6 IIII 2022: Shameless lies

Report on Huffpost begins

Tom Cotton Says Ketanji Brown Jackson Would Have Defended Nazis at Nuremberg.

What a dimbulb is this sleazy Trumpite Tom Cotton. It is bad enough that he is not ashamed to dabble in smear tactics, but perhaps quite fitting that in the course of smearing another, he displays his own shamelessness and foolishness.

Another headline on Huffpost

Russian Media Campaign Falsely Claims Bucha Deaths Are Fakes

Others too must have been struck by the similarity of Russian use of disinformation and out-and-out lies to the use made of them by Donald Trump and the Trumpist Republicans. “Bucha deaths are fakes” and “Trump won the 2020 election.” Both conscious lies, equally shameless. The Russians might be considered to have pioneered Trump embrace of untruth. Lie, lie, and if you get caught, keep telling the lie.

3 IIII 2022: Russian foreign policy

Shameless deceit, intimidation, vandalism, plunder, slaughter and genocide are not new instruments of Russian foreign policy, rather, they are constants in Russian imperial history, in the czarist empire, communist empire, and oligarchic empire, so much so that one has to ask whether Russia can ever behave otherwise. The recent suppression of Chechnya, invasion of Georgia, and invasion of Ukraine have shown that the Russian Confederation aims to be in fact a revived Russian Empire with its old Cold War borders. 

So, after Ukraine, Putin will go after Moldova, and then parts of Rumania, half of Poland (at least), Hungary (he’s already got it), Finland, the Caucasus nations, and central Asia and will then try to turn any adjacent nations that remain independent into “imperial spheres of influence.” Putin’s program is to bring back the Iron Curtain.

I cannot imagine what could curb Russian rapacity. But we must thwart its aggression with every kind of resource we can bring to bear. China is little better than Russia, and is waiting to see how much Putin can get away with. If we fail now, most of the world will be made up of authoritarian slave states.

Anyone who in any way supports Russia now, even by keeping silent, is complicit in Putin’s drive for a new world of slavery and is a traitor to the United States and to humanity.

27 III 2022: Do you think Ginni didn’t talk it over with Clarence?

Ten years ago, there would have been a broad consensus that Ginni Thomas is crazy. In these times you must do and say things far more bizarre and ridiculous than her emails to be considered insane. But even so, either she is play-acting or she’s a genuine nut-case, and all other indications suggest that she’s a nut, perhaps the Martha Mitchell of our era. 

Is Justice Thomas likely to have been unaffected by her frenzy? How could he not have been affected. So did Justice Thomas have a secret agenda during the recent events before the Court? Has he had a secret agenda as he sat on the Court in silence for years and years? These questions must be answered, or the politicization of the Court will be proven.

24 III 2022: Smell of senate grease paint

I’ve read in a poorly written report about the Senate hearings on the appointment of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court the following: “Cruz at one point held up the book in question as a kind of vulgar prop (while sitting in front of an enlarged reproduction of one of its pages) — essentially ending the GOP’s promise that Jackson’s confirmation hearings would not devolve into some kind of circus.”

I’ve several comments.

1) Using the term “vulgar” apropos of Ted Cruz is redundant.

2) The expression “GOP’s promise” is a contradiction in terms.

3) That the hearings “would not devolve into some kind of circus” was an impossibility, because the suppurating ambition of Cotton, Cruz, and Hawley, and the presence of Graham, “la Pasionaria” of the GOP, made it inevitable that the hearings would become a four-ring circus.

23 III 2022: Republican contenders at Jackson hearing

I’ve seen a comment that four contenders for the Republican nomination in the next presidential campaign have been using the hearings about Judge Jackson’s appointment as an opportunity to “show off” for potential voters. These are Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Josh Hawley, and Tom Cotton, and they are all, each in his own way, trying to sell themselves to the old folks at home.

Cruz pontificated about teaching students about racism. I’m sure he knows plenty about racism, but not as much about teaching.

Sasse did not fit very well into this group because he did not make an ass of himself.

How did that tediously family-fixated man Josh Hawley come to know so very much about pornography??? I don’t suppose he watches the films he denounces.

Cotton is quoted as saying: “I’m looking for a justice that would uphold the Constitution, not use it to invent new so-called rights. I’m looking for a justice who understands the Constitution means what it says and does not mean what it doesn’t say.” I don’t think “the Constitution means what it says and does not mean what it doesn’t say” would get anyone very far in law school. Does “new so-called rights “maybe mean “gun rights”?

Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton were playing the same old right-wing tunes. Tough on Crime! Right.

If his performance at this hearing provides any indication, Sen. Sasse hasn’t a hope of the Republican nomination. Sasse seems too reflective and polite to compete against these three snake-oil selling demagogues.

21 III 2022: Republican world of anti-truth

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have begun their assaults on Ketanju Brown Jackson. Judge Jackson seems to be remarkably popular, approved by left, center, and right in the judicial world. But she is Biden’s nominee, so Republicans attack her compulsively. Word is, they’re going to try to portray her as “soft on crime.” The Republicans know about this sort of thing, for they gave new meaning to “soft on crime” by their support for our archcriminal ex-president. 

Missouri’s motor-mouth junior Senator started bad-mouthing Judge Jackson, encouraged by the oily Lindsey Graham. I’ve said before that Hawley ought to think before he speaks, but Sen. Graham is the last person to go to for clear thinking. Hawley started throwing around lies about Judge Jackson’s record and was immediately shut down by, of course, fact-checkers.

Speaking of Missouri, our disgraced ex-governor Eric Greitens decided that he was not disgraced so much that he could not enter our senate race as a Republican candidate. He was probably right about that, for Republicans, especially Missouri Republicans, are accustomed to living with a lot of disgrace. But now his ex-wife has alleged in legal documents that he abused her and their children. Even Republicans are wary of this, so there have been lots of invitations for Mr. Greitens to drop out of the race lest a Democrat win the senate seat. But from the asylum of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program, Greitens claims that his ex-wife was in a conspiracy with RINO Republicans to smear him. The show goes on.

20 III 2022: What the hell?!?

1) In today’s headlines:

“Gunman opens fire, wounds 3 at Texas spring break beach destination.”

“Four people were shot and wounded in downtown Austin, Texas, early Sunday as the city hosts the annual South by Southwest festival ….”

I do not mean to pick on Texas, but another headline reads:

“Texas mass shootings jump 65% this year as violence continues.”

The “right to bear arms” has turned our Country into a slaughter-pen. Not only are criminals and virtual criminals armed to the teeth, but all sorts of mentally and emotionally unstable people can buy or easily get their hands on guns. 

Is America ridiculous or pathetic?

2) Who, I wonder, is Kanye West? And what do people find interesting in a low-life like him? He is all over the online news today because of his running quarrels with various people that seem to arise from his treatment of his ex, Kim Kardashian. Poor Kim! I guess the old “Lie down with a dog, get up with a flea” applies. But why clutter up the media with this sordid and silly business? Oh, this is what people find interesting. 

Is America ridiculous or pathetic?

18 III 2022: More similarities between Putin and Trump

CNN is running a story from Erin Burnett Out Front that bears the headline “’Complete lack of normal human morals’: Oligarch’s ex-partner on life around Putin.” “Complete lack of normal human values.” Isn’t “amoral” a way in which former President Donald Trump has often been described?

Another piece in CNN has the headline; “Putin celebrates anniversary of Crimea annexation at stadium rally.” Hmm? Don’t we also have a politician who uses Nuremberg-like rallies to prop himself up?

This article reports that Putin told his crowd, people who are informed only by right-wing propaganda: “To spare people from this suffering, from this genocide — this is the main reason, motive and purpose of the military operation that we launched in the Donbas and Ukraine.” And don’t we have a politician who tells similarly outrageous lies to his base that knows only right-wing propaganda, a politician who routinely accuses others of the very thing he is doing himself?

Trump found a lot more to like in Putin than just his good looks.

14 III 2020: Comrade Carlson; Barbarism is barbarism

Tucker Carlson, who might as well be a mole planted by the KGB, is the darling of Russian propaganda. Why doesn’t Tucker cease his treason and emigrate to the Russian Confederacy, a country he loves and where he is so highly regarded?

In Saudi Arabia, the government executed 81 people in one day. In Ethiopia, soldiers have been photographed burning civilians alive. In Ukraine, Russian barbarism seems more mild, but differs from these only in degree.

13 III 2022: Vat you mean “war crime”?!

The accusations of war crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine must cause a lot of confusion in the Russian military and in the upper strata of Putin’s wannabe empire. These Russians, you see, have no concept of “war crime.” They make no distinction between military and civilian, between military targets and everyone and everything as a target, between tactical strikes and mass murder.