May 21, 2019: Profile In Courage, Juvenile tRUMPspeak, Mitt Found Wanting

I am not a supporter of Justin Amash. Amash is a Teabagger, one of the founding members of that unholy lot, who has voted to strip millions of their health coverage and otherwise savage the “safety-net”. He has also supported Paul Ryan over the years in obstructing everything former President Obama tried to accomplish. He has been misrepresenting his district for nearly a decade now.

Amash sits in the seat once occupied by former President Gerald Ford who rose to party leadership misrepresenting, in turn, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan and its environs. Ford, however, knew compromise, Ford could reach across the isle. Ford could work to get things done. Not so, the troglodytes that now control the Republican caucus.

But there comes a time when even the dullest knife in the drawer cuts deeply and last weekend was one of those times. Amash, taking to 'twitter' announced that the time had come to begin impeachment proceedings against Caesar Disgustus. Since he is the first Republican member of either house of Congress, to reach these crossroads his act must be seen for what it is: a profile in courage.

He knows that he has now earned the wrath of the Don-Almighty, who promptly took to 'tweeting' that Amash is a 'loser', --juvenile tRUMPspeak meaning disapproval—adding that he was only doing it for the publicity. I'm not convinced.

Indeed, immediately a challenger came forth swearing obeisance to Disgustus in hopes of upending Amash in the coming primaries. Amash can count on Disgustus coming to his home city and raising the roof at the VanSCANDAL arena as he whips up opposition into a fevered frenzy. But outside, in the streets, city, and villages I'm not so sure that the assault on Amash will resonate. One has only to recall that Disgustus opposed Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate primary and Moore won. Then he endorsed Moore in the general election and Moore lost. There are other examples, the Virginia governor's race among them. The shadow that Disgustus casts over the political landscape appears at times to be only as long as his fingers, which no amount of photo-shopping will rectify.

But rumor has it that Amash may seek the Libertarian nomination for President, in which case a primary challenger is pointless. Amash is positioned, therefore, to strip support from Disgustus in a must-win state and has the gravitas to do much better than previous Libertarians nationwide. The Libertarian Party will be, as in 2016, on the ballot in all 50 states.

This is what scares the shit out of Disgustus. Amash could well play the roll of Ross Perot and reduce the support of our erstwhile 'Caesar' will down into the high '30's, territory that could well mean a 50 state Democratic sweep. And so, the character assassination—the only thing Disgustus knows how to do—begins in earnest.

Although I oppose everything Amash stands for, I respect Amash for his courage and his principled stand. It will cost him politically and make him a pariah in his caucus. But it is the right thing to do. For months now rumors have been swirling that behind closed doors many—the extent is never certain—Republicans privately loathe tRUMP seeing him as the death-knell of the Party. How many of Justin's colleagues will likewise come out of the closet remains to be seen. Mitt Romney, who's father would be flailing tRUMP, equivocated, issuing a nonsensical response to Amash and, by comparison, is now found wanting. Mitt is such a disappointment.

But Amash did have some effect for, however narrowly, the calls to begin impeachment proceedings are now bipartisan and pressure is mounting on Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic House leadership to move. Only time will tell if this is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end for Caesar Disgustus.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

May 15, 2019: Scion of Greed, Kleptocracy At Work, The Jolly Roger

When it comes to naming the scion of greed the countenance of one snot-nosed little son-of-a-bitch named Martin Shkreli leaps immediately to mind. One may recall that in 2015 as head of Turing Pharmaceuticals he acquired Daraprim. “The drug's most prominent use as of late 2015 was as an anti-malarial and antiparasitic, in conjunction with leucovorin and sulfadiazine to treat patients with AIDS-related and AIDS-unrelated toxoplasmosis...The price of a dose of the drug in the U.S. market increased from US $13.50 to US $750. per pill, overnight, a factor of 56” (1)

This outraged followed previous behaviors.

“In May 2014, Shkreli had difficulty accessing public markets for capital, but received a $4 million series A funding round and a PIPE deal valued at $10 million underwritten by Roth Capital Partners. After obtaining the financing, Shkreli was able to acquire rights to market tiopronin (brand name, Thiola) a drug used to treat the rare disease cystinuria and Chenodal and subsequently raise the price of each drug substantially, with Thiola subsequently being marked up about 20 fold, from $1.50 to $30 per pill (patients must take 10 to 15 pills a day), and Chenodal about five fold. Retrophin did not lower the price of these drugs after Shkreli's departure.” (2)

There are other examples. He was hauled before Congress but refused to answer any questions other than confirm his name.  After receiving a tongue-lashing from outraged Democrats (the ReSCUMlickans were in control of the body), Shkreli was released to quickly return to rapine and plunder.

The real outrage is that he was finally sent off to prison...but for securities fraud! Yes, you can pluner the public but by god the capitalist is sacrosanct. Shkreli had finally gone too far—committed the capital sin—ripping off the stockholders.  In America, you can put the health of millions at risk but by god you don't mess with shareholders.

This is the state of the American health care system. I bring this up because this week yet another outrage was brought to our attention the editors of The New York Times.

“At first blush,” wrote the editors, “the news that Gilead—the company that makes Truvada, the medication that prevents H.I.V. infection—will donate enough of the drug to treat 200,000 patients a year through 2030 seems like unequivocally good news. Some 40,000 Americans are newly infected with H.I.V. Every year. Reducing that transmission rate is the key to eradicating the virus in the United States...

“But, as drug policy experts regularly note, such donations have a long history of doing more for drug makers than for patients.” (3)

Indeed as the Times points out, the tax breaks for the donation will amount to an estimated $1 billion on a product that costs around $10 million to produce. (4) So much for enlightened self-interest or disinterested benevolence.

“A month's supply of Truvada costs roughly $6 to make and sells for more than $1,600 in the United States, according to the PrEP for All Collaboration, an advocacy group...Owing partly to those prices, only about 18 percent of the million or so at-risk Americans who need the drug have access to it, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation...

“...As the Washington Post has reported, Truvada was developed largely with taxpayer dollars. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention holds a patent on the medication, and the Justice Department is investigating whether the company owes the federal government back royalties on the patent, which experts say could amount to as much as $1 billion...

“Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have resisted calls to sue the company for those royalties, saying that such a lawsuit would be expensive and time-consuming and would ultimately not make much of a dent in the drug's price. They're probably right. But the prospect of such a lawsuit should have given the government considerable leverage in its negotiations with Gilead.

“Mr. Trump appears to have used that leverage poorly. Regardless of how much access to the drug is increased by the new donation, most Americans who need Truvada will still be charged thousands of dollars a year for the drug, which citizens of most other countries get for a small fraction of that price. Those other countries made no investment in the development of Truvada, but most have access to generic versions of it. Gilead has managed to keep its rivals from introducing generics to the American market through a combination of lawsuits and private deals with would-be competitors.” (5)

It is evidently lost on the Department of Justice that making deals with would-be competitors in order to restrict access is price-fixing and a violation of anti-trust laws.

Clearly Disgustus, who had pledged to eradicate H.I.V., is no negotiator. Not only did the administration fail to bring legal action on the patent rights, but the government has failed to prosecute Gilead on charges of price-fixing. Disgustus didn't even employ the threat of such action in order to bring compliance.

The whole system is outrageous. This is what happens when profit governs the nation's health care system.  This is what happens when the government fails to protect the people by not enforcing laws long on the books against price-fixing.  This is what happens when Capital is allowed to form cartels controlling the marketplaces in the pharmaceutical, insurance and medical industries.   Here is yet another example of a product developed at public universities, at public expense, the patent for which is somehow found under the control of Corporate America. Why the people, who paid for the creation of this product, are not reaping the rewards is a national outrage. Here is yet another example of how we allow corporate greed not only plunder the marketplace but the public domain as well. The Kleptocracy at work, with the great kleptocrat sitting on the throne, overseeing his den of thieves. The ship of state has taken down the Grand 'Ole Flag and has run up the Jolly Roger.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

_________________

1. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli
2. Ibid
3. Editors. “Gilead's Gift Horse” The New York Times. Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Page A22
4. Ibid
5. Ibid

May 14, 2019: Lots of Piggies, Dirty Little Secret, Enter The tRUMPs

“Everywhere there's lots of piggies

living piggy lives

you can see them out for dinner

with their piggy wives

clutching forks and knives

to eat their bacon”

              ----George Harrison “Piggies”

When one thinks of tax havens one conjures images of the Cayman Islands, Switzerland or, perhaps, Ireland. But the biggest tax haven in the world is the United States, where “there is 'little appetite' for helping foreign governments retrieve money laundered within its borders”. Indeed, bowing to pressure from the banking industry, the United States stands alone in refusing to join an agreement forged by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development requiring banks to “report foreign accounts to the tax authorities in the account holders' home country”. (1) As a result, Franklin Foer, writes in The Atlantic:

“This obstinacy stood to subvert everything the country had done to lead the fight against dirty money: while the U.S. can ask almost any other nation's banks for financial information about American citizens, it has no obligation to provide other countries with the same. 'The United States had bullied the rest of the world into scrapping financial secrecy...but hadn't applied the same standards to itself.' (2) A Zurich-based lawyer vividly spelled out the consequences to “Bloomberg” 'How ironic—no, how perverse—that the USA, which has been so sanctimonious in its condemnation of Swiss banks, has become the banking secrecy jurisdiction du jour...That 'giant sucking sound' you hear? It is the sound of money rushing to the USA.” (3)

In 2010 when “USB admitted to hiding 20 billion in American money” the problem became to big to ignore, almost, anyway. Congress moved to pass the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), wherein foreign banks cannot hold American cash without notifying the IRS—failure to comply risks hefty fines. Congress did nothing, however to close the loophole in the Patriot Act dealing with foreign money finding a haven here.

“Here was anti-corruption leadership at work—and U.S. waffling on display”, writes Foer. “According to one powerful strain of American exceptionalism, the nation boasts superior financial hygiene and a bedrock culture of good government. Indeed, the U.S. government has devoted more attention to money laundering than perhaps any other nation on the planet. But the bar isn't very high, and the vigilance has its limits. In 2011, the Obama administration sought to collect more information about foreigners' bank accounts and to share it with the relevant home countries. But banks—along with their lobbyists and intellectual mouthpieces—worked furiously to prevent the expansion .“ (4)

The closest the nation has come to real regulation was embodied in The Patriot Act, legislation following the attacks on 9/11. Banks are now required to report suspicious activity, suspicious money transferred from abroad. And Banks face serious criminal charges for ”failing to establish sufficient safeguards against the flow of corrupt cash”. (5)

But there is a catch, there is always a catch. “Every House district in the country has real estate, and lobbyists for that business had pleaded for relief from the PATRIOT Act's monitoring of dubious foreign transactions. They all but conjured up images of suburban moms staking FOR SALE signs on lawns, ill-equipped to vet every buyer. And they persuaded Congress to grant the industry a temporary exemption from having to enforce the new law.

“The exemption was a gaping loophole—and an extraordinary growth opportunity for high-end real estate. For all the new fastidiousness of the financial system, foreigners could still buy penthouse apartments or mansions anonymously and with ease, by hiding behind shell companies set up in states such as Delaware and Nevada. Those states, along with a few others, had turned the registration of shell companies into a hugely lucrative racket—and it was stunningly simple to arrange such a Potemkin front on behalf of a dictator, a drug dealer, or an oligarch. According to Global Witness, a London-based anti-corruption NGO founded in 1993, procuring a library card requires more identification in many states than does creating an anonymous shell company”. (6)

The dirty little secret is that the United States has long been a haven for money-laundering and recent developments in the explosion of organized crime—particularly foreign organized crime has made New York, along with Los Angeles and Miami cesspools for money laundering. This is because, like London and elsewhere, high-end properties purchased by shell companies are the preferred avenues for skirting the reporting requirements and not only keeping the source of the money hidden from view but legitimizing future transactions—thus 'cleaning or laundering the money' by future sale of the properties.

All of this is known. What is telling about Foer's report is the link between these real estate transactions and the wholesale plundering of the Russian Federation by the Russian oligarchy. What happened in Russia after the fall of Communism was plunder on an unprecedented scale. “When Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman studied the problem in 2015, he found that 52 percent of Russia's wealth resided outside the country.

“The collapse of communism in the other post-Soviet states, along with China's turn toward capitalism, only added to the kleptocratic fortunes that were hustled abroad for secret safekeeping. Officials around the world have always looted their countries' coffers and accumulated bribes. But the globalization of banking made the export of their ill-gotten money far more convenient than it had been—which, of course, inspired more theft. By one estimate, more than $1 trillion now exits the world's developing countries each year in the forms of laundered money and evaded taxes.” (7)

Enter the tRUMPs.

“In 2017,” Floer tells us, “Reuters examined the sale of Trump Organization properties in Florida. It found that 77 of 2,044 units in developments were owned by Russians. But that was likely an incomplete portrait. More than one-third of the units had been sold to corporate vehicles, which can readily hide the identity of the true owner. As Oliver Bullough remarks, 'They might have belonged to Vladimir Putin, for all anyone else could know.' Around the time that Trump took up occupancy in the White House, the PATRIOT Act's 'temporary' exemption for real estate entered its 15^th year.” (8)

And it isn't just in Florida where tRUMP engages in highly suspect business operations. Statistics for Trump Tower show similar behavior even after he was elevated to the Oval Office. Then there were properties in Panama and Azerbaijan. It is a violation of the RICO statutes, governing the prosecution of organized crime, to deal with known criminals in any business transaction. And ignorance of the law, or the nature of persons with whom one is doing business is no excuse. One is expected to know one's business partners. Disgustus and his organization have violated this law in several jurisdictions. But that isn't the end of it.

The deal usually goes like this. Disgustus and his family put up no money but the name goes on the building. He gets a cut for that. But his real value is that his organization manages the place and it is in the management, the purchase agreements, that one finds the real meat of the matter. For in exchange for the prestige and the money, Disgustus and his family receive the money from the crime syndicates and make their theft whole.

One must ask, in view of the revelations of The New York Times that Disgustus lost over a billion dollars in the 10 years leading up to the fall of the old Soviet Union, just where he is getting his money? How is it that in the wake of such a colossal failure we find him paying cash for his acquisitions? Where is he getting his money, and to whom is he beholden? Is it mere coincidence that the plundering of the Russian Federation began in earnest just about the time that the Russians came to the rescue of America's biggest loser? I'm sure the Russians were desperate to find someone, anyone, to help stash half the country's wealth. And so, the search began for a pliable “useful idiot.”

This, too, is the legacy of the Generation of Swine.

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

Impeach and Imprison

_______________

1. Foer, Franklin. “How Kleptocracy Came To America” The Atlantic Magazine. Vol. 323. No. 2. March, 2019. Pp. 86-95. See page 91
2. Foer is here quoting Oliver Bullough Moneyland:Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back.
3. Op. Cit. Page 91.
4. Ibid. Page 90
5. Ibid. Page 88
6. Ibid. Page 88-89.

May 13, 2019: Brokeahantas, Into the Sewer, Wag the Swine

It all started last weekend. Bill Maher in the New Rules segment of his television show chided the Democrats for not being nasty enough to our Caesar Disgustus for, in effect, bringing thoughts and prayers to a knife fight. Disgustus, as Maher was quick to point out, has no conscience, knows no shame and, facing trial and conviction if unelected, will do anything to stay in power. To defeat him one must, as an old friend of mine used to counsel: “If you are going to kill the rats, you've got to climb down into the sewer”. So it is.

To that end, Maher suggested that to defeat tRUMP, one must play the game on his terms, on his turf. Accordingly, it is time to strike back. I've suggested to the office of Congresswoman Maxine Waters that she use the moniker Caesar Disgustus but, while her office found it amusing, it evidently didn't get traction. Maher, a real comedic genius, said that Elizabeth Warren should strike back by calling tRUMP, in the aftermath of yet another front-page article on his finances, “Brokehantas”.

It has taken off. In the ensuing week or so Facebook and social media have been littered with memes with tRUMP wearing a feathered headband under the title, or with numbers gleaned from the gross losses of 1.7 billion over the ten year span that The New York Times covered (1985-1994). Accordingly, several wags, with calculators at the ready, posted these numbers under the heading of “Brokehantas”. Disgustus “managed” to lose:

--$11,466.00 per hour

--274,000. per day

--8.3 Million dollars per month

--100 million dollars per year

Every year for Ten Years!

It is clear that our erstwhile “stable genius” and financial tycoon cannot manage a respectable lemonade stand. As earlier New York Times reporting has indicated, Fred tRUMP came to the rescue of his errant son to the tune of nearly half a billion dollars, in today's money as Donald struggled with looming financial catastrophe in Atlantic City.

So here we have it. He bilked the New York City banks of over a billion dollars in loan defaults, declared bankruptcies on several of his enterprises, and lost over a billion dollars in a ten year period while at the same time touting his business 'genius' in the best selling “The Art of the Deal”.

The question looms: where is he getting his money now that the New York banks treat him as the parasite he is? Several answers have been put forward by those who know him best—his biographers and those who follow the financial pages. They include the Russian and American mafia, money laundering, racketeering, bank and insurance fraud, cheating contractors and vendors, employing illegal aliens and, his favorite, tax evasion.

These raise further questions: to what extent does his economic dependence upon such sources dictate the foreign and domestic policies now pursued by this government? To whom does he owe money and how are these obligations shaping our policies? Have these activities ceased during his bastard presidency? What is he so desperately trying to hide?

The republic demands answers, and demand answers now. In the meantime our “stable genius” has started a trade war with the nation's banker, inviting retaliatory measures that can only destabalize an already uncertain economy while threatening to start shooting wars in the Middle East and Latin America. As the tail wags the swine....

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

Impeach Brokehantas and Imprison.

May 9, 2019: Obstruction Squared, Disgustus Raves On, Constitutional Crisis

With the limited release of The Mueller Report, Caesar Disgustus told the nation that he had no problem with Mueller testifying before the various committees investigating his serial iniquities. No one took him seriously. Indeed, true to form, he was found within hours reversing course now declaring that the entire report is protected by “executive privilege”. Executive privilege has been around since Washington, but it is worth noting that it is almost never invoked unless for nefarious reasons. In any case, executive privilege does not apply to criminal acts or attempts to obstruct investigations into such acts.

Nevertheless, Disgustus raves on. Adding insult to injury, he is now displaying open contempt for the Congress of the United States by forbidding anyone within the administration or those who have worked previously in this maladministration to testify, again with the bogus claim of 'executive privilege. Accordingly, the attorney general has now been cited for contempt of Congress for failure to deliver Mueller's unredacted report to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Contempt charges are being considered for the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Internal Revenue Service for failure to abide by a Harding Era law, written in the aftermath of the Teapot Dome Scandal, requiring the IRS to hand over the tax returns of any citizen the House demands. Mnuchin faces a penalty of up to five years in a federal penitentiary for failure to comply, but fail he did. Here we have it, obstructing investigations into the obstruction of justice. Obstruction squared. Obstruction so flagrant that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, long reluctant to pursue impeachment, has now finally recognized that we are in a constitutional crisis.

Disgustus knows he is in over his head. He knows he's guilty. He knows he is where he is by means of fraud; that this is a bastard presidency. And, since he cannot bring himself to openly admit his manifest failing, he is begging the Democrats to do the dirty work of ending this national nightmare.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

May 8, 2019: People tRUMP God, Lord And Savior, Mysterious Ways

“If Obama were elected by the will of the people and Caesar Disgustus installed by the will of god; it is clear that the judgment of the people is far superior to the will of your god.”

         ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense—a political tract influential in fomenting the American Revolution, once said that in America the king is not the law; the law is king. But among the religious wrong, who hold that our Caesar Disgustus was put upon the throne by god almighty, the principles of the revolution are now called into question.

It is easy, I have observed, for those who believe in a sky god, one that will descent from the heavens in order to save our mortal souls, to hold that every problem on earth can, therefore, be pawned off on some fictional being in order to evade responsibility. But it is more than that. The idea of coupling a lord and savior in the same expression does, by confusing the two, lay the basis for the divine right of kings—in this case kings who descend, like Hitler before him, from the sky to bring order to our turbulent and troublesome existence. And so, the cult of Donald J. tRUMP.

It is no mere coincidence that the political base of our Caesar Disgustus is made of the mortar of christian conservatism for it is in the currency of the fundamentalists that our Disgustus now traffics. Led by the larvae of previous political whores, Graham and Falwell jrs., the “flock” are now told that our Caesar, like Cyrus in the old testament, was placed upon the throne by god himself in order to do his will. And, since it is universally known that the lord works in mysterious ways, the illogic—the mystery—of this revelation stands, in the twisted logic of the cult, stands to reason.

When one rules, as in the olden times, by divine right it follows that when the will of the people rule otherwise, one is affronted by the outcome. The temerity of the people to take it upon themselves to put a black man on the throne simply cannot be countenanced. He must, therefore, be illegitimate and the restoration that follows must, indeed, be the will of god.

And so god descends from the skies in a plane with his name emblazoned in gold lettering and any questioning of his judgment will incur his wrath. The ReSCUMlickans have stood Thomas Paine and the constitution upon their head, for the regent of god is now the law. God now tRUMPs the people and the republic now hangs in the balance.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

April 27, 2019: Terror in Trouble, Incestuous Relationships, Stench of Good Scandal

The most dangerous terrorist organization in the United States is in deep trouble. Tonight Nebraska academic and activist Amanda Gailey posted this on Facebook:

“Oh, man. The cesspool of the NRA is in bad shape. Oliver North just announced he will not stick around for a second term as President.

Why? Because the NRA is in big, big trouble.

Back in the 1980s they started a relationship with the Oklahoma-based advertising firm Ackerman McQueen. By the 1990s the amount of money flowing from the "nonprofit" NRA into Ackerman McQueen was already causing internal rifts in the organization. The La Pierre/Ackerman McQueen faction won, and the relationship has only gotten more incestuous.

What appears to be happening is that AM submits bills for whateverthefuck they want to the NRA--ranging from costs to run NRA TV, with its incitements to violence against the left and the press and its absurd idiot-pandering in features such as dressing Thomas the Tank Engine up in KKK hoods--to mega-inflated salaries that go directly to NRA board members. So the NRA gets a "nonprofit" income stream from memberships, donations, etc., and they write a virtually blank check to AM, who then pays the NRA's own board members lavish graft salaries, including millions of dollars to Oliver North himself. All while the NRA is currently running something like $30,000,000 in the red in its most recent annual accounting.

La Pierre has historically been just fine with this arrangement. He himself has enjoyed an exponential increases to his salary and has some kind of absurd golden parachute that will continue to pay him his $1.4m salary *after he retires*.

But the NRA has attracted increased scrutiny of its finances, what with probably funneling tens of millions of dollars of foreign money into the Trump campaign and running afoul of regulations in NY for its bullshit scam insurance program (engineered by Ackerman McQueen) and hosting a convicted Russian spy as she sought to set up backchannels between Putin and Trump.

So that means that the NRA is in big, big trouble, because their incorporation (from way back when) is in New York state, and that means that New York's state officials are the ones who will likely investigate and punish the NRA when this shitshow "nonprofit" is addressed. You know, New York--where they are not beholden to the NRA.

La Pierre, attempting to cover his deatheating grafter ass, filed a suit against Ackerman McQueen on behalf of the NRA two weeks ago, essentially pointing the finger at the agency he has been in bed with for 30 years for supposedly ripping off the NRA and keeping bad accounting. Blame as much as you can on AM and spare the NRA and your own ass, seems to be his thinking.

But AM is not going down that easy, especially when a bunch of NRA board members will also be in deep trouble for consistently ignoring whistleblowing about AM from the NRA's own staff. So Oliver North, one of the many grafters sucking blood money out of this con, attempted to extort La Pierre into dropping the lawsuit by threatening to reveal a bunch of side money-sucking he and his staff have been drawing off the NRA coffers.

La Pierre called him out on this, though, apparently far more worried about spending the rest of his pathetic soul-dead life in prison if investigators discover the decades-long Ackerman McQueen con than if they just nail him on whatever shitty fascist tailored suits he and his staff have been buying for themselves off of skimmed NRA money.

So now there is some kind of glorious battle of the Orcs going on in the NRA board, each scrambling to save as much of the sugar tit and cover as much of their own asses as possible. I can only hope Chris W. Cox remembered to pack his vitamins for the NRA Convention this weekend because he is going to need them--being a festering piece of living human shit can really be hard work sometimes. Time to earn that $$$, Chris.” (1)

We can only hope that the authorities in New York pursue these financial crimes as well as the fraud that lies beneath them and prosecute the principals as well as the NRA's board members to the fullest extent of the law. Perhaps we shall soon be rid of this terrorist organization.

But who would have thought that Oliver North would be found mishandling money while extorting his fellow villains? Certainly not our Caesar Disgustus.  Ordinarily, a president would avoid attending an N.R.A. conclave as the ancients would avoid a leper colony.  But not our Caesar Disgustus who simply cannot resist the stench of good scandal.  With a Russian operative currently about to be sentenced for infiltrating the NRA in order to influence the ReSCUMlickan Party, and with battle raging over who is best equipped to plunder its coffers for their own gain, Disgustus is found swimming in the cesspool like a pig in shit, addressing the NRA annual convention casting false pearls before real swine. 

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

Impeach and Imprison.

________________

1. Gailey, Amanda. Facebook Post April 27, 2019.

April 19, 2019: Swamp Monsters, Break-neck Speed, No Known Minimum Standards

Our Caesar Disgustus ran for this office pledging to drain the swamp. He drained it alright—right into the White House. The swamp-monsters, as Senator Elizabeth Warren so aptly calls them, are now emerging from the bowels of this administration at break-neck speed.

Steve Benen is reporting on Rachel Maddow's blog that the newly minted Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, is now subject of an ethics probe four days after his confirmation by the Senate.

A former corporate lobbyist for the oil industry, and it is no surprise that our Caesar Disgustus would chose just this sort of fox to tend to the hen house.

“There are a handful of ways to look at a story like this one,” writes Benen. “The first is to note the incredible speed with which the Republican cabinet secretary found himself facing an ethics probe.

“Bernhardt certainly isn't the first member of Donald Trump's team to find himself under investigation, but the interior secretary may have set some kind of land-speed record: he was confirmed on April 11, only to receive word about an ethics inquiry on April 15.

“The second is to ask how in the world 56 senators voted to confirm this guy. None of the controversies surrounding Bernhardt is new; each were well documented before his nomination reached the Senate floor. (While serving as former Secretary Ryan Zinke's deputy, Bernhardt had so many conflicts of interest the 'Washington Post' reported last year that he had to 'carry a small card listing them all,' because he 'worked for years as a lobbyist representing many of the businesses he now regulates').” (1)

And yet, as Benen points out, every ReSCUMlickan in the United States Senate, along with a handful of Republicans-in-drag voted to confirm this swine. It appears that, as far as Senate ReSCUMlickans are concerned, there are no known minimum standards.

Bernhardt has now joined a growing list of swamp creatures that have emerged, albeit reluctantly, into the national spotlight, including his predecessor at Interior Ryan Zinke. Then there's Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, accused of protecting a sex trafficker in underage girls, “former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, former HHS Secretary Tom Price, former regulatory adviser Carl Icahn, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, former CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, and White House counselor Kellyane Conway.

“And that wasn't an exhaustive list...(T)here have been related controversies surrounding Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and former VA Secretary David Shulkin.

“While we're at it, lets also not overlook controversies surrounding Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and former FEMA Director Brock Long. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is also facing an ethics probe—and he hasn't even been nominated for his current post, much less confirmed.” (2)



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

Impeach and Imprison.
_______________

1. http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/four-days-the-job-trump-cabinet-secretary-faces-new-investigation
   
2. ibid.
   
   

April 18, 2019: Appointing the Unfit, Dustbin of History, Rummaging Through the Refuse

“No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus; and yes, Virginia, the president can be impeached “For Being Ye Publick Ass.”

                 ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

So observed these columns, citing chapter and verse, on August first of last year. (1) Indeed it amazes how the serial defenders of the modern imperial presidency—no matter the party rushing to the defense—emphasize the phrase “High Crimes” to mean that the chief executive must not only be seen to have shot someone on main street, but that their must be a video presented showing evidence that it was in his hand when the deed was done. As stated in that entry “High Crimes” meant, in the eighteenth century, violating one's oath of office. But concentrating on this part of the phrase misses entirely the two words that follow: “and misdemeanors”. A misdemeanor is a minor infraction. Read literally, and inclusively, the president could be impeached for jaywalking or double parking.  Now no one is suggesting that recourse to impeachment be taken over trivialities, for to undo a national election is serious business.  But you get the point.  

I bring this up because, as discussed in the entry of last August, one can be impeached for—among other things—appointing unfit subordinates. (2) Appointing the unfit is an impeachable offense. This brings us to the Federal Reserve.

Caesar Disgustus, observes the editors of The New York Times, “has been toying with two contentious possibilities: Stephen Moore, an economics pundit and former Trump campaign adviser with a reputation for being reliably wrong; and Herman Cain, a former pizza executive. Both men have expressed enthusiasm for adopting the gold standard...

“Republicans are still pondering a challenge to Mr. Moore,” opines the Times, “who has raised alarms on professional as well as personal ground (the I.R.S. Claims he owes $75,000 in back taxes). He admits to knowing next to nothing about monetary policy, and his opinion writing over the years has drawn criticism from economists of diverse views. As Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan put it, 'More than possibly any other economist in modern America, he has a track record of getting the big issues wrong.' Wall Street isn't crazy about him, either.” (3)

Then there is Herman Cain, promising to do to America what Dominoes Pizza man Tom Monihan did for the Detroit Tigers. Cain is, of course, the refugee from the 2012 campaign that stood 666 on it's head with a totally idiotic and doctrinaire tax scheme predictably transferring more of the tax burden upon the shoulders of the working classes with his 999 flat tax proposals. The details of this regressive tax proposal are thankfully no longer relevant since the author had been kicked into the dust bin of history. That is until our Disgustus, having exhausted his available talent pool, went rummaging through the refuse. (4)

Similarly, our intrepid Caesar has appointed several members to the federal bench whose ignorance could not even McConnell abide. And now, as the editors of the Times point out, he is cleaning out the Department of Homeland Security and replacing the ethically challenged Kirstjen Nielsen with one Stephen Miller, tRUMP's version of Joseph Goebbels, because Nielsen balked at reintroducing family separation of migrants at the border. Mendacity and sadism tRUMPs experience and competence if not ethics and morality.

We are now laboring under the weight of several acting heads of departments, including the Defense Department and Homeland Security as our Caesar Disgustus struggles to impress his ignorance and mendacity upon the nation. There are consequences when one imposes ignorance on the system. (5) There are greater consequences when ignorance is accompanied by mendacity and sadism.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

_______________

1. See https://wandererandshadow.blogspot.com/2018/08/august-1-2018-saxon-mothers-son-crimes.html.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. See. https://wandererandshadow.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-30-2011-imagine-theres-no-pizza.html.
5. See. Https://wandererandshadow.blogspot.com/2019/02/february-1-perils-of-ignorance.html.

April 4, 2018: Finger In The Dike, My Roy Cohn, A Simple Stooge

“Our Caesar Disgustus does not hold a candle to Benedict Arnold. He has neither the courage nor the integrity.”

             ---from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

The Washington Post reported this evening that investigators working for Robert Mueller are upset over attorney general William Barr's characterizations of their report. They are not only upset about the fashion in which our Caesar Disgustus has further mischaracterized the findings as a “total exoneration,” but the way “he and his allies began wielding Barr's summary as a political cudgel to dismiss not just Mueller's work but any future investigations into the president's conduct.” (1)

The Post quoted a source close to the investigation as saying “It was more acute than Barr suggested. ” implying that the content of the material is much more damaging—especially concerning obstruction of justice, than Barr would have us believe.

The report is said to be in the neighborhood of 400 pages in length with indices and other appendages attached. The full report could well extend to several hundred pages more. Further, as reported this evening on MSNBC, the Mueller team had written summaries for each section of the report that were carefully crafted so that they could be immediately released to the Congress and the public. The team was dismayed to find that Barr had stepped in and put his paws all over the summaries, reducing them to a mere caricature of their content and import.

Caesar Disgustus has groused from the beginning that he needs his Roy Cohn—the mafia attorney best known for creating the stench behind the Joe McCarthy hearings. Disgustus is forever bellowing “where's my Roy Cohn”, as he struggles to keep a finger in the dike and hold off inevitable submersion. What he means, of course, is that he wants someone to protect him—for protection he needs—from inevitable discovery, prosecution and imprisonment. That's why he fired Jeff Sessions, and that's why he hired William Barr.

Barr is proving himself to be precisely the political hack that Disgustus will use to obstruct the release of the findings and, hopefully, ward off disaster. Barr had written, as a resume for the job, a 19 page opinion in which he held that the president cannot inherently commit obstruction of justice. It was this a priori reasoning that led those involved in the investigation, according to some commentators on MSNBC, to conclude that Barr simply imposed his rather curious, singular and self-serving interpretations concerning presidential power upon a document whose conclusions he knew the president and the country—for different reasons—would find repulsive.

Barr, as noted previously in these columns, is good at this. It seems that this is his calling in life. Previously he had penned the pardons of six principles in the Iran-Contra Scandal, including former Defense Secretary Weinberger and former national security adviser McFarlane. With those pardons, the tragic story of high crimes in the Reagan-Bush years were effectively put to rest.

The Democrats, and some Republicans, are having none of it. Speaker Pelosi, whose chamber voted 420-0 to release the report, is demanding the full release. But Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell, both of whom recipients of Russian campaign contributions, have prevented the Senate from taking up and voting on the House resolution.

Let there be no mistake: Barr is a political hack, the go-to guy to cover up the mess. He has a lot of work to do.

As we speak, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is planning to supeanoa the records and, perhaps, Barr, Mueller and all the rest. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is making similar demands to the IRS in order to get the tax returns of our Caesar Disgustus before the Congress and the American people—and to find out if there ever was an audit. Similarly, the House Intelligence and Oversight Committees, because the nation needs to know if our 'president' is a crook.

Of course, we know he is a crook. But we need to also plunge the level of involvement with the Russians in the last campaign. We have to know if Disgustus is 'compromised', and to get to the bottom of this will require months if not years of further examination.

We need to know why Mueller did not indict tRUMP larvae for lying to Congress. We need to know why the investigation stopped short of accusing the 'president' of obstruction. Was it because of lack of evidence or did Mueller simply conclude that following DOJ guidelines he could not indict a sitting president and so, as we did in Watergate, the special council simply turned the evidence over to the House of Representatives so that the House would indict—as they did with Nixon—through articles of impeachment. This does not, exonerate Disgustus.

And, Mueller may have been reluctant to charge the 'president' with conspiracy against the United States because the evidence—because of the obstruction of justice—was not forthcoming. We don't know, we need to see the report.

It has been observed in these columns that, in the end, the best defense that Caesar Disgustus can mount is that he is too stupid, too ignorant and too incompetent to be a knowing Russian asset.

What the report allegedly does say is that tRUMP and his campaign were manipulated by a sophisticated foreign intelligence operation. Disgustus is, therefore, not exonerated but merely reduced in stature from being a full-blown traitor to being a simple stooge.

It makes sense. Disgustus has not the courage to commit fully grown treason. No, sgt. 'Bone Spurs' cannot be relied upon to do something so courageous. It makes much more sense, in light of his personal history, that he was simply manipulated; becoming not, like Benedict Arnold, a champion of perdition but merely Putin's “useful idiot.”

Let that sink in: our Caesar Disgustus does not hold a candle to Benedict Arnold. He has neither courage nor the integrity.

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

Impeach and Imprison

____________

1. Parker, Ashley. Nakashima, Ellen Barrett, Devlin. Leonnig, Carol D. “Potentially damaging information in Mueller report ushers in new political fight” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/potentially-damaging-information-in-mueller-report-ushers-in-new-political-fight/2019

April 1, 2019: Question of Timing, A Constitutional Crisis, All Become the Fool.

On that bright Tuesday in November, 1932, the country had reason to sing “Happy Days Are Here Again”. The country was in the grips of a deep economic depression and a new president had been elected and with him overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. Change was coming.

It had been over three years since the stock market had crashed. It had since rebounded before tumbling yet again, but the damage was done. Confidence was shaken and the economy ground to a near halt. Twenty five percent of the work force was now unemployed and millions more were working at wages far below what they had earned only a few months before. “Hoovervilles”, shanty towns really, so named in the President's honor, had sprung up—like thistles on a well trimmed lawn-- all across the land. Panic had given way to despair. The pain had set in.

Upon defeat, President Hoover had, in the waning moments of his administration, come up with another program to alleviate the crisis. Roosevelt, the incoming President, would have none of it.

In those days the election was held in November but the new President would not be sworn in until March. Four months the nation would wait, and Roosevelt—telling Hoover that the nation has only one President—would not budge. Hoover would own it.

Roosevelt's inaugural address is now remembered for the words “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself...” but that wasn't the most significant part of the speech. In this first address to the nation, Roosevelt asked for war powers, declaring the crisis to be on par with war, the damage done equal to a foreign invasion. He asked for the tools and the nation responded.

He could only have done that in the depths of crisis and he could only have done it if he could disown what had created the crisis and declare that now we start anew. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt understood that a cold break with the past was imperative.

But the timing, in recent history, has proved unfortunate. Tricky Dick Nixon was just beginning his second term when the storm of Watergate began to engulf the ship. No such luck here.

In 2008, the crisis had not reached epic proportions until late in the year. The economy had begun to shudder under the strain of the housing crisis a year before but it wasn't until the parasites on Wall Street began to game the oil markets that the house of cards began to collapse. With gasoline, in some places, above five dollars a gallon Americans suddenly found themselves up against the wall. With serious commutes and even more daunting mortgages, households suddenly found themselves having to skip the mortgage and rent payments in order to get to work. The result, wholly predictable, ensued.

The rest, in the idiom of our time, is history. But not only did the nation not have enough time to absorb the enormity of the crisis, but Obama—unlike Roosevelt—quickly signed on to Bush policies to deal with the crisis, getting little in return—and, in the process—transforming himself into Republican-lite.

Let's be clear here. The crisis simply didn't go on long enough. The pain wasn't near as deep as it should have been—if we had followed the idiocy of the likes of Ayn Rand and other capitalist idiotlogues . The consequence is that Obama quickly owned the crisis and he himself said as much. This, in turn, allowed the quickly emerging opposition fueled by the billionaires and populated by the knuckle-draggers to paint the newly minted president as somehow part of the established elite while at the same time a migrant from the mud-huts of Kenya. In any case, the chance for real reform was lost. The response and the timing were not quite right.

Similarly, with our present crisis. Our Caesar Disgustus has now been under investigation since well before he was sworn into office. But the crisis had not reached the level of collective consciousness necessary for remedial action until well into his first year in office. With his own party totally bereft of conscience or principle, in control of both houses, Congress abdicated its sworn duty to protect and defend the constitution, opting to do the exact opposite by defending the criminals instead. Abdicating Congressional oversight in favor of passing the responsibility to the Department of Justice delayed public exposure of criminality to the point where the country now finds itself bumping up against the next quadrennial election. Yes, there is political remedy at the polls, but this does not acquit the Congress of its sworn duty to protect the republic from graft, corruption and abuse of power. Again, if impeachment wasn't written into the Constitution for tRUMP, then who, and if not now, when?

The timing is off. That we know. It would be chaos if impeachment proceedings were to occur during the heat of the upcoming election. Justice demands action. This is not a question to be decided by plebiscite; this is not a political question, it is a constitutional crisis. And the constitutional remedy of impeachment, like the bill of rights, is not and cannot be allowed to become a question determined by the passion of the moment. It must, instead, be remedied by Constitutional and established legal process. We must act now or, like Obama, we will all own it. The clock is ticking. Time waits for no one. Whatever the Russians have done to us, we must now roll the dice and confront the outcome.

On this April first, we've all become the fool.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

March 25, 2019: Whitewash, No Exoneration, Bush-Lite

“The much anticipated 'happy hour' known euphemistically as 'Mueller Time' produced not a heavy German Lager, but a Bush-Lite”

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

Yes, Mueller Time—a play on the old Miller beer commercials—proved not to be a 'happy hour' for the republic, but a dud—a milquetoast response to a national emergency where the authorities demonstrated more concern for their institutional survival than with a serious inquiry into truth. It reminds me of the way the agencies circled the wagon in the aftermath of Dallas, and this exercise in transparency will be greeted with a skepticism bordering on cynicism.

What was released was a tepid four page summary by the Attorney General chosen by Disgustus for the occasion. William Barr, it will be recalled, campaigned for his appointment by writing memos expressing support of vast executive power as well as the curious argument that the president cannot commit obstruction of justice because he controls the process, an opinion not shared previously, most notably in the case of Richard Shithouse Nixon. Barr is also the one who penned the pardons issued by George H.W. Bush< on his way out the door after losing re-election to Bill Clinton, to former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, Eliot Abrams, Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George and Robert McFarlane for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. (1) Note that not only has Barr re-surfaced here, but Eliot Abrams is back in the saddle committing once again mischief in Latin America.

Barr is, as Disgustus wishes, doing his job. He is doing his best to obstruct by falsely summarizing the report, suggesting that “Mr. Mueller and his team were unable to establish that anyone connected to the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government when it interfered to help Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign”. (2) This is an interesting and highly misleading parsing of words, since it narrowly defines the conclusion to conspiracy with the 'Russian Government' which could well exclude shadowing intermediaries with known connections to Putin but who do not hold 'official' governmental positions. But the idea that there was no conspiracy nor coordination is laughable on its face. How else then to explain the 180 degree about-face on the Ukraine taken at the Rescumlican National Convention? How else to explain all the Russians hanging about the convention and the inauguration? How else to explain the email sent from the Russians to Donny Jr. suggesting in September 2016 that tRUMP tell the country that if he loses he will question the legitimacy of the results and then, within days, tRUMP is out on the stump declaring just that? How else to explain Manafort passing polling information to Russian nationals known to have connection with Russian intelligence? How else to explain at least two attempts—one by Jared Kushner and the other by the mercenary Eric Prince—to establish back channels to the Kremlin presumably protected from discovery by our intelligence agencies? How else to explain tens of millions of dollars funneled through the NRA into the tRUMP's campaign as well as the RNC and several congressional campaigns. The fact is that these crimes were committed in full sight and must be accounted for.

As of this writing we don't know to what degree the investigation plumbed the depths of infamy, but we suspect that there is a lot of incriminating evidence. What is clear is that at a minimum the snot-nosed larvae is guilty of lying to Congress as is the Son-in-law and why there were no further indictments relating to obstruction of justice by members of the immediate family remains an outrage.

One suspects that from the outset the FBI thought foremost of it's institutional survival and was motivated accordingly. One is reminded here of the fiasco over the Clinton emails, telling the nation that there wasn't enough evidence to indict but chiding her for being fast and loose with state secrets. It was a formula that, in the end, satisfied no one. Here the Bureau is once again trying to parse the issue, in effect slapping the president on the wrist and telling our errant Disgustus that he is a naughty little boy for engaging—knowingly or not—with foreign adversaries to subvert the electoral processes of the country. But the every juvenile and delinquent Disgustus will lean no lessons from this, except that once again he has bluffed his way out of trouble.

Let there be no mistake about it. This is an institutional failure. It is a failure of the Congress to act responsibly by itself taking on the investigations, complete with professional investigators and prosecutors—as in the Watergate affair. It wasn't the FBI that investigated Nixon, it was the Congress. Instead the Congress palmed this off to the F.B.I., and then, with the firing of James Comey, the newly appointed Special Council. This put the agency right in the cross hairs of partisan bickering, a position from which it was busing trying to free itself in the wake of the Clinton imbroglio. It is a no-win situation for Mueller and the agency he served and reveres. What else can we expect then, but a report that, in effect, neither indicts nor exonerates? What Mueller is saying—and can only say if he wants to protect his agency from withering partisan retaliation—is “here is the evidence, you decide.” The problem is that the law establishing the probe dictates the report goes not to Congress or the people but to the Attorney General who on his own decides what evidence we will see; and so far the evidence, such as it is, is not forthcoming.

There is, no doubt, enough in this investigation to warrant thorough hearings, and continued prosecutions. The problem is political will. Last week the House voted 420-0 for the full release of the Mueller report. In the wake of the obscenity released by Barr over t he weekend, we shall see if the Congress has the courage of it's convictions.

This is the most corrupt administration in the history of this republic. It is also the most contemptuous of the law. The longer this is allowed to continue the greater the damage to the institutions and the rule of law; the weaker our country, the more fragile our international standing.

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

Impeach and Imprison.

______________________

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_by_George_H._W._Bush
2. Editorial, “No Collusion, No Exoneration” The New York Times. Monday, March 25, 2019 Page A22