"I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas."
The Winner of the Electoral College(WOTEC) Christmas Eve on Twitter
No he didn't. He can't.
Maybe Trump is just indulging his usual penchant for hyperbole which is a fancy word for lying. Of which he is setting a record that Stalin would have envied.
But the only people that can request and/or accept bids on government contracts are Contracting Officers of the United States of America. Trump is not a CO as they are referred to. And I know something about this having been in front of the Board of Contract Appeals-a fun bunch presiding over an equally amusing area of the law-three or four times.
Now, insofar as WOTEC's whoppers go, this is relatively minor. After all, the AP fact checked (And why do we even refer to it thusly anymore? Why not "lie check?") his statement and found that CONTRACTING OFFICERS for Homeland Security and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the latter of which really knows what they are doing) had indeed awarded contracts to build a section of a "wall/fence/Star Trek force field/whatever euphemism they are using to make-it-more-palatable-to-the-Democrats-who-are-fixing-to-shut-down-the-party" down there on the border. So he was at least in spitting distance of verifiable reality.
But WOTEC has no more legal authority to "give out" contracts than you or I do. Unless Gentle Reader happens to be a Contracting Officer of the United States of America who has stumbled across these chronicles while looking online for the Federal Acquisition Regulations or FARS as us government contract types call them. To whom I say "welcome." And "why aren't you furloughed like everybody else?"
Why do I even care? Certainly, the perfervid types that populate his "base" who mostly reside within the states that thought firing on Fort Sumter was a damn good idea at the time do not. And so while I think such examples of truth bending on the part of WOTEC present teachable moments, I have no illusion that these words will mean a rat's ass to those that have drunk the Kool-Aid and do not care to know how their government works. And that saddens me.
But here's something else for the Trumpers to consider. There is a damn good chance the Wall hoped for by the xenophobes in that orbit may not get built. At least not the Hadrian's Wall thing envisioned by those who never heard of Hadrian or his particular wall. In the first place, and not to overstate the obvious, there is a new sheriff in town January 1. If WOTEC doesn't get his 5 billion before the Democrats take the Oath, and it looks like he will not, he ain't gonna get it. Because-and here's another fun fact about how government works, spending bills originate in the House. Which is now awash in blue.
Secondly, and nobody ever seems to think about this very much, but the Government is going to have to acquire title to much of the land upon which the wall would be situated through its power of Eminent Domain. Which means litigation with the land owners over what constitutes "just compensation" for the taking of their property. The 5th Amendment is your friend. Look it up. And I don't know what the Chief Judges in the Federal Courts presiding over these cases are doing, but Judge Miller here in the Eastern District of Arkansas has stayed all civil cases in our District due to-guess what?-the shutdown. Wouldn't surprise me if civil cases are stayed in the Courts along the proposed Wall as well.
Criminal cases must go on because folks charged with criminal have the right to a "speedy trial." The 6th Amendment is your friend if you are a criminal. Look it up.
Finally, if there is indeed a just God, which most of the time I feel can be ascertained by coin toss as much as consulting scripture, He or She will smile upon us and ensure that WOTEC is returned to civilian life in 2020 where he can start his own cable news network. When he is not dodging service of process or giving depositions, that is.
And probably going through a divorce if the old adage regarding the scorned wife is still on the books.
But I think it highly improbable that the next President, be they Red or Blue is going to be much inclined to throw 5 billion dollars at a mostly symbolic problem. Especially given the headaches he or she are likely to inherent from the former occupant of the Oval Office.
Monday is New Year's Eve. For God's sake use some sense out there. Best to be home before 10 if that late. The cops will be looking for folks to take downtown. If you don't believe me there are any of a number of people of my acquaintance that can explain it all for you.
Seriously. Be careful. I'm off to Tennessee for a few days.
See you next year.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
MY SUNDAY FEELING
" I am proud to shut down the government for border security."
President Trump. In front of rolling cameras.
As I type this, we are about 5 hours away from the closure of most of the United States Government of the refusal of Congress to include 5 billion (that's billion with a "B") in funding for a wall on the southern border of the US. The House, which is made up of a lame duck majority of Republicans, approved the funding and sent it on to the Senate where it is, by all accounts, DOA.
Which is what Nancy Pelosi precisely warned Trump about in their unintentionally televised meeting in the Oval Office a week or so ago during which he popped off about being willing to take the blame for this current impasse much to the undoubted horror of Mitch McConnell.
At this point let me tell a story told to me by a friend who knew somebody who worked for Robert F. Kennedy.
"Bobby always said you didn't have to be smart to be a politician," so the story goes. "But you did have to be able to count."
Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer can count. The votes for funding for the wall weren't there then. They aren't there now. Or that's my guess at least as I write this.
Maybe this is why the Winner Of The Electoral College (WOTEC) decided to sign another Continuing Resolution which would have funded the government through February. Or so he said at the time.
But after catching hell from FOX/TASS and the likes of the reptilian Ann Coulter WOTEC caved and welshed on his earlier agreement to sign the CR. And here we are. "Just In Time For Christmas" as the ads for the season say.
I used to work for Uncle. I have been through 3 or 4 shutdowns. I have written about them before. No need to go back there.
So here's the larger problem I have.
As far as I can tell, the only "advice" WOTEC pays any mind to is what emanates from FOX/TASS and other right wing media along with polling data from his "base." Which means the goddamn country is pretty much being run by 30% of the electorate and windbags like Rush Limbaugh.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to reduce our military presence in Syria. There aren't many good reasons to do so without consulting our allies, our military and diplomatic professionals, or the leaders of Congress. As if this were not sufficient chaos for one Christmastide the government is shut down (I am finishing this up on Saturday).
Shut down over a wall the Mexicans will not pay one nickel for in the event that it gets built at all. And let's be clear. WOTEC campaigned on the promise not just that the wall would be built, but on the preposterous notion that the Mexicans would pay for it. Shut down over a wall Trump couldn't get full funding for while the Republicans had control of both Houses of Congress. And now he damn sure knows he won't get it come January when the Democrats take over the House after the ass kicking the Republicans took in the mid-term election.
The game changes for WOTEC in January. At least in the House where the potential exists for WOTEC's life-and the lives of certain members of his inner circle- to become unpleasant in the extreme.
And perhaps then, once we get past this latest pique induced national crisis (and we will get past it) we will see who is running this country.
Our elected officials? Or Sean Hannity?
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Sunday, December 09, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
Twitter locked State Senator Jason Rapert out of his account the other day. And he evidently continued to exist despite no longer having his favorite platform with which to pontificate from Faulkner County.
If there's one thing that sets Rapert off about as badly as gay folks its Muslims, neither of which exist in what could be described as abundance in his District. Nonetheless, what got Rapert the heave-ho, from Twitter, at least for the time being, were certain comments he put out to the Twitterverse in which he expressed his alarm over the participation of Muslims in the recent midterm election.
On November 30, he shared an article from something called DC Clothesline which stated that 95% of Muslim voters participated in this year's midterm election. To which he added, "Do you want them ruling everything in America?" Then according to KTHV's website he tweeted the following to another Twitter user "If you read this article and don't see real political concerns then you have a problem perceiving news."
As if the foregoing was not sufficiently idiotic, Rapert decided to consult history's immortal scroll, or the section that suits his purpose at least, to respond to someone who criticized him for these views,"[I]t was not a group of Baptists, Jews or Mormons who hijacked planes and killed thousands of innocent people on 9/11/2001-they were all radical Muslims."
Well.
It goes without saying that these statements are irresponsible. But I'm going to say it anyway. These statements are irresponsible. And here's why. In the first place, you have a Constitutional right to be a Muslim. Or a Baptist, a Jew or a Mormon to use his examples of "a group" of non-Muslim folks that most assuredly did not fly planes into those buildings on 9/11. Or you can be nothing at all if you so choose. Accordingly, your right to vote may not be conditioned upon your religious persuasion or lack thereof. As long as you otherwise qualify to cast a ballot, the fact that you are a Scientologist, or a Muslim may not be taken into consideration. It is irrelevant.
But to Rapert and his ilk, Muslims participating at a high level in participatory democracy raises "real political concerns." And this is at the heart of voter suppression schemes. Not election fraud, of which there is precious little, and certainly none on a widespread systemic level. Not even in Louisiana. And not the prospect of American courts dishing out Sharia law if the Muslims "take over" either. The fact that the electorate is becoming more diverse and that it resembles crackers like Rapert and me less is the "political concern" that I'm betting is the real driving force behind these paranoid tweets.
It also goes without saying that Rapert lives in a "context free" zone. But let's go ahead and apply some to his tendentious "9/11" trope. Yes, the hijackers were Muslims. But they, along with Osama bin Laden, were also predominantly Saudis. Whom we consider an ally. Albeit one whose Crown Prince has evidently ordered, and thus far has gotten away with, the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist that was critical of him. Is this, or 9/11, representative of Islam? Of course not. No more than not hijacking planes is representative of the views of the Southern Baptist Convention.
No more than the guy that shot up the synagogue in Pittsburgh represents white males. Or Christianity.
And no more than Jason Rapert does come to think of it. And thank God for that.
Of course, Rapert has vowed to appeal Twitter's decision to knock him off the air. And meanwhile back at the Ledge, a Republican representative filed a bill that would allow legal action against social media companies that "censor" content posted by users. There being evidently no matters currently more pressing than this in the Lower Chamber.
Maybe I should get a Twitter account. The more I'm thinking about it the more I'm basically good with suppressing the Scientologist vote. Mine is a voice that needs to be heard. Which makes me a megalomaniac.
And also makes me a hypocrite I suppose. Good deal. I will fit right in.
If there's one thing that sets Rapert off about as badly as gay folks its Muslims, neither of which exist in what could be described as abundance in his District. Nonetheless, what got Rapert the heave-ho, from Twitter, at least for the time being, were certain comments he put out to the Twitterverse in which he expressed his alarm over the participation of Muslims in the recent midterm election.
On November 30, he shared an article from something called DC Clothesline which stated that 95% of Muslim voters participated in this year's midterm election. To which he added, "Do you want them ruling everything in America?" Then according to KTHV's website he tweeted the following to another Twitter user "If you read this article and don't see real political concerns then you have a problem perceiving news."
As if the foregoing was not sufficiently idiotic, Rapert decided to consult history's immortal scroll, or the section that suits his purpose at least, to respond to someone who criticized him for these views,"[I]t was not a group of Baptists, Jews or Mormons who hijacked planes and killed thousands of innocent people on 9/11/2001-they were all radical Muslims."
Well.
It goes without saying that these statements are irresponsible. But I'm going to say it anyway. These statements are irresponsible. And here's why. In the first place, you have a Constitutional right to be a Muslim. Or a Baptist, a Jew or a Mormon to use his examples of "a group" of non-Muslim folks that most assuredly did not fly planes into those buildings on 9/11. Or you can be nothing at all if you so choose. Accordingly, your right to vote may not be conditioned upon your religious persuasion or lack thereof. As long as you otherwise qualify to cast a ballot, the fact that you are a Scientologist, or a Muslim may not be taken into consideration. It is irrelevant.
But to Rapert and his ilk, Muslims participating at a high level in participatory democracy raises "real political concerns." And this is at the heart of voter suppression schemes. Not election fraud, of which there is precious little, and certainly none on a widespread systemic level. Not even in Louisiana. And not the prospect of American courts dishing out Sharia law if the Muslims "take over" either. The fact that the electorate is becoming more diverse and that it resembles crackers like Rapert and me less is the "political concern" that I'm betting is the real driving force behind these paranoid tweets.
It also goes without saying that Rapert lives in a "context free" zone. But let's go ahead and apply some to his tendentious "9/11" trope. Yes, the hijackers were Muslims. But they, along with Osama bin Laden, were also predominantly Saudis. Whom we consider an ally. Albeit one whose Crown Prince has evidently ordered, and thus far has gotten away with, the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist that was critical of him. Is this, or 9/11, representative of Islam? Of course not. No more than not hijacking planes is representative of the views of the Southern Baptist Convention.
No more than the guy that shot up the synagogue in Pittsburgh represents white males. Or Christianity.
And no more than Jason Rapert does come to think of it. And thank God for that.
Of course, Rapert has vowed to appeal Twitter's decision to knock him off the air. And meanwhile back at the Ledge, a Republican representative filed a bill that would allow legal action against social media companies that "censor" content posted by users. There being evidently no matters currently more pressing than this in the Lower Chamber.
Maybe I should get a Twitter account. The more I'm thinking about it the more I'm basically good with suppressing the Scientologist vote. Mine is a voice that needs to be heard. Which makes me a megalomaniac.
And also makes me a hypocrite I suppose. Good deal. I will fit right in.
Saturday, December 01, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
My phone buzzed yesterday morning at @2:30 AM. Since I now have college aged kids in my life (and in my occasional charge) I put on my glasses so I could better see the name of the Regional Detention Center that had awakened me.
It was not a jail. It was the New York Times service I subscribe to informing me of the passing of George H. W. Bush. He was the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd. He was 94 and had been in poor health for some time.
I was a young lawyer in my thirties when Bush was sworn in. This being prior to the Internet (as I recall) I had a small TV that I brought to the office so we could watch the inauguration in the conference room. I had no particular use for his predecessor in office who he served as VP and so I had very little use for him.
Further, Bush (or his minions such as Lee Atwater) had run an absolutely filthy and racist campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. About whom, it occurs to me, little has been heard about since. I do not know if he is still alive even. Has anyone ever slipped into irrelevance as quickly as he?
OK. Maybe Ross Perot. But I digress.
I did not hold out much hope for the presidency of a man who sold out like that. Even one who spoke of "a thousand points of light" in that inaugural address that we watched in the conference room.
And in retrospect I was mostly wrong. Indeed, 41 is positively Lincolnesque in comparison to the historical aberration that currently infects the Oval Office.
As I reflect on his life and career, the words "decency, humility and devotion to duty" came to mind and I wrote them on my scratch pad. He was a decorated Navy flier, the last President who actually served in combat. He understood war. And he resisted those who urged him to chase Saddam into Iraq after the coalition of 35 countries he put together expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
His bone-headed son would have done well to ask his father why he stopped at the border. But I'm guessing here that 43 didn't want to know. Or that Dick Cheney wouldn't let him ask the question.
Bush should have been able to ride his wartime popularity into a second term. But a skilled young governor from Arkansas hung Ronald Reagan's economy around his neck. And George Herbert Walker Bush was turned out by the voters.
Our presidents tend to look better to us over time and in the rear view mirror. Even Nixon is credited with opening the door to China and in creating the Environmental Protection Agency. I think Bush will be remembered for those attributes that I scraped on the paper. Even if for no other reason than he was not trying to build a hotel in Kuwait City when he went after Saddam.
Here's another reason that I came to like George Bush. SNL's Dana Carvey spent the 4 years of the Bush Administration doing a spot-on impression of 41 as a high church patrician goofball. Bush thought it was hilarious. So much so, he invited Carvey to perform at the White House. You can tell a lot about a man if he can laugh at himself.
Could you imagine President Heel Spurs inviting Alec Baldwin over?
Rest in Peace Mr. Bush. And thank you.
It was not a jail. It was the New York Times service I subscribe to informing me of the passing of George H. W. Bush. He was the 41st President of the United States and the father of the 43rd. He was 94 and had been in poor health for some time.
I was a young lawyer in my thirties when Bush was sworn in. This being prior to the Internet (as I recall) I had a small TV that I brought to the office so we could watch the inauguration in the conference room. I had no particular use for his predecessor in office who he served as VP and so I had very little use for him.
Further, Bush (or his minions such as Lee Atwater) had run an absolutely filthy and racist campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. About whom, it occurs to me, little has been heard about since. I do not know if he is still alive even. Has anyone ever slipped into irrelevance as quickly as he?
OK. Maybe Ross Perot. But I digress.
I did not hold out much hope for the presidency of a man who sold out like that. Even one who spoke of "a thousand points of light" in that inaugural address that we watched in the conference room.
And in retrospect I was mostly wrong. Indeed, 41 is positively Lincolnesque in comparison to the historical aberration that currently infects the Oval Office.
As I reflect on his life and career, the words "decency, humility and devotion to duty" came to mind and I wrote them on my scratch pad. He was a decorated Navy flier, the last President who actually served in combat. He understood war. And he resisted those who urged him to chase Saddam into Iraq after the coalition of 35 countries he put together expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
His bone-headed son would have done well to ask his father why he stopped at the border. But I'm guessing here that 43 didn't want to know. Or that Dick Cheney wouldn't let him ask the question.
Bush should have been able to ride his wartime popularity into a second term. But a skilled young governor from Arkansas hung Ronald Reagan's economy around his neck. And George Herbert Walker Bush was turned out by the voters.
Our presidents tend to look better to us over time and in the rear view mirror. Even Nixon is credited with opening the door to China and in creating the Environmental Protection Agency. I think Bush will be remembered for those attributes that I scraped on the paper. Even if for no other reason than he was not trying to build a hotel in Kuwait City when he went after Saddam.
Here's another reason that I came to like George Bush. SNL's Dana Carvey spent the 4 years of the Bush Administration doing a spot-on impression of 41 as a high church patrician goofball. Bush thought it was hilarious. So much so, he invited Carvey to perform at the White House. You can tell a lot about a man if he can laugh at himself.
Could you imagine President Heel Spurs inviting Alec Baldwin over?
Rest in Peace Mr. Bush. And thank you.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
My Sunday Post Thanksgiving and Razorback Apocalypse Feeling
We had Thanksgiving at my cousin's house. Just as we have for years. Only this year we took the bird at her house just around the corner from my new house in Upper Hillcrest rather than at her country manse in Heber.
Of course, this was news to me and the change of venue wasn't communicated to me until I was halfway down Cedar Street to the I-630. Oh well, I guess cleaning the car up and filling it with gas are good things unto themselves.
I was actually good with this. I love going to Heber but driving back in the darkness from Quitman to Greenbriar is a pain in the ass. Besides, being 5 minutes away from my house means that I could make it in time for the kickoff for the annual hatefest between Ole Miss and Mississippi State known as the Egg Bowl. Other schools have rivalries. But these two have despised each other worse than poison for about a hundred years. There are other family splintering rivalries to be sure: Auburn-Alabama and Ohio State-Michigan being the more prominent ones.
But the latter two may be generally relied upon to keep the action between the lines and before the whistle. This is not the case whenever the two major combatants in the Magnolia State get together on the field of glory. And there are people like me who can't on this every year.
And last Thursday night did not disappoint when a bench clearing low yield riot broke out between the student-athletes in the 3rd quarter. 157 unsportsmanlike conducts were handed out which is a first in my experience. And 3 Bulldogs and I Rebel were ejected for good measure by the thoroughly harried and undoubtedly pissed officiating crew.
Say what you will about such low commerce on the field of glory. At least Ole Miss and Mississippi State is a real rivalry. Unlike the contrived one between Arkansas and Missouri. Which brings me to last Friday's debacle in Columbia wherein a good but not great Tiger club plastered a toothless Razorback team 38-0. Which means they limped across the finish line 2-10 with no wins in the conference. You've got to wonder if Chad Morris wishes he had stayed in Dallas.
I am nothing if not a fair man. When Wally Hall is right he's right. And as he put it "[T]he University of Arkansas football program is broken. The wheels are off. It is bankrupt."
I am pretty much agnostic about the Razorbacks. I want them to be good because I have so little use for everybody else in the SEC West. I have watched them all my life. I've seen them good and not so good. But I've never seen them non-competitive. And that's what they are now. This is how bad they are. The bowl-eligible Tulane Green Wave could beat them. That's a sentence that could never have been written since 1982 or so.
Bit what are they going to do about it? Where's the floor? And will the Razorback brass in the AD's office try to get in the dirty arms race to get them competitive in that division. That's going to be tough. The Aggies have more money than anybody but Texas. And they don't have to fool with them anymore. They fill their stadium every Saturday as does everybody else in that division. Indeed the Aggies taking Kyle Field resembles a scene from a Lini Riefenstahl movie while Arkansas is going into hock to expand Razorback Stadium and they can't fill it now.
So what are they going to do? I don't know. As Wally says, the football program is broken.
Happy Thanksgiving Hog fans! Be thankful for basketball and baseball.
Of course, this was news to me and the change of venue wasn't communicated to me until I was halfway down Cedar Street to the I-630. Oh well, I guess cleaning the car up and filling it with gas are good things unto themselves.
I was actually good with this. I love going to Heber but driving back in the darkness from Quitman to Greenbriar is a pain in the ass. Besides, being 5 minutes away from my house means that I could make it in time for the kickoff for the annual hatefest between Ole Miss and Mississippi State known as the Egg Bowl. Other schools have rivalries. But these two have despised each other worse than poison for about a hundred years. There are other family splintering rivalries to be sure: Auburn-Alabama and Ohio State-Michigan being the more prominent ones.
But the latter two may be generally relied upon to keep the action between the lines and before the whistle. This is not the case whenever the two major combatants in the Magnolia State get together on the field of glory. And there are people like me who can't on this every year.
And last Thursday night did not disappoint when a bench clearing low yield riot broke out between the student-athletes in the 3rd quarter. 157 unsportsmanlike conducts were handed out which is a first in my experience. And 3 Bulldogs and I Rebel were ejected for good measure by the thoroughly harried and undoubtedly pissed officiating crew.
Say what you will about such low commerce on the field of glory. At least Ole Miss and Mississippi State is a real rivalry. Unlike the contrived one between Arkansas and Missouri. Which brings me to last Friday's debacle in Columbia wherein a good but not great Tiger club plastered a toothless Razorback team 38-0. Which means they limped across the finish line 2-10 with no wins in the conference. You've got to wonder if Chad Morris wishes he had stayed in Dallas.
I am nothing if not a fair man. When Wally Hall is right he's right. And as he put it "[T]he University of Arkansas football program is broken. The wheels are off. It is bankrupt."
I am pretty much agnostic about the Razorbacks. I want them to be good because I have so little use for everybody else in the SEC West. I have watched them all my life. I've seen them good and not so good. But I've never seen them non-competitive. And that's what they are now. This is how bad they are. The bowl-eligible Tulane Green Wave could beat them. That's a sentence that could never have been written since 1982 or so.
Bit what are they going to do about it? Where's the floor? And will the Razorback brass in the AD's office try to get in the dirty arms race to get them competitive in that division. That's going to be tough. The Aggies have more money than anybody but Texas. And they don't have to fool with them anymore. They fill their stadium every Saturday as does everybody else in that division. Indeed the Aggies taking Kyle Field resembles a scene from a Lini Riefenstahl movie while Arkansas is going into hock to expand Razorback Stadium and they can't fill it now.
So what are they going to do? I don't know. As Wally says, the football program is broken.
Happy Thanksgiving Hog fans! Be thankful for basketball and baseball.
Technical Difficulties
My MacBook Pro is not getting along with my home network. Hopefully will have it resolved soon.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
Nothing to report today except we celebrated Joe's birthday last night with steaks on the grill and football on the tube. Not a bad way to observe such a milestone.
Will check in later.
Until then, talk amongst yourselves.
Will check in later.
Until then, talk amongst yourselves.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
I'm not usually one for political theatre. However, it's not every day that professing Nazis hold a rally on the Capitol steps. And so why heck yeah I had to go.
My initial thought when I saw the battalion of police in riot gear separating the Boys in Black from the protestors that had gathered to scream invective at them was that the First Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees free speech and the right to peaceably assemble to petition for redress of grievances can be a problematic thing under circumstances such as these.
My second thought as I blew into my hands to ward off the cold was that if I were to choose between right wing nutbar extremist groups, I would choose to be a Klansman on a day like yesterday. After all, the KKK gets to wear robes and hoods and they burn crosses. That would provide some warmth at least.
So what happened? Not much and that was undoubtedly due to the overwhelming presence of law enforcement. There would be no repeat of Charlottesville on their watch. And thank God for that. Because I got the distinct impression that both sides were trying to incite the other to do something stupid.
The Nazis-all 13 of them-mocked the protestors as Communists and crazies who were out to deny them their rights of free speech. They reminded me for all the world of the mouthy clown at the fair who sits in the chair over a vat of water while he insults the contestants who are throwing baseballs at the bullseye that will cause the trap door to open beneath him. The discourse was about as sophisticated.
So what were the Nazis protesting? There were speeches about Afrikaners losing their farmland which I wouldn't think would be much of a hot button topic around these parts. But their main beef, as far as I could tell, was how the two party system in this country was rigged against the working man. Indeed, they referred to both Hillary and Trump as products of the bourgeoisie. They used that word. I don't rightly know if anybody else there was fascinated at the notion of Nazis spouting Marxist rhetoric. But I was.
As far as the opposition went, they just hated the Nazis. They were mostly young folks. Their signage was all over the place. Rights for Immigrants. Down with hate. Feminists. LGTBQ. Remember the Holocaust. One thing you can say about the other guys. They don't have focus issues.
And the things the guys at the barricades yelled at the guys on the steps caused me to blush. And I have a pretty high threshold for what I consider to be the unspeakably vile . I felt sorry for the cops that had to listen to it. Not because the insults were directed at them but because some things ain't worth it even at time and a half.
A fellow civilian who joined me there for a bit said she saw some Antifa flags. Maybe so. I wouldn't know Antifa from Auntie Mame. But if they were there they are idiots. And the Nazis that graced our town yesterday were a bunch of punks with a confused ideology who probably couldn't be counted on to knock over a lemonade stand.
I call it a draw.
Somebody asked me last night if I felt as if I were in any danger while I was out there exercising my 1st Amendment rights to take pictures and to generally make a nuisance of myself.
"Yes," I said. "These young kids chain smoke like crazy. I didn't think I would get my ass kicked. But I thought I might asphyxiate. Or acquire second hand lung cancer."
The Nazis likely convinced nobody to join their team. The Antifa types didn't scare them off. It was pointless political theatre fought to a draw under the adult supervision of the LRPD and Capitol Police.
Just sound and fuhrer signifying nothing you might say.
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
So. What now?
In what can only be considered by reasonably sane observers to be a referendum on the first two years of the Trump Administration, the Democrats were actually able to screw it together well enough to take back control of the House of Representatives last night.
It must be surmised that Donald Trump has had better nights. And I'm not even thinking about Stormy Daniels. After all, the Dems now have control of the the very same apparatus that the Republicans used to make their lives miserable the last 8 years. But if the flaxen haired winner of the electoral college (WOTEC) was remotely concerned by the prospect of the Democrats having the power to make subpoenas rain down from the sky come January he didn't let on during today's news conference.
"But they can play that game, but we can play it better, because we have a thing called the United States Senate..." and "They can look at us, they can look at us, then we can look at them and it'll go back and forth."
Not exactly reminiscent of Lincoln's "We must be friends" speech, non?
I'm not one to give political advice. Or golf or relationship advice. But here's what I would advise my donkey friends.
I know that some of you are itching to haul Jared and Junior in front of a committee. I know you have got Articles of Impeachment ready to go. Your chief counsel on the Intelligence Committee has the Commissioner of the IRS on his speed dial. This is the moment you have lived for.
You need to cool your jets.
You won control of the House because your message of medicaid expansion, coverage for preexisting conditions, tax relief for the middle class and job creation resonated with voters, many of whom voted for WOTEC 2 years ago. You need to keep your eye on the ball.
And get this. In today's presser WOTEC semi-offered you guys an olive branch today when he said he wanted to work with you on infrastructure. As we have discovered in the last two years there are many things Donald Trump knows absolutely nothing about. Things like American history, the 14th Amendment, and how to run casinos for profit.
But the man knows how to build stuff. You might ought to take him up on his offer before TASS, I mean FOX News, mystically instructs him over the airwaves to pull it off the table.
Besides, unless the Special Counsel has video of Putin handing Trump a briefcase full of money along with the key to a hotel room occupied by a 17 year old hooker there is absolutely no way that the Republican controlled Senate will convict him of having committed "high crimes and misdemeanors." Revisit what happened when the Republicans tried to do that to Bill Clinton. The votes aren't there and will likely never be there. At least based on what we know now. You guys are pols. You know how to count votes. Give it up for now.
Keep your eye on the ball. You want to get even with Trump? Fine.
Roll up your collective sleeves and do government for the greater good of all Americans.
That's really what you were sent there to do. Don't foment a Constitutional crisis until it is goddamn time to do so.
Good luck.
Thus endeth the sermon.
It must be surmised that Donald Trump has had better nights. And I'm not even thinking about Stormy Daniels. After all, the Dems now have control of the the very same apparatus that the Republicans used to make their lives miserable the last 8 years. But if the flaxen haired winner of the electoral college (WOTEC) was remotely concerned by the prospect of the Democrats having the power to make subpoenas rain down from the sky come January he didn't let on during today's news conference.
"But they can play that game, but we can play it better, because we have a thing called the United States Senate..." and "They can look at us, they can look at us, then we can look at them and it'll go back and forth."
Not exactly reminiscent of Lincoln's "We must be friends" speech, non?
I'm not one to give political advice. Or golf or relationship advice. But here's what I would advise my donkey friends.
I know that some of you are itching to haul Jared and Junior in front of a committee. I know you have got Articles of Impeachment ready to go. Your chief counsel on the Intelligence Committee has the Commissioner of the IRS on his speed dial. This is the moment you have lived for.
You need to cool your jets.
You won control of the House because your message of medicaid expansion, coverage for preexisting conditions, tax relief for the middle class and job creation resonated with voters, many of whom voted for WOTEC 2 years ago. You need to keep your eye on the ball.
And get this. In today's presser WOTEC semi-offered you guys an olive branch today when he said he wanted to work with you on infrastructure. As we have discovered in the last two years there are many things Donald Trump knows absolutely nothing about. Things like American history, the 14th Amendment, and how to run casinos for profit.
But the man knows how to build stuff. You might ought to take him up on his offer before TASS, I mean FOX News, mystically instructs him over the airwaves to pull it off the table.
Besides, unless the Special Counsel has video of Putin handing Trump a briefcase full of money along with the key to a hotel room occupied by a 17 year old hooker there is absolutely no way that the Republican controlled Senate will convict him of having committed "high crimes and misdemeanors." Revisit what happened when the Republicans tried to do that to Bill Clinton. The votes aren't there and will likely never be there. At least based on what we know now. You guys are pols. You know how to count votes. Give it up for now.
Keep your eye on the ball. You want to get even with Trump? Fine.
Roll up your collective sleeves and do government for the greater good of all Americans.
That's really what you were sent there to do. Don't foment a Constitutional crisis until it is goddamn time to do so.
Good luck.
Thus endeth the sermon.
Sunday, November 04, 2018
My Sunday Feeling
Hello again.
It's me. I'm back for the first time since May of 2017. For the mathematically disinclined that's over a year.
Where have I been? Nowhere and everywhere all at the same time. Or so it has seemed to me. Since you last heard from me, I've gotten married, bought a house, fixed mine up to put on the market, moved a family from Conway to the People's Republic of Hillcrest and probably other stuff that I can't recall off the top of my head.
Of course, the most convenient excuse for my radio silence is that the planning for all of these matters took up a good bit of my time. And that would be true. But it's not like I've been working 8 to 5 during that period of time. And even at that, when I think back on it I did a lot of my blogging back when I was under a lot of stress at work. I guess it was therapeutic. Probably not for the general readership, but for me.
No it was something else. Something that I can't quite give a name to. But if you were to put a gun to my head-and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't-I would have to say that I was, for lack of a better word, disheartened.
The last entry on these immortal scrolls was May 1, 2017. The President had just floated the breathtakingly preposterous notion that "[H]ad Andrew Jackson been a little later you wouldn't have had the Civil War." It was as depressing now as it was then that any American President could be so ignorant of history. And that he would give voice to it.
But as Dilbert's boss said the other day, "Did you know that some idiots think they're smart?" Most idiots do. And unfortunately, my own painful experience with malignant narcissists led me to ruefully predict at that time of my last post that there would be no end to other inane and wrongheaded pronouncements from the idiot in the Oval Office who thinks he's smart and who is oblivious to the fact that his every utterance in front of a microphone or note pad is a matter of public record. That or he doesn't care.
So I did the manly thing and ran away. I was disheartened.
And recent events haven't eased that any. With the mid-terms coming up, Trump has decided to put more red meat on the grill to get the base hungry for dinner. He promised a tax cut for the middle class before the mid-terms which would be quite the trick seeing as how Congress isn't in session. He has stated that he can-basically-amend the Constitution of the United States by Executive Order which is indeed a legal theory floating around out there. However, it is one that is basically subscribed to by crackpots. And we are sending troops to the border to repulse a "caravan" of immigrants who won't likely be within spitting distance of Arizona for at least a couple of months.
Now Andrew Jackson might have approved of that.
So why crank up the old blog again? Have I recently become "heartened?" Hardly.
I don't know.
Maybe it's this. As I type this I am looking out the window at the green space of the park across the street. I have been practicing law a little bit recently from this spot in my new house. It is quiet and peaceful here in the early mornings. Sometime I see deer in those woods just off my new lawn.
My books and my camera stuff are in here. A lot of my stuff is up on the wall. The desk and chair from the old house are here against the window. It kinda looks like me in here.
I'm not real thrilled with the way the world is going. But I feel like this is a good place to take up writing again.
And so I am back. Let's see what happens.
It's me. I'm back for the first time since May of 2017. For the mathematically disinclined that's over a year.
Where have I been? Nowhere and everywhere all at the same time. Or so it has seemed to me. Since you last heard from me, I've gotten married, bought a house, fixed mine up to put on the market, moved a family from Conway to the People's Republic of Hillcrest and probably other stuff that I can't recall off the top of my head.
Of course, the most convenient excuse for my radio silence is that the planning for all of these matters took up a good bit of my time. And that would be true. But it's not like I've been working 8 to 5 during that period of time. And even at that, when I think back on it I did a lot of my blogging back when I was under a lot of stress at work. I guess it was therapeutic. Probably not for the general readership, but for me.
No it was something else. Something that I can't quite give a name to. But if you were to put a gun to my head-and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't-I would have to say that I was, for lack of a better word, disheartened.
The last entry on these immortal scrolls was May 1, 2017. The President had just floated the breathtakingly preposterous notion that "[H]ad Andrew Jackson been a little later you wouldn't have had the Civil War." It was as depressing now as it was then that any American President could be so ignorant of history. And that he would give voice to it.
But as Dilbert's boss said the other day, "Did you know that some idiots think they're smart?" Most idiots do. And unfortunately, my own painful experience with malignant narcissists led me to ruefully predict at that time of my last post that there would be no end to other inane and wrongheaded pronouncements from the idiot in the Oval Office who thinks he's smart and who is oblivious to the fact that his every utterance in front of a microphone or note pad is a matter of public record. That or he doesn't care.
So I did the manly thing and ran away. I was disheartened.
And recent events haven't eased that any. With the mid-terms coming up, Trump has decided to put more red meat on the grill to get the base hungry for dinner. He promised a tax cut for the middle class before the mid-terms which would be quite the trick seeing as how Congress isn't in session. He has stated that he can-basically-amend the Constitution of the United States by Executive Order which is indeed a legal theory floating around out there. However, it is one that is basically subscribed to by crackpots. And we are sending troops to the border to repulse a "caravan" of immigrants who won't likely be within spitting distance of Arizona for at least a couple of months.
Now Andrew Jackson might have approved of that.
So why crank up the old blog again? Have I recently become "heartened?" Hardly.
I don't know.
Maybe it's this. As I type this I am looking out the window at the green space of the park across the street. I have been practicing law a little bit recently from this spot in my new house. It is quiet and peaceful here in the early mornings. Sometime I see deer in those woods just off my new lawn.
My books and my camera stuff are in here. A lot of my stuff is up on the wall. The desk and chair from the old house are here against the window. It kinda looks like me in here.
I'm not real thrilled with the way the world is going. But I feel like this is a good place to take up writing again.
And so I am back. Let's see what happens.
Friday, November 02, 2018
Overtaken By Events
OK. Maybe not Sunday. Had to wear the lawyer hat longer than expected today and got a million things going tomorrow as well.
So maybe not Sunday. But soon....
So maybe not Sunday. But soon....
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Fair Warning
TMFW is returning to the Internets on Sunday.
We are fit, tan, well-rested and living with somebody who is on our ass about taking up the pen (or keyboard as the case may be) again.
So we are coming back. And we will lose the "editorial we."
We are fit, tan, well-rested and living with somebody who is on our ass about taking up the pen (or keyboard as the case may be) again.
So we are coming back. And we will lose the "editorial we."
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