Trump

Friday July 3, 2020

121 Days until the election on November 3^rd

201 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

“Have you ever thought of a new sin?”

That was a question a clergyman once posed.

The answer is, “No.” They’re the same ones they were in the Middle Ages, in Ancient Rome, in Babylon. Regardless of whether we consider certain behaviors sinful or not is a question (The Egyptian royalty believed in marrying their siblings, for instance.) What we take as an intoxicant may change from one civilization to another, but overall human behavior remains pretty much the same.

Also, it seems once a person gets to a certain age, they aren’t going to change their behaviors very much. Some say that age is eighteen, others twenty six. Regardless, of what that number is, by the time you get to your seventies most would agree, I think, that you won’t be changing much. 

Donald Trump is a one-trick pony. We’ve seen the trick over and over again. We are still stunned that he does it, and that he gets away with it. Some ask him to do something different. Despite, all evidence to the contrary some still plead and implore. I got news for you all – it ain’t happening. 

The most astonishing thing to me is how many in power are willingly going along with it. 

I went to The Virginia Museum of Fine Art (VMFA) yesterday to see the new exhibit on Egyptian treasures recently recovered from underwater near the mouth of the Nile. It is a stunning exhibit and it rivals much of what I saw on my recent trip to Cairo. In fact, some artifacts such as the small gold coins are, as far as I know, unique to this show. 

Whenever I look at Egyptian artifacts and I think of all the time and attention paid to their creation and I think about their beliefs and their elaborate burial rituals and belief in the afterlife I can’t help but think, “Didn’t anyone ever say, ‘Hey, wait a second. This isn’t working!’ ? “ You’d think in the thousands of years someone would have said something. But the same con was pulled over and over again.

Didn’t anyone say something? We can look to our own society for the answer. The gods have changed but the behavior remains the same.

In other news, the Trump administration continues its dismantling of the Justice Department. Bill Barr has now gotten rid of the head prosecutor in the Eastern District. He has now decapitated the three departments that are heading up investigations into Trump and Trump’s friends and associates. This is not by chance.

We are breaking new records everyday in the number of cases of Corona virus found. Hospitals in many areas of the country are at near capacity to over capacity. What is the administration doing? According to Steve Mnuchin they are watching the numbers very carefully. Why the Secretary of the Pillfery, I mean Treasury, is giving medical advise is hard to fathom other than to say, “Hey, that’s the way they roll.” 

Mr. Trump will be going to Mount Rushmore to take part in a shoulder to shoulder no mask spitting and infecting event to celebrate what our country has become – tomorrow.

New unemployment numbers are out and they are terrible.

States are running out of money.

People are not going to be getting anymore money from the government unless Congress acts.

This depends on Mitch McConnell, who currently says there’s no reason to do anything, other than to “assess the situation.” I guess he’s next door to Steve who is watching the numbers carefully.

But what do you want? This is exactly what the Republicans said they would do if elected. Nothing at best and at worst they’d rip down government. The Trump administration is in court to try and get rid of Obamacare thus throwing millions of people off health care. Many got on this program when they lost their health care because it was tied to their job. When they lost their job so went their health care. What is the Republican plan for health care? Well, it’s a little early for that don’t ya think? I mean they have to assess and watch. They haven’t had a health care plan in when? Nixon? And that was just a reshuffling of who got to rip us off. So it’s been forty or fifty years and even then what they proposed was shit. Yeah, let’s get rid of what we got and wait for them to do something.

You’ve seen this play out before. You know how it ends.

121 Days until the election on November 3^rd

201 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS A large statue of an Egyptian bull. The Egyptians used to pray to bulls and they buried each sacred bull in a large sarcophagus (as shown). This went on for thousands of years. It ended with the reign of Cleopatra. In those thousands of years there is not a report of all that reverence paying off.

Thursday July 2, 2020

122 Days until the election on November 3^rd

202 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

We’ve seen Trump for who he is. We’ve seen it for a long time. Some longer than others. But now for the vast majority of people in this country and around the world there can be little doubt. I imagine we’ll hear the “this can’t be” chorus for awhile; followed by, “but it is.” Then the sad truth will be there. Laid out in front of us.

Because his behavior is so staid, it isn’t hard to predict what he will do. 

This became appallingly clear to anyone following his behavior in regards to the latest Russian catastrophe – the bounty being paid for American soldiers’ deaths. Trump said it was a hoax, being perpetrated by the fake news. His minions in the White House have made the predictable excuses: it wasn’t credible, he can’t read, he doesn’t read, no one told him, the people saying these things are bad people, etc. etc.

So where are we? People in high places are stating the obvious – the man is unfit for the job.

What will happen?

One of two things: 

– He will complete his term. 

– He will be removed from office before he completes his term. 

Which is worse?

It’s hard to say. How much more damage can he do?

That is always the question isn’t it? How bad can it get? We are continually astounded and astonished by his depravity. Not surprised.

What if he is removed? Then what? Mike Pence. OMG! 

My only fantasy is that they both get impeached at the same time.

Well, it’s not my only fantasy, but the only one relevant to this topic.

Okay, it’s not. (Not the only one relevant.) 

Fantasy 1 – He will complete his term and Joe Biden becomes President. What does Joe do first?

Fantasy 2 – Both Pence and Trump are taken out of office in a double impeachment, thus denying Trump the pardon he hoped Pence would give him. Nancy Pelosi becomes President until the election. What does she do first?

Ah, me. There is so much to consider.

Meanwhile, we now know the name of the bagman in Afghanistan. The man who was paying the Taliban to kill our soldiers. We also know the price – $100,000 per. 

We know also what the president will do about this, and about the pandemic.

Nothing.

122 Days until the election on November 3^rd

202 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Buying frankincense and myrrh in Petra.

WednesdayJuly 1, 2020

123 Days until the election on November 3^rd

203 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Maya Angelou said (and I probably am misquoting a bit) “When someone tells you who they are believe them the first time.” 

Yeah, that’s our problem. We don’t believe. Not the first time, nor the second, It’s not until “WE” get smacked in the face over and over again that some of us say either, “Well maybe, I dunno.” Or “I don’t believe it.”

Like Trump and the snake, you knew who he was and what he was before you picked him up. Now that he’s doing exactly what he has done all his life don’t act surprised.

Steve Benen in his book “The IMPOSTORS” lays out the case that we’ve seen play out for years and that is that the Republican Party is no longer interested in governing, only in holding onto power. Yet, some want to believe otherwise.

Look, I get it. Co-equal branches of government and all that. Makes one think that there are two political parties in this country and yeah they have different ideas on how the country should be run, but that is no longer true. There hasn’t been a cohesive vision, strategy, or plan on anything by the Republican Party for years – decades, and it shows no abatting. 

Why is that? Why has the Republican Party abandoned the idea of governing? Simply, because it is easier not to, and it is easier to stay in power if you don’t agree with your opponents and you don’t do anything so you can’t be blamed for having done something.

That’s hypocritical, I know. It’s cynical, yeah. But it’s true.

Many people in Richmond, where I live, got good jobs at the local Dupont plant. They got nice pensions too. They talk about the good old days, if we could only go back to them. They seem to forget that Mr. Dupont was forced to cough up the pensions. He didn’t do it out of the goodness of his heart and it damn sure wasn’t a Republican administration that made him do it.

Then there’s Walmart. Sam Walton was forced by the courts to pay overtime. It was the law and he ignored it. He was pissed. He handed out the checks with the warning that anyone who cashed them would be fired. The good old days. Rock on.

Now we have the Confederate monuments. Remember our heritage! Yeah. Remember that in the 1920s when the Jim Crow laws weren’t working anymore people pissed off about that started putting up those statues. This had nothing to do with the Civil War, which some try to imply. It’s like putting up statues to other opponents. Ben Franklin never spoke to his son after the Revolutionary War because his son was a Tory. Seems we forgot that history is written by the winners. Why are the southerners whining? They lost. They are losers. Oh sorry, let’s reach across the aisle. Oh wait, you didn’t. Yet you want someone else to do it because you whine? Forget Hell! Is the bumper sticker that is sold in those backwoods convenience stores in the south with a Rebel soldier on it waving a sword. No, I don’t forget. Hey, it’s in the name of the soldier – Rebel. In other words Traitor. America – Love it of Leave it. Isn’t it time you left?

Oh sorry, there’s no where to go because no one wants you. Europe says they don’t want us. We weren’t invited to the dance. Why? Seems the Republican governors who have demonstrated over and over again that they can’t contain this virus have made it’s spread their number one priority. Yeah. That’s right. I mean how else can you account for the fact that our country can’t stop the spread of this thing? Governors have actively worked to keep the virus alive and moving through our population. It has gotten so bad throughout the south that their hospitals systems are on the verge of being overrun.

What to do? Oh, maybe wear a mask you say? Good move. Too bad you are a little late to the dance.

Then we have the President and the whole business about Russia paying to assassinate our troops. Every time the White House comes out with a lame excuse, the press comes out with more evidence to countermand it. The president didn’t know. (Yes he did. It was in his daily briefing on February 27^th.) It may have been in his daily brief, but he doesn’t read. He has to be told – orally. (He was. John Bolton told him. Oh and it was in intelligence briefings a year earlier too.) Well, you know if it isn’t directly about him he doesn’t listen. (Yeah, we know.)

Sarah Cooper the comedian who lip-syncs to his words has a new video out. She is funny, but it’s not only the lip-sync, but if you listen to what she is lip-syncing to, you realize that it is utter gibberish and or incoherent stupidity. It’s not stuff we haven’t heard before. It’s not like she had to go out of her way to find some weird little tidbit. This is the kind of thing he says all the time in public. This is who he is. This is what he does. He spouts nonsense as a matter of course.

The Republicans in charge, in Congress, in positions of power around the country have carefully and deliberately set a course of no governance. They have no intention of governing. They have either lost the ability to govern or is the case most of the time have decided to not govern because it is both hard and it doesn’t necessarily get them re-elected. Run on their record? What? And have someone say they don’t like what they did? Hell no. It’s easier to say, “Can’t blame me. I didn’t do it.” What they leave out is “I did nothing.” 

That’s not true. They’ve stood in the way of any progress. Not progressive ideas, progress in general. Look at health care, John Boehner said in the over twenty five years he was in Congress he never saw a Republican health care plan. What did they do when they took power in the House? They voted to repeal Obamacare over forty times. What did they offer instead? Nothing. 

What has the Trump administration done on health care? Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and his lawyers are in court trying to get what Congress hasn’t gutted to get rid of Obamacare altogether. What do they propose instead? Nothing.

Does it defy logic? Yes and no. 

If you are operating under the illusion that there are two parties in this country and that when one or the other is in power they have different philosophies of government then you are operating under a misconception. The Republican Party of today has no interest in governance. Sound bites is as far as it goes.

Sorry. But they keep showing you and me, who they are. Let’s believe them.

123 Days until the election on November 3^rd

203 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Seven Headed Naga – Angkor

Tuesday June 30, 2020

124 Days until the election on November 3^rd

204 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

We are now at a crossroads, and I’m surprised how quickly it evolved.

It started on Friday, late in the day. There was a report that Russia had been paying the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American troops. It was also reported the Trump knew about it.

Trump tweeted that it wasn’t true. He called it The Russian Hoax and, of course, Fake News. But then the reports kept coming in. The sources grew. The White House tried to push back. They said the president wasn’t informed because the sources weren’t credible, that he hadn’t seen it. Was it in his Daily Brief? Well, he doesn’t read his daily brief and if he wasn’t orally told then he didn’t know. Was he told? No comment. 

At this point the discussion switched to how could we know if he knew? Well, it turns out that everything the president sees is stamped and dated. If it was in The Daily Brief one could also look there and see if it was in fact there. 

By Monday it was clear that someone had seen it high up and there was a report that SEAL Team 6 had raided a Taliban stronghold and recovered $500,000.00. The reporting that the reports weren’t credible were melting away. Now the conversation switched to “if the president wasn’t informed who was?” and “Were the people around the president so scared to tell him that they didn’t? Or was it that he in fact knew and did nothing?” The consensus seems to be that he knew and did nothing. For how long? Four months. 

Four months the president knew that Putin had been ordering and paying for the killing of American troops and what had the president done in that time? He had had six calls with Putin. He had asked once again to let Russia back into the G7. He had pulled troops out of Germany, which is what Russia has wanted for decades, and we got nothing.

It is so bad that the Republicans against Trump, known as The Lincoln Project, have run a very negative ad about all this. That pales in comparison to what a Veterans organization ad looks like. That ad has stamped in big capital yellow letters “TRAITOR”. 

Veterans voted two to one for Trump. Do you think they will this time?

There are those who think the Corona Virus is a hoax perpetrated by the Dems to try and steal the election from Donald. I wonder what they are spinning in their brains to explain this? Frankly, I don’t care, but still…

What else has Donald done? I think he’s played golf with Lindsey Graham. And he tweeted a video of a guy riding by in a golf cart yelling “White Power.” What’s the excuse? He didn’t hear the guy yelling “White Power.” The only problem with that excuse is that it is the only thing that one can hear on the audio. Maybe, he had the sound down? Yeah, let’s go with that.

Meanwhile Mike Pence went to Texas where he sat in a mega church and listened to a hundred plus person choir singing to a packed no mask wearing congregation. No the choir wasn’t wearing masks either. So let me break that down for you. The head of the White House Corona Virus Response Team was in an indoor event with hundreds perhaps thousands of people packed shoulder to shoulder spitting on each other. 

Mike was supposed to go to similar events in Florida and Arizona but he cancelled them, not the trip, just going to the spitting event. I guess they figure they need every vote they can get in those states and if the people get sick now they may die before the election and won’t be able to vote. Let’s not forget that the leading states in the huge upward curve of Corona Virus infections are Texas, Florida, and Arizona. Those states have Republican governors. Why aren’t my right wing friends putting up memes and charts and “I bet no one will repost this” signs on Facebook about this?

Speaking of Facebook, they’ve been losing advertisers over the Black Lives Matter stuff, because Facebook has done little or nothing to stop the hate lie speech on their platform. But don’t worry they’ve got a team on it. Yeah, their team is calling advertisers asking them not to drop them as an account. Facebook hasn’t changed their behavior around getting rid of hate speech.

So now what?

Isn’t it interesting that when it comes to standing up for our troops, for defending our freedoms, and pointing out unpatriotic behavior it is what is described as the liberal media that is doing it? Where’s Fox News? Where are the Rush Limbaugh’s and the Alex Joneses? Why they are still sucking the rear end of Trump?

We now have a clear choice: do you support the troops or do you support the killer in chief?

There is another question and that is why would Putin do this? There is much evidence that Russia is very conflicted on whom they would want to be President. They don’t like disorder and protest. Trump seems to foment that, so there is a good case to be made that they would prefer Biden.

So why would Putin do this?

I think the answer is simple and obvious.

Because he can.

124 Days until the election on November 3^rd

204 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS What are you looking at? (Duck, Duck, Goose)

Monday June 29, 2020

125 Days until the election on November 3^rd

205 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

It’s Sunday night and I decided to get a jump on things. I have a prediction, here goes:

DATELINE: The White House, Monday October 19, 2020.

Today Mike Pence with Donald J. Trump hovering behind him announced that “they” had discovered a vaccine for the Corona Virus. No longer will any of us have to live in fear. There is a vaccine! All will be saved!

Dr. Anthony Fauci was seen wearing a mask, with his head down shaking his head.

DATELINE: The White House, Tuesday November 17, 2020. Today the junior assistant copy room person to the deputy assistant to the now dismissed junior assistant to the deputy assistant in charge of paper shuffling and obfuscation announced that in fact the vaccine they had turned out to not be a vaccine. “We were surprised,” said Mr. Dildo. “We thought we had a vaccine.” It seems that the White House two weeks before the election received some viles marked “Covid Vaccine.” And based on that announced the existence of a vaccine. 

Several volunteers were brought in and injected with the “vaccine.” One reported a feeling of dizziness and euphoria. A young lady excused herself to the bathroom where she was found with her head in the toilet vomiting.

When asked by reporters why this wasn’t reported earlier Mr. Dildo responded that it was not his job and he believed it had been the responsibility of others. He noted he wasn’t sure as he had just been hired yesterday.

Lab results have been obtained from the vials, which were surreptitiously given to the New York Times and the Washington Post. Both newspapers report that the vaccine was 151 proof tequila and came from a one Antonio Rodriguez who is quoted as saying, “This shit will kill anything.”

Based on his “expert testimony and opinion” the White House announced the long awaited miracle cure.

########################## Exeunt #################

Don’t forget. You heard it here first! (Details may vary from this report.)

My right wing friends have been busy posting “Who will stand with the police?” memes.

For some reason they aren’t posting the videos of the cops grabbing the 14 year old boy and throwing him to the ground and hitting his head on the pavement.

Or the one of the guy with the giant sniper rifle on top of a building scanning a BLM rally.

Or the report that looked at 141 protests and found no Antifa or BLM protestors involved in the violence. What was identified were the Boogaloo white supremacists  causing violence and mayhem. I wonder why they didn’t show that with a “Who’s willing to repost this?”

Okay, moving on.

The latest news is that the president was not told that the Russians were paying money to have our soldiers killed. This according to the president.

Excuse me. Excuse me. I have a question, “How would he know?”

I have another question, “If he did know would he tell us?”

Okay let’s take the last question first – no.

What? You want more than a “no”? Why? Okay. Think about it. If he knew and did nothing that’s bad. Better to say he didn’t know. Besides, he lies. He lies when he doesn’t have to. He just lies. Did he lie in this case? Maybe. Probably? No.

This brings us to the first question and my last response to the second question, which was no. As in “No, he probably didn’t lie.” 

The reason I say that is because he probably didn’t know. The reason he didn’t know was not that he wasn’t told. This is where I believe the media has missed the mark with their headline inquires of “Why Wasn’t the president Told?” I think the better question and headline would be “Why Wasn’t the president Paying Attention When He Was Being Told?”

The answer to the last question is simple. Based on what we know about the man he doesn’t pay attention to anything that doesn’t bear directly on him. 

What happens now? Some poor bastard will have to say, “We told him” Trump will tweet, “No you didn’t,” and the guy will lose his job.

I contend that the president was probably told about this on multiple occasions and he never paid attention. Hence, he can rightful claim he didn’t know. He didn’t know, and this is where the media missed the point, he didn’t know because he wasn’t listening.

Simple.

Next.

This leads me to the ultimate question of today. Why?

Why does this seem to happen in so many places in our society? Why do we keep getting idiots running things? It doesn’t matter if it’s government or business, many of them seem to be run by people unfit for the job. (Remember Peter Lynch’s investing advice – Invest only in companies that any idiot can run because eventually an idiot will be running it.)

Once again I have the answer. (You are so lucky to have read this far.)

The answer is The Peter Principle. Everyone Rises to Their Level of Incompetence.

Peter suggested that people keep getting promoted and asked to take on more and more until they finally arrive at the place where they can’t do the job and they end up staying there.

While I used to think this to be true, it may be worse than what old Pete suggested. I say that because the solution would be to demote everyone back to their last level where they were competent and the world would be a better place. However, I think their are some real over achievers who have managed to fail upward multiple levels.

How does this happen?

Once again you are in luck, because I have the answer.

Imagine you are a manager promoted to a position that you have no idea what you are doing. What do you do? You depend on the people around you. But they, like you, have no business doing the jobs they are in. This is the blind leading the blind. Enter the snake oil salesman. He says he has the answer.

What do you know? You don’t know squat. So you, and all the rest of your band of fools, know no better. So you buy whatever he is selling and things go to hell. What to do? Point fingers, blame, cry, send out your resume and get a new job.

Either that or stay in your old one or retire to some consulting teaching gig.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Republican candidates for 2016. Go over the list. Were any of them any good? They were all deeply flawed. They had gotten to where they were by BS. I remember some had talking points that were easily shown to be factually inaccurate, but that didn’t stop them from spouting them all the more.

Enter Donald Trump: “I’ll erase the deficit. I will fix health care. I will drain the swamp. I will end the war in …” It didn’t matter, he would take care of it. The only things he said that were not of that sort, that were kind of original, were bat-shit stupid. The Wall, The Immigrants, etc. It was racist and hate filled. But he promised more with no real – what would you call it? – Clue? As to how to do anything. 

This was built on a solid foundation of lies and bullying. He was aided and abetted by our own system of media, governance, and greed. Not to mention foreign interference.

So, how do we pull back from the abyss? Maybe, we don’t. Maybe, we end up taking a Thelma and Louise style ride off the cliff.

Unless and until we figure out how to stop idiots from running things we may be doomed to repeat this sort of nonsense.

Sorry, I had all the answers to this the last point. I have risen to my level. You?

125 Days until the election on November 3^rd

205 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS A fort in Jordan. Commanding the sand.