Rick Kinnaird

Thursday, February 3, 2022

I turned on the TV this morning.

Typically, I watch one of my archaeology shows while exercising.

I was stunned to hear that the U.S. had carried out a raid in Syria and taken out a big time ISIS leader.

Troops had been moved into Poland, Germany, and Romania to prop up NATO against aggressive actions by Putin. Troops had also been moved into somewhere near Syria, I think, maybe Turkey. This had been thought to be to bolster out presence in Ukraine. Now, it’s obvious it was positioning for this raid. The person reportedly killed was the head of ISIS Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. None of the people reporting said his name, I wonder why?

It reminded me of the movie “The American President” with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. The movie is building to a point where it looks like curtains for the Pres. Then he comes out makes some bold statements at a press conference, which surprise everyone, including his inner circle and staff. As he exits the room one of his close associates says, “We’re back!”

Yeah, Baby!

Okay, okay. I have some suggestions. A buddy of mine passed on some unclassified CIA documents from the 60s (70s? 80s?) talking about the Russians. Basically, nothing has changed – really. As McCain said, “Russia is a gas station posing as a country.” However, there was one tidbit I was unaware of and that is the Russian people are afraid of capitalism because when the USSR fell the average person went from having a job and income to starving. They saw a few oligarchs rise and grab all that there was. They, the common people, were starving.

Based on the above I have two suggestions:

1. We need to flood Ukraine with goods for people: cell phone, movies, food, drink, porn, clothes, tik-tok videos. Let’s make the difference between Ukraine and Russia like the difference between North Korea and South Korea, or East Germany and West Germany. We need to make it glaringly apparent that if you live in a capitalist economy you will be much better off than if you stick with mother Russia.

2. We need Alan Sorkin and Shona Rhimes to start writing press releases and PR pieces for Biden.

Moving on – other news items:

The day before the ISIS raid Josh Hawley said was asking why we were backing Ukraine. Well, he asked the question. As has Tucker Carlson, who is often replayed on Russian media. He’s their new darling.

Adam Kinzinger responded, and as Joe Scarborough noted Adam’s diplomacy was evident that he is ready for higher office. To wit:

I don’t know who is dumber Josh Hawley or Ron Johnson.

And now there is reporting that the idea to elect alternate electors started in Wisconsin and was directed by Trump insiders directly connected to the Conman-in-Chief, and that they were doing so under the direct orders of the ex-Pres.

And also, Colonel Vindman is suing for defamation of character and the suit alleges that there was a coordinated attack on him by the ex-pres, his subordinates, Fox News personalities, and some of the ex-president’s children. Knowing that he, Vindman, was in a position where he could not respond and knowing that what they did and said would be amplified in other media outlets.

I am heartened by these events. I do wonder why Donnie Sr. isn’t named?

And finally I have one more suggestion. When I turned on the TV there are teasers for shows I’ve never heard of and some I never want to watch. When the TV clicked on there was “Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year,” followed by “House of Gucci” (the one with Lady Gaga). 

Okay, what I want to see is “Peppa Pig in House of Gucci.” Then we’d have something.

Gotta Go.

Wednesday February 2, 2022

Every person elected, appointed, or hired to work in the Federal Government takes an oath to defend The Constitution from “all enemies both foreign and domestic.” You as a voter will be called upon to do the same. Our nation is under attack. The former President is at the tip of the spear of this attack, but he is not alone. He is being aided and abetted by a major political party, very rich interests here and abroad, foreign governments who wish to see us fail, and a huge media disinformation operation. However, the evidence is mounting every day. Let’s take a brief look at it.

The former President tried to overturn the last election on five different levels and made multiple attempts at each level.

He tried to seize voting machines.

He tried to have electors not counted thus ensuring Biden would not reach the elector college number needed to win.

He tried to have electoral college eletors switched so that he would have enough to win.

He tried to have the Vice President not count some electors on January 6th.

He tried to have various state elections declared fraudulent.

Since he has left office he has bribed officials not to testify to the Jan 6th committee.

He has promised to pardon everyone connected to January 6th if re-elected.

None of what I have written is in anyway some sort of hidden sketchy thing. Much of this has been done openly. Anything else has been reported and corroborated by multiple sources and or documented in memos, emails, recorded telephone conversations or video, etc.

Let’s visit the attempt to seize the voting machines issue. First off, why would he want to do that? Well, there was this idea floating around the right wing media that somehow The Dominion Voting Machines were switching votes. If the President could get his hands on the machines they could somehow show that this was the case. 

Okay, is there any evidence of this? No. In Arizona remember, they had an audit. They did look at the voting machines. These folks were not impartial. They were bent on finds something, anything, to prove the point that the voting machines were somehow rigged. They found nothing. Dominion is suing and on the path to wining the cases of defamation it has brought against various entities and individuals that spread lies about their machines.

So how did the Trump attempt to seize the voting machines? 

He asked The Department of Defense, Homeland Security, The Justice Department, local state governments and local officials to seize the voting equipment. All turned him down.

He didn’t ask once. He asked repeatedly. He tried calling, bullying, threatening, cajoling, yelling, and humiliating. He asked others to do the same: not once, not casually, but repeatedly and insistently. This isn’t in question. This has been verified in the press from numerous sources and it is the testimony the the Jan 6th Committee is receiving as well.

The number of hench people is astounding – to me at least. here are a few.

There is John Eastman. He is reportedly a lawyer.. He’s the one that wrote a memo saying the Vice President has the power to not accept electors on January 6th. The Vice President does not have that power. Eastman has tried to say he was only giving an opinion and didn’t really believe one way or the other. That fell apart within hours of him reportedly saying this when he was asked by someone posing to be a true believer and he admitted that yeah, he meant it. But it goes deeper than that. He was “in the room where it happened,” and he was pushing for it. He was in the Oval Office on several occasions in the days just before January 6th pushing this idea. Who was in the room besides him? Mike Pence, Donald Trump, Pence’s chief of staff, and Pence’s lead council. There were others too.

It turns out that on January 6th, before, during, and after the riot at the Capital he was texting Pence’s lawyer, still trying to get Pence to not certify the Biden electors. 

Then there was Mike Flynn. He was trying to get the whole election redone.

There was Mark Meadows. He was cooperating with the Jan 6th Committee, then he wasn’t. After turning over a trove of documents he got a one million dollar donation to his political action committee from Trump’s. PAC.

Trump’s PAC has given $5 or $10K to others, nothing more, only Mark. I don’t know what you want to cal it but I suggest there are some statutes that can inform. Two are called bribery, and witness tampering.

Come the next election every voter will have to decide which side they are on. Are you going to defend The Constitution or not? Or are you going to believe the lies that the ex-President is saying, the right wing media is pushing, aided and abetted by China, Iran, Russia and very rich and powerful interests?

These interests that are closer than ever to toppling our government and our democracy. it will be up to each and everyone of us to decide our fate.

Note: Due to “things” several screeds have not been posted and will at some point in time appear. What kind of things you ask? and what do I mean by things? Things, you know. Things. I hope that clears it up.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

Well, depending on your background the above question may have different meaning for you than others.

Before you read on I suggest you write down what you thought of when you read that question.

I’m guessing one of two things came to mind: football or politics.

Politics in the sense of what’s going to happen in the Ukraine?

Or maybe politics in terms of what’s going to happen in the next election (or to America)?

Or perhaps you meant football?

Regardless, I have the answer.

Let’s start with football. Which teams are left?

Two games, four teams:

Bengals/Chiefs,

49ers/Rams.

First off, before I tell you who’s going to win let’s get three things straightened out first in regards to football:

1 – No one seems to want to see Aaron Rodgers on the field,

2 – Rumors about Tom Brady declaring he’s going to retire are apparently not true,

3 – The OT rules stink.

As to who is going to win the games. 

Rams and Bengals.

What? You want a reason? You want a stinkin’ reason?

OK, OK, Okay. Rams are going to win because they are the better team. 49ers are quirky. Garapolo has been uneven in play in the pocket. It is possible that their defense could keep them in the game, but I’m expecting a blow out.

Bengals/Chiefs could go either way but I guessing Mahomes will choke or not get the protection he needs, and therefore his performance will not be what it has been. Therefore the other team will win. I don’t know much about the Bengals but so what? Close game, at least closer than the other game.

That leaves two games left in the NFL season. You didn’t forget the Pro-Bowl did you? 

AFC wins it.

Super Bowl – Rams win it. Not close. Bengals suffer injury in the first half and it’s never close after that. The commercials will be intriguing for a few. The rest? Try to guess the product. The half time show? Weird to Whaaat???

What’s going to happen in Ukraine? Now that some muscle is being put behind Ukraine it is unlikely that Putin will do anything. He’ll wait to see how long troops stay in-country.

The upcoming election – the country will face a real and dramatic set of crisis as Republicans wlll do what they can to screw over as many potential voters as they can. Right now it looks like the Repubs will do well. Unless, … unless, the Dems start beating the drum, but that’s another discussion.

PS me with likeness of how Rhino Republicans see themselves ie White, strong, (but actually hollow and doing nothing).

Oh gee, note to self: Call Ron Johnson’s office and ask for the names and next of kin or where to send flowers to all those athletes that Senator Johnson told us dropped dead after taking the vaccine. (To quote our President, “What a stupid son of a bitch.)

Monday January 24, 2022

As you probably know I haven’t been writing much because it’s the same old stuff. Names change, places changes, stupid conspiracy theories change but it’s the same stuff. Stuff I’ve heard since I was five years old. “Eisenhower is a Commie.”, etc. Then it was “Barack is a socialist,” Now it’s Biden is ineffective.

Katie Porter was on Lawrence’s show a few nights ago, she had two sets of three stats: 1 – How are we doing? 2 – And Costs if we don’t act.

How are We Doing?

5.5% GDP Growth –

    all other G7 countries are in negative GDP. We have the fastest growing economy in years.

3.9% Unemployment. Lowest in years. Brought down faster after a recession than in any other time.

$345.00 increase in the Average American Family’s monthly disposable income, even counting for inflation.

Costs if We Don’t Act:

       $8,000,000,000 if we don’t let Medicare negotiate drug prices

   $145,000,000,000 If we don’t act to stop climate change (ie cost of clean up from flooding, wildfires, etc.)

$1,000,000,000,000 Cost if we don’t fully fund IRS so we can get people to pay the taxes they owe.

https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/rep-katie-porter-and-her-white-board-explain-strength-of-biden-economy-131354693754

Now one to D.D.D. (Dim, Dimmer, Dead):

Meatloaf died this week. From Covid. He was proudly unvaccinated. “I may die, but I’m free.” Yeah. Right. I never thought he was too bright. I mean his songs had some pretty lame lyrics: two out of three ain’t bad, by the dashboard light. I thought his musical highpoint was Rocky Horror. Then there was that weird Apprentice show he was on. So poor Meatloaf, proudly ignorant.

Then there is the advisor to the former President that may have to answer as a representative of our government – Ivanka. Yes, she’s Daddy’s little girl, but she also was in the government and as such has some explaining to do to the people. I still remember an interview where a reporter was asking her a question. She looked at him slack jawed and expressionless. Then she said, “I don’t know what that word means.” The word was “complicit.”

So who is dumber? I mean dimmer Ivanka or Meatloaf? 

Well, Meatloaf is dead. Ivanka wins.

I’m tired of people criticizing Biden for not having done more. They seem to forget the mess he inherited.

Now Republicans are trying to rig the next elections and when asked what they will do when and if they do take power their answer is “Wait and See.” So far they are proud to stand in the way of anything the President tries to do without offering anything that they think would be better. Well, that’s not entirely true. Susan Collins wanted the Rescue Plan that did pass to be smaller. Why? She “felt” it would be better if smaller. Did she mean less effective? Probably not, just smaller because ya know, it felt better to her.

Then there are the Republican members of Congress crowing about the money coming to their districts. They somehow forget to mention that they voted against it.

As I’ve said same old stuff.

And Joe Rogan, Bill Maher, and Aaron Rodgers of the “if you stay healthy and take care of yourself you don’t need to get vaccinated” club, I ask you this, “Do you think the Indians who died of Smallpox weren’t healthy?” Your argument does not stand up to the facts. Did you guys fail 6th grade science? Asking for the rest of us.

Saturday January 8, 2022

Item – In her book “Strongmen” Mussolini to the Present, author Ruth Ben-Ghiat outines one of the characteristics of authoritarians is their ability to play the victim. Hitler did it and Trump has done it to a tee.

The other point is that they will use this to tell a lie and once believed there is little or nothing they can’t tell their followers that won’t be believed

Item – A woman who writes for Politico and follows the Supreme Court was astonished at the as she described “surreal nature” of the conservative justices toward the two cases brought against Biden’s imposition of vaccine mandates. She was stunned to hear Justice Alito saying he wasn’t sure the government had the authority to impose such mandates, and questioned whether OSHA could do so. They are ignoring the clear and present danger that the virus poses. Then the conservative justices seemed to doubt whether the vaccines were not dangerous in some hidden yet unknown way.

Item – One of the authors of the book “Nudge” was interviewed. Nudge is the idea that you can influence people to make decisions you want them to make by providing subtle cues. For instance putting healthy fruit at eye level in a super market. Or if you want to discourage some behaviors make it harder and less convenient. Take voting, if you get rid of drop boxes, early voting and move polling places far from the population you can anticipate fewer people voting.

Item – The average white voter take 6 to 7 minutes to vote. The average black voter takes 42 to 53 minutes to vote.

item – An interesting montage was played on Jan 6th on The Reid Out. The show played Trump’s words about the Jan 6th Insurrection where he said there was a lot of love and the film footage showed the police fighting to stop the surging mob.

We are in dangerous times.