Trump

Day 575 Friday August 17, 2018 1,003 Days to Go

I was seventeen, almost 18, when the Democrats held their convention in 1968. Afterwards I heard about the protests and the police brutality, but that’s not what I remember about the convention. We still had a black and white TV. I watched the opening of the convention. Here’s a music trivia question for you, “Who sang the National Anthem at the Democratic National Convention in 1968?”
I’m surprised that question is asked more.

The Manafort trial is with the jury and they are asking questions that is apparently typical of a jury in this sort of trial. Things like, “What is a reasonable doubt?”
Meanwhile John Brennan, the former CIA Director who had his security clearance stripped by Trump, is saying that anyone who doesn’t think there wasn’t collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians is “Hogwash.” Others have said, and maybe he has too, that the only question is, “Does it meet the legal definition of a crime?”
I’m glad to see we are back where we started asking this central question. A new book is out about Trump, the Russians, and Putin. It points out that Trump has been taking Russian money for three decades and laundering it. There are whole floors in Trump Tower and around the world that have condos purchased for cash by Russians.
For me the central question is about the servers in Trump Tower. The ones that were set up to talk to AlfaBank during the campaign. They were set up in a very peculiar way; so that they’d only be able to talk to AlfaBank. The traffic on them was very high before a primary and before the Republican Convention. Why is that? What was being transmitted? We know it was a lot of data.
When the Trump organization was asked about it, they denied any such server existed. The server immediately went silent. Only to have another server that looked just like it come up. When asked about that server; it was denied, and it went silent. Someone had to set up those servers. Who? I’ll bet Paul Manafort knows.
Who else in the Trump organization knew about those servers? Certainly, Trump Sr knew. Did Donnie? How about Betsy DeVos? Her health care companies had the data that allowed Trump to link social security numbers and names to Facebook accounts. Certainly, Nigel Farage knew something. He was caught coming out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and couldn’t recall why he had been in there. The next day Julian Assange released Clinton emails. None of the people mentioned are smart enough technically to have set up those servers or crisscrossed the data. Someone was; who was it? Did Trump get someone from one of those Russian condos to come in and do it? Was it one of the GRU folks indicted in the Mueller probe? We don’t know, yet.

As to the person who sang the National Anthem at the Democratic Convention in ’68 – Aretha Franklin.
The way she sang it; no one could follow the timing. She didn’t sing in the pocket, but rather held back so she could let run and hold the last note of a line. The crowd was confused because they had tried to sing along. They eventually stood there smiling comically, because when Aretha sang you weren’t going to sing along. You were going to listen. She was in the class of Mahalia Jackson, Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, and Ella Fitzgerald.

I can see her in – was it The Blues Brothers? – where she’s walking on the lunch counter singing? Classic.

Aretha. Classic. Period.

1,003 Days to Go

PS Skull!

Day 573 Wednesday August 15, 2018 1,005 Days to Go

Let us look at the not so strange case of Omarosa.

The comments on the media are interesting and most are naive. Also, the president has tweeted calling her a low-life and a dog. Once again the media response is naive.

I am also reminded of what Samantha Bee did on her show with a graphic of Don Jr. She showed a three circle Venn diagram marked: Shady Business, Collusion, and Russians. They overlapped and intersected and Don Jr’s face was in the middle. Her point being that whatever Don Sr had been doing Don Jr was right in the middle of it. As I have pointed out in earlier screeds, Donnie Boy was not only in the middle of his dad’s shady stuff but he also propagated his own shady stuff, and pulled his sister in on it as well.
Perhaps, a more apt graphic would be the Olympic Rings, or how about looking down on a bunch of quoits around a peg? No matter how you look at it there is so much underhanded stuff that it’s easy to forget some or get lost or turn off from exhaustion. This must be their strategy; to do so many unethical, immoral, illegal, and just plain stupid things that you can’t believe any one could be that UIIJPS (Unethical, Immoral, Illegal, and Just Plain Stupid), but here’s the thing! They are!
Trump has made a career out of shafting people, denying it, and lying about it. He is now in the biggest con of his life – the American people. Will he pull it off? I give it pretty high odds. Polls show that the Republican party members are behind him 80-90%. WTF? But it’s true. Say what you will, there are a whole bunch of people who like what he is doing and or like who he is and like what he stands for.
This brings me to the question of “What does Donald Trump stand for?”
Well, himself – mainly. Maybe, his family members, notably Don Jr and Ivanka. From there it kind of thins out, but his first wife is in there as is his daughter Melanie and son Eric. Oh, and let’s not forget Jared. I’m not sure about Melania or Baron, but he has some regard for them as well. After that there might be some close associates, but as we have seen time and again, you can be “in” one day, and “out” the next. It’s not personal; it’s just the way it is. Trump demands loyalty, while giving none in return. Roger Stone was correct when he said that Trump treats Michael Cohen like a dog. Trump uses people. He manipulates them and when they are no longer useful – throws them away. If, all of a sudden, they might be useful again; he reaches out to them. It’s no wonder that Rick Wilson’s book is entitiled, “Everything Trump Touches Dies” because it’s true.
There is also another component. He’s a sociopath. Sociopaths don’t understand certain human emotions and interactive behaviors. Among them are humor and empathy. Have you ever seen Trump laugh or cry? I haven’t. I think that’s because he is incapable of either. He doesn’t understand, on a gut level, humor. Nor does he have feelings that normal people have, like: sadness, or joy. They are absent from his being. It’s as if, as some have described, “there’s a piece missing.” He relies on the reactions of others to see if something is funny. That’s classic psychopath. He’s a master at it. Remember the “Lock her Up” question he asked the audience during his campaign? Where he asked, “Do you like that?” The crowd roared their approval. His response was, “Okay, we’ll use it.”
There was no discussion about whether it was valid. The crowd liked it so he’d use it – simple as that.
In a similar way, the Clinton email stuff: it’s been called a scandal. It’s been said they were looking to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. In fact, there was no dirt. There was no scandal. They did get the emails and that’s illegal and that’s a scandal, but there was no crime by Hillary or her people; only by Trump, his associates, and the Russians.

So now we get to Omarosa. She says he knew about the emails before they came out. She says he used the “N-word.” She says she has tapes to back up her claims.

Many folks are asking, “What kind of person would do that?” (ie tape someone in these circumstances.) Then those same folks go on to say that Omarosa has a very untrustworthy reputation and if she didn’t have the tapes no one would believe her. So what kind of person would make recordings? Why a person like Omarosa that’s who! Of all the commentary I’ve heard about this woman the only thing that has really stuck in my mind is what someone who has seen her up close said. This person said he’s been on talk shows and panels with her and she is smart. Say what you will, but I’d have to say she is smart.

Is it terrible that a person would record such things? Naw. Look at Comey. What if he had recorded the conversation he “memoralized” in a memo after leaving the White House dinner he had with Trump. We wouldn’t be having this “he said/he said” conversation because we’d know.

Besides, as the person who said Omarosa was smart pointed out; she’s a reality TV star, who has managed to stay in the spotlight for 10 or 15 years.

Once again, Trump is in the unenviable spot of damned either way he goes. He called her a dog and a low life, yet he gave her a job; and not any job, a senior staff position. Why? Because, according to him, she said nice things about him. So why is he giving such a person a job? What about only hiring “the best”?

Another point, the term “dog” here is not referring to an animal, but to an ugly woman. I only mention this because some in the media have gone off saying he compared her to an animal and how could he do that? He didn’t. He called her ugly.

This is the first step, as many have pointed out, in dehumanizing a person. Of making them an object of scorn. From there you can move onto other bad behavior and if you take it far enough you can get to “the final solution.” Will we get there? No. This behavior and its trajectory and spread has given cover to a lot of people who harbored racial hatred and other egregious biases. It allows for it to flourish and grow. These people, who are racists and support Donald Trump were that way before he came along, but at least they kept a low profile. Now? Hey baby, it’s open season; go for it.
Trump has exposed our dark underbelly. He has brought it out in the open and said, “Hey, it’s fine.”
This is what the Republican party has always been about, and always counted on to win. Will they be able to keep doing it? There’s a good chance they will.

In other news:
– The Manafort defense rested without calling a single witness. Why? The only explanation is that whomever they put on the stand could make it worse for their client, and expose him to even more stuff. It seems obvious to me that Manafort is going for a pardon.

– An eleven year old hacked a replica of the Florida state voting system. It took him ten minutes. Yet, Florida says they are ready. No wait, Rick Scott said that. The officials in Florida have said they aren’t. What’s going to happen? I’m betting that some unusual wins will occur that no one can explain. (I love Stephanie Ruhl’s comment today which went something like this, “Hey, my kids are playing with Lincoln Logs. They’ve got to step up their game.”)

– Kris Kobach won the bid to represent the Republicans to become Governor of Kansas. He is the current Secretary of State for Kansas and was the one responsible for the biggest voter suppression effort in the country. Not only did he manage to kick thousands off the voter roles in Kansas but in other key states as well by exporting his hateful program to those states. With his winning the Republican nod the Democrats have a chance to win that seat. A chance, if only they could have all those voters back.

– In a shocking development, the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania has been found to have hidden the fact that priests abused children. This involves over 300 priests, thousands of children, both boys and girls, and the charges are abuse, oral sex, and rape. The cases go back to the 1950s. Why this kind of behavior first started in the church I’d guess slightly after St. Paul founded it. We can trace it back to the Middle Ages – easily. Earlier than that it’s hard to say. What this shows is that people in positions of power, when not watched, abuse that power.

– Let’s see, are their cases of people abusing their power in other areas? Why, yes. We have stock fraud right after Poppa Bush got rid of the 400 or so investigators in the SEC. And accounting fraud after his son told companies to monitor themselves. Fortunately, we don’t have any problems with violent crime or guns, in fact Kansas has led the way, by not requiring any kind of licensing or training to get a gun because their former Governor Sam Brownback got rid of any hint of that because in his words, “he trusted the good people of Kansas.”

– Trump continues to dump on Sessions, but as one person pointed out Sessions is carrying out most of what Trump wants done in Justice.

– To be clear Trump is a racist; so is Sessions; so is Stephen Miller. And in a related story Stephen Miller helped my Congressman David Brat beat Eric Cantor. Guess who cheered that upset? Stormfront.
Who is Stormfront? According to Wikipedia, “Stormfront is a Holocaust denying, white nationalist, white supremacist, antisemitic neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web’s first major racial hate site.“
Go David! So Miller and Stormfront must have really celebrated the fact that they got rid of a Jew. Nice work guys, you must be so proud. Why aren’t you crowing about this more David? Is this even a little too far for you? I doubt it. So own it. You are backed by Nazis.
btw The site is 21 years old and was founded by Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black. So is it too far to say the Klan backs Brat? Maybe so. But not the Nazis!

One of the things that came out about the Omarosa tape is that people are now talking about civility. The idea that the reason you are civil to people is that it makes the world a better place. It allows you to get along and to accomplish things even with people you may not like or agree with. What an idea?

Of course, the Republican party used to put on a mask of civility, but with Trump that has been dropped and it’s an “us against them”, “winner or loser” mentality.

How has this worked out? For Trump? For the United States?

In a nutshell – not well, not well at all. But that’s a topic for another screed.

1,005 Days to Go

PS Even the Buildings are Watching

Day 572 Tuesday August 14, 2018 1,006 Days to Go

Historians who look at Homer in the original Greek know that the stories Homer told come from a much earlier time. They can tell this because the names of the weapons and armor described are not from Homer’s time, but from the Bronze Age. The names of the heroes however are believed to be associated with the time of Homer. In other words, the stories were updated with names of folks currently in vogue. I have certainly seen this in various jokes. The punchline remains the same but the names of the people performing the actions are updated. The last time I heard the joke about three people in a plummeting aircraft with only two parachutes was in Nixon’s time. One of the people on the doomed plane was Kissinger who declared, “I’m the smartest person in the world. I therefore need to save myself.” He grabs a pack and jumps out of the plane. One of the two remaining people turns to the other one and says, “You take that parachute. The smartest person in the world just grabbed my backpack and jumped out of the plane. I’ll take the other one.”
And so it is today with Trump. In this case the question is, “Who will he throw under the bus?” (Today? or Next? is probably in order, but I’m guessing someone gets thrown under the bus every day with him.)
This brings us nearly up to date. We are on the brink of a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Here we have Philandreous (played by Donald Sr.) and here we have Philoneous (played by Donald Jr.) and as is true today as it was in the times of the ancient Greeks: Philoneous is the son of Philandreous. Philoneous has done everything a good son, desperate to please his father would do. He has modeled his life after his dad’s. In this case, that means he has lied constantly, misrepresented facts, and done shady business deals – just like dear old dad. But is that enough to win his father’s approval? *
As we will see, yes and no.
As it turns out father counseled son, when his son got in trouble. Unfortunately, in so doing dad committed a crime. Thus, dad is in as much trouble as his son. The authorities are closing in. There seems little escape from justice. Not that they haven’t tried mind you. And because, “Hey, the old tricks worked in the past, Why not now?” Why not now indeed!
The problem is, of course, the pro-counsel. One Antipas who represents the law of the land, and will not yield. Not even for a nice bag of ducats, or the threat of bodily harm. Physical and psychological intimidation have not worked. Nor have threats against his family, friends, and associates. Nor has sending out their cronies to wail in the public square about the un-justice being wrought or the damage being done to their family and fortune. Of course, it’s been shown throughout the play that whatever the Phil family acquired it was done by corrupt means, and therefore they aren’t entitled to any of it.
We are now at what we hope is the final scene because, to be honest, this play has gone on way too long. Here we are in the tower. The knights, swords drawn, are climbing the circular stairs. Soon they will be at the door. The last line of defense. Except for the last of the hangers-on who will be used as fodder to save the father son pair for a few more seconds. This would be their court legal scholar (who doubles as, not jester, but contortionist clown and punching bag) Jefferonis, and their town crier Sanderious.
Jefferonis has been told to stand on the steps and fight off the knights. (“But I don’t know how to hold a sword.” “Don’t worry you’ll learn quick.”)
He is quickly dispatched by the ascending knights either by his throwing the sword down the center opening and saying in a long southern wail, “You can have him! I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout no swords.” Or, the knights just run him through with their swords and he raises a feeble arm, elbow crooked as he falls against the wall saying, “Oh, my.” [Director’s choice.]
As the knights reach the final few steps their stands Sanderious in all her wide hipped satorious splendor. White robe flowing, arms under her large and ample breasts, sardonic glaring stare. The knights hesitate and look up at her. She raises an eyebrow and casts a glance down at them. “I am sorry to inform you, but their are no more visitations for today.”
The knights look at her repulsiveness and one says, “This is bullshit!” They advance and throw her off the steps into the yawning opening at the center of the staircase. Her scream can be heard to go from high pitch to low as she falls ending in the sound of a splat or splash. [Once again Director’s choice: hard floor or shallow pool.]
Now the knights of justice (as they are called) are at the door. (Their numbers have been decimated by Philandreous’ expunging several of their leaders in mock trials in the village square.) Pounding and prying, it won’t be long now. Fortunately, for the father and son, Rapunsel left a long coil of her hair in the tower.** Long enough for one to climb down, get on the horse that Putanius, king of the evil state of Mordar, has dispatched. If they can only get to the horse! Unfortunately, there is nothing to tie the hair rope to.

But to update the tragedy, from this point on, I’ll use our current players names. (ie Don Sr. and Don Jr.)
Don Sr. “Tell you what. Wrap the rope around your waist so I can let myself down.”
Don Jr. “Okay, then what?”
Don Sr. “Then I’ll get on the horse and go see Putanius. Always liked that guy. Great guy.”
Don Jr. “What about me?”
Don Sr. “What about you?”
Don Jr. “How do I get down?”
Don Sr. (acts to show that he just realized the problem, then quickly acts to show he’s working on a lie, a subterfuge…) “How do you get down? Well, let’s see. You can climb down the rope. Just like I did.”
Don Jr. “But who’s going to hold the rope?”
Don Sr. “I am.”
Don Jr. “But you are already down!”
Don Sr. “Oh. Hum. I didn’t know. God-dammit.”
The knights have managed to poke holes in the wood of the door. Their sword blades are seen coming through the openings in the wood.
Don Sr. “No time. Wrap the rope around your waist.”
Jr does. The knights break through the door as Don Sr. leaps from the window (okay he gingerly gets to the edge, hangs on by his fingernails, then grabs the rope thus pulling Jr to the edge of the window and begins his descent. The knights rush in run Jr through with their swords.
Don Jr. (dying breath) “Dad!!!!”
Don Sr. (now on the horse) “I’ll go get help.” Turns and trots off, in no big hurry.

(Exeunt)

Will that be how it ends?
Will Dad, faced with a terrible choice, save himself or his son?
(Come on. It’s Trump. There’s no question here. The egotistical narcissistic bastard will save himself. He’s got more sons.)
Or is there an alternate ending?

[Hint: It’s not the Director’s choice.]

* I have taken some liberties with the naming of characters, the fables told, allegory and metaphor, and basically everything. I regret none of it.
** I told you I took liberties, what did you expect? (“Yes, it’s Deus Ex Machina you little sh*t. I know that. Yes, you’re never supposed to have something the audience had no way of knowing about enter into the story to save the day. Hey, did you see that gun on the wall? No? Well, that’s because I didn’t tell you it was there.”
– BANG! –
“One dead little shit. “)

1,006 Days to Go

PS Partial of Michelangelo’s “The Holy Family with Two Angels” Getty Museum, LA

Day 569 Saturday August 11, 2018 1,009 Days to Go

A few items to clean up from earlier in the week:
– It is said that Hope Hicks was on Air Force One because Trump wants her on his 2020 campaign.
– In a flagrant case of chain migration and aliens slipping through our borders it is now a known fact that one couple got visas to come to this country under the pretense of having special skills. They didn’t. Now they have become U.S. citizens because of their anchor baby. Where is the outrage from the right? Let’s march. Let’s protest. Throw them over the wall, and their daughter too. Take that fat f*ck of a son-in-law with you.
Welcome Melania Trump’s parents to the U.S.ofA. as full citizens. See if you can get your dopey son-in-law to take the test you had to take for citizenship. I bet he fails.
– Speaking of failing, did you know only 30% of young people today can pass the math and reading tests to get into the military? Go Betsy DeVos.

Okay, kinda caught up. If you happened to hear Senator Ben Nelson from Florida say earlier this week that the Russian military intelligence units (the GRU) have breached the computers of the Florida election system in some counties in Florida, Georgia, and one other state. How does Rick Scott governor of Florida respond? “Didn’t happen. Nelson is crazy.”
Who ya gonna believe? How would Rick Scott know? What did he do, call up someone in the bumf*ck county election commission in Florida and ask, “Hey, did any Russian commies wander into your computer?”
What’s our defense? None. That’s not true. We have people like Rick Scott saying it didn’t happen. We have Republicans in Congress you have doubled down in sticking their heads in the sand and their supporters seem to say, “Hey, as long as it helps us, we’re okay with it.” (“Order some more of them ` I’d rather be Russian than Democrat ‘ tee-shirts, will ya?”)

In other news:
Remember that wedding planner of Melainia’s who got $26M and no one knew what she did to earn that money? Rumor is that she paid off the Apprentice guy to keep the show’s outtakes out of the public eye.

The Playboy Bunny (everyone now says “model”) who had the affair with Trump is on the cover of Men’s Journal. This as a guise to say the publisher and pal of Trump who owns the National Enquirer really wanted her story about her workout routine for $130,000. Yeah, nothing to see here. Was she contacted about this? No. Didn’t she do a photoshoot for the cover? No, they used old photos they had. What about the workout routine? Nope, they cobbled together some old stuff. ie She was never asked. The publisher overruled the staff, who objected to the whole thing. Moving on…

Seems Mueller is closing in on Roger Stone. Three of his “associates” have been asked to come in and talk to Mueller’s people: the madam, some blowhard dj media type who claims to be a journalist, and a guy reputed to be a painter, named Miller. Turns out Miller keeps not showing up, even after being subpoenaed. Now he want immunity. Something about superpacs.

BTW saw a picture from the 1980s of three young bucks working for the Republicans. From left to right they were: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Lee Atwater. All dirty underhanded cheating bastards.

Trump is picking a fight with NFL players over their kneeling during the National Anthem. Hey, turns out he told a staffer that he was going to do this just before the election because he figured it would help turn out his base. A group is now trying to get the fans who come to the games to have a “kneel in.” Imagine if whole stadiums start kneeling?

Former Apprentice contestant Omerosa has a book coming out about Trump. She claims his mental state is declining and that he used the “N” word a lot while taping the Apprentice. Yeah, well so what? Huh, she says she has tapes to back up every claim she has made in the book – interesting.

Carl Bernstein has a book coming out too; same day as Omerosa’s – interesting? Well, researched and thought out no doubt. Who cares?

Meanwhile, the internet is alive with photoshopped pics of the first Space Force Crew. I like Sarah Sanders as Chewbacca.

Well, that’s it for now.

Is Jay North still around? How about his son? We need Rocky and Bullwinkle more than ever.

If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to catch “Our Cartoon President.” Stephen Colbert has something to do with the show. It’s the closest thing to truth we’ll get about this administration.

1,009 Days to Go

PS Sisal spinning into twine (latest technology! circa 1890)