Category: Trump effect

October 21, 2018

    On Friday, federal prosecutors in Virginia unsealed an indictment against Elena Khusyaynova, an accountant employed by Russian troll farm, Concord, for her role in its efforts to interfere with the 2018 midterm elections.  Concord was already indicted by the Special Counsel in February for its interference in the 2016 Presidential elections, (Source: “U.S. brings first charge for meddling in the 2018 midterm elections,” by Josh Gerstein, Politico.com, 10/19/18).

    The indictment charges that the Russian scheme, dubbed “Project Lakhta” aimed to “sow division and discord in the U.S. political system, including by creating social and political polarization, undermining faith in democratic institutions and influencing U.S. elections, including the 2018 midterms,” (Source:  Criminal Complaint, United States v. Khusyaynova, Case No. 1:18-MJ-464 (Dist. Ct., E.D.Va)).  The indictment alleges that the budget expended on this criminal conspiracy from 2016 to 2018 was $35 million dollars! Continue reading “The seeds of our destruction”

October 18, 2018

 

The details of Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly assassination are beyond shocking.  Turkish officials claim that the Saudi death squad who intercepted him at the Consulate employed particularly sadistic methods.  They cut off Khashoggi’s fingers, possibly while he was still alive, and then continued to dismember him, cutting off his head.  The forensic pathologist imported for the occasion advised the killers to play music while they tortured Khashoggi to “ease the tension,” (Source:  “Audio Offers Gruesome Details of Jamal Khashoggi Killing, Turkish Officials Say,” by David S. Kirkpatrick and Carlotta Gail, The New York Times, 10/17/18).  Given the fact that four of the members of this hit squad have ties to Mohammad Ben Salman, there can be no doubt that Khashoggi was murdered at his behest. Continue reading “Pulp (non)fiction”

October 16, 2018

 

With 21 days until the critical midterm elections, the news continues to give us cause for white hot rage.  Although polls continue to show Democrats with a 70% chance of re-taking the House, the Republicans have displayed ruthless determination to thwart the will of the people, using every method at their disposal.  This is the context through which we should view Senator Elizabeth Warren’s release yesterday of DNA test results “proving” her Native American ancestry (Source:  “Warren Releases Results of DNA Test,” by Annie Linskey, The Boston Globe, 10/15/18).  Warren’s gambit to silence Trump’s continued racist taunts was not only futile, but dangerous.

By releasing her results as “proof” of Native American heritage, Warren implied that membership in a tribe could be determined by DNA, rather than being a political and legal decision made by the tribes themselves, based on their own extensive records, (Source:  “Why So Many Native Americans Are Upset That Elizabeth Warren Tried Proving Her Ancestry with DNA,” by Molly Olmstead, Slate.com, 10/15/18). Continue reading “Don’t get mad…”

October 12, 2018

     Yesterday the Oval Office was the setting for a scene more fitting for Barnum & Bailey than for the high minded affairs of state that august setting usually requires.  Kanye West burst into the West Wing sporting a MAGA hat, armed with his unique brand of proudly narcissistic ignorance and delivered a rambling, incoherent paean to Trump.

     Predictably, everyone from Black Twitter to The Washington Post was mesmerized by the insane spectacle.  It is truly a sign that we are living in bizarro world when it is a sign of “wokeness” to delete Kanye West and stream Taylor Swift.  There was speculation about Kanye’s mental health, but whether he is bipolar or “sleep deprived,” he is clearly seen as nothing more than a prop by Trump.  It is the ultimate humiliation to be the useful idiot of Putin’s useful idiot, but in 2018, here we are. Continue reading “Leave nothing to chance”

October 10. 2018

     After the bruising fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, watching his jovial, backslapping, ceremonial swearing in at The White House was jarring indeed.  It was a stark reminder of how politicized and diminished The Supreme Court is in the wake of McConnell’s ruthless manipulation of the confirmation process. McConnell didn’t hesitate to steal a seat from President Obama or to conceal Kavanaugh’s record, suborn his perjury, and whitewash an investigation into possible sexual assault in order to ram him through.  To the contrary, McConnell is proud of his accomplishment- a partisan, conservative Supreme Court majority to enshrine minority rule for a generation. Continue reading “Stay thirsty”

October 8, 2018

 

It is no exaggeration to say, as Charles Blow has, that we are in the midst of a Cold Civil War.  On one side, we have people who happily put brown children in cages,  re-hire cops who have murdered innocent Black children in cold blood and privilege the rights of rapists over survivors.  They bond with their leader by delighting in cruelty to those of us they disdain as beneath them.  If you think that this is a new phenomenon in American life, I have some lynching postcards to show you (Source:  “Cruelty Is The Point,” by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 10/3/18). Continue reading “Civil War”

October 6, 2018

     In the last week, as we have watched displays of anger on all sides, we have once again been reminded, in ways too painful to contemplate, whose anger is deemed worthy of respect and response, and whose anger is belittled and dismissed.

    We had Kavanaugh’s red-faced tirade, his face contorted with rage at the thought that a woman might hold him to account for his behavior and keep him from his gilded perch on our nation’s highest court.  Kavanaugh’s entitled tantrum was so disturbing that it prompted former Supreme Court Justice Stevens to state that it disqualified him from a seat on the Supreme Court (Source: “Kavanaugh does not belong on the Supreme Court, retired Justice Stevens says,” Reuters.com, 10/5/18). Continue reading “The uses of anger”

October 3, 2018

 

Stop being surprised. Stop looking for decency or humanity from Trump or anyone in his orbit.  Understand that Trump is a depraved monster devoid of decency, who has lived his entire life free of consequences.  We all need to fully comprehend that he has millions of cultists who will gladly follow him into the abyss and govern ourselves accordingly.  Yesterday, at a rally for a female Congressional candidate in Mississippi, Trump viciously mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the crowd cheered in response, (Source: “Trump Taunts Christine Blasey Ford at Rally,” by Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker, The New York Times, 10/2/18).  Think for a moment about what those in the audience were applauding — the sound of the leader of the free world mocking an accomplished woman’s sober account of the soul shattering impact of a sexual assault at the hands of an entitled frat boy, who happens to be that leader’s pick to sit on our nation’s highest court. Continue reading “Message to the 53%”

October 1, 2018

 

On Friday, brave activists, Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher, confronted Senator Jeff Flake and shamed him into agreeing to the compromise proposed by Democratic Senator Chris Coons for a one week delay in a floor vote to allow the FBI to investigate the sexual assault claims against Brett Kavanaugh (Source:  “The #MeToo Activists Who Confronted Jeff Flake Brought Victims Back to the Center of the Kavanaugh Debate,” by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, 9/28/18).

Our relief was short lived because within 48 hours, The New York Times reported that The White House and the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had sharply limited the scope of the inquiry, by dictating precisely who the FBI was permitted to interview.  The Republicans are hellbent on turning the renewed investigation into a farcical, hollowed out echo of an actual investigation.  In a legitimate investigation, the FBI might interview Kavanaugh’s classmates from high school and college to determine the likelihood that he was a frequent heavy drinker.  They would search out Mark Judge’s co-workers at Safeway to pin down a timeline that might corroborate Dr. Ford’s recollection, (Source:  “The FBI Investigation We Deserve,” by Harry Litman, The New York Times, 10/1/18).  Those avenues of inquiry have all been foreclosed, making it clear that this is yet another whitewash designed to check a box, rather than get at the truth.  It is enough to make one sick with rage. Continue reading “Believe them the first time”

September 28, 2018

The gulf between the morning and the afternoon at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing couldn’t have been wider. In the morning, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, her voice quavering, eyes wide, painstakingly detailed her assault at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh 36 years ago. She stated definitively that she knew it was Brett Kavanaugh who attacked her. Dr. Ford brought tears to our eyes as she discussed how Kavanaugh’s attempted rape destabilized her for years afterward. She was so haunted by the terror of being immobilized under the weight of a misogynistic, privileged jock behind a locked door, that she had a second front door installed in her home 30 years later, so that she might always have a means of escape. The argument over this eccentric renovation request led Dr. Ford to reveal to her husband that she had been assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh as a teenager. We have all known women like Dr. Ford —-earnest, likeable, yet haunted by something they will not name. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was terrified and utterly believable. Continue reading “Mad As Hell”