TWGB: So, Guaranteed Frauds, Right?

There is a limit, I think, to how much news a person can freaking absorb in a damn day. Two associates of Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, were arrested at Dulles with one-way tickets to Vienna.  They had travelled to Vienna on business all the time, apparently. It's where Dmitry Firtash is residing. Why, it's completely normal to go to Vienna! Rudy Giuliani was just about to go there himself! It's probably something that came up in conversation when Giuliani met with them the Day before when they had lunch at the Trump Hotel in Washington. You know, the day before they got arrested at the airport! For campaign finance violations. Could happen to anyone! 

It was just a bad day for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. They made it all the way to the airport! And SDNY wouldn't have had to have even rushed everything if they weren't apparently attempting to flee the country? The rotten luck!

So, what kind of campaign finance violations? The kind where so much foreign money is pouring into a Trump SuperPAC and also to GOP politicians and it seems to have influenced the removal of the US Ambassador to Ukraine. You could say they're the type of people who like to give in a world where so many people like to receive. How influential were these guys? Well, it seems like they dined with the president and met all kinds of people. (Trump says he doesn't know them, but he says that about a lot of people he tries to distance himself from.)

Anyway, it's the funniest thing. Giuliani was working for Mr. Parnas' company, Fraud Guarantee,* to provide legal advice and stuff, but Parnas was also kind of working for Giuliani to get information that "proved" Ukraine was behind the DNC hack and to also dirty up Hunter Biden. It sounds all very symbiotic. You know, like intestinal flora. 

It's really striking that all this has such a Ukrainian flavor, what with Trump's completely perfect phone call still reverberating in the news and all (who really knew a little old phone call could be so alarming!) but I don't know.  It really seems to hammer home that the attempts to get the information on Ukraine involvement in the 2016 election and to investigate Biden were very serious (not joking) and that Trump considered removing the ambassador a favor to his good friends in Ukraine. 

Because that's the thing with Trump's "jokes"--they can be acted on by people in, say, Ukraine or maybe China, and it's hard to say he didn't have a constructive intent to collude with them in accomplishing goals favorable to himself. 

Naturally, because of the impeachment inquiry, there guys are so subpoenaed, as is Energy Secretary Rick Perry regarding Naftogaz. I'm guessing Giuliani should consider himself also under investigation. The neat thing about the arrest and the subpoena for Fruman and Parnas though is that they were asked nicely to turn over some documents to the House regarding what they've been doing with Giuliani, and their lawyer (a former lawyer of Trumps!) John Dowd, sent a letter explaining that the House was getting squat. It claims attorney-client privilege, maybe?

I mean, they were working with a lot of attorneys, right? A lot of attorneys were working for them.  (Weirdly enough, Paul Manafort's lawyers represented them Thursday). And the work they were doing for Mr. Giuliani was in connection with his representation of President Trump. I dunno. I think they will have to comply with the subpoenas but I am not a lawyer myself nor do I like to play one on the blog. I hear there may be some crime-fraud exception to the whole attorney privilege thing anyway. But heck, if they can't say they were helping with Trump's "case" maybe they can claim executive privilege since they seem to have been advising the "shadow policy" on Ukraine that Fiona Hill is supposed to be testifying about next week. 

* This is such a good name for a company--Fraud Guarantee. Does it do what it says on the label? The mind reels.

Rick Perry May Not Be All that Bright

JUST IN: Rick Perry suggests fossil fuels help prevent sexual assault https://t.co/JQsuTpCGea pic.twitter.com/dKkoZxKgmN

— The Hill (@thehill) November 2, 2017

The idea that light prevents sexual assault is just dumb--hell, people have been sexually assaulted in broad daylight! But to use the already really dumb idea that people don't get assaulted because the lights are on to support a particular industry is, let's face it, insultingly dumb: You fiends! Attacking the righteousness of the fossil fuel industry! Will no one think of the assault victims?

It's making light of a grim damaging reality, I think, because sexual assault happens to be in the news lately.

But hey, politics. It's not like it's nuclear science or anything, right?

A Little Economics Lesson

DOE Rick Perry at coal plant:"Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow."

— Taylor Kuykendall (@taykuy) July 6, 2017

Just to use coal as an example, if I had a gas furnace, I could have several tons of coal at my disposal at a very low price, and want exactly none of it, because my heat does not depend on coal. I would have to consider whether it would be worth it to me to switch from a city utility to a coal delivery scheme where I get a coal burning furnace for some reason. But coal being available and cheap isn't necessarily going to sell me if it isn't a reliably-priced, environmentally-better choice than what I'm already using. I suppose you could find a market for condom-vending machines in Vatican City if you had the gumption to try it, but I think there are a lot of problems with a model of "supply creating demand".

This is All So Very Wrong

PEOTUS Donald Trump's cabinet, etc., picks have, in retrospect, come to not actually look like the "best people" as was foretold in the Prophetic Book of Big Daddy Trumpisms.  For one terrible example, it turns out that being Secretary of the Department of Energy actually has a lot to do with maintaining our nuclear infrastructure, both regarding weapons stockpiles and energy generation, which is probably why the last handful of Energy Secretaries were actual scientists. Trump didn't have the least idea what the Energy Department did. Neither did former Governor of TX and Dancing with the Stars contestant Rick Perry. Rick Perry once actually wanted to do away with the Department of Energy.  Having no idea at all about what it actually did. Now he will sort of know.  But I think the actual comprehension, arriving this late in his life, sort of renders him at very poor odds of understanding his new role in this department which is actually very important, and which he deemed dispensable.

He chose snaggle-toothed former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani, who utterly fucked up ops during 9/11, to be his cyber-security guy, and it turns out he is shit at cyber security.  His Health and Human Services pick, the guy who will oversee the death of the ACA, seems to have benefited from insider trading which is very illegal. Another of the people Trump has selected to help with Technology issues is apparently a hardcore racist.   

Betsy DeVos is actually really unfit as all hell to be involved with Education. She doesn't know the difference between testing for proficiency vs growth. She doesn't seem to know that most kids in America attend public schools, or that public schools are responsible for living up to our ideal of educating disabled youth. I think she's awful.

But even while Trump is presiding over a crisis situation where he isn't appointing staff in line with the operational needs, he engages in Twitter Wars of shocking uselessness. All this while his own legitimacy is questioned. Because it has to be. There is too much information out there to pretend his legitimacy can't be questioned.  The sad finale to all this being, there will be  no end of scandal after this inauguration goes down.

Former Governor Rick Perry--He's With Stupid.

JUST IN: Rick Perry will support Trump https://t.co/bVeebf34NF pic.twitter.com/PId4aFiHFf

— The Hill (@thehill) May 5, 2016

You know who was anti-Trump in the Summer of 2015? Rick Perry was.

You know who's gonna support Donald Trump now? Rick Perry is.

Oops.

Remember that old saying about how Democrats want to fall in love and Republicans fall in line? Well--here's the falling in line. How do you get from "He's a cancer!" to "I can live with cancer"?

He's also open to being his running mate so...

Trump isn't Bothered

The simple story is that what happened to John McCain, a pilot shot down and captured by the Viet Cong, is a story of extraordinary military awareness and courage--he could have received preferential treatment, and could have received superior medical care stateside that might have been far better than the treatment he had. He might have been able to be reunited with his family and avoid five years of imprisonment, torture, and various levels of fuckery--but he chose not to, because even if he was an Admiral's son, he understood that getting preferential treatment was conduct unbecoming the officer that he was. He dealt with the hand war put in front of him. It's really hard to take away from that--it was decency, leadership, and an assertion of principal hard to fathom.  It was understanding that no matter how long the road in front of him as a POW, he was setting an example.

I don't always agree with John McCain, the politician. But do I respect the hell out of John McCain, the POW? Of course. You can't not. He looked at a possibility of forever in enemy hands, and he just dealt with it. He stared agony in the face. He lost years off his life.

Oh, Rick Perry. We see you.

So, this is certainly one way a person running for president during this century can talk about what happened in Charleston:

Perry and Malzberg kicked off the discussion of the shooting by attacking President Obama for mentioning the failure to pass gun reform. Perry, a GOP presidential candidate, said that the president is trying to “take the guns out of the hands of everyone in this country.”

“This is the MO of this administration, any time there is an accident like this — the president is clear, he doesn’t like for Americans to have guns and so he uses every opportunity, this being another one, to basically go parrot that message,” Perry said.

Instead of talking about guns, Perry said, we should be talking about prescription drugs: “Also, I think there is a real issue to be talked about. It seems to me, again without having all the details about this, that these individuals have been medicated and there may be a real issue in this country from the standpoint of these drugs and how they’re used.”

I know Perry has since come back around and said he meant "incident" not "accident"--but people can do some wild things on prescription drugs. I heard of one damned fool who tried to run for president for a while all goofed up on back pills.  I know he's a proponent of loosey-goosey gun laws, too, but he can't possibly believe "gun control" equals "taking away all the guns, melting them down, and turning them into a ginormous peace sign statue", right? And I wonder why he wasn't too interested in talking about race? I mean, I don't actually wonder, but...

TX Gov. Rick Perry Under Indictment

 

Things are looking a little discombobulated for Rick Perry, insofar as he's been indicted for a couple of felonies by a grand jury.  Here's some details:

The case stems from Perry’s vetoing the $7.5 million biennial funding for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit last year. He threatened to withhold the money unless District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg resigned

Okay--it's all there. It is legal for him to veto funding. It is not legal for him to use that as leverage against someone. Out loud. Where the people can hear. 

See, this is the abuse of power part--he used his veto to specifically affect a given official's behavior.

Now I am not born yesterday, so I realize an indictment is not a conviction, and even if convicted, his sentence is negotiable and due to his being Governor, it will likely not be totes the pits.  But I still have to suppose this is not so great for the whole running for President thing. I think. Unless federal indictment becomes the new totally hot. It could happen.

"This is not Theater."

It's not, of course. The influx of migrants to the border states and the conditions under which they have come are definitely tragic, but this situation is definitely not theater. This is why I look basically askance at people who want to blame things like Obama's policies regarding deporting "Dreamers"--that is actually besides the point. There is something going on in several Central American countries that is spurring this. These young people coming here aren't reading US papers and aren't adept at figuring out our policies. They aren't sucked up in trying to understand our politics. They just know what the US is supposed to be--and sometimes even is. A land of opportunity.
And we can set aside whether we seem to be, whether our young people have job opportunities and whether middle-aged folks feel secure in the jobs we have--if we have a future that doesn't involve gang warfare (I guess these kids never heard about Detroit or Chicago or Los Angeles back in the day or on any bad weekend) and doesn't make them obliged to get caught up in some kind of foul business, maybe these young people just want that--not being hassled, hustled, raped, coerced or locked up for breathing. Maybe they understand what freedom is, and like that ideal.

That photo above lacks a little context. Maybe Perry is experiencing a serious moment and the president is being glib--but I doubt that. Maybe Obama clued Perry in on how his criticisms regarding the border fall short of acknowledging what is already being done. Maybe Rick Perry always has a face like an unconditioned baseball glove.

But when I see this:

I see this. Even if it is not theater, the media has a theater setting for these matches of opinion. It isn't theater but it is. Are you sitting? Then Look and See.

Drone on, you crazy diamond.

I don't know why the reporting on Texas Governor Rick Perry's complaint regarding the insufficiency of the Obama Administration's border security misses an important detail--but it sure seems to.

See it is pretty interesting that Governor Perry wants there to be drones at the US/Mexico border, and it's very true that he's been saying so since 2010. In fact, it was a thing he mentioned a handful of times when he was running in the 2012 presidential primary.  But the thing of it is--we have drones at the border. We have had them. Since 2010.  We've been increasing the use of them, too.

Now, it is true that we use them pretty much for surveillance and not as a "deterrent", but I'm not sure what Perry is saying we should be doing that's different. They are Predator drones. They are the same equipment we've been icing terrorists with. I guess we could have more of them.  In a small way, I know that if we used a drone to fire on a drug cartel member, I would personally probably be pretty much as tear-free as a baby shampoo ad.

But the thing of it is--we do actually have drones at the US/Mexico border. We've had them since 2010. Thus far, they haven't really been a deterrent, as such. And I tend to think that if we fired on unaccompanied minors on the Mexico side, we'd have something of an international incident, so that can't possibly the kind of deterrent Rick Perry is talking about.

I sure wish I knew what he meant. I'm not entirely sure he knows what he means, though, so that's pretty even.

Oh, Hold Up There, Mr. Man

The other evening, TX state Senator Wendy Davis performed a multi-hour filibuster that, for now, has killed a draconian anti-choice bill. This has impressed an awful lot of people (me included), but you know what? It didn't impress Governor Rick Perry. Let's see what he had to say:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry today slammed Democratic State Sen. Wendy Davis, who filibustered a GOP-backed 20-week abortion ban this week, for not learning from “her own example” as a teen mother. 

“She was the daughter of single woman, she was a teenage mother herself,” Perry said today at the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas. “She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. 

“It’s just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters.”

Huh. Why, it's as if Governor Perry believes he knows better than Sen. Davis about the lessons she should take away from her own life experiences. It could just be that she has come to the conclusion, among other things, that a woman is the best judge of what choices are best for her own life, body and future, and that it isn't the place of the government to reduce those choices with excessive regulations.

It also seems like Governor Perry could stand to learn from his own life experiences, because among them are the simple fact that he sometimes doesn't seem to know what he's talking about when he talks about, say, teen pregnancy (or really, lots of things).  Also, when he indicates that "every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential", it seems like he might mean full potential--without little luxuries like a good education or affordable health care access.  And his concern for how much "every life matters" is a bit of a head-scratcher when posed against his record as the US governor who has presided over the most executions. (Or, he could bother to realize that women's lives matter, and that this bill could endanger some of their lives.)

In short, Perry could stand to borrow a nice cup of shut up just for that. But WAIT! That wasn't all he said. Try this out:

 “The louder they scream, the more we know that we are getting something done.”

Referring of course to the pro-choice opposition to this bill. Well, either you're "getting something done"--or maybe you're doing active harm. Something like that. But really? "Louder they scream"? In a debate that has been largely about women's voices being heard, this jackass wants to say that women raising their voices in protest--in a scream!--is like music to his ears.  If screaming means he's thinks he's doing something right--what the hell kind of noise do you have to make to tell him he's doing something wrong?

Rick Perry has left the race.

Alas, poor Perry--we knew him, Texans!
Never more will he derp such derptastic doltitudes,
as dawdled forth from those slack jaws
and mouth-breathing lips. He is gone,
Back to Texas (You poor bastids)
And will not befuddle our ears more
with talk of Turkey, or justices eight, or
that other thing, whatever it was....oops.

Do these Jackboots Make me Look Tough on Immigration?

Ah, it seems like only yesterday that TX Governor Rick Perry was under fire for referring to other Republicans as "heartless" for their hard-line positions on immigration.  And yet as of yesterday, he's named Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as his campaign's chairperson in AZ.

Now, Sheriff Joe might be a little busy, what with running for his sixth term in this position (even if it sometimes seems like he's not all that great at the job, actually) but I don't really think he's going to have to do much for the candidate, anyway, except look tough. He looks tough, doesn't he?

Well, there you go.

Virginia may actually be doing something right, here.

Out of the GOP Clown Car of 2012 Presidential contestants, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul managed to get on to the VA GOP primary ballot.  I'm willing to view this as a feature of the strict ballot rules in VA, not a bug.

I've long (as in, since he announced) been of the opinion that Newt Gingrich, for one, was not a serious candidate just because the office of the Presidency doesn't offer him anything better than the long con he's been running since leaving the House throughout his political career. Sure, there might be some gossip that Gingrich left his first wife expressly because she wasn't young and pretty enough to be First Lady,  but considering that actually taking office, regardless of what Gingrich might have wanted in the past, would entail not lobbying, or gathering big ol' speaking fees for speeches, suggests that Leader of the Free World might be a step down from "Teacher of the Rules of Civilization, and sometimes Science Fiction Writer".  Did I mention that Gingrich lives in Virginia, the state where he is not on the ballot because....duh? Because that is important. He's not on the ballot in the state where he lives--when Mitt Romney and Ron Paul figured it out without living there. This is not Pearl Harbor, people. This is just piss-poor planning. Because he never looked ahead and thought he'd still be here? Dunno. But he won't be the GOP candidate, will he? (I dunno, will he?)

Perry has not been impressive at all since he entered the race. I think he may have wanted it, but it was still a vain and impulsive decision on his part.

As for the others who couldn't figure it out--well, it's either that, or they just aren't as popular as they thought they were. So there.

Leaving Romney and Paul. There's a choice for you, without the possibility of write-in.  The way I see it, eliminating protest votes and throw-away votes may make the exercize more meaningful. You are voting for someone who may actually be the nominee. No protest vote.  No sympathy vote.

They have a point; I don't think it will make the VA vote meaningless.  The shallow ballot means Virginians are more likely to be voting on who will actually be the nominee.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Continues To Suck

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently found by the US Justice Department to have violated the rights of Latinos and has fired back in typically "it's all about me" fashion by claiming that it's his civil liberties that are being violated by being called accurate descriptors like racist and incompetent.

As I've covered before--incompetent is probably a kind way of describing his performance as a lawman.  

Anyway, even presidential politics are playing a part in Sheriff Joe's drama. He's accused the Obama Administration of concentrating on him because an attack on him is somehow going to win Latino votes. (Which of course is what the rancher stepped in, as TPM, who've been all over this, remind, the Justice investigation began during the Bush Administration.)   But at least one GOP presidential hopeful loves Sheriff Joe enough to climb into the muck:

Rick Perry:

“I don’t know what all the details are, but I do know this: nothing surprises me out of this administration. This administration oversaw ‘Fast and Furious,’” Perry said during an interview with Fox News on Thursday. ”I would suggest to you that these people are out after Sheriff Joe. He is tough.”


(Snip.)

“When I’m the president of the United States, you’re not going to see me going after states like Arizona or Alabama; suing sovereign states for making decisions, particularly because the federal government has been an abject failure at securing the border,” he said.

Sovereign states, eh? Such neo-Confederate Tenther tripe. As for the "abject failure" nonsense, the Obama Administration has overseen an increase in deportations, while illegal immigration to the US is slowing. 

Wow, it's just like Rick Perry has no idea what he's talking about, and is supporting a right-wing racist jerk-machine just because it sounds all tough and law-and-order-y! Imagine that!

Check my last post, then see this Rick Perry Piece of Bullshit

So what he's saying is, people who have different sexual orientations can serve this country in the military, and yet---um--wow, big stupid lie, of course anyone can pray in class using their "inside voice". Duh. Even I used to do it when I sort of thought there was a higher power when I was attending public school in the back-when.  Also, I sang in choir during Christmas concerts, singing Christmas carols back then, so, I think we sort of still acknowledge this country's Christian privilege. And I'm pretty sure this is still how things are done today. So, um, Obama is the current president of a free nation where people can pray and celebrate Christmas and serve in the military regardless of orientation, but a Perry Christianist presidency might make people a little less free, because he's anti-gay and anti-"notChristian"?

Was this supposed to be an advert in his favor? 

Okay.  All great reasons to never vote for Rick Perry.

One, two, many government agencies.

So, wait.  An intellectually-incurious, somewhat vapid, presidential candidate is positive that some government agencies have to go, and that there's three big problem agencies he's fixin' to get rid of, but he just isn't sure of which ones they all are?

And that he forgot what one was called was the problem? Because, to me, that someone thinks he can just fold up whole agencies as if they weren't actually doing anything useful at all, when it seems like he wasn't quite sure what they were created for, and pretty much seems to just be picking'em out of a hat because it scores points with the government haters is the big problem--but yeah.  Looking stupid at a debate is pretty bad, too.

I think I would have a beer with this man.

Not vote for him, though.  But Gov. Rick Perry sure does come across as very spirited in this montage from a recent speech:

Just a good ol'boy never meaning no harm....

So, I was totally thinking of putting up a post about Governor Rick Perry and the whole birther and speculating about a flat tax thing, but last night I had a big old case of the "fuckitalls" and said, "You know what--I'll wait.  Let me just see where he's heading with the flat tax and the birther stuff and then I'll put a post up."

Right I was.

See, I am not overly impressed with Rick Perry as a candidate. Nope. The ringing chimes of right-wing wonderment at his entree into the race were thunderous, but he never brought the lightning (because lightning is bright! Draw your own conclusions!)  Rick Perry came off his Response Jesuspallooza entering the primary and expecting to be the front-runner and he got it, but then squandered his lead with botched debate responses. Suddenly, "Rick Perry" became 2012's version of Fred Thompson 2008 (I don't know who first said that--TBogg? Charles Pierce? Anyway, I argee and am stealing it--he's Fred Thompson with bells on.)   The beneficiary of his stupidity was Herman Cain, whose great gimmick was his 9-9-9 flat tax plan. (Now available for 9-0-9 in limited areas!)

The normal response of any good politician would be to savage the 9-9-9 plan and explain how it would be disastrous and stupid and would never work. This was sort of the response at the last debate, though hardly enough. Rick Perry's response to this stupid, gimmicky flat tax is: "I got to get me one of them."

What happens in Vegas can stay the hell in Vegas, for all I care.

So, last night's umptieth Republican primary debate thus far went something like this (for a smart crowd of live-blog commentary).  Me, I don't think I can get interested anymore.  The lot of them, from 1950's sitcom dad Mitt Romney to wacky neighbor Michele Bachmann to smarmy kid nobody really likes Rick Santorum, they are just cut-outs to me. They are just different styles of the same talking points.  Do I care if undocumented workers cut Romney's lawn?  Do I need to care if Perry is squishy soft on immigrant kids getting an education or whatever the line against him is?

No. It might be marginally interesting if the candidates began to realize they need to put Herman Cain and his silly 999 plan away now, and it might sort of fascinate me that Romney laid a hand on Rick Perry as if to say, "Oh, calm yourself" in a paternalistic alpha-male gesture that was a bit more dominance than I expected from the usually more laid-back candidate--but so what?  In the larger scheme of things, all of these candidates are awful and have their unelectable qualities. The only highlight in my seeing these debates is knowing these--these happy few, these fevered egos, these temporary fameballs of the election moment--are what the Republican voters have to choose from.

And I don't have to choose from among them at all, at all.

(Insert rollicking laughter of the slightly giddy and relieved, mocking and exulting, and also sort of sarcastic type right here. It's a very complicated type of laughter, I've got.)