Day 1208 – The Illusion of Progress
Sunday May 10, 2020
175 Days until the election on November 3rd
255 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
The software I use for posting these screeds updated its software. The result is that what I like, want, and need to get my screeds out is buried several clicks deeper. It took me three days of sitting, and not getting really pissed off, to figure out where they had hidden everything. (This is hunting to find what I want I now call, “Okay, you fuckers, where did you put it THIS time.*”)
* Like John Belushi on the Blues Brothers album where he’s singing Rubber Bisquit, “What did I do to piss you off this time?”
This is not a new phenomena. It happens all the time. I asked a friend about a company that does software IT tracking on a corporate wide basis. The company had been touted by Motley Fool. My friend wrote back that remember an earlier company that did the same sort of thing? Yeah, well that stuff sucked. It got bought out and the guys who got bought out founded the company Motley Fool likes. Their software sucks too, but not as bad as the earlier company.
I guess that’s progress. I’m always amazed at how some folks can get away with this level of horse shit, but there ya go.
I’ve got a Sony mini-cam. It has a side port. That port is a micro-cdmi port (or is it USB?) I wanted to attach my fancy lapel style microphone to the camera. Sony in its wisdom didn’t provide a microphone jack. Maybe, this side port could do that. As I dug deeper into the issue I could find no documentation as to what that port is used for. There is a cable that can be used to translate the sony mini-cam port into a microphone plug. Great. But the manual for my camera, which you have to go on-line to read, says specifically that the cable in question doesn’t work on my mini-cam. So I began to ask, “What is the purpose of that port?” I could find not explanation.
Is it some weird left over appendage from earlier designs?
I finally got wires and plugs to the point where I had the camera wired and plugged into my computer. I was please to see that then when I turned on the camera the LED screen on the camera showed what the camera was pointing at. I had to stop for a second to realize that this is how the camera is supposed to work. The cables and plugs did nothing.
Maybe if I find some software on my computer that accesses the USB port that the camera is plugged into …
The quest continues.
Okay, moving on. Donald Trump. What is Barr up to?
I got a glimpse of what is to come last night. I turned on the TV for a second. Frank Figliuzzi was on. He was the assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence team. He knows from what he speaks. He laid out in exacting detail what Barr has done and what we can expect from Trump. I don’t think I have to watch the news for the rest of the summer and fall except to stroke count the instances of what Frank said.
First he explained what Barr had done in finding a prosecutor to re-investigate the case against Michael Flynn. This was in and of itself stunning. Then the case was sloppily filed. They put the wrong case number or some such thing, which I didn’t totally understand, but Frank made clear that any competent lawyer would not make such a rookie mistake. Then we get to the meat of the case.
The dropping of charges, or whatever they call it, is based on the idea that what Flynn lied about and plead guilty to was immaterial. That is the lie wasn’t important. The example I heard elsewhere was if an FBI agent asked, “What did you have for breakfast?” and you said, “eggs,” when in fact you had cereal that’s a lie but it’s immaterial. Who cares what you had for breakfast?
In the case of Flynn, he lied about talking to the Russian Ambassador to the U.S.
Talking to the Ambassador is not a crime. Talking to him about foreign policy is. That is when you aren’t the government (but soon would be.) This is treason. Or borders on it. It is at a minimum – materially lying. So why lie about your discussion with the Russian Ambassador? Because you know you were committing a crime when you did it? I’d say so. Then the question is, “Who directed you to tell whatever it was you told the ambassador?” It had to have been Trump.
So Flynn lied to cover up the crime that he did at the behest of Trump, and the Attorney General is trying to say that this isn’t material.
Okay. Now we know the reason behind the crime and the crime. What’s next?
Next will be an all out assault on the rule of law, like this wan’t enough. It will be an attempt to undermine and discredit the Mueller Report and anyone associated with it. This will include: Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, Barrack Obama, and Joe Biden.
At the same time Barr was doing this the House Intelligence Committee released transcripts and evidence in their investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential campaign. The evidence shows that the Trump campaign and the Trump family knew very well what the Russians were doing. They encouraged it and the coordinated their messaging to be in line with it.
We now have to survive not only the pandemic, but this assault on our Constitution. All the while resisting the assault on our democracy by the right wing plutocrats.
Have a nice day. I’d be in the field, but this virus …
PS The big linga
Crime syndicate family. They do crime. Not always well.