TGIF 6/10/22

Good week? Bad week?

If you watched TV last night, you probably have an opinion on whether America was well served by last night's opening session of the January 6th Committee's public proceedings.

Me? I'm torn. It was gut-wrenching to watch the new video, it was appalling to hear some of the testimony, and it was reaffirming, I guess, to have my impressions of certain people proven correct.

It was horrifying to see, again, what the danger of allegiance to a cult leader can do to our country. And the comments from the alleged Republicans - before, during and after - reinforced that danger, to the nth degree.

Now, for some specifics: On TNN, Sean Hannity said "the one person who looks good is Donald Trump." Meanwhile, this morning there's a boatload of tweeting about the "FACT" that Nancy Pelosi and the FBI were behind the insurrection.

I'll get to Hannity in a minute - first, that FACT about Pelosi.

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, the alleged Republicans in the House and Senate would have been orgasmically calling for an investigation, instead of working so hard to prevent one, and would not give up until there was one. Hell, we all know they would have had their own investigation, with no Dems participating, and held it live, with Kevin McCarthy trying to beat his own record for the longest blowhard speech on the floor of the House - before noon - every single day.

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, she'd be the last person to call for an investigation, although I do have to give her props for calling for her own head, and for having Lorena Boebert tweet her location during the tourist visit - good bipartisan collaboration on that, don't you think?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would all the Rs have rushed to Trump's defense, or traipse off to Mar-a-Lago and kiss the ring or whatever it is they do there?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would Kevin McCarthy have made all those phone calls?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, how come it was Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and not a teeming horde of progressives who insurrected?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, explain why she'd be trying to stop the certification of an election her party's candidate won?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, why were so many notable Republicans at the Stop the Steal rally, egging people on to go to the Capitol and "stop the steal"?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, why are so many right-wingers pleading guilty and blaming Trump?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, why didn't Trump play the hero and call in the National Guard? He didn't - Pence did. Trump was not in control of anything other than the TV remote and the hamburders after his rally.

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, don't you think Trump would have been out on the stump, every single day, all day, blaming her and them, instead of merely telling The Big Lie over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, why in the world did Trump tell the insurrectionists that they were very special and he loved them?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would Trump be complaining about how the media didn't fairly report the size of the crowd?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would any of the alleged Republicans be asking Trump for pardons?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would Steve Bannon have said all hell is going to break loose on January 6th? How would he know?

• If it was Pelosi and the FBI, would Donny Jr and Laura Ingraham have sent the texts they did, to Meadows and others? Or would they have been texting and tweeting about Pelosi?

And finally, circling back around to Hannity: If it was Nancy Pelosi and the FBI behind all of this, would he have sent the texts he did? You know, the ones to Mark Meadows, and Kayleigh ImaNinny?

Of course the hell not. He would have been texting Kevin McCarthy and laying out a plan to take over the House, NOW, without further ado, instead of talking about his bad feelings about what was going to happen on January 6th, and how it wouldn't go the way Trump thought it would, and saying that Trump should never mention the election again (nice try, Sean) and laying out a plan for Meadows and ImaNinny to try and save Trump's fanny.

I could keep going here, but there's no point - because if people actually believe that it was Nancy Pelosi and the FBI, they will never entertain another option.

They will never entertain facts.

They will never believe anything ill of the man who, today, attacked his own daughter and the AG who saved his presidency.

And who admitted it was his insurrection.

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 11/20/20

Wouldn't it be fun to blog like the woman in charge of the GAO tweets?  GSA Administrator Emily Murphy's now-deleted tweet from Wednesday (you can see it here) - the first one she had sent since the election - inspired me to compose the following very important and very confusing sentence.  

Had;j aow4ith pa984ty;;o gnz;dkfn.

Maybe someone good at creating codes could make it mean something - you know, like those tattoos on Jane Doe's body on Blindspot all had some deeper meaning awaiting discovery? 

In addition to that weird tweet, Administrator Murphy has gotten attention from members of the House, some of whom sent this request. They're looking for an "immediate briefing" on Murphy's "ongoing refusal" to give the Biden-Harris team the access - and funds - they're afforded under the President Transition Act. And, they're interested in some recent actions by the president, too. 

We also have questions about last-minute actions taken by the White House related to GSA leading up to the election. On September 2, 2020, president Trump issued an executive order modifying the-longstanding order of succession within GAS to place the General Counsel as fourth-in-line to perform the duties of Administrator after you, your Deputy, and your Chief of Staff. 

And then, less than a week before the election, Trump installed a new GSA General Counsel - imagine that! So, it would seem, there is no limit to the lengths to which he will go to interfere in, well, pretty much anything and everything. 

Speaking of interfering, it seems former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon is again more interesting in his post-White House life than when he was there. This time, the FTC is interested in hearing from him regarding the Cambridge Analytica data breach from a while back. 

The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to force former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon to testify under oath as part of the agency's investigation into Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data breach.

Seems they want to interview Bannon as part of a probe into whether he should be found personally liable for his involvement in the breach, for which Facebook was fined $5B and two of the firm's executives settled with the FTC

And, speaking of "only the best people," there's the president's 40th 4th press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, who's made so many recent campaign appearances and 'personal' appearances on Fox News, I'm sort of shocked that she even remembered where the White House press briefing room is. But she did, and she was in full campaign mode today, seemingly trying to convince people that there wasn't an orderly transition of power in 2016. Which is a bald-faced lie, except that it can't be a lie, because she said she'd never lie. So now, I don't know what to think (OK, seriously - of course I know what to think, and you do too, right?)

Also, on the not knowing what to think front, I wonder why we're not :hearing from the folks who are always complaining about bail reform...I mean, Kyle Rittenhouse, who gave someone money to purchase what was described as an assault-style weapon, then got a ride from his home in Illinois to neighboring Wisconsin, where he used the gun to kill two and injure another man, has been released after posting a $2M cash bond.  Why is he out on bail? Why aren't people outraged by that? 

I'd put Bannon, McEnany, and Murphy on the bad week list, but Rittenhouse, with the help of the millions of dollars raised for his legal defense, definitely had a good week.

Also of note this week:

• Rudy Giuliani, who found the right place to hold his press conference, and then wilted under pressure (bad week);
• the president, who claimed (again) that he won the election, boasting of his 74 million votes; too bad he lost (bad week):
• Dolly Parton, who donated a million bucks to coronavirus efforts, and ended up helping to fund the Moderna/BioNtech vaccine (good week);
• BioNtech, the German company I've heard pronounced four or five different ways in the past several days. They've got a bit of an uphill battle on that front, I think (mixed week);
• SpaceX, and NASA, and especially the four astronauts who very smoothly went from earth to the International Space Station (great week); and
• Staff Sgt. Phillip Gray, who wrote 270 notes for his daughter - one for each day he'd be deployed - which his wife put in his daughter's lunchbox. (GREAT week!)

I hope it's easy for you to tell what kind of week you had.

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 9/25/20

Yippee -- it's Friday! Let's make our lists, OK? Good week folks over here, bad week folks over there. 

Starting with the president and his decision that will come tomorrow, unless it's today, but more likely tomorrow, but sometime before the day after tomorrow, we'll hear who will be the person on whom the onus of ensuring a Trump victory in a contested election will fall.  

Will it be Catholic mid-westerner Judge Amy Coney Barrett? She's said to be the front-runner, but it might be Cuban-American Floridian Judge Barbara Lagoa, about whom Trump has said,

"Well, she's excellent. She's Hispanic. She's a terrific woman, from everything I know. I don't know her. Florida; we love Florida. So, she's got a lot of things. Very smart. 

She's got a lot of things, including a Florida address, and we know how important that is to Trump. Heck, he'd nominate a ham sandwich if he thought that would get him votes...

Sticking with the election, and Florida, where we know the president has already promised to invest $13 billion of taxpayer money in Puerto Rico in order to encourage Puerto Rican transplants to vote for him help rebuild the island nation from the devastation he previously helped with paper towels, we learn that there are two kinds of vote-buying: the kind that don't get investigated, including blatant presidential actions, and the kind that do, including Michael Bloomberg's raising of $20 million or so in funds to pay the fines of released felons who would otherwise not be able to vote. Now, there are a few things that we should pay attention to here:

• An estimated 80 percent of felons in Florida are too poor to pay off their fees and fines, meaning they would be unable to vote. Most owe between $500 and $5,000.
• The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a non-partisan group, collects money to help felons pay off their court costs, fees, and fines - and it's legal to do that in Florida. court fees, fines or restitution.
• Florida has a law that says, "No person shall directly or indirectly give or promise anything of value to another intending thereby to buy that person’s or another’s vote.”

Now, is there any guarantee that any of these former felons are even going to register to vote, much less consider the payment of their fines as a bribe in order to coerce them into voting for Joe Biden and not Donald Trump? Nope.  That said, Bloomberg's focus on this particular voting bloc, along with his promise to invest $100 million to help Biden win Florida, are complicating the situation. 

And, it's also interesting to note that the aforementioned Judge Barbara Lagoa agreed with the decision that the repayment of fees and fines, added by the Republican legislature after the state overwhelmingly voted to allow former felons to vote, was legal.  I guess she does have a lot of things, as Trump said. 

Sticking with legal stuff, a federal judge has barred the administration from ending the 2020 Census next week, and has instead said they must continue counting through October 31st. The decision, which comes after the Administration has been all over the map in terms of extending or ending the count, who gets counted, and so on, was cheered by both local governments, who rely on a full and accurate count to get their fair share of federal funding, and by civil rights groups fearful that their constituents would be undercounted.  Here's Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, on the decision:

The court’s decision affirms our contention that changes to the census schedule will irreparably harm the integrity of the 2020 Census and result in a devastating undercount of vulnerable communities. Career officials at the Census Bureau opposed the shortened schedule precisely for these reasons, and to avoid the perception of political manipulation, and we are confident that integrity and equity will win out over the partisan vandalism that threatens our democracy.”

"Partisan vandalism" is a great term for what's going on, isn't it? 

There was some good news out of Washington, though. The president, in one of his customary blowhard moments, refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power, saying we'd have to see what happens or some such nonsense. At the same time, he said

Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful - there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it, and you know who else knows it better than anyone else? The Democrats know it better than anyone else. 

In response, the Senate passed a non-binding resolution - by unanimous consent - in which the Senate affirms "its commitment to the orderly and peaceful transfer of power called for in the Constitution of the United States" and supports the concept that "there should be no disruptions by the president or any person in power to overturn the will of the people of the United States. 

 Yay, them - but how sad that it's even necessary to consider the need for something like this...

And finally - back to partisan vandalism and vote buying -  I'll close with this tweet from Kayleigh McEnany, the president's press secretary.

I can only surmise that the millions of Medicare beneficiaries in Florida will not be receiving these payments, because it's illegal to buy votes there...

TGIF, everyone.

Highlights from the RNC: Day Three

And, here's the carefully curated highlight reel from night three of the Republican National Convention; you can check out nights one and two if you missed those.

There're only two speeches I'm highlighting. Oh, there were many more given, as you can see from the transcript linked above. There were politicians, first responders, people with pre-existing conditions, political candidates, sports heroes, and more.

There was even someone accused of insider trading, which I thought was pretty cool for the 'Law and Order' party, although I'm sure the arrest of the speaker earlier this month was all part of the grand deep-state hoaxspiracy to bring down the Chosen One, ,or something. What is it they say,W1GOTDEWAGOTDE (When One Goes Off the Deep End, We All Go Off The Deep End)?

There yet another Trump to take the stage - Eric's wife Lara, who I think is the fourth and next-to-last Trump to speak (first daughter Ivanka still on the docket, of course.)

There were lies, misstatements, misquotes, and stories galore to tug on your heartstrings, some of which had some connection to the president, and some where that connection was hard to find.

One of the former? Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

I’m Kayleigh McEnany. You may know me as a supporter of President Trump, but tonight I’m here to share with you how he supported me...

Actually, most of us regular Americans watching probably know her as his fourth Press Secretary, right? And most of us were not aware that she once called him a showman, a racist, a RINO - and even a progressive (!!!), so that was kind of enlightening, and you know, almost made poring over the transcripts and video clips worthwhile.

And there was the opening prayer, delivered by Rabbi Shubert Spero, formerly of Young Israel of Greater Cleveland.Or, was the opening prayer delivered by Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of a Jewish group that speaks out for America’s “Judeo-Christian ethos," among other things?

Well, seems it was the latter - and the RNC feed had it wrong, and I almost had it wrong as a result. Honestly? Absent the dreaded red misspelled word indicator, I was right there with them accusing the wrong Rabbi of delivering the second of they two highlights I'm featuring. 

Here are a few of Spero's comments, which completely sum up the viewpoints and the platform of  Trump Republicans.

Oh Lord, you have granted us certain natural rights, such as the right to speak freely, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, as well as religious freedom, the right to assemble and the right to self-defense.

Only in America have these God-given rights so flourished and been categorized as belonging to the people, embodying the very essence of our government. Father, we pray that this outlook and mindset, this form of government continues, as has been our history, especially now when to our horror, it is being challenged.

So, we pray that God gives strength and health to our President, who has splendidly demonstrated daily his determination to defend and maintain the God-given rights of our citizens as enshrined in our constitution, and in our declaration, eloquently passed down through our Judeo-Christian tradition.

President Trump has stood up fearlessly against those who are corrupting the term social justice, so as to deny Americans their birthright and these divine gifts. May God protect him. May God bless all those in government and among our citizens who seek to honor, defend and preserve our heritage.

I want to do those things, and I believe in social justice, but it would seem my ideas are different from Spero's. Does that mean God will ignore me? And I assume that Spero is fine with that, wouldn't you agree? There's I'm guessing yes, and there's quite a bit of evidence that Trump Republicans feel the same way, so forgive me for not climbing aboard the Trump Train just now, OK?

And in case you're wondering, I'll have Mike Pence's full acceptance speech, along with Trump's (coming later tonight), for you in Friday's TGIF.  That's the exact same treatment I gave to the remarks from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden - in full, without comment or snicker, even if those remarks are 'to my horror.'

I guess that means I'm "splendidly demonstrating my determination" to defend those rights about which the Rabbi waxed so eloquently.

Good on me.

TGIF 7/17/20

Yay - it's Friday, time to build the good week/bad week list.

Let's start with Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp is suing at least one mayor, and threatening to sue others, I guess, for implementing mask orders.

From the article linked above,

Mayors in Atlanta and other Georgia cities deepened their defiance of Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday, saying their requirements for people to wear face coverings will remain in place, even after the Republican governor explicitly forbade cities and counties from mandating masks... Officials in at least 15 Georgia cities and counties had ordered masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and many were angry at Kemp for swatting down their efforts. 

Kemp's position? Local governments can't make rules that are either more or less restrictive than those of the state, even when the order applies to local property, such as Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. According to the article, Kemp along "leads the State of Georgia in its fight against the worldwide novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic." A fight in which, it would seem, he has laid down his arms and waived his white flag high.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has said

A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.

Stay tuned on this one.

Staying in the south, let's go to Kentucky, where 87 protesters were arrested and charged with multiple misdemeanors - and a felony for sitting on the lawn at the Attorney General's house, wearing matching masks and t-shirts, chanting "Breonna Taylor, say her name!" and refusing to leave when asked. According to a police spokesman,  in addition to the misdemeanor charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct,

Due to their refusal to leave the property and their attempts to influence the decision of the Attorney General with their actions, each person was charged with Intimidating a Participant in a Legal Process.

Typically, intimidation charge arises when someone is trying to intimidate a judge, victim or witness via a threat of some kind - the stuff we see on TV cop shows - not to trying to 'influence' a politician by peacefully protesting.  And it's interesting to compare the reaction of police to this protest and the one in Frankfort, the state capitol, a few weeks back, where

Carrying American and Confederate flags, around 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the rally in Frankfort, where they denounced Gov. Andy Beshear's "arbitrary" and "unconstitutional" response to the coronavirus pandemic. Speakers at the event — including four state representatives and one state senator, all Republicans — criticized the governor for hurting workers and businesses by refusing to immediately reopen the economy.

Another stark difference with this non-influential protest?"Several protesters wore military-style gear and carried guns... and referred to the governor as "Adolf Beshear."

At yet another protest, a man hung the governor in effigy, which in pretty much any circumstance could be considered a threat or an act of intimidation. He did lose his job, but no charges were filed. On the same day, several protesters went to the governor's mansion, banged on the window and told him to come outside. There, too, it doesn't seem that charges were filed - but a security fence is being built around the mansion, to protect the current and future occupants from those seeking to influence the residents.

And people wonder why other people are upset?

In a lighter vein, if that's the appropriate term to use, Kayleigh McEnany, the president's press secretary, attacked Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. 

McEnany brought up Lightfoot twice in a recent briefing: first, when she was asked if the president put fighting COVID-19 as his "biggest public priority." McEnany said yeah, he was focusing on that, and other things, "namely, Democrat cities not controlling their streets; namely, the mayor of Chicago — people dying in her — in her — on the streets of her city every weekend. And the President sent her a letter saying, “You must secure your city.”

The second time? Someone asked about police brutality and Trump's CBS interview comments, wondering how he can fix the problem if he doesn't acknowledge it.

I’ve listed for you the names of these kids who have died across this country. It is unacceptable, and under this President, he’ll take action. And the derelict mayor of Chicago should step up and ask for federal help because she’s doing a very poor job at securing her streets.

In response, here's the mayor's tweet. 

And finally, have you heard about the GOP's Rapid Response dude? His name is Steve Guest, and it seems he spends his time trying to attack Dems on Twitter, and getting royally mocked for his efforts.

First, there was his attack on a young Senator Biden, sitting at a Redskins game holding his two young boys in his arms - clearly a loving, doting dad.  Needless to say, the contrast between Biden and Trump in that regard is, well, stark. And the response was swift in response to the now deleted tweet.

More recently, Guest took aim at Senator Elizabeth Warren - not for her DNA challenges, but because she jokingly said that Bailey, her dog, was going to vote for Biden in November.

And everyone believed her, right? I mean, clearly, having your dog vote is a brilliant way to help cheat Donald Trump out of being re-elected, right?

And by everyone, of course, I mean Steve Guest, the Rapid Response guy. Who fired off a tweet calling out the senator for joking about voter fraud, which "is no laughing matter." And he's right.

Voter fraud is no laughing matter. McEnany has voted by mail from her parent's address for years, although she doesn't live there. Vice President Mike Pence voted by mail from the Governor's mansion in Indiana, where we know he doesn't live - and I suspect someone else does live there. And even the president himself tried to use the White House address as his permanent address to vote in Florida. On his second attempt, he used the Mar-a-Lago address, which is a business - not a private residence - which would also be voter fraud.

Anyway, while we're not laughing about Bailey Warren voting, maybe we could get some new business cards made up? You know: Steve Guest, @GOP Vapid Response?

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 5/1/20

Good week, bad week time. Or, maybe it's just 'week' time.

We know all about the "very good people" seeking to liberate their states, either for the right to have a pedicure or get a tattoo, or for the right to exercise their constitutional rights to do something, maybe march on their statehouse in camo carrying big guns, wearing masks, bandanas and other face coverings, even as they wail that having to wear masks, bandanas and other face coverings are among the things they have the right not to do. 

Of course we don't know which of the people protesting are "very good people" and which are less good; we just know that the president says they are "very good people" (as if he knows any of them personally) and so they must be, right?

We know they are "patriots" because they tell us they are and because they tell us they're holding an American Patriot Rally, so that must be the case, right?  And because "patriots" are the ones who listen to the president who calls for a state to be 'liberated' from what? From a governor who is following the president's guidelines?

Speaking of the president's guidelines, one might think that the person the president put in charge of the president's White House Coronavirus Task Force would heed the CDC guidelines on wearing a mask in public. Or, that said person the president put in charge of the president's White House Coronavirus Task Force would let his wife know that he wasn't going to follow the guidelines about wearing a mask because he wanted to look people in the eye, so that she didn't tell people he wasn't wearing a mask because he didn't know he was supposed to wear one.

And speaking of mixed signals and maybe speaking of lying, Kayleigh McEnany, the president's press secretary, held her first briefing today. In it, she promised she would never lie to the press. Some have suggested her promise lasted around 15 minutes, so we'll have to see how that plays out as things go forward. On the plus side, she held a press briefing, something that last happened 400 days ago.

Also today, Joe Biden was interviewed on Morning Joe by Mika Brzezinski about allegations of sexual assault made by Tara Reade. Biden repeatedly denied the allegations, saying what Reade says never happened. He has also called on the secretary of the Senate to search information in the National Archives for any complaint filed by Reade.

And in a strange twist, the president came to Biden's defense, a move that will probably annoy his own campaign and Republicans who, as we know, will do anything to defend Trump and harm his opponents.

Good week? Bad week? Hard to tell sometimes, isn't it?

TGIF, everyone.