Archives for March 2021

Wednesday March 10, 2021

Much of what I will tell you was gleaned from two cable shows last night: Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell. The implications are mine.

It seems old Donald aka Satan, might be busy for the rest of his life either in court or in jail. If he goes to jail I certainly hope we impeach him, convict him, and strip him of his Secret Service privileges. 

Here’s the deal. In Georgia, where Satan may be looking at crimes of election fraud and RICO, the woman bringing the charges is experienced in RICO cases and has a three decade reputation of bringing such cases and getting convictions. She has assisting her the man who literally wrote the book on RICO. Also, she has the man who literally wrote the book on evidence in the courtroom in Georgia. She don’t play. You goin’ down. (I hope. I hope. I hope.)

In Washington DC Representative Eric Swallwell has brought a case against four people in connection with the January 6^th Insurrection: Donal Trump, Donald Trumo Jr., Representative Mo Brooks, and Rudy Giuliani. The case has nine counts: 2 Federal, 7 DC law. They center around violation of the Constitution and negligence. This is the second such case to be brought agains Trump et al and there is no reason to believe that there won’t be more, many more, like from every member of Congress and every rioter who says they were doing it because the president told them to do so.

According to Lawrence Tribe, Constitutional scholar, and professor to many in the Congress, the case is “tight” and won’t be thrown out on legal ground technicalities. Every charge can be easy substantiated, and if this is to be believed (and if I understood what was being said last night) this one case could bankrupt The Donald. 

Aw. Too bad.

In New York, more properties owned by Satan are being looked at by the authorities for fraud. 

So let’s add it all up: RICO carries typically 20 years, that would put DJT at 94 if he started serving today. The one DC case could bankrupt him, and then there the fraud cases in NY. I’m figuring he’s a flight risk. But if he doesn’t flee he’ll be broke and in jail. Hopefully, by the 2024 Presidential election.

Moving on to the threat to our democracy. Iowa has just passed a law making it a felony for the Secretary of State in Iowa to do what was done in the last election. That is have people vote the way they did in the last election. Why? Because it was so successful. Yes, that’s correct. Because it was so successful. The law cuts back on early voting, voting in person, and absentee voting. All very successful. 

This is one law of over 200 that Republican state legislatures are trying to rein in voting, because they realize that if we have free and fair elections they will lose.

Simple.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln?

Oh, well, hum. Today should see the largest financial package since FDR get passed. It will pull half the kids in this country out of poverty, improve health care for the really poor, get money to schools to reopen, and get funds to local governments to help with the vaccine rollout. This will probably pass the House with little or no support from Republicans. See, the Republicans have a plan, another plan, a really good plan, no has seen it yet. In fact, it’s not written down. Yeah, writing isn’t a Republican thing. Except when it comes to laws to stop voting and or give money to their rich donors.

Saw something the other day that said if you saved $10,000 a day every day since the time of Christ (or was it the Old Kingdom in Egypt?) you still would be way short of the amount of money that Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man has. 

PS Hopefully, this will not need an update.

Tuesday March 9, 2021

I was in Hawaii when the Challenger Commission was meeting. Due to the five hour time difference I would be getting up and shaving at the time the Commission was beginning their afternoon sessions. 

We were staying in a crappy quadraplex that billed itself as a “beach cabana.” You could see the beach across a stream and viewed through the beach shelter that could be rented by groups wanting to have parties late into the night. There was a TV in the place. It got one station and that was CNN.

When I got up I’d turn on the hearings and I’d begin my morning ablutions. I still remember it. There was a Morton-Thiokol engineer who was beginning his testimony. Morton-Thiokol was the company that made the engines for the Space Shuttle that had the O-rings that failed.

Sam Ervin was presiding. I remember because he had big bushy eyebrows. 

The engineer said, “I told them not to launch.”

Sam’s eyebrows went nuts. In his slow souther drawl he said, “Excuse me (son). What did you say?”

“I told them not to launch.”

His eyebrows went nuts again.

The engineer then went on to explain that he knew that the O-rings did not perform well in cold weather. He had been asked for specific numbers and he said he didn’t have them because his funding to do the testing had been taken away. (Actually, he said, “because you took away my funding.”) He did say that he knew the colder it got “the farther away from goodness” the O-rings got.

He was pressed on the point as to why he didn’t do more to stop the launch. He responded, “I did everything I could except (or was it “short of”?) standing on the table and telling them not to launch.”

He said the NASA folks weren’t listening.

Yesterday, the last of the three Morton-Thiokol engineers died. His story was different and he didn’t look like the fellow I remembered testifying. Then I discovered a bigger problem. Sam Ervin died the year before the Challenger blew up. So who had I seen on TV?

This led me to investigate the dates of the hearing, when the Challenger blew up, and who was on the commission with bushy eye brows. I also knew that when I was in Hawaii I saw Haley’s Comet. I could then at least get a fix as to when I must have been in Hawaii (Feb-March ’86). Finally, I found the CNN video of the testimony (5 hours worth). The engineer I remembered was testifying. I haven’t found the specific piece I remembered but I did hear him say “away from goodness.” I’ll have to rewind to the beginning. Maybe they didn’t get his start in this video?

The fellow who most recently died was this fellow’s boss, and he as the head of the engine team would not sign off on the oaky to launch and was over-ruled by management. In the testimony I listened to from back then the engineer said no one in the room at the time was in favor of launching. In the obituary of the boss, he said he was in the gallery when someone was testifying and in his opinion was lying and he spoke out – from the gallery – and was asked to come down and testify.

The mind is a funny thing. What it remembers and how it remembers. As many a cop show has taught me – eye witnesses can be lousy.

More on this later.

Now, moving on to Andrew Cuomo. He’s not resigning and I agree with that. What I have heard so far is that he made women feel uncomfortable and his actions were inappropriate, but do the rise to the level of inappropriateness such that he such not serve as governor? I haven’t heard anything that makes me think so. Has he learned his lesson? Could he seek counseling? As in “Look, you can’t go up to a woman who works for you and say …”? I think so. 

This is not the level of stuff Harvey Weinstein or Bill O’Reilly or Brett Kavanaugh did.

Let’s wait and see.

Now what? Hum. Okay, the filibuster. Some are suggesting that the minority of the Senate, that wants the filibuster be made to actually filibuster. Wow. What an idea! Actually do the thing they claim to want to keep. There’s also the idea of making the minority have to keep 40 or 41 Senators in the chamber if they want to filibuster. I like it. Let’s do it.

Speaking of the Senate chamber. Ted Cruz and another one got up and lied about the Covid Relief bill. He was immediately called out about it by Dick Durbin. It was an obvious lie dealing with whether undocumented workers would get relief money. It is right in the bill that they can’t. Plus, you need a Social Security number to get paid and if you are undocumented you don’t have a Social Security number. Some say Cruz knows this but was playing for a sound bite on Fox News. I disagree. I haven’t seen any evidence that Cruz is that smart*. BTW His debating society at Princeton has stripped him of his honors. 

*He is not smart enough to either to know what’s in the bill or to make a play to get on Fox News. I mean, come on, this is a guy who tried to make a joke about Cancun and Orlando. It fell flat. Duh. Idiot.

Lastly, we are now up to 2.9 million vaccinations a day. Ten percent of the population is completely vaccinated and 20% have had one shot. At three million vaccinations a day we can do 100 million in 33-34 days which means in two and a half or three months everyone in this country could be vaccinated. 

Good news.

But the Republicans are doing what they can to screw it up, taking the side of the virus in Texas, Mississipi, and Wyoming. The governors in those states have dropped all the Covid protcols.

When the CDC Director was asked about that last night she was very politic. She said the governors have to do what they think is right for their states. She said the next two months are critical to get this pandemic under control before it can mutate some more. She said that is why they are keeping the mask mandate in place, and she said she doesn’t listen to her governor in terms of wearing a mask but rather she does it to keep herself and her family and others safe.

Your choice America. Side with the virus and the Republicans, or side with science and your loved ones.

PS Maine

Day 48 – Where are we?

Monday March 8, 2021

Bill Kristol wrote in the Bulwark that the Republican party staged a coup. It failed and is now claiming therefore that the current administration is illegitimate and is therefore bracing for another insurrection.

I’m paraphrasing and maybe I got it a bit off but that’s the gist of it.

I read recently that due to the rural states voting Republican regardless of the facts or consequences and given that Republican lawmakers make no bones about trying to rig elections in their favor they hold an enormous structural advantage in this country and therefore a minority* can either stop the functioning of this government or when I power advance their agenda which is a mixed bag of white supremacy, enrich the rich, and tilt the power more in their favor. 

• by about forty million

Part of Mitch McConnell’s strategy is to be against change, the reason being that people inherently don’t like change. Therefore, doing nothing is preferable to doing something. 

The chance of this changing much is not likely.

I keep hoping that a letter writing campaign to the local papers in those states would do something, but what good would that do when in many local areas, most in fact, the TV, radio, and cable outlets are owned by very conservative media corporations that hide their agenda in the news and shows they put out for folks to ingest? 

It’s not a pretty picture. What I am seeing and hearing aligns with what George Orwell wrote in his book 1984. Truth is what “they” say it is. Facts be damned.

I was thinking this morning that if I ever have the grand Thanksgiving Day discussion with someone who espouses these “conservative” opinions that I should not try to defend truth and argue logic but rather I should seize the low ground, plant a flag, and defend it.

“You know that on January 6^th those weren’t Trump supporters but antifa dressed up in Trump gear.”

“It was mostly a peaceful protest with a few bad apples.”

“When Trump returns at the next insurrection it will be the sign of the beast and we will all be taken to heaven during the apocalypse.”

Maybe that last one I got a little twisted? I dunno. I’ll have to practice saying this calmly with a straight face.

But hey, why not? 

Nothing else has worked.

Maybe go on with:

“You know I think we should all be armed 24/7, just in case. Can you imagine that they don’t let people take an AK-47 onto the floor of the Capitol? What’s wrong with people? I mean you have to be able to defend yourself.”

Ah me.

PS Ya Gotta Believe! ( So I have to ask, “Why would you entitle a book ‘Unbridled Faith’ and then show on the cover a horse that is bridled?” )

Sunday March 7, 2021

“The ability to act or speak gracefully in social situations.”

Is how the dictionary defines the term.

It’s from the French. The first word is “To know,” the second “to make.”

But that second verb is odd, in that I don’t think we in English really catch the meaning of the French because it shows up in odd idiomatic expressions. The French do not say, “It is hot” or “It is cold.” They say, “Il fait chaud,” or “Il fait froid.” “It makes hot” or “it makes cold” is how it would literally be translated. My favorite is the expression “Les jeux sont fait.” “The games are made” but translated as “The bets are placed.” It is what a croupiere would say in Monte Carlo before placing the steel ball in the roulette wheel.

Savoir Faire – we are missing that so much in today’s society. If we can call it society. I’m not talking because of the pandemic and social distancing. I am talking about how we interact with each other day to day. Civility, kindness, and understanding seem to have disappeared and has been replaced by the crude, the banal, and the unenlightened.

My parents used to use the term “doesn’t know any better,” as in he or she doesn’t know any better, and therefore should not be judged so harshly by those who do. It can be argued that is an aloof position, condescending even, but wouldn’t we be better off with a little more kindness and understanding?

But what of those who know better and do whatever transgression anyway? 

What of the politician who says things they have to know are false but thinks they have to say it because that’s what people want to hear? What of the politician who doesn’t know any better? Or the person on line? Or the next door neighbor? Or a relative? 

This was brought sadly to my attention once again by a Netflix special Michelle Buteau’s “Welcome to Buteaupia.” We had seen her in the movie “Always Be My Maybe.” I remember we thought she was funny. This show? Well, there were moments where it was close, but overall no. Part of a comedic stand up routine can be to talk about things that are familiar to the audience that most people don’t talk about in public. If this is humor Michelle was spot on. For me it was “unfortunate.” There were three things old Michelle wanted you to know about herself. She’s black, big (breasted at least), and from New Jersey. 

She played to the motifs of each. She’s light skinned enough to be considered otherwise. Not sure what, but like Meghan Markle. She talks about her ankles passing for white. Her breasts being so large she hasn’t seen her feet since seven, etc. But then she talked about sexual things. Oral sex and what you have to be comfortable doing with your spouse. It wasn’t uncomfortable as it was lacking in sophistication. So Jersey you might say. This was like a comedic version of Jersey Shore. The little bit of Jersey Shore I watched made me realize  that some people chose to live like that, which is their choice and that’s fine but I really don’t want any part of it.

It’s that they miss the point. The point of what life is all about. It’s not really supposed to be a soap opera drama. I guess that’s the same problem I have with “The Real Housewives” series. Kind of like the Hollywood sign. Looks great from a distance. Then you get up close and see the paint is faded and peeling.

Ah me. 

Moving on. The vote on the Covid Relief Bill split along party lines in the Senate. One of the Republican senators went home for a family emergency and wasn’t there to vote (Sullivan AK). The final vote was 50-49. Therefore Kamala didn’t have to break the tie.

Ron Johnson made sure to yell out “NO!” Okay, fine, but what ideas have any of these Republican senators advanced to save our country? I haven’t heard any of them suggest a single idea. Criticism? Yeah. Positive ideas? No.

Other than obstructing any progress I haven’t heard a peep. 

Then there’s the minimum wage idea. Why are so many opposed to it? The whole “it would hurt jobs” has been shown over and over to be bunk. Someone posted the point that if 25% of what you make should go to rent and if the average rent is $1400 a month then the minimum wage should be $35 an hour. Or to put it another way, at $7.25 an hour it would take 193 hours to earn $1400 and if you work forty hours a week for four weeks that’s 160 hours, you would be 33 hours short on rent every month. That’s without food, taxes, or anything else.

I hope that if this minimum wage thing comes up it gets tied to some economic yardstick.

And Texas? OMG. The utility manager won’t change the $16,000,000,000.00 in overcharges. Freedom! Don’t tread on me! Idiots.

PS Peas in a Pod bug (No, I made that name up.)

Saturday March 6, 2021

Joe Biden has done more in forty five days to help this country than the previous president did in four years. 

Now one of the previous administration’s men has been thrown in jail and he doesn’t like the cockroaches. Aw. Let’s play the “Don’t treat them too nice” tape from Satan, shall we?

It is fascinating how little regard they had for the imprisoned and the downtrodden when it wasn’t them. Now? Whoa. Imagine if Stephen Miller goes to the pokey? He, Miller, has been working behind the scenes to try and cause trouble. We’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Eric Swalwell has filed a suit under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan law against Trump, Mo Brooks and a few others. This is the second suit brought by a Congressman using this law. Mo Brooks responded by telling a crowd what a patriot he was and how Swalwell was a traitor for sleeping with a Chinese spy. Typical. There was a Chinese woman who worked on a lot of political campaigns, including Swalwell’s when he was running for political office ten years ago or so. She was from China. She was very pretty. The FBI became interested in her and she went back to China never to be heard from again. It’s not clear to me if she and Swalwell had a date or two or not, but so what? In fact, there is no evidence that they did, much less sleep together when he was single. But again, so what? That’s the best ya got Mo? Wanna see your tape? The one where you are at the microphone at the Jan 6^th Insurrection Rally?

Meanwhile there is overwhelming support for Biden’s Covid Relief bill among the people of this country. Doesn’t matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Independent or Don’t Care. Yet, the Republican senators are ready to vote against it and stall it. What other proof does one need that these people are not interested in helping this country?

They need to be pushed to the side. Shown the exit. Bye bye.

Let us hope that when some of them come up for re-election people haven’t forgotten.

This is the list of the 20 Republican seats up in 2022. Four have announced their retirement.

Republicans (20)

• Roy Blunt (Missouri)
• John Boozman (Arkansas)
• Richard Burr (North Carolina) Has announced he will retire at end of term.
• Mike Crapo (Idaho)
• Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
• John Hoeven (North Dakota)
• Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)
• John Kennedy (Louisiana)
• James Lankford (Oklahoma)
• Mike Lee (Utah)
• Jerry Moran (Kansas)
• Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
• Rand Paul (Kentucky)
• Rob Portman (Ohio) Has announced he will retire at end of term.
• Marco Rubio (Florida)
• Tim Scott (South Carolina)
• Richard Shelby (Alabama) Has announced he will retire at end of term.
• John Thune (South Dakota)
• Patrick Toomey (Pennsylvania) Has announced he will retire at end of term.
• Todd Young (Indiana)

Here’s what I find interesting about this list. I know most of the names on this list and associate them with something they have done which is egregious, stupid, or worse. None of them do I know to have done anything useful. Four are unknown to me. The rest? Good riddance. Someone worse may come in you say? Really? I think a write in campaign to the local news sources in their states would be something we could do. I’d love to see a giant billboard in each state on a huge interstate with a “Did you know?” kind of tag line on it. 

Like:

Did you know your Senator worked to deny you a $1,400 check to help you survive?

Did you know that your Senator is against your getting a pay raise?

Did you know your Senator doesn’t care if you get evicted?

PS Dennis Connor’s boat as modeled in a Cray XMP computer, 1987.