Just pointing out yet another pundit, Juanita Tolliver, taking the opportunity on Ari Melber to diss Bernie Sanders tonight.  When asked about the incredible amount of money Sanders raised in the first few hours of his candidacy, Tolliver remarked that he’s been building “that email list” over several candidacies and she’d be surprised if he didn’t raise that much money.  So, according to Tolliver, let’s write off Sanders’ fund raising abilities and obvious popularity.  And, according to Tolliver, the voters see other candidates who “look like them” they would rather vote for.  This, of course, completely ignores any of Sanders’ policies – just advocates voting for people who look like you.  I would like to point out that Maggie Thatcher looks like me in a sense and I’d rather eat my left arm off than vote for her.  Second, Tolliver, hastened to point out that Bernie Sanders somehow insulted Stacey Abrams by giving a response to the State of the Union address, something he has done for years.  I’m tired of this folks.

I’m tired of folks complaining that Sanders isn’t a Democrat.  You should be kissing Sanders’ ass that he’s running as a Democrat and not an independent.  And, if it weren’t for Bernie Sanders, the Democrats would still be telling us that they had to accept corporate money to win.  I’ll say it again, the Democrats should be kissing Sanders’ ass instead of taking every opportunity to ridicule and dismiss him.

I have to hand it to Ed Rendell, on Ari Melber, for refusing to go along with the crowd and refusing to talk about Sanders with contempt.  When Rendell pointed out that Sanders was making a point that people shouldn’t discriminate against other people because of their age, Tolliver scoffed and smirked on a split screen.  When Ari Melber asked if Sanders’ shouldn’t be credited with moving the party to the left, Tolliver did the same thing.  This makes me really mad.

You know, people wonder why Sanders’ supporters had a hard time swallowing their bile and voting for Hillary Clinton.  This is why.  The smirking, condescending, ridiculing is just so reprehensible.

 

I

  The more the Corporate News Media descends into triviality, the more essential Podcasts become.  This one, Unpresidented, is one I hadn’t listened to before even though I was subscribed to it for a long time.  This interview with Garrett Graff attracted my attention and I may well have to go to Patreon.com and subscribe.  You can get the full hour-long interview for a $5 monthly subscription.

Graff wrote a biography of Mueller, “The Threat Matrix” in 2011.  And, he is described as an expert on the Trump/Russia relationship.  In the first 15 minutes of the interview, I found several of his observations to be noteworthy. 

• Graff maintains that the initial counter intelligence investigation started by the FBI was to protect the Trump campaign.  Graff says that when it was observed that there were all these Russians trying to weasel themselves into contact with the campaign, the FBI started both warning the Trump people and watching more closely.  The real panic set in when they discovered that not only did the Trump people not pick up the telephone and notify the FBI when Russians contacted them, the Trump people made it clear to the Russians that they were “open for business.”
• This is somewhat different from what I had understood before.  I thought that it was the suspicious behavior of Trump and the people around him that triggered the investigation.
• The most interesting statement, however, by Graff was at the end of the interview.  The interviewer asks him if he thinks that justice will ever be done.  Graff says: “over some period of time, yes.  And, then he adds:
• “…ultimately the question here doesn’t need to be is justice done, the question is can the United States move forward?  Can we rebuild our democracy and rebuild some of the foundations of some of these institutions after the damage that Trump has done to them…There may very well end up being some compromises along the way to ensure that America’s able to move forward at the end of this, short of sending everyone to jail.” 

Now, I think that UNLESS everybody guilty in this scenario goes to jail, the country can’t move forward at least not in a way that will be an improvement.  If this is swept under the rug in the name of “moving forward,” or if we have people in the Congress and the government deciding that the American people can’t take the truth (as they evidently did in the Iran/Contra affair), we will never be able to move forward in a meaningful way.

I have been listening to pundits for months laying the groundwork for a less than satisfying resolution to this whole Trump/Russia affair.  It makes me furious.  We have an elite class in this country that is all but above consequences for illegal and immoral behavior now.  If white collar and corporate crime were actually prosecuted the way they should be, we wouldn’t even have to be dealing with people like the Trump family, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.  They would already be in jail.  If we let this slide, let these people get away with subverting what democracy we have in this country, we will not have it much longer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shermichael Singleton – Vox

Just adding another name to the list of journalists (this one a Republican) who are on national television arguing that the Democrats should nominate a candidate that will please disaffected Republicans.

This phenomenon reminds me of an incident that occurred years ago when I was traveling across the country with my late husband. We had stopped on a freezing cold and very wet morning at a filling station in the middle of nowhere.  I was sitting in the car waiting for my husband and noticed a young man weaving back and forth trying to dial a number on the outdoor pay telephone (yes, this was before cell phones).  He was obviously drunk.  He had obviously been drunk for a substantial length of time.  His clothes were filthy and looked like he had slept in them for three days and I could see what looked like a stain of vomit running down the front of his shirt.  He kept wiping his nose with the back of his hand.  He stood there, holding the phone, weaving for a few seconds and then he screamed so loud I could hear him though the closed windows of our car: “You neeeeeeeeeed me.”  He then took the receiver and pounded it on the telephone box until he smashed it to pieces.  I could only imagine some woman on the other end of the line  saying to herself: “Like a fucking hole in the head.”

That’s just about how I feel about all these lapsed Republicans who now feel that the Democratic Party owes them a candidate suitable to their discerning tastes.  These guys spent decades laying the groundwork for Trump – stoking racism and homophobia and sexism, legitimating every obstructionist Congressional move in the book  – like denying Obama a Supreme Court Justice and passing tax laws designed to gut the ACA.  They turned lying into a party practice, and supported propaganda television news on Fox TV.  Now, after doing all that and ushering Donald Trump into the Oval Office and putting him in control of the nuclear codes, they think we need to find a candidate they can approve.  Well, I don’t think so.

They ruined their own party (not that I’m mourning that fact) and now they think they should be given veto privileges over ours.

Make no mistake about it – most of these Republicans who are now the darling of CNN and especially MSNBC support most of the policies of Trump, et. al., they just don’t like the manners.  If you put another rabidly right wing white man in office who didn’t tweet and wasn’t quite such a moron, they would all be into it like a rat up a drainpipe.

It was interesting to see Steve Schmidt who for all intents and purposes was morally outraged by Trump and everything he stood for, defect to the rich Coffee Man as soon as he announced his candidacy.  And, the Starbuck’s oligarch recently announced that he will get out of the race if the Democrats nominate someone in the center – read a corporate Democrat who knows how to play the game and who won’t make waves by trying to bring about fundamental change.

 

 

 

 

Why we can’t get the rich to pay taxes – The Republicans

If you haven’t listened to the podcast “Why Is This Happening” by Chris Hayes, you should.  This episode on the wealthy and taxes is fascinating and infuriating.  If you wondered why people like Paul Manafort were able to flagrantly avoid paying taxes on millions, this podcast helps explain.

Hayes interviews Jesse Eisinger, author of The Chickenshit Club, about changes in enforcement in the IRS especially in the last 10 years.  Briefly, the Republicans conducted an all out assault on the budget and the enforcement abilities of the IRS along with a public smear campaign.  The result is that IRS enforcement and audits are done much less on wealthy people and more on the working poor.  Audits on corporations and wealthy people are complicated and take much more resources than audits on those making around $20,000 a year.

We have to ask ourselves some serious questions when we consider the proposals popular among the Democratic candidates to more fairly tax the wealthy.  Taxing them will solve nothing if we can’t enforce the law.

 

  This is Ayanna Pressley the first black Congresswoman from Massachusetts.  Have you ever heard her speak?  This is one of the women who (according to Mika Brzezinski) need to take advice from their elders (read from the dreadful and opportunistic Mika).  On Friday, the panel of Morning Joe had a little hair-in-fire segment about the “socialists” in the Democratic Party, and the young women who needed to listen to their more experienced elders (who have done so much for us).

This from people (Joe and the horrid Mika) who gave Donald Trump millions of dollars of free air time during the election, people who asked Trump’s permission to confront him with certain questions, were celebrating at Mara-Lago with Trump after the election, who broke with Trump only because he threatened them.

But, the Democrats need advice from Joe about who to nominate, and these young whipperty-snapperty women need the pathetic Mika’s advice.

Just to remind you, Donnie Deutch called AOC “dangerous” Friday morning.  And, Joe was on Twitter last night trying to say that he didn’t say the things he said about the freshman women.  I am so sick of these people.

In case you didn’t notice, last night the disgusting Matt Schlapp issued a tweet glorying in the fact that Trump finally had his own Attorney General and that Barr was going to get rid of Mueller soon.  Anybody who sat on television and argued that Barr was a principled person and that he would do the right thing is a fool, and blind.  Guys, these institutions are not going to save us.  Barr was behind the pardoning of 7 people after the Iran /Contra scandal.  You think he’s not going to do that here?  Watch this space.

And yes, I’m still cranky.  My hair has been on fire for over two years and my scalp is beginning to burn.

 

 

 

 

 

All in one morning, one morning…

…the entire panel of Morning Joe (or as some of us like to call it, Morning Misogyny) sets it’s collective hair on fire about AOC and the “socialists” in the Democratic Party.  Even Donnie Deutsch, a normally decent sort of person, declares AOC to be “dangerous.”   This is all because she successfully opposed another one of these massive state giveaways to a corporation, Amazon.  Mika, one of the people I would least like to spend 15 seconds with, announces that she has a new book (I can hardly breathe) and that these new young smartsy women (like AOC) (who she doesn’t want to criticize least they not snap up her book) need to listen to their elders (read Mika, the “display your worth on national television as nothing” queen).

…Trump announces a National Emergency that doesn’t exist and the tame, cowardly press corps asks questions like this is a normal presidency and a normal thing to do.

…in the coverage after the announcement, Hallie Jackson makes a joke (I’m still laughing) that the Democrats have been burning up the phone lines complaining about the abuse of power by the President.  This is part of the “it’s another childish food fight between those silly Republicans and Democrats” attitude that’s going to bury us in authoritarianism before most people realize what’s happened.

…Kristen Welker gives a ton of air time to this horrid Michael Steel who used to work for the Boner.  And he finishes up his rant by saying: We now have a clear divide in the Democratic field right now – “between the people who want to run as people who can govern…and find common ground, …and the people who want to run on burning everything down, tearing down everything the president is associated with and energizing that base and their white hot hatred of the president.”

Make no mistake about it, the corporate press is going to usher us into another term for Trump.  They minimize, trivialize, give ideological space to crazy people in the name of being “objective” and turn themselves inside out trying to deny what is happening before our very eyes.

This didn’t happen today, but yesterday, Nicolle Wallace, with a straight face (although she us usually laughing with delight) tells a guest something like: Manafort has lied all his life, his career was lying, so why did they bring him on board in the administration?  Now, I ask you, what kind of imbecile asks such a question?  THEY BROUGHT HIM ON BOARD BECAUSE HE IS A LIAR AND HAS A PROFESSIONAL CAREER AS A LIAR.  THEY ARE ALL LIARS.  Why not just say that.  It’s staring you in the face, although you might not see it in the glare of your teeth smiling and making jokes about the situation.

I know.  I know.  I’m crabby, but authoritarianism makes me a little bit out of sorts.  I can’t help it.

 

 

 

This morning on Morning Joe, the entire panel expressed terror that progressives, “socialists” and AOC were going to be to blame for getting Trump re-elected.  This is from people who gave Trump billions of dollars of free air time in 2015 and 2016.  Uniformly, they condemned AOC and others for ruining Amazon’s sweetheart deal with New York.  This article will give you another view, one that evidently you are not likely to see on the corporate controlled media.

 

Someone leaked Trump’s work schedule. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.

“Multiple intelligence officers” told Time Magazine that when Trump is briefed with intelligence, he displays “willful ignorance” and even though they try to hold his attention with “visual aids,” try to confine briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeat his name and title as frequently as possible, he still goes into a rage if presented with anything that disagrees with his public comments.  http://time.com/5518947/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-national-security/

Mueller isn’t going to save us. Barr has already set the stage in his testimony before Congress to bury the “report.”

Congress continues to refuse to do its job and begin impeachment proceedings.  Congress does not have to wait for the Mueller report, which may well not be released and even if released may well not produce the “smoking gun” people expect.

Remember Iran/Contra, especially since some of the players in Iran/Contra are already on board. (Robert MacFarlane, Elliott Abrams)

 

 

 

• “We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”– Report to SCLC Staff, May 1967.
• “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.” –Speech to SCLC  Board, March 30, 1967.

 

  This morning, Walter Shaub expressed some of the disgust I am feeling over the Barr confirmation hearing and the media coverage of the hearing.  First of all, the performance of the Democrats, their utter failure to confront Barr with his unsuitability for the position of Attorney General, left me little hope that there will ever be a just response to the crimes of  the Trump Administration.

The appointment of Barr will be a disaster for the country and spells the end of any attempt to bring justice to the people occupying and colluding with the White House.  But, there was no moral outrage from the Democrats, no attempt to educate the public about the importance of the Attorney General’s position with regard to the Mueller case.  The Democrats behaved like this was just business as usual, joking with Barr, making (what they believed were) cute little asides about his family and his grandson.  It was revolting.  Democracy, what little we have left, is at stake and they make jokes.

Second, Barr’s shameless auditioning for the position in a memo advertising his contempt for the Mueller probe, should have disqualified him.  Every Democrat on that committee should have set their hair on fire protesting this confirmation and telling the American public why.  Instead, they asked questions about immigration and drug sentencing as if this were a legitimate nominee.

Third, the media went on and on and on and on about what Barr said in the confirmation hearing.  What universe are they living in that they think what Barr said makes one goddamn bit of difference in terms of what he will do.  These people will do anything to get and stay in power, anything.  Anybody who believes that they can be taken at their word, or held to their positions is a baby.

William Barr was nominated for the position of Attorney General because he had already signaled to Trump that he would protect him and subvert any attempt to bring this loathsome administration to justice.  William Barr was nominated because of his reactionary legal opinions about the unitary executive and the fact that he supported the pardon of seven of the people implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal.  He has already demonstrated himself to be complicit in absolving those in power for their criminality.

This is a quote from Morning Edition (Johnson, Carrie, 1/14/19, William Barr supported pardons in an earlier “Witch Hunt’” Iran/Contra.  Morning Edition)

“Then-Attorney General Barr supported the president’s (HWBush’s) decision (to issue pardons) in the Iran-Contra case, which gave clemency to people who had been officials in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He had been set to go on trial to face charges about lying to Congress.

To the man who led the Iran-Contra investigation, however, the pardons represented a miscarriage of justice.

“It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences,” said Lawrence Walsh, the independent prosecutor in the case, at the time of the pardons.

Barr said later that he believed Bush had made the right decision and that he felt people in the case had been treated unfairly.

Reporting in the New York Times today:

• John Bolton requested military options to strike Iran from the Pentagon last year. This is at a time when the President needs a distraction from his growing problems with the Mueller investigation and leaks that he was 1) being investigated early on in the administration over ties to Russia, and 2) destroyed the translator notes from the private meeting with Putin in Helsinki.  Bolton’s request reportedly “alarmed” Mattis.  Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should read  “Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone”  https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Life-Emerald-City-Inside/dp/0307278832.    One of the most disturbing thing about this article is the reporting that Bolton has virtually eliminated “the internal policy debates that could air high-level disagreements.”  Bolton wants only his arguments before Trump, and Bolton wants a war.
• The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, went to Turkey last week and asked Erdogan for an agreement that Turkey would not attack the Kurds if the U.S. withdrew from Syria. Erdogan refused to even see Pompeo and ridiculed the proposition.
• Schumer (I don’t know how) is supposed to force some kind of vote on the lifting of the Deripaska sanctions in exchange for Deripaska relinquishing some shares of his companies.
• Trump is openly threatening Michael Cohen’s father-in-law with government investigation.  Intimidating a witness is a felony.
• The VA is planning to shift “billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers.” The Koch brothers have long funded efforts to privatize veteran’s health care.  I don’t think the Koch brothers have any humanitarian interest in veterans.
• Within hours of being elected, California’s new governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order proposing a plan which would allow California to negotiate with drug manufacturers.
• Confirmation hearings for William Barr will begin tomorrow. Barr has a long history of “advancing an aggressive, expansive conception of presidential power.”   Barr has also advertised his opinion that Trump virtually cannot obstruct justice and certainly did not do so when he fired Jim Comey.   The question here is whether Democrats can muster the cajones to ask Barr the tough questions that are necessary.
• Barr needs to recuse himself. Whitaker needs to recuse himself.  So the question is who will make him?  Whitaker has just refused to recuse himself and ignore demands that he do so.
• Barr recommended that HW Bush pardon Reagan administration officials convicted in or implicated in the Iran/Contra scandal. Bush did so.
• A lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel resigned last week because she could no longer give cover to the President’s behavior.

I still don’t understand why Rod Rosenstein is quitting.  I still don’t understand why he wrote the letter used to fire Comey.

These are conversations that you won’t hear any where else.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gaslit-nation-with-andrea-chalupa-and-sarah-kendzior/id1400926647?mt=2

 

https://thecorrespondent.com/7106/how-trump-fulfilled-a-30-year-fantasy-of-becoming-president-with-a-little-help-from-the-kremlin/2009932931402-52e375f5

 

 

 

 

• Reporting that Turkey is massing troops to wipe out the Kurds.
• The new Secretary of Defense chosen by Trump. He has no military or political experience.  He worked for Boeing one of the two most important military contractors.  Who’s draining the swamp?
• Jane Mayer’s book “Strange Justice” about Clarence Thomas. What a piece of scum this man is.  People who wanted to lament the demise of George H.W. Bush should remember that Bush gave us not only Willie Horton, but Clarence Thomas.
• Arm sales and military support to Saudi Arabia to continue the war in Yemen.
• The lax enforcement of laws against white collar crime. This weak enforcement has given us Trump, Manafort, Cohen, Wilbur Ross, Epstein and a host of others.  If these laws were enforced, these guys would be in jail.
• In a related thought, the Justice Department’s decisions to settle a number of cases involving big pharma over pushing opioids. In the NYT, Barry Meier (12/26/18) reports the difficulty holding big Pharma accountable.
• “A Gutted I.R.S. makes the Rich Richer,” article about lack of enforcement by the IRS on big violators.