American Carnage, GOP/Trump-Style

"This American carnage stops right here and right now." Remember those words? They were among the many lowlights of Trump's "some weird shit" Inaugural Address. Among other things, it referenced the nation's "young and beautiful" students whose potential was being crushed by gangs and drugs and crime and stuff.

That speech was a manifesto for an administration that operates as if Opposite Day Is Every Day. Everything in it, and the 13 months that have followed, has been at odds with promised intents. Keeping students safe would necessarily mean that students wouldn't be safe.

Watching the unfolding TV news of the Parkland Massacre, I wondered what a pre-Columbine time-traveler from 20 years ago would think upon "apparating" next to me watching the traumatic events. Gawking at the awful scenes of high school students running with hands up while heavily armored police prepare to enter buildings. Listening to commentary that this is just the latest of assault-weapon-ized mass shootings as graphics appear that depict recent slaughters.

And on the bottom, the "tickler" banner runs along with news of the President's lawyer paying a porn star $130,000 to keep quiet about having had sex with the POTUS, the same President who is under criminal investigation for cooperating with a hostile foreign power in order to win the presidential election. The same President who seems to have an on-going secret relationship with this hostile foreign power. The same President who is actively dismantling the power and influence of the United States. The same President who is being protected by the Republican party in Congress.

Our time-traveler would think we've all gone bat guano crazy, and disapparate back to the time of Bill Clinton's impeachment, when things were more rational...

He wouldn't be wrong. Einstein supposedly said that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. If so, this country is certifiable. Check out what the Onion says every goddam time we suffer another of these traumas:

https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1823016659

Marvin Gaye despondently sang of wanting to holler and throw up both his hands. Yes. But then there is hope in the form of Generation Z, personified by one of the Parkland students who survived the massacre. This guy should become the next Governor of Florida, starting tomorrow:

One obvious player that emerges into this latest act of American Carnage is the shooter himself. He has described himself as a Trump supporter, a real MAGA monster. He posted a disturbing photo of himself, adorned with Trumpian gear, along with his arsenal of legally procured weapons.

He was also someone who had trained in combat with a charming local White Supremacist militia group called "Republic of Florida". This is a neo-Nazi outfit that seeks to establish a "white separatist ethno-state".  They seem nice. And if you can stand it, here is an interview one of their leaders gave yesterday:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nikolas-cruz-trained-with-florida-white-supremacist-group-leader-says

Our Sleazebag-in-Chief offered up a typical bundle of "thoughts and prayers" for the victims, while calling for the creation of a culture that promotes a "dignity of life", while answering hate with love and cruelty with reason. Again, this is "Opposite Day Is Every Day" for him, all day every day.

What would we be hearing/reading/seeing right now if the shooter had been radicalized by ISIS instead of White Supremacists? There would be no end to the outrage! The flow of Trump Tweets would be like Niagara Falls. Fox News/Hate Radio would have sprung a rare triple hernia!! Russian bots on social media would be promoting a hyper-ventilating zeitgeist! American RWNJs would be shrieking and calling for the next round of travel bans, and for a Muslim Registry. The volume of our nation, already at a 10, would be kicked up to 11. We'd all suffer a virtual nation-wide stroke!

No, instead it's a crazy MAGA kid with Nazi White Supremacy aspirations. So the level of media-driven White GOP/Evangelist Anger is not there. Instead, we have the inevitable "thoughts and prayers". And more of the Insanity Defense:

"This is not the time to jump to some conclusion not knowing the full facts." Yes, it's Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, commenting on why Congress won't pursue gun control for assault weapons after this latest outrage. Yes... this is certainly the first time anything like this has ever happened in the history of the United States, since the last times it happened. So we need more time to study.

And here he is, responding during those other times. Note the specific language. Eerie, isn't it, that the same words are used over and over and over?

And really, what's he going to say? "We need to figure out how to reduce White Supremacist violence"? Not after Trump cut back funds for research into reducing such Right Wing violence, instead choosing to focus exclusively on Radical Islamic Jihadist violence...  Or, after his GOP repeatedly refused to allow the CDC to study gun violence as a public health issue. "Thoughts and Prayers" are more easily offered up.

This all reminds of former Bush White House staffer David Frum's famous allegory:

A village has been built in the deepest gully of a floodplain.

At regular intervals, flash floods wipe away houses, killing all inside. Less dramatic—but more lethal—is the steady toll as individual villagers slip and drown in the marshes around them.

After especially deadly events, the villagers solemnly discuss what they might do to protect themselves. Perhaps they might raise their homes on stilts? But a powerful faction among the villagers is always at hand to explain why these ideas won’t work. “No law can keep our village safe! The answer is that our people must learn to be better swimmers - and oh by the way, you said ‘stilts’ when the proper term is ‘piles,’ so why should anybody listen to you?”

So the argument rages, without result, year after year, decade after decade, fatalities mounting all the while. Nearby villages, built in the hills, marvel that the gully-dwellers persist in their seemingly reckless way of life. But the gully-dwellers counter that they are following the wishes of their Founders, whose decisions two centuries ago must always be upheld by their descendants.

What can we, the gully-dwellers, do? It is helpful to know more about "the powerful faction". Know who they are, and vote them out. Here is a terrific compilation of the current top recipients of NRA campaign cash:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/opinion/thoughts-prayers-nra-funding-senators.html

Here is an even more comprehensive look at NRA legislators, state-by-state. It's really easy to click on any state and discover each Congress critter's haul:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/nra-donations/?utm_term=.e802bcfc47ac

And of course the $30 million-plus the Trump campaign received:

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/

That's a whole lot of cash to ensure nothing gets done. Ya need to keep the level of fear high to sell that amount of guns and ammo to keep that campaign fund-river flowing.

In the end, it always comes down to this terrific piece of Swiftian satire, brought to you by our pals at The Onion. I hate/love it:

https://www.theonion.com/it-s-an-honor-to-continue-being-valued-over-countless-h-1819585030

To end things on a positive note, consider joining/donating to this group. It started with parents whose kids were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. It ain't perfect (it's gun violence prevention-oriented, not gun control), but it's groups like this that will lead us upwards and onwards...

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org

If Australia can do it, we can do it!!

The Real State Of The Union

Last week, the President delivered the State Of The Union address to Congress and the nation. As most SOTUs go, it was forgettable, as most are. It was memorable for things like the President clapping for himself numerous times through the speech. And for being the third longest SOTU ever. And for not being the highest rated, ever.

The content of the speech varied and wobbled wildly, much like how the Administration has handled itself this past year. As expected, much of the claims made lacked veracity, according to PolitiFact:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/jan/30/fact-checking-donald-trumps-2018-state-union-speec/

But the President managed to deliver the speech in his finest flat teleprompter-reading cadence. He pointed to the usual cadre of audience "hero" props. If he could have wrapped himself in the flag, he would have. And everyone marched out of the Capitol with their pre-determined Talking Points.

Two days later, nobody remembered anything about the SOTU. Because the Real State Of The Union was about to be delivered to the nation, courtesy of the POTUS, Devin Nunes (R-Kompromat) and his House Intelligence Committee (quite the oxymoron), Fox News/Hate Radio and a gazillion Russian bots.  This Top Secret memo was so hot that Trump had cleared it for public release without having the Intelligence Community and the FBI vet it, or have the Democratic minority offer their own analysis. The People needed to read it to draw their own conclusions!

And so it was on Friday morning, after a hyper-frenzied media anticipation and feverish ballyhoo that exceeded a combination of the Star Wars reboots and a Royal Wedding Announcement, that the Nunes Memo was unleashed. "100 times worse than Watergate!" railed Seb Gorka, late of the White House, in a typical tweet that captured the essence of thousands of other GOP/Russian bot expressions of preemptive outrage. This was the document that would bring down the crooked FBI, the biased Department of Justice, the hated Mueller investigation, the entire Democratic Party, Hip-Hop as we know it, Justin Bieber, and the Designated Hitter Rule.

Then everyone read it. "It's like reading the work of an underachieving 1L law student," said one grumpy legal expert. That was the kindest expression heard among a slew of astonished authorities who had girded themselves for something that would rock institutional foundations and "let justice be done though the heavens fall!" What had been advertised as the Holy Grail for Trumpers turned out to be a leaky and swamped lifeboat for them to grab onto while the seas get rougher. It highlights the Investigated seeking to control the Investigation.

For those who want to dig into the details, here are a couple of excellent pieces that really get to the heart of the Memo. John Schindler is a conservative veteran of the Intelligence Community. He is not impressed one little bit, and his take on it all is the best overall synopsis around:

http://observer.com/2018/02/devin-nunes-memo-disappoints-fails-to-cool-russia-investigation/

Another conservative, former prosecutor/Whitewater investigator Paul Roszenweig, can hardly believe his eyes:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/02/the-nunes-memo-makes-no-sense-216928

The money quote: "Perhaps even more significant is how the memo tries to bury the admission deep in the document that the entire FBI counterintelligence investigation of Russian influence was not triggered by the Steele dossier. Instead, as the memo admits only in its final paragraph, it was information about another Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, and his meetings that began the inquiry." 

As much as Trump and the GOP try to tar the Mueller Investigation, their disinformation efforts ("dezinformatsiya" for those following the old KGB playbook) have not yet expanded beyond the Kool-Aid Drinkers that comprise 35% of American voters. And it is curious that so many in the GOP have doubled-down, going "all-in" to defend Trump by way of defending this guy:

Carter Page represents a very strange hill for the GOP to decide they will fight or die upon. He has basically admitted to being a Russian "advisor". He's been in the sights of the FBI since 2013, when they discovered he was being recruited by Russia to spy. His many movements back and forth to Russia, on his own and as a representative of the Trump campaign, certainly merit FBI attention.

So what does this all really mean?

One big clue happened this last week. While DC's political punditry was in full riot mode regarding the Nunes Memo, a big deal set to happen never did: the Russia Sanctions were allowed to lapse. Yes, the same Russia Sanctions for meddling in our 2016 elections, the ones voted on 419 - 3 in the House and 98 - 2 in the Senate. The Sanctions for activities that the Trump Administration constantly deny ever happened. These Sanctions, designed to inflict punishing economic pain on Russia, are not going to be enacted.

It's always about Russia. Of all the nations in the world, Russia is on Trump's Bucket List. He has made a real Presidential career out of insulting any number of world leaders, countries and even continents - except Vladimir Putin and Russia. He has sought to back out of alliances and treaties that serve as bulwarks against Russia. He goes out of his way to placate Putin at any opportunity. It is really, really strange.

But what if it isn't strange at all? What if the FBI/IC are on the right track with this investigation? What if the Trump Campaign, and Trump himself, were fully-knowing partners with hostile Russia and Wikileaks in derailing the 2016 election? What if Russia was trying to use their influence on Trump, an "asset" from the late 1980's onwards, to destabilize the American electoral process? What if there was an enormous amount of "kompromat" they have on him and his family -- Russian mob money, Russian sex tapes of underage Russian girls, underage European girls from his Trump Modeling days, money laundering schemes that pulled him out of bankruptcy from way back.... what if any of these long-rumored stories are true?

And what if the more recent rumored story is true: the RNC (Republican National Committee) and other Republican PACs unwittingly accepted a whole bunch of dirty Russian money. It was easy to do. The Citizens United court case opened the flood gates for unlimited amounts of campaign money. Is it all kosher? Oh, Ha Ha. They now know it and will do anything to keep from being caught. And what about the RNC emails that Russia possesses, compliments of Wikileaks?

If true, it's the Double Death for the Republican Party - a President with Russian kompromat, and Republican leadership with Russian kompromat. Think about it. Why would Devin Nunes be doing what he's doing, especially after he had recused himself from all House Intelligence Committee Russian Investigation proceedings? Why would Speaker of the House Paul Ryan be so willing to give the Nunes Memo the green light without ANY vetting by FBI or the IC? Why is there such unified silence from the Republican Party whenever any Trump/Russia story pops up?

It's all a Big Question Mark, and it's the Real State Of Our Union.