Another Day, Another Lunatic, Another AR-15

 How long, oh Lord? How long?

Robert Card's commanding officers in his army reserve unit knew he was nuts. Robert Card's family knew he was nuts. People in his hometown of Bowdoin, Maine knew he was nuts. In fact the only person in the entire state of Maine who apparently didn't know Robert Card was nuts was the person who sold him the AR-15 style weapon back in May of this year. Although in truth, that salesperson might not have cared one way, or the other. 

Hey, this is America. Everyone gets to buy an assault style weapon, right? It is in the by God constitution. Well actually it depends on your interpretation of the document and as we know, just like the bible, the constitution says whatever the reader wants it to say.

The question of gun control has been with us for a long time. So has restrictions on guns. Old Wyatt Earp wouldn't let you carry a piece within the city limits of Dodge. In Tombstone, AZ the gun fight at the OK Corral was precipitated, at least on the surface, by an attempt to enforce laws restricting carrying weapons in the town.

A few of us might even remember that late November day in 1963 when Walter Cronkite wondered on air how a nation could allow the mail order purchase of weapons without any restrictions, or questions asked.  He was moved to ask the question because the President of the United States had just had his head blown off thanks to a rifle bought through the mail by a guy named Lee Harvey Oswald.  

That's all ancient history now, but the problem still plagues us. That's because politicians like Ted Cruz believes it is disrespectful to debate gun control while the families of people killed by such weapons are still mourning. Unfortunately, thanks to our never ending supply of violent cranks and guns someone in this nation is always mourning. This years mass shootings have come, on average, every 66 days. 

Cruz isn't the only one with a cheap excuse. Senator Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana told reporters after the massacre of children in Uvalde, TX that AR-15s are needed to kill feral pigs in the central part of his state and therefore shouldn't be banned. 

South Carolina's Senator and brown noser in chief, Lindsey Graham wondered why the military didn't alert everyone they had a Sgt. 1st class who was hearing voices and threatening to shoot up his reserve training center. When Robert Card was on active duty this summer it was the army who had him locked away in a mental facility for two weeks. It wasn't their fault some quack let him out.

In any event Card had already bought the murder weapon before being temporarily hospitalized. At that point it was up to his family to report his growing insanity to the authorities in order to kick Maine's yellow flag law into effect. Obviously, they didn't do so. It isn't something most families are willing to do. 

The search, at this moment, is continuing for Bobby Card. Nothing has been seen, or heard from him since that terrible night in Lewiston. Odds are he is the bottom of that murky river that runs through Lisbon, ME where they found his car. At this point we can only hope he is.

And we can only hope someone in congress will address the root of this uniquely American problem. Screw the mental health laws, no one is going to fund improved mental health programs. No one is going to simplify statutes which allow authorities to confiscate a weapon no matter how crazy the owner is.

No, the first step is right there if we'd just take it. Stop selling AR-15 style weapons and the high capacity magazines now. Right now. Ban all that deadly shit. It won't stop every violent criminal in this nation, but it will slow them down. And, despite what some might tell us, such a ban does not violate the constitution.  

Besides, if nothing else, we need to give those Louisiana feral pigs at least a sporting chance. 

10-27-23

The Only Things Republicans Hate More Than Themselves

 Word reached us only moments ago that the new republican nominee for Speaker of the House is Tom Emmer of Minnesota. 

HUZZAH! Praise the Lord and pass the gavel. Let us celebrate the end of chaos and insanity. Maybe we can actually see some governing around here for a change.

Oh were it only so. Unfortunately, as we've seen over the last three weeks getting nominated for the speakership doesn't mean squat. Even Don Trump's hand picked boy and fellow insurrectionist, Jim Jordan couldn't get 218 of these right wing clowns to vote for him. At today's republican caucus vote the gentleman from the great state of Minnesota was 101 votes short of the number he needs to lead the house. And that's doesn't even count democrats who have been unanimously opposed to everyone the republicans have put forward.

The count this afternoon was 117 for Emmer, 97 for Louisiana's Mike Johnson, 5 for other candidates, and 1 present. You know, present as in, Yeah, I'm here, but I really don't give a damn anymore. Any way you look at those numbers it would seem Representative Emmer is still a long way from the big chair in the front of the room. 

In truth no one has been near it since Matt Gaetz and his neo rock septet, The Destroyers, along with a big boost from democrats, canned Kevin McCarthy. The democrats were on board because after making an agreement with McCarthy he blamed them for everything up to and including the buffet served to the Donner party. Gaetz did it because McCarthy dared to make the deal in the first place and frankly, just because he likes to blow shit up.

Therin is the real problem for this twisted version of the republican party. A number of them are fine with this paralysis because they don't want the government to work.  They think it is why they've been elected, and tragically, thanks to the MAGA cult, maybe they are right. Unfortunately what the yokels living in the western end of the Florida panhandle want isn't what the rest of the country wants, or needs.

It certainly isn't what Ukraine, Israel, or Taiwan needs. Just ask them. Vlad Putin is licking his chops right now as he watches this vile nonsense. So is the leadership of Iran and China. No matter how well the Israelis and Ukrainians fight, once they're out of bullets and artillery shells, the end for both is near. The same is true for Taiwan.

Of course a lot of republicans haven't like the Ukrainians ever since Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to go along with trump's extortion attempt involving Hunter Biden. The Israelis are a problem however. Evangelical Christians who are a large part of their base have traditionally supported Israel to the hilt. Cutting them off might be a bit tougher to justify. Especially when the main source of American support for Hamas comes from students at all those Ivy League schools Evangelicals loathe so much. 

But hey, you can't be a real nihilist without pissing a few people off.

And that is where a large chunk of the republican party is right now. How else can you explain the phone calls threatening the spouses and families of house members who refused to vote for Jim Jordan. Or the derisive laughter at Trump rallies when their man makes jokes about Paul Pelosi's medical condition. Or when the leading republican presidential candidate flirts with contempt by posting salacious lies online about court officers during proceedings against him. Those aren't the actions of a legitimate political party, but rather a mob of thugs run amok on meth.

Indeed, it has become obvious to all of us, when it comes to republicans these days hate is all they know. And they hate themselves only slightly less than they hate democrats. 

Well, that and democracy.

10-24-23

It Isn't Joe Biden's Wall

 First off, walls don't work. Oh, they might stymie some for a while, but whether they are meant to keep someone out, or in, people will find a way to get past them. They go over, under, or as we saw not quite two weeks ago. they will go straight through them. Walls, at best, do nothing more than slow the less determined down. At their worst they provide a false sense of security that in some circumstances can turn out to be deadly. 

Walls can also be symbolic. As in, " Hey, look what I'm doing to stop all those Spanish speaking fuckers who are coming here to replace all us white people." That sort of xenophobic political philosophy works particularly well with yokels who wear red hats and T-Shirts that say things like, "Donald Trump is GOD."

On the other hand, the notion of such a wall built for that purpose doesn't play well to those on the left side of the aisle. In fact supporting the construction of a border wall could get you run out of the democratic party just about everywhere except maybe West Virginia. 

Last week, before the Hamas nightmare in southern Israel began, it was announced a new section of Southern U.S. border wall would be constructed. Some news outlets even ran with a lead that read something like, "Joe Biden's New Wall." 

Progressives everywhere gasped, fainted, and bellowed. The word appalled didn't even begin to describe the reaction. It was every liberal's nightmare come true. See there, I told you that old man was a closet conservative.

Biden's defense seemed weak at best. "I can't do anything about it," he said.

Sadly, while it might sound weak, what the President said was true. Unlike the would be King of Orange, Joe Biden understands the powers of the President of the United states are limited. You can't do anything you want while you sit in the Oval Office.

Way back in December of 2019 the Trump administration got congress to appropriate the money, specifically, to build this new section of border wall. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 makes it illegal for the money to be spent on any other project unless congress reappropriates it. That disjointed band of miscreants in the republican majority came together in the House just long enough to turn down Biden's request to do so. 

In other words, unless Joe Biden wants to pull some sort of Trumpian power grab by ignoring the law of the land we are stuck with at least one more useless monument to populist nativism.

Many of us might not like it, but we certainly should not blame Joe Biden for it.

10-17-23

Dead Men Walking

 When a military attacks they have an objective in mind that's the focus of their movements. When the russians entered Ukraine, they were headed toward, Kyiv. All the murders, rapes, and pillaging were by products of that terrible misadventure, but they did have a place they wanted to capture.

Of course no one has ever accused Hamas of being an army. A real army doesn't swoop down on a music festival and massacre the attendees. No, Hamas more closely resembles a run amok biker gang nominally fronted by a few rogue politicians the likes of which haven't been seen since 1930s Germany.

When they roared into Israel Saturday it wasn't clear what their objective was--actually it still isn't--unless the objective was nothing more than rape, murder, and kidnapping. It might be. That sort of thing certainly seems their style. Some of them claim they want to trade their hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that seems a tad altruistic for this bunch of barbarians.

They certainly haven't cared about the Palestinians in the past. They have received scads of money from places like Iran over the years and have never spent any of it on infra structure, or anything else which would benefit the Palestinian people in the long term. They have, however bought lots of weapons. Lots and lots of them.

If they are trying to prove to the Palestinians they can defeat Israel they will fail. It took them what has been reported up to two years to plan this whole nightmare and as a result they have overrun a couple of kibbutzes, destroyed a few police stations, and killed nearly 1,000 mostly civilians. They have caused chaos heartbreak, and horror. But all that bloodthirsty mayhem isn't defeating Israel. Their actions have however, caused most people in the world to look on in disgust and pissed off the most advanced military in the region to no end.

Yes, it would appear Hamas has made the same mistake a lot of people have made in the past. When you kill and terrorize civilians you can make them cower in fear, but you also cause them to hate you more. In the end, maybe that was their objective. If so, they achieved it. Everyone with a sense of common decency and humanity, if they didn't before, now hates them and everything they claim to stand for.

Indeed, Hamas might have won in the short term, but their, "troops" such as they are and their leadership aren't long for this world. Whether they know it, or not, they are--each and every one of them--dead men walking,

And where will their victory be then?

10-10-23

Schedule F, Still in the Mix

And. for those who have been wronged and betrayed I am your retribution.

Donald Trump, speaking to a crowd, but in reality, talking to himself. 

In January, 2019 a Trump administration official named James Sherk went to work on a problem that was eating away at the then president. It seemed there were some career civil servants who were dragging their feet when it came to implementing some of Big Don's more, let's say, ambitious ideas.

One of those light bulb moments included gutting civil rights acts and protections in order to make it tougher for black kids to get into places like Yale University. They were taking up spots that could be filled by white and Asian students and that seemed pretty darned discriminatory, especially if you are white, or Asian and don't think much of black people to begin with.

 The major problem was a lot of those uncooperative civil servants were protected by law as career government employees and they couldn't be fired on a political whim.  

These things take time so it wasn't until early 2020 that Sherk's plan, "Schedule F," was ready to go. Unfortunately for the Donald there were further delays thanks to the Covid pandemic.  By the time he got around signing the executive order implementing Schedule F all the focus was on the 2020 election campaign. Schedule F appointments would have to wait until after Trump was re-elected.

Oops.

When Mr. Trump lost---by a lot---he went a little funny in the head. He was too busy plotting to overthrow the government of the United States to even think about it.

So, you might ask, what is Schedule F? When Donald Trump signed that executive order he removed the civil service protection for tens of thousands of career government employees. They could now be fired at will and replaced by political appointees with no thought about their actual qualifications. You know, yokels who don't know an FDA lab from a public restroom, but are all damn loyal to Donald John Trump. 

It was still there for Joe Biden in January, 2021. Fortunately for all of us President Biden believes government jobs should be held by qualified individuals not a bunch of political hacks and toadies. One of his first acts in the Oval Office was to get rid of Schedule F. 

Ah, but hope springs eternal in the dark hearts of those who prefer a Putinesque form of government. In an interview with Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute, Sherk pointed out Schedule F remains ready to go. If Trump gets back to the White House he already has the blueprint from which to work.

To that end, Axios has reported conservative groups devoted to all things Trumpian have been out there, vetting scads of candidates who would replace career federal employees should their man regain the White House. Axios also reports sources have told them, the next Trump administration, "anticipates needing an alternate labor force of perhaps as many as 10,000 personnel." And each and every one of them would be utterly committed to Donald Trump. 

As early as last year, Axios reported the Heinrich Himmler wanna be, Stephen Miller (the guy who came up with the idea to kidnap the children of immigrant families) has been assembling a cadre of, "general counsels."  They will be on board immediately These lawyers will be there to, "aggressively implement Trump's orders and skeptically interrogate any career government attorney who tells them their plan is illegal or can't be done." 

That's right, next time around there won't be any naysayers. Donald gets to do whatever he wants with no questions asked. 

That's how it works in a dictatorship.

10-3-23

Last Night in Simi Valley and the Madness of Donald Trump

 Last night on Fox seven republicans who are running for the party's presidential nomination  gathered on a stage at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, CA. The bizarre tableau could have been titled, Donald Trump and the Seven Dwarfs, except, of course Trump wasn't there. He was off in Michigan somewhere lying to some workers and it turns out hand picked shills at a non union auto parts plant. He was there at the behest of the plant's management team in order to explain why collective bargaining agreements are evil. Not surprisingly though he spent most of his time, talking about how great and wise he, Donald J. Trump, is. 

The former president appeared to get through the speech without any of the mishaps which have recently plagued him. You know, like telling the crowd he defeated Barack Obama in 2016 and Joe Biden, if re-elected, would start World War II.

Perhaps El Donald is due a little sympathy. Earlier the same day a New York Judge ruled he and one of his kids had committed fraud when they and the Trump Organization had over valued their properties by delirious amounts to secure loans. The decision could directly lead to the Trumps forfeiting huge chunks of property and the right to do any business in the state of New York.

All these legal problems seem to be wearing down Trump's mind. Nearly 100 different felony charges will do that. It is obvious the man began to unravel as soon as the results of the 2020 election came in. The criminal charges have apparently hastened the syphilitic like deterioration of his brain. So much so he doesn't even pretend to be pro-democracy any more. All those inhibitions have been eaten away and only God knows how far he will go now.

We do have some hints though.

Late last year he posted on his private social media outlet, "...Massive fraud of this type (the election results) and magnitude allows the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the constitution." 

We could, I suppose, ask the ghost of James Madison its opinion of that statement, but it's too busy spinning in its grave to respond.

Last week, after promising his justice department would investigate and prosecute NBC and its holding company, Comcast Trump posted this about retiring Joint Chief of Staffs, General Mark Milley: "This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck, who if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH." 

What Milley did was call his Chinese counterpart after the failed coup of Jan. 6th to reassure him an increasingly unhinged Donald Trump wouldn't launch an all out nuclear attack on his country. Milley also called all the pertinent American commanders and told them if they got some, "strange," orders directly from the White House to let him know before they did anything. It is the same thing DOD officials did during those chaotic days before Richard Nixon gave up and resigned. It is called, making sure no one does anything stupid if the old man becomes completely unglued.

Yes, that is how crazy Donald Trump was then. Just think how far his madness has progressed by tow. 

 Meanwhile back in Simi Valley we did learn at least one fact last night. That is, as one wag posted, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone loved you as much as Nikki Haley hates Vivek Ramaswami?"

Well yeah it would, but some things are just not possible. 

9-28-23

The Further Adventures of Rudy Giuliani

 Dear Rudy:

Our law Firm, Davidoff, Hutcher, Citron has represented you in legal matters the past several years. These matters include a federal  investigations into your now defunct foreign lobbying venture, investigations and charges brought against you by the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney, and the investigations of Special Counsel, Jack Smith regarding the January 6th, 2021 insurrection in Washington D.C. Our records indicate we have received payments totaling $214,000. Your outstanding balance for services delivered is now, $1,350,196. That amount is currently OVERDUE. It is time to pay up, you dead beat son of a bitch. WE WANT OUR FUCKING MONEY!!!

Sincerely

Davidoff, Hutcher, and Citron LLP

Well, Davidoff-Hutcher didn't put it exactly that way, but their message was clear the other day. There are no more free rides for Rudolph Giuliani. He owes them a huge wad of cash and they are going to court in order to collect.

The man who used to be called, "America's Mayor," issued a statement which read, "I can't express how personally hurt I am for what Bob Costello (Davidoff-Hutcher partner who represented Giuliani in court) has done. It is a real shame when lawyers do things like this, and all I will say is that their bill is way in excess to anything approaching legitimate fees."

Rudy knows these guys are serious. The firm and Costello in particular had represented that outlaw fascist, Steve Bannon when he was hip deep in legal trouble. After Bannon tried to stiff them, Davidoff--Hutcher sued and won a $500,0000 judgement. The judge ruled Bannon had read and signed a retainer agreement with the NYC based firm and didn't object to any of their invoices when they were actively representing him. He just chose not to pay them when they were done.

In this latest action brought against a former client the suit points out Giuliani had read and signed a similar agreement and, like Bannon, had never objected to the amounts on any of their invoices. At least not until now. It's unclear if Rudy-Toodie thought Davidoff--Hutcher would write off the fees--a sort of personal gift from his old pal Costello, or he actually believed Trump and others would pick up the tab. 

If the latter was the case he should have known better. Hell, Donald Trump doesn't even pay his own lawyers, There is no way he is going to foot the bill for some groveling toady like Rudy Giuliani. No, if the Mayor is looking for help in that direction he is going to have to settle for those rare moments when the big man is bored enough to throw him a fundraiser. 

Of course the problem Davidoff, Hutcher, and Citron has is exactly the same one faced by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Unless there is a secret account, or two tucked away in someplace like the Cayman Islands, Rudy Giuliani is tapped out. Right now his main asset is the upper eastside apartment he owns in New York City. It has been on the market since late July with an asking price of $6.5 million. The way he is running through lawyers and bail bondsmen right now there is no telling how much of that will be left to split, even if he gets his full asking price. 

Indeed, it might end up that Freeman and Moss, not to mention Davidoff-Hutcher  have to settle on cuts of Giuliani's income after the state of Georgia employs him in the license plate shop at the state prison. It won't be much, but it beats nothing at all. 

Meanwhile, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has accused Giuliani of making unwanted and utterly crude, sexual moves on her in the VIP tent the day of the failed coup. The details of the alleged assault are contained in her new book which will be released next week. She also claims a co-conspirator in the insurrection, Trump attorney du jour, John Eastman served as lookout/voyeur during the incident. 

No one knows if Ms. Hutchinson will back up her allegation with a civil action against Mr. Giuliani, but if she does she needs to hurry. The slices of that pie are already extraordinarily thin and the line is long.

There is also no telling where all this will end up. All we do know at this point is things are grim for Rudolph Giuliani. And even if he doesn't end up in either federal, or state prison the odds are increasing his next residence will be at best a maintenance shed at Mar A Lago, or at worst, a crate beneath an overpass somewhere. 

Such is the fate of those who devote their lives and fortunes to The Cult of The Big Orange Guy. 

 

9-21-23