What a Weird Time

With the current news it is hard to tell if you are hallucinating or not. ~ Joy Reid (slightly paraphrased)

I've had the occasional dream that was so believable I couldn't tell what was real and what was dream. I keep half expecting to wake up realizing this whole Trump business is just a bad dream.

Reagan Is Turning In His Grave

I grew up during the cold war when Republicans everywhere were obsessed to the point of insanity with rooting out suspected Russian agents in government. After John Kennedy was elected in 1960 there were voices suggesting a military coup might be necessary to prevent Russian infiltration of the US government.

Today, Republicans are falling over themselves to defend the notion of a Russian spy ring operating within White House, how it is no big deal or even a good thing that Russian agents are privy to our every secret.

Maybe Trump Should Shag Jared Kushner

Trump's romance with his son-in-law isn't just creepy but bad government. Instead of giving him every important job many of which, to put it nicely, he has completely screwed up, wouldn't it make more sense if Trump just had a sweaty tumble with Jared and let Rance Priebus and the others do all the administrating. It's an idea.

As Others See Us

Oh would some Power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us. ~ Robert Burns

'Nuff said.

Thoughts About Jared

Treason From Within

There are only two motives for treason, ideology or money. The British traitor Kim Philby believed the Russian system of government was better than democracy. American spy Robert Hanssen was only interest in the money his treachery would bring.

Jared Kushner is all about the money. He sees the wealth of the Russian gangster oligarchs and longs to swim in their ocean. Jared is eager to sell out his country for great wealth. The Russians are more than willing to wave rubles under Jared's nose and watch him salivate like Pavlov's dog.

I Remember Nothing

Michael Flynn is taking the classic dodge of Mafia dons and pleading the Fifth. Jared is using a different but equally classic evasion. He is claiming faulty memory. He doesn't remember talking to most of his spymasters. Kushner, just now, doesn't remember much of anything.

The Enablers
Every successful traitor needs associates willfully ignoring the clear evidence of treachery. H. R. McMaster is so eager to keep the position of power he has longed for for decades he is making petty and unbelievable excuses for actions that would alarm any normal person responsible for the nation's security.

Strange Fruit

Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver (Republican) recently called for the lynching of anyone who tries to take down Confederate memorials.

The Shubuta bridge in Mississippi, also known as "The Hanging Bridge"

In 1936, an American poet and songwriter named Abel Meeropol wrote a poem he later set to music. In 1939, blues legend Billie Holiday made a heart wrenching recording of the song.

This is the crop that Southern Republicans wish to resurrect.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
 
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

When Southern Republicans talk about restoring "greatness" to America, lynching is one of the things they think of. Hanging political opponents and "uppity niggers" from the nearest tree as a lesson to those blacks who might try to vote or speak out was a common occurrence in the Old South they long for.

Researchers have counted over 4000 African-American citizens lynched in the states of the old Confederacy between 1877 and 1950 and this almost certainly understates the total. Mississippi was the leading state in lynchings. The most recent lynching I could find of a black man in Mississippi was 2015.

There Is a Traitor In the White House

The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government. ~ Washington Post, May 19, 2017

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

Who is it? Who is the Russian agent within the White House? There may be two score people who fit the description in the Post. A handful, like National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, had no role in the campaign so can be ruled out. Of the remainder, my wild speculation is its Jared.

• Kushner and Ivanka are known to have vacationed with the rumored mistress of Vlad Putin in August, 2016.
• Kushner hid dozens of meetings with Russian oligarchs when he applied for a security clearance.
• Those meetings included people known to be involved in espionage.
• Kushner was apparently caught on a wiretap colluding with Russian agents.
• Kushner was the moving force behind firing FBI Director James Comey and the sole purpose, according to Trump himself, was to end the Russia investigation.
• Kushner appears to be behind the White House plots against Robert Mueller's investigation. 

Then there is the theory that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Jared's father was sent to federal prison under felony convictions for tax evasion  and witness tampering. Jared may be another in a line of hereditary criminals.

And the Beat Goes On

• It's like a scene out of Game of Thrones. Mike Pence is forming an independent PAC as he prepares a palace coup to usurp the presidency.
• Some wag I read yesterday wondered if Trump could go 48 hours without humiliating himself on Twitter. The answer was no. The adult response from the White House immediately after the appointment of a special counsel didn't sound at all like Trump. His whining tweet this morning does.
• Mike Flynn seems ready to defy congressional subpoenas as he tries to keep out of federal prison.
• Flynn told Trump's lawyer in early January that he was under FBI investigation. Trump's team ignored that red flag and then lied about what they knew and when they knew it.
• History Lesson: "What did the president know and when did he know it" was the driving question of the Watergate investigation and will be the driving question of Russiagate.
• House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy seems to have admitted that Trump was a paid agent of Russia back in 2016. When told about the story, McCarthy said the statement was fake. When told the Washington Post had tape, McCarthy stammered that he must have been joking.
• The Trump campaign was in constant contact with Russian agents during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Things are moving so fast in so many different directions that even my whiplash has whiplash.

Trump's Clogged Toilet

Never in my six plus decades have I seen so much shit go down.

People May Die

Trump's flapping piehole has put real people's lives at risk. The Israeli spy agency Mossad puts brave individuals in incredibly dangerous situation to gather vital intelligence. The information they gather on ISIS is not picked up by satellites or drones but with boots on the ground secret agents. Agents who could be killed if Russia shares the secrets Trump blabbed with their Syrian allies.

Trump's Best Defense

Trump supporters seem to be coalescing their defense of him around the theory that Trump is a blithering nitwit, not a criminal. It might have some carriage in that the words most commonly associated with Trump are "idiot," "incompetent," and "liar." The defense of his leaks to the Russians is that Trump lacks the attention span and intelligence to understand his briefings and so he didn't know what he was talking about.

Putin's Here to Help

Because the President and all of his aides are not credible, Vladimir Putin has offered to take up the burden of informing the US Congress just what Trump said to the Russian spies ambassadors. How nice of him. Putin wouldn't possibly lie about anything, would he?

When You've Lost Wall Street

As I write this the stock market is down 250 points. Financial media is writing about what happened to the economy during the Watergate scandal (hint: nothing good). The rich bastards are giving up the idea of massive tax cuts. Republicans in Congress may not give a fuck what the common citizen wants but they sure as hell care what Wall Street financiers think. A Wall Street driven coup impeaching Trump is becoming possible.

Trump Keeps Pissing on His Own Shoes

The best job in the world to have right now is being an orthopedic surgeon in the D. C. area. Trump just kneecapped more of his aides.

Yesterday, aides like National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster weaved through a maze of sophistry trying to deny Trump carelessly leaked classified information to the Russians while limiting the amount of outright lying they were doing.

Today, while sitting up in bed eating his breakfast of one pouched egg and three Ding Dongs, Trump shattered McMaster's credibility by tweeting that not only did he carelessly leak classified info to the Ruskies but he was proud of being a traitor to his country.

The number of Trump aides limping painfully around the White House waiting an overbooked orthopedist to see them is growing daily.

Update: While typing this, McMaster is holding a presser trying to repair his fractured reputation.

Update #2: I watched a bit of the McMaster presser to get a sense of his body language and voice inflections. I would call his performance manically anxious and unsettled, like adrenaline or a line of cocaine was coursing through his bloodstream. 

A Few Random Thoughts

One Lacking Virtue

It is said of Rod Rosenstein that he has cultivated a stellar reputation in his years in Washington serving both Republican and Democratic administrations. It is said he is hard working, diligent, and intelligent. It is said he had everything a man could want.

Yet, when the nation, indeed the world, asked for his courage he found he had none. For all his diligence and intelligence, Rod Rosenstein lacks even the faintest flicker of bravery. He is indeed a coward for the ages.

A Request of the World
Trump is leaving on Friday for his first foreign trip. Can one of the countries he visits please keep him? It's a simple request. Do it for the sake of all mankind.

A Little Fun

A few days ago I stumbled on British ventriloquist Nina Conti. She and her little monkey are a delightful distraction from the horrors of reality.

Trump's Bodyguard

One of the more bizarre revelations surrounding the Comey firing is finding out that Trump's favorite bodyguard, Keith Schiller, is one of his top aides. If the Daily Beast can be believed, Schiller is Trump's office wife with closer personal access than anyone else including Melania or Ivanka.

Schiller is one of the few people Trump talked to about firing Comey and was the person tasked with walking the termination letter to FBI headquarters because Trump was too cowardly to tell Comey to his face.

Schiller's rise from hired thug to prominent aide echos SS-Obersturmbannführer Bruno Gesche.

Bruno Gesche was an alcoholic goon with the IQ of a turnip who was the long time bodyguard to Adolph Hitler. He had been beating up protesters for nearly two decades prior to Hitler achieving total power. When Hitler became dictator he brought Bruno with him.

Bruno loved Hitler like a puppy loves his master and Hitler loved his stupid bodyguard like a master loves a puppy. Throughout the war Heinrich Himmler, think a less disgusting version of Steve Bannon, tried to get Bruno killed on the Eastern Front but Hitler kept calling him back.

I'm not saying Schiller is exactly like Bruno, I am certain there are many differences. For one thing, he is smarter than Trump but, so is a turnip.

Trump Ready to Repeat History

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. ~ Edmund Burke

Trump's wee hour tweets this morning recalls the fall of two characters from history.

The Tapes

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! ~ Trump, May 12, 5:26 am

Trump threatened the former FBI director with tapes of his conversations, implying Trump repeated the profound mistake of Richard Nixon and recorded his private conversations.

First, I find it unlikely that Trump could successfully threaten Comey who has dealt with tougher pieces of shit than Trump. Second, those tapes will eventually be subpoenaed Trump will claim there never were any tapes which will bring charges of obstruction of justice.

Why would Trump tape his conversations? Nixon did it because he was an egomaniac who expected the tapes would be proof of the legacy of his greatness. Also, some have speculated he intended to use them to blackmail others.

While Trump might have been thinking blackmail, as in the tweet above, I suspect his prime motive was so he could listen to them later and revel in his masterful ability to humiliate the people he is talking to.

The Bunker

Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" ~ Trump, May 12, 5:07 am

When Germany's Lebensraum war against Russia started going south, Hitler retreated to his bunker in the Wolf's Lair. The man who led his country into a world war with his soaring rhetoric stopped appearing in public and stopped making speeches. He disappeared almost entirely from the public.  Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would fill the gap with narrated film clips of a silent Hitler.

Trump is thinking about going silent to the media and communicating solely using written statements. There would be photo ops where reporters who ask questions will be arrested, but communications to the public will be limited to short written statement. No questions allowed. No explanations given. This remind me of the dystopic TV series, The Prisoner.

How Trump Ruins Dawn

This was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, then I read the news.

Don't look down, the ground is covered in shit.

A Shiny New Tool
The news that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign over being made poster boy for a constitutional crisis is being squealed. Rod, apparently, is okay with being Trump's public gimp. Since Rod is responsible for appointing any special investigator we can be certain any such investigator will have an equally brown nose.

Trump Meets His Masters

Trump is pretending to be outraged that photos of him meeting with his Russian bosses were published. What did he think the guy with the camera was doing? The firing of Comey just before Trump reported to his Russian overlords was obviously a necessary act to reassure his owners that he was up to the job they gave him. Oh, and publishing the photos were proof to Trump of who's really in charge.

Trump's Razor
Although, using Occam's Razor, Trump might have fired Comey simply because he was pissed that Comey had used the word "nauseous" to describe how he felt about possibly influencing the 2016 election. It is certainly the simplest, most childish motive and one cannot overestimate the immaturity of Donnie Boy.

Speaking of Childish

What could be more childish than recording Senate hearings so he can watch them in his PJs and mock the Senators and witnesses. It is the kind of thing that Caligula would have done if the ancient Romans had DVRs.

Comey Hoisted With His Own Petard

Former FBI director James Comey positioned Donald Trump so that Trump could destroy Comey. Several weeks ago I wondered if Comey was a political buffoon for getting Trump elected and then investigating him. He was.

While it is true that Comey is less Thomas Beckett and more Edmund Blackadder, his abrupt firing is the first step in neutering the FBI and turning it from an investigator of facts into a political police force led by Rudy Giuliani tasked with seeking out and destroying Trump's enemies.

It should not go without mention that there was another clear attack on democracy on Tuesday. For the first time in American history a journalist was arrested for asking questions of a cabinet official. Veteran reporter Dan Heyman was trying to ask questions of HHS secretary Tom Price about TrumpCare when he was arrested for "causing a public disturbance."

This is the New America. A place where asking questions is a crime and the FBI becomes a weapon to be used against Trump's many enemies.

Nightmare to Nightmare

I had a really complex nightmare last night. Lots of characters, an overcrowded taxi that got lost turning a two mile trip into a four hour wander; it had a faulty door I almost fell out of on every right turn. Then I got on an even more overcrowded bus that abandoned all my taxi friends while I tried to negotiate a return to sanity with the bus driver.

Then I woke up only to realize that the dream nightmare was a more sane existence that the Trumpian nightmare we are all living through.

Claims that no one ever died from a lack of health care. Statements by congressmen that they voted for a bill hoping the Senate would solve all the glaring flaws they couldn't be bothered to read. While I'm holding on for dear life while a cab careens through a dreamed up canyon nowhere near my home, the President is tweeting even more bizarre fantasies.


Tonight, I shall sleep again and my dreams will likely be pleasant. Tomorrow I shall awake to the daymare that a couple hundred Freddy Kruegers are running my country.

Trump's Mad Monk Is Back

Rasputin has Czar Donald's ear again.

Steve Bannon's influence has been apparent this past week. It's hard to keep a demonic figure down without garlic and a stake made from the wood of an ash tree. This past week Trump has...

• Longed for a cleansing government shutdown in September.
• Stated that the rotting corpse of Andrew Jackson, 16 years dead at the start of the Civil War, would have stopped that conflict.
• Last month Trump was talking about trade agreements with Mexico and Canada. This week he wants to pull out of NAFTA.
• Lovingly praised the confessed serial murderer Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
• After threatening war with him last month, Trump now is calling North Korea's Kim Jong-un a "smart cookie" that he can get along with.

Each of these have the foul stench of Bannon whispering in Trump's ear. Bannon has asserted that government shutdowns are a perfect, albeit anarchic, way to tear down this liberal democracy. Duterte's death squads and summery executions have been praised by Breitbart News since he began killing.

Bannon thinks trade wars are good. He believes the slaveholding genocidal Jackson was America's greatest president and that, except for killing Muslims, shooting wars are a distraction from the need to purge the United States of minorities.

Like Rasputin, Bannon was sent away from the palace for a brief time and for that brief time Trump seemed slightly less insane. That's over. Bannon will let Jared Kushner drown in make work projects while he whispers sweet madness into Trump's empty brain. 

Priebus Muses About Repealing First Amendment

Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ~ First Amendment to the US Constitution

For a quarter of a millennium these words have been the holy grail of freedom. Then came Donald Trump.

I think it’s something that we’ve looked at. How that gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story. ~ Rance Priebus responding to a question about changing the Constitution to allow Trump to sue the news media for critical articles

Stifling an independent media is a vital step in building an authoritarian regime.

Within months of gaining power in 1933, the German government seized the printing presses of all newspapers opposed to Nazi rule.

In 1973 when Gen. Augusto Pinochet's ousted the elected government of Chile and formed a military dictatorship, he shut down all leftist newspapers and radio stations. Rightwing media was left free to praise the junta.

Upon its founding in 1922, the Soviet Union established an agency (the Glavlit) to control and suppress every aspect of Russian free expression.

Until now, Trump has been content with condemning a free press as "fake news." Yesterday was the first open suggestion that Trump and his minions consider that insufficient. They are now openly musing about destroying the bedrock of American liberty - freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

But Trump's followers are unconcerned because repealing the First Amendment just means elevating their beloved gun amendment to the top spot.