June 29, 2018: Goodbye Justice Kennedy, Rousseau's Error, Vandalize the Constitution

“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life”

                        ----Associate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy

“In this sentence,” observed The New York Times columnist David Brooks, “which became famous as the 'mystery of life' passage, there is no sense that individuals are embedded in a social order. There is no acknowledgment of the parts of ourselves that we don't choose but inherit—family, race, social roles, historical legacies of oppression, our bodies, the habits that are handed down to us by our common culture.

“There's no we.” (1)

Kennedy is hardly the first to posit such foolishness. One has only to watch old man Walton tell his son John-Boy that he isn't a Writer until someone else says he is. One doesn't need, although the exercise would be very useful, to consult Marx to find the truth. We are all, in our very origins, products of social—in this case sexual—intercourse.

The folly expressed here by the now retiring Justice of our Supreme Court is, perhaps, the most succinct expression of the ideological idiocy in the grip of which the modern conservative movement finds itself. And it is hardly confined to this country. One recalls former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's inane observation that there is no such thing as society.

The West has a long familiarity with this foolishness dating back at least to the dawn of the 'romantic' movement. One may recall here the opening sentence of Rousseau's “Social Contract”: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” he openly declared. He was wrong, as Marx correctly pointed out, on both counts. Indeed, man is born completely helpless and dependent and, as Jefferson declared in 1776, that in order to secure the rights of man “governments are instituted among men”....In sum, to be outside society is to be nowhere. If any personal 'autonomy' is to be realized in anyone's life, it will and must be held by the social web supporting it. It is a point painfully obvious, putting to lie everything written by Ayn Rand and her disciples.

The muddleheadedness that began with Rousseau's philosophical error echoes down through time finding new life in the nonsense that now permeates modern conservative thought. One can forgive Rousseau, idolizing he did the newly discovered native tribes of the Americas. Indeed, Marx himself did much the same thing, as did Daniel Defoe with his Robinson Caruso. But the modern conservative movement reviling as it does all pre-capitalist or post-capitalist economic formulations has no such excuse.

Here, as Brooks rightly points out, “professor Kennedy gives us a homework assignment that almost none of us can actually fulfill. Each of us has to define our own 'concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.

“Wow!” Exclaims Brooks, “That requires a lot of background reading. If your name is Aristotle or Nietzsche, maybe you can do it, but for the rest of us it's going to be tough. We're busy!

“You wind up with a society in which the schools, the public culture, even the parents say: 'It's not our job to instill a shared morality and worldview...That's something you have to do on your own”(2)

One ends up with no shared sense of morality, no common misunderstandings about how the world is organized, no hymn book, if you will, from which we all can sing. Instead, Conservatism posits man as an entirely autonomous, self-actuating, economic 'monads' (in Brooks' parlance) in which society is shattered into 350 million automatons and scattered to the wind.

That is, nothing at all except the idiot-logical imperative to strip the culture of all meaning. To stand the individual naked before his capitalist overlord, to give person-hood to money itself.

It is a small step from the nonsense of these philosophic tenets to the callous disregard of legal precedent that characterizes so much of Kennedy's legal legacy. Give corporations person-hood if not outright citizenship; unfetter capital and the individuals from all bonds of social responsibility. With his fellow-travelers he has worked assiduously to overturn altogether too much of long established law...from gun laws to campaign financing, to the unconstitutional interventions in the 2000 election—being the 5^th vote on the court and in effect appointing a president of the United States.

It is good to see him gone. He has done nothing but vandalize the constitution. The ignorance caused by imposing the idiot-logical imperative leads to selective reading of law and Constitution. The imperative requires that one diminish or overlook entirely the “General Welfare” clause of the preamble, the “Equal Protection” clause of the 14^th amendment, the “Interstate Commerce Clause” and its imperative to regulate; perhaps, in the end, with “Citizen United”, silencing “We The People” in whose name the republic was founded in the first place. That he was appointed (by Reagan) to the Supreme court is a tragedy; that he wasn't impeached in the wake of Bush v. Gore is a calamity the likes of which has only been recently super-ceded by the elevation of the Russian Agent to the White House.

This is what happens when you put a career jurist on the highest bench. This is what happens when you choose a justice based on ideology rather than experience. This is what happens when you continually look to cesspools of legal training like Yale, the University of Chicago, and Harvard Law. This is what happens when you place a known Rescumlican on the bench. Welcome to the emerging Dictatorship of Capital. That is your legacy Mr. Kennedy.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

____________

1. Brooks, David. “Kennedy and Privatizing Meaning” The New York Times. Friday, June 29, 2018. Page A25
2. Ibid.

June 28, 2018: Pay to Play, Barbie's Ken, Aping Disgustus

There is was, photographed on the tarmac as he prepared to board Air Force One. Dapper with attache in hand, all slicked-up in his Brooks Brother's attire, looking for all the world like Barbie's Ken.

But that is where the comparison ends. Ken, you may recall, was a straight-arrow, clean cut guy playing the foil to the insatiably materialistic slut Barbie. Indeed, I understand that girls used to also get their hands on G.I. Joe dolls and taunt Kenny as Joe had his way with the object of his dreams. No one can say for certain what goes on behind the scenes but it is clear, as Mick Jagger once droned “There's one thing that I don't understand/some of the sick things that a girl does to a man”. Indeed.

Nevertheless, it is clear that to keep the affection of Ivanka, Jared must continually cast about in desperate search of ever greater tokens of his affection, finding himself upon a relentless treadmill in which no amount of wealth, no affectations of culture, can seemingly satisfy the insatiable materialism of his spouse. Nothing poor Jared can do will ever, in the eyes of his dreams, equal the stature in which his wife holds his father-in-law.

So, aping Disgustus, Jared too had to cross the river and enter the Manhattan real estate market, doing so just as it was about to tank. Buying 666 Fifth Avenue for about twice what it was worth, Kushner has since been struggling to keep his empire afloat. This has led, upon his elevation to the right hand of Caesar, to questionable behavior and more than the appearance of conflicts of interest. Much has been written about the shake-down of the Qatar government when it first refused to come to the aid of the ailing enterprise. Now reports surface that an outfit called Brookfield Asset Management, which includes undisclosed Qatari investors, is about to invest 700 million into the Kushner tower while at the same time attempting to acquire Westinghouse Electric. Brookfield is a Canadian company and, since Westinghouse is deeply immersed in not only defense contracts but the nuclear power industry, several agencies of the federal government must sign off on any such acquisition. Kushner, of course, maintains his innocence telling the press that he has disassociated himself with the business operations of Kushner enterprises but he still holds his investments. In any case, everyone knows who he is and what he can deliver. The Qatari's have said as much, so have the Chinese.

All that glitters is not gold, sometimes it is cheap paint.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

__________________

(1). Drucker, Jesse and Kate Kelly. “A Convergence of Business and Politics”. The New York Times. Thursday, July 12, 2018. Page B1-2

June 26, 2018: Depths of Depravity, Milestones of Malignancy, Bastard Administration

“It is difficult to plumb the depths of depravity, to mark the milestones of malignancy, of this bastard administration.”

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

                           

Somewhere, by most reports, upwards of 2,500 children are unaccounted for. Parents arrested at the Texas border are having their children sent to Arizona, California, New York, and god knows where. They are given a number to call and get recordings. Children, some as young as toddlers, are being required to appear in court. This is madness, all emanating from the rancid soul of our modern Caligula. It is clear, as this scandal unfolds, that there were no plans to track the whereabouts of these children; perhaps there were never any plans to re-unite them with their families.

We have a history of such behaviors. It isn't taught in our history books, it isn't dwelt upon by our commentators. But we have separated children before, certainly exclusively among those of 'color'. We took children away from native American families, put them in government schools, forced them to forget their native language, religions, customs and culture and adopt the ways of the White Man. Similarly, for different reasons, we sold parents of young black children 'down the river' while they were enslaved. Black marriage vows were read “'til separation do us part”.

Now our very own Caesar Disgustus, always about the business of tapping into the worst of our collective experience is found—when not praising Klansmen and other hate groups—engaging upon a policy that means to punish the most defenseless, punish those of 'color', as he and his capitalist cronies construct 'tent' camps in the Texas and Arizona deserts. Taking his cue from his friend Joe Arpaio, tRUMP is taking us in a direction that is far from temporary. These facilities are (see previous post) about to be expanded, regardless of the much-ballyhooed 'about-face' involving his executive orders establishing the so-called 'no-tolerance' program in the first place.

This scandal reeks on so many levels. Reports are now surfacing that the corporate pigs now running these facilities are charging upwards of 750 dollars a day to house each 'inmate'. One can stay at tRUMP tower for less, although the food as well as the company in the camp is, I am sure, much better.

Let's be clear about this. Draconian imprisonment on misdemeanor charges at the border, expansion of facilities to hold them, and now—given the public outcry—the call upon the military to supply prosecuting attorneys and immigration judges as well as facilities to hold those arrested. This is a move toward the kind of fascist state last seen in Western Europe in the 1930's.

Think about this. Much of the information regarding the holding of the dispossessed in what are now 'makeshift' camps but perhaps soon-to-be permanent installations has come from reporters who have gone to the local units of government and gained access to records. Heretofore such facilities, under the jurisdiction of the state and county authorities, would by law be required to gain certification. Such certification requires oversight and reporting, and becomes part of the public record. Reporters have gained access to these records and have been able to track some of the locations and the reports about them. Now Disgustus wants to use military bases where, upon a pretext of 'national security' the arrested can be held under god knows what conditions for indefinite periods of time. All this done out of public view. Pure profit for the corporations contracted to manage the facilities, no accountability.

Certainly, like the privatized prisons in this country, these beds will not be left unfilled.

Who's next?

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

Impeach and Imprison.

June 25, 2018:Suffer the Children, In On The Scam, Justice Sacrificed to Profit.

Caesar Disgustus' child separation policy is being carried out with the help of private businesses who have received millions of dollars in government contracts to help run shelters where young migrants are being held away from their parents.” reported Yahoo News (1).

Hunter Walker, White House Correspondent for Yahoo News, which broke the story, was able to identify 5 corporations in on the scam. To give credit as well as demonstrate the scope of the program, here is the article in its near entirety:

“The Trump administration has given a series of conflicting explanations for the child separations with the president repeatedly falsely blaming it on Democrats. In reality, the situation is the result of a “zero tolerance” policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April that requires authorities to treat all border crossings outside official ports of entry as crimes. This means that adults are arrested when they cross the border and, typically, when a parent is jailed, their children are taken from them.

“According to Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the agency currently operates “100 shelters across 17 states.” Citing “the safety and security of children in the program,” Wolfe declined to provide further details about the locations where the young migrants are being held. As of Tuesday morning, Wolfe said 11,786 children were being held as part of the “unaccompanied alien children program.” This program, which is run by ACF’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, is designed to offer “unaccompanied alien children entering the United States” a variety of services including “classroom education, health care, socialization/recreation, vocational training, mental health services, family reunification, access to legal services, and case management.” While this program was designed for “unaccompanied” children, who are typically teenagers driven out of their homes in Central America by poverty, abuse or gang violence, since the beginning of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy, there have been widespread reports of children as young as toddlers being taken away from their parents and brought to shelters. Wolfe told Yahoo News his agency defines “unaccompanied” as “any minor referred by [the Department of Homeland Security] to HHS for our unaccompanied alien children program.”

The data reviewed by Yahoo News was posted on the site GovTribe.com, which provides “real-time federal contract marketing data.” This information gives a glimpse of the recent growth of the government’s shelter system for young migrants and some of the companies who have lucrative contracts to participate in the program.

Contract vehicles are one of the mechanisms the U.S. government uses to award contracts to vendors. The data reviewed by Yahoo News was for a contract vehicle called “Shelter Care for Unaccompanied Children 2022.” This included 10 different contracts for up to approximately $92 million that were awarded to five different vendors starting in September 2017. The contracts include plans to operate the shelters through September 2022.

Comprehensive Health Services Inc. (CHSI), a Florida-based company that touts its experience with “immigrant shelter services” received the bulk of the contracts. According to GovTribe, the company was awarded three contracts worth up to about $65 million. The first contract awarded to CHSI through the vehicle kicked off in September 2017 and was for “emergency shelter operations.” It was worth at least $32.4 million. Later that month, the company was awarded a smaller $1.4 million contract for unspecified “emergency and other relief services.”

In February of this year, CHSI was awarded a contract through the vehicle worth $30.9 million to operate an “emergency shelter” in Homestead, Fla., with “500 UAC beds,” an acronym referring to “unaccompanied alien children.” That contract was modified last month to double the number of beds in the shelter. This presumably was the same shelter described in this article by the Miami Herald. Pictures obtained by the paper show the shelter includes large tents, a fenced in soccer field and crowded rows of beds.

Yahoo News contacted CHSI and the company’s President and CEO Gary G. Palmer to ask if it had any concerns about playing a role in the child separations. Palmer did not respond. Gail Hart, a CHSI spokesperson, referred all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services. The CHSI website claims its facilities are “compassionate” and boasts of its recent experience working on an HHS contract for a “rapid ramp-up of a large temporary shelter” for immigrants.

Dynamic Service Solutions, a Maryland firm, was awarded a contract worth up to $8.7 million from HHS through the “shelter care for unaccompanied children” vehicle in September 2017. The company has posted job openings online indicating it is hiring Spanish-speaking “youth care workers” to work with “unaccompanied alien children” in Homestead. Darnell Armstrong, president and CEO of Dynamic Service Solutions, referred all questions about his role in the child separation policy to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Southwest Key Programs was awarded two contracts through the vehicle in September 2017 worth up to $1.8 million each for “emergency shelter operations.” According to ABC News, Southwest Key, anonprofit, runs 26 facilities for young migrants including Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas. Casa Padre, located in a cavernous former Walmart, is the largest licensed facility for immigrant children with a capacity of 1,500. ABC also reported that children who are held there are allowed to make two calls a week. The news network was among a group of media outlets and lawmakers, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., that toured Casa Padre on June 17. They were admitted after Merkley had been turned away from the facility two weeks earlier. After Merkley’s first attempt, Southwest Key Programs spokesperson Cindy Casares released a statement describing itself as a “humanitarian first responder, caring for immigrant children arriving in this country without a parent or guardian.”

“We provide round-the-clock services including: food, shelter, medical and mental health care, clothing, educational support, supervision, and reunification support,” the statement said.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the government is set to pay Southwest Key over $458 million this fiscal year. Southwest Key’s website went offline on Tuesday evening shortly after the stories from Bloomberg and Yahoo News were published. Casares and Southwest Key Programs President Dr. Juan Sanchez did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News about whether they were concerned the nonprofit is aiding child separation.

Dynamic Educational Systems, a subsidiary of the Arizona firm Exodyne, was awarded a pair of HHS contracts worth up to approximately $5.6 million for “emergency shelter operations.” One of the contracts specified it was for “unaccompanied children.” The company’s founder, chairman, and CEO Ralph Rockow, did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News. A woman who answered the phone at Exodyne Inc. on Tuesday laughed when we said we were calling to ask if executives there had concerns they might be helping separate children from their parents. The woman said Rockow and another person who could answer questions were both unavailable.

The fifth business with contracts through the HHS vehicle for “shelter care for unaccompanied children” is Virginia-based MVM. According to GovTribe, the company was awarded two contracts worth up to $9.5 million in September 2017 for “shelter operations” and for unspecified “emergency and other relief services.” Earlier this month, the Daily Beast reported MVM was looking to fill a number of positions, including a compliance coordinator to work in San Antonio on the “rapid deployment of an Emergency Influx Shelter for unaccompanied children.”

In response to an inquiry from Yahoo News, the company sent a statement saying it “has tremendous empathy for the families and children arriving at the U.S. border” and believed there was a “misperception of the role MVM is playing on the issue of unaccompanied immigrant children.”

“The current services MVM provides consist of transporting undocumented families and unaccompanied children to Department of Health and Human Services–designated facilities — we have not and currently do not operate shelters or any other type of housing for minors,” the statement said. “While these children and families are in our care, our priority is ensuring they are safe and treated with dignity and compassion. We have been providing these transport services since 2014 and take pride in the level of care these children receive from our dedicated, professional staff.”

According to the company’s statement, “MVM was one of several organizations awarded a contract to provide as-needed emergency support services” to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The company emphasized this was in 2017, “prior to the zero tolerance policy” that led to child separations. In addition to the recent contract vehicle for “shelter care for unaccompanied children” Yahoo News has identified four contracts the company was awarded in past years for “unaccompanied alien children (UAC) transportation services” worth at least $308 million. While those contracts cover work through next year, according to GovTribe, the company has already earned the full amount. The largest of those contracts, which was worth at least $162 million covered a period from 2014 through 2019. The other contracts covered a period from 2016 through this year. The data on GovTribe shows that MVM Inc. has only provided $3,100 of services out of the nearly $9.5 million authorized in the “shelter care” contract vehicle.

MVM’s statement said the company does not expect to provide further services through the program. It also pledged the company would not take contracts that involved the child separation policy.

“At the direction of the company’s leadership, we have removed job postings related to readiness operations under the current zero tolerance policy,” the statement said. “MVM has not pursued any new contracts associated with undocumented families and children since the implementation of the current policy.” (2)

Some of these contracts predate Caesar Disgustus, on account of the many unattended minors that were crossing the border under Obama. But it is clear that the administration had ramped up the program beginning in September of last year when contracts were let to private concerns in anticipation of radically expanding the need for such facilities in anticipation of radically changing immigration policy. That the Obama administration had pioneered the rancid connection of public agency with corporate greed is and has been a source of outrage among right-thinking progressives throughout his administration and, it gives our compulsive Liar-In-Chief wriggle room in order to smudge the historical record.

But it wasn't enough. Faced with a storm of protest, especially after audio tapes of crying children were aired throughout the nation, tRUMP, who for weeks insisted that his hands were tied by “Democratic laws”, did an about-face, rescinding his ill-advised public policy obscenity.

Well, not quite. It transpires that in the future children will not be separated at the border, but will go to jail with their parents. The demands of the Capitalist will not be deferred. They have the contracts, the government is under obligation to fill the beds, and fill them they will. People sent to 'camps' on a common misdemeanor charge. This is what happens when justice is sacrificed to profit. This is what happens when we allow the capitalist pig to plunder the public domain.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

______________________

1. Walker, Hunter. White House Correspondent Yahoo News. “Businesses have made millions off Trump's child separation policy”. Yahoo News. June 19, 2018. https://www.yahoo.com/news/businesses-made-millions-off-trumps-child-separation-policy-023106551.htm
2. Ibid.

June 20, 2018: Lament of the Learned, Language Fails Us, Gnawing Insecurities

“It is the eternal lament of the learned: when confronted with barbarism, language fails us”.

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

So, it seems, is the eternal cry. Conservative columnist David Brooks lamented a few weeks ago in “The New York Times”, that nothing spoken or written seems to have had an impact upon those supporting our very own Caesar Disgustus as he goes about vandalizing our institutions and plundering the public domain. No act of treachery, no example of corruption, no constantly repeated bold-face lie, will convince the converted, now seemingly hopelessly marooned in some alternative universe.

Indeed, those who would seek to influence public opinion—from conservatives Bill Kristol, David Brooks and George Will, to liberals such as Paul Krugman have exhausted their vocabulary in an effort to describe the vandalism and plunder. George F. Will, in his “Washington Post” (1) column on May 9^th became so desperate as to send America scurrying to its collective dictionary, as he reached down to retrieve the adjective “oleaginous” to describe tRUMP. “An S.A.T.” word, he reported on MSNBC, meaning “oily”, an apt, albeit esoteric, descriptive of Putin's 'Tar Baby'. The 'tar heels' haven't quite reached the bottom of the tar pit but every day new acts of –again to use Will's words--”feral cunning” come to light showing the depravity of this man and all those around him.

In any case, we are left to ponder whether Will is here attempting to raise the level of discourse or has he, or have we, simply exhausted our vocabulary; was this piece an act of inspiration or an act of desperation?

Will was writing about Mike Pence, nominal V.P. to the illegitimate 'presidency'. But the fate of Pense is, alas, the fate of anyone who dares come into the presence of or, heaven forbid, touches this 'tar baby', for one will be besmirched thereby. So, in Will's memorable characterization, Pence too has now become smeared, tarred, in a word—Oleaginous.

Last Friday, June 15, in a front-page article in “The New York Times”, Danny Hakim reported that the State of New York is suing the tRUMP foundation for misuse of funds. It gets worse. Not only, does the state charge, did tRUMP and his children divert funds from his charity for personal use—including purchasing a portrait of himself, but that emails reveal that his then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was directing expenditures into the tRUMP political campaign. In addition, the “attorney general's office is seeking Trump Foundation to pay 2.8 million in restitution, the a amount raised for the foundation at at 2016 Iowa political fund-raiser. At the time, Mr. Trump skipped a Republican debate and set up his own event to raise money for veterans, though he used the even to skewer his opponents and celebrate his own accomplishments.” (2)

Here we have yet another brazen act, openly illegal, of not only using money raised for charitable purposes being misdirected into a political campaign, staging a political event at a charitable function, but using our veterans as a prop in order to raise this money. Scamming the public is one thing, callously scamming the military is quite another. Clearly Disgustus is truly disgusting, daily demonstrating that he has no sense of decency.

The State is not only seeking restitution but has made criminal referrals to the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice. Caught up in the legal action are his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner who were also directors of the foundation. Additionally, the State seeks to ban tRUMP and his family from serving on the board of directors of any charity based in New York: a scathing rebuke, indicating the lack of moral compass, indeed the depth of depravity, that is all things tRUMP.

“Trump is what he is”, concluded George Will, “a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence [and the Republicans who enable tRUMP] is what he [they have] chosen to be, which is horrifying.” (3)

“With Malice toward all; and charity for us”--that is the motto of our 'first' family and their Rescumlican cohorts.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

__________________

1. Will, George F. “Trump is No Longer the Worst Person in Government”, The Washington Post,
   May 9, 2018: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-no-longer-the-worst-person-in-government/2018

2. Hakim, Danny. “State Sues Trump Charity, Alleging Vast Misconduct. In Scathing Rebuke, New York Seeks Fines and the Closing of the Foundation”. “The New York Times”
   Friday, June 15, 2018: Page 1.

3. Op. Cit.

June 14, 2018: No Earthly Clue, Chorus of Calumny, Into the Sewer

“In the Complex international relations that—like it or not—keep the world from blowing itself up every afternoon, Trump has just proved he has no earthly clue what the fuck he is doing”
----Keith Olbermann (1)

Olbermann made this observation in December 2016 when the then president-in-waiting was mucking up the fragile relationships between Taiwan, China and the United States. It was thought, at the time, that the self-absorbed, bullying little twit posturing as America's savior would somehow grow into the job. Instead the job has only reinforced his grandiose, messianic personality bringing to the fore dysfunctional behaviors that should long ago have been addressed in the schoolyard.

Former Vice President Joe Biden elicited nearly universal rebuke for a remark made to the effect that if he were a younger man he would, out of a deep sense of public duty, administer the beating that tRUMP should have received all those years ago upon the school playground. Indeed, it is fast becoming a national calamity that someone, early in his life, didn't beat the shit out of him. His parents tried, sending him off to a military school, but to no avail. For military schools do not administer punishment quixotically. No, instead tRUMP should have been subject to the same capricious and arbitrary floggings by a classmate that he so gleefully administers to less fortunate souls; so that he would, perhaps, have learned that there is always someone stronger, always someone more intelligent, always someone richer than you. Perhaps, and this is a long shot, just perhaps, he might have experienced some measure of humility.

I think that was the gist of the Vice-President's remarks which were soon drown in a chorus of calumny, as liberals recoiled in horror at such speech, demurring that it is unbecoming high office; forgetting, as an old friend once reminded me: “if you want to kill the rats, you've got to climb down into the sewer”.

This week's debacle, first in Quebec and then in Singapore, clearly demonstrate the high cost of ignorance in high places; the cost of grandiosity; the cost of self-absorbtion; the cost of mendacity. Disgustus is the 'little red rooster', crowing the praises of our adversaries. Disgustus is the 'Russian Agent', the 'Useful Idiot', doing—for whatever corrupt reasons—their bidding. This is what happens when a boy is not taught limits, when he grows to think he is above the law and the norms. This is what happens when someone doesn't beat the shit out of the playground bully. Putin knew exactly what he was doing when he backed tRUMP, and everything the sniveling little Quisling did this week demonstrates it.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

________________

1. Olbermann, Keith. “Trump is Fucking Crazy” Copyright 2017 Blue Rider Press. New York.
   December 5, 2016 “We have elected and idiot.” Page 149.
   

June 13, 2018: Hoodwinked in Singapore, Like a Cheap Lawn Chair, Tarnished Brass

Summarizing the disgusting spectacle, Nicholas Kristof wrote in today's New York Times: “It sure looks as if President Trump was hoodwinked in Singapore” (1). Indeed he was, for when not insulting and alienating friends he is folding like a cheap lawn chair before our adversaries.

It is one thing to suggest holding in temporary abeyance joint military exercises with our South Korean ally pending resolution of the larger questions of nuclear disarmament and regional security. It is quite another to unilaterally end such joint cooperation without informing either the South Koreans, Japan, or even our own military and intelligence communities.

Disgustus, by going to Singapore made, perhaps, the most significant concession: the meeting itself. Meeting with Kim Jong-Un, gave the North Korean tyrant immediate legitimacy, raised his stature on the world stage, putting him on par with world leaders.

Disgustus, prior to setting out for Quebec on a mission to belittle our friends, openly bragged about not preparing for these talks. Wearing his ignorance like a crown our erstwhile diplomat, crowing like a Banty rooster, talked—like a reincarnated George W. ('Ol Two-Cows) Bush, about trusting his guts rather than history, or the facts, while preening before cameras musing about a much deserved Nobel Peace Prize. It became clear to many that tRUMP, like with everything else, was looking for some kind of victory, any kind of victory, or anything that he could declare—in his alternate universe—to be a victory so as to burnish his brand, and give some shine to the tarnished brass that bears his name.

In truth, as Kristof and others have observed in the wake of this national embarrassment, the North Koreans offered us nothing that hasn't been on the table for at least 30 years. They have always talked about denuclearization and then went about pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, building warheads, developing long range missiles and the technologies to join the two. In the wake of vague 'promises' to rejoin the international community and rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, Disgustus simply gave away the store. There was no mention of any process, nor any timeline. Left in question is “What century is this to take place”, and under what kind of supervision? As Kristof points out: “(T)here was nothing about North Korea freezing plutonium and uranium programs, nothing about destroying intercontinental ballistic missiles, nothing about allowing inspectors to return to nuclear sites, nothing about North Korea making a full declaration of its nuclear program, nothing about a timetable, nothing about verification, not even any clear pledge to permanently halt testing of nuclear weapons or long range missiles” (2). Like every 'Boomer' before him, tRUMP has traded the family cow for a handful of beans.

Indeed, continues Kristof: “Trump even adopted North Korean positions as his own, saying that the United States military exercised in the region are 'provocative'--a standard North Korean [and, indeed, Russian] propaganda line. Trump acknowledged that human rights in North Korea are 'rough' but quickly added that 'it's rough in a lot of places by the way'. (Note that a 2014 United Nations report state that North Korean human rights violations do 'not have any parallel in the contemporary world'.)

“In an interview with Voice of America, Trump said of Kim: 'He's smart, loves his people, loves his country.' Trump then had this message for the North Korean people: 'I think you have somebody that has a great feeling for them. He wants to do right by them.'

“It's breathtaking” wrote Kristof, “ to see an American president emerge as the spokesman for the dictator of North Korea” (3) Indeed it is. Kim, Caesar Disgustus assures us, “loves his people”. Donald Trump, I suspect, loves America in much the same way.

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

Impeach and Imprison

_______________________

1. Kristof, Nicholas. “Trump was Outfoxed in Singapore”. The New York Times. Wednesday, June 13, 2018, Page A25
2. Ibid
3. Ibid

June 12, 2018: President Quisling, Cannot Dominate and Preen, Cutting the Ties that Bind

“When Vladimir Putin ordered his hackers to surreptitiously help Donald Trump in the presidential race,” opined the editors in today's The New York Times, “he could hardly have anticipated that once in office, Mr. Trump would so outrageously, destructively and thoroughly alienate America's closest neighbors and allies as he did at the Group of 7 meeting in Canada.” (1) Indeed, the editors have once again grievously underestimated our adversary. I suspect, and have previously commented in these columns, that Putin anticipated precisely this turn of events; knew precisely who he was dealing with; understood completely how Donald J. Trump could and would serve his interests.

The Times confined its comments this morning to the wreckage in the wake of the G7 summit in Quebec:

“Indeed,” continued the editors, “the group of 7 was just the kind of forum a bully like Trump cannot abide, not out of geopolitical considerations, but because he cannot dominate and preen. He knew he would be on the defensive—over backing out of the Paris environment accord and the Iran nuclear deal, and now over the tariffs he slapped on European and Canadian steel and aluminum—so he made a point of being late, acting petulant, leaving early and lashing out at Mr. Trudeau.” (2)

Like the coward he is, Disgustus didn't confront Trudeau or anyone else directly, instead skipping out early—cutting short his participation in a forum on women's issues and avoiding altogether meetings on the environment—Trump slinked off to Air force One and from the comfort of 30,000 feet lashed out at the conference by repealing U.S. Endorsement of the final communique and insulting the leader of the host country. Disgustus has a penchant for vandalizing institutions by throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery. Through the adroit use of boorish behavior, inspiringly ignorant public statements and unilateral executive actions, tRUMP is doing his best to wreak havoc upon not only domestic institutions within this country but our international alliances and institutions as well. Disgustus also has a penchant, while doing so of insulting the leader of the host country. Remember last year his treatment of German Chancellor Merkle at the last European conference held in Germany when he cold not bring himself to shake the hand of the leader of the host country?

Disgustus, of course, always blames others, always playing the pitiful victim, claiming from the safety of 50,000 feet that it was our allies and particularly Canadian Prime Minister's Justin Trudeau's fault that the summit was not the success he previously claimed it to be. The fact is that the petulant little twit, knowing that the assembled were not about to genuflect at his feet, announced before even landing on the tarmac in Quebec that Russia should be re-admitted to the group—and action that prompted at least one foreign minister to muse that perhaps the United States should be expelled. That's how the meetings began.

“This is not a column” wrote economist Paul Krugman also in today's New York Times, “about whether Donald Trump is a quisling—a politician who serves the interests of foreign masters at his own country's expense. Any reasonable doubts about that reality were put to rest by by the events of the past few days, when he defended Russia while attacking our closest allies.”

“It's important to understand that the fight Trump is picking with our allies isn't about any real conflict of interest—because they are not, in fact, doing the things he accuses them of doing. No, Canada and Europe aren't imposing 'massive tariffs' on U.S. Goods: A vast majority of U.S. Exports enter Canada tariff-free, and the average European tariff is only 3 percent. These are simple facts, not disputable issues.

“So Trump is justifying his attempt to destroy the Western alliance by accusing our allies of misdeeds that exist only in his imagination.” (3)

“We don't know Trump's motivation. Is it blackmail? Bribery? Or just generalized sympathy for autocrats and hatred for democracy?”(4), asks Krugman. Perhaps we shall never know. I suspect it is a combination of all of the above.. Bribery and the susceptibility to blackmail that this entails; blackmail

involving involvement in racketeering and money-laundering with Russian interests, coupled with authoritarian impulses and an overweening devotion to the likes of Putin and Hitler.

In any case Krugman has it right. Disgustus is, in the words of a German diplomat, “a pathetic little man-boy”, a Quisling in Krugman's estimation doing the bidding of the world's strong-man; putting to torch the fabric of civilization and helping to usher in a new age of barbarism. Our Quisling president is a Russian Agent, proving himself to be Putin's 'useful idiot' cutting the ties that bind 280 'twitter' characters at a time.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

________________

1. Editors “America Isolated” The New York Times. Tuesday, June 12, 2018: Page A22
2. Ibid
3. Krugman, Paul. “A Quisling and His Enablers” The New York Times. June 12, 2018 Page A22
4. Ibid

June 6, 2018: Melting in the Dark, Lonely Eyes, The Voice Remains.

“MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
all the sweet, green icing flowing down
someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
and I'll never have that recipe again
Oh no!”
----Jimmy Webb “MacArthur's Park” 1968

“Spring was never waiting for us, girl”...the song, sung by British actor Richard Harris began, “It ran one step ahead/ as we followed in the dance.” So began “MacArthur's Park” which made it's debut unto the country's A.M. Pop music radio stations late in March, 1968, following closely on the heels of Robert Kennedy's announcement that he would run for president. Soon it joined Simon and Garfunkel's “Mrs. Robinson”, Blue Cheer's remake of “Summertime Blues”, Bobby Goldsboro's “Honey”, Friend and Lover's “Reach Out in the Darkness” and the Beatles' “Lady Madonna” atop the American music charts.

The song in its tribute to lost love, was played—despite it's length (it being twice as long as the then required three minute allotted to an artist on A.M. radio), throughout the political primary season serving as a haunting backdrop to the drama that was unfolding and was, it turned out, yet to unfold. “ MacArthur's Park”, one of several hit songs written by Jim Webb for the likes of, among others, Glenn Campbell rose quickly in the charts with the assassination of Martin Luther King and was fading  by late May when it achieved a second life with the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in early June. Events, it transpired, had given the song unintended meaning; spring, we discovered all-to-late, was always one step ahead, indeed was never waiting for us. For those of us who lived through those awful events, the song hauntingly remains one of the signature pieces of cultural art perhaps best encapsulating the time.

It has been half a century now and we still haven't found that recipe. “Its a strange, strange world we live in Master Jack”, sang Four Jacks and a Jill. Rivers of blood, years of darkness mark those times from these. We have been wandering in the wilderness ever since.

“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio

Our Nation turns its lonely eyes to you”
----Paul Simon, “Mrs. Robinson”.

Chris Matthews, who was five years old at the time, has written a biography commemorating the half-century mark since Bobby left us. What would have been; what should have been; what might have been remains forever unanswered for the tribune of the underclass, the one political figure able to unite the country remains silent. Matthews', quite rightly, points to the crowds and knots of people that lined the route of the funeral train as it slowly made its way from New York to Washington. Poor blacks and whites, midde class and working class blacks and whites, Latino's, Native Americans, men in uniform, VFW and war veterans, police and firemen, mothers with children.  High school bands, and crowds singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", school children out of class to pay their respects.  Catholic priests and nuns, and Protestant congregations.   A complete cross section of the country poured from their homes and precincts to stand in salute, to stand with hand over heart, to stand together to honor this man. Nothing in our national experience except the train taking FDR from Warm Springs, Georgia back to Washington, or Lincoln's funeral train from Washington back to Springfield, Illinois, had been witnessed by this country. Certainly no national outpouring of grief and respect had greeted a man who had never been elected President of the United States.

Bobby spoke to the country. Bobby appealed to what Lincoln called our “Better Angels”. Bobby told us that we were better than this; that we had a responsibility to each other. Bobby taught us that we are a community that is more than the sum total of individual interests.

Hunter S. Thompson mused in “Fear and Loathing: the Presidential Campaign of 1972” that the shit train began on November 22, 1963. Indeed it had. Bobby's campaign was, in some measure, a reach for national redemption, a restoration, of making things right again. But it became much more than that as Kennedy spoke directly to the divisions within the country, reminding all of us that each of us bears some responsibility not only for the existence of these divisions but for their resolutions. He challenged us to become better citizens.

“You!, You! And You! He shouted out at a medical school in Indiana, telling the assembled that they would be paying for social justice; that they were privileged to be able to attend such a school; and that their futures were assured, reminding them that they had a responsibility to the society that made such privilege possible. He did not pander. He did not cajole. Instead, he raised the level of political discourse by refusing to flatter his audience.

What might have been? Would we have continued riding the shit-train down the rabbit-hole of modern conservatism? Would the nation have suffered another 5 long years of war and the deepening divisions and erosion of confidence in governance that it produced? Would have we had the acid-bath that was Nixon and Watergate further eroding confidence in governance?

Kennedy's bust is the most ubiquitous one in Washington. It populates more congressional offices than any other. Men like Civil Rights leader and now Congressman John Lewis ask themselves “What would Bobby have done?”. The 'Radical Priest', as Alice Roosevelt Longworth once called him, the national scold, the voice that demanded the best from us was silenced in that kitchen pantry as Kennedy was holding up network reporters and newscasts as he paused to greet the hotel's kitchen staff. The tribune of the underclass, the tribune of the people.

History has a way of eliminating all other alternatives. No one can tell what might have been, but the voice remains. I can still hear that voice in my ears, echoing down the corridors of time. It's been a half-century now and the wound still hasn't healed. Our nation still turns its lonely eyes to you.

June 4, 2018: The Returns Roll In, Midnight at the Ambassador, Into the night.

Fifty years ago today California was holding its presidential primary. Robert Kennedy had suffered a stinging defeat in the Oregon primary just days before and winning this contest was a make-or-break proposition.  In those days, elections held in primary states mirrored the electoral college in that they were winner-take-all contests in which the winner, regardless of the percentage of the vote won, would be awarded all the delegates from that state and, depending on the rules of each state, the delegates were pledged to the winning candidate for the first, second, or sometimes third vote.  So winning California and then, later in June New York, Kennedy would be primed to make a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination.

I have it on good authority, as I was once married to a woman who worked in the campaign reporting to Frank Mankiewicz.  She was responsible for scheduling the candidate and worked closely with the highest echelon of the campaign such as it was, for Kennedy was a difficult man to 'manage'.  She told me several times that an understanding had been reached with Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago that if Kennedy were to win California he was ready to move his support from Humphrey to Kennedy giving the campaign not only all of the Illinois delegation but, most likely, the other 'bosses' of the party, those that controlled delegations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and other states would have, most likely, followed suit.  In any case being the senator from New York would mean that huge victories in California and New York (then the most populous state), and the immediate endorsement of the Daley and other party leaders would have given RFK tremendous momentum.  Whether or not he would have won the nomination is uncertain for the delegate choosing process began in those days as much as two years before as county and then state delegations would elect delegates to the national convention at a time when all were happily looking forward to renominating Lyndon Johnson. As of this night, in fact, Kennedy was well behind Humphrey, who had not entered a single primary, and would--winning New York after his death--move him to within 150 delegates of Humphrey.  Indeed so entrenched were his forces the Johnson had considered going to the convention in August and offering himself to a draft, much as Roosevelt had done (without going to Chicago) in 1940 to be nominated for his third term.

As the returns rolled in from Southern California, as the minority Black and Latino vote was recorded, Kennedy moved past McCarthy to claim the prize, additionally winning primaries in Arizona and the Dakotas with George McGovern, then Senator from South Dakota calling to report that on some Indian reservations Bobby had won 100% of the vote.

At around midnight Eastern Standard Time, Kennedy took the podium to declare victory and speak about healing the nation's divisions.  Then with the words "and it's on to Chicago, and let's win there", he stepped off into the night.

We will never know.  History has a way of eliminating all other alternatives. Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness mark those times from these.  We have wandered in the wilderness for now half-century,  The voice and presence of the man haunt us still.