The Dem Judiciary Committee’s Lambasting of William Barr

After months of trying, the Dem’s get Attorney General William Barr to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and they muck it up.  At one point Barr captured the scene with words akin to this:  I thought this was a hearing.  Don’t I get to be heard?

Generally speaking, the Dem congressmen and women were only interested in tarring and feathering Barr and Trump, fine for speaking to the choir but what about that relative handful of eventual voters who still could go either way?

Those could be the deciders…..the ones still sitting on the tipping point.

It wasn’t a good omen to hear that the committee chair, Jerry Nadler, was late because of a minor car accident.  Maybe his senses were shaken up.  I can’t think of another reason for him to allow Republican Jim Jordan to show what was essentially an amped up campaign video as his opening statement.  It displayed a steady barrage of burning buildings and police under attack as if the whole country is in flames and the Dems are to blame.  You know what they say about an image being worth more than a thousand words.  I recall those images much better than anything spoken (besides:  “Don’t I get to be heard?”)

Another impact of imagery was the solid performance of Barr himself.  Seldom losing his cool, despite some understandably angry reactions to the Dem’s accusing Trump and him of all sort of crimes, while almost never allowing Barr to respond to their accusations.  Every time he tried, the Dem inquisitor called “reclaiming my time”, meaning they only had a few minutes and they weren’t going to waste it on what they assumed were lies.

To get a word in edgewise, Barr grabbed time from sympathetic Republican questioners.  Otherwise this was a political roast without the usual humor.

My point is not to defend Barr’s positions, but the fact he was seldom given much time to express them WHICH GAVE THE IMAGE OF AN UNFAIR TRIBUNAL, NOT A HEARING.  Despite weeks of advanced warning there seemed no preparation by the Dems for pinning down a very tricky character, which would have required something more organized than the scatter gun attacks by the Dem Representatives.

Oh, by the way, I am a never Trumper in case you haven’t read many of my posts.  My anger comes when I see Dems do things that I feel are detrimental to the cause, and this so-called hearing is one of them.  Frankly, I just don’t think Nadler is up to the task of dealing with a Barr (if you recall Adam Schiff was the Dem leader in the impeachment proceedings even though that role would more normally go to the Judiciary Chair, who was Nadler).

The “hearing” totally lacked fairness and that is the main message I believe it conveys to those relatively few who are still swaying in the wind.

It is a message unfavorable to the Democrats.

Wallace’s Interview with Trump Sunday: Accessibility in Action

I regret Monday’s post in which I muddled together praise for three fine men with knowledge and integrity:  General Mattis, Doctor Fauci and TV journalist Chris Wallace.  The first two are better known, especially Fauci, than the third and they deserve it.

But Wallace exemplifies political interviewing at its best and, in my opinion, does not get the praise he deserves.  It is particularly tough to pin down the truth these days, and he’s particularly good at it in his interviews.

Liberals can’t forgive him for working at Fox (see P. S. below) and actually exemplifying the station’s slogan of “fair and balanced” journalism better than the liberals on MSNBC and CNN do.

He did the best interview I’ve seen of our pretend president Sunday (while his interview of Putin at Helsinki may be the best I’ve ever seen in terms of political toughness [Would you want to get tough with Putin?]).

But let’s get to the point.

The White House spinners of their made up truth often argue that Trump is the most accessible president ever (always that ridiculous degree of hyperbole) which is as phony as most things that come out of their mouths.  While Trump is often seen giving brief attention to reporters before helicoptering from the White House, the press questions are never fully answered and often can’t be heard over the roar of helicopter blades.

In other contexts he evades reporter’s questions by calling them “nasty” or using some other form of distraction, like terribly twisted distortions or just plain lying.  Basking in his false narrative and the power of his presidency to ignore.  Only in the warped little minds of the Trump mouth pieces can this be seen as accessibility.

I think the only reason Republicans agree to be interviewed by Wallace is because he works at Fox.  Maybe they think they’ll get a warm reception.  Often they don’t, but he’s always polite.  I don’t see many cheap shots from him.  Wallace tends to be fair and balanced, in stark contrast to Fox’s biggest stars, the week day evening crew of Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham, who remind me of the laughing hyenas in The Lion King.

But crawling back to my main point:   I want Wallace’s interview of Trump to get the attention it deserves.  Wallace actually made Trump accessible through his penetrating questions and his feisty responses.  Here are a couple of ways to digest the interview.  You can actually watch the so-called president flailing around in full by going to this link to Fox, but have a drink and some snacks at hand as the interview is 40 minutes.

Or you could flip through CNN’s ” 55 most schocking lines”.  And follow those up.  Or simply google around.  There are plenty of articles about the interview.

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P. S. – A number of liberal commentators have praised Wallace, while also criticizing him for various missteps, such as not taking Trump to task for stories of Putin’s paying Taliban members to kill American troops, or making Fox look better than they are by actually exhibiting a fair, balanced and hard hitting interview.

My thoughts:  Wallace knew that bringing up the Taliban would simply prompt lies and denies from Trump and waste valuable time.  As for the unfortunate fact for liberals that Wallace is more fair and balanced then they are…. Well, I don’t think many people confuse Wallace with the opinionaters at Fox headed up by the three hyenas.  In any event, I’m eager to see a smart, tough interview from any source these days.  Just so we don’ forget what it looks like.

Anyone remember how good Tim Russert was?

Things Are Bad and Under Trump can Only get Worse.

Last Friday the coronavirus task force had its first press conference in about two months.  The lack of those press briefings seem to fit with Trump’s eagerness to get the economy back on track.  The whole of the medical information seemed an “inconvenient truth” that Trump didn’t want to spot light.

So, Trump skipped this meeting and VP Pence presided.  The VP (one of the world’s great suck ups) went immediately delusional, emphasizing what “remarkable progress” we have made under the supposed leadership of president Trump.

I have not posted since May 18, as there is so much going on I haven’t felt I had much to add.  My quote from President Obama in that last post seems to still basically cover our situation regarding the virus.   Trump’s response has been an “absolute, chaotic disaster.”

Regarding our “remarkable progress” vs. the virus, in that May post I also compared our success against Covid-19 with that of South Korea which registered it’s first case January 20, the same day we did.  Since then they have lost about 300 people and we have lost over 126,000.   How can this have been remarkable progress by us?

Another couple of enlightening stats:  Both the U. S. virus cases and deaths make up about 25% of those world wide, while we have roughly 5% of the world’s population.  How can this have been remarkable progress by us?

And now the European Union has crossed us off their list of fifteen favorite nations in regards to travel there.  They basically banned us because our rates of contagion are much greater than there’s now.  (check out the graph).  It was not that long ago that Trump was banning Europeans from coming here.

And now because of Trump’s eagerness to reopen the economy despite medical warnings of the dangers of acting too soon, we see major spikes in the virus in several states, making Pense’s rosy picture last Friday look all the more delusional.

 

Obama calls Trump’s Response to the coronavirus “an absolute, chaotic disaster.”

I could not have described it any better Mr. President.   Glad you’re getting warmed up for the big fight to dethrone the boy who would be king.  We need a lot of you now as your buddy Joe is sort of trapped in his basement at the moment, a bad look but he’s in a tough spot.  He’s just not in the center of the action right now.

As always, Trump is in the center of the news because his main goal is to be there.  He’s great at doing or saying something controversial which gets top news billing because he is the president.  In contrast to him is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who has basically been the banner carrier of the Democratic party of late as he has shown the nation in his daily press conferences what a real leader looks like as opposed to president putz.

Cuomo has been the text book leader in turning the virus around in New York city and state.  A real leader takes charge, tells the truth (sure often with some positive spin) and takes responsibility for his actions, as President Harry Truman summed up with a sign he kept on his desk:  “The buck stops here.”   With Trump the buck never stops with him.  If it’s a problem it’s someone else’s fault.

Trump’s response to Obama’s criticism is predictable: he trashes him.  Deflecting from his own incompetence, Trump hangs that label on Obama.  And he ups the ante by asserting some crime Obama committed, while refusing to state what it is.  “You know, ” he tells reporters.  “You know.”

I’d love to see a chorus from reporters ring out:  “No, we don’t.” (and we suspect neither do you.)

Trump’s phony act is so obvious, but he keeps the press at bay with his ability to churn up enough outrageous news bits as to keep reporters buzzing about and failing to land on something, some one thing to demand an explanation of.

How about this topic?  Trump continually brags about what a great job he’s done vs. the virus.   But, according to the News Tribune:  “The United States and South Korea each reported their first confirmed case of the coronavirus to the World Health Organization on Jan. 20.”

Since then around 300 South Korean’s have died of the virus, compared to around 90,000 Americans.  We have about eight times their population, so to make the comparison fair and square, let’s make the situation per capita and say if South Korea had our population, they would have lost about 2,400 people.

90,000 to 2,400………………..  Still, a huge disparity.  REALLY HUGE!  Please, reporters unite.  Demand Trump explain that statistic in the face of his bragging about what a great job he’s done.  Bring this up over and over a gain, like a dog with a bone.  Keep biting and don’t let him deflect the questioning elsewhere.

Trump deflects by blaming Obama for leaving him “a bare cupboard” of pandemic supplies” and nothing else.  At least the Obama team left him with a basic primer of suggestions of what needed to be attended to and an office within the National Security Council whose job was to track potential pandemics world wide.

Trump ignored the suggestions and closed the office.   Also, he has had over three years to develop his own plan to battle pandemics.  What’s Trump’s plan?  Open up the economy willy nilly and see what happens while gambling on a vaccine developed soon enough to save us?

Again I would like reporters to demand an explanation for why 90,000 carona deaths here, while South Korea has had about 300 (or an adjusted 2400 if we add the population differential).

Please reporters, bring this up the next time Trump claims he has done a great job battling the virus.

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P. S. – My link above to the News Tribune is worth following as that news source gives a brief description of what South Korea did and we did not.

Coronavirus: How We Dry Our Hands is also Important.

We’ll get to drying hands shortly, but right now I want to vent a bit.

It is all too much for me.  The capper in this time of crisis is the horror of a man who is supposed to be our leader apparently only concerned with making himself look good.  So while doing too little to keep us safe or at least make us safer, Trump’s greatest efforts are directed to avoiding blame. 

China gets the most blame at the moment, and of course WHO who has been soft on them and President Obama, who Trump blames for leaving the cupboard bare when it comes to anti-virus tools (leaving out his role in dismantling what Obama did leave in place).  Of course the fake news, the deep state (especially the corrupt FBI) and of course the Democrats in general for pressing their witch hunt against him throughout his presidency, taking his attention away from important matters………like anti-virus preparation……  

Back in February or so Trump pointed to the virus as one more hoax by the Dems to slur him.  And dismissed the virus as something we had under control.

Whatever……………….   I just can’t stand looking at the big picture sketched and scribbled and erased and blurred by Trump….all to make him look good.  The years of Trump have felt increasingly surreal, but now they have made our lives unbelievable.

We tend to look normal but aren’t.  We stay at home a lot more, take a walk as a high point of our day, watch TV escapism  (and as much virus news as we can stand) and zoom togetherness and just hope for better to return.  What used to be an informal togetherness we experienced most days is now the occasional intermittent well spaced greeting to strangers.

I am anxious about us holding our own if Trump’s twisted reality takes hold of too many voters this November.  Perhaps science can save us with a miracle drug, and maybe Trump’s presidency, too, which would be so ironic, since he usually down plays the weight of scientific evidence (because it undermines his wishful thinking).

Anyway…………  Besides venting my anxiety I’d like to add a little something to our anti-virus fight.  We are often reminded to wash our hands often to keep the virus somewhat contained, but seldom do we see much about the importance of how we dry our hands.  Perhaps you have questions as I have:

At home can we just use the same towel? Or should we use different ones.  How important is our getting our hands real dry.  (clue: real important).  How can we make simple home sanitizers?  What about using blow dryers in public rest rooms?  Are paper towels the best way to go?  Etc. etc.

I don’t want to mislead you with faulty explanations, so it seems best for you to search the article linked below for answers to the above questions and more: article in Business Week.

It was published back on March 9, 2020, but I’ve read more recent pieces and still think this one gives you the best overall view. (It also links to other information.)

Trump and Coronavirus: How Dumb can a “Stable Genius” Be?

As Jonathan Chait described yesterday: ” On February 26, President Trump boasted that the coronavirus was about to disappear altogether from the United States. “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” he insisted.

When a reporter asked him (yesterday) how that prediction is holding up, given that the United States now has surpassed 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases. Trump insisted he had been right all along.

“Well, it will go down to zero, ultimately,” he said.

Well, of course it will ultimately go down, but how much will it destroy in the meantime?

As Chait added sarcastically:  “…. the timeline for going down to zero has been slightly extended from a couple days to “sometime before all life on Earth ceases to exist.” Oh, and on the way to zero, we’re going to have trillions of dollars in economic damages and more deaths than a major war, details Trump didn’t get around to mentioning originally. Other than that, mission accomplished!”

We all know Trump will defend as being right anything he says or does, but the senselessness of this statement seems to reveal some new level of scary detachment from reality.  And/or fundamental stupidity.

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P. S. – If you want to see more about Trump’s related misstatements of fact and common sense you can check out CNN coverage here.

Stalking Trump the Weasel (04/15/2020)

You have to hand it to the guy (or troll, or fat faced humanoid – whatever you want to call him).   He’s really great at capturing the news cycle, while deflecting personal blame.

He’s kind of an evil genius in that regard.

Today’s attention seems drawn to his defunding the World Health Organization (or putting the funding on hold or quite likely making no change but still notching another news cycle while doing virtually nothing).  Yesterday he was boasting of his total authority to “open the economy”…..an idea now dropped, BECAUSE EVEN FOR HIM IT IS RIDICULOUS, as many of his aids must have argued.

It was dropped because he has no authority to do that, but it sure put the press into a tail spin.  Hear’s the time tested formula:  Trump says or does something outrageous;  The press and liberals (and conservatives who still have integrity) become enraged and then he backs off having notched yet another news cycle win.

And he moves on………..

And he looked tough doing it.  Looking tough a high priority for him.  Making a tough decision that he might be blamed for, not so much.

I’d say defunding WHO is just another fire cracker he tossed in the air to ensnare everyone’s attention.  Of course, WHO can be faulted for many things, but at least it is a structure for dealing with important international health issues.  WHO’s faults allows Trump to deflect his many failures regarding the run up to this crisis.

What’s Trump’s alternative international organization?  Him? The grand narcissist?  America not only first, but only?  Actually, only him.

While attention is directed at the faults of others, capturing most of our attention, a lesser story comes forth, bantered around before, that Trump will have his name on the memo portion of checks sent out to the public.

I realize that most of my readers find this abhorrently ridiculous, but I’m hoping to snag a vote or two from Trump leaners.  With all that is going on about the coronavirus and likelihood of a cavernous global recession…………. Trump is pushing his brand in every little way possible.   That he thinks of such things is one more testimony that he thinks less of what is really important.

How appalling does this guy have to be before some of you Trump leaners rediscover your souls?

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P. S.   –  Here’s an NYT’s article on Trump’s plan to have his name on all checks for funding relief.  One plus, probably a majority of recipients will receive direct deposits.  Thank God for small favors.

Governor Cuomo for Presidential

Seems like we have traversed at warp speed to a new even weirder and more frightening world then the one we were living in about two weeks ago.   Then my big question was:  Would Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders come together to unite the Democratic party for the presidential run?   Now, at the moment at least, both seem irrelevant.  They are barely seen or heard from.

That’s what happens I guess when a pandemic spreads at a geometric pace creating a new world of problems.   The new drama entangles the ever present mercurial Trump in a curious dance with New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo, who has become the star of the Democratic party through his impressive marshaling of resources to fight the carona virus in New York city and state.

New York has about 40% of the 166,000 carona cases in the land.  And the numbers continue to rise rapidly, which is why it is often called the epicenter of this invisible war.  However, Cuomo’s government has at least slowed down the rate of increase from doubling every two days to doubling every five or six.   Still, a losing fight at the moment, but he’s the kind of guy who gives one confidence he has a plan to win over time.

Cuomo’s plan is to slow down the virus’ growth enough in New York to flatten the curve of its progression so that our health care workers can regroup and continue the fight as the fury crosses our country.

Trump has never had a plan.  He’s relied on his feelings, like when he said he had a “feeling” that the nation could get back to business by Easter Sunday.  He abandoned that feeling, but his lack of a plan (and awareness) screams such as Trump’s handling a conference call yesterday with the nation’s governors.  When Colorado’s Steve Bullock asserted that he had only a day’s left of testing supplies, Trump acted surprised.  “We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world…..I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.” (read more  here).

Is Trump the only human in America who hasn’t heard day after day a lack of testing is a problem? A big problem.  And does he understand the meaning of per capita?   He brags that we have tested more people than South Korea?   Well, true but we have six times the population of South Korea.  In a March 9 survey of cases worldwide when it comes to tests per million people, Korea ranks second and the U. S. ranks 15th (read more here).  ……Little Bahrain was first.

I spoke of Trump and Cuomo being entangled in a curious dance.  Cuomo needs Trump’s help as do all of the governors, so he watches his words and tempers his criticism most of the time.  And praises when he can.

Much of Cuomo’s criticism comes from comparison.   Cuomo has a news conference usually around 11:00 a.m. EDT, while Trump has one later in the day.  Check them both out or just google Cuomo and Trump for lots more details.

You watch the two perform and decide who is more presidential.

Biden and Bernie: My Hope for Democratic Unity

In about one half hour Biden and Bernie will tangle in a debate, which I hope is more of a dance.   I’ve heard it said that Biden must unify the party, but I’d say Bernie is the one to decide that.  And the clues so far suggest he will go more for unity than making Biden look bad.   As he said following the recent primaries in which Biden dominated:  “While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability.”

He figures he has lost, so his greatest desire is to beat Trump so he doesn’t want to besmirch Biden tonight.   What he wants is respect given to the platform he and his followers have been battling for.

Unlike Bernie and Hillary, Bernie and Biden are friends.   I think both will make points about the issues that matter, so we should see a real debate break out for a change.

They will cut Trump a part of course, and there might be some heated moments between them, but basically Joe and Bernie want the same thing.

BEAT TRUMP.  Tonight must end with a greater sense of party unity than division.

I hope and believe that will be the case.

 

No Elizabeth, You Did not Lose Because of Your Gender, You were Just Too Far Left.

I was thinking about writing a post prior to Super Tuesday, but I saw no likely outcome that I would like.  Like most, I didn’t believe Biden could become Lazarus  and rise from the dead, and if any of the others had done exceptionally well (except Amy Klobuchar, another unifier, who already had way over performed given her minimal name recognition) it would only have left the party fractious, easy pickings for our fraud king in November.  A choice between Bloomberg, the billionaire, and Bernie the socialist felt like defeat.

But like Lazarus, Biden had someone with a magic touch, Congressman James Clyburn,  who brought him to life with his backing. Clyburn is arguably the most respected black leader in the country, and his public backing did much to bring Biden back from dormancy.  His backing prompted a huge win in South Carolina.  And other states followed suit.

It has been argued that Biden was already moving up in the polls at the time, but so what.   It shows that Dems were looking for someone reliably in the center and didn’t care so much for the revolution promoted by Sanders and Warren.  And that outpouring of support seemed to rejuvenate the often ho-hum Biden.  If they could get excited so could he.  He has looked like a different man of late.

But going back to Warren and other women who want to stress how sexism robbed her of her rightful place as a candidate.  SHE TOOK 3RD IN HER OWN STATE behind Biden (who didn’t campaign there, and Sanders).  How about looking into that matter first before raising the “S” card.  Ah, Liz, before whining about sexism what’s your explanation for that dismal result ?

Warren lost because she was too far left at a time when “return to normalcy” was hungered for in response to Trump’s never ending tornado through the political process.  Daily every news cycle began with something Trump had done, not done or said.

Part of the Biden miracle was the willingness of other centrists candidates to give up their campaigns and back him immediately before Super Tuesday.  It has been rumored Obama may have had a hand in that……if so, fine with me.

Look it.  I have a lot of respect for Warren.  I could consider her in 2024.  I’m not saying gender inequity in politics is not an important issue.  What I’m saying is right now, when battling the cancer that Trump has produced in our body politic, that all eyes must be focused on defeating him.  We must form an unbreakable unity.  Once he’s gone all other issues can be debated.

I have heard Elizabeth Warren say this is not a time to think small but to think big. Wrong.  This is a time for a return to normalcy.  When the rule of law is reestablished and the courts regain respect and the press is not called “the enemy of the people.”

This is the time to right our basic sense of what America stands for.