Trump

Day 832

564 Days to the 2020 election and 642 Days to Inauguration Day

Statement by Mr. Bryce Holliwell, World Traveler and BFD.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

and all the rest of you.

It is with a semi-heavy heart that I announce the end of civilization as we know it.

That is why I have the phony backdrop of Paris behind me, because it was in France that civilization began and now ended.

As we await the press conference of Mr. William P. Barr to tell us some shit about a report that he won’t let us see, has now redacted, and is trying to pawn off to Congress as the real thing let me remind you that we’ve seen this before from Mr. Barr. Let me also remind you that he was the mastermind behind one of the greatest criminal conspiracy coverups in the history of the United States of America. With this latest venture into unlawfulness Mr. Barr has amassed by my count three strikes, which if this were a baseball game he’d be out.

But it is not baseball, it is civilization. I can only hope that if civilization is to end, that it should end much the way it found it’s mid-point, with The French Revolution and the guillotine. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last night we went to see and hear David Sedaris, a very funny man. I have to say the guy who was sitting directly behind me and thought it a good idea to hoot loudly at every cute thing Sedaris said at the beginning of the show was not as bad as the fellow who screamed into the microphone which in turn blasted it out of the speakers at my nephew’s soccer game earlier this week. I learned to cover my ears every time the other team scored a goal, because the announcement caused me to jump out of my skin every time. 

But I have unfortunately wandered off the path here…

Ah me. Where was I?

Oh yes, the end of civilization…

as we know it.

This of course raises the question of, “When did it all begin?”

That is civilization…

as we know it.

Not all civilization, just civilization as we know it.

But first let me say, before I forget again, the reason for this press conference, and I’d like to thank all of you who came, because I don’t think you are phony or the enemy of the people, I am by the way, one of those but not the other…

I’d also like to thank WDF for having me on.

That’s What Da – What Da – What Da Fuck?

Yes, where was I? Civilization, as we know it. It began in France. When Francis the first ask Leonardo to come live out his remaining years in an old folks home. Mr. Da Vinci did. Moving from Italy to France, where he died. Painting in France was transformed from flat crappy listless portraits to lush voluminous representations of reality. And France became the world’s leader in sophistication and taste.

Maybe not in all things practical, I mean you gotta wonder about building a place like Versailles and not having any toilets? Ah the French, you gotta love it.

We had warnings that civilization was ending. That art and culture was changing, but it took the burning of Notre Dame to symbolize and crystalize it for us.

My first thought when I heard the news was, “What? No fire suppression system?” Alas, no. Because why put one in? They hadn’t needed it in over 800 years? But now? Now we will shed tears and raise money to build anew. Maintain the old? Why bother? It’s been there forever, let someone else do that if they want to. 

“They don’t know what they’ve got til it’s gone…”

That should be a song lyric.

Oh, it is?

Damn, I’m good.

The end of civilization was thought to be when all out nuclear war happened, and it may still be the case, as was announced in Mad Magazine’s take off on The Daily News, which they called The Daily Dirt. In that parody, between the announcements of a starlet who got a bruise on her thigh while the apartment building was being robbed. (The robbers were in a different unit and she slipped in the shower and bruised herself.) and the announcement of 1,000 pieces of furniture for $9.99 (one toothpick box and 999 tooth picks) there was a small headline on the bottom of column six which said, “Nuclear War Declared.” At the bottom of that column it said, “Today Russia and the U.S. declared nuclear war,” It then went to the top of column seven and finished in small print, “which is the end of civilization as we know it.”

And that’s where we are right now.

Oh we saw the signs. We just ignored them.

In 1907 the art world was forever changed. Moving pictures came to Paris. The great artists who had gathered in Montematre realized that representation painting was dead because a new representational reality was upon them and they began the long journey looking for a new reality. 

That journey continues, with it’s many dead ends and false fronts.

Hand in hand with this journey are the manipulators and con men, or should I say “people”, con people. I wouldn’t want to leave anyone, like Sarah Sanders, out of the mix.

Yes the fore flushers and manipulators were there too. They were in a backroom scheming to start World War I so Britain could defeat Germany before it became too strong. Then again during the Spanish Civil War, which led to George Orwell’s writing of 1984. Then again after the Korean War with the founding of The John Birch Society and now with Fox News, Cambridge Analytica, and the vast right wing conspiracy so accurately identified by Hillary Clinton. 

Yes, they are still here among us. 

We will see yet another installment of heinousness dressed up in legalese and patriotism, but do not be deceived this is if not criminal, unpatriotic and not what are country is all about, or shouldn’t be. Not if we wish to remain the grand old gal.

I am giving this statement to get out in front of the phony narrative that will be advanced soon by Mr. Barr. He is giving a press conference about a report that no one has seen. He given a report like this before. To Congress, and the American people. It was about a memo he wrote telling that old bagman for Nixon, George H. W. Bush, that it was okay to send the FBI into a country to arrest someone without telling that country they were doing it. (Thus violating the rule of law known as The Charming Betsy – Ya gotta love that name – don’t ya?) He wrote a memo explaining the memo he had written earlier and now wouldn’t let anyone see. It turned out his ‘splainin’ was all a lie. So we know he’s a liar on this sort of thing. Of that there is no question.

He has no credibility. Yet he will try to sell it again. 

Remember he was also the guy who convinced H. W. Bush to pardon Ollie North and Cap Wineburger and the rest of the criminal involved in Iran-Contra on Bush’s last day in office.

This guy will do anything for – for what? Not love as Meatloaf sang. In fact Meatloaf said he’d do anything but he wouldn’t do that. 

Don’t worry Willie Barr will!

In fact, I’d like to announce the formation of a new effort and I’d invite Mr. Barr to be if not the head of it then the nominal head of it. “Judas, Inc.” With the slogan, “If you won’t sell us out, we will.”

Shekels? We won’t do it for Shekels. Heck we’ll do it, because that is what we do.

Ladies and Gentlemen in the next few hours we will see the end of civilization as we know it. 

Don’t ask God to save us.

Save yourself.

Save your fellow persons.

This has been Bryce Holliwell reporting speaking live from world headquarters.

564 Days to the 2020 election and 642 Days to Inauguration Day

 

PS Bryce Holliwell and the end of civilization as we know it.

Day 831 Wednesday April 17, 2019

565 Days to the 2020 election and 643 Days to Inauguration Day

I have shocking news. (NOT!)

William Barr is a liar. (FOR SURE.)

Proven, verifiable.

Yeah, I know. You’re shocked.

Want details? 

No? Too bad, you’re getting them.

Yeah, see it’s now come out that he’s lied before about stuff like this, and like Trump, he doesn’t even change his playbook. In fact, he’s using the same phrases that he used before, doing the same schtick that he did before.

“Oh you can’t see the report but I’ll give you my summary.”

His summary before was total BS. Is there any reason to believe this time is any different? (Answer: NO.)

Back when George H. W. Bush had just become president he had said he wished someone would go in and depose Noriega of Panama. He implied that the U.S. would help. (I have to wonder about all this because Noriega had been working for the CIA, which – like Sadam, who also had worked for the CIA – must have given him a false sense of security. Bush had been head of the CIA. In fact, the funniest sign in Washington for me is the one you see going south on the George Washington Parkway (that’s along the Potomac River, inside the beltway) “The George H. W. Bush Center for Intelligence.” I’ve thought a lot of things about the Bushs, but that ain’t one of the traits that comes to mind.)

Sorry, sidebar distraction, where was I? Oh yes, Noriega. So HW had been saying he wished the military in Panama would overthrow Noriega. They tried it. Got no help from the U.S. and they failed. Bush looked like an idiot. Then a few months later there was this story that the U.S. had come up with a change in policy that said they could go into another country and arrest someone who had done something criminal against U.S. law and that the foreign country didn’t have to be notified. You know, like if you wanted to arrest the head of a country on drug charges. You wouldn’t call him up and say, “Hey, bad boy, bad boy, don’t you know we’re coming for you.” (Should be a song lyric. It is? Damn, I’m good.) 

So that’s what Bush did. Who wrote the memo? Why Mr. Barr. 

Would he show said memo to anyone? No.

But…but, he would give a summary of its principle conclusions.

Hum, same wording he’s using now about the Mueller Report.

Turns out most of what he said in his summary was a lie. To be fair, he only lied about the big stuff and left out the most important details. You know stuff like “The memo is only about domestic law.” In fact, the memo was all about international law.

Okay, so Lawrence covered it night before last as news was breaking about it, and Rachel went into depth last night (4/16/19 show). They are both pointing to the same reporting by Ryan Goodman. It’s on a website called “justsecurity.com” Here’s the link to the article:

https://www.justsecurity.org/63635/barrs-playbook-he-misled-congress-when-omitting-parts-of-justice-dept-memo-in-1989/

It’s the same old crap. He’s pulling it again. Wasn’t once enough for Judas? Or are we at the Lucy and the football stage?

Okay, enough on that.

Pete Buttigieg. Very impressive. What I like about him is: he’s smart; he’s thought about stuff and knows what he wants to do*; he’s taking a long term view**.

* As opposed to Donald Trump, or Howard Shultz who are trying to pull the old “I’ll get really smart people and put them in a room” garbage. Or the other candidates, who seem to be still thinking about it or saying vanilla wishy washy stuff.

** By long term I mean he’s looking out to 2040 and 2050. Wow, a politician with a view longer than the next election.

Next. Bernie Sanders went on Fox News. Yeah. I wish more Dem candidates would do that. Apparently, when Bernie polled the audience about Medicare for All old Brent Baier was surprised that most of the audience liked the idea. Wow. I guess if more Dem candidates want to come on they probably won’t let them. I mean, why let reality seep in now? It would disturb their phony chi.

And lastly (unless I think of something else) dark matter may be fuzzy. It may be that it is made up of lots of super light stuff that doesn’t interact with light but has a gravitational pull. If this is true, then we have to look at a really wide field of stuff – like light years wide. They’ve looked. So far nothing. Maybe, it’s not really light stuff?

Notre Dame. It’s a shame. I wonder if this has spurred anyone else to ask about other churches and cathedrals, “Maybe we should raise money now for a fire suppression system?” That might be cheaper than rebuilding. Just saying. It comes back to that point I made about various entities (Constantinople, The Roman Republic, etc.) that people didn’t maintain, defend, and support them because “they had always been there” so they thought they always would be. Surprise.

In another weird (not so weird) twist of history. I always wonder, “when did a particular group realize allying themselves with one group against an enemy wasn’t such a good idea?” You know, like when did the indians with Cortez realize they were screwed?

Or how about not supporting your own team out of jealousy? My favorite example of that is Hannibal. He crossed the Alps came down on Rome. Defeated the Romans in battle, handing them the biggest defeat they had ever had. He sent word home to Carthage saying he needed supplies. Those back home were jealous of Hannibal and his family (who were very rich from their mines in Spain.) So they didn’t send any help. Not strong enough to take on the city of Rome directly, Hannibal wandered around what is now the Italy. Finally, the Romans got the upper hand, sacked and burned Carthage to the ground and put salt in the ground so nothing could grow there for a long time. 

But the Romans did the same stupid thing later on. They were being invaded by – I forget: Atila? Visigoths? Some group. There was a general who said, “Hey, we gotta defend ourselves. Help me.”

What did they do? They killed him. Then when the invading hordes showed up they said, “Oh my, I declare, what ever shall we do?” 

Good god. 

Help me.

Help your fellow man.

Meanwhile Canada ruled in favor of people over religion. Mike Huckabee says LGBTQ folks are the biggest threat to civilization, or some such. (Go back to playing the bass Mike.)

In a startling revelation I realize that black holes and Donald Trump have a lot in common. Both spin at very high speed, both suck in a lot of energy and give little back, both throw out huge swaths of streaming crap that has been torn to shreds. The big advantage of black holes is they are far away and you can’t see them.

And lastly, there are three commercials I really like. Two are the Google ads: the one with the two boys sitting on the edge of the bathtub with their faces covered in crayons or marker ink and a mother asking “Who thought this was a good idea?” and the older kid nods back to the younger one who covers his face with both hands. – love it.

Then there’s the Google ad that starts with all the chewed up stuff on the floor and the camera pans to a dog with his head leaning agains the side of a dresser and the off camera voice asks, “Did you eat all you doggie treats?”

Love both of those ads, but now I have another one. It’s an ad for an animated movie. Something about a friendly abominable snowman or some such. The ad has a loudmouth character saying to said A.S. “Throw me out of this hole” The fellow is thrown and reaches close to the top of the curved icy pit where he smacks into the wall, slides down, and is in a heap at the bottom of the wall. The friendly abominable snowman creature says in a chipper friendly voice, “That didn’t work so well. Let’s try again.”

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

565 Days to the 2020 election and 643 Days to Inauguration Day

 

PS A young Alex Kinnaird with Gary Gait, the best lacrosse player of his generation and perhaps all time. Gary had just given a stunning workshop and demonstration for the boys. Gary and his brother had perfected a come from behind the crease shot that involved jumping over the six foot radius circle (ie The Crease) rolling their body to face the goal and making an underhanded shot while then landing outside the restricted area.

PPS Alex is now a little taller (6’5″) with a little less hair.

Day 827 Saturday April 13, 2019

569 Days to the 2020 election and 647 Days to Inauguration Day

And the hits just keep on coming!

It’s weird times. We have a president who has the ability to infect everyone around him with whatever it is that makes people do illegal or practically illegal things. He encourages it. He’s a sociopath by any definition. He has no sympathy or empathy, etc. etc. etc. Look up the traits of a sociopath and I’ll bet you will find every trait describes Donald Trump.

It’s sad for us to watch him, and it’s dangerous for the nation to have him in charge. The amount of harm he has done to the nation, the world, and the environment is enormous.

There was a clip being played earlier this week of John Kerry on Capital Hill. A Republican Congressman who has two degrees from MIT in engineering was putting down Kerry because his degree was not a science degree and therefore his reasoning was he wasn’t a real scientist and therefore shouldn’t be talking about climate change. They got into a discussion about parts per million of carbon. This guy said to Kerry that John had picked 800,000 years and the parts per million because it bolstered Kerry’s claim about lower carbon ppm, but if you went back further the ppm was much higher. To which I immediately thought, “Yeah? And if you went back even further the planet had no free oxygen and none of us would be able to breath.” 

It was a bogus argument, based on a fallacious assumption (because you don’t have a science degree doesn’t mean you aren’t a scientist.) Neil deGrasse Tyson put it best I think, “Science is in search of the truth.” If you are in search of the truth you might be a scientist, and if you use the scientific method, which has proven to be the vest way of getting at the truth you are a scientist. Q.E.D.

Scientists collect evidence and postulate why it is. They then try to prove that what they postulated is correct. That is what Kerry was doing in that hearing. Saying here’s the evidence, therefore …

What the Republican Congressman was doing was an ad hominem attack on Kerry. To which Kerry responded, “You aren’t serious?”

But of course he was. I have to wonder, “How does a really smart engineer (this guy has the bon vides to be called that) make such an ass of himself?” He has joined the Jim Jordan club of idiotic verbal self immolation. 

Then we get to Bill Barr. A man whom some say is a good lawyer. I never thought so. Not after he recommended to Papa Bush to pardon everyone in Iran-Contra (Except the guy who ran the arms, played in the movie by Tom Cruise. His picture was plastered on national TV by Reagan, thus letting Pablo Escobar know exactly who had betrayed him and thus signing that fellow’s death sentence. He was machine gunned down.)

Barr besides not releasing the Mueller report has now claimed there was spying on the Trump campaign, which is exactly what Trump, Fox News, and Sean Hannity have been saying. 

Where is that Congressman who was interviewing Kerry? Why isn’t he grilling Barr? “Where Mr. Barr is your evidence?” (“Oh it’s your belief? Not the FBI, but the intelligence community more broadly? What agency or agencies? Do you believe court ordered wire taps is spying? What exactly are you saying? You are a lawyer aren’t you? Do you consider making unfounded claims to the Congress under oath a good idea?” etc. etc. etc.)

The really frightening thing about all this is that the things Trump is saying and Barr is saying can be traced directly to right wing talking points, which lemme tell you – ain’t based on fact, evidence, or anything else of substance.

Then we get to Sam Patten. A minot player in this criminal activity, but a very connected one. He’s pals with Roger Stone, Konstantine Kiliminik, worked with Paul Manafort on the shady Ukraine stuff with the Russian backed dictator of that country, funneled illegal foreign contributions to the Trump Inaugural Committee, didn’t register as a foreign lobbyist, lied to the FBI and to Congress. He got sentenced. He got three years probation.

Why? Because of his great cooperation. What cooperation? Well, we don’t know. It’s all secret. It deals with “on-going investigations.” What investigations? We don’t know. They are secret. What? (Rinse and repeat.)

I hope this is a response to Trump’s “Don’t worry, I’ll pardon you” tactic (Did you see he told someone in DHS to go ahead and break the law and he’ll pardon them?****)

**** WTF? As one of the talking heads pointed out yesterday, for Trump the law is just an inconvenience, and impediment to what he wants to do. It doesn’t mean he won’t do it. It means he has to figure out a way around the law.

Then there is the overall effect of Trump playing “box of chocolates” with his appointees. He likes “acting” folks because he can move them around without Congressional oversight. The problem is that acting folks don’t get staffs and stuff that appointed people do. In this administration you don’t know when you’ll be fired or moved, so you keep your head down. Also, if you are stupid enough to do something, like what the president said, you realize that if there’s outrage (especially from Rush, or Fox and Friends, or Sean), he’ll hang you out to dry. So what happens? What is the result of this? Well, the heads of agencies are acting, the second in command is acting or not there, same with the third level. This means the agency is really being run by the career people who have been there for years and years (and know what they are doing.) This is exactly what the Steve Bannons of the world say is “the Deep State.” So Trump in his game of pawns has strengthen the Mandarins that make the government work. Except for the wall, that he’s making his mess.

Speaking of the wall, Trump is trying to figure out a way to have the military do stuff at the wall. He told the DHS guy to go ahead and do something illegal and he’d pardon him. How would you like whether or not you go to jail dependent on this sociopathic liar telling you he’ll pardon you after you commit the crime? Ask Mikey Cohen? What if Fox and Friends don’t like it? 

The struggle continues.

569 Days to the 2020 election and 647 Days to Inauguration Day

PS What side of history will you be on?