Rick Kinnaird

Day 833 Friday April 19, 2019

563 Days to the 2020 election and 641 Days to Inauguration Day

The president of the United States committed multiple crimes.

Of this there is no question.

The only question is what are we going to do about it?

Cut it., spin it, lie about it, do whatever you want, but the truth is the president of the United States committed multiple crimes.

In an act of war he conspired with the other side. There’s a term for that, let me think, what is it? Treason. Yeah, that’s it. Treason. Benedict Arnold was found guilty of treason for being in the same room with a man from the other side. Here we have a president who since becoming president has met secretly with the head man from the other side, has met with that man and not revealed anything of what he said, who has on many occasions taken that man’s position on various issues to the detriment of ourselves and our allies.

We were attacked by a foreign adversary and  the man who is now our president aided and abetted in that attack, along with some of his long time associates. 

His campaign chairman’s job before he became campaign chair was to help a Russian oligarch. How did he help him? By helping to install people that were friendly to said oligarch into positions of power in various foreign countries where this man had financial interests.

This chairman also shared polling data with this man via an intermediary. He specifically told the intermediary that the campaign needed help in four states to swing the election, and the Russians provided that help.

As to the president’s involvement there are 180 pages of criminal behavior and charges outlined in the Mueller Report. One hundred and eighty pages!

This does not include any of the stuff that is direct threats to national security in the form of counter intelligence stuff. That’s in a separate report we know nothing about. These one hundred and eighty pages does not include any of his financial crimes that’s all been referred out to various other prosecutorial groups. There are twelve or fourteen redacted other possible investigations that are prosecutable according to the redacted Mueller report.

This is just the broad brush of what we have learned from the redacted Mueller Report as it relates to the president.

In one of those legal jiu-jitsu type logic arguments the big one the Mueller Report makes is startling. Here we go. The Office of Legal Consul (OLC) wrote a memo saying you can’t indict a sitting president. Okay (but there seem to be some reasons you can, like if that president were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue.) 

Because you can’t indict a sitting president you shouldn’t even charge him with a crime. All you can do is say, “look at this criminal behavior.” 

What you could do, if the case warranted it, is to say the president is innocent of any crime.

This is not what the Mueller Report said. What it said was it could not exonerate him (the president) and – oh, by the way – here are 180 pages of crimes relating to my purview of “Did the Russians try to influence the 2016 campaign?” that I found. Maybe you folks in Congress should take a peek and decide if he should be impeached?

If Bill Clinton was brought up on charges relating to a defunct land deal that was not illegal and six blow jobs and lying about that, then what do you think about Donald Trump conspiring with a foreign adversary secretly and in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue?

The talk now is that Mueller is an institutionalist and he stuck to a very narrow definition of the law. Great. Meanwhile a bunch of yahoos led by a person who acts in every way possible like a crime boss is running our country into the ground.

The question some people are asking is why hasn’t this case against the president been investigated like you would a typical case against a crime boss? Why wasn’t he forced to testify under oath? Why weren’t his kids questioned? etc. etc. etc.

The redacted report from beginning to end is damning, and yet, here we are.

Some people are outraged that the Attorney General lied about the report. He lied on a key point. He said that the reason the president was not charged had nothing to do with the OLC memo. It had everything to do with it. It was the only reason the president was not charged by Mueller.

I wonder if William Barr can read. I wonder why he so desperately wanted the job of AG? Did he want to be back in the limelight? Did he want everyone to be reminded of his past misdeeds?

In the pantheon of shameful legal minds William Barr has elevated himself up there with Wu, the guy who said torture is okay because it’s not torture.

I’m trying to decide which analogy fits Trump better when it comes to criminal behavior:

Is he like Pigpen, the Peanuts character who is trailed by clouds of dirt and debris? But in the case of Donald it’s criminal behavior, legal suits both by him and against him.

Or is he more like a massive black hole, spinning at near light speed throwing off energy in huge waves and bands? Except with Donald it would be anyone coming close to him gets sucked in, torn apart, and throw out along with other debris in swaths of criminality, immorality, and unethical behavior.

It’s hard to say.

563 Days to the 2020 election and 641 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Yesterday I attained Number One status. I am so proud. (My order at McDonald’s was #1. Let that sink in. Yeah, baby. I’m back. #1 woot woot. I think I’m ready to declare myself a social influencer. Quick, I need to jump into the bathroom and take selfies of myself (Hey, isn’t that redundant? “selfies of myself”? I guess I’ll have to put it out there to my fans and favs and find out. Meanwhile, let me just mention that I’m wearing a black t-shirt that is oh so cute. Don’t you wish you could see it? Too bad. I’m not in the bathroom taking selfies, isn’t it? 

OMG! What is happening to me? Pogo – help me! What? You can’t? No one under 30, no 40, even knows who you are? …) )

Later.

Day 832

564 Days to the 2020 election and 642 Days to Inauguration Day

Statement by Mr. Bryce Holliwell, World Traveler and BFD.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

and all the rest of you.

It is with a semi-heavy heart that I announce the end of civilization as we know it.

That is why I have the phony backdrop of Paris behind me, because it was in France that civilization began and now ended.

As we await the press conference of Mr. William P. Barr to tell us some shit about a report that he won’t let us see, has now redacted, and is trying to pawn off to Congress as the real thing let me remind you that we’ve seen this before from Mr. Barr. Let me also remind you that he was the mastermind behind one of the greatest criminal conspiracy coverups in the history of the United States of America. With this latest venture into unlawfulness Mr. Barr has amassed by my count three strikes, which if this were a baseball game he’d be out.

But it is not baseball, it is civilization. I can only hope that if civilization is to end, that it should end much the way it found it’s mid-point, with The French Revolution and the guillotine. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last night we went to see and hear David Sedaris, a very funny man. I have to say the guy who was sitting directly behind me and thought it a good idea to hoot loudly at every cute thing Sedaris said at the beginning of the show was not as bad as the fellow who screamed into the microphone which in turn blasted it out of the speakers at my nephew’s soccer game earlier this week. I learned to cover my ears every time the other team scored a goal, because the announcement caused me to jump out of my skin every time. 

But I have unfortunately wandered off the path here…

Ah me. Where was I?

Oh yes, the end of civilization…

as we know it.

This of course raises the question of, “When did it all begin?”

That is civilization…

as we know it.

Not all civilization, just civilization as we know it.

But first let me say, before I forget again, the reason for this press conference, and I’d like to thank all of you who came, because I don’t think you are phony or the enemy of the people, I am by the way, one of those but not the other…

I’d also like to thank WDF for having me on.

That’s What Da – What Da – What Da Fuck?

Yes, where was I? Civilization, as we know it. It began in France. When Francis the first ask Leonardo to come live out his remaining years in an old folks home. Mr. Da Vinci did. Moving from Italy to France, where he died. Painting in France was transformed from flat crappy listless portraits to lush voluminous representations of reality. And France became the world’s leader in sophistication and taste.

Maybe not in all things practical, I mean you gotta wonder about building a place like Versailles and not having any toilets? Ah the French, you gotta love it.

We had warnings that civilization was ending. That art and culture was changing, but it took the burning of Notre Dame to symbolize and crystalize it for us.

My first thought when I heard the news was, “What? No fire suppression system?” Alas, no. Because why put one in? They hadn’t needed it in over 800 years? But now? Now we will shed tears and raise money to build anew. Maintain the old? Why bother? It’s been there forever, let someone else do that if they want to. 

“They don’t know what they’ve got til it’s gone…”

That should be a song lyric.

Oh, it is?

Damn, I’m good.

The end of civilization was thought to be when all out nuclear war happened, and it may still be the case, as was announced in Mad Magazine’s take off on The Daily News, which they called The Daily Dirt. In that parody, between the announcements of a starlet who got a bruise on her thigh while the apartment building was being robbed. (The robbers were in a different unit and she slipped in the shower and bruised herself.) and the announcement of 1,000 pieces of furniture for $9.99 (one toothpick box and 999 tooth picks) there was a small headline on the bottom of column six which said, “Nuclear War Declared.” At the bottom of that column it said, “Today Russia and the U.S. declared nuclear war,” It then went to the top of column seven and finished in small print, “which is the end of civilization as we know it.”

And that’s where we are right now.

Oh we saw the signs. We just ignored them.

In 1907 the art world was forever changed. Moving pictures came to Paris. The great artists who had gathered in Montematre realized that representation painting was dead because a new representational reality was upon them and they began the long journey looking for a new reality. 

That journey continues, with it’s many dead ends and false fronts.

Hand in hand with this journey are the manipulators and con men, or should I say “people”, con people. I wouldn’t want to leave anyone, like Sarah Sanders, out of the mix.

Yes the fore flushers and manipulators were there too. They were in a backroom scheming to start World War I so Britain could defeat Germany before it became too strong. Then again during the Spanish Civil War, which led to George Orwell’s writing of 1984. Then again after the Korean War with the founding of The John Birch Society and now with Fox News, Cambridge Analytica, and the vast right wing conspiracy so accurately identified by Hillary Clinton. 

Yes, they are still here among us. 

We will see yet another installment of heinousness dressed up in legalese and patriotism, but do not be deceived this is if not criminal, unpatriotic and not what are country is all about, or shouldn’t be. Not if we wish to remain the grand old gal.

I am giving this statement to get out in front of the phony narrative that will be advanced soon by Mr. Barr. He is giving a press conference about a report that no one has seen. He given a report like this before. To Congress, and the American people. It was about a memo he wrote telling that old bagman for Nixon, George H. W. Bush, that it was okay to send the FBI into a country to arrest someone without telling that country they were doing it. (Thus violating the rule of law known as The Charming Betsy – Ya gotta love that name – don’t ya?) He wrote a memo explaining the memo he had written earlier and now wouldn’t let anyone see. It turned out his ‘splainin’ was all a lie. So we know he’s a liar on this sort of thing. Of that there is no question.

He has no credibility. Yet he will try to sell it again. 

Remember he was also the guy who convinced H. W. Bush to pardon Ollie North and Cap Wineburger and the rest of the criminal involved in Iran-Contra on Bush’s last day in office.

This guy will do anything for – for what? Not love as Meatloaf sang. In fact Meatloaf said he’d do anything but he wouldn’t do that. 

Don’t worry Willie Barr will!

In fact, I’d like to announce the formation of a new effort and I’d invite Mr. Barr to be if not the head of it then the nominal head of it. “Judas, Inc.” With the slogan, “If you won’t sell us out, we will.”

Shekels? We won’t do it for Shekels. Heck we’ll do it, because that is what we do.

Ladies and Gentlemen in the next few hours we will see the end of civilization as we know it. 

Don’t ask God to save us.

Save yourself.

Save your fellow persons.

This has been Bryce Holliwell reporting speaking live from world headquarters.

564 Days to the 2020 election and 642 Days to Inauguration Day

 

PS Bryce Holliwell and the end of civilization as we know it.

Day 831 Wednesday April 17, 2019

565 Days to the 2020 election and 643 Days to Inauguration Day

I have shocking news. (NOT!)

William Barr is a liar. (FOR SURE.)

Proven, verifiable.

Yeah, I know. You’re shocked.

Want details? 

No? Too bad, you’re getting them.

Yeah, see it’s now come out that he’s lied before about stuff like this, and like Trump, he doesn’t even change his playbook. In fact, he’s using the same phrases that he used before, doing the same schtick that he did before.

“Oh you can’t see the report but I’ll give you my summary.”

His summary before was total BS. Is there any reason to believe this time is any different? (Answer: NO.)

Back when George H. W. Bush had just become president he had said he wished someone would go in and depose Noriega of Panama. He implied that the U.S. would help. (I have to wonder about all this because Noriega had been working for the CIA, which – like Sadam, who also had worked for the CIA – must have given him a false sense of security. Bush had been head of the CIA. In fact, the funniest sign in Washington for me is the one you see going south on the George Washington Parkway (that’s along the Potomac River, inside the beltway) “The George H. W. Bush Center for Intelligence.” I’ve thought a lot of things about the Bushs, but that ain’t one of the traits that comes to mind.)

Sorry, sidebar distraction, where was I? Oh yes, Noriega. So HW had been saying he wished the military in Panama would overthrow Noriega. They tried it. Got no help from the U.S. and they failed. Bush looked like an idiot. Then a few months later there was this story that the U.S. had come up with a change in policy that said they could go into another country and arrest someone who had done something criminal against U.S. law and that the foreign country didn’t have to be notified. You know, like if you wanted to arrest the head of a country on drug charges. You wouldn’t call him up and say, “Hey, bad boy, bad boy, don’t you know we’re coming for you.” (Should be a song lyric. It is? Damn, I’m good.) 

So that’s what Bush did. Who wrote the memo? Why Mr. Barr. 

Would he show said memo to anyone? No.

But…but, he would give a summary of its principle conclusions.

Hum, same wording he’s using now about the Mueller Report.

Turns out most of what he said in his summary was a lie. To be fair, he only lied about the big stuff and left out the most important details. You know stuff like “The memo is only about domestic law.” In fact, the memo was all about international law.

Okay, so Lawrence covered it night before last as news was breaking about it, and Rachel went into depth last night (4/16/19 show). They are both pointing to the same reporting by Ryan Goodman. It’s on a website called “justsecurity.com” Here’s the link to the article:

https://www.justsecurity.org/63635/barrs-playbook-he-misled-congress-when-omitting-parts-of-justice-dept-memo-in-1989/

It’s the same old crap. He’s pulling it again. Wasn’t once enough for Judas? Or are we at the Lucy and the football stage?

Okay, enough on that.

Pete Buttigieg. Very impressive. What I like about him is: he’s smart; he’s thought about stuff and knows what he wants to do*; he’s taking a long term view**.

* As opposed to Donald Trump, or Howard Shultz who are trying to pull the old “I’ll get really smart people and put them in a room” garbage. Or the other candidates, who seem to be still thinking about it or saying vanilla wishy washy stuff.

** By long term I mean he’s looking out to 2040 and 2050. Wow, a politician with a view longer than the next election.

Next. Bernie Sanders went on Fox News. Yeah. I wish more Dem candidates would do that. Apparently, when Bernie polled the audience about Medicare for All old Brent Baier was surprised that most of the audience liked the idea. Wow. I guess if more Dem candidates want to come on they probably won’t let them. I mean, why let reality seep in now? It would disturb their phony chi.

And lastly (unless I think of something else) dark matter may be fuzzy. It may be that it is made up of lots of super light stuff that doesn’t interact with light but has a gravitational pull. If this is true, then we have to look at a really wide field of stuff – like light years wide. They’ve looked. So far nothing. Maybe, it’s not really light stuff?

Notre Dame. It’s a shame. I wonder if this has spurred anyone else to ask about other churches and cathedrals, “Maybe we should raise money now for a fire suppression system?” That might be cheaper than rebuilding. Just saying. It comes back to that point I made about various entities (Constantinople, The Roman Republic, etc.) that people didn’t maintain, defend, and support them because “they had always been there” so they thought they always would be. Surprise.

In another weird (not so weird) twist of history. I always wonder, “when did a particular group realize allying themselves with one group against an enemy wasn’t such a good idea?” You know, like when did the indians with Cortez realize they were screwed?

Or how about not supporting your own team out of jealousy? My favorite example of that is Hannibal. He crossed the Alps came down on Rome. Defeated the Romans in battle, handing them the biggest defeat they had ever had. He sent word home to Carthage saying he needed supplies. Those back home were jealous of Hannibal and his family (who were very rich from their mines in Spain.) So they didn’t send any help. Not strong enough to take on the city of Rome directly, Hannibal wandered around what is now the Italy. Finally, the Romans got the upper hand, sacked and burned Carthage to the ground and put salt in the ground so nothing could grow there for a long time. 

But the Romans did the same stupid thing later on. They were being invaded by – I forget: Atila? Visigoths? Some group. There was a general who said, “Hey, we gotta defend ourselves. Help me.”

What did they do? They killed him. Then when the invading hordes showed up they said, “Oh my, I declare, what ever shall we do?” 

Good god. 

Help me.

Help your fellow man.

Meanwhile Canada ruled in favor of people over religion. Mike Huckabee says LGBTQ folks are the biggest threat to civilization, or some such. (Go back to playing the bass Mike.)

In a startling revelation I realize that black holes and Donald Trump have a lot in common. Both spin at very high speed, both suck in a lot of energy and give little back, both throw out huge swaths of streaming crap that has been torn to shreds. The big advantage of black holes is they are far away and you can’t see them.

And lastly, there are three commercials I really like. Two are the Google ads: the one with the two boys sitting on the edge of the bathtub with their faces covered in crayons or marker ink and a mother asking “Who thought this was a good idea?” and the older kid nods back to the younger one who covers his face with both hands. – love it.

Then there’s the Google ad that starts with all the chewed up stuff on the floor and the camera pans to a dog with his head leaning agains the side of a dresser and the off camera voice asks, “Did you eat all you doggie treats?”

Love both of those ads, but now I have another one. It’s an ad for an animated movie. Something about a friendly abominable snowman or some such. The ad has a loudmouth character saying to said A.S. “Throw me out of this hole” The fellow is thrown and reaches close to the top of the curved icy pit where he smacks into the wall, slides down, and is in a heap at the bottom of the wall. The friendly abominable snowman creature says in a chipper friendly voice, “That didn’t work so well. Let’s try again.”

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

565 Days to the 2020 election and 643 Days to Inauguration Day

 

PS A young Alex Kinnaird with Gary Gait, the best lacrosse player of his generation and perhaps all time. Gary had just given a stunning workshop and demonstration for the boys. Gary and his brother had perfected a come from behind the crease shot that involved jumping over the six foot radius circle (ie The Crease) rolling their body to face the goal and making an underhanded shot while then landing outside the restricted area.

PPS Alex is now a little taller (6’5″) with a little less hair.