Trump

Day 925 Friday July 19, 2019

472 Days until the 2020 election and 554 days until the Inauguration

I was going to talk about the sad state of our union and the world. How the chiselers and fore flushers are not only chipping away at our democracy but at our planet. As I made my coffee I turned on the TV. There was a retrospective on Our sending a man to the Moon. I heard John Kennedy speak. “We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy, but that it is hard.” His words still send a shiver down my spine. He united us with his dream. The accomplishments of the Apollo program united not just the nation but the world. One sixth of humanity watched Neil Armstrong make that historic step.

Now?

On the eve of this day I listened to our president deny the very thing he had done the night before. Repeatedly lie. This after listening that afternoon to the acting Director of Homeland Security say he hoped, hoped, that what they were doing would stop the flow of immigrants. This despite all evidence to the contrary. He lied about what was going on at our southern border. I had to turn it off.

Then I learned why the Bureau of Land Management is being uprooted and moved to Colorado. A fat faced shill for the oil and gas companies has been moved in as the acting secretary of the Interior and he lives in Colorado. This fact and the fact that the Trump administration may have successfully gotten rid of anyone in the department of Agriculture that is telling the truth has emboldened them to get rid of anyone who might protect our public lands. Remember the last secretary? Ryan Zinke? Yeah, the guy who insisted that they fly his personal flag on the Interior building anytime he was there? The guy who rode a horse to work the first day? The guy who had to resign amid a bunch of personal scandal? His replacement is cut from similar cloth.

One of Trump’s cronies wants to build a 28,000 home community in Benson Arizona, population 5,000, complete with golf courses, in the desert, where they don’t have enough water now. Imagine what 28,000 homes and a bunch of golf courses will do to the area? Bureau of Land Management folks have been saying they need to study the situation more. Not anymore! They’ve been told to get in line and shape up. Get with the program. 

A while back I talked about the Roman Republic and how it ended up falling to the tyranny of a single man, an emperor. Once you get that kind of strong man government it’s hard to get rid of it. In the case of Rome, it took 700 years and then chaos for many centuries after. One of the big causes of the fall was people chipping away at the institutions. Everyone taking their little piece, and not supporting what they had. After all, as far as they knew the Republic had been there for as long as they lived, why should it  change? They’ll just grab a little bit for themselves. Who’s going to notice? 

I’ve mentioned a buddy of mine who said his grand parents grew up in Germany, Prussia, actually, as Hitler was coming to power. “They all knew he was crazy, but when they decided to act it was too late.”

I heard an interview yesterday with a scientist who has studied the water situation on the Indian subcontinent. Much of that area depends on the glaciers in the Hindu-Kush. You know, where Mount Everest is? Yeah well the glaciers are melting. By 2100, in the best case scenario 50% of the glaciers will be left. More likely only 30%. Farmers also depend on ground water. However, with “modern” techniques they have had to go deeper and deeper to find water. This has multiple effects. Roots of plants can no longer reach the water table and die, and oh yeah, they eventually will run out of water from the ground. The melting glaciers mean less water from them. The overall effect? Well, it’s already a problem. The six countries that depend on this water are already squabbling over it. Imagine what will happen when two nuclear armed countries are facing little or no water?

Meanwhile in uplifting news, Ilan Omar went home to her crime infested hell hope, called Minnesota, and was met by a large cheering crowd.

Megan Rapinoe was interviewed in the back of last week’s Time magazine, which I finally got around to looking at. 

I will leave you with her words.

“Calm Yourself, 

Believe in Yourself, 

Stick to your Routine,

Smash it Home.”

472 Days until the 2020 election and 554 days until the Inauguration

PS The author practicing his Megan Rapinoe victory pose. GOALLLLL!!!!!! 

Day 923 Wednesday July 17, 2019

474 Days until the 2020 election and 556 days until the Inauguration

Will our government survive until we can get this guy out of office?

Several days ago the deadline for scientists at the Department of Agriculture to make up their minds as to whether they were going to move to Kansas City on their own dime, to report to a building that does not exist had come. Clearly, this is a plan designed to destroy this part of agriculture. These scientists have been on the forefront of agricultural research for decades. It was their group that developed penicillin in huge batches for WWII and provided our soldiers with a big advantage over their enemy. If Trump gets away with this, that agency’s research arm will be gone.

I have not heard the status of that fight at this time, but before I could I saw yesterday that he is now at it again. This time it’s the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). He’s “reorganizing” the department, moving them out of Washington to Colorado. 

Who is really behind this? 

Trump isn’t that smart.

Is it Bannon or his ghost?

In the case of the hateful racist stuff at the border we know it’s Stephen Miller, but here? I don’t know.

Yes, Bannon said he wanted to reduce the administrative state. So are we going to get rid of all the scientists in the government? Are we going to abandon our position as the world leader in scientific research? 

Let me suggest something. Let’s put a few sand flies infected with leishmaniasis in the offices of Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. You may not have heard of leishmaniasis. It is a parasite. It likes to eat the soft tissue of humans, notably, the ear lobes, nose, and cheeks. In other words “It eats your face off,” not figuratively, but literally. 

This parasite has been confined to remote parts of the tropics until recently when cases started showing up in Texas that were people who had never been to those places in the world where this sand fly was present. It turns out that scientists (oh those scum!) had determined that this particular sand fly is carried by the Brown Wood Rat and that said rat had moved north due to warmer weather conditions (Some would call it climate change.)

Guess where you can get treated for leishmaniasis? 

There is only one place.

The U.S. government. NIH to be specific. 

Hey, let’s save a few bucks and get rid of those pesky scientists too, okay?

Steve? Stephen? What are you saying? You know if you had some lips left you might be able to talk.

474 Days until the 2020 election and 556 days until the Inauguration

PS Maine? No. The San Juans.

Day 921 Monday July 15, 2019

476 Days until the 2020 election and 558 days until the Inauguration

Did Trump make racist tweets?

I have a water sprinkler attachment on my hose that has a dial on it. I can turn it to: “Sprinkle” or “Flood” or “Fan” or “Jet” or “Mist” or any number of water settings.

I mention this because my Trump-o-Meter has similar settings.

The Trump-o-Meter can process any comment by Trump and translate it into real English and/or note the veracity of the comment.

It has multiple settings depending on the amount of sarcasm, spite, malice, or humor you want.

It also has various voice settings, such as Chris Rock, Cher, hillbilly, Republican etc.

The output from the question, “Did Trump make racist tweets?” elicited no response at first.

I had to hit return several times. I thought perhaps I had thrown the computer into a “dead hang.”

This is a state where the computer doesn’t know what to do next and so does nothing.

It turns out in the case of my question “Did Trump make racist tweets?” the Trump-o-meter was waiting for more input. After I hit several Carriage Returns, it came back to me with this”

“When?”

I put in “This weekend” and hit Return.

Again it sat there for a considerable amount of time. I was just getting ready to hit Return again, when it came back with this:

“You’re kidding, right?”

I responded, “No, I’m not kidding. Did Trump make racist tweets this weekend?”

Ever since I put in the AI upgrade this sort of thing has been happening. The Trump-O-Meter seems to be getting slower, I would have thought giving it artificial intelligence would have helped. I don’t think so.

After pausing for damn near 45 seconds it finally spat out:

“Of course.”

I responded, “Of course, what?”

“Of course it was racist. Are you stupid or something.? My mama would have whipped me for such a dumb ass question.”

(I had apparently spun the dial* to “Chris Rock” mode.)

*okay, it not really a dial. Okay? It’s a slot machine looking window on the app** and I apparently let my mouse wander over to that part or the screen where it hovered on the window and then I must have tapped the mouse, which activated the Pointer which spun the mode dial and landed on “Chris Rock.”

** Please do not ask me to send you a copy of the Trump-O-Meter. I can’t give you the new release (2.0). I’m sorry.***

*** You can have the original Beta version:

BETA RELEASE – TRUM-O-METER

(This release of the Trump-O-Meter only responds to “yes/no” questions.

Here is the full release: (Write this down or cut and paste to your device.)

Did Trump say, “Yes.”?

Trump-O-Meter, Analysis and Answer:

“NO”

Did Trump say, “No”?

Trump-O-Meter, Analysis and Answer:

“YES”

###############    End of Trump-O-Meter – Beta Release)

(not guaranteed to work when Fox News is broadcasting unmuted in same room)

In other news, oh no, same news, Trump said four Congresswomen should go back to America.

That’s not quite how he said it, but close enough. He managed to say it in a white nationalist way.

Okay, moving on. Paul Ryan has written a book. Jeff Flake has made a comment. Both are saying the same thing: neither they, nor most members of the Republican party have the balls to stand up to a bully. What do the recommend for their fellow politicians still in office? Keep quiet and maybe it will pass. 

Meanwhile AOC and three other “women of color” have called it like they see it and boy oh boy are people pissed. Some folks don’t like hearing the truth. Have you seen the picture of Mike Pence at our concentration camp? Have you seen the same picture but with Nazis? (Okay, it’s not the same picture, just the same juxtaposition of people in a similar situation.) Some folks (like say the president) don’t like it when AOC and others call what we are doing at the souther border what it is – putting people (children) in cages in concentration camps. 

Remember when someone tried to say it was like summer camp? 

Hey, why not have Baron Trump spend his summer at one of those camps?

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about those lovely folks in that bar in England where the Fox News reporter was that started screaming “Fuck Trump.” I’ve suggested that could be a chant at every sports event world wide. I picture cheerleaders holding up signs. You know like the ones that they flash to one side of the stadium and then the other. Nothing like a nimble perky young lady holding up a sign saying, “FUCK” and when the crowd responds then her pal holds up a sign in the other directions saying, “TRUMP”

They could start off slowly and then pick up speed:

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK………….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…….TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCK…TRUMP

FUCKTRUMP

FUCKTRUMP

FUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMPFUCKTRUMP

YEAHHHHHH!!!

Moving on. Bill De Blasio was on Morning Joe. His main point (and this will save you 25 minutes of his babbling) was that the Democratic Party needs to be the party of the working people – again.

That took multiple rounds of saying the same thing, but then he said something mildly interesting and then something absolutely stunning.

He said every Dem should be against NAFTA and the new trade bill is just NAFTA 2.0. (Mildly interesting, and I’m not sure on the basis for his conclusion is very strong. However, as political fodder it’s great.)

Then he said something truly stunning. I’ll call it revolutionary. He said labor unions should be allowed to organize across national borders. 

What? Wow. It makes sense from a working man’s point of view and an economist’s POV. I mean if auto-workers could negotiate for factory jobs regardless of where the factory was located this would stop a lot of the exporting of jobs to somewhere  where the labor was cheaper. But … but … Isn’t that Marxism? (or Communism?, or Socialism? or something bad?)

I haven’t read the Communist Manifesto in a long time. Maybe, I never read it, and only skimmed it. I can’t remember. What I do remember is the phrase “Workers of the World Unite.” I hope that’s right. Isn’t that what de Blasio is suggesting?

What the heck?

What this really is, in terms of economics, is what is known as “The Farm Problem.”

Except that it is applied to workers not farmers and their produce.

The farm problem is this – if farmers are all growing the same crop then:

When conditions are good, everyone has plenty to sell and the price for their crop drops,

When conditions are bad, no one has anything to sell and prices for their crop is high.

In either condition the farmer ends up with little money.

Economists look at their models and they talk about “elastic” and “inelastic” demand and costs ( The terms for costs are different (“fixed” and “variable”) but the idea is the same.)

Inelastic demand is demand for stuff you got to have no matter the price.

(eg You need gas to get to work.)

Elastic demand varies with the price.  

(eg It would be nice to take a road trip, but if the price of gas is too high, you won’t take that trip.)

Farmers face the same thing with crops but they are looking at expenses. It costs something to buy the seed and fertilizer. Those costs are fixed. IE you can’t change those prices. What costs are variable? Labor. that is if you are doing it yourself. In the farm problem, the farmer can pay himself nothing, and often does, Economists say that, in this case, all the variable costs have been squeezed out (or is it elastic costs?) either way what ever can be done for free or next to nothing is where the farmer is left.

And they are left with nothing. Zero, Nadda. Zilch. This pisses off farmers. But that, in a nutshell, is “the Farm Problem.” 

Then there is the problem with football stadiums and the problem with labor, each of which is, in a weird way, similar to the farm problem.

If you have corporations that can move willie nillie to wherever there are too many people for the amount of work available, then those corporations can get people to work for next to nothing. How low can they go? Look at the farm problem, they will work for the amount that barely keeps them alive. (Football stadiums is in a weird way similar but in the opposite direction, as are the Olympics, cities or counties will pay a lot to have the Olympics or a football team. The economics make no sense, but they go ahead anyway.)

What’s the solution for workers? Bill de Blasio thinks it’s unions and letting them negotiate around the world. 

Think that’s bad?

Got anything better?

PS Bats! In this case fruit bats, also known as dog bats because of their large bodies. As night approaches they swarm out of their home. Hundreds and hundreds of them – thousands dotting the sky.

Day 918 Friday July 12, 2019

479 Days until the 2020 election and 561 days until the Inauguration

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Good Morning (Campers? Vietnam?) I guess it depends on which movie you liked better*.

*”A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” or “Good Morning Vietnam”

A very interesting exchange went on last night. It was short and it was different.

It happened near the end of Chris Hayes’ show. Chris mentioned the term “high crimes and misdemeanors” and said to the guest commentator, who happened to have written a book on impeachment cleverly called “Impeachment” that the terms high crimes and misdemeanors was rather nebulous and, you know, what is a high crime and what is a misdemeanor? The guest was a quiet spoken egg head type. I had never seen him on any of the talk shows before. He quietly and quickly pulled Chris up short with the comment of (I paraphrase here) “oh no, it was a term that was well understood at the time of it’s being written.” 

The author went on to clarify. (And it was interesting to watch Chris stop, blink, and make that kind of “Oh?” face we would make when being corrected and informed (as opposed to the other “O” face, which is totally different**.))

** And the difference between “Oh” and “O” get it? I’m so clever.

High crimes and misdemeanors it turns out is not two different terms. It is one autonomous phrase. The author likened it to the term “motor vehicle.” It is one thing, ie one term. Then he gave an example, which kind of muddied the waters, but none the less was instructive. Shoplifting he said was a crime but did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. However, if you were president and took off to the beach on vacation for seven months that would be a misdemeanor that rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” ***

*** I find the last example particularly amusing because one of the greatest British prime ministers, William Gladstone, used to do just that – go to the beach for months at a time “to think” while he was PM! (Ha ha ha, I’m a riot.)

Speaking of high crimes and misdemeanors do you think we will ever learn what was behind Alec Acosta’s letting Jeff Epstein off so lightly? I mean there is no real credible explanation for his actions that we have heard so far. Either Acosta was bribed or blackmailed. That is the only thing I can think that would allow a Federal prosecutor to do what he did. 

While on one of my recent twenty hour plane rides, I watched the movie Peppermint starring Jennifer Gardiner. It’s an excellent action adventure movie btw and Gardiner is well cast for the part. In that movie there’s a corrupt judge who lets the men who killed her husband and daughter off the hook because he was on the take. Spoiler alert! Jennifer came back, after five years of training as an MMA fighter and learned how to use all sorts of deadly weapons. She tied up the judge with detonator cord which she connected to a cell phone. She left the judge in his home. Got on a bus and called the cell phone. BOOM! How’s that for Second Amendment justice? Oh I guess the 2^nd amendment doesn’t cover detonator cord. Too bad.

In Epstein’s upcoming case it seems more and more women, but at the time young girls are coming forward to say, “Yeah, he raped me.” Why now?” Oh, hum. well the guy is behind bars. The Federal prosecutor has said publicly that if this man molested you “We want to hear from you” and these women now feel safe to speak up.

His defense attorneys are trying to argue that he should be let go to stay at his “77 million dollar mansion.” To which I say, “Bull Shit.” As has been pointed out people like Epstein have plenty of “77 million dollar mansions” and jet planes. BTW the attorneys offered to put up both his jet plane and his “77 million dollar mansion” as collateral. Big deal, let him stay incarcerated. (Look to see his attorneys argue next, “Well, if he’s got to stay incarcerated can you at least send him to the southern border to be caged with the young women down there?”

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. Epstein supposedly made his money as a hedge fund manager. He is said to be a billionaire. However, if you are a big time trader you leave a footprint. For example, one can see what George Soros traded and when he traded what he did. It leaves a financial mark. What about Epstein? Certainly, there is such a financial footprint for him? There isn’t. How can that be? It can’t. In other words, what he has been telling everyone all along about who he is and what he is, is a lie. He’s not the big hedge fund guy he claims to be. 

Okay. So where did he get his money? Good question. Does he really have money? Also, a good question. The answers to both questions may be: “He stole it” and “No” in that order.

Turns out there’s a guy who was found guilty of one of the largest Ponzi schemes of all time, and somehow, this is not clear to me as of this writing, Epstein got that guy’s ill gotten money. If this is the case then the money Epstein has, is that and no more, that is unless olde Jeffey pulled his own Ponzi scheme, which he was attempting to do by advertising that you could invest a billion with him (minimum). Maybe, someone gave him a billion.

Okay. Moving on to should Epstein stay in jail while awaiting trial? His attorneys argue that he should not because what he has been charged with is a minor infraction of the law at best. To which anyone who can read one sentence of the law he is being charge with can say, “Bull Shit.” But then that’s what defense lawyers seem to do, right? (ie lie)

I can hear the argument now. “No your honor my client is innocent of these charges. Yes the law says it is a violation of that law to ‘recruit’ women, young women, for the purpose of unwanted sexual activity. Well, yes your honor it is claimed the Mr. Epstein had an associate outside of a high school with the specific purpose of finding young women whom he could ‘help.’ Well, yes it meant he gave them money, but that was to help them, not for sex. Well, yes he did have them massage him, and yes he asked them to play with his nipples while he masterbated. But, what? Hold them down while he thrust his penis into them repeatedly when they didn’t want that? Is that rape you honor? Really? I didn’t know that. Thanks. Well, he didn’t do that. I mean come on. The girls were 14 or 15 at the time, what did they know about rape? Besides it’s only a 53 page indictment and that’s old news. Well, yes ten more have come forward and said similar things. What do they know? Oh right, and there is the NBC interview with another woman who claims she was held down and raped. But really? Oh. I see. By the way, we can have some girls sent to your house tonight. No? How about in your chambers? No? Okay. Hey come on. He’s a good guy. You don’t think so? Gee whiz.”

In other news Donald Trump flanked by the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General claimed victory in their efforts to ignore the Constitution and flout the law and the give the middle finger to the courts by claiming that by giving up on the attempt to put a citizenship question on the Census 2020 form they had won a great victory. One commentator likened this to going to a poker tournament and losing all your money and clothes and claiming you won. 

Just to be clear on this point, the Constitution says everyone in the country is to be counted every ten years. Period. Full stop. It doesn’t say only citizens. It doesn’t say “not immigrants.” It doesn’t say, “Not illegals.” It says EVERYONE. Now you can say, “You think” this or “You think” that, but the Constitution is clear. It is not ambiguous. (That is unless you are Donald Trump who doesn’t read, or know anything.) Add to this that the Republican operatives who came up with this super duper idea knew exactly what they were doing – trying to suppress the count of illegals and therefore limit the funds and resources the jurisdictions that have to deal with immigrants and illegals would have for the next ten years, and thus give more money and aid to whiter more Republican areas of the country.

And, oh by the way, please remember we fought a war over a principle connected to all this. that principle is called “No Taxation Without Representation” but I guess it’s okay to force immigrants to pay taxes, just as long as they don’t get anything for it or from it. Kind of a weird twist on the old Revolutionary principle don’t ya think?

Gosh, even the Supreme Court accused the government bringing the case of deception. Thus inflaming the right and calling for Roberts to be impeached. I mean can you imagine the gall of a Supreme Court justice to not believe a government official when they say they want to protect people under the Voting Rights Act when those self same justice have written evidence to the contrary? Just because those government officials said they needed the data even after the Census Bureau, (You know the professionals who know something about counting) say that what they are asking for isn’t the best way to get that information and  that there are better more accurate ways to obtain the kind of information they claim they want, and the justices have evidence that those officials claiming to want this information turned down the suggestion fo a better way to get that information?

Yeah, let’s impeach Roberts for weighing the evidence and calling BS on BS.

Meanwhile Kamala Harris is looking more and more Presidential everyday, as is Elizabeth Warren.

Harris/Warren? Warren/Harris? Warren/Rapino? 

Hum.

479 Days until the 2020 election and 561 days until the Inauguration

PS Well, I dunno. Bingo, you say? What kind of bingo?