Rick Kinnaird

Day 563 Sunday August 5, 2018 1,015 Days to Go

We were playing catch up on some of the shows we like to watch. Man oh man, a week in this environment is like a month or a year any other time. Trump throws out so much crap in a week that you forget the awful things he did and said the week before. Some people try to act like this is normal, but it’s not. Some folks are exhausted, I am told, don’t be. This is the time for vigilance and activism.

Last week was what? What was going on?
Helsinki has happened the week before, and Trump was dealing with the fallout. He looked weak in Helsinki, and he was.
I watched Bill Maher’s show from that week. Wow, how much you forget. He had on Malcolm Nance, who bills himself as a terrorism expert (he was a linguist in the intelligence community and was not then nor is he now held in high regard by those folks – just a word of caution.) As far as rigging an election, in this country it would be pretty easy to hack the voting machines, as has been demonstrated by various hacking conventions having contests to do it. (45 to 90 minutes is the usual time. Ninety minutes is required if you want the voting machine to play a song.) However, Nance said the easier place to do it would be at the district level where someone has a laptop and is tabulating the votes. Get into their machine and change the vote totals.
Then Bill had his panel, one member of which was Steve Schmidt, the former Republican and GOP strategist. He said there are five points to consider when looking at what is going on:
1. – Mass rallies to incite fervor, and where the people are lied to.
2. – Make victimization honorable. The people are told they are victims. They are all victims.
(Chris Rock and David Chappelle have had a field day with this one.)
3. – Allegations of Conspiracy. The Deep State. The hidden nefarious movements that only the leader can see.
Meanwhile, there are real nefarious organizations such as the Klan, the American Nazies, etc.
At Trump rallies there are now people wearing Q tee shirts and displaying Q signs.
Apparently, the far right is pushing an idea that the world is being run by a ring of child molesters and they are referred to as Q.
4 – The scapegoating of minority populations and of the most vulnerable among us.
5 – The need for the president to exercise extraordinary powers. Powers no other president has ever had.
(If this isn’t right out of Hitler’s playbook, I don’t know what is.)

Steve went on to say that this assault on truth, on objective reality, if and when people surrender their sovereignty (as over 30% of our population has done) then whatever the leader says is true, they believe to be true. Even then the truth is staring them in the face. When this happens we no longer have a democratic society.

The other guests on the panel pointed out several other things:
– Remember Sarah Palin complaining about “The Lame Street Media”?
– or Newt Gingrich bitching about the media in the South Carolina primary where he did very well by attacking the news organizations?
– Charles Blow, a NYT journalist, pointed out that this is who and what the Republican Party is and always has been. They, the Republican Party, had thought they could control this monster. That they could keep it in the attic and only have it come out on election day. To feed it scraps, and everything would be okay. Trump has let the monster out of the closet and it has devoured the party.

Bill played a clip of a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who, after Helsinki, said he was embarrassed. He said, “Do you stand for democracy or do you stand with that ganster in Moscow?”

There’s the question.

But it didn’t end there. Nancy MacLean was the final guest. I’ve written about her and her book “Democracy in Chains.” She pointed out that you have to look at the long game the Koch brothers are playing. Why she asked are the Kochs saying they’ll back other candidates? Why are they being docile? Because they are close to getting their hand picked nominee on the Supreme Court.
They are angling for a constitutional convention where they want to radically change our constitution. How close are they? They’ve got 30 states locked up. Bill pointed out that by 2040 eight states will have 50% of the population and 16 states will have 70%. That will mean 30% of the population will control 68 senators. The Kochs are headquartered in Kansas. There’s a reason for that. They can control the state, a very weird state.
MacLean went on to explain the radical agenda of the Kochs. They want to change our constitution. They have ten “Liberty Amendments” queued up. These amendments would transform our country from a democracy to an authoritarian regime that the legislators would not be able to change. Don’t believe me? Look at Chile, the folks the Kochs like, the ones that gave them these ideas, and the Kochs weaponized went down to Chile when Pinochet was in power and helped him push through a radical constitution. When a new leader came to power, she promised sweeping changes, only to learn once in power that most of the changes couldn’t happen until they could change their constitution.
What are some of these amendments the Kochs like?
– A balanced budget. Lots of folks think this is a good idea. It’s not. Why? In the study of economics you learn that an economy goes through cycles of boom and bust unless it is controlled. How do you control it? The government pumps money into the economy or takes money out of the economy. They do this by varying the interest rate on treasury notes. They also can spend money. Franklin Roosevelt spent a lot of money to help our country pull out of the Great Depression. He also spent more money to fight WWII. If there was a balanced budget amendment the government would not be able to do those things. Not only that but things like Medicare and Social Security as we know it would end. Why? The Republicans, starting with Reagan have been raiding the Social Security Fund (and the Highway Fund) so that the money in there are now replaced with treasury notes. That would not be allowed to continue and hence those programs would cease to exist as we know them.
– They want a voter ID amendment. This allows them to control who gets to vote. It’s a form of voter suppression.
– They want to revoke the 17th amendment. That is the amendment that says that Senators are elected by the people, not appointed by the state legislatures.
They want to return to Senators being appointed by state legislatures. They know state legislatures are the easiest to control. With a strong state legislature you can influence the Federal government and you can subdue local governments. Don’t believe me? Remember Michigan? Remember how they took over Flint and ruined the drinking water there? How about Detroit? Remember how that city almost sold off its art collection?

Don’t be complacent.

Then I watched John Oliver’s latest show. His main theme was on sexual harassment in the workplace. He showed an educational film that dealt with the topic. It was from the 1980s. Then he showed stuff from the 1990s. All promised the same stuff, yet here we are still in the same place.
He showed the Clarence Thomas hearing where Anita Hill was interviewed for eight and a half hours by the Senators about Clarence Thomas’ sexual harassment of her. The Senators, the Republican senators, didn’t believe her. They attacked her character, her reputation, her testimony. Anyone who doesn’t know that Orin Hatch is an asshole only need listen to his comments about Anita Hill.

Will things change? You bet they will. They will change for the worse. Our only chance is to get everyone out to vote. We have to get rid of this swine. (Swine plural, not singular, just to be clear.)

1,015 Days to Go

PS Unintended Consequence – A photo from the book “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat-Moon. Notice the political poster behind the folks.

Day 562 Saturday August 4, 2018 1,016 Days to Go

There’s a lot of detritus to get to today.

First off, Paul Manafort: he is so screwed.

In his trial evidence has been presented to not only show his extravagant life style, but his desperate financial situation. So desperate that he willingly falsified documents to banks. He was also deeply in debt to Russians. Not any Russians, very rich Russians. Russians that are close associates of Vladimir Putin. So desperate that he took on the role of campaign chairman for the Trump campaign and tried to “get whole” with said rich Russian by selling him access to Trump. Gee, does this make him a prime target for Russian influence?

But that’s the best of it for Manafort. How’s his trial going? Well, if you are the prosecution you can’t ask for much more. If you’re the defense, you are watching your only legal hope going down in flames. So it depends on which side you are on. The prosecution has not only presented evidence of Manafort’s extravagant life style ($1.4M on suits!) but also that he paid for these things with a wire transfer from off shore accounts in Cyprus. Accounts that he didn’t pay taxes on, that he “forgot”, year after year, to check off the box on the IRS form saying that he had off shore accounts, and that he told his accountants were client accounts, not his personal accounts.

And that’s not the worst of it for Manafort, his accountants (I’m guessing the ones he didn’t want to pay and hoped to see what they had from the prosecution during “discovery”) said they lied for him and were afraid and regretted their actions on his behalf.

He’s up on 18 counts, and I’m hearing any one of these counts could net him ten years.

Let’s move on.

Ivanka speaks!

Poor cute Ivanka. She feels bad for those immigrant children separated from their parents. Aw.

Meanwhile, Daddy’s administration lawyers tried in court to pawn the job of reuniting the kids with their parents to the ACLU! How rich is that? It wasn’t that long ago that the Republicans were trying to paint anyone who is a member of the ACLU like they were some kind of Communist.

Speaking of which, Mr. Trump has decided to call the press “the enemy of the people.” That’s a phrase Stalin used. Stalin used it to excuse his rounding up political opponents and killing them (or send them off to the gulag.)

How far The Republican party has come: asking what they used to try to make an organization sound like a commie outfit to actually stealing the punch lines from a commie!

Meanwhile hundred of kids remain separated from their parents due to the kidnapping by our government and they not only have no plan of how to reunite them; they really don’t care.

There were some good job numbers. Except, wages didn’t go up. It seems the numbers look good because people are having to work several crappy jobs.

The president, who derided his predecessor for campaigning two or three times a week before an election, is campaigning every day. Trump is trying to bolster the Republican candidates. In some areas it seems to really help. In others, not so much. It is scary that he can really boost someone’s numbers. The test will be in the general election, not the primaries.

One of his favorite tag lines to whip up the crowd is to point to the press box and call them fake news. It’s getting really dangerous. I wish the news organizations would stop covering him and leave it to Fox and InfoWars. Then Trump would have to point to them; the sycophantic people that support him and lie for him and call them fake, Which would be appropriate.

It is sad that our president calls legitimate news organizations fake, while supporting such an awful man as Alex Jones at InfoWars.

Recently, the president has been saying he’d be okay with a government shutdown so he can get his wall. Sounds like he ought to go to the border, put on a diaper (or Depends) and cry and pout until he gets his wall. Maybe, some Mexicans can throw some change through the fence to get the ball rolling.

Meanwhile Roger Stone’s good buddy, the NYC madam, has been questioned by Mueller’s people. Hum, maybe old Roger is in hot water? Why would he be? Oh, I dunno, maybe the fortuitous timing of his pronouncements and those of Trump, RT, and WikiLeaks makes the special prosecutor think there’s a connection? That and the fact the Stone admitted to there being a connection.

There was an unusual press briefing this week. The FBI and all the intelligence agencies plus Homeland Security made speeches saying they were taking action to stop Russian meddling in our elections, despite the lack of interest or action from their president or Congress. Hey, I got a suggestion, why not start by changing the passwords on the voting machines from “abcde” to something else?

This brings me to the thought that Trump was not legitimately elected. I know, crazy thought. But here’s the thing, we now know that anyone with little effort could breach many of the voting machines throughout the country. We also know that no agency has said they’ve looked into it. They all seem to say, “Not our job.” Or “We weren’t tasked to do that.” The Republicans in Congress seem to be in league with the Russians on this one, be it de jure or de facto. They have killed a bill to fund efforts to stop meddling. They’ve shown no interest in getting to the bottom of the problem. Also, it’s hard to show votes were flipped. I do remember during the election that one group that was watching the voting machines said a server went down that showed a lot of Democratic votes, but when it came back up miraculously it then showed it going Republican.
It seems as long as the Republicans see the Russian interference going their way they don’t really care to look at it. That’s patriotism for ya!

Well, there you have it: my week in review.

There’s also interesting little bits, like:
Trump doesn’t know his geography. (England, Britain, United Kingdom – you say potato. What’s what’s the diff? Make up your mind!)
Trump is being sued over his receiving millions and millions of dollars from foreign governments and princes.
There’s this clause in the Constitution, known as the emoluments clause (Article 1, Section 9). The specific part is right at the end that starts, “No title of nobility …”, and ends with “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
So when the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia came to New York and put his retinue up in a Trump property (he didn’t stay in the dump. He stayed at the Plaza.) It was enough of a shot in the arm that the money losing property made the first quarter numbers look good. It turned it around.

So Trump and the Trump organization gets sued. They tried to argue that emoluments really means bribery and only that. The judge ruled against them and accepted the dictionary definition, which is “a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office.”

Now I don’t know about you, but as far as I know Trump holds THE OFFICE of president and the crown PRINCE of Saudi Arabia had his people stay in a Trump property, which put a lot of money into Trump’s pocket. The prince had to go out of his way to do this. So tell me, is that a bribe or just profiting? Either way it’s an emolument. Where are the folks screaming “Lock Him UP!”

1,016 Days to Go

PS Waterlilies by Claude Monet

Day 560 Thursday August 2, 2018     1,018 Days to Go

Henry II and Thomas Beckett versus Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

–                  Edmund Burke (possibly)(1730-1797)

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

–                 George Santayana (1863-1952)

“We’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what”

–                  Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

“Doom on! Garth.”

–                  Wayne’s World non-quote

—                     (ie He never said it , but should have)

Okay, quiz time: How is what happened to Thomas Beckett, Henry II’s friend, like what has happened and is happening to Jeffery Beauregard Sessions III? Compare and contrast. Extra credit for C&C * of the above quotes and why they are attributed in the way they are.

*(Compare and Contrast – not a drink! Darn, do I have to spell everything out? I do? Okay then.}

Also, who would name their kid Beauregard? What family would do it three times? (Hint: The answers to both questions can be found in the question above.)

Let’s begin:

It was 6^th grade Mr. Perrine’s history class. It was there that I learned about Henry II and his friend Thomas Beckett. Beckett had served for many years as Henry’s Chancellor. As a reward Henry appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury. There were squabbles between church and state. Beckett as archbishop took the church’s side, much to the annoyance of Henry. The issue at hand was who had authority over the clerks who administered justice in the kingdom. The church had managed to take over this function. Henry wanted to restore it to the state, as it had been under his grandfather’s reign. There was a lot of back and forth. Agreements were made, sometime under duress, and then backed out of. Thomas also had a flare for the dramatic with pomp. An ostentatious display when a king is running around trying to hold his kingdom together because of unruly vassals and a French king who is stirring up trouble did not go over well in the 12^th century (just sayin’!) It really hurt that Henry and Thomas were, or had been, close friends.

It is still not clear 850 years or more after the fact what Henry said or didn’t say, but talk about words having consequence! Four of his knights left the court and brutally slew the archbishop. Beckett had fled to the Canterbury Cathedral where a service was in progress the knights caught him at the steps of the altar and hacked him to death with their swords, eventually splitting his skull. Imagine being in the pews watching that!

Mr. Perrine speculated that the king probably emphatically said something like, “I wish someone would rid me of this person.”

It was emphatic enough that four of his knights left France, sailed for England, and killed the archbishop in front of a crowd in the cathedral.

So where are we with Trump and Sessions?

Yesterday, the president tweeted that Jeff Sessions should “stop the Rigged Witch Hunt…”

Where to begin with that?

Let’s start with the responses of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Sanders. Also, let’s throw in Sanders’ reaction to the president’s followers’ behavior at his Florida rally of the day before yesterday.

Giuliani and Sanders both said that the president uses twitter to express his opinions.

Question: From what we know about Henry II and Beckett isn’t that what the king was doing?

Giuliani went on to say that what the president had said in the tweet about Sessions wasn’t an order, but merely his opinion. To which I ask, “WTF?”

At the Florida rally the Trump supporters were harassing the press: yelling at the CNN reporter in particular. It was on the edge of violence. Even reporters who have been to many Trump rallies have said this was different. The hostility was at a new level. We know from Trump’s past behavior that he will do nothing to curb this sort of activity.

What did Sanders say about this? The president is free to express his opinion like everybody else.

To which I say, “WTF?”

The scariest thing I saw about the Florida rally was a Trump supporter who was interviewed who said Trump’s brain was made of a material we can’t even begin to comprehend. (Or something like that.)

I agree! But for totally different reasons. I think I come out on the far far far opposite from that poor lost soul.

(But I do think Trump’s brain is made out of the same stuff as the rest of us mortals – just to be clear.)

So now where are WE?

Well, there is talk about obstruction of justice and the question is raised, “Did the president with that tweet about Sessions obstruct justice or conspire to obstruct justice?”

Rudy says no because when you conspire you do it in secret. You whisper it. You don’t do it in public, in front of everybody.

I’ve got news for Rudy. Trump does it in the open, in public, in your face.

There is nothing in the statute on obstruction of justice that says it has to be done in secret, or that it has to be whispered. One legal scholar said that had the words the president tweeted been found on a piece of paper sent to Sessions, or made available for Sessions to see, that it would be clear evidence of obstruction. Remember, it was just a day or so before this tweet that Rudy was saying collusion is not found in any law. ( No Rudy, it’s called conspiracy. Collusion is a synonym for conspiracy. ) Rudy, whispering is not found in the law on Obstruction of Justice.

Hey, wait a sec, “Has the president ever cleared the room and whispered things to the person in the room?”

Would that be evidence of behavior in line with what Rudy says is how you obstruct and collude? Excuse me, conspire?

Hum, lemme look in the Way-Back Machine.

What ho!

I see two men: one shorter than the other, but standing straight with a grin on his face, the other taller, fuller in the waist, and smiling clownishly. They are next to podiums that say, “Helsinki.” It’s not to long ago. July 16^th! Why it’s not even a month old. What happened? Oh, our president met with the President of Russia behind closed doors. What did they talk about? No one knows, for sure.

Hey Rudy, does that meet your definition of collusion (excuse me conspiracy)?

If these two men met, well not in secret (but they did that before – remember), but they whispered stuff to each other, (well maybe they talked in normal voices, but no one else was there to hear so it’s the same effect as whispering) would that be behavior that looks like conspiracy, or an attempt to conspire? (Remember, you don’t have to succeed to conspire. Sorry, Don Jr. a nothing happened meeting with Russian agents is still ground for conspiracy.) Oh wait, if it’s with a foreign power, an enemy foreign power, an enemy foreign power that is attacking us, wouldn’t that be treason Mr. lawyer for the president?

Hush, I’m peering into the Way-Back Machine again. The frames are flickering by. It’s slightly burnished around the edges here. I see a room. Two men are sitting at a table. The room is blue. It’s the White House. It’s the Blue Room. One man is tall. He looks uncomfortable. The other man has an orange complexion with raccoon white eyes. This must be the aging of the Way-Back Machine’s frames. No, it’s not. The orange one is Donald Trump. (I should have realized that sooner!) His shoulder are hunched. He’s leaning forward. His lips are moving. Let me see what I can read on his lips: Blin? Win? Flynn! That’s it “Flynn!”

Wait there’s more: Row? Flow? Go! It’s “Go!”

“Flynn … Go” what does that mean?

Hold on. Lemme back it up.

Darnnit, what happened? Here’s Kim Kardashian and some … nevermind. I hate it when the Way-Back switches channels like that. Oh no, now an ad for Premium Service. I’ve got Super Duper Premium Elite Service. What? I have to login in again? What do you mean my password is no good? Okay, text me a number to my phone. Got it.

Hold on, while I login again.

“Comey, White House, dinner…”

Got it. Here we go.

“Bet? Get? Let!” It’s “let.”

“Let Flynn Go!”

OMG! Trump is asking Comey to “Let Flynn Go.”?

He’s doing it when no one else is around. It’s like he’s whispering.

Hey Rudy, does that meet your definition of collusion (I mean conspiracy)? Meeting alone and whispering?

Or doing it when no one else can hear it?

What would that be called Rudy? You know, when someone in a position of power or knowledge asks an investigator to let something go? Especially, if that person is your boss? I mean if the president asks the FBI Director to do something, something illegal, isn’t that … What’s the word? (’scuse me while I bang my head with my hand.) Isn’t that Obstruction of Justice? (Three words, no wonder I was having a problem remembering.) I mean … oh? It’s wasn’t an order so you think it’s okay? Hum, is that what the other legal experts are saying? No! (What would Henry II say?)

What? Oh, I see if the president of the United States says, “I want you to do such and such,” and you work for him? That could be a career ending move. And in the case of Jim Comey it was.

Okay, so is it just me or have we witnessed in plain sight the president of the United States committing treason, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy?

In other stuff: I am starting a day-camp for Trump supporters’ children. This camp will include all the fun and games immigrants and refuges to this country experience, including:

– shackling your parents,

– being lied to,

– and best of all put in a cage!

Yes, all this and more awaits you at The Immigrant Day Camp. A fun filled time for all. Your children will also get to be marched into a court room and have the living bejesus scared out of them by being asked a bunch of questions with lots of big words and phrases that they don’t understand.

Also, coming soon – Grocery ID! So you can actually buy groceries wherever you want. This innovation suggested by the president himself. It’s the most revolutionary thing to hit the grocery store since Papa Bush discovered bar code scanning machines!
(“Yes, sir if there is no little series of black lines, called a barcode, you’ll have to do a look-up, just type in “broccoli.” Oh you don’t like broccoli? Well, then you can just leave it to the side and not ring it up. They’ll re-shelve the item. No, they won’t actually put it on a shelf, that’s just the term they use, like re-stock. It’s a synonym: re-shelve … restock, like collude and conspire. Yes sir that is correct. You don’t have a loyalty card? Here use mine. Yes, it’s okay. What? You want everyone to have a loyalty card? For the grocery store? Oh, to you sir? I don’t know about that…”)

1,018 Days to Go

PS Gimme Some Kind of Sign!

** Answers to the quote quiz. The quote attributed to Burke is just that, attributed. There is no record that he ever said it.
The non-quote is just that. Someone being quoted who the authors’ know for a fact the person to whom the quote is attributed, never said it, but the author believes the person could have, or should have, said it. (Typically, the author of the piece made up the quote.)

Day 559 Wednesday August 1, 2018    1,019 Days to Go

As the noose tightens the flailing intensifies

Paul Manafort’s first trial has begun. The prosecution’s case is rock solid. He’s charged 18 times: money laundering, tax fraud, bank fraud, failure to register as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice.

He’s got another trial after this, in state court.

If he’s convicted on any one of these charges he is looking at ten years in jail. It is likely that he’ll be found guilty of all the charges. Many say Trump will pardon him, but that won’t get him out of the state charges. Mueller has wisely only brought a minimum number of charges (and they are substantial!). If Trump pardons Manafort, New York State can try him for other crimes.

There’s been several interesting developments on the fringes of the case. The president and his sycophants have been screaming “No Collusion!” They changed their tune as soon as the Manafort trial started to “Collusion is not a crime!” Rudy Giuliani has now said there was an earlier meeting before the famous “Trump Tower meeting” to discuss what they wanted to do in the big meeting. He also said the earlier meeting didn’t take place. Don Jr has said the actual meeting was a nothing burger. Trump Sr has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it took place and didn’t learn about it until much later.

Why the change in attitude about the collusion point and why bring up a second meeting that they said didn’t take place? Why indeed. Most legal minds speculate that the reason is due to the start of the Manafort trial. When a trial starts the defense gets to see all the evidence against their client. The star witness in this case is Rick Gates, Manafort’s aid and later business partner. Apparently, the prosecution has to show everything Rick Gates said to them, even if it isn’t really relevant to the trial.

The betting is that Rick Gates mentioned the earlier meeting and Rudy and Fox are now out there trying to “get ahead of the story” with the claim that there was an earlier meeting, but it was no meeting. They are also throwing in the “collusion is not a crime” bit, too. Okay, let’s clear up the collusion thing. It is a crime. It’s called “conspiracy” in the criminal code. No, the word “collusion” does not appear in the criminal code, and as one legal expert mentioned yesterday neither does “bank heist” but “bank robbery” does – same difference.

What’s the defense trying to claim? The other guy did it, the underling, Rick Gates. Most legal experts say this defense rarely if ever works. In this case there are a whole string of shell companies set up around the world with Manafort’s signature on the paperwork. He claims Gates did it, and or it’s not his fault because this is the way his benefactors wanted to pay him.

I call this a three pronged defense of: “The dog ate my homework”, “I was just following orders”, and “The other guy did it.” None of these are winning strategies.

Bye bye Paulie, Bye bye.

Oh yes, there is a White House memo that was written before the famous Trump Tower meeting that mentions Trump Sr being informed of the meeting. The one he claimed to not know anything about. That’ll be a crime.

1,019 Days to Go

PS Time for self reflection – at Bonampak