Marjorie Taylor Greene's Selective Alzheimer's

 Marjorie Taylor Greene is a freshman congresswoman representing Georgia's 14th district. She has a minor problem right now because a small group of her constituents want her barred from the ballot during this year's mid term elections. They cite section three of the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States as their reason. 

Section three of that amendment was originally written in order to keep former U.S. officials who had sided with the confederacy from returning to any federal, or state office after the war ended. And although Greene is a little young to have served in the confederate congress, there is ample evidence she supported the overthrow of the U.S. constitution just days after taking an oath to uphold and defend it.

Well, sort of. Ms Greene was dragged into court last week and asked to justify her tweets and texts. Among a lot of other things they called Nancy Pelosi a traitor, advocated for the execution of democrats in congress and perhaps everywhere and urged former President Donald Trump to declare martial law--or as she put it marshall law--in order to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power. While under another oath the congresswoman claimed she couldn't remember any of these tweets and texts leading up to and just after the attempted coup of January 6th 2021. In other words she suffers from either selective amnesia, or Alzheimer's. 

Presumably neither condition is an asset for someone wanting to serve as a United States lawmaker, although these days both, not to mention dementia, are seemingly required of republican voters.

Not to worry though. Ms. Greene is confident she'll beat the lawsuit. So much so she gave an interview to a local Georgia media outlet and told them her preferred committee assignments once the GOP takes over the House next January.

According to the incumbent, "I'd be honored to serve on Oversite to hold the democrats accountable for abusing their power, Judicial to push through my articles of impeachment on Joe Biden, and Foreign Affairs to put America first and China last and stop the never ending wars pushed by global Neocons."

Or, more simply put, she wants to punish the democrats for controlling the House, impeach Joe Biden because he is the President, and stop all support to NATO and Ukraine so Vlad Putin can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Of course being a member of any committee is something new to the congresswoman. When she first took office the House immediately banned her from any and all of them because her pre election tweets had been so vile, threatening, and downright bat shit crazy it was deemed she was unfit.

After all that, just in case some still don't understand where Ms. Greene stands she recently tweeted out that the three GOP senators who voted to confirm, Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court are, "pro pedophile." Although it remains unclear if, in her current condition, she remembers the tweet, her message is consistent with her previous ones.

That message being American democracy must be destroyed in order for people like her to run the country the way it should. The whole white nationalist thing is understood.

4-26-22

 

Tim McVeigh 27 Years Later: A Man Ahead of His Time

The morning of Wednesday, April 19th, 1995 was warm and clear in Oklahoma City. It was one of those rare spring days here with hardly any wind. At the time, despite the Bradford Pear blooms and impending annual arts festival, downtown OKC was a fairly moribund place largely deserted on the weekends and after 5pm during the week.

Timothy McVeigh didn't care about any of that, except, perhaps, the date. April 19th had, in his twisted philosophy, become significant. It was the anniversary of the start of the American Revolution and also of the nightmare at the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, Texas. His goal that morning was twofold. First start a second revolution and second to avenge the deaths of David Koresh and his followers.

McVeigh's sense of purpose was absolute and horrifyingly cruel. He had cased the Alfred P. Murrah building less than a year before and so knew he was parking the Ryder rental truck loaded with explosives not only next to the building, but that part of it which housed a child care center. 

The massive bomb which tore away over a third of the building, killed 19 of the day care's children. In total the official count of those killed reached 168, although it's almost certainly higher by at least one. Searchers found a leg in the debris they never could match up to any of the other victims. To this day it remains unidentified. 

McVeigh was executed and two co-conspirators landed in federal prison. Terry Nichols got life and Michael Fortier was put away for 14 years. Fortier claimed he backed out of the plot when it dawned on him Tim McVeigh wasn't just joking about blowing people up. He turned state's evidence and currently lives somewhere in the witness protection program. 

Now, 27 years later, comes the weird part: If Timmy McVeigh hadn't acted on his violent impulses back in 1995, if he had matured and ventured into politics, he might be sitting in the United States House of Representatives right now.

Hey, think about it. Are Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, or Madison Cawthorn any less crazy than Tim McVeigh? Is Mo Brooks--you know the guy who urged the howling mob on January 6th last year to march on the U.S. Capitol so they could take names and kick ass any less nuts? We know McVeigh hated the federal government and there is absolutely no evidence that any of those right wing clowns hate it any less.

Let's face it, all those loons love their guns just like McVeigh did. We also know McVeigh was into white supremacy/nationalism and there are more than a few members of the House who aren't averse to appearing at gatherings of such groups. We also know Boebert advised the mob, who was chanting, "Hang Pelosi," among others that the Speaker was no longer in the house chamber. The day before the insurrection Greene gave some of the future participants tours of the building and, of course Brooks exhorted them to kick ass.

Yes, it would seem Tim McVeigh was a man simply ahead of his time. These days he'd fit right in with a huge portion of the republican party. In fact, for some of them he might even be too far left. After all, he was gone long before we could ask him his views on the last presidential election and all things QAnonish in nature. 

Unfortunately the same can't be said of Boebert, Greene, and the rest.

4-19-22 

Vlad Putin and a Series of Small Mistakes

 I was the victim of a series of small mistakes.

Kurt Vonnegut in the novel, "Sirens of Titan"

Yes, sometimes our blunders are major.  At others they are small and the shit piles up ever so slowly, but before you know it you're chest deep in a huge pile of dung. Just ask our pal, Vladimir Putin. 

It appears Mr. Putin's long term plan, which began years, if not decades ago, was to recover all the territory of the old Soviet empire which had been lost when Russian style communism collapsed. The idea seemed like a good one at first. He had successfully circumvented presidential succession laws, then amended them to make sure he was a defacto president for life. He had previously subdued Chechnya, Later he kicked Georgia's ass and as any thoroughly modern conqueror does he made sure the government there has been run by Georgians who are utterly loyal to him.

He had a problem though and its name was and is NATO. The three Baltic states, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia had joined the alliance and Ukraine was begging to get in. Then along came Donald Trump, who for the four years of his presidency did everything he could to weaken the alliance. Trump didn't destroy NATO, but by the time he was out of office it seemed like the organization had been reduced to a discordant bunch of finger pointers who were more concerned with their self interests rather than what Russia was doing.

At least that's what Putin's foreign intelligence agency was telling him.

And silly Vlad, he believed them.

That same agency was also convinced an invasion of Ukraine would be met with light resistance and quick surrender. In fact when Putin pulled the trigger, one exiled oligarch said the President of the Russian Federation was shocked and enraged his troops weren't met by civilians giving them flowers.

The whole notion NATO was a bunch of quarrelsome weenies also went out the window when the entire organization came down hard with sanctions and began to reinforce those three Baltic counties while promising to defend every inch of NATO soil. 

To add insult to injury instead of shying away from NATO both Sweden and Finland have begun making noises about joining the alliance. So much so former Finnish Prime Minister, Alexander Stubb, who vainly advocated for the move while he was in office, was quoted as saying, "Putin has only himself to thank. You know. I should probably be grateful to Putin." 

In response the Russians threatened to install nuclear weapons on their northwestern border--probably because that's all they have left. Let's face it no one is worried about their conventional forces any more. Given what has happened in northern Ukraine their ground troops seem closer to a rogue biker gang than an army.

To make things worse this morning the Russian Black Sea flagship, Moskva was, depending on the source, struck by Ukrainian missiles, or had a large accidental fire which caused explosions. In other words, either the Ukrainians pulled off a successful attack, or the pride of the Russian Navy is manned by a bunch of incompetent boobs. Neither option can be considered a great morale booster.

Reports are as many as 100 officials of the Russian foreign intelligence agency have been sacked by Comrade Putin, some of them even placed under house arrest. All of them have presumably landed in the stew for making a series of mistakes.

Well, you have to blame someone for this mess don't you? And as we've seen, Vladimir Putin is just too big to make any mistakes. He made sure of that years ago.

sic vita est

4-14-22 

  

The Lieutenant Colonel's Soul

 The commander in charge of Russia's 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade is a 40 something officer named Azatbek Omurbekov. He holds the rank of Lt. Col. and been decorated for his service during the take over of the Crimean peninsula and parts of Eastern Ukraine. 

In fact Omurbekov's military skills were so impressive in late November last year the Russian Orthodox  Bishop of Khabarovsk publicly blessed him. During the Mass the Lt. Col. told the gathering, "History shows that most of our battles are fought with our souls." He then went on to say, "Weapons are not the most important thing and with the blessing of the Almighty, we hope to achieve what our ancestors did." 

90 or so days later Omurbekov led those wild and crazy guys of the fightin' 64th into Ukrainian territory.

Things went well at first. They kicked up some radioactive dust in Chernobyl, but kept moving toward Kyiv. About 17 miles north of their goal, in a suburb called Bucha, they were stopped cold by a combination of poor logistics and fierce Ukrainian resistance. 

Then it got even uglier. The 64th Motorized Infantry Brigade, Azatbek Omurbekov commanding, began to achieve the things their ancestors had. Those things included looting, rape, and murder. 

They were in Bucha for 40 days. The current civilian body count is nearly 400 and rising. Many of the dead were found with their hands bound behind their backs and were killed by a single bullet to the head. In one CBS video a Ukrainian woman had to shoo her two young children outside before she could explain that at one point Russian soldiers forced her to give them blowjobs, in exchange for the kids lives. 

Despite accusations it is unknown if Omurbekov actually ordered the killings and other atrocities. However, it is obvious he knew about them and did nothing to stop the barbarity. It is also obvious he allowed his troops to loot stores and homes of what little food and liquor was left to the civilians. The empty beer and vodka bottles littering their bivouac sites are ample evidence of his approval, or, complete malfeasance. 

The Russians claim all the scenes of civilians dead in the streets are being staged by the Ukrainians to turn world opinion against them. Well that ship sailed in February when this savagery began. There is no one outside of the most fervent Putin supporters who believe it. The history of Russian warfare is full of monstrous behavior toward civilians. So much so it seems your average Russian soldier believes rape is as much of a benefit of being in the army as free medical care.

The 64th Motorized Infantry Brigade, along with the rest of the army in the north has pulled back to refit, rearm, and presumably sober up. They will be back though, we can count on it. That means Lt. Col. Azatbek Omurbekov will be too. 

You know, he is the man who told us he fights his battles with his soul--that same one which proved to be so ghastly in Bucha.

4-7-22