You just can't keep up

Not a bit. On any given day there is enough madness flying about to last as the saying goes a month of Sundays.  Between the decidedly mixed signals being sent to Europe:  “We Will honor our EU commitments” “The EU must die!” and the continuing drum beat of spooky stuff out of a spy novel involving Russia (the covert peace plan that would allow Trump to undo the sanctions that a close Trump associate did or did not deliver to one of the presidents of Ukraine- the Russian appointed one) , the mystifying claim of first terrorist attacks and then a rising crime rate in Sweden caused by refugees,  the invite than canceled invite to the annual right wing hate fest called CPAC  to one alleged human being  Milo Yiannopoulos who creeped the world out to point where not only did he get uninvited to jabber to CPAC, Simon & Shuster killed his book deal (no word if he had to give the money back).

The times are simply just too crazy to cope.

And it’s only been a month.

Today apparently Trump has decided that Anti-Semitism is bad.  Not that he’s going to do anything about the white nationalists in his organization  (which isn’t very organized) including one Steve Bannon. But he has spoken about it and for his followers, that is enough. Deeds are not needed only words.

We are in trouble folks.

 

Quick thoughts from a couple of days 2/14 & 2/15

2/14/17

Happy Valentine’s Day

One keeps trying to write something and one keeps finding oneself hopelessly behind the stories as they lurch into the sunlight the after the other to dance their little dance and then be replaced by a newer and more grotesque grotesques.

This morning Mr. Flynn the National Security advisor quit mostly because his lies about his ties to Russia and folks had proof and that things were getting a little hot so someone needed to be tossed to the wolves. Thus exit Mr. Flynn.

The right is falling all over themselves to say “well things happen and let’s just move on here”.  Which is actually pretty much par for the course in DC – when proof emerged that W had blown off a briefing paper titled “Bin Laden determined to strike the US” and that he had the rest of the establishment had lied about WMD’s (poison gas actually) and this was treated as while mildly interesting, it was not dire enough to warrant anything actually being done about it.

Now we have Flynn leaving and they are saying well okay that’s it.

No it isn’t.

When Obama bum rushed some number of Russians out of the country and imposed even more sanctions on Russia for their interference in the US elections, Flynn  bowled several people over in order to get to a phone so he call Russia and reassure them that once Trump was president things would be fine. Flagrant violation of several laws this was and of course he lied about it. This is what got him canned.

About this time Trump tweeted some sort of mash note to Putin saying how smart he was for not responding to what Obama did. The timing is weird as hell one must say.

And here’s the thing – what the hell made Flynn do that? Did he just get the idea to contact the Russians on his own or did someone –say,  Trump for example – tell him to make the call.

If the later we are in deep deep waters.

In one of my stupid on-line comments I suggested watching this unfold was something like watching a John Le Carre novel from the outside – we’re not seeing what is going on inside the intelligence community or inside the white house or Congress.

2/15/17

Well coming as not much of a surprise, per various news reports Flynn wasn’t the only one in the Trump Camp with links to the Russians, no names yet but it doesn’t look good and the FBI is per the Times investigating – which does raise the uncomfortable question of hey why were these contacts kept under wraps with you gabbed about emails? (The professor also notes with grim amusement that the same folks who praised the little creep who runs the FBI with being a  hero for leaking about the Emails suddenly find leaks ‘a concern’. The professor has not had much amusement lately so he’ll take what he can get.

Meantime one of the websites I cruse comes in interesting story. Trump once Flynn’s corpse was safely stowed away under the Bus took to Twitter to complain about all the leaks that had come out of the Intelligence Community. Bad Intelligence community Bad, the tweets said.

Anyway per this story the intelligence community is really really really angry at Trump now. I suspect that Flynn’s quick and brutal fall from grace was a warning from the Intelligence Community which it would seem Trump did not take.  Hence the Intelligence Community is now really pissed and one of them sent an email to this former NSA staffer John Schindler saying per his quote “he will die in jail”

I don’t think he meant Flynn.

To quote Betty Davis  “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be bumpy flight.”

 

 

The President is barking mad.

I had been naively hoping that we could get two weeks into the new administration without a constructional crisis.

Said crisis is that the DHS has decided to ignore, the judges suspension of the Muslim travel ban order.  The Professor will call it that under the looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck rule. This is a duck. Rudy G maybe not remembering that other folks pay attention to what folks say on Fox News came out and said this is a Muslim ban. 

It’s not quite a full blown crisis just yet as the order merely suspended but did not overturn the order. A ruling on the constitutionality of this order has not been made.

Meantime Bannon who is as evil a little creep as I have ever seen making Grima Wormtongue seem principled has been put on the National Security Council which  folks are calling dangerous even crazy…

This brings me to the main part of this ramble.

The Professor has seen more than his share of insane behavior – a long ago moment at some Thanksgiving dinner when a guest insisted that his dog was talking to him in the night comes to mind – as he went on, it became clear that he mentally had left us far far away, and any attempt to drag his attention away from his frustration that while he knew his dog was taking to him, he couldn’t understand what he was saying was going to fail. And so the conversation dropped away until there was a moment of very heavy silence at which some brave soul started talking about sports or something and with palpable relief, the rest of the party jumped on the bandwagon.

I was reminded of this incident as I watch with mounting fear and horror the news and the new president’s ongoing war with reality.  He has left us, there may be moments of lucidity here and there but for the most part the new President while he may be sleeping in the White House is living in cloud koo koo land.

In what may be the most disastrous interview on tape (I date myself yes but there doesn’t seem to be a current version of this expression, the Professor would appreciate any suggestions along this line) Trump ranted about illegal voting and the size of the crowd. Both topics that have turned into major embarrassments solely due to Trump not being able to shut up about them.

We are also informed that the new President has been upset and unable to ‘enjoy’ his presidency due to the negative coverage of the crowd side compared to that of Obama’s swearing in. And that he’s upset CNN is being so hard on him considering his relationship with the president of NBC who has something to do with CNN but I forget what.

While it has only been less than two weeks, the Professor feels a need to state this in as plain fact. The president is insane – at a reality denying level that reminds one of a man in a bunker, but he at least had been in power for some time, was being poisoned by a quack doctor and was in the process of losing World War 2.

Alas our system does not have a quick and easy means to remove a president who is barking mad- there is impeachment and it is a mark of how bad things are is that it is being talked of already.

These are indeed frightening times.

 

DER TAG

By the time I finish writing this Trump will be officially President of the United States. Reports indicate that after this Trump is going to take weekend off which means a couple of things – that if something blows up this weekend the country will be caught flat footed, but on the other hand he can’t start to do any real damage until Monday.

Trump is a disaster on many levels and there are a lot of folks to blame for it, but recent news has come out that shows that while the director of the FBI was writing congress to say they may be found more e-mails, he resolutely refused to tell anybody that the FBI were also investigating Trump and his people for having direct contact with the Russian Government. That bit the director kept silent about.

So today we have the inauguration of man that both Russia and the FBI helped to make president, with a nice assist from the major news media who couldn’t let the emails alone and thought trump was good for ratings.

And let’s not forget the purges of the eligible voting lists and the various vote id acts that were designed by admission of the clueless NC legislator to prevent folks likely to vote democratic from voting.

And a last fuck you and go to hell must be given to those who all during the election said there was no difference between the two – or that if anything Hillary was worse – hope you are enjoying your righteous purity right now because a lot of innocent folks are going to suffer.

As for the folks who are now disappointed with Trump because he is doing what he said he would do, well sorry there is no real hope for you.

So we now have as president a thin skinned lunatic with more ties and obligations to Russia that Bill Haydon (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and looks to do more damage – between ideological claptrap for example, repealing the ACA without giving the slightest thought to a replacement and willful stupidity and ignorance regarding China, the middle east, Europe and North Korea – and the economy where wall street is looking to resurrect the leverage casino and never mind that anti-vaccine and climate change deniers are inside the hen house, the acceptance of racists  – honestly it’ll be a blessed miracle if the Republic survives two years never mind 4.

What can be done? I hope something but the already the press is trying to make the crazy town world of Trump normal,  the democratic party has too many people who would rather make nice because while they may object to some of his plans, they agree with the idea, they would just be nicer about it. The resistance to Trump needs a Churchill willing to call a spade a spade and not care how upset the beltway media is that he is not trying to play nice. It also needs a press who does not look at Trump as a ratings machine or a clown but looks upon as a fraud as a dangerous conman.

But I’m not sure what good marching in the streets is going to do – millions marched against the Iraq war and we got the Iraq war – unless this loathing of the man can be turned into political power, it’s not going to do anything and will be marginalized by the media as Occupy was.

I will march and I will work but to be honest, I think we’re doomed. My hope is that not too many people get hurt, but sanguine about that I am not.

Peace Out

 

The Rubicon has moved

The news lately coming out of DC has been weird and wild, and a

CIA leak has set the whole town on fire.  Per the leak the story is that the Russians had hacked both the DNC and RNC computers but had only released the DNC material. Why? Because they wanted Trump to win.

This is serious as in serious as cancer serious – a foreign power is actively interfering with US elections, wars get started over less. However also per the leak the GOP leader of the Senate decided to sit on this, putting as one person put it ‘partisan advantage over the national interest’

Now a whole learned essay about be written about how putting ‘partisan advantage over the national interest’ has been a major part of the GOP playbook since Nixon sandbagged the Paris peace talks because he wanted to win in 1968 but a) We do not have the time and b) my blood pressure medication can only handle so much, but let us for the moment say this is, for the GOP, par for the course.

However between this and Trump decided to nominate the former head of Exxon and a very good friend of V. Putin  to be Secretary of State something seems to have snapped. Electors (who are the ones who actually elect the president) are ever so cautiously suggesting that maybe just maybe they want to know what the hell went on before they make Trump president.  Even GOP members of the Senate are voicing concern.

Trump of course knows no defense except attack – so he’s taken to twitter to castigate the CIA saying they were a part of the ‘intelligence failure’ leading up to the invasion of Iraq – and while the CIA did not come out of that smelling like a rose, the real failure was the Bush administration stove piping bad things about Iraq without anybody checking to see if they were true or not. Historically our intelligence failures have come from the top where they were committed to a course of action, say Bay of Pigs or invading Iraq and didn’t want to know anything that would call that action into question.

Anyway although as of this moment there are no formal plans for an investigation by Congress (both the house and Senate have ruled that out as of this writing (as a side note this is rich considering the 14 different investigations of Hillary and Bengazihi! ™ over the years.  Still there is real if muted concern on the right and outright anger on the left – and the whole idea of hacking leads to the strange disconnect between vote totals and exit polls in Wisconsin Michigan and Pennsylvania – as of this moment only the most desultory recounts are being done and a Judge in Pennsylvania has ruled against a count there .

We could be standing on the edge of a major constitutional crisis here – we’ve never had the winner of a presidential  election that could have had the aid and comfort of a foreign power – I say could as, well despite knowing in my bones that this is what happened, one does need some little thing called ‘proof’ before things go really pear shaped.

Already there is talk of a Newsweek article that talks about  how the ruler of Turkey is trying to put the screws to Trump to surrender an expatriate cleric what has been linked to the recent failed coup – he has no interest in returning as he would be either tortured and short or tortured and hanged neither prospect appeals – but the ruler of Turkey is said to be dangling approval for some Trump project in Turkey in exchange for the return of the cleric – which would be a massive violation not only of the law but the whole idea of office of president. 

We have not crossed the Rubicon – and we are still sure that it will not be crossed but the sound of that little stream is a bit louder every day so who knows.

Peace out.

 

Hoping like hell i'm wrong about this....

Watching the lurches over the last couple of weeks and putting on my paranoid hat I had this bad brown acid trip:

How World War 3 starts.

Trump is sworn in, there are ugly scenes at the event (not that this is really germane to this story but it’s part of the background)

Within a few months of this, a major terrorist attack involving multiple targets hits the United States, casualties are heavy and the Trump admins is caught flat footed.

In response the Trump Administration begins the registration of Muslims in the us (at first immigrants and the citizens) at the same time putting boots on the ground in Syria and eventually bombing Iran which ignites the middle east – Iran being a somewhat tougher nut to crack than Iraq (which was a basket case by the time we invaded)  and the bloody mess in Syria cause first mission creep then full scale US military involvement in the region on the scale of the Iraq war – And it’s a mess, there is no specific plans on ‘winning the war’ just a lot of bellowing about taking gloves off and the like.

Iran not only continues to survive under the attacks but manages to land a few blows here and matters get worse – more troops and planes

And then as the US is looking to be completely involved in the middle east – China says quietly to North Korea – do what you want – which involves an active invasion of South Korea – which the US military stretched and heavily involved in the middle east we have no reserve to send – and things get really bad fast – and then China hits Taiwan and we are forced to try and get on a real war footing only to discover that that can’t really be done today – so the Trump administration will be faced with the choice do we nuke China or not because of Taiwan and risk world war 3 – my grim guess is yes and in our case the answers to the Fermi Paradox  will be that we have done blown ourselves up before we could communicate with other civilizations.

Peace out.

Gad I hate being right - Rant 12-8-16

Well it’s been long enough since the solid stone bummer that was this election was for the Professor to at least get some of his groove back. My stress eating is no longer making me nervous and the whisky isn’t vanishing from the bottles are quite the pace it had been.  I still can’t entirely answer as to where all the gin went but we need to let that pass.

Now all of us are having to deal with the disaster in front of us, we are being told mostly by folks who really should know better that yes this was a contentious election and yes folks are upset about the result but it’s time to come together and move forward.

Right.

Last time I heard that was when W was elected and with him we got 9-11, The Iraq war, Katrina, and a global financial meltdown.

Somehow I don’t think we are going to as lucky this time.

Meantime in my own Facebook feed I am finding the silence of the folks who were fond of quoting Jerry Garcia about how the lesser of two evils is still evil. They have grown very quiet as of late as the example of what pure evil pulls into view.

It’s going to be disaster and if the republic survives its’ going to be a miracle.

And we brought it on ourselves.

Not, as a lot of the media are saying because we ignored the economic distress of the Trump voter but because of Karma –

Because Nixon didn’t end his days in prison, because they didn’t impeach Reagan for Iran Contra,  because Newt was not exiled from political life for using impeachment as means over tuning an election, because they didn’t prosecute W and company for war crimes, because nobody at wall street went to jail,  the worst in our political system became emboldened and understood there were no consequences to what they did, and ran amok.

While the idea of moving is on is noble, you do need the other side to at least admit they were wrong first otherwise you empower them, as they have done.

And now we have Trump – and even now the establishment is making dithering noises . we are doomed, war with Iran feels certain, the economy well that’s doomed as well.

I think we won’t have to worry about climate change since I don’t think we are going to survive long enough for the real effects to be felt.

We are soooo doomed.