Roger, Bernie, and Harvey on a Raw Day

Here is what we've learned over the last few days. First, Roger Stone is probably going to get a presidential pardon before he ever serves a day in jail. Second, the Bernie Sanders' campaign is carving its way through democratic primaries rather like that mythical hot knife in butter. Third, Harvey Weinstein has gone from being just a dirty old man to a genuine, certified, rapist.

Admittedly this is an eclectic, if not odd, group to focus on this raw and wet day on the Southern Plains. On the surface the only thing Stone, Sanders, and Weinstein have in common is they are three old whiite guys. Beyond that, Stone and Weinstein are now convicted felons, although we aren't sure for how long and Sanders currently has parts of the democratic party more terrified than Donald J. Trump does.

Stone was looking at seven to nine years before the Attorney General of the United States stepped in and ordered his prosecutors to lower the government's sentencing request. William Barr claims he never consulted Stone's old pal and employer, Don Trump before doing so even though Trump had been raising hell about the trial through Twitter for days on end. The move prompted four members of the prosecution to walk away from the case, one of them straight out of the Department of Justice.

Trump and the defense team have been howling bias through social media and court filings since day one of Stone's trial. Despite all the faux outrage, Trump's boy was sentenced to 40 months in jail on seven counts. Those charges included everything from lying to Robert Mueller and practically everyone else on the planet to obstructing congress and intimidating a witness.

Within 24 hours of the sentencing, Stone's lawyers filed a motion to seek a new trial. In addition they demanded Judge Amy Berman-Jackson recuse herself from ruling on the new trial because, well, Obama had appointed her. That and the jury foreperson, Tomeka Hart had once run as a democrat for congress and also, in the past, said some anti Trump things on Facebook.

Trump's Twitter assessment of the situation showed up on February 13th. "Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case," it read, "had significant bias. Add that to everything else, and this is not looking good for the "Justice" Department."

Trump has, so far, refused to pardon Roger Stone. We all know a pardon is on the table though because, Trump has said publicly he is confident his former dirty tricks master will be, "exonerated." That despite the judge telling the defense team, in effect, they can go fuck themselves when it comes to their motion to recuse herself from the upcoming decision on a new trial. Given the circumstances only a man with a pardon in his pocket can be so confident.

 Meanwhile Senator Bernie Sanders is quickly dredging up the ghost of George McGovern, at least in the minds of democrats old enough to remember that nightmare. His political base is chock full of young people who possess the fiery, yet naïve, passion McGovern's did. More disturbingly, they are also inflicted with the same poisonous conspiracy dementia Donald Trump's MAGA hordes suffer from.

Indeed, if Bernie doesn't win a primary it was rigged. "Corporate," media--as opposed to, "main stream media," you know, places like MSNBC and CNN, are doing everything it can to defeat their man. Anti Sanders news commentators should be fired. As one account on Twitter repeatedly puts it, "Bern it up, or bern it down."

They seem to have no clue that if Sanders is the nominee all Trump will have to do is buy up a bunch of  billboards from North Carolina to Phoenix which simply say, "It's either me, or that socialist son of a bitch." Yes, none of them even begin to fathom how deeply ingrained the distrust of socialism, democratic, or not, is ingrained in tens of millions of Americans. Those people might not like Donald John Trump, but they aren't ready for Bernie Sanders' brave new world either and come November they will vote for the devil they know.

Finally we get to Harvey Weinstein. It seems like forever since the first time we saw him struggling toward the courthouse steps using a walker rather like some kindly grandfather. Today he was convicted on two of five charges of sexual misconduct and he now faces five to 25 years.

The media is calling it a, "watershed," moment for the #me too movement, despite the fact he was acquitted on three, more serious, charges. In addition Mr. Weinstein faces another four counts on the left bank, in LA. His lawyers are already filing an appeal in the New York conviction and as we've seen in America, money buys you a lot of, "justice."

The only thing we are sure of when it comes to Harvey Weinstein is he had to have and use some serious pull. Let's face it, none of the women who have accused him of his lacivious misbehavior would have ever given him the time of day if he hadn't.

Yeah, it might be sexist in some way, but look at the guy and tell me it isn't true.

So there we have it on this cruddy day in OKC. Roger Stone is smiling in every photo we see because he knows the fix is in. Bernie Sanders is leading a charge which has about as much chance as Lee's on the third day of Gettysburg. And, Harvey Weinstein is as done and over with as last Thanksgiving's turkey, even if he does eventually get away with it all.

As for me, hey, the bar is open. It is time for a libation. Cheers, America.


2-24-20