Day 749

Day 749 Friday January 25, 2019   844 Days to Go

Defiantly, my countdown count is wrong. I must look at that, but other stuff awaits and must be dealt with.

Let us start with a raft of political insanity and intrigue. Why is the shutdown going on for so long and what is the long term danger? The biggest problem of the shutdown long term is the thought that this is normal, and that our institutions can survive. The Romans thought the same of the Republic until it was gone. I spoke with a fellow last year whose grandparents grew up in Germany in the 1930s. “They all knew Hitler was crazy, but by the time they were ready to act it was too late,” is what he said about that.

While I was growing up Franco ruled Spain. A cruel and despotic man, he ruled with a iron fist. He won the position via the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Fascism was quite popular at the time and Franco was a Fascist, as was Mussolini in Italy and Peron in Argentina. It was said of Mussolini “that he made the trains run on time.” Things were bad in Italy and Mussolini did help to fix some of those problems. The idea of a strong man that would come in and clean things up is appealing. The pitch being that once done they would return power to the people. The problem is, as Frodo learned in Lord of The Rings, power is intoxicating. Once you have it you are loath to give it up, and in most cases it must be ripped from your hands. We can look no further than Susan Collins. A woman who said she would serve one term in the U.S. Senate. She is now on term number 3.

Franco was aided and abetted by the very rich in this country, notably by the Koch brothers’ father and by Texaco. Texaco used its considerable resources to provide not only oil and gas to Franco but also intel via its world wide connections. While Hemingway and others fought to free the people of Spain the rich were backing their man. Franco also got help from Hitler who wanted to try his Blitzkrieg tactics out. Hitler’s Luffwaffe, his air force,  wanted to try their tactic of quickly hitting a target. Franco was having problems with the Basque people and therefore their cultural capital of Guernica was chosen for this experiment. Early one morning heavy bombers appeared on the horizon and began a systematic bombing of the town. It had no strategic significance. As women and children ran from the market places they were machine gunned in the back with 50 caliber bullets.  

50 caliber bullets are roughly half an inch in diameter and the cartridge varies in length but a small 5o caliber bullet is about the height of a dollar bill, but the usual one we see is almost twice that height. These bullets can pierce battle hardened steel plate 3/4 of an inch thick at 100 yards. In a human body they tend to tumble blowing an exit hole over six inches in diameter. That was what was used on the population of Guernica for three days.

So horrible was this atrocity that both Hitler and Franco denied that it happened or that they were involved. The truth did not come out until the 1960s.

Pablo Picasso painted his most famous work to memorialize the event and gave the painting to the people of Spain. It was not to be returned to Spain until after the death of Franco. I saw the painting as a freshman history of art student in 1970 as it hung in The Metropolitan Museum of Art awaiting Franco’s death. There is a series of photographs showing Picasso’s thoughts and experiments as the painting progressed. The painting is now in the Prado.

Realize that the people who backed Franco are the parents of the people of the rich far right, not only in this country, but around the world. 

The people of Rome thought the Republic would never fail, because for them at the time – it had always been there. Democracies in history have a very short time span. Empires and dictatorships last far longer – on average. In fact, many historians consider democracies periods of transition. Two to three hundred years is typically the length of time a democracy survives. It often gives way to either revolution or tyranny, which leads to a strongman taking power, which leads to despotism.

Our country is unique in that it has been a democracy for as long as it has and that it’s founding principles are still in tact, but they are under assault from the same sort of forces the besieged Europe and Latin America in the 1930s. After World War II a military alliance was formed to stop the fighting in Europe, and it has worked. NATO has kept the peace in Europe. There is also an economic alliance that has formed, which hasn’t worked as well, but is better for Europe than the alternative, which would be a bunch of smaller economies all fighting amongst themselves. Britain is being torn apart by a vote to leave this economic union based on some people’s feelings that they didn’t want people outside of Britain telling them what to do, and by the Russians and the very rich fascists who saw profit in divvying up the country and Europe. These are the same fascists who were at work in the 1930s promoting racial and religious hatred and national identity as loyalty. 

There are a series of things that I have witnessed recently that show the changing resistance to these people that influenced our 2016 election and who have been controlling parts of our political and economic structures and institutions. One is their total cluelessness and lack of compassion. They are now being called out more vehemently by not only the people but by other politicians. Their is mounting evidence that Trump is a tool of the Russian government. The interesting question I heard yesterday was, “If Trump is not acting like a tool of the Russians and being complicit in aiding their agenda then what would a person who is conspiring with them look like?” The point being that even if you believe Trump is not a tool of the Russians it is hard to see any daylight between his actions and those of a person who is.

Trump is now not only being called a liar but a traitor by the people and by elected officials. The fact that so many Republicans in elected office are going along with him how corrupt they are. 

Then there is the total tone deafness of these people:

Wilbur Ross, the friggin’ Secretary of Commerce, doesn’t understand why people can’t miss a few paychecks because all they need to do is to go to the bank and get a bridge loan.

Donald Trump who thinks if you don’t have money for food that you can go to “local people” and “work something out.” This is being interpreted that he believes that the grocery stores will give you food if you can’t afford it. After I guess showing your picture ID because he also believes you need to show your driver’s license to get cereal.

Then there’s Ted Cruz who now is sporting a beard that makes him look like Colonel Mustard from the game of Clue. He was on the Senate floor yesterday saying some slimy thing, “if only my Democratic colleagues would …” It was too much for Senator Benett from Colorado. Benett a mild mannered and quiet man rose to speak, he forgot his microphone, which usually tethers you to stay close to your desk, but he didn’t need it. He reminded Mr. Cruz that the last time Cruz shut down the government in 2013 his state of Colorado was underwater and people lost their lives, their homes, and their businesses. Those people never recovered. And why are we shut down now asked Benett? Because the president made a campaign promise that he can’t keep. It has come to this he said. 

So Mr. Green Eggs and Ham whatcha gonna do?

Lest we forget since the Tea Party candidates and the Freedom Caucus have ridden into power on a platform of fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism they have added almost one trillion dollars a year to the national debt.

What is the president doing? Apparently, not much. According to those who follow his daily schedule he arrives at the office on a good day at 10:30, but usually it’s 11:00 am or later. He then has “Executive Time,” which means he watches TV and tweets. Some days his schedule has “lunch with the Vice President,” and that’s it.

The House Oversight Committee is now wanting some answers. Imagine that?

Let’s take a look at some of them:

Why or how did Jared Kushner get a security clearance?

Why did he have to amend his financial disclosure form forty times? That’s right – FORTY TIMES!

And he still wasn’t cleared. Yet he got a clearance.

What about the other 150 people in the White House that couldn’t get permanent clearances after a year and a half?

What was John Bolton doing giving commendation to Martina Butina’s Russian phony gun rights group while representing the NRA?

Then there’s the four soldiers killed in Syria this past week as Mike Pence was saying ISIS in Syria is defeated and it’s time to come home. Really? Yet here four soldiers were killed and ISIS claims responsibility. Seems to me that when four diplomats were killed in Libya you and your party had a much different reaction.

Then there’s Fox News reaction to the news of the four soldiers killed, which was none for a long while. As all the other major news organizations were reporting on this event Fox News was silent. Finally, hours after the attack they ran a small bullet item, lower right corner, saying that some politician was reacting to the attack. This in sharp contrast to what they did about Benghazi, where they ran story after story attacking Hillary Clinton. 

Come to think of it, all the major news papers ran stories about her being weak and having bad hair, etc. 

Well, in fairness, those newspapers did say Trump had bad hair, but they didn’t call him weak. Now the White House has professional airbrushers and photoshppers touching up the pres, sliming him down and taking away a few wrinkles, stretching his pointing finger a bit. It has come to this.

Oh, and then there are the people who attacked Nancy Pelosi. Now the news is saying she’s tough and Trump tired to intimidate her and couldn’t. 

Let me tell you something about Nancy Pelosi. She grew up in Baltimore. She is a D’Assandro from Little Italy in Baltimore. Her dad was mayor of Baltimore as was her brother. She grew up in a house where people came all the time looking for help. It’s a political family of the old school type. 

Little Italy in Baltimore? Lemme tell you about Little Italy. There was a parking lot there that said no parking except for people patronizing a certain restaurant. A guy parked his car there when the restaurant was closed while he ran an errand. He came back to find a tow truck had hooked his car. Turns out there’s an old guy who watched that lot constantly. If you screwed up by doing something stupid in your car you’d find someone chasing you down the street banging on your car, “Hey you! Get outta the car!”

Yeah, that’s where Nancy grew up. Intimidation? Please. 

When I was working at the Western Electric factory in Baltimore the story circulating around the plant about Little Italy was that three guys tried to rob on of the restaurants. By the time the police got there the crowd had gathered and they were throwing ropes over tree limbs to hang the fellows. They told the police to come back in an hour and they’d tell them where the bodies were.

Yeah, Trump is going to intimidate Nancy Pelosi?

Please.

“Hey You! Get Outta that house. We need to talk!”

Nancy own kids, what do they say? It’s something like “she will fillet you and you won’t even know it.”

Someone asked her about the wall. Very quietly she said, “I don’t want a wall. I don’t want a wall” ( a little bit quieter now) “I don’t want a wall.” (Got it?)

She was asked about Trump statement about a down payment on the wall and what did she think about that?

“I don’t know what he’s talking about and I don’t think he does either.”

Got it?

Come back in a little while and you can find the hung filleted bodies.

You think New York real estate developers are tough? You think punks like Michael Cohen are tough? Fugget about it. Hey, I know a great place to get a cannoli. 

 844 Days to Go

PS Guernica and Roger

PPS Breaking News! Roger Stone just demoted to coffee boy. This after Federal indictments in the Mueller probe. Seven counts: 5 false statements, 1 obstruction, 1 witness tampering. It is being said that if this doesn’t persuade Roger to cooperate they will “back up the dump truck and unload” on him.