Archives for March 2023

Thursday, March 23, 2023

I know. I know. There’s all the talk about will he be indicted and his supporters in Congress are twisting themselves in knots to say it’s nothing. I love the “it was a private payment, no campaign violation” and the “It’s a bookkeeping error” excuses. To which I say, “No, it was labeled as a business expense and for the purposes of hiding it during a campaign, which makes it also a campaign expense, and thus hiding such expense is illegal. If you think he’s being singled out, tell that to the 165 people charged with the same business expense error since the Manhattan DA took office. And it was for the purposes of hiding the truth from the voters. Remember John Edwards? Yeah, he got hit with the same campaign finance stuff for having a child via an affair that he paid to keep quiet during his election bid. I didn’t hear the sloughing off from Jim Jordan or Ted Cruz during that time.”

But, enough of that, I was thinking of something else and that is, “how would our world look different if a more traditional President had been elected in 2016?”

There are three things I can think of right off:

1. Covid would have been dealt with more effectively.

2. We wouldn’t be in so much debt and having a possible crisis over it.

3. Russia would not have invaded Ukraine.

Evidence:

To Point 1 – Biden had said as Covid was hitting that we shouldn’t depend on the Chinese accounts, but rather we should send people over there to find out for ourselves. We had a lab over in Wuhan that Obama set up. We had people on the ground. Trump not only shut that down but he then stuck his head in the ground and waved his hands saying Covid wouldn’t come to the U.S. and it would go away on its own.

Anyone who has looked at the history of pandemics knows that they don’t go away on their own. It takes hard work and good science to defeat them. There are numerous examples. The latest was Obama’s strong early actions to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. In the early 20th century a man died in New York City from a very infections disease. Typhoid? I forget. The head of the heath department realized that the only way to stop the spread of the disease was to get everyone in the city vaccinated, which he did, No small task, but there was no outbreak.

Point 2 – Trump piled on 25% of our national debt in his four years in office. Republicans always outspend Democrats and they do less to balance budgets and reign in spending than Democrats. Had a Democratic President been elected in 2016 our national debt would have been much lower for two reasons: Dems don’t spend as much and they don’t cut taxes like Republicans are fond of doing. This would have meant our economy would have been in better shape coming out of the 2016-2020 presidential term. 

Remember when W took office? Clinton left him a surplus of $265 Billion. Many said he could have used that to shore up Social Security and ending the possible shortfall looming, but instead he gave the money away.  This is the common Republican method of operation. They keep saying if they cut taxes (for the rich) that the economy will somehow magically get better, despite piles of evidence to the contrary. Remember Liz Truss? She was appointed British Prime Minister and put forth an economic plan for Britain that many of the right wing – sorry conservative – economic pundits hailed as terrific. She lasted 49 days. The main reason for her short tenure was her economic plan, which would have made a hash of the British economy. Even more than Brexit did.

Point 3 – If we had had a more traditional president in 2016 in the Oval Office who understood the danger of Putin (and this was clearly expressed by the other candidate) steps would have been taken to shore up Ukraine’s defenses years earlier. However, the man in the Oval Office groveled to the Russian President. We now know that during his campaign Trump had been scheming to build a tower in Russia, while lying about it on the campaign trail. When he got in office, his son-in-law tried to set up a back channel to Russia, and Trump held numerous meetings with Putin, which he tried to keep secret and to which there has never been an accounting as to what was discussed. Not only that, but right wing media beat the drum of lies about a secret server in Ukraine that somehow the Dems or Biden – someone – had used against the Republicans. Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate and all the President of Ukraine wanted was weapons from the U.S. to defend his country. Given those facts why wouldn’t Putin think he could invade Ukraine without interference?

And to those who say it’s none of our business Russia and Ukraine have been tied together for centuries. Well, yes it is our business as the fate of our foreign policy and democracy around the world depends on Ukraine staying free, and yes Russia and Ukraine have a history, not a pleasant one. Remember “Fiddler on the Roof”? That’s musical about the Czars instituting a plan to kill and kick out people from Ukraine, mainly its Jewish population. Before that it was Catherine the Great invading and subjugating the people there. And when Stalin took power he took all the grain from Ukraine and let millions of people starve. So, yeah, there is a history between the two countries. But if you’re a Ukrainian, it’s not pleasant.

BTW I was sure Trump wouldn’t be indicted last Tuesday for the simple reason that he predicted it, and I’ve never known that man to make a statement that didn’t contain a lie. QED he wouldn’t be indicted that day.

Enough. Get the cuffs.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

It’s been almost a month since I posted a screed. I’ve made several starts in that time, but something always happened. Something that distracted me. it seems the waves of arrogance and stupidity come so fast that it’s hard to say something before you are gagged with another wave.

The same themes keep resurfacing: dishonesty, deceit, arrogance, contempt, stupidity, racism, sexism, … you name it. It’s the same old garbage. Maybe, it’s in a new shiny bag, but most of the time it is not. The only thing that has changed is the gall of the liars. 

Such stuff has always dogged our country, but now it seems to be in a more virulent and widespread form. The thing is they aren’t trying to hide what they are doing. There is no shame. In fact, they like to commit their crimes in the open and then complain when they get caught that they are the victim and that the system is unfair. The sad thing is that they represent about 30% of the population and that percentage is located in sparsely populated states that give them a huge ability to effect things nationwide. I don’t see that situation changing or getting better.

Let’s take a quick gander at what’s been going on in this regard:

– The former Attorney General of Arizona had an investigation into election fraud. They spent 10,000 hours, looked into 638 claims and found nothing. They had issued an interim report claiming all kinds of stuff. The final report ran down every claim and found nothing. What did the former AG do? He buried the final report and ran on the disproved election fraud claims.

– The Dominion Voting Machines case against Fox has uncovered the text messages between various Fox on-air personalities (not sure what to call those people. They are not journalists, or news anchors. Entertainers? Maybe.) The off-air texts show they believed the people like Trump and his lawyers were crazy with their election fraud claims. But they continued on-air with the claims of election fraud. One of them was worried that if the truth got out it would hurt their stock price. There was also worry that if they didn’t feed their viewers this BS that those viewers might go elsewhere. They even got one reporter fired for having the temerity to chase down facts that disproved some of the claims they pushed.

– The head of Fox said under oath: Yeah, I could have done something about it, but I didn’t.

– Matt Gaetz, the Bevis of the House to Jim Jordan’s Butthead, has been in the news too. He wanted to bring a fellow into his committee meeting to lead the Pledge to the Flag. This was part of his “own the libs” campaign. He said, “It’s not like I’m brining in a murderer.” Then he brought in a murderer. Was he done? Oh no. He was also in the news when he tried to get a Pentagon official trapped with some damning evidence he had found. The Pentagon official asked him for his source. Gaetz told him. The official responded that there don’t take stuff from a Chinese propaganda outlet seriously. In other words, to be clear, a Congressman was actively pushing Chinese propaganda in a House committee meeting. What’s the defense for that? “I didn’t know?” “Yeah? So what?”

– The FBI release a report that the Covid virus could have come from a lab in Wuhan. They gave the report “low confidence.” Ah True Proof! Right? No. There is nothing new in terms of evidence. A scientist who actually knows something so stated. Not only that but the virus found in the Wuhan lab is very different than the one that ravaged the world. What do scientist say? “We may never know for certain.” Yeah. Okay. Hey, what if the previous President had sent people over to China when this first broke out? Like Biden suggested? What if Trump hadn’t shut down our team over there? What if Trump hadn’t sat his fat ass on his little hands and actually done something to find out instead of denying everything?

– And the latest? Veritas ousted James O’Keefe. if you haven’t seen John Oliver’s latest “Last Week Tonight” you are missing a treat. It turns out that O’Keefe has been mishandling money. A common problem in right wing circles. But before we go there let’s review Mr. O’Keefe’s CV.

He came to prominence by asking a group that helped poor people how he could claim money he earned as a pimp legitimately. He released a video showing the people answering his question. At the time he asked that question he was meek, unassuming, and dressed in a shirt and slacks. He then dressed up in huge sunglasses, a fur stole and outlandish clothes for the lead in to his video. It went viral on the right wing media and it succeeded in shutting down an organization that helped poor people.

This became his bread and butter MO. One time he got caught trying to tap the lines of a Senator. I never understood why he wasn’t thrown in jail for that. 

But now? Oh boy. Oliver dug up footage of O’Keefe starring in a diner theater performance of Oklahoma. For which he charged Veritas $20,000 or more. I guess to go there? I don’t know. That was one of the problem areas for the Veritas board. Then Oliver showed pieces of O’Keefe’s Las Vegas show that never made it to the Strip. If you watch Oliver’s show you’ll wonder why folks wouldn’t pony up money to see O’Keefe being set upon by FBI agents only to dance with them moments later, or the great choir scene where he looks upon his younger self. The choir with him then breaks into a sad attempt at in-sync rhythmic dancing. Well, it was neither, but that seems to be what they were attempting.

Back to the Dominion case. Because only Fox is listed in the case and it’s an organization and not a person there can not be damages for pain and suffering. Really? Let’s get Mitt Romney in here to explain that organizations are people too.

– Oh, and shockingly there’s another Republican in Congress who lied on his resume. He joins the George Santos club. It pretty flagrant stuff. No big deal. He forgot what his degree was in. See, he dropped out and then completed a degree via distance learning. He also didn’t go to Dartmouth and Vanderbilt as he claimed. How did that get in there? Simple mistake. Oh yeah, he isn’t really an economist as he claimed, but he was on a show with Arthur Laffer, who is still trying to get people to believe in his curve. Then there’s the law enforcement agent thing. See he’s a human trafficking expert. Oh wait. No he’s not. Just slipped in there somehow. It’s okay. You can still go on Fox. They don’t care.