Peter David's Blog, page 4

Freak Out Friday – March 13, 2020

WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME?

By Peter David

What’s in a nickname?

Presidential eras are oftentimes defined by their nicknames.

Probably the most memorable one, off the top of my head, is that of John F. Kennedy.  After JFK was assassinated, his widow, Jackie Kennedy, commented in a Life magazine interview that he was particularly enamored of the then-current Broadway musical, “Camelot.”  Considering it was about a failed kingship that sank under the weight of a sex scandal, it was a rather odd comparison to make.  But it was the early sixties, the country was in mourning, and what the hell, it was Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, so one kind of has to let it slide.

Richard Nixon was routinely referred to as Tricky Dick, which was not exactly flattering.  Ronald Reagan’s reign was the years of the Gipper, a character that we were encouraged to win one for in “Knute Rockne, All American.”  Harry S. Truman was widely regarded as “Give ‘em Hell Harry.”  Nicknames, as stated, define a presidency.  They tell you what it was about, how the president was regarded, what was expected of him.

But we don’t really have a consistent nickname for Donald Trump yet.  Yes, some refer to him as Teflon Don, but that was really the nickname for John Gotti.  It would certainly seem to apply considering the vast number of charges that just slide off him, but it just doesn’t seem right to tag him with someone else’s nickname.  Many call him Cadet Bonespurs to celebrate his specious excuse for avoiding the Vietnam draft.  You remember the Vietnam war:  the conflict that military men who risked their lives to serve in and were subsequently dismissed by Trump as being infants and cry babies.  Yet the bonespurs business occurred decades before the Electoral College placed him in the Oval Office (I find it easier to say that then “he was elected.”)

No, I think we need something that is more appropriate to his tenure, something that relates directly to his opinions and his methodology.  And his current conduct regarding the Coronavirus pretty much, I think, seals the deal.

I believe we should refer to Trump’s years in the White House as the Hoax Presidency.

It makes eminent sense.  Trump, during his patchy speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday, the reaction to which was best summarized by the man himself—“Ooookay”—claimed that partisan interests need to be put aside.  Yet barely a week ago he was claiming that the Democratic reaction to it, and their concerns that he was botching the handling of it which most experts agree he definitely was, was a hoax.  (This was a theory popularized  has currently seized by Rush Limbaugh, the man who singlehandedly devalued the Presidential Medal of Honor through the act of receiving it).  Up until now, all the serious work in trying to contain the coronavirus has been handled at the state level, while Joe Biden makes the kind of speech that we’d want to see a president making.  Meanwhile Trump was resisting declaring a national emergency because it ran counter to his dismissive attitude that the virus was merely a temporary thing, being amplified by the evil media and distorted by the Democrats.  Today, finally, he did indeed declare a national emergency, opening up funds to be used by the states in their efforts to combat it (although I assume that states which included sanctuary cities will be lowest on the list of priorities.  At least Trump has given up on the nonsense that  when the temperatures increase in the spring, because viruses die in warm temperatures.  Which is true:  temperatures in excess of 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  So when April rolls around, if  temperatures increase by two hundred degrees, yes, the virus will die.  Of course, so will humanity, but everything has a price.  Meanwhile Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, can attest to the fact that it’s nonsense since they are currently down with the disease in Australia where they’re already enjoying spring weather.  And it’s lucky Hanks and Wilson were there, because if they were in the US there’s every chance they wouldn’t have had access to a test and could be infecting Hollywood right now.

Then again, according to Trump, climate change is also a hoax.  A Chinese hoax.  So that would be two Chinese hoaxes in three years.  Perhaps hoaxes are their new biggest export.

And the impeachment was also a hoax.  That’s one of his favorites:  the impeachment, which proved indisputably that Trump did exactly what he was accused of, was a hoax.  And the Robert Mueller report, which resulted in the indictment of thirty-four individuals and guilty verdicts or pleas from eight people, including five Trump associates, was a hoax.  And all the negative coverage by fake media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN, all hoaxes.

Let’s face it, if P.T. Barnum were still alive, he would be standing there and applauding in admiration at the vast array of hoaxes that Trump has been able to spot from his Fox & Friends bubble in the White House.  Of course, when Fox was trashing Barack Obama over the spread of Ebola, Trump had no dispute about that.  But when the press reports that the Democrats want to spend more money on combating the Coronavirus than Trump was asking for, and comment about how his budget desires to slash funding for the CDC, why, that’s all a hoax.  The press can’t be trusted.  The Democrats can’t be trusted.  Only Trump, who has lied by one count over sixteen thousand times in the past three years, can be trusted.

It’s really kind of a shame, because the Coronavirus is actually Trump’s chance to prove that he cares about something other than his reelection.  He could have reached across the aisle, said that people’s lives matter more than anything, taken the lead, stepped up, and tried to get the job done.

Instead he dismisses it and yells hoax.  

I’ve heard people say that if they ever get the Coronavirus, they won’t go to a hospital.  Instead they will attend as many Trump rallies as they can.  To spread the hoax virus Trumpies and perhaps even ideally to the man himself.  That’s where Trump’s incessant cries of “hoax” have gotten us.

So I think we should permanently associate the word “hoax” with Trump’s presidency so that when future generations look back on what the hell has been going on in this country and say, “What was that Trump presidency all about?” we can smile and just say, “It was all a hoax.”

PAD

Freak Out Friday – March 5, 2020

FREAK OUT FRIDAY – March 5, 2020

So now it’s Obama’s fault.

That is the latest claim from Trump and his team of sycophants, toadies and bootlickers.  The reason that the United States has fallen behind in the race to be able to test for the Coronavirus (or, as Trump refers to it, the Caronavirus) is because of a rule implemented during the Obama administration.  This reputed rule declares that any tests developed had to be approved by the FDA, and that process slowed the entire thing to a crawl.

What rule would that be?

No clue.

Subsequent authorities on the subject have said they have no idea what Trump was talking about or where he had gotten his information.  The obvious response is that he pulled it out of the same place whence he derived his information that windmills cause cancer or that the Coronavirus will vanish in spring, even though it’s doing just fine in Australia where the weather is already much warmer.  He would claim that it was from his gut.  That he has a hunch, just as he has a hunch that the death statistics of 3.2 percent from the World Health Organization are wrong and that it’s more around one percent.  But I’m reasonably sure that he in fact pulled it from his ass.

It makes sense, because one of his lead ass-kissers, Pence, indeed claimed several days later that he has rescinded the non-existent order.  How do you makes something that never existed in the first place go away?  

Meanwhile he continues to lampoon Elizabeth Warren, a woman who as a politician is worth a hundred Trumps.  He keeps referring to her as “Pocahantas,” accusing her of lying about having native American blood in her history.  You know what?  Someone who has lied over sixteen thousand times in three years doesn’t get to accuse someone else of being untruthful.

Indeed, his talent for falsehoods were on full display Thursday when he did a townhall meeting on Fox.  He claimed Hunter Biden had no job before winding up on the Ukraine board (he was a working lawyer), that Obama repeatedly tried to call Kim Jong un and was rebuffed (he never called him), that incoming presidents were typically not left any court vacancies upon taking office (Obama came in to 53, Bush had 80, Clinton had 103), and asserted that he was protecting coverage of pre-existing conditions (he has backed a number of bills that would weaken it and supports a government lawsuit determined to obliterate the entirety of Obamacare without offering any means of replacing it.). He also asserted that funding for social security, Medicare and other entitlement programs were not remotely protected, but were instead up for review and potential slicing. 

Because that’s what he does.  If you’re poor or elderly or sick or helpless, do not look for any support from Trump, because he backs winners and rich people.  His whole family is like that, which is why it’s amusing that the father of corrupt, greedy and pernicious offspring has the nerve to keep assailing Hunter Biden as if Biden is anywhere in the range of his own childrens’ activities.  

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the U.S. signed an ostensible peace accord with the Taliban that guarantees we will withdrew our troops within a year and a half.  The result is exactly what any reasoning person could have expected:  the Taliban has resumed attacks on the Afghani army.  The Taliban is doubtlessly anticipating that Trump will throw our Afghan allies under the bus, just as we did with the Kurds.  Indeed, just as Trump does with anyone when they have worn out their immediate use.

Indeed, just the other day he was asked if he would consider throwing Mike Pence off the ticket and replace him with Nikki Haley.  His response was that doing such a thing would be an act of great “disloyalty.”  Okay, yeah.  And?  I mean, Trump’s entire definition goes exactly one way:  he expect loyalty from others.  That is his first and oftentimes only requirement when filling positions.  If you’re loyal to him, you’re in; if you’re not, you’re disposable.  Many suspect that that was the main reason he put Pence in charge of the Coronavirus.  It’s a win/win for him.  Either the virus will be abated and Trump can then claim credit for having put Pence in the position to do it.  Or if it continues unconstrained and the body count piles up, Trump can state that obviously Pence didn’t get the job done and he should never have trusted him, and it would probably be wise to bring in someone else.  

God, let’s hope Biden or Bernie can get rid of him in September.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 28, 2020

We’ve been through pandemic viruses before.  Most recently it was in 2014 when Fox News relentlessly beat the drums declaring that we were all going to die of the much more lethal Ebola virus.  And Fox & Friends regular guest Donald Trump was one of the loudest leaders of the opposition.  He declared without evidence that Barack Obama was “a psycho,” and one of his reasons for making this proclamation was because Obama designated Ronald Klain to be his Ebola czar to oversee the US endeavors to combat it.

Why Klain?  He wasn’t a doctor, so why make him czar?  Trump loudly proclaimed his lack of medical knowledge as being one of the main proofs of Obama’s psychotic break.  The reason was that Klain was an experienced political operative who Obama felt would have to skill to negotiate strategies with intransigent Republicans who saw the Ebola outbreak as something they could gain for political advantage.  The very same Republicans who are currently falling over each other to voice support for Trump’s incompetence and stupidity (the Coronavirus is going to go away in the spring when the weather warms up?  Seriously?) didn’t hesitate to trash Obama for every decision he made, despite the fact that under Obama’s watch the disease never made it to the United States to any major degree.  Furthermore Obama had Doctor Thomas Frieden heading up the CDC, a top doctor with indisputable credentials.  So Klain used his skills to coordinate everyone working together, and it all turned out fine.

And Trump, who apparently completely forgot about his remonstrating Obama in 2014 for putting a non-scientist in charge, didn’t hesitate to go Obama one better and put not only a non-scientist, but an anti-scientist in charge:  Mike Pence.

Pence certainly has experience with communicable diseases.  His sluggish response to the urge to institute a needle exchange program resulted in an HIV outbreak in Indiana in 2015.  He eventually signed off on it but if he’d acted earlier, far fewer people would have contracted it. It gets better.  Several years earlier when he was in Congress, he stripped funding from Planned Parenthood and consequently the last Planned Parenthood in Scott County, Indiana went out of business…and by interesting coincidence, they also provided free testing for HIV.  So when that went away, it spread the way for HIV.

He also joins Trump in believing that climate change isn’t real.  Furthermore he asserts that cigarette smoking doesn’t lead to cancer, that evolution isn’t real (God created everything, full stop), and that one’s tendency toward gayness can be pounded out of them by—I dunno—beating them repeatedly on a rock by the river.  So when it comes to matters of science, Pence actively flies in the face of people who have dedicated their entire lives to studying these things, not to mention things we know because common sense tells us so.  

Yet this yahoo was put in charge of the endeavors to try and curb a disease that experts say is only a matter of when, not if, it will come to the United States.  Why?  Because according to Trump, Pence has nothing better to do.

Apparently neither does Trump.  He doesn’t care about what the coronavirus is doing to average Americans.  He cares about one thing and one thing only:  what it’s doing to the stock market.  He firmly believes that if the economy tanks, it will jeopardize his chances for reelection.  And considering the only thing keeping him out of jail is the fact that he’s in the Oval Office, that’s certainly a matter of concern for him.  Figuring his only chance is to have the stock market problems reflect on his enemies, he was insane enough to state that the Democratic debate, which happened on Tuesday, was responsible for the first 1000 point drop in the Dow Jones that occurred on Monday.   

The Democrats really have to stop beating up on each other.  If things continue as they are, they could put a pet rock up for the office and it would beat Trump.  

PAD

FREAK OUT FRIDAY – FEBRUARY 21, 2020

One has to admit, things are going great for Trump right now.  Granted, he seems unable to do anything right, and yet in his presidency he literally can do no wrong.

The supine GOP, having subsumed their ostensible devotion to the constitution entirely over to supporting Trump instead, actually had the nerve to claim that Trump would have learned something from the impeachment.

The short response to that is that Trump has demonstrably proven that he is incapable of learning anything at all.  He is incapable of admitting when he did anything wrong because, as far as he concerned, he never does.  Consequently he also can’t admit fault because he didn’t do anything wrong, so what is there to admit fault about?  Everyone who stands in opposition to him is sick, twisted, a liar, a never-Trumper, and an enemy to be disposed of and summarily crushed as soon as possible.

The longer answer is that he did indeed learn something from it.  He learned that he can do whatever he wants and the GOP will have him covered.  He has proven conclusively what he said years ago:  that if he gunned down someone on Fifth Avenue, he would not suffer any consequences for it.  Because we live in a world where cheaters, contrary to the old saying, are prospering with no harm resulting from it.  That’s why the Houston Astros effectively got a slap on the wrist for cheating their way to a World Series championship and George Zimmerman is suing Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg because they dared to mention that Trayvon Martin would have been twenty-five if he hadn’t been gunned down.  I would say that if there was any justice, Zimmerman’s suit will be quickly tossed, but honestly I’m wondering if there is any justice anymore.

That was why Trump ejected Alexander Vindman, because Cadet Bonespurs took issue with the decorated service man’s career, and threw out Vindman’s twin brother for no reason other than that he had the same last name.  He’s even getting people who didn’t work for him fired:  E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her years ago, was fired from ELLE Magazine where she had worked for decades.  She says she doesn’t blame ELLE for that; she blames Trump.  Me, I blame ELLE.  But that’s me.

Meanwhile, as does any good dictator in a banana republic, Trump is now busy twisting the right of presidential pardons in manners for which it was never intended.  Rather than reserving it for the poor and helpless who were abused by an unfair judicial process, he is pardoning the rich and powerful who were jailed for everything from tax evasion to lying to the FBI to trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat.  Basically he is pardoning wealthy individuals who very likely will be more than happy to reciprocate with sizable donations to his reelection campaign.  

Because really, what else would you expect from a rich, lying tax evader?  Trump knows what he is, sympathizes with people who have committed the same crimes that he has, and so pardons them because he is effectively pardoning himself.  He reasons that if he can do this stuff and get away with it, then his friends should be able to do the same thing.  Keep in mind that he has repeatedly said that he has the right to pardon himself, and if the question goes to the conservative Supreme Court, who’s to say that they won’t agree with him?

Meanwhile Bill Barr is claiming that it’s hard to do his job with Trump tweeting about the justice department.  I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that for a microsecond.  Barr has proven that he is perfectly happy to be Trump’s lapdog; hell, he auditioned for the role with an essay that basically talked about how the president should have unlimited power that can’t be challenged in court.  So I do not remotely accept that he really believes his complaints about how so darned hard his job is thanks to Trump’s tweets.  Until such times as he actually resigns in protest, I am going to firmly believe that this is all something he arranged in advance with Trump in order to try and have a response to the vitriol rightly being heaped on him over the Roger Stone sentencing.  A sentence that we all know Trump is going to toss out at some point in the near future.  The Justice Department, which is supposed to operate separately from Trump, is now being thoroughly controlled by him.  They’re even being shunted aside for the entire pardoning procedure as Trump ignores all the routes that other presidents have taken and consults Fox News rather than the Justice Department over whom he should pardon.  

And I’m sure that Putin approves of all of this.  The intelligence agencies recently reported that the Russians are endeavoring to rig the 2020 election, just as they did the 2016 one, on behalf of Trump.  How did Trump react to that?  Outrage.  Not at the Russians; at the people reporting what the Russians were up to.  He’s not angry at Putin; he’s angry at Adam Schiff who was in the briefing and whom he was convinced was going to “weaponize” the report.  In what way?  I dunno; maybe be concerned about it?  He certainly can’t get the Senate to do anything because Moscow Mitch is naturally preventing any attempts to protect the election from foreign interference.  

I have to observe that the founding fathers could never have conceived of THIS MANY worst case scenarios to be happening at the exact same time that would turn the government into an utter perversion of what they originally envisioned.

PAD

Cowboy Pete Live Blogs the Oscars 2020

8:00: Misterrogers? Oookay. I like that they cut first to Tom Hanks for a reaction.

8:04: They’re going to celebrate all the women directors in a year where no women were nominated for directing? Seriously? I can guarantee you I’m not going to be the only person pointing out THAT discrepancy.

8:06: Not a bad opening, although I agree with Caroline: nothing is going to top the Neil Patrick Harris Tony opening from several years ago.

8:12: See, that was the problem with “Beautiful Day.” Misterrogers was a supporting character.

8:15: And we hit the ground running with political commentary. You know what? Screw it. If you have a pulpit, you might as well use it. I’m sick of sticking to the GOP rulers about when and how we can smack talk the government.

8:23: As a Disney employee, I have to be happy for TS4 winning. As a fan, I have to admit I was rooting for Dragon. Ah well.

8:25: I haven’t seen “Hair Love” but Kath and Caroline both saw it and loved it, so they’re happy.

8:31: Holy crap, this rendition of “Into the Unknown” may be the best song performance I’ve ever seen in the Oscars.

8:37: Why is Diane Keaton dressed like she’s waiting for a bus? what am I missing?

8:42: When Shana went to a drama camp called Usdan decades ago, there was this one girl attending that she couldn’t stand. She said, “She acts like she’s going to be a movie star!” That girl is currently standing on the stage at the Oscars.

8:46: I was rooting for Joker, but Jojo really was a terrific film.

8:50: Boy, I’m striking out. I was rooting for 1917. Nothing I’m pulling for is winning. Since I’m actively rooting against The Irishman for best film, it’s probably a lock.

8:52: Kath called it. Period pieces usually have an advantage in this category.

9:02: A song with no intro at all? What the hell film is this from?

9:12: I’m assuming that poor woman has cancer because her eyebrow are drawn on.

9:16: Come on, Scarlet Johansson.

9:18: Son of a bitch.

9:30: Right. Sure. This song is right up there with “Eye of the Tiger” and “Don’t You Forget About me.” Suuuure it is.

9:32: oooo, Scorsese does NOT look impressed.

9:43: I’m still here. I just didn’t care about any of the categories.

9:43: I honestly don’t remember this song from TS4. Not up there with “Friend Like Me,” certainly.

9:49: This guy is kind of entertaining, I guess, but I’ve no clue why he’s there or what purpose he serves.

9:51: Come on Joker.

9:52: Son of a BITCH.

9:55: Well, it wasn’t the Irishman, so I’m satisfied with that.

10:00: I am Spartacus. Very nice.

10:06: So since I don’t care about this song, I just took the time to watch “Hair Love.” What a charming short animated film. It’s on Youtube. Go see it.

10;07: Hard to believe the very first Academy awards ceremony took fifteen minutes. True story.

10:12: Okay that took nerve. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

10:13: Come on Endgame1

10!:14: Son OF A BITCH.

10:27: Boy it’s a hell of a night for South Korea.

10:40: I’m wracking my brains and I can’t recall ever seeing a female conductor. Ever.

10:42: FINALLY Joker won something. Huzzah.

10:47: Well, I was rooting for “Into the Unknown” but John’s been trying to get this film made for two decades, so I can’t really begrudge him.

10:52: Jesus, maybe I should go see this film.

11:04: Dare I say it…come on Joker.

11:05: Son of a–oh. Never mind.

11:10: That was a terrific speech.

11:11: You know, I wonder if they should have best male and female director. I mean, they have actor and actress. That would solve the problem, I guess.

11:13: Well, I was rooting for Scarlett, but Rene was really terrific in Judy.

11:25: Okay, that’s it, I’m going to see Parasite.

Freak Out Friday – February 7, 2020

Remember when it seemed as if Richard Nixon was going to be impeached?  Rather than take his chances, slug it out on the floor of the Senate, risk the country being torn apart, he resigned his office.  I remember being at a party that, by pure coincidence, was thrown the night he announced he was quitting.  God, did we cheer.  

Remember when Bill Clinton was impeached?  Remember when he remained in office but gave a subsequent speech in which he apologized for having put the country through everything, all because he couldn’t keep his genitals zipped up and then lied about it?

Ultimately, both of them were men who put their country’s needs above themselves.  Nixon could have chosen to fight.  Clinton could have sworn revenge on Ken Starr and the GOPers who had made his (and his wife’s) lives a living hell.  But they saw beyond their own needs and desires.  

Representative Susan Collins of Maine seems to be under the impression that Trump will have learned a valuable lesson after being impeached.  Lamar Alexander shares that belief, certain that Trump would never want to do anything to risk further impeachment actions.

They and other members of the Senate apparently have not been paying the slightest bit of attention, because any observer can say with absolute certainty that Donald Trump is incapable of learning anything.  All they were doing was deluding themselves, attempting to justify their spineless devotion to either holding onto their jobs or not being trashed by Trump, as Mitt Romney currently is.

And of course Trump didn’t learn.  Of course.  On Thursday he attended the annual prayer breakfast, which is typically a non-partisan event.  He instead used it as an opportunity to trash Democrats in general and Nancy Pelosi and anyone else on his enemies list. 

You remember Nancy Pelosi.  After she was forced to endure seventy-five minutes of his Apprentice-esuqe State of the Union which was filled with everything from at least thirty lies and the abominable sight of Rush Limbaugh receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom—which is one step from hanging it around the neck of a KKK Grand Wizard—she calmly tore up her copy of the speech.  She displayed far more restraint than I would have.  Had it been me, I would have sat there with a paper shredder and loudly destroyed each page as he finished.  This perfectly legitimate commentary on Trump’s lengthy histrionics was immediately criticized by the right wing, claiming that she had broken the law by destroying the document.  Of course she hadn’t actually broken anything; at its purest form, it was commentary covered by the First Amendment.  But paltry matters such as free expression or legal accuracy don’t matter to the right wing who insisted on trying to find Pelosi in violation of the law.  Because they’re so sensitive to insults, you see.  Except when it’s Trump doing the insulting, which he does whenever he tweets or indeed opens his mouth.  Calling your opponents “traitors” and “evil?”  That’s an insult, jackasses.  How dare a strong woman stand up to Trump.  How dare anyone does.

But hey, Trump’s going to learn from his mistakes.

No, he won’t.  Because Trump never admits he makes mistakes.  His “perfect” phone call to Ukraine was made the day after he dodged a bullet from the Robert Mueller report.  The ink was scarcely dry on one decision and he turned around and did something even worse which forced Pelosi into impeaching him, even though she knew how it would turn out.  Because Mitch McConnell doesn’t give the slightest of damns about doing his job.  He cares about one thing and one thing only:  Winning.  Doesn’t care if he’s a hypocrite.  Doesn’t care who knows.  If he wins, that’s all that matters.  Can’t appoint a Supreme Court judge in an election year…unless Trump is president, in which case if Ruth Bader Ginsburg passes, it’ll happen in a heartbeat.  

In “1776,” when South Carolina insists the clause in the Declaration that would do away with slavery be dropped, John Adams tells Ben Franklin that if they give in, history will never forgive them.  To which Franklin agrees that it’s likely, but “we won’t hear it.  We’ll be long gone.”  That’s the attitude of McConnell and his array of spineless lackeys who in private despise Trump, but in public twist themselves into oratorical pretzels to avoid holding him to account.  Their attitude has nothing to do with anything as wise as doing away with slavery.  It has to do with holding onto their power.

In the meantime the Democrats were shot down yet again this week as a civil suit about Trump’s uncaring attitude toward the emoluments clause was tossed by the Court of Appeals.  It’s easy to say that it’s because Trump has been stacking the courts with conservative judges, but the three judges who ruled unanimously that the Democrats had no standing to sue were appointed by Bush the first, W., and Clinton, so so much for that.  I’m no lawyer, but from a purely civilian standpoint, it makes no sense to me.  If the courts won’t uphold the constitution and the President won’t uphold the Constitution and the Senate won’t uphold the constitution, who the hell is left?

Us, the voters, I guess.  On election day.  

It’s becoming evident that Trump’s plan to get Biden has worked.  His fourth place finish in Iowa is likely attributable to Biden fatigue:  whenever you hear his name now, your mind associates it with corruption even though there is no basis for it.  There’s just an instinct that says he should be avoided because he’s tainted.  Plus you just know the Senate is now going to go after him and his son, freed of Democratic control and knowing that it’s what Trump wants.  It seems unlikely that he’ll be able to triumph in November if he’s spending the next months fighting battles with investigators.  Between that and polls indicating Bernie Bros are unlikely to vote for anyone who isn’t their man on election day, and the Democrats may well be handing Trump another four years.  Which he of course will try and turn into eight years because he’s still insisting the Democrats took away his first term, and who knows what a Trump-appointed Supreme Court may decide?  Especially when one considers that the Democrat could win by as much as five million votes and still end up losing.

I wonder if a Democratic president could issue an executive order abolishing the Electoral College?  Why not?  The current Senate has basically said the President can do anything he wants with no concern over recriminations.  Hail to the chief.  Or maybe, in the current case, Sieg Heil to the chief.

PAD

SING ALONG SUNDAY

SING ALONG SUNDAY

So I’ve been reading a lot about how the Republicans have killed the country and our Democracy in the past week. And there’s a fairly famous song about things dying, “American Pie,” that I’ve decided to rewrite. With apologies to Don McLean:

“GOP SWELLS”

Two hundred fifty years ago, give or take a few or more
Some men founded the US of A
And they foresee and they foresaw
Things that stuck into their craw
So they prepared to take some stuff away.

Like men who live in an ivory tower
Should they come in and abuse their power.
They prepared a new thing 
To stop a new would-be king

They made impeachment something which 
Could be done if we’re in a sitch.
In case some stinking S.O. Bitch
Would make our country die
So

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

Oh you just knew right from the start
The jester king would do his part
To throw us all right off the rails.
He rode an escalator down
Said keep the Mexicans out of town
Took the wind right straight out of your sails.

And you condemned him, oh you did.
You said he was an evil kid.
You all called him a putz
You said that he was nuts.

And you criticized like it wouldn’t end
You bashed your future bestest friend
And now you all try and pretend
Our country didn’t die
And you’re all singing

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

Oh Russia, if you’re listening here
Oh please oh please come make it clear
The emails, how they must be found.
He begged a foreign power scheme
And made it a recurring theme
And drove it right straight into the ground.

When it came to all his sinning
That was only the beginning.
Love those Russian greetings.
Take those Russian meetings.

And when Bob Mueller was brought in
To see how far the man would sin
He gathered all his kith and kin
To make out country die
And they kept singing

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

Well, Bob Mueller found ten things he did
To impede justice, so busted
But still it all just turned out fine.
For Mueller in his shirt hirsute
Declined to go and prosecute.
Claiming it would be out of line.

And while the king, he masturbated
Barr declared him vindicated.
Said he dropped a dime
And he’d done no crime.

And while Bob Mueller grieved and groused
And Kavanaugh got really soused
Pelosi stayed inside her House
And watched our country die.
And she kept singing

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

The jester king was living large
He knew he was in total charge
And he could count on Moscow Mitch
To keep things driving right along
So he kept singing the same old song
And drove his car right off into ditch.

And though it truly sounds insane
He called up the prez of Ukraine
An angle he would savor
He called upon a favor.

To dig up dirt on Sloppy Joe
So he could shout and he could crow
But hear a man with whistle blow
And watch our country die
And we’re all singing

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

So though success was out of reach
Pelosi decided to impeach.
But Moscow Mitch stood in the way.
And he consulted with the Prez
To do just what his lawyers says
To make sure witnesses don’t have their say.

Then things got much too revoltin’
From a book by Johnny Bolton
He proved the Democrats case
But hear no screams in dead space.

The GOP shut down the trial
They did it with a gleaming smile
It all was fun for quite a while
Until our country died

And we were singing

Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

We were singing
Farewell all you GOP swells
Was a pleasure, such a treasure and we wish you all well
The jester king rings his president bell
Send democracy right straight down to hell
Democracy right straight down to hell.

Freak Out Friday – January 31, 2020

The comic book series “Watchmen” endeavored to portray a more “realistic” world of superheroes than other comics.  Yes, there was a blue, superpowered individual created through freakish scientific means, and there was a tentacled genetic monster at the climax (it’s more than thirty years old, so screw the whole “spoiler” thing) but otherwise it was about normal people who put on costumes and attempted to do either great good or great evil.  

There was one major change in the universe in which “Watchmen” existed that differentiated it from ours, aside from Dr. Manhattan.  That was that Richard Nixon was still president.  

I remember reading “Watchmen” when it first came out and for some reason I had real trouble swallowing that.  All the other stuff about superheroes and villains, about Rorschach and Night Owl and his ship, that I was able to believe because I was a long-time comic fan.  I was used to such tropes as the insane superhero and the technologically advanced crusader.  But how in the world, I thought, could Nixon still be president?  He had indisputably done impeachable things, and if he hadn’t resigned, he’d have been thrown out by the Senate.  Instead he was still in office, which should be impossible because a president has two terms, max.  Nixon’s presence as chief executive really didn’t make any sense.

And now, here we are, more than three decades later, and we still don’t have giant blue supermen or genetic constructs.  But we do have the exact situation that would have assured Nixon a continued presidency.

Because it is becoming inevitably clear that the Senate is going to clear Trump.

Alan Dershowitz, who used to be a respected lawyer, actually had the nerve this week to argue that anything the president does, if he believes his reelection is in the public good, is acceptable.  He is contending that the punishment does not fit the crime; that indeed, there wasn’t a crime despite the fact that the Government Accountability Office said that there indeed was a crime.  That Trump’s withholding of the aid to Ukraine without informing Congress was flat-out illegal.  To say nothing of the fact that it’s already established that a crime does not have to have been committed for impeachment to occur.  If Trump decided to take a six month vacation to Mar-A-Largo, technically that’s not a crime, but it would certainly be an impeachable offense.  Even Dershowitz himself, back in the 90s, stated that a crime did not have to have been committed for a president to be impeached.  Which of course is what he said, because it involved Clinton.  If Clinton or Obama had done what Trump did, they’d have been out on the street.

Instead the GOP is lining up to stand behind Trump in a way they never did behind Nixon.  Back in the 1970s, the Constitution and public opinion mattered.  Now the majority of the public wants to hear from witnesses, particularly John Bolton, whose book I have no doubt Trump will find a way to quash.  Simon & Schuster had best be prepared for a lengthy lawsuit because that’s how Trump handles everything.  They will state the book can’t be published, end statement, and they will be perfectly willing to drag it into the courts where it will take years to resolve.  The book won’t see print until after Trump is out of office.

Presuming he ever is.  Because remember, the “Watchmen” Nixon had an extended term.  And Trump has been repeatedly saying that he should be eligible for a third term.  Of course he constantly says he’s joking, but “joking” about things is how Trump normalizes insane things before he tries them out for real.  He certainly has supporters who assert that he is “due” a third term because of how the FBI and the Democrats ostensibly wasted his entire first term.  Never mind that the Constitution expressly forbids it.  It also expressly forbids the sort of profiteering that he is doing, such as charging millions in taxpayer dollars every time he goes off to play golf at a resort that makes money off it.  He has been violating the Constitution since pretty much day one of his presidency, and he has the GOP so cowed that none of them dare stand up to him.  Hell, even the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who many believe could unilaterally decide to call witnesses, seems to be too afraid to do anything to take an active role.

If the Senate we have now had existed back in the 1970s, Nixon would never have been forced to resign.  They’d have lined up dutifully behind him and supported his presidency and who knows?  If he had declared a state of emergency and lobbied for a third term…

Well, if Trump did it, what do you think the GOP would do?

I mean, seriously.  Could you imagine these guys, who have absolutely given up on their vow to support the Constitution, actively employing it to prevent him from doing so?  

What if—and I’m just spitballing here—what if the Iranians take over an airplane and crash it into the Empire State Building on September 11?  

That evening, Trump goes on TV:  “After consulting with my attorneys, I am declaring a state of national emergency and suspending the November elections until our war with Iran is concluded.”  

Will the GOP override him?

Of course not. 

Will the Democrats stand up to him?  And what?  Get tagged as being unpatriotic in a time of war?  Prevent him from going to war just as they failed to do with W?

Of course not.

And we have the “Watchmen” Nixon in office.

It’s just that easy.

And now that I’ve said it, you’re going to sit there and go, “Holy crap, he’s right.”  

Because that’s what happens when you erode the Constitution.  A dictatorship doesn’t happen all at once.  It occurs by degrees, one chipped away piece at a time.  Trump declared the emoluments clause as being “phony.”  How much effort would it be for him to declare that the 22nd amendment is “old,” “out of date,” “short-sighted?”  “Phony?”

None.  None whatsoever.

Because that is the situation that we are in right now.  The GOP is bending over backwards to accommodate Trump and brush aside the document that was created not only to govern our country, but to save us from exactly the sort of man that Trump is.  From urging foreign interference (“Russia, if you’re listening”) to hinging aid on personal services (“I’d like you to do us a favor”) to lining his own pocket with taxpayer and foreign dollars, he is precisely what they were afraid of.  He is who the impeachment process was created for.

Unfortunately, we are now seeing the one vulnerability in the system:  It depended upon people who would take it seriously to follow it.

That is not the current GOP. 

It used to be that the main difference between the Democrats and Republicans was viewing how government should operate.  That is no longer the case.  Instead the disparity is believing in IF the government should operate.  Should it do what it is designed to do, or should it defer entirely to the whims and intentions, the threats and the belligerence, of the chief executive.  As far as the GOP is concerned, the answer is clearly the latter.

And who watches them?

We do.  And we despise what we’re seeing.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – January 24, 2020

We could open with the impeachment, of course, but just to be different. Let’s check out the environment.

Donald AntiChrist Trump, as part of his ongoing war on Mother Nature, undid yet another environmental law, bringing it to nearly one hundred instances of doing so.  This time he disposed of Obama’s Waters of the United States rule, removing protection for an assortment of streams and wetlands.  “This was a rule that basically took your property away from you,” said the same president who is embroiled in a series of court cases raised by people whose land he is endeavoring to take away so he can build an unnecessary wall along the US/Mexico border. 

According to the New York Times, “The new water rule for the first time in decades allow landowners and property developers to dump pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizers directly into hundreds of thousands of waterways, and to destroy or fill in wetlands for construction projects.”

His claim is that the abatement of the rule will help farmers, and yet his various trade policies have driven many farmers into bankruptcy, so he obviously doesn’t give the slightest of damns about them.  Instead the ones who benefit most from it are real estate developers.

Basically his elimination of the law will put bodies of water at risk that have been protected since the 1970s and 1980s.  It’s insane.  But then again, so is he.

This is how insane he is:  At the same time that he is being impeached for obstructing justice, he boasted in a press conference a couple of days ago that “But honestly, we have all the material. They don’t have the material.”  He flat out stated as a fact exactly what he is being impeached over.  That is how confident he is that he will be cleared.  He knows that he can say anything, do anything, and never be held accountable for it.  Why shouldn’t he feel that way?  He’s lived his entire life that way.  Whenever he’s gotten into trouble, he either bought his way out of it or bullied his way out of it.

Which is exactly what he’s doing this time as well.  He’s donated money to various senators, and he has used Twitter to relentlessly attack anyone who even thinks of standing up to him.

In the face of that, the Democrats’ presentation of their case has been masterful.  Adam Schiff and his people have been meticulous, detailed, and unrelenting as, aided by TV screens on which they are able to run videos of testimony from the House investigations, they have laid a thorough groundwork that would prove their case to anyone with a clear, rational mind.

Which of course doesn’t include the Republicans who have remained in lockstep to their opposition.  They have had the unmitigated nerve to dismiss the Democrats as presenting “nothing new” after having spent the first few days of the impeachment blocking the Democrats, again and again, from bringing in new testimony.  Meanwhile Trump’s lawyers have relentlessly lied.  They asserted that the GOP was precluded from being involved in closed-door investigation even though there were, in fact, Republicans present and asking questions.  They claimed that Trump and his lawyers were forbidden from getting involved, when the President and his lawyers were actually invited to do exactly that and refused.  

The indisputable truth is that the GOP is terrified of witnesses.  They know that people like John Bolton would present truth, and the GOP is firmly in opposition to truth.  They want to keep the country in its bubble of conservativism, and so they walk out of the Senate chamber in violation of rules, or read books, or do crossword puzzles, or fall asleep.  I want you to imagine a juror in any actual trial sitting there nodding off or reading a book during testimony.  Imagine what the judge would do to them.  Imagine a juror trying to just leave the courtroom because he was bored.  I wonder how bored he would be when he was thrown in jail.

The only way it seems that they will allow witnesses is if they managed to get something in return:  Hunter Biden.  This would be a massive mistake.  Forcing Biden to testify would give Trump everything he wants, because no one will remember anything he says, any more than anyone can quote anything Hillary said when testifying about Benghazi.  All they will remember is that he was grilled by the Senate, who will say the words “Corruption” and “your father” as many times as possible to make those stick in the American consciousness.  And when the Senate clears Trump, he will then be able to go out and boast about how Hunter and Joe Biden are being investigated for corruption while he, Trump, is vindicated and clean as a whistle.  So no, Hunter Biden—who has zero personal knowledge of anything Trump did and is therefore irrelevant to the proceedings, should not testify under any circumstance.

I hope to God that the Senate’s actions, their indifference, their flat out refusal to do their job, manages to penetrate the conservative bubbles of the idiot voters who put them in place and make them realize they must, must, MUST be voted out of office.  This November may well be our last chance to save the Republic and if we fail, I truly dread the future of this country.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – January 17, 2020

Pens.

That’s what it’s come down to.  That is how desperate the GOP has become.  They’re obsessing about pens.

They are endeavoring to get huge mileage out of the fact that when Nancy Pelosi signed the impeachment documentation, she used multiple pens.

The fact that Trump has spent over $100 million dollars on golf trips, enriching himself on taxpayer dollars in flagrant violation of the emolument clause, that the GOP is fine with.  But supporters of a man who has properties with his name emblazoned upon them in gold are freaking out because Nancy Pelosi has gold pens with her name on it as a souvenir from the signing ceremony.

Never mind that signing documents in DC is such a customary stunt that it was even done on an episode of “The West Wing.”  Never mind that it was done during the Clinton impeachment by the GOP, except because they’re idiots the pens had a typo on them and read “Untied States Senator.”  Hell, never mind that LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act with multiple pens.  

The fact is that no one has ever complained about it in decades, until now.

Because the GOP is just that desperate.

Because the right wing is just that far out of its collective mind.

It’s really kind of a shame.  The Democrat and Republican parties used to be capable of working together.  They may have had different opinions of how government should be run, but they both believed in the truth and they both were fundamentally patriotic.  They believed that this country should stand for something.  That we should defend our allies because that was what this country was supposed to do, both for their safety and for our own.

But in the cult of Trump, that’s all gone away.  Now it’s every man for himself.  Trump has boasted that he wants to charge other countries for the protection of our armed forces, effectively transforming our soldiers into mercenaries. He has relentlessly lined his own pocket while dismissing the emolument clause, part of the Constitution that he swore an oath to protect, as “phony.”

And this week we watched as Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, who have already publicly stated that they are incapable of being impartial jurors, swore an oath to be exactly that.  And they are on record as stating that they are working in conjunction with the White House lawyers and are loath to allow for witnesses to be called…unless Joe and Hunter Biden are on the witness list.

Basically they want to give Trump exactly what he’s been craving:  hours of the Bidens being interrogated.  Why? Because many Americans are fundamentally stupid.  A sizable portion of them don’t read beyond headlines; hell, many of them share articles from satirical news sites as if they’re genuine.  Trump knows that the Bidens’ answers will be of no relevance.  All people will need to remember is that the Bidens were relentlessly questioned about corruption, linking it in their minds and proving that Trump was right to be worried about it.  Just as years later Hillary Clinton haters obsess about how she was grilled for hours about Congress and simply breeze over the part about how all that questioning came up with nothing.  Say “Benghazi” and “Hillary” and watch them go off on a rant.

Except we once again have evidence that Trump’s interest had nothing to do with actual investigation.  Rudy Giuliani’s aid, Lev Parnas, has been hitting the talk show circuit, endeavoring to lay groundwork for his own defense, and he’s come up with some gems.  He has made it clear that Trump didn’t care about actual investigation; he just wanted the Ukraine President to announce that an investigation was under way.  Because that was all he needed, since he is well aware of just how stupid Americans are.  He knew that all he had to do was say Biden’s son was under investigation and in our environment of “Guilty and never innocent,” that would be sufficient to condemn the son and taint his greatest presidential rival.  

Meanwhile the Government Accountability Office has finally weighed in, declaring that Trump broke the law when he held up the money that congress had set aside for Ukraine military aid.  Since the $214 million had been allocated by Congress, Trump did not have the power to hold it up just to accomplish his own policy aims.  “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” stated the report, which would be genuinely relevant if Trump had ever given the slightest indication that he was remotely interested in faithful execution of the law.

The fact is that we need to get witnesses other than the Bidens testifying before Congress.  We need the Senators to actually keep the oaths they’ve sworn to uphold.  And we need them to grow a pair and make the right decision in the hope of saving not only their political party but the country as a whole.  

PAD