February 28, 2018: Clueless in the Saddle, Binary Choice, Villain or Fool?

“Life often presents us with a binary choice: go right or left; it is right or wrong: it is or it isn't.

                             ----from "The Quotations of Chairman Joe"

Michelle Goldberg, writing in last Tuesday's New York Times, placed in stark relief the case against Donald J. Trump. Robert Mueller, she notes, had just indicted Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his assistant Rick Gates on multiple counts of “money laundering and conspiracy against the United States”. (1)

The Trump campaign would have us believe that this was all pre-tRUMP, but recent evidence is emerging that money laundering continued throughout the campaign.

It appears that money having dried up from Manafort and Gates' Ukraine sources following the overthrow of the Kremlin-backed regime for whom they were working and raking in millions in the process, the two—particularly Manafort—found themselves in desperate financial straits.

Nevertheless, tRUMP finds himself confronted by Manafort offering his campaign services even though he is (a) desperate for cash and (b) has done no domestic political work in the United States for a decade or more. He has no political track record save helping to prop up an authoritarian regime and he has no extensive political connections in the United States. The answer appears to be: (1), he is well-dressed and appears to be as he represents himself: a man of great wealth, and (2) perhaps more importantly, he offers to work for tRUMP for free. This is a combination guaranteed to mesmerize our erstwhile Caesar.

“Immediately, Manafort sought to use his role in the campaign to repair his relationship with (Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska to whom he owed a great deal of money) Deripaska. In April, as the Washington Post reported, he emailed an employee in Kiev about his new job, and wrote, apparently in relation to Deripaska, 'how do we get whole?' In July, Manafort offered to give Deripaska private briefings about the campaign”. (2)

Then, about this time, there is the question of the reversal engineered by Manafort with, according to a delegate on the platform committee, the explicit understanding and instructions from Donald J. Trump that the party reverse itself and abandon the support of the pro-western Ukrainian government and support Moscow.

“It's certainly possible”, writes Goldberg, “that Trump himself didn't personally connive with Russia for campaign help. Perhaps, through a combination of carelessness and miserliness, he unwittingly allowed his campaign to be infiltrated at the highest levels by both alleged and admitted criminals with Russian ties, such a scenario, however, would not be exculpatory”. (3)

Indeed, Manafort's accomplice Rick Gates has pleaded guilty, as has several other campaign operatives The question, as put by Senator Howard Baker in the Watergate hearings, is 'what did the president know and when did he know it?'.

“Perhaps Trump didn't realize that his campaign was being run by alleged Russian money launderers, that at least tow of his foreign policy advisers had entanglements with Russian intelligence, and that his campaign had a heads up about Russian plans to dump stolen Clinton emails online. None of last week's new information proves that Trump is too disloyal to his own country to be president. But the only alternative is that he is too clueless.(4)

Confronted with this inescapable binary choice, I chose the former. Caesar Disgustus will, when the dust finally settles on this wretched administration, be shown the traitor that he is. It is becoming increasingly clear that both the candidate and those about him are eyeball deep in racketeering and money laundering; that they have conspired with a foreign adversary against the United States. Caesar Disgustus' appeal to the Russians to continue to hack his adversaries is a clear indication of his acceptance of the practice and encouragement of it, regardless of the law. His responding to suggestions by the Russians that he cry foul in the event of an electoral defeat is likewise an indication of close collaboration. The myriad ties of campaigning operatives and hangers-on from Papadopoulos, to Roger Stone, to Manafort, Gates, Kushner and his own Son, reveal the level of involvement. It is impossible to believe that Disgustus didn't have intimate knowledge of what transpired. He knows he's guilty, and that's why he has gone to such great lengths to discredit those hot on his trail.

In the end, after sufficient time to wreak whatever possible vandalism, he will be shown the door. The binary question posed by Goldman offers a binary solution: Either Disgustus will replace Benedict Arnold as our greatest national villain or he will go down in history as our greatest national fool.

“an' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison

______________________

1. Goldberg, Michelle. “Conspirator, or Just Clueless?” The New York Times. Tuesday, February 27, 2018. Page A19
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid

February 27, 2018: Most Trusted Man, Losing Middle America, Truth to Power

This year marks a half century since that time so long ago when the conservative movement rose the ascendancy of American politics. The fateful year that began with so much promise and ended with the ultimate booby prize, marked the beginning of the emergence of a toxic, vitriolic, and insidious cancer upon the body politic. From time to time, in the ensuing posts, I will take moments to remember that fateful year and mark the milestones. Today is one such occasion.

On this date, 50 years ago, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite did something that, at the time, was extraordinary. It is difficult to imagine a time when those who report the news do not editorialize but simply report what they see; but that was the norm 'back in the day'. Consequently, in poll after poll, Cronkite was reputed to be the most trusted man in America, finishing a close second behind god himself. Such was his stature that n the 1971 movie “Cold Turkey”, a story about a clergyman who leads his community to accept a challenge by a tobacco company to quit smoking for thirty days, the effort reaches truly national indeed mythical stature when Cronkite, played by Ray Goulding of the comedy team Bob and Ray, appears amid angelic choir with a florescent light forming an overhead halo.

Cronkite stepped 'down' from his pinnacle to voice, for him, a singular editorial opinion. He had gone to Vietnam in the waning days of the Tet Offensive to see for himself. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year celebration and the communists had launched, in late January of 1968, a massive offensive to coincide with the country's national celebration, hoping to catch the South Vietnamese forces unawares. Visions of the U.S. Embassy under attack put lie to the administration narrative that the end of the war was nearly at hand, with only some mopping up operations left to be done. Cronkite went to Saigon and was lectured by General William Westmoreland who instructed the veteran reporter to 'do his homework'. Cronkite did. He left the headquarters and went out into the field touring, among other places, Hue where bitter block by block and house to house fighting had been going on for weeks reducing the once grand colonial capital. It reminded him of the ruins of towns and villages he had seen while reporting from the field in World War II.

He returned home convinced, as he reported on this night 50 years ago, that it was clear 'to this reporter' that victory cannot be won. It was also clear that it was not possible for the other side to win. What the country faced, he told his fellow Americans, was a stalemate demanding a political settlement. Negotiations.

President Johnson, watching the telecast, turned to one of his aides and said “If we've lost Cronkite we have lost middle America”. Johnson realized at that moment that—to paraphrase Richard Nixon—the war will no longer play in Peoria. Accordingly he began to talk to First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, about retiring from office.

Cronkite was, through his position in the press, speaking to the nation. But in a very real sense he was addressing an audience of one: the President of the United States. Johnson got the message. Barely 6 weeks later, in an address from the Oval Office to the nation, Johnson confirmed Cronkite's assessment, declaring a willingness to meet our adversaries at the peace table while suspending certain military actions, the need to devote full time to any upcoming negotiations, that he would not seek nor accept the nomination of his party for President of the United States.

The myth, pilloried so well in the film, was that Cronkite's shift into open skepticism if not opposition, turned the country against the war. It is central to the conservative narrative that the press had sold out the country and gave credence to the paranoia concerning the press that had fueled what, until that time, was nearly a singular grievance on the part of Richard Nixon. Cronkite's influence was wide, but not nearly so deep. The conservative critique makes too much of such influence. It would be another three years before polls began to show a palpable majority questioning the wisdom of the war, another five years before the United States had withdrawn nearly all its forces, and seven years before the South Vietnamese government, a tin-horn dictatorship rife with corruption, would fall. In sum the country didn't turn on a dime, the war dragged on for nearly three quarters of a decade. But the corner had been turned.

Then, of course, there were the upcoming returns from the New Hampshire Primary where Senator Gene McCarthy would perform beyond all expectations denying the once invincible Johnson a clear majority finishing with 42 per cent behind Johnson's 49. Not only had McCarthy, due to the arcane rules governing how delegates were awarded, shown how vulnerable was the president on the war issue, but had actually won a majority of the delegates. The outlook for the president, electorally speaking was grim. Polls had him well behind in upcoming Wisconsin and, in the wings, awaited Bobby Kennedy.

Coming as it did just before Johnson had replaced Robert McNamara with Clark Clifford at Defense Secretary, and as his council of 'wise men'--Johnson's Kitchen Cabinet—itself began to change its tune and echo Cronkite's chilling assessment, those closest to the President had begun to change their minds and speak newly discovered truth to power. The president had ears and responded accordingly.

Contrast now with our present situation where ensconced upon the throne sits a man who neither understands, nor reads, nor listens. Imagine if you will, our very own Caesar Disgustus caught in the currents of such national torment.

“an' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh.”

Impeach and Imprison.

See. Bowden, Mark. “Cronkite's 'Stalemate”' The New York Times Tuesday, February 27^th 2018.

page A19

February 19, 2018: Idiot Wind, Vandalizing the Language, Beneath the Dignity

Everyone is familiar with the word 'trump' as it pertains to playing cards. “To bring a superior card to bear”, or in a broader context a verb meaning to bring superior force, superior intelligence, superior resources to bear upon the situation.

In 2016, Robinson Meyer, writing in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine , accused the then presidential candidate of perpetrating “a crime against the English language”. “It seems probable”, continued Meyer, “that his campaign will doom a perfectly pleasant word, a happy verb with a 750 year history.” (1)”

It had a good run, entering the language in the “late 14^th century”. Its first meaning, however had nothing to do with cards rather “a trump was a trumpet, and if you trumped, you were just blowing your horn” (1). Sound familiar?

“For a long time all trumps were noisy”, writes Meyer, citing Shakespeare and the Bible, “but even if they made a joyful noise, not all trumps were holy. Trump also means, especially in British English, to, erm, break wind...

“Trump has exuded this meaning for centuries. A Latin translation guide from the 1550's gave trump as a synonym for crepo which is defined like this: Trump or let crakke or fart” (1) It wasn't until the 1550's that the term began to assume and not until the late 1600's that it achieved its current meaning, this trump being a bastardization of the French word triumph. Nevertheless, other meanings emerged as in deceive or cheat, as in bring trumped-up charges, or a worthless trifle, known to us as trumpery.

Still, as Meyer points out, it is the “noisy trump” that echoes down through history, quite appropriate for the blowhard now in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Caesar Disgustus is the “idiot wind.” (2); an ill-wind from the backsides of the village idiot. I hope the term survives this national and, perhaps, global catastrophe. I think the term has potential. We need to resurrect the archaic meaning: trump as fart.  In this case, channeling our Pepe Le Pew, a disgusting, foul-smelling, greasy fart.   In addition, I can envision the word trump assuming new meanings as in: verb, adjective, pejorative, meaning gullible, fool, ignorant, incompetent, coarse, boorish, uncouth, submissive, whining, pitiful, beneath the dignity of men. Usage, as in: "What a Trump!"  or,   "Don't be such a trump!” or, "I cannot bring myself to believe you're such a fucking Trump!".  Perhaps, in a final accolade, Trump replaces  Benedict Arnold as a term synonymous with sedition or Treason.  

“an' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.

Impeach and Imprison

_____________________

1. Meyer, Robinson. “Another Victim of The Election: the verb 'to Trump'. The Atlantic Monthly Magazine October 25, 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/ave-atque-trumpe/505259/
2. See : December 2, 2014: Generation of Swine, The Idiot, Bad Citizenship for a discussion of the original meaning of the term 'idiot'. 

February 15, 2018: Cats of Certain Stripe, Massive Ghettos, Stench and Corruption

“Birds of a feather flock together,” goes the old adage. Indeed, like attracts like, which explains so many dysfunctional marriages. It also explains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyehu and his Likud Party's infatuation with all things Rescumlican. We have visited these issues before.(1)

One may recall that back in 2015 in a 'thumb-in-the president's-eye' gesture of disrespect, then Speaker of the House John Boner, without consulting either the White House or the State Department announced the pending arrival of the Israeli Prime Minister to Washington during which time he would be invited to address a joint session of Congress. Netanyehu promptly accepted the invitation without first contacting the Obama White House. It was the diplomatic equivalent of taking a shit on the White House Lawn and then asking to be treated with ensuing respect. Obama, more gracious than the occasion demanded, greeted his visitor accordingly.

The question is; what is it about the Likud and Rescumlican leadership and their respective parties that creates this affinity, this commonality of interests, transcending as it does the respective borders and the relative national interests of their respective states? Why would the Israeli Prime Minister turn foreign policy into a rank partisan exercise? The question is a perplexing one.

First, there is the fact that both the Likud and Rescumlican Parties are dominated by bat-shit crazy religious fundamentalists. In Israel, there are even more extreme groups that have achieved political representation, but in the United States the Christian Evangelical movement has taken over the Rescumlican Party. These people, as previous posts suggest, swear fealty to Israel and support the annexation of the West Bank, indeed all occupied territories, a position that coincides with the nearly announced design of the Likud coalition.

But it is a mistake to divine from this that the Rescumlicans love or support Jews. Indeed, as the Alt-wrong demonstrations and the rantings in Breitbart and other conservative heralds have demonstrated, they are quite anti-Semitic. They support 'greater Israel' because these fools think that if the Israeli's re-constitute the old nation, by taking all of Jerusalem, they will tear down the Mosque and rebuild Solomon's Temple upon the Mount making possible the slaughter of the red heifer and thereby bring on the second coming of Christ. In fact they despise Judaism supporting Israel only as a means of fulfilling the prophecy of their twisted religious doctrine. The degree to which this actually serves the interests of the Israeli's is for them to decide but they have made a Faustian Bargain, much the same as the Evangelical movement has made with Caesar Disgustus, who is neither Christian nor moral, in order to achieve their 'blessed ends'.

Secondly, both the Rescumlican and Likud parties avidly propose—through action and decree—the ethnic cleansing of their populations. Likud has led coalitions that have advanced the process of removing indigenous populations from Jerusalem, the West Bank and elsewhere in clear violation of several United Nations Resolutions going back to the immediate aftermath of the 1967 War. In the United States, as we have seen, we see the continued violation of Native American Sovereignty over the Keystone Pipeline, as well as attempts at banning Muslims from entering the country and the announced intention of our Attorney General to fashion new immigration laws based on the deeply racist and xenophobic act of 1924.

Third, both parties favor building walls to 'protect' their country, turning each nation into what is, in effect, a massive ghetto. The Israeli's are much more advanced in this process building a giant wall around the country, but they have also been successful at walling off Gaza and making it into what can only now be called the world's largest concentration camp.

Fourth, there is this penchant for corruption. In the United States, the Health and Human Services Secretary has been forced to Resign. There have been serious questions concerning the Commerce, Housing and Treasury Secretaries, as well as the head of the Veteran's Administration. And there is Caesar Disgustus, with the ongoing investigations into money-laundering and racketeering, as well as possible sedition with a hostile foreign power. In Israel, police are now recommending corruption charges against Netanyahu, as well as former aides, friends and associates. This isn't the first time. The New York Times (2) reported that similar recommendations were made during his first term in office in the 1990's, and again later in 2000.

Duplicity, mendacity, and the stench of corruption permeate both parties. Pepe Le Pew has at last found his amour. Disgustus has found his Netanyahu now connected by the visible chain of corruption and the stench of political passion. Neither is gnawing at his leg in order to get free.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison.

_________________________

1. See. March 17, 2015: The Polls have Closed, End of the Two-State Solution, Prescription for Disaster, also March 17, 2015: The Polls have Closed, End of the Two-State Solution, Prescription for Disaster, and arch 18, 2015: Middle East Wreckage, Hard Realities, Miserable Choices as well as several other posts on the subject.
2. Halbfinger, David M. and Isael Kershner “Corruption Charges Suggested for Israeli Leader” The New York Times”. Wednesday February 14, 2018. Pages 1&9.

February 14, 2018: Only In America, Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness

“No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.”

                               ---Senator Robert F. Kennedy April 5, 1968

“Only In America” sang Jay and the Americans now more than half century ago. Today, the refrain has achieved an entirely different meaning. The 'land of opportunity', has become a killing field. It has become so bad that my daughter told me that when she was in Europe travel warnings were issued about visiting the United States, citing gun violence. She should know, she moved in diplomatic circles working first for the United Nations International Development Organization and then later for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

We have visited this issue before; we have visited this issue repeatedly. Today, Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day, the nation is presented with yet another senseless act of bloodshed.

Today it is nearly a score dead in a Florida High School. There have been 18 school shootings (1) in this country on this the 45^th day of the year. Nearly every day there are shootings involving multiple casualties. We lose more people to guns in this country than in automobile accidents. Since Robert Kennedy lost his life a half century ago, more Americans have died at the hands of guns than we have lost in all our wars put together.

Rivers of blood, years of darkness. And still the killing goes on.

We have visited this issue before, it is de ja vu all over again., (2) and in the interregnum, from Sandy Hook, to movie theatres, to Churches in Tennessee, Virginia and Texas, to a concert in Las Vegas, to schools across the land the blood continues to run through the streets of America.

It is wrong to say that nothing has been done in the wake of this carnage. Indeed, in the aftermath, the Scums have been working assiduously to weaken gun laws. Several Rescumlican controlled legislatures have, for instance, made it illegal for cities to enact gun control laws, have made it easier to purchase guns, have made it easier to carry concealed weapons, made it easier to purchase handguns and—protecting the “gun show loophole' have thwarted meaningful background checks. They have even—in the case of Iowa—made it legal for children to bear arms.

On the national level, the NRA has worked tirelessly to push these measures through state legislatures and has pressured Congress to do nothing. It has resisted the banning of assault weapons, now the weapon of choice among mass murderers. It has resisted banning armor piercing and hollow point bullets. It has resisted safety measures like technology that reads fingerprints so as to prevent someone else from firing your gun. It has instead stood foursquare for the absolute removal of any meaningful regulation.

"The N.R.A is a terrorist organization"

                                   ----from the "Quotations of Chairman Joe"

The NRA, it has been reported, was used to funnel Russian money into the tRUMP campaign, perhaps the Rescumlican National Committee as well. Certain Congressmen, like Dana Rohrabacher, a former Reagan speechwriter and now Congressman from California is rumored to have received money from the Kremlin and was reported by The New York Times to have been warned by the FBI that he was perceived by the Kremlin as an intelligence source. (3) It appears that the Russians have achieved deep penetration of the Rescumlican Party and are using organizations like the NRA as conduits through which financial support can be funneled. (4) The NRA further serves the foreign policy interests of the Kremlin by spreading terror throughout the land as well as paying lip service to every tin-hat conspiracy theory questioning the legitimate use of police power by the state.

Caesar Disgustus who received perhaps upward of 70 million dollars from the NRA (5) will, of course, tell the nation that this is a 'mental health' issue, not a gun issue. But this ignores the fact that it is the gun that enables the slaughter. There are no drive-by stabbings or stabbings from the window of Las Vegas hotel, or mass stabbing at a church, theatre or school. Indeed, the first act pertaining to 'gun control' of this administration put the lie to the fraud. It was to overturn an Obama ban on selling arms to those on Social Security Disability receiving payments for reasons of mental disability.

Only in America.  Nowhere else in the world would this be tolerated. “And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours”.

“An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.

Impeach and Imprison

___________

1. That number is in dispute. see https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breakingnews/no-there-haven’t-been-18-school-shootings-in-2018-that-number-is-flat-wrong/.  What isn't in dispute is the level of trauma.  The Washington Post article while correcting the number downward nevertheless points out that "Gun violence is a crisis in the United States, especially for children, and a huge number — one that needs no exaggeration — have been affected by school shootings. An ongoing Washington Post analysis has found that more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. That figure, which comes from a review of online archives, state and federal enrollment figures and news stories, is a conservative calculation and does not include dozens of suicides, accidents and after-school assaults that have also exposed youths to gunfire." 

2. see January 29, 2013: The NRA is a Terrorist Organization, Clear and Present Danger, None Dare Call it Treason. Also, January 28, 2013: A Well Regulated Militia, It Hasn’t Always Been This way, Awash in Weaponry . In addition, January 30, 2013: There Are No Drive-By Stabbings, Cold Dead Fingers, My Wife...
3.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/politics/dana-rohrabacher-putin-trump-kremlin-under-fire.html
4.https://www.salon.com/2018/01/19/did-the-kremlin-funnel-money-to-the-nra-to-help-trump-its-bizarre-but-conceivable/
5.https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-trump-russia-nra-connection-heres-what-you-need-to-know-w515615

February 13, 2018: Immigration Puzzle, Pseudo-science, Gene Pools and Supremacy.

On May 26^th, 1924 the Congress enacted and President Calvin Coolidge soon thereafter signed into law the Immigration Act of 1924 which included the National Origins Act and the Asian Exclusion Act limiting “the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people who were already living in the United States as of the 1890 census, down from the 3%  cap set by the 'Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which used the census of 1910. The law was primarily aimed at further restricting immigration of Southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans, especially Italians, Slavs and Eastern European Jews. In addition, it severely restricted immigration of Africans and banned the immigration of Arabs and Asians.” (1) The Act is commonly known as the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, authored by Congressman Albert Johnson and Connecticut Senator David Reed.

Johnson, representing Tacoma Washington, became Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, a plumb committee assignment for a man who was head of the 'Eugenics Research Association”, “a group which opposed interracial marriage and supported forced sterilization of the mentally disabled.” In 1927 he defended his hallmark claim to fame by calling the Immigration Act of 1924 “ a bulwark against 'a stream of alien blood, with all its inherited misconceptions respecting the relationships of the governing power to the governed” (2) . To further clarify his views, Johnson “in support of his 1919 proposal to suspend immigration he included a quote from a State Department Official referring to Jewish people as 'filthy, un-American, and often dangerous in their habits.”(3)

Johnson was not alone in his racist predispositions. He brought on the Committee staff Harry Laughlin “a leading American Eugenicist in the first half of the 20^th century. He was the Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939, and was among the most active individuals influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation.” (4) Laughlin was a close associate of Johnson and the Congressman had previously collaborated Laughlin while head of Eugenics Research Association. Laughlin not only worked on drafting the legislation but “provided extensive statistical testimony to the United States Congress in support of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924. Part of this testimony dealt with 'excessive' insanity among immigrants from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. He was eventually appointed as an expert eugenics agent to the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization ...At least one contemporary scientist, bacterial geneticist Herbert Spencer Jennings, condemned Laughlin's statistics as invalid because they compared recent immigrants to more settled immigrants. (5) Laughlin not only went so far as to launch a eugenics investigation of the United States Senate but the House itself had on staff a Congressional Eugenicist.

Eugenics has, in the wake of World War II and the death camps, become widely discredited. Indeed, the “Reichstag of Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring in 1933, closely based on Laughlin's model. Between 35,000 and 80,000 persons were sterilized in the first full year alone. (It is now known that over 350,000 persons were sterilized). Laughlin was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Heidelberg in 1936 for his work on behalf of the 'science of racial cleansing'....By the end of the decade, eugenics had become associated with Nazism and poor science. Support for groups like the American Eugenics Society began to fade. In 1935, a review panel convened by the Carnegie Institute concluded that the ERO's research did not have scientific merit. By 1939, the institute withdrew funding for the ERO, and the office was forced to close” (6)

Nevertheless, the law that Eugenics inspired remained the law of the land until the Immigration reform acts of 1952.

By using the census base of 1890 instead of the previous benchmark of 1910, the quotas established by Johnson, Reed and Laughlin would be based on a much 'whiter', more Western European America. The result as shown by the following graph illustrates the impact of the legislation of subsequent migrations:

Relative proportions of immigrants from Northwestern Europe^[a] (red) and Southern and Eastern Europe^[b] (blue) in the decades before and after the immigration restriction legislation.(7)

 Rachel Maddow, in a recent broadcast on MSNBC, has connected the dots. Citing an article in The Atlantic Monthly, Maddow pointed to the origins of tRUMP's immigration policy.

“Senator Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Justice Department, once praised a 1924 immigration law whose chief author in the House once declared was intended to end “indiscriminate acceptance of all races.”

Sessions has long been a proponent of immigration restriction, and was one of the first to back Trump’s call on a ban on Muslims entering the United States during the primary.
During an October 2015 radio interview with Stephen Bannon of Breitbart, now a top adviser to the president-elect, Sessions praised the 1924 law saying that:

In seven years we'll have the highest percentage of Americans, non-native born, since the founding of the Republic. Some people think we've always had these numbers, and it's not so, it's very unusual, it's a radical change. When the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and congress changed the policy, and it slowed down immigration significantly, we then assimilated through the 1965 and created really the solid middle class of America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America. We passed a law that went far beyond what anybody realized in 1965, and we're on a path to surge far past what the situation was in 1924.” (8)

There you have it. Congressman Luis Guttierez of Illinois is right.  The administration isn't simply seeking to deal with illegal immigration, but legal immigration as well. But the Rescumlican approach is much more disgusting, for the inspiration of the Bannon/Sessions-inspired immigration policy is the eugenics based deeply racist law of 1924. Racial discrimination based on ethnic cleansing; Making America White Again.

“An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.

Impeach and Imprison

_____________________

1. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924
2. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Johnson_(congressman)
3. ibid
4. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_H._Laughlin\
5. ibid
6. ibid
7. op.cit
8. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/jeff-sessions-1924-immigration/512591/

February 12, 2018: Maturity, Knowing 'The Other', L'Enfant Terrible.

“Maturity is being able to see through the eyes of another.”

                        ----from "The Quotations of Chairman Joe"

Maturity is being able to see through the eyes of another. This is its true definition. Being able to see through the eyes of another means that one must recognize 'the other'. One must be able to put oneself, intellectually and, at times, emotionally in the 'place' of 'the other'. In doing so one not only recognizes 'the other', but begins the process of legitimizing the presence of 'the other', perhaps in time getting to truly know 'the other'.

We define juvenile—meaning 'childlike-- behavior as a pronounced self-centeredness, often manifesting itself into an aggravating form of narcissism. Just as for the Greeks citizen was the opposite of idiot, maturity is the opposite of childlike. And what most marks the passage from childhood to adulthood? Being able to apprehend, understand, see through the eyes of and putting oneself in the place of the other. In a word: empathy.

To become mature one must have empathy. Those familiar with childhood development know that the process of recognizing, then knowing 'the other', takes some time. For some it is a normal process taking a few months or years; for some it is a long and tortuous process; for others it never happens. Normally the child begins to see beyond himself in childhood and the process of maturity becomes well advanced by early adolescence. In the case of our Caesar Disgustus, “The Donald” never took the first step toward maturity.

When columnist George F. Will wrote that tRUMP doesn't know what it is to know he was referring to objective knowledge. The problem runs much deeper than that. Caesar Disgustus' 'unknowing' extends far beyond textbook knowledge. Indeed it extends to the very heart of body and soul; for what makes Disgustus so disgusting is his inability to see beyond himself. He is an adult trapped in the mind of a three year old, held in the grips of a mental and emotional retardation that renders him unable to grasp the essence of anyone about him. People are simply objects to be used and discarded or, if he is offended, simply dismissed. Biographer David Cay Johnston relates how tRUMP reacted when members of the family sued because the heirs of his alcoholic brother Fred were not give their due. Disgustus cut off the medical insurance for his Great-Nephew who then died an early death. Explaining himself he simply told his biographer that “they had sued my dad”--that is his father's estate. This, in the eyes of Disgustus was an unforgivable act causing, in turn, an act of retribution regardless of the consequent pain and suffering. Disgustus could not relate to the pain he would cause for he cannot see through the eyes of another, he cannot see beyond himself.

This week we see him defending a White House aide who was forced from office by accusations of domestic violence, acts which prevented him from gaining the necessary security clearance for the job he held for over a year. Disgustus couldn't bring himself to see through the eyes of the victim, he could only chirp about what a sad day it was for the perpetrator, what a great job he had done while serving by his side (and, by extension, what a great choice Disgustus had made putting him there), and how unfair the whole process had been. Nothing about the pain and suffering of the victims, nothing about the inappropriateness and the mistakes made concerning the hiring of this man and keeping him in a position requiring security clearances that everyone knew were not to be forthcoming.

It is for these reasons that he fails so miserably at performing one of the most important tasks of the office—that of being consoler-in-chief. To console the nation one must have empathy and empathy, for this man-child, simply does not exist. It is for these reasons that he cannot bring himself to apologize no matter how egregiously offensive his actions. It is for these reasons that he takes no heed to the pain and suffering his policies inflict—on immigrants, the sick and elderly, on the poor, on minorities, on the very middle class upon whom a healthy republic depends. It is for these reasons that he always plays the victim, always throwing a temper tantrum, for he cannot possibly perceive his actions to be anything but honorable; any criticism as disingenuous and a betrayal. It is for this reason that Disgustus, like the cartoon character Pepe Le Pew, cannot understand why the country finds him so disgusting.

“The Donald”, as his second wife called him, simply never grew up; the child never became a man. And now the White House has become, in Senator Corker's telling phrase, “an adult day-care center”, where aides work tirelessly, if not entirely successfully, trying to control “L' Enfant Terrible”.

“An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”.

Impeach and Imprison

____________

Note: L'Enfant Terrible is a French expression meaning one whose startingly unconventional remarks or behavior cause deep embarrassment to those around him, as a child will often offend the adults in the room by inappropriate behaviors.

February 11, 2018: Rescumlican Fraud, Useful Bludgeon, Economic Sabotage

“Rest assured, whatever the Rescumlicans say they are, they aren't.”

----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

Economist Paul Krugman, about whom Caesar Disgustus has nothing but contempt and is, therefore, worth reading, wrote an opinion published in Friday's New York Times about the fraudulence that now permeates the party of Lincoln. (1)

In 2011, as the country was reeling from the financial meltdown occurring under the last Rescumlican maladministration, Paul Ryan and his Rescumlicans “issued a report full of dire warnings about the dangers of budget deficits. 'The United States is facing a crushing burden of debt,' it declared, warning of a looming fiscal crisis that might soon 'capsize' the economy”.(2)

The Scums then went about refusing to raise the debt ceiling creating financial and political turmoil “effectively blackmailing President Barack Obama into cutting spending on domestic programs.” (3)

My daughter once told me that she wanted to study economics. I told her to ask the department at the university if they taught Keynesian economics pointing out that if they did not, then the department was staffed with a faculty that simply does not understand the subject. I had been introduced to Keynes in high school and the lessons were reinforced in my college instruction. Of late, the conservatives have been waging war upon John Maynard Keynes citing the fraudulence of Milton Friedman and, following corporate sponsorship at many of the business schools in this country, the error has spread into the media whereupon the idiot wrong have adopted the mantra.

Keynes famously taught that during recession the government should run deficits so that purchasing power would rise fueling production and recovery. With recovery comes increased government revenue which, as the economy improves over time, leads to reduced deficits and then surplus. Government should run deficits in time of recession, surplus in time of prosperity.

But the 'deficit hawks', about whom the Rescumlican Party claims a monopoly have, it has become apparent, never met a surplus they didn't hate and never met a deficit they didn't love—except, of course if the deficits occur under Democratic presidents. It is worth noting, as a side note, that the only budget surpluses ever achieved since World War II have been under Democratic presidents. Lyndon Johnson left Nixon a budget surplus in 1969, and Bill Clinton's budget surpluses during the last years of his presidency.

The budget deficit that caused Ryan and his 'hawks' such animated histrionics was 1.09 trillion in 2012 (4). “This week Republicans, having just enacted a huge tax cut, cheerfully agreed to a budget deal that, according to independent experts, will push next year's deficit up to 1.15 trillion—bigger than in 2012. True, this won't quite match 2012's red ink as a percentage of G.D.P., but this time none of the deficit will be a result of a depressed economy.” (5)

Indeed the economy, now at near full employment, is performing at such a level as to cause the Fed to increase interest rates in an attempt to dampen down economic activity lest that great bug-a-boo inflation once again emerges from under the collective bed.

Krugman points out that with unemployment at about 8 per cent there were sound reasons to run deficits in 2012, now with near full employment at about 4 per cent we should be nearly balancing the budget, if not creating a budget surplus and paying down the debt—as Clinton had done at the end of his business cycle. But as, in 2001, when the scums returned to power, the first casualty is fiscal responsibility. It is worth noting that the deficits under 'Ol Two-Cows' George W. Bush were created two months before the attacks on the World Trade Center. Indeed by June 2001, Bush had instituted—you guessed it—tax cuts, mostly on the wealthy, and made them retroactive to January 1 of 2001 so the scums could later claim that Clinton's last budget had left the scums with a deficit (the first fiscal budget of any incoming administration is the one passed in the last year of the outgoing administration. Hence, Disgustus' fiscal and economic policies do not take effect until his second year in office, laying false his claim that he is responsible for, for instance, low unemployment).

Indeed, Krugman points out that the Rescumlicans were never sincere concerning deficit spending. How do we know this? “It was obvious, even at the time, to anyone who looked at their fiscal proposals. These proposals always involved giant tax cuts for the wealthy—funny how that worked—offset by savage cuts in social benefits. Even so, assertions that deficits would go down depended entirely on assuming lots of revenue from closing unspecified loopholes and huge savings from cutting unspecified government programs. In other words, even at the peak of their deficit-hawk posturing, all Republican really had to offer was redistribution from the poor to the rich” (6).

The deficit scare, as Krugman points out, prove a useful as a bludgeon with which the Rescumlicans would pummel Obama into cutting social and infrastructure rebuilding programs and hobble his presidency.

And, Krugman continued: “I don't think it's unfair to suggest that there was an element of deliberate economic sabotage. After all, Republicans weren't just vehemently opposed to fiscal stimulus; they were also opposed to monetary stimulus. Basically they were against anything that might help the economy on President Obama's watch” (7). Indeed, former Ohio Senator George Voinovich (Rescumlican) said, just before he died, that the Rescumlican senate caucus was ordered to oppose everything that Obama proposed, even if it hurt the country for Mitch McConnell was determined that Obama be a one-term president the country be damned.

“Now” Krugman rightly observes, “Obama is gone, and suddenly deficits don't matter.” (8)

“This is about Republican bad faith. Everything they said about budgets, every step of the way, was fraudulent. And nobody should believe what they say now.” (9)

Indeed, Disgustus pledged to eliminate the so-called “carried interest” loophole, where investors—especially real estate investors—get what amounts to a long term interest free loan, but the loophole is still there. Indeed, the last tax cut included nearly a half trillion dollars, over ten years, in tax benefits to real estate investors. This explains the enthusiasm overwhelmed Disgustus and why Senator Corker—who had vowed to oppose any tax measure that added a cent to the deficit—himself a real estate tycoon, was moved to support it. Not eliminated either were the loopholes in the tax code that rewards companies for outsourcing jobs overseas, indeed the latest Rescumlican creation created even more such loopholes. No they were never serious about this.

What this demonstrates is that once again Disgustus cannot be seen as an aberration. The animus of Disgustus toward all things Obama predates his arrival by 8 years. The same mendacity, the same resistance, motivated by an all-too-transparent racism as well as unlimited political expediency, was deeply entrenched well before the orange slime slithered up Pennsylvania Avenue.

“An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh'

Impeach and Imprison

______________________

1. Krugman, Paul. “Fraudulence Of the Fiscal Hawks” The New York Times. Friday, February 9, 2018. Page A25
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. ibid
7. ibid
8. ibid
9. ibid

February 10, 2018: Link to R.A.T. Television, A Favorite Weapon, Dubious and Scurrilous

On January 26^th I received an email from “Mother Jones” in which Denise Clifton wrote about the relationship between Russian hackers and FOX News, especially its star anchor Sean Hannity. In an article entitled “Sean Hannity Is Now A favorite Weapon of Russian Trolls Attacking America,” Clifton reports on how “Kremlin propagandists are piling on the Fox News war against the Mueller investigation.” (1) Here, then, is the article in its entirety:

“Soon after Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn agreed to a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller on Dec. 1, Kremlin-linked trolls began ramping up their social-media attacks on the Russia investigation. They tweeted out dozens of articles from Fox News and far-right outlets aimed at undermining the credibility of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the so-called deep state. And Vladimir Putin’s trolls would soon have a new vein of material to exploit.

As Christmas approached, a drumbeat against the FBI grew louder in certain quarters of Congress: GOP Rep. Jim Jordan led the attack, claiming on Fox News that the FBI had conspired against Trump’s 2016 campaign. President Trump himself launched broadsides against FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and “leakin’ James Comey.” And on December 20, Fox News star Sean Hannity tweeted “CONSPIRACY: GOP Lawmakers Says FEDERAL CONSPIRACY to Prevent Trump Presidency.”

That day, Hannity’s website ranked among the top 10 shared by the network of Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence campaigns and tracked by the nonpartisan Alliance for Securing Democracy on its national security project, the Hamilton 68 dashboard. Hannity content had not registered much previously—but since December 20, links from Hannity’s site have appeared frequently on the dashboard, often ranking among the top 10. “It’s now up there with other top most-shared domains,” says Bret Schafer, an analyst who monitors the dashboard for the Alliance.

Another storm kicked up last week when House Republicans began calling for the release of a memo produced by Rep. Devin Nunes, purportedly alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation. On January 18, Hannity inveighed against Mueller specifically: “I have a message tonight for the special counsel, Robert Mueller,” he said at the outset of his Fox News prime time report on the memo. “Your witch hunt is now over. Time to close the doors.” By the end of the following day, the hashtag #releasethememo had been tweeted about 3,700 times in 48 hours by the 600 accounts monitored on Hamilton 68, boosted in part by a tweet from WikiLeaks offering a reward for the memo. Hannity also posted “#releasethememo” to the top of Hannity.com.

On Tuesday, as #releasethememo sat among the top hashtags of the Hamilton trending list for the fifth day in a row, senior congressional Democrats called on Twitter and Facebook executives Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg to investigate the extent of the Russian influence campaign happening on their platforms in real time. “If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff wrote to the tech leaders.

Former senior CIA official John Sipher says the smear campaign by Fox News and Trump’s allies in the House plays directly into Kremlin hands. “A weak FBI is in the Russian interest. They will use all the tools at their disposal to pile on and amplify the negative messages,” he told Mother Jones. “At the very same time that we should be coming together to defend ourselves, partisan supporters of the president are attacking the institutions that are protecting us. There needs to be a level of trust and awareness that [FBI and DOJ] are working on behalf of the people, and are not partisan hacks. While it might be in the immediate, short-term interest of a few right-wing politicians, they are helping our enemies and risk doing long-term damage to our democracy.”

Since the Hamilton dashboard launched last August, Fox News in general has often appeared on the trolls’ most-shared list. “Anecdotally, Fox is the go-to news source for breaking news,” Schafer says. But the more recent Hannity links seized upon by the Russian trolls echo a deceptive style seen with content from far-right conspiracy sites like Gateway Pundit and True Pundit. One recent example: a Hannity.com link headlined, “KNIVES OUT: Elizabeth Warren GOES AFTER Oprah Winfrey over 2020 run”—leading to a story quoting Warren as praising Winfrey for a “fabulous speech.” Another Hannity link shared by the trolls recently carried a headline claiming “Fusion GPS says FBI likely funded ‘Trump dossier’ author” and crediting Breitbart News. The Hannity links shared this week continued to demand the release of the Nunes memo and hammered at the freshest conspiracy theory, the alleged disappearance of FBI officials’ allegedly biased text messages.

Hannity did not respond to a request for comment about his rising popularity among the network of Russian-linked accounts.

“Because Russian accounts promote a certain political position is not evidence of coordination” between the trolls and Trump partisans advocating for the release of the memo, Schafer notes. The key takeaway with #releasethememo, he says, “is that Kremlin-oriented trolls have used that hashtag to promote divisiveness, distrust, and to negatively influence our public discourse.”

Former FBI special agent Clint Watts pointed out Tuesday that attacks on the FBI have been increasing as the Russian investigation continues to accelerate. After reports Tuesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and James Comey had been interviewed by Mueller’s team, Watts tweeted: “Interviews are getting closer to the top & suddenly attacks by @GOP on FBI have increased.”

The 600 Kremlin-linked live Twitter accounts that Hamilton 68 monitors are separate from the 2,752 accounts Twitter revealed last fall that were operated before the 2016 presidential election by the Russian Internet Research Agency. Last Friday, Twitter updated that number to 3,814 IRA-linked accounts—plus more than 50,000 automated bot accounts linked to the Russian government. Twitter says it is sending emails to 677,000 users to notify them that they interacted with the Russian accounts.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who has been involved in the Trump-Russia investigation via the Judiciary Committee, called on Mueller in December to “clean house” of partisans. Cornyn tweeted Saturday that Twitter had notified him that he had shared content from or followed known Russian accounts.

“Finally social media is waking up to manipulation of public opinion by our adversaries,” he wrote. But he seemed to downplay the role of Congress: “All of us need to step up to meet this challenge,” he said, “especially the Press.” (2)

There you have it. Russian bots and trolls picking up upon and amplifying the dubious and scurrilous 'conspiracy' theories of the tin-had idiot wrong, and boosting “FOX and 'friends' profiles in the anti-social media, all the while sowing discord, divisiveness, and distraction.

Fox News, is either a knowing or unknowing accomplice serving nothing but the interests of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. FOX News is Russian Affiliated Television—RAT television, doing its worst to subvert the rule of law if not the constitution itself.

“an' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh.

Impeach and Imprison.

_____________________

1. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/sean-hannity-is-now-a-top-weapon-for-russian-trolls-attacking-america/
2. ibid