It would be a pity if the sallow and sloe-eyed young man had to go to prison. Hope, he took his hydroxychloroquine. Watch for big tears from Ivanka. For Jared, for dad, for herself as she gets hauled off too as part of this criminal enterprise.

Meanwhile, schools are facing the prospect of how to open safely. The answer is simple, ask yourself this, “Has the virus subsided in your community?” If not, you can’t open. Has it subsided anywhere in the U.S.? Not really. Therefore schools can’t open.

Next.

Beyonce. Watched her `movie,’ “Black is King.” I put movie in quotes because it’s not a movie in the classic sense of having a storyline or plot. It’s really an extended video and photo shoot with some hints at cliched story plot points. I’m not saying it’s bad, or that it is good. I watched the whole thing. I waited for something to conclude or happen, but it never did. The sets were gorgeous and they – surprisingly – featured Beyonce. I gotta say this, it takes a heck of an ego to engage that many people in a project that features “moi” with no real purpose other than showing themself off. Some might argue that there was a plot and I agree there were hints. There was the baby in the basket floating down the river. There was the humanization of the Lion King story in various references. There were the scenes of the young boy having to choose between the evils of something or other and another door. There was the nouveau riche guy in his Rolls. There were lots of things like that. Did they go anywhere? Not really. It was gorgeous. It was musical, but limited. Nothing really stood out musically. They were all sort of the same, and in the limited range Beyonce can sing in. Not good, not bad, just sort of there. 

What else. Oh yeah, a hurricane. No, a tropical storm. Five miles an hour short of a category one hurricane. Fast moving and unpronounceable Isaiasaisaisiaias – or something like that. It moved through here in a couple of hours or less. Going 28 miles an hour, headed up the interior coast line. Due to die out in Canada.

So, here we are, six – seven months into this pandemic and still no plan from the Federal government. We are still talking about a country wide mask order. Still talking about using the Federal government’s power to get manufacturers to make PPE and testing kits. Yet, nothing. 

You know what we should do? Force a double impeachment. Throw Trump and Pence out. Nancy Pelosi becomes President. She appoints Andrew Cuomo to clean up the virus. He shuts down the country for four to six weeks. Congress gives people money to survive, and the whole thing is over – done – by election day. Simple. Schools open in November. Broadway opens by Christmas. 

I pray that these toadies who have supported the president and these foolish and stupid ideas about government and economics and health are all booted out of office.

Moving on, again. I have a VP pick for Joe Biden, and it isn’t a woman.

Wait for it …

Okay, I’m not going to outright tell you you have to figure it out in this word scramble. Fun, huh?

Ra Ma Ba Ab Ok C

There you have it.

My pick.

89 Days until the election on November 3^rd

169 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Dragon landing off Pensacola, Florida.

Sunday August 2, 2020

91 Days until the election on November 3^rd

171 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Well, well, well, what can I say?

I remember reading about a chess master in the 19^th century who during one match jumped onto his chair, pointed at his opponent and yelled, “Why do I have to play this idiot?”

I was watching the exchange between Jim Jordan and Anthony Fauci. Jordan was doing what he always does in these situations – being a bully, or being an idiot. Maybe, both. Jordan was trying to get Fauci to say that the government should intervene on the protests to stop the spread of the corona virus. This went on for most of Jordan’s five minutes of questioning. So, either Jordan is stupid or he’s a bully. Fauci repeatedly said that wasn’t his call. What he did was to advise: avoid crowds; wear a mask was his advice.  He repeatedly told Mr. Jordan that it was not his call as to what gatherings should be allowed and which not. This was either too hard for Mr. Jordan to understand or he was being a bully.

In other stuff I got a meme showing on a horizontal split picture Bill Gates and below him the people in the white lab coats that were in the ad saying don’t wear masks and screw social distancing. The meme showed bullet points near Bill’s picture. Things like: “never graduated from college,” “has no epidemiological experience,” etc. Then there were paragraphs saying who the folks in the picture were and what their medical experience and degrees were. The question posed was basically, “Who are you going to believe?”

Bill – obviously.

(Just to be clear, the points the meme didn’t mention was that Bill founded one of the most successful companies of all time. Has been the richest man in the world. Wiped out via his organization one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Warned us via a TED talk in 2015 that a pandemic like we are experiencing was possible and that we should prepare. Likes to read unpublished PhD thesis while on vacation.)

Next.

Well, then there’s Louie Gohmert who said he can’t help but think that maybe he got the corona virus from wearing a mask. It’s good to know that Louie thinks. 

Hopefully, he and his Republican members of Congress will get together for a big party to “Stand Up to the Virus.”

I think Jim Jordan and Louie Gohmert should ask Herman Cane what he thinks about the virus and whether he should have attended Trump’s rally in Tulsa massless. Oh snap, he’s dead. From the virus. Came down with it shortly after Tulsa. Good thing Trump had everyone sign those “Don’t sue me” forms, eh?

Dragon lands in half an hour. Perseverance took off earlier this week. At least there are some things this administration hasn’t screwed up. 

91 Days until the election on November 3^rd

171 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Dragon SpaceX leaving the International Space Station