Rick Kinnaird

Headlines

1. Trump Moves to Protect Puppy Torturers – Admin removes USDA link to reports on puppy mills. Seventh agency so hit. No reason given. Public not told of action. Note on site says you can file Freedom of Info Act. Nice.
2. Elizabeth Warren Silenced for Reading – Warren was determined to be in violation of rule 19 of the Senate which prohibits imputing another senator. Warren was reading from Congressional Record the letter of Coretta Scott King, originally read into record by Ted Kennedy, and subsequently not put in record by famed segregationist Strom Thurmond, although he was supposed to. Discussion on this point from other senators to chair made it clear that if senator had a clear factually true evidence concerning another senator and that senator was up for a federal position the chair and by vote in senate could impute that senator and silence them for the duration of the discussion. This left senators to wonder how they could fulfill their duties of Advise and Consent.
3. London’s Daily Mail sued by Melanie Trump for calling her an escort. She claimed under oath that it would hurt her ability to make money from being first lady. White House denies she said that. Many wonder if she is still being paid as escort.
4. Betsy DeVos lied on bio. Approved by Senate.
5. Jeff Sessions lied on bio. Awaits confirmation. Republican senators express shock at such tactics by Dems to impute him.
6. Neil Grouch lied on bio. Awaits confirmation.
7. Labor Sec Pick never submitted bio, didn’t lie. Oh wait, forgot (didn’t know) woman working for him was illegal.
8. Betsy DeVos Overpaid to buy senate approval. Senate can be bought for much cheaper that $200-250M. Most senators received less than $50K from her. You can buy whole senate for $5M, $2.5M for just the Republicans – a deal.
9. Rosie O’Donnell suggested to play Sean Spicer on SNL she tweets, “I’m available! If called, I will serve!” Go Rosie, such a patriot.
10. Most people did not know SNL skit with Melissa McCarthey was not the real Sean Spicer. Sad.
11. 138,000 tune in to YouTube live stream of three judge panel hearing about the Muslim ban – not a ban. This is 5th? 6th? 7th? hearing on ban. So far WH 0 – Losers.
12. Michael Flynn, Nat Sec Chief has taken money from Russia, rewrites daily national security brief for president, repeated lie only available from Russian propaganda.
13. Nat Enquirer – Hillary near death. First time reported since election. Reported five times during election
14. FDA pick backs floating country idea. Countries made from old containers.
15. FDA pick backs live forever plan.
16. FDA pick not a doctor – who knew?
17. FDA pick wants to let untested drugs on market. Let public sort it out.
18. Admin backs plan to let financial advisors screw clients – no one surprised.
19. KellyAnne Conway talks and talks and talks: lies and lies and lies. Two Sunday talk shows turn down opportunity to ask her anything.
20. Mike Pence on Sunday talk show – has different view of work from the rest of humanity.

Well, what can I say? It’s been an interesting weekend. The Patriots came back, down 28-3 to win the Super Bowl and Melissa McCarthy gave a dead on impression of Sean Spicer.

Last night I got to hear some video clips of the lawyer for the Justice Department arguing the case for the Muslim ban to the Bush era appointed judge. I have to give them both credit for being respectful of the President. Neither one broke out laughing and both kept straight faces, which I think, if it had been me up there, would have been very hard to do.

To wit: when the judge pointed out that what was claimed did not comport with the facts the lady arguing for the President said that they did not have to ascertain the veracity of the claims at this point in time, that it was within the President’s prerogative to claim whatever he wants. Interesting argument, but it goes to the heart of what a lot of people have been saying: facts don’t matter. Apparently, they do still in a court of law.

In other events, it seems the Republicans really want to push through Trump’s nominations. Other than to see if they can I don’t understand. This isn’t a case of the fox guarding the hen house as much as the person wanting to blow up the hen house and all the hens in it and then say it was for the best. Mario Puzo wrote in The Godfather that a lawyer with a briefcase could steal more in an hour than a man with a gun could in a lifetime. Get ready. Not only will we be robbed blind and left naked at the side of the road they plan to drive over the corpse repeatedly. These are people who do not believe in the basic mission of the agencies they are being asked to be in charge of.

1443 days to go

Yesterday was the Super Bowl. I took the day off from writing about what’s going on because I didn’t have much to say. I spent my time listening and observing. It was interesting to listen to the weekly morning talk shows and listen as Tavis Smiley said – watching Mike Pence tie himself in knots to explain what the Trump administration was and had been doing. The amount of simple denial of reality, gas lighting, or – to be kind, which I don’t really have much truck with, the ability to see things in a very different light.

There was talk of the Super Bowl Budweiser ad, which illustrated how German immigrants were disliked and persecuted. It was said that Hillary supporters were more likely to drink Bud then Trump supporters. A fact I find hard to believe. Then if not Bud, what beer are Trump supporters drinking? Also, interestingly German immigrants were the ones that started brewing beer in America. It was considered low class and it was beer that caused the rise of the temperance movement. Who knew? What were the other Americans drinking, whiskey? Also, the last time a second language was proposed for this nation it was German.

There were illustrations both on TV and social media of Trump supporters taking a twisted kind of joy in exclaiming (trumpeting???) the fact that they won and you lost – ha, ha, ha. Various essays and graphs tried to show how Obama hadn’t done a good job, but Trump was going to turn things around, etc. There was talk of how Trump was “fixing” non-existent problems and that his fixes might actually create the problems he claimed he wanted to fix, then he could really turn up the heat on his fix. This was compared to how fascists worked in the 1930s, and actually how they always work. Speculation, ran as to whether this was the plan, and if so all fingers pointed to Bannon, whom reports late in the day said Trump was furious that he learned he had signed an order appointing Bannon to the National Security Counsel.

There was an article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone that chronicled the meanest of Mike Pence toward the poor and oppressed in Indiana. How his religious fervor and ineptness plus outright lying, and two faced hypocrisy all contributed to this. There was discussion on social media and radio about the protests in Berkley. What seems clear now is that the racist guy who was kicked off Twitter for saying such offensive things that Twitter couldn’t allow him to stay on was scheduled to speak at Berkley. There were protests and a fire. The talk was cancelled and the Republicans on campus bemoaned the fact that freedom of speech had died. It is now clear that 150 masked people, not students, showed up on campus and caused the violent part of the protest and the fire. This is right out of the fascist playbook. (Just sayin’)

I have been taking a Great Course entitled “Peoples and Cultures of the World.” Yesterday’s lecture dealt with language. All languages can be used to communicate, some communicate certain ideas better than others, some “don’t have a word for it.” Some have many words for say snow or lava, depending on whether you are an eskimo or a Hawaiian. Some languages tightly couple meanings to certain words, some are looser. An example of a very tightly coupled language (and that was not the term the professor used, but I think it was the idea) was the language described by George Orwell in his book “1984” where the state proclaimed a new language and that language had particular meaning and if you spoke that language only those meanings could be discussed and others would not; not be discussed, allowed, permitted, or even thought about. Interesting, that I should listen to that lecture at this point in time.

Let’s get to something fun and exciting, shall we? I’ve been curious about Trump Wine, ever since it was rudely shoved in my face by a prominent display in a grocery store that is now going out of business in our area. (Coincidence? I think not. But you never know, right? Am I right? Lemme hear an Ah Men! isn’t that the way it’s said?)

I’ve never been impressed with Virginia wines. I’ve tried. I went to Monticello and saw a beautiful winery on the next hill, complete with NAPA style adobe stucco tasting room and cute girls to ladle out the stuff. Not having time to taste I bought several bottles and was disappointed in all of them. The stuff just wasn’t very good. Not as bad as some Maryland wines I’ve had that seem to feature a heavy concentration of what I can only think is a preservative, suitable for using in you RV to keep lines from freezing but otherwise why buy it? Patricia Cornwell, a Richmond native, has also written unflatteringly about Virginia wines, so I’m not alone. But let’s dig in, first the back story as revealed in two minutes of googling.

The Donald bought the Kluge Winery. Why he didn’t keep the name is beyond me. He claimed the property was once listed for $100M, was 1300 acres, and one of the largest wineries in the state. He got the place for $6.2M. It had a mortgage of over $20M on the place and it’s not clear who got stiffed. The acreage is really 776, whether he bought some other property to make it up to 1300 is not clear, but I could find no evidence that he did. He doesn’t drink, and turned the operation over to his son. They kept the Kluges on to manage the operation, not sure if they are still there or not. As far as being one of the largest wineries in the state; it’s not. They have 200 acres under vine (is that a term? I don’t know. I just decided to use it, sounds cool, like “It’s a good read.”)

I had to noodle around to find a review of someone who actually tasted the wine. The main taster in the article is a woman from New York City who is in the restaurant business. No doubt, she’s a liberal Trump hater because all people in New York City are Trump haters, am I right? Well, it’s the only review I could find. Actually, it was the first one and I said that was good enough. BTW if you google Trump Wine and ask for wineries in the area their winery gets the lowest rating, except for some guy who appears to have a shack in the woods that he calls a winery. (Again, Just sayin’) But for those of you who might think a Clinton would hate this wine please be informed that Kluge wine was served at Chelsea Clinton’s rehearsal dinner.

Okay onto the reviews, I’m only going to pull out adjectives and phrases that describe the wine tasting experience, and let me just say right up front, I was not disappointed. It was everything I expected, and more!

Let’s start with the whites:

• The Blanc de Blancs 2009, $24 – “Isn’t bad, acidified, like it’s been toyed with, kind of Botox-y, disjointed, trying to be a champagne.”
• The Viognier 2014, $24 – “actively dislike, like being sprayed in a department store with cheap perfume”

On to the reds – After her experience with the above whites she commented, “I’m terrified of the reds.”

After tasting, she commented, “They both taste the same.”

Let’s break it down:

• Heritage 2014, $24 –
  “on the nose. I’ve smelled worse.” (Note: I think ‘on the nose’ means she smelled it. Love the term!)

  “This could actually be much more offensive. not great, nor is it terrible.” (Don’t you wonder how it could be ‘more offensive’?)

  In a blind tasting “I would think it a cheap Bordeaux,” “tastes super cheap, really boring, painfully boring,” and “a porch pounder” (which means something you guzzle on the porch, pounding it down.)

• New World Reserve 2013, $30 –
  “Still disjointed, feels played with,” like lemonade made with Splenda “weirdly sweet”, “just feels off.” There was a discussion of “artificial tannins” being added, not oak chips, but “a big bag of white stuff”
  Also “tastes expensive,” but “has no soul”

I think Trump Wine is a perfect reflection of Trump in general: disjointed, cheap, no soul, Botox-y.

Good times!

Here’s the article from vinepair.com.

1444 Days to go

Congressional switchboards jammed, representatives hiding from constituents, what a couple of weeks.

Betsy DeVos, the most unqualified candidate for a cabinet position that anyone can ever recall might get voted in. Why? Money. It turns out she has contributed to most, if not all, of the Republican Senators’ campaigns. Two ‘Go Fund Me’ campaigns have started to try and raise as much money as Betsy has given two senators in an effort to “buy back” their votes. It has come to this. By the way – Tom Cotton, you sold out at way too low a price. Eight grand? Surely you can do better! Tell Betsy fifty grand minimum. Don’t be a cheap whore. Show some class. Not that you ever had in your rants, but come on, give it a try.

One former national security team person was asked the other day about the relationship between Donald Trump and the intelligence community. The response, with tongue firmly inserted in cheek, was “It’s perfectly normal for the intelligence community to consider the President of the United States a national security risk.”

Oh, and all those protesting at the airports and the questions about why are they making it such a big deal? You know only 109 people out of 325,000 were held for questioning. Just a few questions, what’s the big deal? Isn’t that worth the price to keep America safe? And besides, Green Card holders weren’t detained by this Executive Order, or at least they weren’t supposed to be. If they were that was a mistake on the people carrying out the order but not the intent. Remember that? Can you imagine when the lawyers pressing their case to have this order stopped learned in court that their had been another order? And that other order had not been made public? It was that secret order that stopped 60,000 people according to the Department of State from entering this country. In court the Judiciary Department said no that wasn’t correct, the number was more like 100,000, actually, over 100,000 people were detained, or turned away. One hundred thousand legal vetted citizens – green card holders. Did the administration lie? Well, maybe not, maybe they just forgot to mention it? Maybe, they are correct that the Muslim ban order didn’t, or wasn’t supposed to, stop green card holders, but the one they didn’t mention sure was supposed to do that!

Moving on…

One former administration official said, when asked about this and the claims of its effectiveness, “It’s easy to fix a crisis when there isn’t one.” (not verbatim, sorry, don’t have the source here.) I think that’s the point. Trump started his campaign by stating there was a problem where there wasn’t one. It played to people’s fears that had been stoked by false narratives from sources like Fox and Breitbart, and it is a well known fact among advertisers and propagandists that if you tell someone a lie often enough they will begin to believe it because that’s the way our brains are wired. Now, the administration is claiming that they are doing a great job in regard to a non-existent problem. However, their “efforts” may actually be creating the problem they sought to stop, and as many strongmen or their henchmen have pointed out (and are now being quoted on social media) this gives them the opportunity to squash opponents. So is this Bannon’s end game? To create chaos, destroy our institutions, and suppress the people?

1446 days to go

Not even two weeks old and what have we wrought?

Some wonder if this is on purpose or if this is ineptitude or more charitably “Getting to Know the job?” As has been pointed out numerous times this is a president’s honeymoon period, when his rating should be the highest they will ever be. Mr. Trump’s are the lowest of any president in modern history and seem to be lower than most presidents at their lowest point.

My daughter, a math PhD, told me about hedonometer, a website that looks at how happy or sad people seem to be for the day based on what’s going on via Twitter. Christmas is the happiest, followed by Thanksgiving and Mother’s Day. Low points include several mass shootings, the U.S. ban on muslims, and the election of Donald J. Trump. So to say there is a mandate is clear. He should resign and make it one of the happiest days, but I digress.

Also, there are quotes about this new leader and his administration on Facebook. Interestingly, those quoted are fascists, nazis, Mao Zedong, and the like; not Lincoln, Jefferson, or Washington. I should amend that to say the first group is quoted to show what the administration is most like and the latter to show what it is not.

Other countries are responding in different ways, as are our politicians, diplomats, military and government personnel. I’d sum it up as saying when the alternate worlds imagined by Donald Trump meet the real F’cking world it ain’t pretty and that America won’t be made great by it, but rather will shrink from the world stage. But what do I know? Let’s dig in.

Rex Tillerson showed up at the State Department today and seems to have a sense of humor. I think he’ll need it. Let’s see what he’s got on his plate: over 1,000 dissenting State workers, the green card holders held or in some cases sent back (laughably, or tragically, one to the wrong airport, but hey, it kinda sounded like the airport from which he came). Meanwhile there’s a real life and death crisis. Turns out Putin tried to poison an assistant Russian deputy who holds dual U.S. and British citizenship. Last time he tried the U.S. and Britain jumped in and saved the guy. He’s now on a ventilator in Russia. Will Rex jump in or let him die? Also, the leader in Hungary who has subverted their constitution so he can remain in power, has had a meeting with Putin, and appears to be moving away from NATO and the west. Iran’s navy has been annoying our ships again, will he respond? Remember candidate Trump said he’d declare war for such actions. btw Iran has given a hall pass to the Trump admin for the “being put on notice” thing, saying the new admin are naive and I guess young and stupid. Nothing like being treated like an adolescent child. Meanwhile Putin is on the move in Eastern Ukraine, will the man who got the Friendship Medal from Russia stand up to his presenter or not?

Leaks and Blame – Transcripts of the President’s conversations have found their way out to the press. In fact, those who deal in leaks say that it is a flood of leaks and not a trickle. The president’s inner circle says they aren’t the ones doing the leaking, which is interesting because they would be the only ones having access to this information. Speculation is that the only way to get the president’s attention is via T.V. Certainly, not via a memo because if it’s not a tweet, he doesn’t read it. Let’s look at a sampler of yesterday’s leaks, blame, and screw ups:

The Raid in Yemen – Not their fault, approved by Obama. In fact they weren’t even in the Situation Room when it was going on because The Donald was seen as being elsewhere when it was happening. Also, the approval happened while the President was having dinner. The usual overly talkative Kellyanne Conway (hereinafter KAC) was silent when directly asked if this was true. It’s not clear if the president okayed this or if it was his 32 year old son-in-law or Steve Bannon. They were the only ones from the National Security team at dinner with the president at the time of the approval. As far as Obama approving it, this held up until the press interviewed someone on Obama’s team about it. You’ll be surprised to hear that Obama never knew of this raid. He did hear about this type of raid, and his team determined that it was too close to the new president coming in for them to take any action. They noted that this needed more scrutiny and left it for the next administration to deal with. Huh? Imagine that, seems the Trump team can’t read either.

Trying to clean up the mess from the previous day Senator McCain contacted the Prime Minister of Australia and made nice then issued a statement that sounded like he was President. I’m surprised Spicer or someone didn’t dress McCain down, but I guess they realized that McCain was trying to plug another leak in the dike. (I’ve got this image of the president running along the dike poking it with a stick and water springing through and multiple Hans Brinkers trying to plug the holes.)

Invade Mexico? He was joking. Okay? Stop taking things so literally. Situation resolved. Right?

There was suggested via twitter that Dennis Leary play Kellyanne Conway. I guess because he did such a good job in the Snicker’s ad where he played a “you’re not you when you’re hungry” Marilynn Monroe. Leary responded that he wanted an Oscar for the role.

Protests Continue – Representatives are getting overwhelmed with constituents phone calls and showing up at their district offices. Representatives are turning to Facebook and other electronic media so they don’t have to face angry crowds, and that way they can pick and choose their questions and not be put on the spot. Our Congressman, Dave Bratt, held a Facebook townhall two days ago. The questions he choose to answer were none of the ones we saw being asked by his constituents. Brett, a tea party Republican who unseated House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, is an economist. He claims that entitlements are the bulk of the Federal budget. Really? I thought it was the Defense Department. But it’s how you frame it. If it’s total spending he’s right. If it’s discretionary spending then it’s the military hands down. So Mr. Bratt wants to cutdown on things that were promised to the American people like Social Security, and Medicare. Nice.

In one funny and sad video voters came to meet with their representative and the staff wouldn’t even unlock the door, forcing them to talk to them via a metal box on the wall. Gutsy! Whose office was it? Tom Cotton (senate R-Arkansas) who has made some pretty strong pronouncements in the past about being tough and not liking what Obama had done. He cancelled a town hall meeting but after continual berating agreed to reschedule it. Let’s see if he shows up.

Speaking of cowering our president was going to go to Wisconsin home of that pussy Scott Walker. He and fellow motorcycle riding buddy Make ‘em Squeal Joni Ernst, have been real quiet of late. Remember that motorcycle rally? The one where Walker wore a helmet that made him look like Mike Dukakis in the tank? Well, tough guy Donald Trump was going to go to Wisconsin to Harley Davidson and he chickened out. Afraid of the protesters. Not bikers. He’s such a manly man. Instead he had Harley come to Washington where he made a speech about how HD had tariffs to protect the industry. It was motorcycle owner Lawrence O’Donnell that corrected the record on all that. (i never thought of him as being on a motorcycle, let alone a Harley.) Harley Davidson did get tariff protection when Japanese motorcycles were kicking there butt. Harley apparently was making a crappy oil leaking bikes. They needed time to revamp and they did. They asked the government to lift the tariff a year early. Once they got their act together. Trump missed the point.

BTW if you get a chance the Harley museum is well worth spending a day at and the food at their cafe is good too. The museum has a large panel showing every Harley motor ever made.You can push the picture of the engine and hear its sound. Harley is an American comeback story. Swallowed by a conglomerate they started making golf carts and scooters. The division was losing money. Finally, some of the employees bought the company. It was rough going for several years but now they are back. Their most profitable part of the business? Clothing.

1447 days to go