26 II 2022: We’ll always have Moscow …

Trump is boasting that he knows Putin as well as almost anybody. Maybe he’s thinking of the happy times they had in Trump’s hotel room in Moscow. Getting physical might be a way for people who are ignorant of one another’s language and culture to get to know one another.

Trump has been cheering for Putin and denouncing Biden. So has Trump’s monkey, R. Giuliani. Mike Pompeio is mouthing the Trump line as well, as are many other Trumpublicans. Is this only a bit of routine ass kissing, or could it suggest that alliance with Putin is something to which the Trumpists aspire? The Republican right wing has more in common with an amoral authoritarian like Putin than with those Americans who are still offended by deceit, despotism, and brutal sleaze.

25 II 2022: Confluence of sewers in Orlando

I see that the OPAC meeting of aspirational oligarchs in Orlando will be featuring Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Ron De Santis. 

Cruz belongs in the Guiness Book of Records as the only man in the world whom absolutely no one is able to like. Hawley, the morbidly ambitious “country boy,” is so historically naive that he raised his fist to give a traditionally communist and anarchist salute to the Trump Militia on Jan 6. De Santis is more dangerous than dumb, because he doesn’t know how dumb he is. And a number of former MAGAs who are now Make Russia Great Again zealots will gather around the Defeated Donald, their “once and future king.”

This “unite the right” assembly will be a confluence of the sewers of American politics. Their combined gas will blow sewer lids to the sky.

24 II 2022: Maybe if we give him Poland also ….

So the Russians have invaded Ukraine. They will mop up Ukrainian defense forces in no time flat, and proceed to annex Ukraine. This is standard Russian behavior from olden times. They conquered Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and half of Poland through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They bit off a chunk of Finland. Earlier they had conquered Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

And here in the U.S., the world’s bastion against Communism, the home of “Better dead than red,” Tucker and Trump are cheering Putin on — I guess Trump regards Russia’s seizure of Ukraine as manifest destiny at work. 

We should not expect Trump and his anti-rational followers to be upset over the destruction of a democracy. They are doing their best to suppress democracy in the United States, so they can only praise someone they see “doing it right.”

So will Putin be satisfied with Ukraine. Not likely at all! Rhineland, Sudetenland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Norway did not satisfy Putin’s forebears.

23 II 2022: The Moscow — Mar-a-Lago Axis

It is not surprising that Trump and some of his hangers-on have lately expressed their admiration and sympathy for Vladimir Putin. For these quasi-treasonous pols, it has always been party over country. They are so keen to praise anyone who clashes with Biden, that if Biden launched a crack-down on child molesters, these Republicans would come to the molesters’ defense. 

And, of course, Trump and Putin are brothers in spirit, even if Trump’s admiration for Putin is alloyed with considerable envy. Hitler and Mussolini too were joined in a fervent mutual-admiration society. If only America would set a good example for the world by prosecuting and imprisoning our own Mussolini, Donald Trump.

17 II 2022: WW II reruns

The Gleiwitz Incident was one of a series of attacks on German installations by Nazi operatives in Polish uniforms. These phony aggressions were alleged by the Nazis, along with whatever other grievances they could dream up, to “justify” their invasion of Poland. Polish plans to mobilize and prepare for the coming German invasion were blocked repeatedly by their loyal allies, Britain and France, who wanted to leave openings for “negotiation.” As a result, when the invasion came, Poland was able to mobilize effectively only 70% of its military.

Tsar Vladimir I Putin needs a war to prop up his wobbling tyranny and he wants to annex Ukraine, just as he annexed earlier a part of Ukraine, Crimea. He has mobilized his troops, put them in positions surrounding Ukraine, and, with plenty of his operatives already positioned in Ukraine, is only waiting for a phony casus belli that needn’t even seem plausible. And what are Ukraine’s allies doing while this is going on? They are, like Britain and France long ago, making token gestures and calling for “negotiations.”

We are assembling the sets and costumes, and writing the script for WW II re-runs, starring Putin as Hitler, Ukraine as Poland, and the U.S. and E.U. as Neville Chamberlain & Co.

7 II 2020: Bi-partisan support?   Book burning in TN!   Need a new definition of freedom.

Bi-partisan support? Senator Murkowski has expressed a hope that the President will nominate for the Supreme Court someone who will gain “a level of bipartisan support.” I don’t know what bipartisan support the Senator could have mind. “Bipartisan support” is now as passé as “honesty,” “truthfulness,” and the “common good.” Every day the Republicans in Congress make it clear that they have no interest in any bipartisan cooperation. The very concept of “bipartisan” is heretical, both in the Trump-toadying Republican establishment and among the berserk MAGA rank and file. They remind me of the Nazis who refused to cooperate with other political parties because they were waiting for the day when they could seize the government for themselves. 

Book burning in TN! I read about Pastor Greg Locke and his Global Vision Bible Church in Juliet TN. Pastor Locke and his church have taken to burning books that are Satanic, Masonic, or whatever they like. The Pastor and his zealots are fanatically devoted to the idea of Biblical Inerrancy, and so books that in any way disagree with “The Book” or question its utter inerrancy have to go. I’m reminded of a tale told about another zealot, the Caliph who conquered Alexandria. This Caliph ordered the destruction of the books in the great Library of Alexandria because any book that disagrees with the Quran is impious and any book that agrees with the Quran is superfluous.

Need a new definition of freedom.America has a knack of exporting all that is worst in its culture. So I’m not surprised to learn that the ranks of the Canadian truckers who are demonstrating (rioting) against COVID restrictions have been swollen by “freedom-loving” Americans from over the border. When I saw photographs of these demonstrators, I was struck, though not surprised, by how closely they resemble in costume and demeanor the seditious mob of Jan 6. Both crowds were motivated by a monstrous resentment and a desire to “protect” their “right” to an infantile idea of freedom.

25 I 2022: And, of course, Newt again …

These troubled times have evoked another epiphany of the hypocritical, much-married, parasite on American politics, Newt Gingrich. He is not content to spend time doing penance for the great harm he has caused, although he converted to Catholicism, the religion of his third wife. Rather, he welcomes the opportunity to support his fellow fascists in his own nasty, bigoted way, like a Steve Bannon with a shave.

Gingrich was a pioneer in the New Shamelessness movement in American politics, and even after a discreditable, fly-by-night withdrawal from public office in 1999, he keeps bubbling up when troubled times provide an opportunity. Discredited right-wing politicians-turned-pundit are constantly feeding quietly on the periphery of public life, but they find a voice when they are trotted out by fascist propaganda networks in need of a talking head.  

Gingrich has been a malevolent presence in politics through all of his careers, and, I suppose, will continue to be with us until someone drives a stake through his heart.

18 I 2022: Fake electors

We’ve grown so accustomed to MAGA’s endless lies that we tend to assume that Trump & Co. are lying, and then blow it off. This is rather like the “big lie” approach, i.e., keep repeating it and people will come to accept it. So, lie and keep on lying, and, in our corrupted society, people will accept it as a matter of course and not bother to contradict the lies or prosecute the liars.

Now we learn of certificates signed and submitted by Trumpists in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and New Mexico whereby these liars claim to be the authentic presidential electors from their states. This is not a shenanigan, it is not just another “dirty trick.” Several federal and state laws have been broken. And this is no rumor. We have unambiguous evidence in the pseudo-electors signatures on these documents.

Now, is American democracy going to let this go with a “Tsk, tsk. You know, you really mustn’t do this sort of thing.” Or will we defend our democracy by prosecuting these seditionists at every level appropriate with a view to maximum sentences.

The Dept. of Justice has taken the easy path of prosecuting the small-fry of the Coup of January 6th. That is easier than going after the big bugs, because we have photographic proof of the rioters’ crimes. Well, prosecuting this latest crop of seditionist should be easy as well, for we have graphic proof.

I’m sure any number of the liars who signed their names on these fraudulent documents will turn out to be persons who are assumed to be upstanding citizens, pillars of the church, prosperous businessmen, etc., in their hometowns. This makes prosecution of these criminals even more important. This kind of seditious fraud is a white-collar crime, and prosecution of the criminals will probably be unpopular in their communities. But this is all the more reason for the Dept. of Justice and states’ attorneys general to act quickly, decisively, and ruthlessly.

14 I 2022: Six horses of the Apocalypse

The Supreme Court has made its latest contribution to the reactionary war to block change and eliminate the due protection of the people by the Federal Government. The six reactionary justices blocked the COVID mandate for large businesses. Who will suffer for this? Not the justices, I’m sure. Not the wealthy whom they serve. No, no. Ordinary people who will not be protected at work and all the other people with whom they live and come into contact.

In the Apocalypse, there are Four Horsemen that bring woe and death upon the earth. I might call the reactionary justices the Six Horsemen, but I think the Six Horses is a better fit, for they are only doing what the reactionaries who ride them want to be done.

I will not, cannot conceal my disgust. It is said that this is part of a program of the reactionary justices to reduce the Federal Government’s role in the lives of citizens. No, it’s a program to deprive the people of the protection of the Federal Government. Corruption is rife in Republican state legislatures, the Republicans in Congress are united in rejecting anything that might benefit the American people. Who will contain the voracity of big money?

This reactionary court, along with the Republican Party that created it, will continue to oppress us and will destroy the United States. Nor do they care, so long as power remains in the hands of those who hold it now.

4 I 2022: “What does Margorie Taylor Green do all day?”

This is the title of an analysis piece by Chris Cilizza today on CNN. Mr. Cilizza’s view of M.T.G. is 

“Greene is a new breed of Republican Members of Congress. She uses her platform not to legislate or move up the ranks of seniority or even to befriend colleagues but rather to build her brand. And that brand is as an unrepentant defender of former President Donald Trump and his “America First” policies.”

I would say more. Green is one of a coterie of Republicans in Congress who will do anything to keep themselves before the public eye. They cannot achieve this by being good legislators, so they must resort to other ways of attracting attention. They remind me of bad little boys competing to see who can perform the grossest act, like pissing the farthest, farting the loudest, belching on cue, pooping on neighbors’ porches, and so on. 

But these “bad little boys” are not going to grow up, and it is up to the Republican adults in Congress to discipline and restrain them. But those adults are inhibited by their own slavish behavior and their acquiescence in the Big Lie, and so they are not in a position to tell anyone how to behave.