February 9, 2018: Act So Guilty, Clear as Vodka, Cannot Suspend Disbelief

If Trump's So Innocent, Why Act so Guilty?, read the headline atop an essay in yesterday's New York Times. There are at least a dozen reasons why.

“President Trump and Devin Nunes have been muddying the waters of the Russia investigation, so let's try to clarify those waters so that they are clear as vodka”, wrote Nicholas Kristof in yesterday's Times. (1)

First, it is a unanimous consensus among the 17 U.S. Intelligence agencies, sundry foreign services, and at least two independent investigative sources that the Russians interfered in the American election. “Twitter found that 50,000 Russian accounts fired of 2.1 million election related tweets in the fall of 2016, and in the final weeks around the election accounted for 4.25 per cent of retweets of Trump's own account”. (2)

Second, Disgustus has long-standing business ties with Russia. True enough, he hasn't been able to build that tower in Moscow, although negotiations were proceeding during the primaries and right up to the Rescumlican National Convention. But failing that it has been reported that a Russian fertilizer oligarch purchased Trump's Florida property for roughly two and a half times what he had paid for it, neither Trump nor his buyer ever took up residence and the building was almost immediately raised. Trump pocketed by some accounts about 60 million dollars at a time when, facing numerous bankruptcies, he was strapped for cash. Nothing about the deal makes sense, unless one is peering through the lense of the Russian oligarchy buying influence or, perhaps, navigating the 'useful idiot' toward nefarious undertakings There are other disturbing facts rising to the surface concerning Russian 'shell' companies buying or renting in Trump properties for the purpose of possibly laundering money.

Third, Disgustus has been overly obsequious regarding Putin. He has yet to utter a critical word.

He has described the Russian as '“So nice”, “so smart”, and doing “an amazing job”'. (3). He defends Putin at every opportunity, even downplaying the charge that Putin has killed journalists and critics.

Forth, Kristof points to the uncomfortable fact that Disgustus surrounds himself with people who have pronounced Russian ties. From Carter Page who has been under F.B.I. investigation since 2013 to Paul Manafort, the list now includes Michael Flynn, Papadopoulos, and now several members of the tRUMP family.

Fifth, Russia confided in the tRUMP campaign, sending signals that they had useful information that they were willing to share.

Sixth, tRUMP aides secretly met with the Russians. From the notorious and infamous tRUMP Tower Meeting involving Kushner, Manafort and several Russians, to Eric Prince meeting with the Russians in the Seychelles Islands, to Papadopoulos, meetings and Michael Flynn and Jeff Sessions, ad nauseum, there is a pattern of communication that no one has successfully explained.

Seventh, “Trump Ally Roger Stone Communicated with Guccifer 2.0, believed to be an outlet for Russian military intelligence. Separately, Stone tweeted that 'it will soon [be] Podesta's turn in the barrel'; several weeks later, WikiLeaks began releasing emails Russia had hacked from John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman.” (4) Similarly, Rudy Guilliani made remarks concerning 'upcoming information' in advance of WikiLeaks dumps of Clinton emails.

Eight, WikiLeaks communicated directly with Donald tRUMP jr. WikiLeaks has been declared a 'hostile' foreign actor by our State Department and is widely believed to be working closely with Russian intelligence.

Ninth, Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, “who is close to Putin” (5). Kushner also tried to set up a 'back channel' using Russian communications to the Kremlin, for no doubt nefarious purposes that remain unclear.

Tenth, Disgustus and his aides continually deny any of these contacts and only own up to them when reports surface demonstrating conclusively that these contacts have occurred. While the tRUMP White House protests that it is fully cooperating with the ongoing investigations, the truth is that information is forthcoming only when the facts come under the glare of the kleig lights. “In fact, there were at least 51 such contacts, including 19 face-to-face interactions, by the count of CNN” (6)

Eleventh, Russia is still meddling. The latest reports from the Department of Homeland Security, among others reveal that nefarious Russian activity continues. Indeed, from Russian Bots boosting the 'tweets' of both Disgustus and his lapdog Sean Hannity, to “hashtags like #MAGA and #FullOfSchiff. These same Russian bots are promoting Fox News links and disparage the Russian investigation.” (7)

Lastly, “This is not normal”. Kristof says that he doubts that “there was anything so straightforward as a secret quid pro quo”. (8) But I am not so sanguine. The choice of Tillerson as Secretary of State, he of Exxon-Mobile which has huge investments in Russian oil fields, the exploration of which is hampered by existing American Sanctions. The choice of Flynn as National Security adviser, with known Russian ties, now confessing to having communicated with the Russians about sanction during the campaign and transition. Indeed he has been found sending emails during the inauguration about ending such sanctions. The change in the Rescumlican platform regarding the Ukraine, the needless and senseless war upon the international organizations and agreements that the United States has helped to negotiate and build in the postwar era....all of these appear to be connected to tRUMP's deep fealty to the Russian regime. The question is why?

Certainly, he is acting guilty; for Disgustus despite his years before the camera is not—like Reagan—a convincing actor. He cannot suspend disbelief. At base, he appears for what he is: Guilty. Why else go to such great lengths to thwart efforts to answer the question: Why? Follow the money.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

__________________

1. Kristof, Nicholas. “If Trump's So Innocent, Why Act So Guilty?” “The New York Times
   Thursday, February 8, 2018. Page A23
2. ibid
3. ibid
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. ibid
7. ibid
8. ibid

June 29, 2017: Impeach and Imprison, , Cries of the Damned, To Obstruct Justice

As the Watergate Scandal was heating up, an increasingly desperate Richard Nixon went to the country holding campaign-style rallies intending to shore up his fast-eroding political support.  These were the days before such events were mere photo opportunities, days when the crowds were attended not by carefully screened party faithful in housed events but in the open streets by anyone caring to attend; days in which candidates and politicians spoke to the congregation instead of singing only to the choir.  About every such gathering, worth its salt, one would often find protesters; and Nixon had just fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox fueling a storm of protest along with articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives.   On the periphery of one such Nixon event, late in the fall of 1973, was erected a long banner upon which was printed in stark black and white: “Impeach and Imprison”. 

This simple directive, in plain king’s English, quickly caught on becoming a staple of protestors now camped out round-the-clock on Pennsylvania avenue, many dressed in Nixon masks and prison stripes, holding placards reading “Honk If You Think He’s Guilty” creating a din that kept the president awake nearly night and day.  And, interspersed with this and other messages, one would regularly find placards imploring the country to “Impeach and Imprison”.

Had we done one or the other or, better yet, both, we would now be a far better nation.  Imagine if Nixon had been impeached and convicted.  Better yet imagine had he been removed from office and then made subject of criminal prosecution for obstruction and actually sent to prison.  Would we have had Iran-Contra?  Would Oliver North have been so cock sure that acting in the name of the president put him above the law?   Would we now have a ‘chief executive’ similarly so cock sure that he is likewise sovereign and above the law? 

Times have changed, but not entirely.  Today, Disgustus having fired FBI director James Comey who was investigating this Russian mess, we find ourselves facing a similar crisis but, alas, Pennsylvania Avenue since 9/11 has been closed to street traffic and pedestrians further insulating our ‘leaders’ from the “cries of the damned”. 

There are many facets of this Russian Scandal that need close examination.  From possible collusion with a foreign adversary to win an election; collusion involving everything from the manipulation of voter registration rolls and misinformation campaigns to the possible undermining of U.S. foreign policy, our alliances, and the international institutions that we have put in place as well as the lifting of sanctions against Russia in exchange for such assistance.  There have also surfaced questions about possible bank loans to tRUMP and associates, money-laundering and racketeering.  Some of this has been bubbling to the surface raising questions that demand thorough investigation. 

Comey, of course, had been alerted and put upon the scent of this trail over a year ago by several foreign intelligence agencies and has told Congress that there has been an open investigation into tRUMP and Associates since early summer of 2016.  Why the Director felt compelled to violate Bureau rules and guidelines and speak publicly of the investigation into the Clinton email mess while not informing the nation that the other party’s presumptive nominee was also under FBI investigation—on far more insidious matters—is not, as of this writing, yet clear.  But it had enraged the Democrats, as did his behavior regarding the Clinton campaign last year giving tRUMP the misguided belief that, since it could be said that Comey alone had handed Disgustus the presidency, he could move on Comey at any time with relative if not absolute impunity.  It would at once, so Disgustus thought, satisfy the Democrats and show the nation that Caesar would discipline his own.

Comey, upon his termination and the subsequent savaging of his service in several Disgustus’ “tweet storms”, released a statement that he had taken notes of his several meetings with Disgustus at the White House, notes written down immediately after each event the contents of which were shared with several high-ranking FBI officers so as to establish a contemporaneous record; for Comey did not trust this president to tell the truth.  This led tRUMP to respond—always via anti-social network—that there may be tapes of such conversations, tapes allegedly confirming the Disgustus version of reality.  Of course, the White House eventually confessed, there were no tapes for nothing coming from the White House is ever accurate, nearly everything an exaggeration, fabrication or bold-face lie. Lies intended to intimidate a possible witness, lies intending to call into question the veracity of a witness, lies intended to obstruct justice.   

The ‘tweet-exchange’ however, was enough for the Assistant Attorney General (Attorney General Sessions had long since recused himself from the investigation himself knee deep in the shit), to appoint an “Independent Counsel” to investigate the affair and for Comey to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to explain his side of the story.

It was a telling performance.  In over three hours of public testimony Comey recalled his meetings with tRUMP and his phone conversations.  He spoke of the Disgustus demanding his personal loyalty, and of asking the Director to call off the Bureau’s investigation of Michael Flynn, tRUMP’s original National Security Advisor who was forced to resign in a hailstorm of revelations about his Russian connections and his being an undisclosed agent of a foreign government (Turkey and, perhaps, Russia) during the campaign, the transition and as National Security Advisor.  On these points Comey demurred.

After several weeks in which Disgustus importuned the Director to call off his dogs and upon learning that the FBI investigation was moving into the financial dealings of tRUMP associates, including at least one principle “White House figure”, Disgustus moved to terminate the Director.  For Comey, an experienced investigator and prosecutor, smelling the smoke was getting too near the fire.

At first the White House said that it was over Comey’s “unprofessional” handling of the Clinton email investigation, but this, as everything else emanating from this White House, proved laughable and made no sense.  For it was just such handling of the Clinton affair coming as it did at crucial points in the campaign that gave tRUMP the presidency.  But, like everything else in this White House, whatever the official line tRUMP would be seen either on “twitter” or on television giving lie the administration’s story; in this case openly admitting within 48 hours in a nationally televised interview that he had intended to fire Comey regardless of Department of Justice recommendations and then rambled on about how fake the Russian story was.  Shortly thereafter, so as do drive ever deeper the impression that he is in the Russian bag, he entertained the Russian Ambassador and Russian press in the Oval Office itself telling the assembled that he had fired Comey so as to put the Russian Scandal behind him.   Here, in short, are at least two open admissions of firing the FBI director so as to impede or end an investigation.  Here, in short, are admissions of obstructing justice.  Here is our very own Caesar Disgustus openly admitting that he has committed an impeachable offense. 

Impeach and Imprison.

May 6, 2017: The Art of the Steal, A Pirate Ship, Plundering The Public Domain.

How does one characterize tRUMP’s cabinet and tRUMP’s White House?  Perhaps one can turn to Winston Churchill for instruction: never have so few known so little about so much.”

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

One of the great untold stories concerning the election of 2016 is the story of theft.  The story has been overshadowed by the ongoing Russian imbroglio, but it is part of the pattern of larceny of which the Russian Scandal may well be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  According to several sources the Scums have, through more stringent voter registration laws and intimidation kept untold thousands, perhaps millions from the polls.  Less publicized was “Operation Crosscheck”, a Rescumlican effort that purged an estimated 7.3 million voters from the rolls, 440, 000 in Michigan alone in a state tRUMP “won” by a mere 10,000.  In Wisconsin over 300,00 were purged with similar results.  Ditto, Ohio and Pennsylvania a state whose governor openly boasted of using such means to deliver a Rescumlican victory in 2016.   One could also throw Florida into the mix and North Carolina as well.  Flip those states and tRUMP is quickly cast into the dustbin of history, a minor wart on the flesh of the republic. How much help the Russians were in aiding this effort or what mischief resulted from their tampering with the rolls remains to be seen but it is doubtful that the collusion between tRUMP and the Russians was limited to mere “opposition research” through the hacking of emails.  Putin must have had more sinister reasons behind extending the hacking into the voter registration rolls, as well as several congressional campaigns.

The Scums certainly did for winning by any means including collusion with our enemies and adversaries has been a Rescumlican modus operandi for some time now.   Since 1968 when Nixon, through backchannels, conspired to thwart the Paris Peace Conference to win election, and Reagan’s campaign negotiating with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election, the Scums have had a history of dancing on the thin edge of sedition if not outright treason in order to win election.  They have been amply rewarded for their treachery and now with Disgustus nearly openly admit it.  So confident was tRUMP in this enterprise that, one will recall, he publicly called for the Russians to continue to hack private American citizens, and later openly took to the defense of the Russians thinking nothing of denigrating our intelligence and national security services.  After all, like the Rescumlicans, little Lord Fauntleroy had been taught by repeated experience that the rules don’t apply.

Large scale political larceny.  But to what purpose?   As tRUMP began assembling his cabinet and gathering around him his ‘advisors’ the purpose became increasingly obvious.  Certainly, this assemblage was not intended to advance sound public policy for the Scums despise public policy; certainly, the assembled were not brought together to advance public administration for they possess neither the requisite intelligence nor the experience. Rather, quipped British Comedian John Cleese, “tRUMP is gathering about him the crew of a pirate ship”.  Precisely.

A Secretary of Interior hell-bent on changing environmental regulations, leasing arrangements, and the privatization of the public lands; a Secretary of Education, who has never spent a day in a public school, hell-bent on privatizing our educational system through educational vouchers and spread of private and ‘charter’ schools; a Secretary of Energy deeply committed to fossil fuels and hostile to renewable energy. An Attorney General reversing Obama initiatives to end the privatization of federal prisons.  You get the picture.  Clearly Caesar Disgustus gathered about him a band of pirates hell-bent on nothing less than the plundering of the public domain. 

The “Art of the Deal” has become the “Art of the Steal”.  Large scale political larceny enabling in turn the wholesale plundering of the public domain by appropriating through privatization or the outright selling off the assets of the people to the capitalist pigs he represents. 

That’s the real story behind last year’s election and the rise of our very own Caesar Disgustus. 

March 31, 2017: The Russian Connection, Useful Idiot, Threaten to Sing

The scandal simply will not go away.  No matter how mightily our Caesar Disgustus struggles to obfuscate, mislead, confuse, blame and raise wholly bogus complaints of election fraud, wiretapping, and other nefarious misdeeds by enemies’ and forces real or imagined, the scandal simply will not go away.

Of course, to listen to Disgustus tell it the “Russian Story” is an entire fabrication concocted by the Democrats to explain away, in his words, “losing an election they should have won”.  Like everything else emanating from the mouth of this man there is always a tidbit of truth.  In this case the Democrats should have won, and won hands down were it not for the machinations of forces within the Democratic Party securing the nomination of the only person on the planet capable of losing to this man; and, it is becoming increasingly apparent, forces within the Rescumlican Party reaching from the Kremlin all the way into the highest echelons of the tRUMP campaign and the Rescumlican Party working to ensure the outcome.  

But, it appears, there may be a bit more to the story.  According to several news sources it appears that as early as 2015 foreign intelligence agencies, among them Estonia, Poland, Germany, France, Israel and Australia while monitoring the activities of several principles within the murky world where Russian Intelligence, Russian political leadership and the Russian Mafia combine, were bumping into information regarding contacts between these actors and people associated with the tRUMP campaign.  It was these agencies that first brought this issue to the attention of the FBI and American Intelligence.  Other sources have also surfaced, including the famous “Steele Dossier”, put together by a former British MI6 agent and funded first by an unnamed opponent of tRUMP in the Republican primaries, and later by a Democratic operative.  Much of it today remains unsubstantiated, but much of it has been verified. There is still, however, no word on the veracity of the salacious account involving tRUMP and Russian Prostitutes involving acts of urination known as “Golden Showers”.   What we do know from all of this is that to date at least nine different tRUMP associates have been identified as having contacts with the Russians before and after the election including, it is rumored, tRUMP himself.  Precisely what was exchanged at these meetings is under investigation but, in the words of John McCain, “This is beginning to resemble Watergate and more shoes are bound to fall”.

This much we do know.  All 17 U.S. Intelligence Agencies agree with “High Confidence” (read “Dead Certainty”) that the Russians meddled in our election in order to elect one bombastic, willfully ignorant megalomaniac with a vocabulary of about 700 words and the attention span measured in nanoseconds to the presidency of the United States.  They did so, it is held, because Vladimir Putin, angered by the actions of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to question the legitimacy of his re-election, was moved to retaliate.   It wasn’t that Putin thought he could win the election, it was that by backing a man this unstable, this vengeful, this paranoid, and animated by this level of complete mendacity he had found a man who promised to shake the political process and, therefore, the legitimacy of the most powerful republic on the planet.  Here was a golden opportunity for tRUMP, win or lose, is in the parlance of Russian Intelligence, a most “useful idiot”.   It is not difficult to imagine the chaos Disgustus would now be wreaking upon the republic had he lost the election.  Can there be any doubt as to his response?  Calling the election “rigged” and “fake”, whining that the office-- which, in the mind of Disgustus, is so rightfully his—could only have been lost by having it ‘stolen’ from him.  Can there now be any doubt that having lost he would be presently barnstorming the country demanding justice and doing everything within the power of “Faux News” and mendacity itself to delegitimize the Clinton administration.  Perhaps, it is feared, there would have been armed rebellion. 

But to WIN the election!  Oh, what a delicious prospect for Putin that would be!  What better candidate could one possibly conjure who, placed at the vortex of political power, is better suited to vandalize and wreak entire havoc upon one’s greatest adversary?  tRUMP’s staggering ignorance alone would almost insure the project.  Add to this his breathtaking incompetence and the stench of his malignant personality and one has the perfect ‘useful idiot’; a vandal capable of nothing save damaging, destroying, defacing, and besmirching virtually everything and everyone about him.  For let there be no mistake about it: anyone who associates with this man is belittled thereby and reputation besmirched. 

Putin, a former head of the old Soviet KGB, knows something about personality profiling.  He also knows something about political power.  He knows that a man with tRUMP’s resources and tRUMP’s personality would make for a very toxic mix, win or lose.  And like any good geostrategist Putin, always thinking at least six steps ahead, found in our Disgustus the perfect foil—a man who, among other things, cannot see beyond his nose much less around any corner.  So, leading his idiot by the nose, Putin helped Disgustus assume the throne. 

The broad outlines are there and the details will, no doubt, be forthcoming.  All our intelligence agencies agree that the Russians interfered in our election.  They hacked into not only the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta’s emails but also into the electoral rolls of at least 22 states and several congressional campaigns.  They spread disinformation about Hillary on the anti-social networks Facebook and Twitter.  They may, and probably did, have done much more. 

But what isn’t emphasized in the reporting here in the States is that Disgustus, upon receiving this aid and comfort from our adversary began to change policies and ape the Kremlin line concerning elections in republican countries.  On orders from Disgustus himself, and with the Russian Ambassador looking on, the Rescumlican Party did an immediate ‘about-face’ on Ukraine, changing its platform from support of the Ukrainian nationals over Crimea to supporting Putin and Russia. tRUMP immediately, again aping the Kremlin’s line, began to warn that the election was rigged, and that the only way he could lose would be through outright theft. 

Faced with a growing chorus of questions about Russian interference and his role in it, tRUMP dismissed U.S. Intelligence, denigrated the agencies, and parroted the Kremlin line, and then set about undermining our western alliances by questioning the need for NATO, suggesting that the U.S. may no longer honor the provision to come to the aid of any member of the alliance under attack, and demanding—like some slumlord running a tenement—that the member states belly-up to the bar and “pay their fair share”.   This, of course, has served to undermine one of the great alliances that has kept the peace in Europe for over 70 years; a principle policy goal of Putin and the Kremlin since NATO’s expansions into Eastern Europe right up to the doorstep of Russia itself.  Once again, Disgustus has demonstrated by undermining our alliances—even to the point of refusing to shake the hand of the German Chancellor-- how useful an idiot he has become in the furtherance of Russian national interests.    

In the memorable words of Senator Sam Irvin presiding over the Senate Select Committee investigating Watergate: “If it looks like a horse, walks like a horse and sounds like a horse, one can reasonably assume it’s a horse.” 

As we speak, former tRUMP National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, known to have met with the Russians before and after the election and suspected of undermining Obama’s response to the Russian interference by promising reversal of policy upon tRUMP’s inauguration, has offered to sing in exchange for immunity from prosecution.   So far no one has taken him up on it.  

December 31, 2016: Life is Made of Patterns, A National Obscenity, No Worse than the Rest

“And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell,
And it's fitting that it should,
For in darkness I must dwell.
Like the color of my skin,
Or the day that I grow old,
My life is made of patterns
That can scarcely be controlled. “   --Paul Simon

As the election approached, the nation was presented with two grotesque spectacles: the first being the Chicago Cubs in the World Series; the second another, and hopefully the last, presidential contest featuring two bona fide “Boomers” in what became a national embarrassment, a national obscenity, a borderline pornographic contest for the presidency of the United States. 

Much has been written in these columns about the Chicago Cubs (2), a franchise that has, over the decades, made a complete mockery of excellence, indeed an ethic of mediocrity.  That baseball should affront us with the spectacle of the Cubs in the World Series was bad enough, but coinciding as it did with the national obscenity that was, hopefully, the last such contest featuring two legendary members of the “Generation of Swine”, one could clearly sense that the universe had come unhinged; that the natural order has been stood upon it’s head; that, indeed, the last had finished first. 

I began to suspect that something was amiss when the Cubs got off to a great start and held their position atop the National League Central Division.  This anomaly coinciding with the rise of a common carnival barker to the Republican nomination for president of the United States had, by midsummer, cast an ominous pall over the cultural and political landscape.  One began to fear for the worst.  One found oneself beating back the demons by reasoning that the Cubs had, after all, made it as far as the division playoffs, indeed the National League Championship Series, and the Republic survived; and, of course, the nation survived Nixon.  Still fear and loathing swept across the land as we went to the polls in trepidation.

After a series of bruising “debates” during which issues were substituted with what became a series of mud-slinging contests and in which the Republican nominee serially stalked the Democrat on stage, and paraded out a line of women her husband had allegedly abused in effect telling the nation “look, they're no better than I am”.  In the hands of the “Boomers”, the election had degenerated to the point that “Why Not the Best”(3) became replaced with “I am no worse than the rest”.  Both candidates, appealing to identity politics and serial accusations, had lowered the bar to such a level that, in the end, nearly half the voters stayed home.

Not all was quite lost, however.  Trump was demonstrating himself much more adept at alienating voters, doing his level best to lose this election.  As the election approached the polling numbers began to narrow but it was thought that Hillary would, in the end, tough it out.

So as Major League Baseball presented us with the obscenity of the Chicago Cubs in the World Series for the first time since the entire world waged war (and the best players were in the service), and the poll numbers began to narrow, the nation went to the polls and held its collective breath.  As Cleveland took a commanding 3 to 1 lead in the series it had seemed that the country was going to narrowly miss a national catastrophe.

Indeed Nate Silver, the legendary political prognosticator, declared in a headline a week before the election  with Cleveland leading three games to one that Trump had as great a chance of winning the presidency as the Cubs had of winning the world series, roughly one in four.  We all took a deep breath and then exhaled. It was a short-lived relief.

The Cubs then went on a winning streak.  I told my family that this was a serious omen, and that coming with the observable shifts in the planetary magnetic poles and the fact that this economic recovery has reached its historic limits, a Cubs’ victory would certainly mean Donald J. Trump would enter the White House.  I was, of course, dismissed as an alarmist; my audiences failing to see the connections, although historiographer Ken Burns would, I believe, immediately see the obvious.  And, indeed just as the Cubs ‘ran the table’ and won the series, Trump on election night took that very narrow path still afforded him, after he had twitted his way into near oblivion, and ‘ran the table’ by taking enough states to win the election, while decisively losing the popular vote. 

I had seen it coming.  The broader outlines were certainly there for anyone to see.  All Trump had to do, I would, on Facebook, incessantly remind my Democratic friends, was go to the old ‘rustbelt’, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and promise to tear up those trade agreements.  Actually following through is another matter, but by simply promising to do so any candidate could communicate to the afflicted at least a recognition of their plight. This area of the country had been longing for someone in the political elite to at least see and recognize what is before their very eyes. Whatever the ‘solution’, both Bernie Sanders and Trump in separate ways addressed the savaging of the Middle West by this headlong ideological neoliberal movement to globalize the economy.  The Democrats, in acts of inspired stupidity, worked to defeat Sanders and in so doing closed off any viable Democratic alternative by nominating a candidate who, being ‘present at creation’ so to speak, and, in effect, promising more of the same. 

So, as we gathered before our televisions on election night the commentators, fully convinced of the inevitability of the Clinton Restoration, began the night by demonstrating what a long shot this was for Trump and prognosticating how or even if the Republican Party would survive in the aftermath.  Then, one by one, in a near repeat of 2000, the nation watched as Trump and his Republicans ran the table. 

And so with the Cubs now champions of the world, the magnetic polls in uneasy flux, the economy slowing, the global agreements on climate change now in limbo, and Trump and his crypto-fascist, knuckle-dragging minions about to enter the White House, the foundations of the republic can be heard to crack. I suspected as much when the Cubs rose above their natural station.  I could see the reaction in those about me, as if it was some kind of tin-hat conspiracy theory.  However, I earnestly retorted, “go ask Ken Burns what is the relationship between baseball and America, he did a series on it”.  In any case it isn’t any crazier than most of the ‘documentaries’ one encounters these days on Hulu or Netflix.

Some things are bigger than any of us; some things are bigger than all of us.  There are patterns we must follow. 

_________

(1). http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/paulsimon/patterns.html

(2) See

http://wandererandshadow.blogspot.com/2008/10/october-5-2008-question-of-will-exile.html,  As well as

http://wandererandshadow.blogspot.com/2008/05/may-4-2008-celebrating-century-lessons.html  for discussions on the influence of baseball, and the Cubs.

(3). “Why Not the Best” was the title of the campaign biography of Jimmy Carter published in 1976.  

November 29, 2016: Failed our Institutions, Circling the Bowl, Trumped the American Dream

 

Many people are now saying that our institutions, our political system, our media, our schools, have failed us.  I disagree.  I think that we have failed our institutions.  It was the “Boomers” who have made a pig’s breakfast of governance, who have set the tone.  It is we the people, led the “Generation of Swine”, that has opened the nominating process and then failed to show up to vote leaving the field to the knuckle-dragging ideologues be they Neo-Cons, Neo-Liberals, or the unwashed Teabaggers to seize control.  It was we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine”, who have stopped READING—newspapers, books, magazines—in favor of catching the latest meme now swirling through the “Internets” like so many turds circling the bowl.  It was we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine”, who have failed our educational institutions first by defunding them in favor of vouchers in order to finance the equivalent of the “American Madrasa” in the form of parochial and “on-line” education and thereby electing ourselves out of a well-rounded education.  It was we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine” who have been about the business of transforming our universities into glorified voc-ed centers thereby sacrificing the well-rounded citizen in the singular pursuit of money.  It is we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine”, that have failed our political system by supporting candidates who universally denigrate the very institutions they seek to join.  It is we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine, who have compounded the error by imposing term limits on public service thereby sacrificing experience to the lobbyists and the special interests they represent, and by imposing limits on the ability government to tax.  It is we the people, led by the “Generation of Swine” that having made an ethic of the individual we now compound the error by genuflecting before the altar of ignorant innocence. 

Our institutions are what we make of them and our ancestors bequeathed to us solid institutions that by and large performed the task of providing the greatest good for the greatest number.  Yes, there always has been and continues to be need for improvement, and the history of this country has been a history of struggle to achieve the ideal enshrined in our constitution to “create a more perfect union” in part by “providing for the general welfare”. 

But this generation, the “Generation of Swine”, have gone about the business of vandalizing our institutions by making continual war upon governance.  The mendacity of the swine has now Trumped the American Dream.  We are about to pay a heavy price and we have no one to blame but ourselves. 

 

 

October 2, 2016: Chasing Rabbits, Logic and Proportion, Fallen Sloppy Dead

“One lie makes you larger

And one lie makes you small.

And the ones that mother tells you

Don’t do anything at all.

Go ask ‘The Donald’

When he’s ten feet tall

“And if you go chasing rabbits

And you know you’re going to fall

Tell ‘em a hookah-smoking caterpillar

Has given you the call

Call ‘The Donald’

When he was just as small

“When the men on the chessboard

Get up and tell you where to go

And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom

And your mind is moving low

Go ask ‘The Donald’

I think he’ll know

“When logic and proportion

Have fallen sloppy dead

And the White Knight is talking backwards

And the Red Queen’s off with her head

Remember what the dormouse said

Feed your head

Feed your head” (1)  

Clearly, we are now staring into the “Looking Glass” where logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead. It is not enough that “The Donald” stands four square against the scientific community on the issue of climate change, or that he has held—until recently—to various conspiracy theories, or that he is in deep denial concerning the condition of the economy.  It is not enough that his campaign has consisted of offering the country nothing but a series of insults directed at women and just about every group in America save for white men while advocating nothing of substance by way of policy proposals or strategies for effective governance.  It is not enough that he has undermined confidence among our allies by questioning the efficacy and need for our alliances, or for the nuclear umbrella.  It is not enough that this is not only the most vacuous candidacy for the presidency in memory but has in the bargain coarsened political discourse to levels not seen in well over a century.   Now instead of debating the woman who is the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, “The Donald”, like offal circling the soil pipe, could not control himself and went down the proverbial “Rabbit Hole”.  At three in the morning, always insisting on the last word, he is found twitting insults at the former Miss Universe.  As he should have learned from Sarah Palin, only an idiot twits and only a birdbrain tweets.

       

------

(1). A parody of the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane.

September 30, 2016: ‘The Donald’ at the Bat, The ‘Babe Ruth’ Of Debating, Madame Secretary I Presume.

“But McCain preceded the Donald, as did also our man Mitt,

And the former was a hoodoo, while the later was a twit;

So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,

For there seemed but little chance of ‘The Donald’ getting to the bat.

But McCain let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,

And Mitt, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;

And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred,

There was Romney safe at second and Johnny a-hugging third.

From five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
it pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
for 'The Donald', 'The Mighty Donald', was advancing to the bat"

On Sunday, 25 September, the outlook was beginning to look very grim indeed for the Democratic nine.  According to Nate Silver, the most trusted name in polling and electoral predictions, the Donald had narrowed Clinton’s lead to the point that he now had a 45.2% chance of winning the election, the best numbers his campaign had been able to post since just before the party conventions.  Moreover, he was closing fast.  Emails were being sent out by various progressive and Democratic (not the same thing) organizations in full panic mode.  Florida was going Rescumlican, Ohio is lost, what’s next: Pennsylvania? Michigan?

Word came from the Trump campaign that the Donald, being the ‘Babe Ruth of debating’, would summarily dispatch the woman, citing how he had easily dominated the primary debates.  Accordingly, it was thought, Clinton having to walk the high wire between being forceful and being a scold, would be hamstrung, defensive, seen as aloof, condescending, judgmental, a nerd and a bore cast in the lot with Mike Dukkakis and Al Gore.  Indeed one wag postulated that the challenge for Hillary was to square quantum physics with the theory of relativity while the Donald simply had to show up and not vomit all over the stage.  Apparently, the Donald believed it as well, swallowing whole his own press releases as he pranced about the country telling adoring audiences that Clinton didn’t have a chance. 

“There was ease in ’The Donald’s’ manner as he stepped into his place;

There was pride in ‘The Donald’s’ bearing and a smile lit the ‘The Donald’s’ face.

And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,

No stranger in the crowd could doubt ‘The Babe Ruth of Debating’ ‘twas at the bat.

Two hundred million eyes were upon him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;

Ten million tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt;

Then while the smiling Hillary ground the ball into her hip,

Defiance flashed in the ‘The Donald’s’ eye, a sneer curled the ’The Donald’s’ lip.”

Smiling, she led off by questioning his business acumen given his half dozen or more bankruptcies, chided him for stiffing contractors and employees that worked for him, suggested that the reason he isn’t releasing his tax returns is that perhaps he isn’t as wealthy or charitable as he claims, and that perhaps he owes money to foreign banks and governments creating huge conflicts of interest. 

“And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,

And ‘The Donald’ stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.

Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-

“That ain’t my style,” said ‘The Donald’, “Strike One!” the moderator said.

“From back-benches, filled with teabags, came up a muffled roar,

Like the beating of the storm-waves upon a stern and distant shore;

“Kill him, Kill the umpire!” shouted someone in the stands;

And it’s likely they’d have killed him had not ‘The Donald’ raised his hand.”

“Madame Secretary, May I call you Secretary?” he then asked condescendingly, at which time he pivoted to a rambling critique of her performance as Secretary of State.  Clinton, composed as an old schoolmarm dealing with a recalcitrant delinquent, simply rattled off her experience questioning in the end ‘The Donald’s” knowledge of the world about us, and his fitness for command.

“With a sneer of heathen charity the great “Donald’s” visage shone;

He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;

He signaled to the lady, and once more the dun sphere flew;

But ‘The Donald’ still ignored it and the moderator called “strike two”.

“Fraud!” cried the maddened teabaggers, and echo answered “Fraud!”

But one scornful look from ‘The Donald” and the great unwashed were awed.

They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,

And they knew that ‘The Donald’ wouldn’t let that ball go by again.”

And then, turning and facing him, Hillary reminded ‘The Donald’ of his treatment and remarks to a former Miss Universe when he owned and ran the pageant widening the criticism by reminding the audience of his disparaging remarks about women and, in particular, his treatment of comedian Rosie O’Donnell. 

“The sneer is gone from ‘The Donald’s” lip, his teeth are clenched in hate,

He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate;

An now the lady holds the ball, and now she lets it go,

And now the air is shattered by the force of ‘The Donald’s’ blow”

“Well, she deserved it” replied “The Donald” in a tone of righteous indignation. 

Strike three.

“Oh, somewhere in this promised land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—‘The Donald’ has struck out.” (1)

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(1). My thanks to Ernest Lawrence Thayer for one of the favorite poems of my youth and the inspiration it has given me here.  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/casey-bat

May 31, 2016: The Death of Hope, Fear and Loathing, The Genuine Article

 

“The political process is about the business of assassinating hope and aspiration and replacing them with fear and loathing” ----from “The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

For over a year now I have in these columns and on Facebook been arguing that if the Democratic Party were to nominate Hillary Clinton it thereby forfeits any claim to either progressive reform or representation of the working Middle Class.  It becomes, on the contrary, the modern equivalent of the Wall Street political hacks that heretofore had been the backbone of the old main-line Republican Party; the much-despised ‘Eastern Establishment’ controlling the party of Warren Harding, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.  Presented now with the likelihood of a Clinton-Trump contest in the national election the Middle Class looks now in vain for a dog in the hunt.

This matchup assassinates hope and aspiration substituting fear and loathing. Presented with two steaming piles of crap ensures a low turnout favoring Trump. All Trump has to do is venture into the old industrial heartland, long disparaged as the 'rustbelt' and promise to tear up the trade agreements. Note he got more primary votes in Indiana than Clinton and Sanders combined and with nearly 100 million in combined attack ads directed at him he still crushed his opposition. Assuming his demise is dangerous. Hillary may tout experience but what have the politically experienced done for the other 80 percent?

Additionally, let's look at the singularly tone deaf and inept campaign Hillary has run to date. Her campaign, for instance, has been whining about losing in unrepresentative caucuses as if the Sanders people are guilty of some foul play.

Charles M. Blow, writing last month in the op-ed page of the New York Times, wrote:

 “There are two prominent features of the Democratic Party’s presidential selection process that are thoroughly undemocratic and undermine faith in the party: super-delegates (which favor Hillary Clinton) and caucuses (which favor Bernie Sanders)". (1)

 Citing the fact that Sanders had by then won 10 of the first 14 contests which were decided via caucus, Blow is here trumpeting a complaint heard throughout the Clinton camp that somehow these ‘unrepresentative’ conclaves are needlessly prolonging the coronation and restoration.  They’ve got it dead wrong.

While the first proposition in his blanket statement is true enough, the ‘insurmountable’ delegate lead that Clinton through media coverage of the ‘horse race’ has adroitly used to dampen the enthusiasm driving the insurgency, is almost entirely composed of so-called “Superdelegates”—unelected party hacks and lobbyists chosen by the party apparatchiks precisely to ensure that a candidate favorable to the ‘establishment’ will almost always prevail favors Clinton; but the second proposition simply doesn’t stand. 

Caucuses are sponsored and organized by the Party.  The times held, the cites chosen, are determined by the party, usually at the county level.  Word is then spread through the party organization and usually the party faithful, the political ‘activists’ can be relied upon to show up in these low-turnout affairs to ensure the party favorite wins.  This, on the face of it, should favor Clinton.  The fact that she had lost 10 of the first 14 such state-wide contests is not only a testament to the superior political organization of the Sanders campaign but to the miserable organization and lack of enthusiasm awaiting the nomination of the once and future Queen.

The sad fact is that Clinton, as in 2008, has run a miserable campaign, convincing no one but the already convinced of either the legitimacy or the need of her candidacy. And, as it was 8 long years ago, nearly half of her own party—as most clearly demonstrated by the severe drubbing she has received in Caucus—balks at the prospect of her bearing the Party’s standard in the general election.    

Yet she is the near unanimous choice of the party hacks and mossbacks that run the party. Caucuses are not organized by the state but by the political parties. The party decides where they will be held under their auspices and put out calls to all the party activists to attend. Under these circumstances the caucuses should have been a Clinton cake-walk. Instead they revealed not only the weaknesses of the party to deliver but the telling fact that for the second time in 8 years half or more of her own party find the prospect of her nomination repugnant and are recoiling accordingly. She is a weak candidate whose agenda, as in 2008, is shaped by her opponent, running a 'me-too but not so fast' version of whomever stands in opposition. Already as I write she is about the business of wooing Bush supporters (note the arrow on the logo points in the wrong direction). By mid-summer she will, as Bill before her, be rifling the Republican agenda and presenting us with Bush-Lite. Given the choice the country may well opt for the genuine article.

_____

(1).  Blow, Charles M. “The (Un)Democratic Party” New York Times April 4, 2016 pA19

 

 

 

 

April 7, 2016: Lessons from Michigan, Finding the Party, Myopia Strikes Deep

 

For years the Ionia Democratic Party has held its annual ‘G. Mennen Williams’ memorial dinner on the infield at the Ionia Free Fair.  One such conclave, in the early 1990’s celebrated as it’s featured guest speaker one Debbie Stabenow, now senior Senator from the State of Michigan but then a State Senator known primarily for giving Rescumlican John Engler his entire first-term agenda by agreeing to shift funding of the public schools from property to income taxes.  Engler parlayed the victory into another two terms as governor continuing a campaign to further erode the well-being of the state.  Stabenow went on to the United States Senate.

I remember her appearance at the dinner, held annually under a tent on the infield next to a permanently constructed stage upon which, over the years, performed Tiny Tim, Jefferson Starship, Alabama, Willie Nelson and a host of other notables.  After her speech, I had occasion to engage in a rather lengthy exchange with the state Senator.

Kevin Phillips had recently published his work “The Politics of Rich and Poor”, declaring in decisive and convincing terms the abject failure of Reaganomics.  I brought up the subject, prefacing the author’s role as the architect of Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’.  I could see her eyes glaze over at the mere suggestion of anything of importance being associated with Republicanism this, after all, being a partisan occasion.  Nevertheless, given her willingness to work with even the most abject swine (Engler), I found myself confused.  It was clear, however that no matter the extent to which I tried to drive home the point that ‘trickle-down’ is not, has not, and never will work, the work of ‘rendering the obvious, obvious’ was lost upon our intrepid politician.  Alas, Michigan’s now senior Senator is a part of the ‘generation of swine’ that emerged in the 1980’s and affiliated itself with the Clinton-led Democratic Leadership Council.  She along with former Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard, best known for “putting Michigan behind bars” by incarcerating so many of the state’s citizens that for the first time the Department of Corrections became the largest state agency dwarfing even the monies spent on roads and schools, was part of the emerging Democratic Political Elite that did it’s level best to ape the Republicans by not only ratifying the Reagan Reaction but appropriating the Republican agenda itself.  Clearly, I sensed, I was wasting my breath.

But there was more.   During the course of the exchange the conversation included several other members of the local party some expressing gratitude that the senator (albeit at state rather than federal level) had condescended to travel to central and western Michigan.  You see we don’t see much of our elected Democratic office holders here in this part of the state.  Stabenow replied that the visit is a notable exception, that the real effort to win elections in Michigan involve concentrating along the I-75 corridor, from Detroit and Ann Arbor through Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac and Bay City.  Here, it is held lies the keys to Democratic victory and dominance in the State.

For generations now this has been the prevailing view.  Not since Williams himself and his cohorts Neil Stabler, Phil Hart and Frank Kelly built the modern Michigan Democratic Party in the 1950’s have our Democratic representatives paid much attention to Western Michigan or much of Michigan beyond the I-75 corridor, with disastrous consequences.  

Detroit, once a city of 1.5 million now has less than half that population.  Flint, as recent headlines concerning the state-sponsored water crisis demonstrates, is equally not only in dire straits but likewise has lost much of its population.  The votes, consequently the political power, has shifted elsewhere, primarily to Western Michigan and out of state.  Grand Rapids, the second largest city in the state, has long been Democratic but you would never know it given the level of recognition the city receives from the state’s Democratic elites or, for that matter, the national Democratic Party.  The city is only sporadically recognized by even presidential campaigns as they make their quadrennial sojourn across the nation.   John Kennedy in 1960, Robert Kennedy in 1968, Dukkakis at a rather modest forum at the Meijer center in 1988, John Kerry in 2004.  As a result, the party has never had the support necessary to field an effective organization.  Often, mostly, there isn’t even a Democratic Headquarters except in the waning months of a national campaign.  Not even in the state’s second largest city.  Trying to find the party can sometimes be a daunting task.

The problem is further complicated by the shifting demographics as today cities like Muskegon, which has been a Democratic stronghold since the 1950’s but has not seen a Democratic president or presidential candidate since John Kennedy in 1962, are entirely ignored; but places like Holland—dominated by the Dutch Reformed Church and formerly a bulwark of political conservatism—are now voting Democratic.  In fact, in 2008 rural counties in West Michigan like Oceana and Mason voted for Obama.  Has the party done anything to build on those electoral returns?  Of course not.  Myopia strikes deep.

There was hope, in the run-up to the 2008 election cycle, when the Democrats put Howard Dean in charge.  Dean insisted that the Party abandoned the blue vs. red dichotomy and become a truly national party challenging the Rescumlicans in nearly every congressional district.  This made the opposition defend its territory not only putting more congressional seats in play but tying down resources otherwise free to spend pushing Democrats against the wall in places like Michigan.  With the election of Obama, Dean was pushed out as head of the party and things reverted back to ‘normal’.   We are living with the consequences.  Not only have the Dems lost control of both houses of Congress but literally hundreds of state legislative seats allowing the scums to gerrymander the House into a solid reactionary bloc, with little hope of mounting a successful challenge.

In this context the recent returns in the Democratic Primary are illustrative.  Hillary, following the strategy long adopted by the mossbacks of the party, concentrated her efforts as usual along the I-75 corridor.   Bernie concentrated on the rest of the state, places like Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Traverse City.  In Muskegon, for instance, campaign workers came to my door, asked who I was supporting, put a Sanders yard sign in my yard, as well as that of my neighbor who was supporting Clinton.  Clinton’s campaign, here in a city that on election day will have no Republicans running for local office on the ballot, was nowhere to be seen.  Accordingly, Bernie handily won the rest of the state, including the former Democratic congressional district comprising the northern lower peninsula and the entire upper peninsula, now held by the Rescumlican Tea baggers.  

What the election demonstrates is a troubling dynamic within the contemporary Democratic Party, a party bereft of imagination not only regarding solutions to the countries myriad problems but in terms of organizing itself and, therefore, its subsequent ability to function as a political party by organizing, in turn, political opinion.  Here Bernie not only defeats the rear-guard apparatchiks representing as they do the remnants of the old DLC and all it stands for, but he does it by organizing in greater numbers a countryside long left fallow by the party regulars.  This should be a wake-up call to those in the party and progressives about the as-yet unrealized potential to fully materialize into a transformative movement.