Heads Up!

It appears that the Trump Administration has served notice to Congress that it will no longer be making its people available for any further testimony or anything else for that matter, in response to Congress attempting to exercise its oversight authority. The Mueller investigation was the one and only chance Congress and, by extension, the American people had at holding Don the Con and his swamp thingies accountable for their chronic slime bucketry and shenanigans.

Gosh, I didn't realize checks and balances worked that way...my bad.

Meanwhile, over at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), everything is sunny and gay (in a non-Pence-like way, of course). Climate change? To paraphrase Alfred B. Newman, "What, we worry?" Or should we? Because it sure looks like the scientists over there - remember them, those silly people who live in that bizarre-o world of empiricism and facts? - didn't get the memo on promoting climate denial from Don the Con. In fact, they just issued a report, warning us all that here in the U.S. we ought "to start planning for the fact that climate change is going to make these catastrophes (natural disasters) worse."

But not so, sez EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Nope. According to him, “most of the threats from climate change are 50 to 75 years out.” Great, he's just given us the proverbial kick o' the can down the road. Or maybe he really does know something we (and thousands of scientists) don't know? Or maybe, just maybe, over at 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, the head doesn't know what the body is doing. Maybe that's because the "head," aka, EPA Administrator Wheeler, has got his own kopf stuck up his tuchus, a well-documented result of being a part of the skulk of foxes that has been put in charge of the myriad hen houses that are the U.S. federal regulatory apparatus.

Well, stranger things have been known to happen than a bought-and-paid-for former (?) coal industry lobbyist lying about the potential impacts of climate change, even if he did swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the American people, all 327 odd million of us, and not his Carbonnsauras clients. I guess when you have to constantly gaslight the American public and their elected representatives, having your head involuntarily lodge itself up your backside is an occupational hazard. What with having to contort yourself to assume all kinds of awkward positions so that you can give at least the appearance of seriousness while coughing up another hairball of half-truths and artful dodges. Having said that, doing this particular kind of deep dive does have the added benefit of not having to witness the consequences of your action on the planet, or on your fellow human beings.

See? It's not climate denial. It's just an example of self-care, but please don't try this at home.

Holiday Road to Perdition

Is it the beginning of the end...or, to quote the last century's greatest imperialist mass murderer, is it the end of the beginning? Will there be more convictions among Mad Dog 20/20 Don and his merry band of grifters? Will Bill "Limbo Lower" Barr sell off whatever remains of his soul in his all-out defense of Don and his spawn? And will the Democrats decide that upholding the rule of law and other bedrock institutions is more important than winning the next election?

Whichever, whatever...I'm not exactly holding my breath.

First, a disclaimer. I have not read the Mueller Report. I have read some good analyses, in the Intercept among others, and the following appears to me to be pretty clear:

1. The Trump campaign did not conspire or coordinate - key finding: collude or collusion is not a criminal legal term, so let's stop allowing Trump & co, use it - with the Russians. Rather, they were (a) all too happy to be the passive beneficiaries of Russian "dirt on Hilary," because they were either (b) too incompetent to figure out how to actively conspire or (c) more focused on consummating the Moscow Trump Tower deal. Either way, their acts of omission - not reporting Russian government overtures to them - were neither illegal nor ethical. More importantly, they were perfectly consistent with their utter disdain for the norms of our political system, which, I know, is setting the Barr low (pun intended; see previous Imp Wardrobe post).
2. I agree with those pundits (see Mehdi Hassan's piece on the Intercept) who describe the Mueller Report, especially its section on obstruction of justice, as a roadmap for impeaching Trump. And it goes without saying that if there were even so much as a fraction of the number of such incidents under a Democratic presidency, the GOP would be out on the street with their tiki torches and AR-15s. But I digress...
3. Why aren't the Democrats showing more interesting in pursuing said roadmap? Ostensibly, because with a GOP-controlled Senate, there's no way that Trump would be convicted, even if the House were to pass articles of impeachment. Rather than lay out the case for why that's an unprincipled, weasel-eared non-position position, I would encourage you instead to read (or reread) Yoni Applebaum's case for impeachment in the Atlantic. Spoiler alert: the Democrats are putting (potential) partisan political gains in front of any sense of responsibility for safeguarding our political institutions. Shocked? Right...me, too.

So, bottom line, it's hard to feel too much outrage at this point, at any of these knuckleheads. Haters gonna hate, and weasels gonna put on their weasel ears. Besides, it's been a long road to trudge, and it looks like we're likely to trudge a whole lot more before it's all over. Sorta like a road trip from hell, or to hell, while traipsing down the road of perdition. But since we're talking about President Trump, aka, our national buffoon, I prefer to call the "National Buffoon's Impeachment," aka, the "Holiday Road to Perdition," which is the title of this week's cartoon. 

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend - Chag Sameach and Happy Easter to others. And for all my peeps, celebrating the former, don't forget to drink some prune juice; otherwise, enjoy 8 days of Matzoh-induced gastro-intestinal filibuster. 

Corrupt Catherine

It's not every week that I take aim at a local issue, but this week was truly special here in Charm City. This week we learned that our very own mayor, Catherine "Le" Pugh, managed not to disclose for more than eight years that she had been selling 30,000 copies of her blockbuster best seller, Healthy Holly, to various institutions over which she had played various direct and indirect oversight roles. Conflict of interest? Nah. Poor judgment? Absolutely not! Good reason to resign? Never.

What's the next book in the series? Corrupt Catherine?

And folks wonder why Bmore is such a hot mess - what with the city literally and figuratively bleeding people between the continued middle class flight and spiking violent crime rates, respectively. Just another example of inner city decay? More like city officials' inner moral decay. Some quick background: Pugh won the last mayoral race here in Bmore, beating out former mayor Sheila Dixon, mainly for one reason: she didn't have a sordid past involving nearly being convicted by a jury of her peers of a felony theft charge.

Le Pugh might actually one up her predecessor on that count, once the dust settles and she chooses to come back from her extended "leave of absence." I'm not sure she has much to look forward to. Several major public and private sector institutions, including the city council (by a unanimous vote) and the Greater Baltimore Committee, have asked her to resign, but she's not having it. No siree! She's one committed pol; committed to what exactly, outside of self-enrichment, is any one's guess.

But just as surely as spring has finally arrived in full bloom here in Baltimore, Mayor Pugh is not one to let a few naysayers get in the way of her being of service to this fine city. So the next time you walk out onto your back porch and catch a whiff of that all too familiar stench coming from your alley way, don't call 311. That's not your garbage sitting there (STILL) going uncollected. No, it's just her honor, Catherine Le Pugh, proving that she is indeed the real embodiment (and scent) of all that is right (and ripe) about our beloved city.

Why Pigs Shouldn't Fly

If anyone hasn't already, you should really listen to Democracy Now's segment last Friday, https://www.democracynow.org/…/profits_should_not_come_befo…

The segment included statements made by the lawyer and family of Samya Stumo, who along with another 156 innocent passengers died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash last month. Bottom line, the crash was decidedly not a result of a tragic "accident" but rather as a result of "'...Boeing's decision to put profits over safety … and the regulators that enabled it, must be held accountable for their reckless actions.'" These poor folks all assumed, mistakenly as it turns out, that U.S. airplane manufacturers really do put safety first, and that the U.S. Government regulatory agencies provide meaningful oversight to ensure that they do. Wrong and wrong again,.

May G-d rest all of their souls in peace.

I won't make this a long post. Suffice it to say that this example of corporate criminal malfeasance confirmed for me a few things, which have been apparent to me for a loooong time:

1. Business is in business to be in business. It cares nary a whit for the welfare of its consumers above and beyond what the beancounters tell them they need to do to reduce their exposure to legal liability. Anything above and beyond that is a pointless waste of money, which could be going to fatten up the earnings of C-suite execs and major shareholders.
2. Self-regulation by the private sector is a farce. It's worse than letting the fox into the hen house. It's tying the hens down so that the fox doesn't have to work too hard to rip the poor fowl to shreds.
3. The USG - both the executive and legislative branches - is a servile lackey to corporate interests, especially when it comes to anything associated with the military-industrial complex (N.B. that would include Boeing).

So the next time some blowhard starts crowing about "the private sector" and how it does things so much more efficiently than the public sector, tell'em to stick a sock in it. Tell'em that corporate America is nothing more than a bunch of thieving amoral con artists - sound like someone (orange) we know? - who would happily sell their own families to medical experiment if it meant boosting their P/E ratio.

I'm hoping there's a special place for these folks in the big BBQ downstairs where they spend eternity reflecting on the consequences of their narcissistic sociopathic pursuit of lucre.

Hope, too, that somebody remember to bring the Stubb's...

Victory Lap

Was I let down when Special Counsel Robert Mueller chose not to lower the hammer on Trump & Co. in his recently released report? Sure. Was I surprised? No, not really. I never really believed that Trump & Co. were really capable of pulling off a John le Carré-esque bit of intrigue and conspiring with the Russians in any meaningful way. If for no other reason, they are all a bunch of bumbling fools for whom putting their shoes on the correct feet in the morning constitutes a minor miracle.

No, what I've been waiting for is more indictments (and convictions) for the corrupt practices that are more the rule than the exception with this crowd. The number of open cases involving Trump and his family and associates, most of which have little to nothing to do with the 2016 election, never mind "collusion" with the Russians, continues to increase. Again, none of this is at all surprising, because what we're seeing is a continuation of the kind of "business" practices Trump engaged in on his way to six bankruptcies and a myriad of suits and court cases for his sociopathic lack of ethos.

What worries me is the seeming effectiveness of Trump and his GOP enablers to turn the tables and go after the Democrats, at least in the court of public opinion. No, I don't see Adam Schiff or Jerome Nadler being frogmarched off to Gitmo anytime soon. However, the fact that Trump even tries to use the machinery of the state to go after his political opponents (often with the GOP leadership's blessing) reminds me of my time living in developing countries, working on democracy and governance programs. In these countries, the thin veneer of institutional checks and balances on the executive branch was so flimsy - IF it existed at all - that most political opponents were lucky to stay alive.

Here in the U.S., we'd like to believe that nothing like that could ever happen. But let's take note of the well-documented increased levels of terrorist attacks made on the basis of Islamophobia, misogyny, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, nativism, etc, many of which have assumed a more political intent. Let's also acknowledge that all of these diseases of the heart have been around for decades if not centuries in our country. Finally, let's recognize that they manifest themselves at dangerously high prevalence rates in our security sector forces, which, if we're really honest, we'll recognize as having been originally designed to safeguard white lives, wealth and supremacy.

So as Trump takes his victory lap, using his Attorney General's whitewashed summary of Mueller's report to falsely claim "total exoneration" and "complete vindication," let's make sure to put a few speed bumps in his path. Let's return our focus to methodically gathering evidence and making the case for prosecuting what has clearly been a corrupt presidency with a dual mission: the pursuit of self-enrichment and the execution of a relentless hit job on our nation's institutions of governance. Otherwise, we risk giving him license to continue on his merry, psychotic way, running over all who dare to place themselves in his path with his out-of-control golf cart.

Godawful Toddler

The events of the past week have been horrific. The tragic crash of the Ethiopian Airways flight, killing all aboard, and the massacre of 50 innocent Muslims by a white supremacist in New Zealand are two of the big ones that come to mind. But what would a week of disasters be without our very own Donald Trump.

I'm speaking, of course, of his proposed fiscal year 2020 budget. Unless you're wealthy, white and male, fuggedaboutit, you're shtupped. Not only is the budget horrible fiscal policy, it also reveals in no uncertain terms the utter moral depravity of Donald Trump and his GOP enablers. Why slash the social safety net when you can light it on fire and toss it in that burning dumpster that is the Trump administration? Why bother trying to overturn "Obamacare" when you can practically zero out Medicaid instead? Pollution? Global warming? Who cares? Let's begin to zero out the Environment Protection Agency's funding and capacity to do anything about it.

You say you're concerned about the federal deficit? Thbbpthbpt! That's so last administration...

Right, go figure. The great chicken hawk himself - Ouch! Those pesky bone spurs! - is leading the party that once claimed to be the true fiscal hawks over the cliff and into the Red (Ink) Sea. While they are at it, the GOP 2017 tax cut for the über wealthy will reduce the federal government's revenue collections significantly while also failing to make good on their promise to eliminate any of the loopholes in the corporate tax system. To paraphrase the Donald, "Lies made. Lies denied."

I realize, of course, that this budget has no chance of being accepted as is. I just hope and pray that the Democrats don't try to channel their inner ca. 1980s Republicans in beating the breasts as a sign of sanctimonious fidelity to fiscal discipline. You want to reduce the federal deficit? Try reducing military spending, which was one of the few areas to receive a plus up from the White House, on top of it already being bloated, excessive and bursting with bogus corporate welfare for armchair imperialists. What about eliminating the intelligence agencies? They're never right about anything anyway (end of the Cold War?), and on the rare occasion when they are, nobody in power bothers to listen to them (9/11).

On the revenue side, how about a tax on financial transactions? What about ending corporate welfare as we know it? Carbon tax anyone? You know, because we have about a dozen years and counting before the planet begins its irreversible descent into spontaneously combustion?

At some point, probably not in my lifetime, the American public will wake up to the huge swindle that is the whole federal budget. It consistently transfers wealth upwards to those who need it least, either through tax cuts or an expansion of loopholes, as well as through discretionary spending that favors corporate interests with little to no net social benefit for the vast majority of Americans. This skewed fiscal policy is a direct result of asymmetric access and influence by the small army lobbyists serving the various interests of the wealth elite, a situation that will remain in place well into the foreseeable future, thanks to the GOP bought and paid for Roberts' Supreme Court - "Corporations are people, too, my friend!"

But that is a topic of another rant 'n' rave. Meanwhile, we are left with this hot, stinky mess left by our very own Godawful Toddler, which will likely need more than just a few butt wipes to clean up.

A Very Fine Fellow

Not surprisingly, Trump and the rest of the GOP have been all over the Democrats' recent attempts to address the genuine differences that exist among their ranks. The Democratic-controlled House finally managed to pass a resolution condemning all forms of hatred, including anti-Semitism as well as Islamophobia, homophobia and white supremacy. I'm not going to unpack all of the angst and inner turmoil the Democrats went through to finally get to that point. Let me instead just say that I salute them for taking on the issue, hashing it out, and coming to some form of an in-group consensus...unlike the very fine people on the other side.

And that is the subject of today's rant 'n' rave. Any time you have Donald Trump trying to shame someone else for anti-Semitism, you have truly summited the Mount Everest of hypocrisy. Here's a dude who has spent his entire adult life marinating in a toxic bilious brew of misogyny, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism. The idea that he or his spineless Republican lemmings have even an iota of moral authority remaining to castigate anyone else for anti-Semitism...Well, let me just tip my hat to Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, who tweeted, "Those who truly care about the Jewish community shouldn't politicize #antiSemitism. No one should be grandstanding now. Elected leaders can best help us move forward by ending the blame game & genuinely committing to rebuild bonds & fight #hate in all forms."

Exactly. Because that's what Trump is and has always been about - grandstanding - transparently baseless buffoonery, puffery, bullying and the amoral, sociopathic pursuit of gratifying his painfully insecure ego. Despite all that, deep down underneath, I'm sure he's probably a very fine fellow... Nicht.