Lightning Round: No Mueller High Life

So this is something I'm calling a lightning round (patent pending), just a quick reaction to a weird day.  There was always some hope among many that Mueller was there to save the nation.  It seemed so perfect, Vietnam war hero, member of the power elite, incorruptible and Republican saving the Republic from Trumpism and disaster.  Alas, fairy tales are just that, there is no simple Cincinnattus putting down the plow and coming to the rescue.  In fact, Mueller's team did exactly what it was supposed to do, conducted an investigation and presented the facts. Did he goes as far as many hoped, no.  But he left more than enough for a normal Congress to work with, where an impeachment investigation could dig up even more information and frankly does not have the same high standards of a federal court and judge. (see Clinton later 1990s)

The scariest thing that happened is not that this nation of rubes elected a narcissistic, criminal, sociopath.  The founding fathers knew this was going to happen.  They came from a world of multi-generational syphilitic monarchs who would periodically run nations into the ground or a virtual buzzsaw. They knew they needed a remedy against the mobs, a somewhat anti-democratic (but republican) concept to paradoxically protect democracy itself.  But they could not have predicted the clown car that political parties have become. (actually Washington, Hamilton and Madison all warned of factionalism) The real scary thing that happened is that despite the protections the founding fathers framed in the Constitution, knowing exactly that this type of Presidency would exist, never expected the the electoral college and impeachment (including senate trial) could fail so miserably, being unable to predict that they would be overridden by a feckless gang of party first, nation if it is convenient Republicans.  

All the information is out there and Americans have dug in on what side they are on with the issue of conspiracy with a foreign power (or at least not preventing it )and more so the more openly obvious obstruction. In the Mueller report, the most important thing was the Russian involvement, he was clear about that. The collusion/conspiracy piece was always going to be difficult to prove, particularly when the real intelligence and counter intelligence material could never be used in open court.  (history in years will really illuminate the truth)  There is of course a preponderance of evidence that all these motherfuckas engaged the Kremlin to win the election put complete beyond a reasonable doubt proof, well let's say they got people that are good at avoiding that.

The only real new thing coming out of the Mueller testimony today will be how the GOP toadies would embarrass themselves as Americans. Representative Nunes, a nation turned its lonely eyes to you. There were many willing accomplices, the expected Louis "goo goo eyes" Gohmert (R-InfoWars) and Matt "I'll drive" Gaetz (R-Floridaman)  with their usual moronic insight into situations, who somehow can wake up in the morning and raise enough money from imbeciles to fuel their quixotic efforts towards peak idiocy.  Old Texas Louis capped off his piece by introducing his own "Mueller Unmasked" screed into the Congressional Record.  It wasn't just the usual rubemagnets,  nearly every Republican who were obviously working hand in hand with the White House fell over themselves to protect the President, trying to deflect to the usual bogeymen of Clinton and Obama, re-repeating Fox and Friends and Gateway Pundit conspiracy theories to you start to really second guess your own sanity.  Many were light weighted attacks on Mueller's character, using what was not an oscar worthy performance on the part of the Director against him. We've got to a point where everything needs to be a show and it is all in support of their leader, the greatest showman.  Years of service, knowledge, experience and patriotism  don't matter.  A man trying to protect his country, long after he should have been comfortably retired belittled by a bunch of well dressed thugs.  The constant bringing up of questions that he could not answer, due to intelligence reasons, (as well as executive privilege, which is somewhat ironic), was designed to make the case look weaker while really making this nation weaker.  Among the craziness (and I only got a chance to listen to a bit while I was in traffic) was a conversation about the word "exonerate" not being an appropriate word in a legal construct.  Nearly every bit of what the GOP was selling where it wasn't designed to deflect was a lawyer's dodge.  

At some point for the good of the Republic, our leaders need to put country ahead of party and ahead of the monarch.  No amount of tax cuts, deregulation and right wing judges can balance out the hole that is being dug.  If not it is implicit to us as citizens to change our leaders.  Difficult to do in a country that is so divided.

Our President, the Fucking Racist

my first rally in a long time after Parkland with my girls

It's been a long time.  Over 4 years to be more precise, since I've written here, I'm considering for my my long form stream of conciousness entries to move here from Facebook.  Mostly because that's what I used to do.  I used to consider social media as more of a here's my BBQ and garden, stuff I did with my family and stupid shit I did with Clubba but as the political became personal after November 2016, the idea of politics and more importantly the policies that were fucking up America, I tried to put everything on blast.

Well, that and having a stroke in September 2016 and really focusing on writing about that, which was super important to me in recovery.  I started writing here over 10 years ago during the run up to the 2008 election, when that went well like most of this on this side of sanity, we took an Obama breath, we all got fucking lazy, let Barry fight the republicans and went on our merry way.  Then the insanity came on.  I'll see how this goes, I probably won't add as many pictures or anything and I'm not as clever or patient or funny as I used to be about things, but I'll give it a shot.  I'm going to get a lot wrong, this is not researched news, this is opinion.  If I get some fact wrong, call it out.

The idea behind the angry middle http://theangrymiddle.blogspot.com/2005/ was 14 years ago when I really realized that no political extreme spoke to me, I found them both tired, unreasonable and unrealistic in setting policy.  I'm pretty damn liberal/progressive in the classical sense and I'm unwavering on human rights.  I do however believe in markets, that people should be able to work hard and get rich and generally be left the fuck alone.

I found this on Geocities

THE PRESIDENT IS A STONE COLD FUCKING RACIST

May you live in weird times -Stoned Confucius (probably)

I started this entry, had six pretty good paragraphs and then accidentally deleted but here we go.

It is really hard for me as a student of history to explain the President to my children or pretty much anyone else.  I mean there are aspects of the 19^th century Andrew’s (Jackson and Johnson) racism and certainly aspects of Wacky Racist ass Woodrow Wilson who brought racism into the 20^th century. Racism is as American as apple pie.  The entire nation was built on the notion of white supremacy.  Genocide, the most extreme form of racism was used to settle the country, and chattel slavery, perhaps only second on this ladder of evil was used to build it into a 19^th century agricultural and industrial powerhouse whose economic influence is felt until this very day.   This is not news to anyone who understands American history. (or has recently read Howard Zinn)

I none the less am a strong believer in America, I understand our racist history and understand it still exists today.  Through Jim Crow and institutionalized racism, these chains of ignorance remain collectively difficult to throw off. I believe mostly in the promise of America. And honestly believe through the bravery of the civil rights movement and a progressive America things were incrementally changing for the better.

what did you do in the war daddy

In politics, quiet, whispered “polite” racism filled with codewords has been a part of the Republican party campaign handbook since at least 1964 and likely fueled by those Dixiecrats who started to exit the Democratic Party (at least the platform of the Democratic party) in 1948.  It really started to pick up speed in 1968 with Nixon and the continuation of the southern strategy with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.  (lets face it, 1972 and 1984 were complete wipeouts for the Dems as the GOP used their base and then just grabbed everyone in the center as the Democrats ran left.  I’ll leave that one right there)

Republicans and often Democrats often used dog whistles to communicate to their base.  Things like welfare reform and law and order communicated with large swathes of the population particularly in the south and Midwest.  Many felt a victory over racism with the election of Obama but the base was still there, belittling him and marginalizing him and treating him as “other”.

OK, let’s fast forward from the boring history screed. This week the President suggest that four congresswomen should go back to where they came from.  Its just a recent piece of his lifelong racism, ranging from housing violations against black and Latino residents, through the central park five, through his “muslim bans” through his thoughts on Charlottesville, and actions in post Maria Puerto Rico, Trump’s actions and speech.  He has a history of treating non-whites as other, as some how less than American if not less than human.  This is popular to many on the right, particularly those with less education (but common across all social classes) who have created their own grievance culture.  As if some new immigrant has a better chance for success in a system that has been designed to hurt them.

I need the fried dough concession at trump rallies

BASE, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO

All this is fucking crazy.  It is hard to imagine any other President would ever think about saying the shit that he says.  Fox and Friends, right wing twitter and rubes everywhere were quick to come out and say, “what, what, racism”  as if there is no church bombing or no use of the  “n” word it can’t possibly be racism.  In 280 character bursts the President continues to defame and retard the work of decades of progress towards equity and equality fueling a small but mighty base.  The Trump strategy for election is to keep this base fired up, showing up at the polls and make the Democratic candidate unattractive enough to get enough other voters to turn his way, particularly in the critical states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida.  (Ohio’s gone so cuckoo, so it’s not even a swing state anymore)  Therefore a 40 percent approval rate  makes an electoral college win.

So the President, as a narcissistic racist gets his fuel from rallies.  While Obama would fuel himself through policy memos and smart people, Bush through a cabal of more traditional republicans that were part of the power elite and neo-cons, Trump gets energy from d-list celebrities, fox news hosts and public rallies filled with devoted bumpkins. He is supported hand in hand by a cabinet that echos his radical beliefs and others like SkelatorAnne Conway who seek to amplify and simultaneously gaslight people with the feeling that the "other" are anti-Israel, anti-police, anti-veteran, anti-military and basically just hate America.  Spineless Republicans have adopted this all as a campaign strategy. Boy, are these people's grandchildren gonna be embarassed when they pick up a history book.

 These rallies have really taken on the energy of a fascist event, full of invective abuse of the media and women on the left and now going to straight up if thinly veiled racism.  The President does his best Alfred E. Neuman version of denial, until the next rally which energizes his campaign.  Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress and the yahoo network of fucknuts who support them in old and new media play the whatabout so and so game and the “they’re playing the race card” game that continues to feed grievance culture.  You'll often here Trump use the concept of "we" as if it's one against another. You wonder about how people you disagreed with, even disliked but were elected and respected public servants bought into the madness in exchange for tax cuts and conservative judges.  I imagine they understand how this base is situated, in particular districts they represent in low population, high electoral power states, states with large  numbers of aggrieved, overrepresented white folks.  How do people who came out against Trump in the 2016 primaries become such sycophants in such a short amount of time.

The issue is of course, the “mob”.  Nothing ever comes good from the mob, they see America as a game.  With winners and losers.  To them their team is white people, and people that aren’t white or are liberal are other and anti-American.  To them their thinly veiled racist “send them back” is a football cheer, rooting on their white team to beat the “other” people who are “not like them”.  To be against them is to be “anti American” or even “communist” in a way that has not been embraced since Joe McCarthy.  It is the most un-American of concepts.  The very motto e pluribus unum is built on the idea that we come from many creeds, races, ethnicities, and ideologies to build a strong and diverse nation.  The fact that documents written by slaveowners for slaveowners can be the foundation of liberty is a paradox but we are still an emerging republic filled with promise.

Stand up, put your head up 
Don't take nothing from nobody 

This promise is driven by women like these women.  You may not agree with them ideologically, (they are mostly to the left of me, but I love me some AOC, Elena are you watching) but they are smart, dedicated, hardworking Americans who have risen in America beyond their parents' wildest dreams. (or maybe not)  They were duly elected from districts that may or may not represent their ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds, they were elected to help to fill America's promise. I'm not sure where the fuck Ayanna Pressley is supposed to go back to in Trump's mind, her family was probably here when Trump's family was managing properties and exploiting tenant farmers for the local burgermeister.  These are the women, agree with them politically or not, that represent the best of America.  The ability to rise and lead.  If anything, this racism and attacks are the most possible anti-American thing one can do.