When "Justice" becomes "Just Us"

Coming very soon to a Supreme Court near you: Two justices, one who is a sexual assaulter and the other a sexual harasser. Now appearing on TV screens everywhere: A President who is a sexual assaulter and harasser. Sneak Previews for the coming generation: Unilateral disassembly of women's rights from a gamed government of entrenched Hard Core Patriarchs.

OK, that may sound harsh. But there's no doubt that Season Two of The Trump Show is pulling out all the stops in its quest to get past low viewer ratings and get renewed for Season Three. Placing a politically useful nominee like Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court is a bet that the Administration and the GOP-led Congress are going All In on.

Mainstream Republicans are laughing at all this He Said She Said stuff. Here's a classic example of Stupid Conservative Humor:

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/sc-congressman-jokes-about-supreme-court-sexual-assault-amid-kavanaugh/article_aa70b77c-bcf5-11e8-a7c7-ff6a511cd2db.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share

What a knee-slapper: Ruth Bader Ginsberg claims to have been groped by Abraham Lincoln. Har! Who wrote this guy's material, Mike Huckabee? Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart of Virginia joked, "What else did Judge Kavanaugh do - pull a girl's pigtails in 1st Grade?" Seriously... what a mindset these guys have.

Speaking of serious, how serious can these accusations really be? Speaking like the Republican Senator he is, Dean Heller of Nevada reveals a blithe attitude toward it all:

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/heller-predicts-kavanaugh-confirmation-to-supreme-court-despite-hiccup

Just a lil' ol' hiccup. Republican Party leader Ed Rollins declared, "...if this is the new standard, no one will ever want or be able to serve in government or on the judiciary." This speaks more to the quality of the GOP's well of nominees than to the deliberate pursuit of Truth. Unfortunately, this attitude pervades the Republican firmament:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/senate-republicans-tell-kavanaughs-accuser-testify-monday-or-well-move-on

You know it's really bad when failed Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore urges Kavanaugh's confirmation. And yes, Moore really is a complete slime:

https://thinkprogress.org/roy-moore-brett-kavanaugh-christine-blasey-ford-republicans-alabama-53dbdd8ed223/

All this serves to remind that no Republican woman has EVER sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. One woman who is on the Committee, Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), has just about had it with the shenanigans of her Male Republican Colleagues. In addition to telling them to Shut Up and Step Up, she calls BS:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mazie-hirono-says-its-bullshit-that-gop-has-tried-everything-to-contact-kavanaugh-accuser_us_5ba3a818e4b0375f8f9aaf7b

"That is such bullshit I can hardly stand it," declaimed the esteemed Senator. This brings to mind a great comment read from the peanut gallery this week:

"The right continually assumes that not rewarding a wealthy white man is the same as punishing him. While complaining all the time about "entitlement" in their opponents, they really do assume that they are just owed positions of power and that questioning them should be a mere formality.

Let's say that there had been no accusation of sexual assault. Let's argue instead that Kavanaugh's repeated lies and deflections in his hearing- his job interview- were acknowledged as such by Republicans. He should not be given the job. That is simple.

The hearings are a job interview, not an orientation on his first day in the job. An election is a chance to be chosen, not a mere formality before you are gifted a seat. When Republicans see a rich white man fail they treat it as though that white man is being punished. Roy Moore, Rob Porter, whatever the ludicrously named candidate Trump supported before Moore was called, and now Kavanaugh- the attitude of the right is that by being wealthy white men the rules, and the reasons for them, do not apply.

Kavanaugh is not being denied something he is owed- he is not a black person being held up in the street or shot in their own home because someone else doesn't trust them enough to afford them the right of free movement. He is not being prevented from having a livelihood, or being deprived of his rights. He is being told "you are not suitable for this job".

Nice. And from Caitlin Flanagan - nobody's fool - is a piece that reveals her own Me Too experience and why she believes Kavanaugh's accuser:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/me-too/570520/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20180918&silverid-ref=NDI5MTk3ODEyNzEzS0

This guy is headed for a lifetime term on the Supreme Court. Such nominees should bear an exceptional review of their life, accomplishments and their views. Even past associations should be examined, like being a member of Yale's "Truth and Courage" a charming secret society that was nicknamed "Tit and Clit":

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/09/20/a-flag-of-underwear-photo-from-kavanaughs-time-shows-dke-hijinks/

Pretty classy stuff. Well, boys will be boys. Our President knows and finally weighed in by sending out a tweet this morning that fully captures his enormous understanding of sexual assault matters and the inherent difficulties in reporting them:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1043126336473055235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1043126336473055235&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2018%2F09%2F21%2Ftrump-on-kavanaugh-why-didnt-somebody-call-the-fbi-36-years-ago.html

So Dr. Christine Ford doesn't want to be interviewed by Republican staff without having had the FBI conduct an investigation. Sounds reasonable. Anita Hill was given one, and it took all of three days. At present, GOP-ers are screaming bloody murder that it constitutes an unacceptable delay in the confirmation process. (What would Judge Merrick Garland say about unacceptable delays in the confirmation process?) And given the tweets from Mike Davis, the Chief Counsel for Nominations by the Judiciary Committee, it is entirely understandable that Dr. Ford doesn't anticipate a fair and objective treatment from Republican staff:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/09/20/brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-furor-over-mike-davis-tweets/1366391002/

This is all just the latest episode of GOP power politics. It's amoral - yes, it's immoral and all about achieving/maintaining control of the government. If the means to a desired end are wrong, it doesn't matter if the end is won. That's the guiding principle here.

We saw it start in earnest during the 2000 Gore v. Bush debacle. There had been high media profile "riots" orchestrated by Roger Stone-led groups to make the electoral process seem ready to collapse.The Supreme Court surprisingly and recklessly took on the request from the complicit Republican Party to rule on stopping the Florida recount.  They ruled so, saying that it was in the country's best interest to cease the actions and get on with running the country. Never has one vote counted more than that day...  and of course, the "unofficial" recount continued through a number of Florida newspapers.

Later, the recount verdict was revealed: Gore won. But he really lost by one vote, 5 - 4. When called upon, the Republican-majority justices on the Supreme Court had voted in a partisan judgment that presumed the country couldn't handle another week or so of Florida vote recounts and installed the minority vote victor. And we got 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, Samuel Alito, and The Great Recession. Heckuva job, Rehnquist!

The Conservative SCOTUS majority continued with the Citizens United ruling. Corporations are people, too. And all donors can be anonymous (though this has changed - hallelujah - in a subsequent ruling this week). It opened the floodgates for oceans of unaccountable Dark Money to be used in elections. Hello there Russian/Bad Actor money through NRA/Political Action Committees to GOP candidates.

And when the GOP vowed a Zero Tolerance Policy against anything that Obama tried to do, it extended to his judicial nominations. It wasn't just Merrick Garland and the 400+ days of an open Supreme Court seat. Once Mitch McConnell became the head of the Senate, Obama's lower bench nominations came to a crashing halt, leaving numerous vacancies throughout the judiciary:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/06/04/senate-obstructionism-handed-judicial-vacancies-to-trump/

After Trump became President (and had ridiculed Obama for creating so many vacancies), the pace of the Senate approving Trump nominees skyrocketed, even in the face of many being clear-cut thimbleheads. Mitch McConnell's Get 'Er Done Express was on track.

And now we have a major reckoning coming up over the horizon. The Mueller investigation is bearing serious fruit and there is every reason to believe it's not anywhere near being done. Trump, his family, his staff and his business organization are in jeopardy. The Republican Party (and some Democrats, too) is in for a severe prosecutorial shock. Unless... unless...

Unless the 5th Republican Supreme Court justice would rule against efforts to investigate the Chief Executive (and by extension, the GOP-led Legislative Branch). By most accounts, Kavanaugh is that guy. He is all about preventing the President from being indicted, and even having to answer Special Counsel inquiries. The Trump/GOP power axis wants Kavanaugh in to protect themselves (and to reverse Roe v. Wade, among other goals).

Beyond resolving the truth in what happened with Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, there are other important personal matters that remain flapping wildly in the breeze. What about his lies regarding stolen documents? What about his strained-belief statement about a Mueller-related conversation with a Trump law firm lawyer (who happens to be a good buddy)? What about his public-sector ability to afford a major plush home in DC's posh NW side, and then generate up to $200,000 in debt as of last year, then POOF it goes away? Who paid it? How was it paid? What about the references to his gambling activities? Is this guy Pete Rose? Can he be extorted? Heck, I want to hear about why he was so fixated on conspiracy theories like 'Hillary Clinton killed Vince Foster' back in his Whitewater investigation days, accruing a government expenditure of over $2 million.

Hoo-boy. If this were a job interview, he'd have been shown the door early on. That he's about to be confirmed is indicative of the GOP power-lust and willingness to overlook any disqualifiers in the pursuit of One Party Rule. It's no accident that they don't take a stand against Trump's authoritarian actions. Why should they? It means they get a strangle-hold on power for the next generation. They are kindred spirits.

The Supreme Court should be the reserve of jurists of supremely good character. This guy seems like he is trying his best to avoid detection. And with the help of his powerful friends, he will do whatever it takes to grab the brass ring. He will get along well with Clarence Thomas. God bless Anita Hill and every MeToo survivor.

A Day In The Life

Morning came early in Billings, Montana last Friday, September 7. It was going to be an unusually busy day for Donald Trump. The President had arrived there the previous afternoon, and had delivered a raucous and rambling Make America Great Again rally speech at the Rimrock Auto Arena. Later on Friday, he was scheduled to appear at two fundraisers nearby, so The World's Most Powerful Man and retinue had spent the night at the local Double Tree.

The next 12+ hours would mark an excellent opportunity for the Commander In Chief to add onto his already impressive record of compiling over 4700 falsehoods in less than 600 days.

It had been a late night, or early morning for The President. At 2:56am, he tweeted, "What was Nike thinking?" as an observation of that company using Colin Kaepernick in an advertisement.

This was followed by a 3:11am tweet endorsing the Republican candidate for Senate from Montana. Then at 3:32am he vented a tweet about Bob Woodward, author of the forthcoming expose, "Fear".

Sometime between 3:40am and 5:30am, he slept.

But Trump was up and at 'em for an appearance on the early morning State TV show, Fox and Friends. Regarding the New York Times 'Anonymous' op-ed, he said, "... really, what they've done is virtually, you know, treason." Earlier the evening before, he encountered some speech problems in pronouncing the word "anonymous":

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1037883056252694528

He also appeared on a local Billings TV station. Reading the transcript is a wild ride, in that it reveals the ongoing animus towards his "enemies". He is quite the political hatchet man. Among the crazy rhetoric, this one stood out regarding his ability to win deals for the USA:

We're going to win against everybody, and ultimately it's going to be a win for them too, I assume, because there's got to be a two-way street. But, we have all the cards. Our country has all the cards. We've never had a president that wanted to play the cards. They were willing to accept a bad NAFTA deal.

Things settled down for a while until 8:30am, as he prepared to leave the fabled Double Tree for the Billings airport. The press was still reacting to much of his statements from the rally. In it, the President stressed that he had not lost his mind, that - like Lincoln - his reputation will increase after his death, that his speeches will be remembered like The Gettysburg Address, that the Department of Justice should investigate the New York Times, and something weird about Space Force. (For more on this amazing speech, please check out this hilarious minute-by-minute thread by Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1037815501802692609.html It is chock full of Trump's lies and wild claims and You're Welcome!)

Already there were reactions to Trump comparing himself to Lincoln, and his claim to have memorized The Gettysburg Address. Here is his famous I Don't Know The Lyrics So I'll Hum Along moment singing the National Anthem from earlier this year. Thanks, Bad Lip Reading:

At 8:35am, he tweeted about "our horrible immigration laws." And then he hopped aboard a flight to Fargo, North Dakota. No time for the usual golf rounds. But he did tell reporters on Air Force One, regarding taking criminal action against the NY Times, "We're going to see. I'm looking at that right now." When asked about "Fear" and the 'Anonymous' claim that he was mentally and morally unfit for office, Trump said:

Meanwhile, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, President Obama was delivering a speech designed to increase voter registration and push back on many Trump policies and claims. And OH was it ever good! It all served to remind what a real leader is like:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/7/17832024/obama-speech-trump-illinois-transcript

While Air Force One flew on, and the President engaged with reporters, a certain dichotomy could not be avoided: "Quite a split-screen moment here -- Obama talking about American democracy on edge just as Trump tells reporters aboard AF1 that he wants DOJ to investigate anonymous op-ed."

https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/1038099821205307393

The President arrived at Fargo, North Dakota at 12:40pm. and headed off to host a roundtable of donors.  Later, when Trump was asked about Obama's speech, he suggested he had listened for a couple of minutes and then fell asleep. Ha ha. Others across the country had watched Obama's speech with the split-screen of Trump gamboling around Fargo, North Dakota. Said one tweet to Obama, "Please come back. The substitute teacher is stupid, racist and paints himself the colors of 1970s appliances."

The President spoke to his Fargo supporters around 2:00pm. His fact-and-evidence-free remarks included his plans to send Canada into "ruination" with tariffs on cars. "They've taken advantage of us for many decades. We can't let this happen anymore." He went on to claim Democrats will destroy Social Security, that NAFTA was the worst trade deal of all time, and that the World Trade Organization was even worse. More great stuff from Daniel Dale:  https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1038134023263019008.html

Reactions to this speech came quickly. On Trump's claim that his performance on Jobs is better than Obama's, NBC's Andrea Mitchell says No:
https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/status/1038177912732745730

On his continued claim that people break down and cry in his presence, WaPo's Josh Dawsey says What? https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1038187959688806400 and so does our old friend Daniel Dale: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1038423460475756544.html. Of course, it's a repeated lie.

By 3:00pm, the President had departed from Fargo and within an hour arrived at Sioux Falls, South Dakota for - you guessed it - more meetings with donors and a 5:30pm rally speech.

Right before the rally began, the President sent out a tweet, stating "14 days for $28 MILLION - $2 million a day, No Collusion. A great day for America!" Apparently, this was a reaction to the sentencing of George Papadopolous, the "covfefe" guy that Trump claimed to not know or care about, except when it came time to react to his sentencing. Even here, the Mueller investigation price tag indicated is false.

Meanwhile, folks were catching up on the previous night's rally that featured a rather expressive young man seated directly behind the President. His "inappropriate" expressions and lack of enthused reactions to Trumpian statements caused his real-time removal from the stands, replaced by a smiling staff member. Thus, a pop culture icon was born:

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1038228434978332678

By 6:25pm Air Force One departed Sioux Falls. The Government By Mood Ring Express flew towards DC after a full day and a half of campaigning.

At 8:45pm Trump was at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and by 9:05pm he had arrived at the White House via Presidential helicopter, back into the loving arms of his adoring wife. What a whirlwind trip! What an extended case of vertigo!

If you're interested, here are a couple of websites that archive and comment on the President's tweets and retweets, including probabilities whether he or his staff wrote specific ones:

http://didtrumptweetit.com/2018/09/07/

https://factba.se/topic/twitter

All that is well and good, but for a more comprehensive perspective on how Trump's ongoing and blatant falsehoods affect our country, we need to hear from that most respected source of news, The Onion:

https://politics.theonion.com/trump-disapproval-rating-reaches-all-time-none-of-this-1828751716

"At press time, a new poll had found that President Trump’s disapproval rating was now at, Jesus Christ, a sizable portion of the country supports and has always supported an openly white supremacist president and the party he leads, and a bunch of goddamn numerical ratings aren’t going to do a fucking thing to change that."

Thank you, Onion. Finally, after wading through the swampy muck of the President's pronouncements over a 24 hour period, The Daily Kibitz can confidently declare its contention that our President is Not Mentally Fit:

Okay, it is not right to leave you on this note. So let's Get Positive! Watching Trump mumble through the National Anthem suggests that we can always change it - the Anthem and the President. So... what could be the new Anthem?

My vote is firmly with the late, great Allen Toussaint composition, "Yes, We Can Can". It's irresistible and deeply moving. Give it a listen and imagine a sports stadium filled with folks standing for the new anthem, shaking what they've got, singing "great gosh almighty I know we can yes we  can can!" If there is a Blue Wave in November, this should get immediate attention for action:

Putting Democracy On A Purge Diet

At present, the President has an upper 30s-to-40% approval rating. Congress, controlled by the GOP, coasts along at a 17% approval rate. These are not strong numbers for incumbents heading into an election. Distractions, deflections, Evangelical support for judges, and tax cuts for the rich only go so far.

How, then, will the GOP win against the Dems in November?

The national "generic ballot" composite poll for Congressional races in November has Dems up by 8%. Not huge, but kinda comfortable. The "Blue Wave" is still expected to roll on in, right?

Wrong-o! The 2018 election ground has been "prepared" to ensure Republican victories across the nation. Our democratic republic is a system that has problems with Democracy. In the 2016 election, House Republicans received 49% of the popular vote and 55% of the House seats. Democrats pulled in 48% of the vote, and settled for 44% of the House seats. In the Senate, the Dems have received more than 6 million votes than the Repubs, but have fewer seats. Of course, we all remember how our President won the election by losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.

Here are a couple of good sources that explain how this can happen in our modern age:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/22/gop-seats-bonus-in-congress/

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/feb/19/steny-hoyer/steny-hoyer-house-democrats-won-majority-2012-popu/

Using the old chestnut, Voter Fraud, as an excuse, the GOP is determined to reduce the number of eligible, likely base of Democratic voters. The GOP has used the Vote Fraud theme since well before Donald Trump claimed - out of thin air - that he would have won by 3 million votes if not for the fraudulent 3 million+ votes that HRC received from illegal immigrants.

Never mind that Voter Fraud has never been proven beyond anecdotal single instances (the few cases  implicate voters of both political stripes). Nevertheless, Widespread Voter Fraud must be stopped!

So... how are Republicans working on this vexing issue? Their guiding principle is to make it harder to register and to vote, not easier. Their methods include general voter suppression, gerrymandering, following the Russian playbook of dezinformatsiya, good ol' Dirty Tricks, and official non-distribution of Election Day resources. Let's look at these, shall we?

Voter Suppression. Techniques abound on tamping down the number of voters. Intimidation. Requiring sometimes hard-to-get IDs. Disenfranchising felons. Restricting early voting, absentee and overseas voting. Jim Crow is alive and well.  A relatively new approach is to purge voters who miss an election. Examine, if you will,  Exhibit A: the State of Ohio has received permission to purge up to 1 million voters from its database. Oh, and check out Exhibit B: the SCOTUS ruling against the Voter Rights Act, Section Four regarding states with past bad civil rights histories. For more ugly, here are a couple of great quick reads on the increase of voter suppression actions by the GOP:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/13545718/voter-suppression-early-voting-2016

and

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2017/05/12/432339/five-truths-voter-suppression/

Gerrymandering is really another form of Voter Suppression. It's the states' role to draw up congressional districts' boundaries based on the 2010 US Census results (and again in 2020). The essence of Gerrymandering is to include your party voters and exclude the others. Both parties are guilty of this practice, but because Republicans control most state governments, they are the recognized experts in this practice. Using computers and voter registration databases, map-drawers can carve up a common area that makes a newly-created district resemble the digestive tract of a distressed elephant. Chipping away at opposition strongholds' jurisdictions guarantees weakened representation and diluted vote value.

Dezinformatsiya. Da, these long-practiced techniques by the KGB have been passed on to our political parties. The GOP really takes to them. The KGB used Deza as a method for depressing social activism and creating apathy among citizens.  Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Fox News/Hate Radio, and our own Fibber-in-Chief all blow out enormous volumes of BS designed to agitate/engage the GOP base and demoralize Democrats. This includes the use of Russian bots/trolls, as well as GOP bots/trolls. It's not a wonder that Congressional Republicans are seeking to end the Russian investigation, and do not fund security measures to prevent cyber-attacks and election interference in our upcoming mid-terms. They know they will benefit from such actions.

Dirty Tricks. These actions can range from the national to the local. While national shenanigans capture most of the attention, it's the local scene that usually affects voter turnout. Robocalls, mailers and fliers with deliberate wrong information on when and where to vote are prime examples. Whatever it takes to keep people from voting! Check out the favorite methods:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/election-dirty-tricks/

Election Day confusion is a subset of Dirty Tricks, but they are usually Official Dirty Tricks. There are polling site election judge challenges to voters' signatures/current residences as an outgrowth of the Voter Fraud hysteria. There are the "purged" voters who don't know they've been "purged". There are the planned inadequate polling places for Democratic/minority areas that result in long lines, long waits and potential voters just giving up and going home. Remember the SCOTUS ruling on the Voter Rights Act, Section 4 from above? Here is a direct consequence:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/4/13501120/vote-polling-places-election-2016

In addition to all this malarky, there is the steep electoral terrain that Democrats must climb and hold in 2018 and beyond. It is formidable, indeed:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-congressional-map-is-historically-biased-toward-the-gop/

And, of course, there is our old friend, the Electoral College. Two of the last five Presidential elections have been "won" by a candidate who lost the popular vote. That does not suggest a healthy Democracy. When one examines the EC further, the case for it as a tool that defends Democracy becomes weak, indeed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/how-fair-is-the-electoral-college/

Yes, the Electoral College is an 18th-Century invention that has been converted into a modern-day voter suppression machine. It rewards White voters living in rural areas with greater vote influence than anyone living elsewhere. It dilutes voter influence in more-populated states. What, you say? Observe:

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/12/08/white-peoples-votes-are-worth-more-electoral-college-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote-alt-right/

Then there is the court-packing that is currently underway. Never mind the Supreme Court, Trump is trying to fill the lower courts with young and dumbs like The Ghost Hunter and The Gay Conversion Therapist.  As challenges to egregious state and federal voting rights laws work their way into the court system, the GOP expects numbskulls like these to rule for their party and not their country. Here is a good overview on what's happening:

https://www.voanews.com/a/donald-trump-quietly-reshapes-us-judiciary/4464398.html

Not sure about what is happening in your state? Check out this terrific link to the Brennan Center for Justice. It's a very comprehensive look at all states with voter suppression movements:

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/voting-laws-roundup-2017

Oy vey, what to do? We can begin by observing what the Editorial Board at The Washington Post wrote:

"The bias in a democracy should be in favor of more voting, not less. That Republicans have taken a different tack reflects their doubts - not about electoral integrity but about their prospects at the polls."  

Towards this end, here is a great article by the Center for American Progress on how to improve voter turnout. Some of their suggestions: Streamline voter registration (automatic registration, same day registration, preregistration for teenagers, etc.). Devote sufficient resources for elections and make them accessible. More convenient, less burdensome ways to vote (early voting, absentee voting, vote at home). Restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people. Strengthen Civics education in schools. And the proverbial More:

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/07/11/453319/increasing-voter-participation-america/

OK, Daily Kibitz, you might say.  But what about me? Fair question. Suggestions include:

Register to vote. It's really easy! Already registered? Better double-check on that! Be certain your status is valid. Check with your local elections office. Use this site to determine your state/local status:

https://www.usa.gov/election-office

Then vote, often. Don't get caught in a Purge. Vote by mail...  an absentee ballot will ensure that your vote won't be deleted in some "unfortunate" computer glitch. And absolutely use a paper ballot every time!!

Want to go beyond?  Work to register new or lapsed voters! Here are helpers for you:

https://www.aauw.org/resource/organize-a-voter-registration-drive/

https://www.rockthevote.org

Spread the word on this growing problem. Feel free to share this blog. Email/text/tweet/talk to your friends and family. Your vote needs to be counted, and it may be in danger. FDR was right. But not voting by personal intent versus not voting because of political restrictions is the difference between a Democracy and an Autocracy. The best way to prevent Trump's GOP from winning via cheating is to overwhelm them at the ballot box. Every eligible voter needs access to the ballot box!

On Crowds and Summer Fun

Whether it is grooving to cool tunes or yelling at Nazis, summertime is the right time. The Daily Kibitz took the opportunity to enjoy its annual Lollapalooza pilgrimage, followed up by a spirited Sunday afternoon telling "Unite The Right" racists where they can get off. To say that both events were fun is to simply scratch the surface of the English language.

Let's start with yesterday's "Unite The Right" rally. This was truly a terrible idea that was piggybacking on the original terrible idea that was last year's Charlottesville debacle. The organizer pushed ahead with it, against nearly all advice. There were going to be some 400 Alt-Right miscreants participating in this year's White Rights rally.

What are you going to do? Let the Nazis win the day? Uh-uh. So The Daily Kibitz and Mrs. TDK found ourselves heading towards Lafayette Park, the rally site next to The White House.

We made our way past packs of black-costumed and masked Antifas, who were going through their pre-show instructions (Find a Nazi and punch him. If no Nazi can be had, find a cop and punch him... Yeah, they are that way.) We gave them a wide berth - these people do not believe in fun. But there were thousands of others who were like us:

Soon enough we were deep into the counter-protester portion of Lafayette Park, with the cool kids. We were cordoned off from the Nazis by a fence and heavy police presence. Police horses, too ("neigh" to Nazis!).  The crowd was really ramped up, waiting for the Bad People to arrive. Lots of shouting, lots of group chanting, lots of energy!

And arrive they did. All 23 of them. It was a pathetic spectacle, these human mistakes, as they filed into their reserved half of Lafayette Park. The press corps surrounding them made their numbers appear larger at first. But when the press stepped away, the tiny rotten core was revealed.

(The organizer later claimed that "we would have had many, many more attendees. But most decided to stay back because they were afraid of losing their freedom." Honest to God.) They had marched several blocks from the Foggy Bottom subway station (with enormous police protection), walking through a gauntlet of counter-protesters and residents who did not hold back their opinions:

All afternoon, many references were made regarding the late Heather Heyer. The guy with the flag above and below is the organizer of this and the Charlottesville rally. When told about Heyer's death during those protests last year, he tweeted, "Heather Heyer was a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time."

While the less-than-two-dozen flowers of White Supremacy ambled around their spacious secured rally space, I was struck by the symbolism of it all. Our huge crowd had assembled to protest these measly losers, whose appearance then and last year can be directly attributed to Donald Trump opening the Pandora's Box of American Racism. So there we were - thousands jammed into the upper half of the park, cordoned off from the less than two dozen nitwits in their lower half of the park. And directly behind them... the Trump White House. It seemed like they were the White Nationalist line of defense for their leader. They, and their like-minded allies in the body politic, were blocking the path to us reclaiming the People's House.

Then suddenly it was all over! It had been raining, with rolling, grumbling waves of thunder, like God expressing his disapproval over their rally. At 5pm, when it was to officially begin, someone with a loudspeaker announced that the rally had been cancelled. We whooped, "We beat them! We beat the Nazis again!" Nearly everyone went home happy, except for the White Nationalists, who were quickly escorted into police vans and whisked off to a nearby subway station for an escape under cover.

A much different crowd had been experienced the previous weekend at Chicago's Lollapalooza festival. Each day there were 140,000 attendees. As a point of reference, consider that Trump's margin of victory for the combined voter total from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - the states that gave him the election - was 80,000.

These crowds were the opposite of the one in DC. Uniformly young, apolitical and inebriated. Lots of energy, and hardly any animosity displayed. Considering the blast furnace conditions and cattle-car confines, that's remarkable. And there was so much body glitter everywhere that every Michael's for a 200 mile radius must have had their stocks sold out.

We won't get into a recap of the proceedings. However, there were a couple of standouts.

Bruno Mars, All American. Here's a guy born to Filipino and Puerto Rican/Ashkenazi Jewish parents. Raised in Hawaii. He becomes one of the biggest selling recording artists of the 21st Century.  He sets the festival on its head with a supremely slick and completely entertaining performance. Here's a video from near where TDKibitz was watching. Forgive the occasional frame shake, this is really good:

Wow. My favorite part - when the Chicago firemen come onstage to "put out all the fires" because it's just too hot. That's entertainment! Bring the people together through peace, love and funky dance moves.

And people were brought together! While enjoying the terrific St. Vincent set, TDKibitz was astonished by the appearance of some old friends from Virginia. Out of four days and over 500,000 attendees, we bump into each other. They were there to see their amazing son play guitar for Vampire Weekend, that night's headliner. He'd been recently hired by the band. Who knew? Surreal and hilarious - and their son was great.

Yes, TDK was a Wet T-Shirt contestant. Hot, muggy, and mucho agua had been consumed. It was a real marathon. I'm unsure how Claire and Russ stayed so crisp and unaffected by the conditions. Just cool, I guess.

The other highlight was Portugal.The Man. They possess such a strange name, but they are insanely irresistible. They performed with 6 backup singers, two violins, one cello, two keyboardists, two guitars (one a paraplegic in a wheelchair), drums, and a lively bass. Check out their smash hit, "Feel It Still":

http://feelitstill.com

Just click on the "Fight Apathy" play button for their interactive music video. It is filled with an interesting and fairly dense series of visual metaphors and symbols regarding Our Ongoing Societal Issues and How to Resist. After the video, click on the "Unlock All" for a complete menu for places that can help. These guys come from Wasilla, Alaska, home of the failed VP candidate and former mayor, Sarah Palin. They give a damn.

Is it coming?
Is it coming ?
Is it coming?
Is it coming?
Is it coming?
Is it coming back?

Yes, it is, Portugal.The Man. With the ardent commitment of folks like the rally counter-protestors, and the untapped goodwill of the Lollapalooza goofs, we will come back all the way! Step by step, inch by inch...

The War On Reality

Yes, it's been highlighted repeatedly recently, but one more time won't hurt: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell - 1984. Too many times is not enough, because it is true. Keeping this in mind, let's take a quick spin through the craziness of last week in Wonderland.

Speaking at a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering, Trump suggested that we shouldn't believe what we see or hear, because it's not really what's happening. It recalls the early Trumpian world of Alternative Facts, one that is separate from Fake News/Enemy of the People reporting.

"The White House is working off the long-time tried-and-true Putin/KGB strategy that's meant to muddle reality until we lose all hope and energy and can't keep fighting. It's done by design." So says Professor Jared Yates Sexton. It goes on daily.

If you say one thing and then say another diametrically opposed position, you can always defend yourself, depending on which direction you're being attacked. For example, "I believe our Intelligence Community in their assessment that Russia interfered." Yay, our President has gotten behind our IC, at long last! But wait... the next day: "The Russian investigation is a hoax. Witch Hunt!" Huh. What to believe? Depends on for whom it's meant.

Another method is the Gish Gallop. Constantly tell a multitude of little and big lies. Overwhelm your adversary with the Big Fat Firehose of Lies. "It's easier and faster to make a false claim than it is to disprove one. If an opponent fails to disprove every single one of the spurious statements you state, you can claim victory on the leftovers."

This constant flow of big and little lies issues forth from Trump on down through his administration, his supporters in Congress, and right-wing media. So how do other events from last week play with this in mind?

Well, there was the Threat of revoking security clearances from past heads of Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies. The stuff of Banana Republics. These individuals have been accused of "monetizing" their security status because they appear on Cable TV programs to offer up (uncomplimentary) opinions about Trump Administration actions and policies. The practice of having past administration officials appear as subject experts has been a staple of TV news ever since... ever. Now they're being portrayed as dishonest enemies by Trump.

IRAN!! When stuck with inconvenient truths, look to distract. Here is an ever-available distraction, just as North Korea used to be/will be again. Trump's all-caps hyperventilating tweet threatening Iran, while ridiculous, also served up some comedy gold:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90206513/trumps-iran-tweet-quickly-and-deservedly-became-an-all-caps-meme

What was he distracting from? Continued Helsinki fallout. More Russia investigation news. Actually, there were a gazillion things that had been presented as False/True by Trump and his acolytes last week. Here are a few:

-- The release of an audio conversation between Trump and his former lawyer, discussing a payoff to a Playboy model to keep her from discussing an affair to the press. McDougal? Don't know her...

-- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They wanted to know what Trump had told him about the mysterious 2-hour-no-notes-no-witnesses "summit" conversation between the Prez and Putin. Pompeo was a study in obscurity. It's obvious from Pompeo's testimony that Trump didn't tell him anything. Best meeting ever!!

-- A government shutdown is threatened because Trump demands his Wall. Blames Democrats for not  getting it done, although Republicans control Congress. Wants "merit" policy system of immigration, which is funny because he thinks other countries' governments decide who will immigrate. He is either epically dense, or doesn't care because it riles up his base of Know-Nothings. Probably both.

-- Tariffs and Trade Wars. They're easy to win! Except when you find out you're losing and need to offer up a $12 billion dollar bribe to Red State farmers to stay the course...

-- Remember when the USA was in the worst shape in its entire history during the 2016 election campaign? Now it's great again. The Gross Domestic Product's second quarter growth rate of 4.1% is the greatest ever!! Except it's not, and it will be revised down... and it's a blip... and Obama's GDP had better growth reports. Check out the various Trump untruths here.

-- In his quest to make Government more transparent, the President has squashed the long-time practice of providing the press with transcribed read-outs of calls to World Leaders. And denying specific White House credentialed press people from access to daily events. And making public all White House visitor logs. And there are new restrictions on reporting on what groups have donated "dark money" to organizations like the NRA. Oh, and the long-promised tax returns? Fuggetabouddit.

-- Another group that's very concerned about Government ethics and fair play is the House Freedom Caucus. Not. For the last couple of months, they've been drawing up articles of impeachment... against Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, for denying their requests to review documents central to an ongoing criminal investigation (target: Trump). After weeks of their angry accusations against the FBI, DOJ, Mueller and Rosenstein, they announced their impeachment articles were officially submitted!! Later that same day, with much less fanfare, the impeachment articles were withdrawn. That is classic stuff. Blast through news cycles for months, make baseless accusations that resonate with their "base", then quietly go away. All this while Attorney General Jeff Sessions laughs and repeats, "Lock Her Up!" to a group of conservative high schoolers.

Oh, there are so many more, but we have to stop somewhere. Otherwise, we'd get wrapped up in the ongoing trauma of having hundreds of children separated from deported parents. This is nauseous, especially when ProPublica publishes a sickening report of kids being sexually abused in detention centers. No, they aren't separated. Yes, they are. No. Yes.

So how do we combat this War On Reality?

Heck if I know. One way that is effective for The Daily Kibitz is to Not Watch TV News. Their journalism is usually sloppy, shallow and sensational, and the advertising-driven time segments guarantees that important stories requiring significant reporting won't be adequately covered.

There are plenty of online news sources that are providing fantastic reporting. Just reading through a few Kibitz posts should familiarize some of them for you.

An informed mind can then venture forth into the public sphere and do what's right. One manner of socio-political expression that we've always appreciated is The Prank. Here are a couple from last week that caught our eye:

Dick Tuck and Tom LaPorte would have been proud. Then there was the story of the drifting yacht. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is worth a billion or so. One of her yachts was tied up along a dock on Lake Huron. In the dark of midnight, someone untied the boat from its moorings.

The crew was asleep and awoke 400 yards off the dock. The boat somehow suffered up to $10K in damages. So please offer up Thoughts and Prayers to Betsy DeVos that this doesn't happen to her NINE other yachts.

In closing, we came across something written in 1995 that absolutely floored us. Hoo-boy, did the late, great Carl Sagan ever nail it:

Fight the fight. Rail against the death of expertise. Demand an independent and credible press. Work to get people to vote, even if it's against your interests. It will all work out.

Finally, though seen so many times, these neer-do-well nitwits caught stealing stuff from a 7-11 continues to be hilarious. But this version, featuring Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" is really funny. Imagine these goofballs as White House staffers and enjoy:

"We Prefer Not To Believe What We Prefer Not To Be True."

Let's face it, we live in deeply negative and polarized times. It is difficult sometimes to maintain a sense of civil composure while writing this blog. But what the hell-sinki is happening when 40% of the country (and 80% of Republicans) STILL support the president for his Helsinki performance? This, after the whole "let's take kids away from their mothers and put them in cages" and "Kim is a good guy, he's denuclearized" and other debacles!

Have these 40% of our fellow Americans suffered a debilitating stroke that inhibits rational and moral thought? It's been estimated by psychiatrists that 1% of the populace are psychopaths and another 3 - 5% are sociopaths; it's understandable how these folks wouldn't give a damn. But what about the other 35%? Are GOP supporters creating a whole new dysfunctional psychological category? Or have sociopaths been radically underrepresented all this time?

In our previous Daily Kibitz, we took a dive into the Trump supporter pool to get a better sense of why he remains as popular as he is. It was not a pretty look, and we took a quick shower afterwards. But now, wowzers!

Oh, Daily Kibitz!, you might say... there you go again. You exaggerate and your elitist political bias is showing yet again. (We admit to an elitist drive: #bebest!) Don't pull the fire alarm if you see someone smoking a cigarette... Except it's not a cigarette. And many are already sounding the alarm, including the archconservative foreign policy maven, Max Boot. He likens the Helsinki horrorshow to the odor emanating from a rotting fish:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-stench-from-trumps-execrable-performance-grows-ever-more-putrid/2018/07/18/6fce82c8-8aa2-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4c9d13638bbc

Well, Max surely did not hold anything back. Neither does former George W. Bush speechwriter, David Frum, now an editor at "The Atlantic". Regarding The Age of Trump in general, he has already memorably said, "If Conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." Frum expands this conceit with a couple of  short and incisive essays written about Helsinki. "The United States faces a national security emergency."

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/07/trump-putin/565310/

"Can (the US) afford to wait to ascertain why Trump has subordinated himself to Putin after the president has so abjectly demonstrated that he has subordinated himself?"  That's the question. Then there is his next brief piece, which examines Trump's claim to legitimacy:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/is-trumps-presidency-legitimate/565451/

"(The Russians) broke American law, victimized individual Americans, and stole valuable proprietary information from an American political party. Did they share that information with the winner of the election? His party keeps attempting to obstruct the investigation of the information theft and to besmirch and discredit those doing the investigating."  Thank you, Mr. Frum.

Loser and Winner meet the press in Helsinki. Trump looks beaten up.

The maddening thing is that apart from Trump's historic press conference babbling, no one in the US government knows what happened during the "summit". It was just Trump and Putin with their translators. No records were taken - of course, it's strongly suspected that the Russians have a full recording of what transpired... just more Kompromat to put on the pile. Meanwhile, Our military leaders don't have a clue.  Naturally, our Intelligence Community is left out in the cold. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, struggling to keep his job, repeatedly stated his confidence in the IC's findings, and then was blindsided by Trump's invitation to host Putin at the White House. Watch, it's funny in a train-wreck sort of way:

"It's the President's prerogative..." to meet Putin alone and make various agreements and arrangements that are crafted by the veteran KGB agent. Wise? Not one bit. Reckless, naive and giving rise to a thousand conspiracy theories? Why, yes! But it's the President, and he can do it.

Then, when President Egg Nog gets back to DC and discovers that even Fox News is aghast at his summit, he decides he needs to do a Walk Back. So he changes "(Putin) just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be."  to "wouldn't", which satisfies approximately zero people and creates a tsunami of ridicule:

"Beware the bank president uninterested in learning who robbed the bank." Well, we all need a laugh during a self-inflicted international crisis. Neglected in his now-several Walk Back-n-Forths are his obnoxious, inflammatory and false Helsinki statements about Robert Mueller, the Russia Investigation, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, the Press, our "foolish" country, and his fantastic election. Witch Hunt!! For the best summary of what happened and how it plays out, let's turn to our favorite Spy Guy, John Schindler:

http://observer.com/2018/07/at-helsinki-summit-with-putin-donald-trump-goes-off-the-very-deep-end/

Yes, Schindler - a guy worth following and who really knows Deep Spook Stuff - believes this is all going to end in tears, for many people.

Because, in the end, Trump is partnering with Putin, a vile murderer. He is elevating this thug to the highest level of international diplomacy. Vlad runs his country as a Kleptocracy, and he is the Crime Boss. Ask Bill Browder, he knows what Putin does - and did to his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. Murdered him in prison. The Magnitsky Act is a major economic thorn in Putin's neck. It's one of the reasons Russia was so keen to help Trump win - reverse the act, lift and ignore sanctions and let's all get along!! It's enough to make the fine folk at The Onion blanch:

https://politics.theonion.com/supporters-praise-trump-for-upholding-traditional-ameri-1827661529

Oh, Onion! Be careful, because you may become grouped into the real Fake News, the Press, the Mainstream Media, or as Trump continually calls them, "the enemy of the people." Again, this is a common value with Putin. Vlad has never met a journalist he didn't want killed. In fact, he has killed scores of them:

The number of Russian journalists murdered by Putin

Putin's idea of the perfect press conference. Prolly Trump's idea, too:

Murdered journalists during Putin's tenure. Stay away from the balcony!

Putin's definitely a guy we can do business with. So, what next? There will be a whole string of new revelations spewing forth from the Mueller investigation and the Southern District of New York federal office. We're just getting started! These will amount to a mountain range of charges, affecting numerous GOP-ers (and even some Dems), the whole Trump Organization, Trump family members, corrupt media figures, hoo-boy, the list will be immense. But again, the question: will a Republican Congress vote against its own instinctual political interests to survive? Because even if they don't impeach this guy, the continual flow of indictments and trials will last for 3 - 4 years. That's a lot of bad press.

And will the eventual charges be enough to provide wavering Trump supporters with the ability to "Save Face" and turn against him. It's what happened to many Nixon supporters, who held fast in support of that guy until the tapes finally came out - it gave them an out. They could "save face" by pointing to the ugliness of the recordings and say, yes, Nixon had to go.

Finally, in the words of the visionary Janelle Monae, "This is a Cold War, you better know what you're fighting for." And here she is, singing that song she sang in front of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. It's such a powerful piece, and her pushing through despite an obvious flub-up really makes it great: