I believe it was the essential Charles Pierce who noted that Donald Trump was, in fact, the first actual pagan president of the United States. By which, of course, he didn't mean those whimsical, nature loving (Trump clearly hates nature), peaceful, "so long as it hurts no one" Pagans, he meant a full blown, modern, updated version of the full decay of Rome, decadence of the over-ripe classical period, state religion, pagans who made their kings and Pharaohs and Caesars gods who ruled over some of the most obscenely unequal, unjust, terror gained and maintained governments in the history of our world. I believe it was the sometimes impious and skeptical Keith Olbermann who noted that during the campaign we found out that Donald Trump didn't attend church services, had no knowledge of the Bible or seemed not to have any familiarity with Christianity other than being able to say the word in speeches to dupe the easily duped.
So it was revealing to look at his rant - um - speech at the Liberty University founded by that late, far from great, huckster of pseudo-Christianity, Jerry Falwell and presided over by his son in a typically dynastic move, typical of other such pseudo-Christian cons.
If you follow the news none of it will come as a surprise to you. If you want to read it, so as to have an actual, quotable record of either what he said or what he was supposed to say, Time magazine has posted it online. I'll let others who are not indisposed as I am, mine it for quotes. I read it quickly, trying to keep my breakfast down and I noticed something very odd for a speech given to a "Christian" university, Donald trump used the word "I" about 49 times (I did two different word searches with two different programs to do this count one said he used it 47 times, why the difference, I don't know.). "Me" 7 times. "God" six times, "Bible" one time (when he talked about putting his hand on one while taking the oath of office), "Christian" twice, both times to describe Liberty University, and "Jesus" and "Christ" not at all. Also not found in the text were words frequently occurring in the Bible like "poor". Also missing in his address to the alleged Christian university was that significant word found more than almost any other in the Bible, "justice".
It is one of the down sides to the wall of separation of church and state that con men and their kids can use religion to dupe those who can be duped and to become filthy rich oligarchs "oilygarchs" is perhaps a good word for them. But there is no reason for the rest of us to go along with the obvious fraud that such "Christianity" is as it is definitely not about the Gospel of Jesus, the teachings of his followers, the Law or - most of all - the Prophets. Liberty University is a pagan institution pretending to be a Christian university. That it could take Donald Trump to its bosom, a man who has led a life of total indulgence and dissipation, with a past as a minor league Alexander VI style slob. Now, under the patronage of the most wealthy crook in the world and in hock to who knows how many Russian oligarchs and others, he can fill in his resume with some Neronian decadence, perhaps with some from some other of the more infamous Roman emperors. Caligula comes to mind.
I wonder if Jerry Falwell jr. has ever been asked about Trump's declaration on national TV that he wished he could date his daughter. Someone should get him on record on that issue.
Update: Sorry, I suppose I should have included the "Access Hollywood" tape with Billy Bush. Obviously, Falwell jr and the rest of those running "Liberty University" are perfectly OK with having someone who brags about sexual assault address their "Christian" grad and their families. So much Trumpian criminality and immorality to remember, so little time to list it all.
Monday, May 15, 2017
Real Proponents of Equality Don't Enable Those Who Would Destroy Equality And The Lives Of Those They Hold Are Not Equal, Using Their Enabling To Hail Their Own "Fairness"
The greatest eye-opening I had about the real nature of the American Civil Liberties Union was in the role they played in aiding Nazis in their march in Skokie Illinois in 1978, something the ninnies brag about on their website as if it were some great act of courage:
In 1978, the ACLU took a controversial stand for free speech by defending a neo-Nazi group that wanted to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie , where many Holocaust survivors lived. The notoriety of the case caused some ACLU members to resign, but to many others the case has come to represent the ACLU's unwavering commitment to principle. In fact, many of the laws the ACLU cited to defend the group's right to free speech and assembly were the same laws it had invoked during the Civil Rights era, when Southern cities tried to shut down civil rights marches with similar claims about the violence and disruption the protests would cause. Although the ACLU prevailed in its free speech arguments, the neo-Nazi group never marched through Skokie, instead agreeing to stage a rally at Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago.
Which, of course, entirely ignores that one group was in favor of civil rights the very things the ACLU claims to stand for and equality which, frankly, I'm not sure how that really fits in with the ACLU brand, the other group were Nazis who are entirely opposed to equality and for oppression and murder. A difference which, obviously, doesn't phase the ACLU.
In the psychotic game of the professional civil libertarian, we're supposed to see the struggle over equality, civil rights and even whether or not groups will be subject to legal persecution and even murder as some kind of game in which it's only sporting if the Nazis are allowed their fair chances of winning and putting their ideas into effect. Left out of the official discourse of the civil liberties industry is that for a good part of the long history of our domestic forms of Nazism, most notably Jim Crow and lynching, the racists and bigots and foes of equality and for oppression, de-facto slavery and inequality didn't need to change laws, they got away with it because their organizations controlled state governments and state delegations to the Congress and, on the basis of that organization and through their propaganda they controlled the agenda to the extent that they made it impossible to pass federal laws against lynching.
For them to win, they don't have to have official control of the federal government, though, in the Trump regime and the Republican-fascist control of the congress, it's clear they are on the verge of doing just that. Through "free press" rulings, decisions and, now, habits, they have spread their hate through cabloid TV FOX and CNN and hate-talk radio. Before he went to work for FOX, don't forget Lou Dobbs used his nightly show on CNN to revive a style of anti-Latino hate which is now official policy in the Trump regime. The ACLU has supported that as fully as it did the Nazis ability to stage publicity stunts. And what you can say about traditional media you can say about the internet, where overt Nazism flourishes.
This post is written in response to, of course, the white supremacist, Trump regime, the supporting Republican-fascist party and the fact that now when the Nazis organize spectacles, as they did in Charlottesville, Virginia, they do so with overt members of their movement are sitting in the White House, exercising power.
The mayor of the Virginia college town of Charlottesville was the target of anti-Semitic tweets on Sunday after speaking out against white nationalists who converged on a local park carrying blazing torches the night before.
Mayor Mike Signer said two protests led on Saturday by Richard Spencer, a leader of the "alt-right" movement, came on the same day the city held its annual Festival of Cultures event, which celebrates diversity in the home of the University of Virginia.
"You're seeing anti-Semitism in these crazy tweets I'm getting and you're seeing a display of torches at night, which is reminiscent of the KKK," Signer, who is Jewish, said in a phone interview. "They're sort of a last gasp of the bigotry that this country has systematically overcome."
Signer issued a statement on Saturday criticizing the torch-carrying marchers as either "profoundly ignorant" or aiming to instill fear.
"I smell Jew," posted an anonymous Twitter user with the handle "Great Patriot Trump." "If so, you are going back to Israel. But you will not stay in power here. Not for long."
With due respect to Mayor Signer, I doubt this is their last gasp, they are closer to power than they have been in decades, those with an overt Nazi identity have never had associates in positions of actual power before and the differences between those overt Nazis and the American strain of the mind eating bacteria have never been more insignificant
Spencer, an avowed white nationalist, is credited by some with coining the term "alt-right" to describe online and social media communities on the far right that include white supremacists.
Trump, as president-elect, condemned an alt-right conference in Washington in November organized by Spencer where some attendees gave Nazi salutes and yelled "Hail Trump!" after a speech about white nationalism.
At the Saturday afternoon rally, Spencer led chants of "You will not replace us."
Later that night, he tweeted a photo of himself holding a burning tiki torch, his face illuminated with the hashtag "torchlight."
The Charlottesville Daily Progress reported that chanters also cried: "Russia is our friend," and "Blood and soil."
That's a huge difference between now and 1978, the post-Marxist Russian dictator is a friend of and sponsor of Nazism in the West, putting who knows how much money into their attacks on democracy because gangsters hate democracy as much as billionaires generally do and Russia and, now, the United States are in the control of gangsters. There is still a tiny sliver of a hope that the rule of law, here, might overcome the Congressional Republican refusal to do anything about even overt obstruction of justice by Putin's asset, Donald Trump. There is no hope that is going to happen in Russia which, as long as Trump and his fellow gangsters are in control will be promoting Nazism as a way to destroy democracy and to discredit it and the West.
The old rules of the old game that the ACLU and their like of white collar guys play, those who turn that into a gig and a profession, talking suckers into giving them money to defend Nazis and Nazis going under another name. don't apply. They really never did, not for those whose lives really were in danger. Their vaunted defense of the real civil liberties movement of equality and civil rights is more than undone by their game of getting publicity by enabling Nazis. You can tell that by who gained power under it and who lost. And it was the Nazis and fascists who gained, not the civil rights movement.
The whole thing was always irrational, based on refusal to acknowledge the defining, real and dangerous difference between free speech for those who support freedom and permitting the people who intend to destroy equality, civil rights and lives to organize and spread their pathology. Maybe you had the luxury of declaring yourself pure and impartial on that matter while Jimmy Carter was in office, today that luxury comes with a price, one which black people, Latinos and others are paying right now. I don't think the lawyers of the ACLU are in much of a danger of paying much of a price, for them it is still 1978, most of us don't have the luxury of pretending that. Not with Trump in the White House, McConnell and Ryan in control of the congress and the Roberts court with a majority in favor of doing their bidding in the Supreme Court. With all due respect to Mayor Signer, has he looked at the flowering of overt, Nazi-style antisemitism and racism all over the web, especially with online porn selling it with sex? That's not a harmless kink, it's really, here and now, dangerous. Did anyone think that they'd get this far back then?
The whole thing was always irrational, based on refusal to acknowledge the defining, real and dangerous difference between free speech for those who support freedom and permitting the people who intend to destroy equality, civil rights and lives to organize and spread their pathology. Maybe you had the luxury of declaring yourself pure and impartial on that matter while Jimmy Carter was in office, today that luxury comes with a price, one which black people, Latinos and others are paying right now. I don't think the lawyers of the ACLU are in much of a danger of paying much of a price, for them it is still 1978, most of us don't have the luxury of pretending that. Not with Trump in the White House, McConnell and Ryan in control of the congress and the Roberts court with a majority in favor of doing their bidding in the Supreme Court. With all due respect to Mayor Signer, has he looked at the flowering of overt, Nazi-style antisemitism and racism all over the web, especially with online porn selling it with sex? That's not a harmless kink, it's really, here and now, dangerous. Did anyone think that they'd get this far back then?
Remember this the next time you get a request for donations from the ACLU or any other Nazi enabling group, any group who goes to court - in perhaps the most ironic use of the terms, PRO BONO - insanely applying the impartiality of amicus curiae so they can say they've done that in their publicity when anyone with any knowledge knows that that is aiding and abetting gangsters, oppressors and killers. Gangsters and killers who now hold power which the Democrats are finding it hard to overcome, even when Trump brags on TV about having committed obstruction of justice and may have recordings of him doing it. Plainly, the time for gentlemen's games on a level playing field as if the stakes weren't the only thing that mattered, ended a long time ago. As I said, the stakes are genrally not paid by the lawyers and staffers and their fund raisers. They aren't generally paid by the white owners of the media and those who set themselves up as champions of equality by enabling those who intend to gain power to destroy equality.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
I'm under the weather, or, rather, the pollen and am hepped-up on allergy meds. Taken extra because I got a cold on top of those. Don't think I've slept this much since I was 17.
Will try to write something substantial and coherent later. If you want the insubstantial and incoherent, there's always Simps.
Will try to write something substantial and coherent later. If you want the insubstantial and incoherent, there's always Simps.
Moldy Old Mop Heads
Why are you trying to entice me into saying something about those old Mop Heads? Yeah, yeah, you want me to have another fight over them. I pass. Search for the term "mop" or "imagine" for past fun on this blog. Such as it was.
The most interesting thing you can say about them is nothing because everything that can be said about them has already been said about as many times as their songs have appeared on pop radio. And if you didn't catch that, Simps is still saying those things. A link will not be provided.
And most of that was PR hype.
They do not interest me. The best is silence.
Now, if you wanted to talk about Escalator Over The Hill, that's a different story.
Update: I'd forgotten that I once called him "the high hipster of the hip replacement age cohort", which isn't bad. Thanks for reminding me of that.
The most interesting thing you can say about them is nothing because everything that can be said about them has already been said about as many times as their songs have appeared on pop radio. And if you didn't catch that, Simps is still saying those things. A link will not be provided.
And most of that was PR hype.
They do not interest me. The best is silence.
Now, if you wanted to talk about Escalator Over The Hill, that's a different story.
Update: I'd forgotten that I once called him "the high hipster of the hip replacement age cohort", which isn't bad. Thanks for reminding me of that.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Well, More than A Second Feature - VoiceScapes Audio Theater
If I could get some of the audio plays from this group on a link I'd feature them. But you might enjoy trying them over the next week. I haven't listened to all of their posted work yet but I've liked the ones I have heard. They're always adding more, they say.
Here's their home page.
Found Online - I Think He Originated The Role of The Elitist Slob
Congratulations Steve Simels of TV Guide, you gave ratings that were, on average, 24.3% lower than the average audience member! 24.3%!You don't have to take my word for it.
Update: Oh, I just say things to annoy Stevie. Or to give him attention so he'll go away. He's a lot like Donald Trump in that way. A child.
Saturday Night Radio Drama - Firesign Theater - Anything You Want To
I thought that because those videos I posted from the National Audio Theater Festival last week talked about Firesign Theater, how they both continued and expanded the content of audio theater, I'd post this example of their work from the later 1970s. It's pretty silly and fun but it makes some points and contains some very rare satire.
For Rosenstein Is An Honorable Man
I had thought I was through writing about Rod Rosenstein until Monday, the deadline for him doing what he is currently being reported as refusing to do, appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the Trump treason and other crimes of other people. But someone else just talked about what a tower of integrity he is and what a great reputation he has. If I hear that one more time I'm going to get violent. Perhaps only against the radio, perhaps more.
With every passing hour, it's obvious that either their definitions of those virtues are dodgy, in themselves, or he successfully sold them on a phony version of himself as a great man. Let's get this straight, he has already shown he is nothing of the sort.
As Daphna Renan and David Pozen, noted at Lawfare, Rod Rosenstein, according to his own claims in his infamous letter recommending the firing of James Comey, should also be fired.
Comey, according to Rosenstein’s memorandum, “ignored” “longstanding principle[s]” and “well-established process[es]” of the Justice Department. He departed from the Department’s “‘widely-respected, non-partisan traditions,’” and he “laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument.”
The irony is that in leveling such charges in such a document, Rosenstein was performing his own criticisms. He ignored the Inspector General process and the principles of administrative fairness, independence, and truth-seeking it is meant to embody. And in a departure from the Department’s traditions, he laid out his version of the case against Comey for public consumption as if it were a closing argument.
Their colleague at Lawfact, Benjamin Wittes, reveals himself as one of those former fans of Rod Rosenstein of the establishment who have been stunned by his behavior.
When Trump nominated Rosenstein as deputy attorney general, I was delighted. I have known Rosenstein for a long time. I have always thought well of him. I've admired his ability to serve at senior levels in administrations of both parties and impress both sides with apolitical service. I considered it a positive sign that Trump had installed a career professional as deputy attorney general under Jeff Sessions, who is a polarizing figure to many. And I quietly told many people anxious about Sessions that I was not worried that anything too terrible would happen at the department with Rosenstein and Rachel Brand—who has not yet been confirmed as associate attorney general and of whom I think extremely highly—in the deputy's and associate's offices respectively.
I was profoundly wrong about Rosenstein.
Rosenstein's memo in support of Comey’s firing is a shocking document. The more I think about it, the worse it gets. I have tried six ways from Sunday to put an honorable construction on it. But in the end, I just cannot find one. The memo is a press release to justify an unsavory use of presidential power. It is also a profoundly unfair document. And it's gutless too. Because at the end of the day, the memo greases the wheels for Comey's removal without ever explicitly urging it—thus allowing its author to claim that he did something less than recommend the firing, while in fact providing the fig leaf for it.
In other words, Rosenstein’s actual role was even less honorable than the one he reportedly objected to the White House's tagging him with. If the original story that Rosenstein’s recommendation drove the train had been true, after all, that at least would involve his giving his independent judgment. But the truth that Trump told is far worse than the lie Rosenstein insisted the White House correct. Rosenstein was tasked to provide a pretext, and he did just that.
Even more telling about the phenomenon of insider, connected people duped by people like them, going on for decades is contained in this.
Let’s give Rosenstein the benefit of the doubt and assume he believes every word of the memo he wrote—and I do assume as much. A lot of people, including a lot of people with institutionalist Justice Department views, share the belief that Comey screwed up, as the President would say, big league. Even I, who have defended the good faith of Comey’s actions and believe he was in an impossible situation, do not agree with every one of his decisions during the 2016 election period. So I’m perfectly willing to believe that Rosenstein felt able to take on the assignment to write this memo because he, in fact, believes the things he said in it.
Let’s go a step further and assume that everything Rosenstein says in the memo about Comey’s conduct is actually true—in other words, not merely that Rosenstein believes it all, but that he’s right. (This I do not believe, but I don’t want to relitigate the question of Comey’s handling of the Clinton emails matters.)
For that matter, let's set aside the fact that the memo criticizes Comey for actions taken many months ago that the current president never criticized and that the previous administration did not think amounted to a firing offense.
I think what we are seeing is how many of those guys like Rod Rosenstein, taken as towers of integrity and bulwarks of American democracy and the rule of law are one strongman away from becoming an aparatchick in a full blown fascist strongman government. Rosenstein knows that as long as he plays along with Trump he is in no danger of being fired, investigated, indicted, convicted and punished for crimes. He knows that as long as The Mitch McConnells and Paul Ryans and Jeff Sessions are running what are supposed to be checks and balances on an unbalanced Republican strongman, he knows one thing above all, which side his bread is buttered on at any given time.
We have to stop this bullshit myth that these people are dependably honorable because our government is not guaranteed to be in the hands of honorable men. The old-boy, Ivy network plays a part in that, class does, party certainly does, but the 18th century system that depended on that instead of strong, specific laws and means of removing gangsters like Trump, McConnell and Ryan from office AND SENDING THEM TO PRISON doesn't work now and probably won't. Those kinds of laws, specific and with mandatory minimum sentences (Jeff Sessions is a big fan of them as long as you are poor and preferably not white) are what we need now.
And we need a Constitutional amendment that will remove the power of anyone from pardoning a sitting president for committing high crimes, keeps a president from pardoning anyone in the employ of his administration and which broadens the definition of treason to include what Trump and his crime gang have done.
With every passing hour, it's obvious that either their definitions of those virtues are dodgy, in themselves, or he successfully sold them on a phony version of himself as a great man. Let's get this straight, he has already shown he is nothing of the sort.
As Daphna Renan and David Pozen, noted at Lawfare, Rod Rosenstein, according to his own claims in his infamous letter recommending the firing of James Comey, should also be fired.
Comey, according to Rosenstein’s memorandum, “ignored” “longstanding principle[s]” and “well-established process[es]” of the Justice Department. He departed from the Department’s “‘widely-respected, non-partisan traditions,’” and he “laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument.”
The irony is that in leveling such charges in such a document, Rosenstein was performing his own criticisms. He ignored the Inspector General process and the principles of administrative fairness, independence, and truth-seeking it is meant to embody. And in a departure from the Department’s traditions, he laid out his version of the case against Comey for public consumption as if it were a closing argument.
Their colleague at Lawfact, Benjamin Wittes, reveals himself as one of those former fans of Rod Rosenstein of the establishment who have been stunned by his behavior.
When Trump nominated Rosenstein as deputy attorney general, I was delighted. I have known Rosenstein for a long time. I have always thought well of him. I've admired his ability to serve at senior levels in administrations of both parties and impress both sides with apolitical service. I considered it a positive sign that Trump had installed a career professional as deputy attorney general under Jeff Sessions, who is a polarizing figure to many. And I quietly told many people anxious about Sessions that I was not worried that anything too terrible would happen at the department with Rosenstein and Rachel Brand—who has not yet been confirmed as associate attorney general and of whom I think extremely highly—in the deputy's and associate's offices respectively.
I was profoundly wrong about Rosenstein.
Rosenstein's memo in support of Comey’s firing is a shocking document. The more I think about it, the worse it gets. I have tried six ways from Sunday to put an honorable construction on it. But in the end, I just cannot find one. The memo is a press release to justify an unsavory use of presidential power. It is also a profoundly unfair document. And it's gutless too. Because at the end of the day, the memo greases the wheels for Comey's removal without ever explicitly urging it—thus allowing its author to claim that he did something less than recommend the firing, while in fact providing the fig leaf for it.
In other words, Rosenstein’s actual role was even less honorable than the one he reportedly objected to the White House's tagging him with. If the original story that Rosenstein’s recommendation drove the train had been true, after all, that at least would involve his giving his independent judgment. But the truth that Trump told is far worse than the lie Rosenstein insisted the White House correct. Rosenstein was tasked to provide a pretext, and he did just that.
Even more telling about the phenomenon of insider, connected people duped by people like them, going on for decades is contained in this.
Let’s give Rosenstein the benefit of the doubt and assume he believes every word of the memo he wrote—and I do assume as much. A lot of people, including a lot of people with institutionalist Justice Department views, share the belief that Comey screwed up, as the President would say, big league. Even I, who have defended the good faith of Comey’s actions and believe he was in an impossible situation, do not agree with every one of his decisions during the 2016 election period. So I’m perfectly willing to believe that Rosenstein felt able to take on the assignment to write this memo because he, in fact, believes the things he said in it.
Let’s go a step further and assume that everything Rosenstein says in the memo about Comey’s conduct is actually true—in other words, not merely that Rosenstein believes it all, but that he’s right. (This I do not believe, but I don’t want to relitigate the question of Comey’s handling of the Clinton emails matters.)
For that matter, let's set aside the fact that the memo criticizes Comey for actions taken many months ago that the current president never criticized and that the previous administration did not think amounted to a firing offense.
I think what we are seeing is how many of those guys like Rod Rosenstein, taken as towers of integrity and bulwarks of American democracy and the rule of law are one strongman away from becoming an aparatchick in a full blown fascist strongman government. Rosenstein knows that as long as he plays along with Trump he is in no danger of being fired, investigated, indicted, convicted and punished for crimes. He knows that as long as The Mitch McConnells and Paul Ryans and Jeff Sessions are running what are supposed to be checks and balances on an unbalanced Republican strongman, he knows one thing above all, which side his bread is buttered on at any given time.
We have to stop this bullshit myth that these people are dependably honorable because our government is not guaranteed to be in the hands of honorable men. The old-boy, Ivy network plays a part in that, class does, party certainly does, but the 18th century system that depended on that instead of strong, specific laws and means of removing gangsters like Trump, McConnell and Ryan from office AND SENDING THEM TO PRISON doesn't work now and probably won't. Those kinds of laws, specific and with mandatory minimum sentences (Jeff Sessions is a big fan of them as long as you are poor and preferably not white) are what we need now.
And we need a Constitutional amendment that will remove the power of anyone from pardoning a sitting president for committing high crimes, keeps a president from pardoning anyone in the employ of his administration and which broadens the definition of treason to include what Trump and his crime gang have done.
The Republican Party Is The Party of Crooks And Traitors
The Republican Party is revealed this week as a party full at the top of people who are not patriots but they play one on TV. Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Chuck Grassley the pseudo-moderate Susan Collins are all covering up and enabling the most extravagant display of arrogant, admitted criminal behavior and treason by Donald Trump, admitted in his own words. The Republicans who have any shred of a claim to integrity left could probably be counted on one hand and other than Senator Richard Burr, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I'm trying to remember what other names go on that list. The part-time, for camera patriotism of McCain and Graham is wanting in a big way.
McConnell and Ryan are as guilty of treason and of violations of their oaths of office as Trump is, at this point. Jeff Sessions is guilty of lying about his recusal from matters surrounding the Russia investigation, Rod Rosenstein - everyone's idea of a Republican of sterling character and boy-scout integrity - is, at the very least, guilty of aiding and abetting the worst of the corruption.
If there is any justice the Republicans will reap the whirlwind they've sown but, unfortunately, we will too. There is only one country, one world. Adam Schiff, appearing on Maher's show last night put all of that down to their hopes of plundering the country.
After a week of stunning revelations, the firing of FBI Director James Comey and then the ever-shifting rationale offered by Trump surrogates, which then got bowled over by Trump himself in an interview with Lester Holt, Maher asked Schiff when the GOP is going to start breaking with the president.
After showing a rowdy town hall in which a constituent shouted at a Republican House member to “decide to be an American and not a politician,” Maher asked Schiff, “How can they govern if that’s what’s brewing out in America? What are the Republicans saying to each other behind closed doors? They must be sh*tting their pants.”
Schiff laughed, but then said, “They all want something from this president before the wheels come completely off the wagon. They want their tax cuts, they want their regulatory repeal of all the mining regulations, etc. And then they’ll find their spine.”
I think that's about right, Paul Ryan wants to steal Social Security, destroy Medicare and Medicaid, destroying the lives of, literally, millions of Americans, driving millions more into destitution and desperation - he is someone out of whom a new stock character of psychopathology must arise, the Ayn Randian sadist presenting their pleasure of causing pain as high principle and being allowed to get away with it by others. In Paul Ryan I think we have a model of how concentration camp guards could brutalize and murder people before going home to their families at night. I think his surface normality - such as that is - is a good warning about the deception appearances can be.
Mitch McConnell's is a more old fashioned kind of evil, he's a crook a thug and a racist, we've seen his type in the movies before. He is a throwback to the kind of corruption that flourished in the gilded age and the antebellum period. I would say that he is what his state, Kentucky, should be mocked for, they having inflicted such a total piece of slime on us but he's a product of a totally corrupt Republican Party. One which once had a many but a minority of such crooks when Nixon's criminality was undeniable. That type now dominate. the very, very few who are showing any kind of honesty or integrity, now. The run the Republican party as an overtly fascist Donald Trump admits to the very things Nixon was impeached to on national television as if that's how you do business as president of the United States. And they are letting him get away with it. Republicans are the major source of corruption in the government of the United States, today.
There is a widely believed myth, a TV induced delusion that certainly must die with this, that what the United States needed was a businessman as president. It's clear that being a businessman should be considered a disqualification for being president because the laws are so corrupted as to let them get away with things that no one else can. Donald Trump is just doing business the way he always has and has gotten away with when he should probably have been, first, in the jail house then in the poor house for what he's done. That comparison I made with Leona Helmsley is apt, they've got a lot in common. Only she went to jail for what she did - though she died a billionaire. He'll probably escape having to pay for his far higher crimes altogether because the Republican Party accounts for the strongest reasons our law is corrupt. And, he is a man who isn't called a "bitch" when he acts like Leona Helmsley did. He's considered "strong".
By the way, I've got a feeling that Adam Schiff is exactly what Rod Rosenstein is supposed to be but who he is proving he is not, a man of high integrity. If people were not so addled by TV and appearances he'd be considered presidential material. I say that even though he's Stanford - Harvard. I'm not blind to the exceptions, few though they seem to be most days.
McConnell and Ryan are as guilty of treason and of violations of their oaths of office as Trump is, at this point. Jeff Sessions is guilty of lying about his recusal from matters surrounding the Russia investigation, Rod Rosenstein - everyone's idea of a Republican of sterling character and boy-scout integrity - is, at the very least, guilty of aiding and abetting the worst of the corruption.
If there is any justice the Republicans will reap the whirlwind they've sown but, unfortunately, we will too. There is only one country, one world. Adam Schiff, appearing on Maher's show last night put all of that down to their hopes of plundering the country.
After a week of stunning revelations, the firing of FBI Director James Comey and then the ever-shifting rationale offered by Trump surrogates, which then got bowled over by Trump himself in an interview with Lester Holt, Maher asked Schiff when the GOP is going to start breaking with the president.
After showing a rowdy town hall in which a constituent shouted at a Republican House member to “decide to be an American and not a politician,” Maher asked Schiff, “How can they govern if that’s what’s brewing out in America? What are the Republicans saying to each other behind closed doors? They must be sh*tting their pants.”
Schiff laughed, but then said, “They all want something from this president before the wheels come completely off the wagon. They want their tax cuts, they want their regulatory repeal of all the mining regulations, etc. And then they’ll find their spine.”
I think that's about right, Paul Ryan wants to steal Social Security, destroy Medicare and Medicaid, destroying the lives of, literally, millions of Americans, driving millions more into destitution and desperation - he is someone out of whom a new stock character of psychopathology must arise, the Ayn Randian sadist presenting their pleasure of causing pain as high principle and being allowed to get away with it by others. In Paul Ryan I think we have a model of how concentration camp guards could brutalize and murder people before going home to their families at night. I think his surface normality - such as that is - is a good warning about the deception appearances can be.
Mitch McConnell's is a more old fashioned kind of evil, he's a crook a thug and a racist, we've seen his type in the movies before. He is a throwback to the kind of corruption that flourished in the gilded age and the antebellum period. I would say that he is what his state, Kentucky, should be mocked for, they having inflicted such a total piece of slime on us but he's a product of a totally corrupt Republican Party. One which once had a many but a minority of such crooks when Nixon's criminality was undeniable. That type now dominate. the very, very few who are showing any kind of honesty or integrity, now. The run the Republican party as an overtly fascist Donald Trump admits to the very things Nixon was impeached to on national television as if that's how you do business as president of the United States. And they are letting him get away with it. Republicans are the major source of corruption in the government of the United States, today.
There is a widely believed myth, a TV induced delusion that certainly must die with this, that what the United States needed was a businessman as president. It's clear that being a businessman should be considered a disqualification for being president because the laws are so corrupted as to let them get away with things that no one else can. Donald Trump is just doing business the way he always has and has gotten away with when he should probably have been, first, in the jail house then in the poor house for what he's done. That comparison I made with Leona Helmsley is apt, they've got a lot in common. Only she went to jail for what she did - though she died a billionaire. He'll probably escape having to pay for his far higher crimes altogether because the Republican Party accounts for the strongest reasons our law is corrupt. And, he is a man who isn't called a "bitch" when he acts like Leona Helmsley did. He's considered "strong".
By the way, I've got a feeling that Adam Schiff is exactly what Rod Rosenstein is supposed to be but who he is proving he is not, a man of high integrity. If people were not so addled by TV and appearances he'd be considered presidential material. I say that even though he's Stanford - Harvard. I'm not blind to the exceptions, few though they seem to be most days.
Friday, May 12, 2017
If Rosenstein Turns Out To Be A Dirt Bag It's Entirely His Own Fault
If Rod Rosenstein has not appointed a credible special prosecutor by Monday we know that he's been pulling the wool over the eyes of lots of people for many years. I don't care how much the old boys network claims otherwise, no one who is in his position, largely due to his own professional actions, could credibly allow this to go on through the weekend without removing the investigation from the reach of Donald Trump or anyone he will appoint to head the FBI or anyone answerable to the massively corrupt and very possibly criminal Jeff Sessions.
Whether or not Rosenstein turns out to be a dirt bag is in his own hands now. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes the easy way out by either resigning without having appointed a prosecutor or if he lets Trump fire him without having done that but that's not going to save his reputation that he sacrificed to serve the worst person to have ever held the American presidency.
Whether or not Rosenstein turns out to be a dirt bag is in his own hands now. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes the easy way out by either resigning without having appointed a prosecutor or if he lets Trump fire him without having done that but that's not going to save his reputation that he sacrificed to serve the worst person to have ever held the American presidency.
Ustad Asad Ali Khan - Raga Bhimpalasi - Rudra Veena - Rudra Vina - Dhrupad, Bautzen
Well, not even Simp's approval will make me change my mind about Jay Semko's music. I still like it and think Mouse in a Hole is a masterpiece. I knew who Jay Semko was before Simps did.
This is what I've been listening to this week, Ustad Asad Ali Khan playing rudra veena.
Ustad Asad Ali Khan, rudra veena
Pandit Mohan Shyam Sharma, pakhawaj
Makes me wish I had sixty years to learn something about it. I love listening to music I've never heard before.
Update: Simps, I've told you dozens of times I will not date you. Well, in the sense of noting that you're a geezer but I'm not going out with you.
This is what I've been listening to this week, Ustad Asad Ali Khan playing rudra veena.
Ustad Asad Ali Khan, rudra veena
Pandit Mohan Shyam Sharma, pakhawaj
Makes me wish I had sixty years to learn something about it. I love listening to music I've never heard before.
Update: Simps, I've told you dozens of times I will not date you. Well, in the sense of noting that you're a geezer but I'm not going out with you.
Trump is tweeting this morning, suggesting that there is a recording of the dinner with James Comey. I hope there is and that it is made public.
If there is and Trump said what he claims to have said, he may have dug his own grave with his mouth. And I don't mean by stuffing his pie hole with that gross chocolate cake with the little "Trump" flag in white chocolate.
I've got to put in some eye drops. Been reading myself into blindness.
If there is and Trump said what he claims to have said, he may have dug his own grave with his mouth. And I don't mean by stuffing his pie hole with that gross chocolate cake with the little "Trump" flag in white chocolate.
I've got to put in some eye drops. Been reading myself into blindness.
Rosenstein Has One Chance And Little Time To Disprove Those Who Believe He Is Corrupt
It is possible that the man who set his reputation on fire to serve Donald Trump, perhaps using his position as Deputy Attorney General to assist in Trump's obstruction of justice, Rod Rosenstein, has exactly one chance to salvage his reputation and place in history, if he appoints a Leon Jaworski who, then, goes on to do a full and credible job of investigating, bringing indictments and obtaining convictions of the guilty in the Trump regime collusion and treason with the Putin crime family.
It's possible but it's not a sure thing, for one thing, I doubt he'll do it. If he does, it's more than likely that Trump will fire him, he's that stupid and conceited, after yesterday's interview it's clear he will continue to figure he's entitled to do in the presidency what he did on his phony reality show, The Apprentice.
So, I doubt Rosenstein will do it unless he is convinced that the attempt of the Ivy League, old boy and girl network will not be able to pull his fat out of the fire that he willingly stepped into.
So, back to yesterday's topic and a new article trying to do that by Slate's Leon Neyfakh (Harvard).
Rod Rosenstein could be making more than $1 million a year right now working at the law firm of his choice. So why is this impeccably pedigreed, widely admired former prosecutor letting himself be humiliated, used, and discredited by Donald Trump?
The answer could be naked ambition: For all the cautious optimism that Rosenstein’s nomination as deputy attorney general inspired in Trump critics, it’s possible the boy scout from Maryland never intended to bring his famous sense of integrity and professionalism to his influential new job at the Justice Department. Maybe he sold himself on the idea that he’d be serving “at the pleasure of the president” and decided he’d do whatever he had to do to keep his boss happy.
That’s one explanation for why Mr. Conscientious wrote that strange memo about James Comey. He knew full well that his sober, serious-minded complaints about the FBI director’s handling of the Clinton email investigation would be used as cover for making a fundamentally corrupt personnel decision, and he decided to lend the president his hard-won credibility the way a guy with a clean record might help a buddy with a checkered past hide a murder weapon.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I have a hard time believing that version of the story. Rosenstein has worked in the Justice Department for too long—27 years—and his reputation in the legal world is too solid for him to be a craven and amoral functionary. It’s more likely, in my view, that Rosenstein went into this job sincerely thinking, or at least hoping, that he could do some good in the Trump administration. Just like all the people who told me they were happy there would be an adult running the Justice Department’s day-to-day operations, Rosenstein probably believed he could be a steadying force at a time when the federal government—and the DOJ in particular—badly needs one.
I don't know why Rod Rosenstein did what he did, what he so obviously and knowingly did, writing up an excuse for Trump to fire Comey as Comey was leading an investigation into wrongdoing and possible criminality by Trump and his lackeys. BUT THE OVERWHELMING FACT IS THAT HE DID IT. It is more credible that he did it with the intention of hampering the investigation - the most obvious real effect of the firing - for whatever reason, than it is that he was a babe in arms as he was doing it. You don't get to claim he was the essential man, the grown-up, the adult and then let him off because he's supposed to be a friggin' boy scout.
As I said, he's got one chance to disprove the belief that he's acted as part of a cover up and that is to appoint a credible, vigorous and disinterested special prosecutor to do the investigation that his actions have impeded.
I will state that I'm no fan of James Comey who I think showed obvious partisan, Republican bias in relation to the phony scandal trumped up around Hillary Clinton's e-mail. I agree with her that Comey probably got Trump elected through his October surmise. I think Barack Obama showed weakness and bad judgement in appointing Comey as head of the FBI. Obama should have fired him, he should never have gone along with the DC Village idiots who pushed him - the same idiots who pushed Rosenstein as a boy scout. But, like it or not, he was overseeing one of the most important investigations into crime and treason against democracy, against the United States and with Trump's interview declarations, it is clear that his firing was part of an attempt to scuttle a criminal investigation into about the most serious of crimes - short of war crimes - that any American president has ever credibly been held to have committed.
What Comey did in nudging the election to Trump was really bad, what Rod Rosenstein did is worse because in the hundred plus days of the Trump regime, there can be no doubts, no granting of any benefit of the doubts about how dangerous he and his entire crew are to American democracy and the world.
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Apropos of yesterday's posts, in making his argument, Neyfakh cites various people, Oona Hathaway (Harvard - Yale Law), Ross Douthat (Harvard) and David Luban (Yale). Given that both Trump and Rod Rosenstein graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Rosenstein is a product of Harvard Law, as far as I can tell, the only person cited in the Slate Article who isn't an Ivy League product is James Comey and he went to the might-as-well be Ivy University of Chicago for his law degree. He is a bit of an outlier in that he also went to a public university as an undergrad, William and Mary. Maybe that's got something to do with why the Ivy doesn't have his back.
It's possible but it's not a sure thing, for one thing, I doubt he'll do it. If he does, it's more than likely that Trump will fire him, he's that stupid and conceited, after yesterday's interview it's clear he will continue to figure he's entitled to do in the presidency what he did on his phony reality show, The Apprentice.
So, I doubt Rosenstein will do it unless he is convinced that the attempt of the Ivy League, old boy and girl network will not be able to pull his fat out of the fire that he willingly stepped into.
So, back to yesterday's topic and a new article trying to do that by Slate's Leon Neyfakh (Harvard).
Rod Rosenstein could be making more than $1 million a year right now working at the law firm of his choice. So why is this impeccably pedigreed, widely admired former prosecutor letting himself be humiliated, used, and discredited by Donald Trump?
The answer could be naked ambition: For all the cautious optimism that Rosenstein’s nomination as deputy attorney general inspired in Trump critics, it’s possible the boy scout from Maryland never intended to bring his famous sense of integrity and professionalism to his influential new job at the Justice Department. Maybe he sold himself on the idea that he’d be serving “at the pleasure of the president” and decided he’d do whatever he had to do to keep his boss happy.
That’s one explanation for why Mr. Conscientious wrote that strange memo about James Comey. He knew full well that his sober, serious-minded complaints about the FBI director’s handling of the Clinton email investigation would be used as cover for making a fundamentally corrupt personnel decision, and he decided to lend the president his hard-won credibility the way a guy with a clean record might help a buddy with a checkered past hide a murder weapon.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I have a hard time believing that version of the story. Rosenstein has worked in the Justice Department for too long—27 years—and his reputation in the legal world is too solid for him to be a craven and amoral functionary. It’s more likely, in my view, that Rosenstein went into this job sincerely thinking, or at least hoping, that he could do some good in the Trump administration. Just like all the people who told me they were happy there would be an adult running the Justice Department’s day-to-day operations, Rosenstein probably believed he could be a steadying force at a time when the federal government—and the DOJ in particular—badly needs one.
I don't know why Rod Rosenstein did what he did, what he so obviously and knowingly did, writing up an excuse for Trump to fire Comey as Comey was leading an investigation into wrongdoing and possible criminality by Trump and his lackeys. BUT THE OVERWHELMING FACT IS THAT HE DID IT. It is more credible that he did it with the intention of hampering the investigation - the most obvious real effect of the firing - for whatever reason, than it is that he was a babe in arms as he was doing it. You don't get to claim he was the essential man, the grown-up, the adult and then let him off because he's supposed to be a friggin' boy scout.
As I said, he's got one chance to disprove the belief that he's acted as part of a cover up and that is to appoint a credible, vigorous and disinterested special prosecutor to do the investigation that his actions have impeded.
I will state that I'm no fan of James Comey who I think showed obvious partisan, Republican bias in relation to the phony scandal trumped up around Hillary Clinton's e-mail. I agree with her that Comey probably got Trump elected through his October surmise. I think Barack Obama showed weakness and bad judgement in appointing Comey as head of the FBI. Obama should have fired him, he should never have gone along with the DC Village idiots who pushed him - the same idiots who pushed Rosenstein as a boy scout. But, like it or not, he was overseeing one of the most important investigations into crime and treason against democracy, against the United States and with Trump's interview declarations, it is clear that his firing was part of an attempt to scuttle a criminal investigation into about the most serious of crimes - short of war crimes - that any American president has ever credibly been held to have committed.
What Comey did in nudging the election to Trump was really bad, what Rod Rosenstein did is worse because in the hundred plus days of the Trump regime, there can be no doubts, no granting of any benefit of the doubts about how dangerous he and his entire crew are to American democracy and the world.
Apropos of yesterday's posts, in making his argument, Neyfakh cites various people, Oona Hathaway (Harvard - Yale Law), Ross Douthat (Harvard) and David Luban (Yale). Given that both Trump and Rod Rosenstein graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Rosenstein is a product of Harvard Law, as far as I can tell, the only person cited in the Slate Article who isn't an Ivy League product is James Comey and he went to the might-as-well be Ivy University of Chicago for his law degree. He is a bit of an outlier in that he also went to a public university as an undergrad, William and Mary. Maybe that's got something to do with why the Ivy doesn't have his back.
Shorter Donald Trump, "Obeying The Law Is For Little People"
It is certain, now, that whatever else happened Donald Trump was guilty of attempted obstruction of justice. He said so it on national TV during his interview with Lester Holt which broadcast yesterday. I say "he said so" because it wasn't a confession, he doesn't see it as wrong because it is he, Donald Trump, who did it. Yesterday's declaration that he had asked James Comey,
“I actually asked him, yes. I said, ‘If it’s possible would you let me know, am I under investigation? He said: ‘You are not under investigation.’”
he claimed that exchange happened as a part of what he said was a dinner meeting to see if Comey would retain his job at the FBI, where he was overseeing an investigation of Trump's campaign, transition and regime over possible collusion and corruption with the Putin government. That is not an admission of guilt, it is a declaration that he did it and that there isn't anything wrong with HIM, DONALD TRUMP, obstructing justice.
This was his Leona Helmsley moment, as far as Donald Trump is concerned obeying the law is for little people.
With this declaration if Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and other Republicans in congress don't institute and entirely support a full criminal investigation of Donald Trump, Mike Pence and anyone else in the Trump regime into collusion with the Putin regime during the election and with possible continued corruption with them and others during the one hundred-thirteen days since Trump took office, they have violated their oaths of office and, if there were any real justice in our law, the law.
The entire Republican Party is either going to fully support a full criminal probe, the full prosecution of those who are indictable and the full and thorough cleansing of our government or they are revealing themselves as the party of treason, of not opposing but working with enemies of the United States foreign and domestic.
“I actually asked him, yes. I said, ‘If it’s possible would you let me know, am I under investigation? He said: ‘You are not under investigation.’”
he claimed that exchange happened as a part of what he said was a dinner meeting to see if Comey would retain his job at the FBI, where he was overseeing an investigation of Trump's campaign, transition and regime over possible collusion and corruption with the Putin government. That is not an admission of guilt, it is a declaration that he did it and that there isn't anything wrong with HIM, DONALD TRUMP, obstructing justice.
This was his Leona Helmsley moment, as far as Donald Trump is concerned obeying the law is for little people.
With this declaration if Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and other Republicans in congress don't institute and entirely support a full criminal investigation of Donald Trump, Mike Pence and anyone else in the Trump regime into collusion with the Putin regime during the election and with possible continued corruption with them and others during the one hundred-thirteen days since Trump took office, they have violated their oaths of office and, if there were any real justice in our law, the law.
The entire Republican Party is either going to fully support a full criminal probe, the full prosecution of those who are indictable and the full and thorough cleansing of our government or they are revealing themselves as the party of treason, of not opposing but working with enemies of the United States foreign and domestic.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Holy Cow - The Lester Holt Interview
I just listened to excerpts from Lester Holt's interview of Donald Trump. I can't believe how amazingly stupid Trump is to have admitted to having called the FBI director to ask for an update on the investigation into his campaign and administration.
This can't be allowed to happen or there is nothing left to American democracy, the Republicans will have installed strong-man criminal government.
I'm not surprised he did it, I'm shocked that he'd be so stupid as to admit it in public, on national TV. And, if I'm not mistaken, he may have accused Comey of committing either an act of monumental impropriety or perhaps a felony. Not to mention the other people in his regime whose recent and past statements and actions he has fingered as either lying, malfeasance or, maybe crimes, as well.
Update: I really can't stand listening to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she lies without any shame, without any act of conscience entering into it. And she graduated from, Ouachita Baptist University, allegedly a religious institution. Apparently, like her father, Rev. Mike Huckabee, they never taught her it was a sin to tell a lie, either.
This can't be allowed to happen or there is nothing left to American democracy, the Republicans will have installed strong-man criminal government.
I'm not surprised he did it, I'm shocked that he'd be so stupid as to admit it in public, on national TV. And, if I'm not mistaken, he may have accused Comey of committing either an act of monumental impropriety or perhaps a felony. Not to mention the other people in his regime whose recent and past statements and actions he has fingered as either lying, malfeasance or, maybe crimes, as well.
Update: I really can't stand listening to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she lies without any shame, without any act of conscience entering into it. And she graduated from, Ouachita Baptist University, allegedly a religious institution. Apparently, like her father, Rev. Mike Huckabee, they never taught her it was a sin to tell a lie, either.
Ladies Who Book
I swear I didn't see this until just now. It's about Ivanka Trump (Chapin School - Choate - Wharton School - no doubt under that longest and most effective form of affirmative action, legacy admission) and is horrifyingly funny.
Update:
"Exdemokratiewegweisersmafiatochtergzanziggipfeldelegierungsübelkeitsgefühl"
I believe that should translate to be something about the feeling of nausea you get from listening to the sugar-coated bullshit that a mafia-daughter from an ex-democracy is spouting. I'm not really fluent in German but my hat's off to whoever came up with it.
Update 2: Just noticed, throw the idea of evil in there, somewhere too.
Jeesh! Get Over The Preppies And The Ivys, They're Our Indigenous Criminal Class - Hate Mail
It is a widespread phenomenon that is a common enough delusion that it should have a name, that people who aren't of the prep-school to Ivy League class get nervous and upset when one of us, we, the large majority of humanity who went to public schools and universities point out how many criminals and thugs and pirates and gangsters are prep-Ivy. As I recall it was just my doing that at the beginning of the Obama administration that was the occasion of my first fight with the man who has been obsessed with attacking me ever since. And the schmuck isn't even one of them being the product of a far from Ivy private college.
Just what is it about that prep-Ivy cult that so enthralls people who aren't part of it? Envy? Perhaps I'm especially impious about it because I'm from a part of New England and from a class which has largely felt the jack boot of the Harvard product and a state whose native population was held up to ridicule and condescension by a scribbler produced at Cornell. Or maybe I'm just ornery enough to reject their conceit.
I will give you an example of the prep-Ivy BS. That now infamous New York Times op-ed that advocated saying nice things about Donald Trump was by the long time media twit, Michael Kinsley - Cranbrook Prep, Harvard, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar, don'cha know) and with that what comes out at the end is Michael Kinsley telling us that Trump is Fascist - yes, he is and, despite what Kinsley says, a very dangerous one - but that we should take some time out of our week to say something nice about him. What a putz! And he's only one of a myriad of such prep-Ivy that inhabits the media, the legal profession, politics, and, certainly, big business and the corporate fascist oligarchy. And, lest it be forgotten, Donald Trump is a prep-Ivy Kew-Forest-New York Military Academy - Wharton School*, U of Pennsylvania (it's an Ivy, NOT a public university, in case the name confuses you, as it does others). Sorry for that last parenthetical statement, I know Simps is reading this looking for something to cherry pick and distort. He's been doing that ever since we had that spat about the Ivy League criminal class.
* As I mentioned, yesterday, in the post that set off the Ivy-soxer, the Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is a Wharton grad, as well. I'm sure that helped him with Trump. I wouldn't be shocked if it had something to do with what Rosenstein did for a fellow old-boy the other day.
Update: Uh, listen kid, I've seen more Harvard grad than many and most of them weren't liberals and those who might have been in their college days have a strong tendency to either turn conservative as soon as they're earning or trying to land their first job with six figures give that up as childhood folly or to, as in the example above, go soft on rich criminals. A Harvard Liberal who was a real liberal might stay one but most of them are just libertarians playing at it. The rare one who breaks that pattern is rare for a reason.
Update 2: I'm given the example of that Yalie, Lewis Black. A. let me know when Lewis Black goes into something other than entertainment so we can see if he retains his purity, B. Let me know when he goes into government service. Maybe he could send in his name to head the FBI. It might be good for a laugh. C. That's the best you can come up with? And here I thought you were an Ivy groupie.
If you can't get a date get a Yalie.
Update 3: It's so tempting to post the comments from the Sweet Tart of Ivy Guys. Steve, I'm doing you a favor, you look cheap and ridiculous. I mean, more so than usual.
Update 4: I'm told he's totally out of control over this post over at Duncan's (PhD econ from the second least of those "lesser Ivies" whose grad Ted Cruz thought were too icky for his Harvard Law study group, Brown) blog. I'd go look but why do that when I can watch Rod Rosenstein scrape what's left of his reputation from the sidewalk?
Update 5: "It's a long story....." and as it's Steve Simels' version of it you're reading, it's a sure thing that it's about as true as the Comey firing cover story.
I told you guys, I'm busy watching Simp's pin-up Ivy guy trying to spoon up his dignity from where it was pushed off the cliff and putting it into a tin cup.
Just what is it about that prep-Ivy cult that so enthralls people who aren't part of it? Envy? Perhaps I'm especially impious about it because I'm from a part of New England and from a class which has largely felt the jack boot of the Harvard product and a state whose native population was held up to ridicule and condescension by a scribbler produced at Cornell. Or maybe I'm just ornery enough to reject their conceit.
I will give you an example of the prep-Ivy BS. That now infamous New York Times op-ed that advocated saying nice things about Donald Trump was by the long time media twit, Michael Kinsley - Cranbrook Prep, Harvard, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar, don'cha know) and with that what comes out at the end is Michael Kinsley telling us that Trump is Fascist - yes, he is and, despite what Kinsley says, a very dangerous one - but that we should take some time out of our week to say something nice about him. What a putz! And he's only one of a myriad of such prep-Ivy that inhabits the media, the legal profession, politics, and, certainly, big business and the corporate fascist oligarchy. And, lest it be forgotten, Donald Trump is a prep-Ivy Kew-Forest-New York Military Academy - Wharton School*, U of Pennsylvania (it's an Ivy, NOT a public university, in case the name confuses you, as it does others). Sorry for that last parenthetical statement, I know Simps is reading this looking for something to cherry pick and distort. He's been doing that ever since we had that spat about the Ivy League criminal class.
* As I mentioned, yesterday, in the post that set off the Ivy-soxer, the Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is a Wharton grad, as well. I'm sure that helped him with Trump. I wouldn't be shocked if it had something to do with what Rosenstein did for a fellow old-boy the other day.
Update: Uh, listen kid, I've seen more Harvard grad than many and most of them weren't liberals and those who might have been in their college days have a strong tendency to either turn conservative as soon as they're earning or trying to land their first job with six figures give that up as childhood folly or to, as in the example above, go soft on rich criminals. A Harvard Liberal who was a real liberal might stay one but most of them are just libertarians playing at it. The rare one who breaks that pattern is rare for a reason.
Update 2: I'm given the example of that Yalie, Lewis Black. A. let me know when Lewis Black goes into something other than entertainment so we can see if he retains his purity, B. Let me know when he goes into government service. Maybe he could send in his name to head the FBI. It might be good for a laugh. C. That's the best you can come up with? And here I thought you were an Ivy groupie.
If you can't get a date get a Yalie.
Update 3: It's so tempting to post the comments from the Sweet Tart of Ivy Guys. Steve, I'm doing you a favor, you look cheap and ridiculous. I mean, more so than usual.
Update 4: I'm told he's totally out of control over this post over at Duncan's (PhD econ from the second least of those "lesser Ivies" whose grad Ted Cruz thought were too icky for his Harvard Law study group, Brown) blog. I'd go look but why do that when I can watch Rod Rosenstein scrape what's left of his reputation from the sidewalk?
Update 5: "It's a long story....." and as it's Steve Simels' version of it you're reading, it's a sure thing that it's about as true as the Comey firing cover story.
I told you guys, I'm busy watching Simp's pin-up Ivy guy trying to spoon up his dignity from where it was pushed off the cliff and putting it into a tin cup.
The American Government Like The Russian One Is In The Control of Criminals
It is clear that the pose that Jeff Sessions went through in recusing himself as Attorney General in all matters of the investigation of Trump regime collusion with the Putin crime family was about as truthful as his perjured testimony in the sham of a confirmation hearing. The reason he had to recuse himself was his lie, under oath, to a question by Senator Al Frankin in which he lied about meeting with Russian officials as he participated in the Trump Campaign. With his part in firing James Comey and the news that he has been interviewing possible replacements for the person who will lead that investigation, he is trying to be the man who chooses the man who will investigate him.
The Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions is being shaped to let those who broke the law, committed treason against democracy and the American People will be allowed to walk and get off and continue their criminality and treason. If the House and Senate were not in Republican control, this would never have happened. That was the one thing that saved the United States during the Nixon crime spree, Democrats held both houses of Congress - under the partisan fascism of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell there is no check on the unprecidented power grab by the Trump regime, they and their Republican colleagues are almost entirely in favor of it.
This is the biggest civic catastrophe to hit the United States, perhaps in its history, in which we see what happens when the government is in the hands of crooks and people with no sense of shame and so no sense of honor. The extent to which honor was depended on by those 18th century amateurs who set up our system of government and the extent to which that dependency was mistaken becomes ever clearer with every passing day, some days with every passing hour.
It is not shocking that the regime in Moscow would want a Donald Trump in control of the United States, a Donald Trump and his crime associates who now run the Republican Party. Gangsters like Putin and his ilk would rather deal with their fellow gangsters instead of democrats who believe in the common good and the rule of law. It isn't shocking that our domestic gangsters, the billionaire and millionaire criminal class, here, want the same thing. And it has gradually become unsurprising that the American media - functioning largely as the PR wing of the oligarchs - is anything from inadequate to prevent or fight against this when it isn't a willing participant in setting it up. The American People, if they are to have democratic government have got to understand that the honors system the aristocratic founders set up, including the vague, nonspecific parts of the Bill of Rights doesn't work in our present environment. They will have to risk replacing an honors system with a system of laws to prevent foreign gangsters and our own domestic ones from doing what they've done over the past half century of ever worsening attacks on democracy and the common good.
NPR asks Will Foreign Mischief In U.S. Elections Become 'The New Normal'? even as they and the upper levels of American media normalize the Trump regime. The New York Times is doing the same. Clearly the freest press in our history has sold us out. The NPR story says that during the Senate committe hearing that seems like it happened moths ago:
Clapper and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates also told senators they thought the U.S. must "harden" its election systems to safeguard vote-counting and registration systems. The government could declare such networks "critical infrastructure," like the electric grid, Clapper said, and offer them the same kind of cyber-protections.
They follow that with the claim by James Comey:
Then-FBI Director James Comey told a Senate panel before his surprise dismissal on Tuesday that there was no evidence that Russia's 2016 election-meddling affected any votes or electoral outcomes in the United States, but that Russians have attempted to do just that elsewhere outside the United States.
But that's only in the votes cast, it doesn't get to the most effective part of the Putin regime attack on democracy here and elsewhere, by spreading false and damaging information about candidates not in their pockets. There isn't any way an FBI investigation could measure the votes swayed by the non-stop propaganda that NPR and virtually every other organ of the American media carried on Putin's behalf, if anything the lefty media carried as much of that as FOX. Some of them still are.
Nothing that doesn't include making it actionable to lie about liberal politicians in the media is going to be more than a pose and a band-aid against a full out attack on our democracy. Our system narrowly rejected the psychotic criminal, Richard Nixon in 1960. After the Sullivan decision, it not only elected him in 1968, it reelected him against one of the most decent men to have ever gotten the Democratic nomination in 1972, even as his criminality was obvious. The Congress, though, forced his resignation, that congress is in full control of the Nixon style Republican Party now, it was the corporate media and their owners who lied the American People into voting for the Republicans who are in control now. They made Trump, through both their entertainment and alleged news operations. They largely sustain him now.
The Department of Justice under Jeff Sessions is being shaped to let those who broke the law, committed treason against democracy and the American People will be allowed to walk and get off and continue their criminality and treason. If the House and Senate were not in Republican control, this would never have happened. That was the one thing that saved the United States during the Nixon crime spree, Democrats held both houses of Congress - under the partisan fascism of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell there is no check on the unprecidented power grab by the Trump regime, they and their Republican colleagues are almost entirely in favor of it.
This is the biggest civic catastrophe to hit the United States, perhaps in its history, in which we see what happens when the government is in the hands of crooks and people with no sense of shame and so no sense of honor. The extent to which honor was depended on by those 18th century amateurs who set up our system of government and the extent to which that dependency was mistaken becomes ever clearer with every passing day, some days with every passing hour.
It is not shocking that the regime in Moscow would want a Donald Trump in control of the United States, a Donald Trump and his crime associates who now run the Republican Party. Gangsters like Putin and his ilk would rather deal with their fellow gangsters instead of democrats who believe in the common good and the rule of law. It isn't shocking that our domestic gangsters, the billionaire and millionaire criminal class, here, want the same thing. And it has gradually become unsurprising that the American media - functioning largely as the PR wing of the oligarchs - is anything from inadequate to prevent or fight against this when it isn't a willing participant in setting it up. The American People, if they are to have democratic government have got to understand that the honors system the aristocratic founders set up, including the vague, nonspecific parts of the Bill of Rights doesn't work in our present environment. They will have to risk replacing an honors system with a system of laws to prevent foreign gangsters and our own domestic ones from doing what they've done over the past half century of ever worsening attacks on democracy and the common good.
NPR asks Will Foreign Mischief In U.S. Elections Become 'The New Normal'? even as they and the upper levels of American media normalize the Trump regime. The New York Times is doing the same. Clearly the freest press in our history has sold us out. The NPR story says that during the Senate committe hearing that seems like it happened moths ago:
Clapper and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates also told senators they thought the U.S. must "harden" its election systems to safeguard vote-counting and registration systems. The government could declare such networks "critical infrastructure," like the electric grid, Clapper said, and offer them the same kind of cyber-protections.
They follow that with the claim by James Comey:
Then-FBI Director James Comey told a Senate panel before his surprise dismissal on Tuesday that there was no evidence that Russia's 2016 election-meddling affected any votes or electoral outcomes in the United States, but that Russians have attempted to do just that elsewhere outside the United States.
But that's only in the votes cast, it doesn't get to the most effective part of the Putin regime attack on democracy here and elsewhere, by spreading false and damaging information about candidates not in their pockets. There isn't any way an FBI investigation could measure the votes swayed by the non-stop propaganda that NPR and virtually every other organ of the American media carried on Putin's behalf, if anything the lefty media carried as much of that as FOX. Some of them still are.
Nothing that doesn't include making it actionable to lie about liberal politicians in the media is going to be more than a pose and a band-aid against a full out attack on our democracy. Our system narrowly rejected the psychotic criminal, Richard Nixon in 1960. After the Sullivan decision, it not only elected him in 1968, it reelected him against one of the most decent men to have ever gotten the Democratic nomination in 1972, even as his criminality was obvious. The Congress, though, forced his resignation, that congress is in full control of the Nixon style Republican Party now, it was the corporate media and their owners who lied the American People into voting for the Republicans who are in control now. They made Trump, through both their entertainment and alleged news operations. They largely sustain him now.
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