The Beginning of the Next Phase...

I believe we've seen the end of the Beginning. Time that back to the indictment of the 13 Russians, or the Gates plea deal – something from late February. It seemed like it at the time, and the dribbles of information suggest that as well. More subpoenas to more orgs (including Trump's, which duh...)

I don't know what stage this will be that comes next, but it's unfolding. Still circulating that Mueller seeks an interview, and the OSC is negotiating that with the White House Staff. Trump has lost his shit this weekend. And the big shoe to drop next is that Trump moves to fire Mueller.

A lot of the "history will show ... " shit is coming out, so as a historian, let me set out a few of the questions that I will be interested in learning the answers to, and how I will be teaching them, FSM willing, that is still an option.

Both taken c. 3:50p

• RYAN and MCCONNELL: These guys will have to be two of the more odious shits (Odious Taints - h/t Rep. Schiff!) when all this unfolds. They sat and did nothing. How this came about is going to be really interesting. 

To wit: McConnell seemed awfully comfortable standing firm against Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland. He has seemed awfully smug. (And heavens I cannot wait for him to receive his. He's like #4 on the list.) When did he know about The Conspiracy?

Ditto Ryan: I expect for him it was more of a fait accompli. Someone said: "the Russians are going to help us win, the NRA is the conduit for laundering the cash, we'll build up a large enough majority in the victory to seal off investigations, and nobody will ever find out. Unless you open your big mouth, betray your party, your beliefs and ideological fantasies of sharing a warm post-coital moment with Ayn Rand. Now, Paulie, you wouldn't do that, would you, when you are [squeezes fingers down to a Strontium atom size] this close to getting everything you ever politically dreamed of, WOULD YOU?"

And Paul Ryan, that feckless tool, caved. 

• CHEETO Mussolini: Support for him now is confined to only these potential justifications; I refuse to accept anything else: 

1.  Authoritarianism
2. Racism
3. Misogyny
4. Avarice and cupidity
5. Stupidity

But there was something else I intended to speculate on, but now it escapes me. I know it dealt with Mueller, etc. but between the shower and here it slipped my mind.

Finally, not quite a Victory Lap, because I'm about to go on it and do some stupid shit, but ~~~VICTORY LAP~~~ \\ ~~~ `o– ~~~

The reason I quit posting on there with any frequency (aside from the several obvious ones) was because it harvesting user information to sell. That is ALL it ever did. It's kind of offensive that people are now Shocked – SHOCKED I tell you!! that Zuckerberg was in with Cambridge Anal*. Yeah, no shit, and anybody else willing to pay them.

 

He's on the list too, but way way down. Like #10. I need to post that soon. 


Now Go Get 'Em...

Happy Birthday America!

1. No one has a monopoly on patriotism. Hyper-aggressive nationalism, yes, some folks may have cornered the market on that. Also, That Flag only means one thing, and flying it helps us understand a great deal about you.

But allow me to admit that in 2017 I have a much better understanding of the "Secesh" in 1860/61, and the bitter revanchist bigot-niks of 2008/2009 et seq. (Of course, in both of those circumstances, the elemental reason for the action was "Yes but BLACK BLACK BLACK," whereas here my objection to Il Douche (h/t) is, I am magnificently confident, on pretty solid moral, ethical, intellectual, legal, constitutional, competency and security grounds.)

2.On this Fourth of July, with a fucking abject Nincompoop Dipshit running this country, a message of harmony, with a nice back-hand of "The North Says Fuck Your Nonsense": Gen. U.S. Grant, Vicksburg, 1863 July 4, from his Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, p. 332:

SUCK IT REBS!!

Vicksburg, MS, 4 July 1863, now under the command of loyal Americans, led by Gen. U. S. Grant

"Well, I'll be dipped in shit...."

PostT: Line from a tremendously awesome and bad 80s movie (My Science Project) starring – unbelievably – Dennis Hopper. Or maybe believably. 

Anyway, I am terrifically excited that I have figured out how to resurrect this blog. I don't remember exactly when I started it, but I know politics was screwy when I did. So it's nice to just have all my crazy Cassandra prophecies recorded, when they actually came more horrifyingly true that one ever could have thought!

Times do not always change. 

I am pleased to craft a small little hole in the Internet where I can just posit my thoughts on the world burning down around me my wife and me. This will be useful just for recording notions on a place outside of Zuckerberg's empire (holy shit did I start this before FB?!) – and much less annoying for my family and friends.

Although now I do have a summer II class maybe, so I'll have genuinely good stuff to be distracted with. 

Anyway: Resurrection to Life Again! 
The times, sadly, still Dreadful, Dismal, Doleful, Dolorous and Dollar-Less. 
 

Historicity and governance

I'm perplexed by this potential action. OTOH, I think obviously, yes, definitely, since the Republican Party does not seem to be willing to act responsibly on the obligations of the government, then cool, this will keep it going. (It will also of course Totally Freak Out the already unhinged far-right. I sense bad things in response.)

But OTOH, the rationale (Article 4 of the 14th Amendment) is so clearly and specifically geared toward one specific thing, namely the War to Save the Union. It was passed, Foner tells us, to prohibit payment of Confederate debt, and also to compel Southern contributions to the Union's debt. Clearly this was written with a specific intent, and thus could be argued on both Constitutional sides. I'm unsure where I come down on this one.

"Let's Try This Again," Take 6

Happy Anniversary, of sorts, to the economic philosophy known as Trickle-Down Economics. Ten years ago today, Pres. George Bush signed major tax cuts, promising sustained economic growth once government got out of the way. Today, unemployment is around 9% still, nearly three years after the economic policies of de-regulation and "Supply-side" growth nearly destroyed the economy of the United States, and with it most of the globe. Well done, TDE! Take a bow! You've now proven to be a completely fucked-up, idiotic economic philosophy FOUR TIMES.

Richard Nixon in a dress

Apparently the Great Alaska Grifter was in town yesterday, and because people are f***ing retarded and seem to care, she got followed around. Thankfully, she fled shortly after for the north, where apparently this interview took place.

I was obviously struck by the "America is for Americans" line, since I have heard that a thousand times in my dissertation research. And I think this perfectly proves what her appeal, her audience, and her own ideology all point toward. As Raymond Pearl pointed out in a 1927 article skewering racial nativists who were twisting scientific information to serve their purposes, this is all intentional. They nativists, he wrote, really mean that we have to keep out people that "I don't like because they're not like me." And this is entirely the case here.

This woman is famous for one reason, and one reason only: she stokes the fears and resentments of white people. She legitimizes their grievances against those people who are "not American" - meaning not white, Christianist morons. Her popularity in this country is embarrassing.

Who could have foreseen. . .

Apparently my self-indulgent narcissism has to be more clandestine. Other social media got me fired from my non-real job! (Still, GFY William.) So since nobody reads this, I can comment here with much greater impunity.

Anyway. Of course, nobody could have seen this coming. Seriously, how many times does supply side or faux-austerity measurements have to be lied about? They don't work. Counter-cyclical spending does. Fine, I'll concede reasonable limits on said spending. But come on.

And, seriously, it's so depressing to be in the exact same spot as a year ago. *sigh*

Spotted: Insanity on the loose

On my way home from my commute today, in lovely Norton at about 5pm, spotted some TEABAGGERS!! (No, not the fun kind) Having heard so much of this new species I observed them intently for the 4-minute stop-light cycle.
Curious bunch. All seven of them (well, it was Norton). One carried a sign that said "Home Ownership Works if You Do" which was so obvious I didn't quite understand what it was supposed to mean. Um. . . Yeah. I thought about it for like ten minutes, and now still, arrived at home, I still don't quite get it.
Another had a sign that said "Born Free, Taxed to Death." Which struck me as intensely interesting, b/c it was so patently false it suggested that the individual bearing it was completely fucking retarded. Taxed to death in the United States??? (See Robert Reich's smart take-down here on that bullshit nonsense). Has this "moran" ever heard of like Sweden? Isn't that what all these conservative fuckwads always say is SO WRONG with Europe? That it taxes too much, is socialist, etc., etc.? I don't particularly like paying taxes either (just sent my MA and RI ones off today), but I do like all the shit (most of it anyway) it provides me with. Roads, schools, physical security from whack-jobs. But these teabaggers' idiotic protests are not a protest against taxes, "guv'mint" spending or anything. These are all, I think at least, dogwhistles for the horrifying fact that a black man is president, and Democrats are in power in Congress. I'd have a lot more respect for them if they were at least honest. Or original. Or capable of reasonable thought.
Oh, one sign was pretty original: The Debt Star, with a giant picture of the Death Star. Kudos to you. Until I realized that there was nothing original about it.
Nutjob. I am of course leaving out the fact that they also obviously have no sense of the historical context of the original Tea Party here in good ol'Beantown (and I'm sure the Irony escapes them that these conservative dumbfucks are stealing an idea from "Taxachusetts" and the "Gay State" that they love to deride us as...) b/c that is also totally self-evident for anyone with an historical IQ above 45.
Anyway. Totally exhausting semester, but it is winding down. Graduation is now less than a month away. I'm excited.