Archive for February, 2017
NOW it’s Watergate
Last week, I re-watched All the President’s Men for the umpty-umpth time. I was deliberately trying to wash the taste of this Administration out of my mind. Former White House Counsel and reformed felon John Dean had been on television a few nights, talking about how Dis Guy’s maladministration was like Nixon’s, and how there was potential for this Russia thing to blow up into another Watergate, but how we weren’t there yet.
Are we THERE yet?
Never mind that Acting Attorney General Sally Q Yates was fired for (take your pick) notifying the President of Mike Flynn’s lies to the FBI and/or refusing to defend the indefensible travel ban in court (and being right on both!) Forget the similarity between that and Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre, firing AGs until he reached Robert Bork (yeah THAT Robert Bork) who then fired the Watergate special prosecutor.
Bork (left) – Not the verb he wanted to be.
Ignore claims by several people currently infesting this White House of various levels of executive exemption from judiciary or Congressional oversight and how much Nixon stood on Executive Privilege while ignoring subpoenas, misinterpreting compliance with judge’s orders and later claiming that if a President does something, that makes it legal. Not the same thing at all!
Spoiler alert: he lost!
Avert your eyes from comparisons between laughable Sean Spicer denials of readily verifiable truths, attacks on the veracity of the New York Times and the Washington Post and how much he sounds like Ron Ziegler, Nixon’s Press Secretary, who pooh-poohed Watergate as a “third rate burglary” and later famously admitted his previous lies had become “inoperative” which, technically, just meant that his lying had stopped working. Sean’s never worked, so, NOT the same.
By a fourth-rate Administration
Wipe from your mind the steady drumbeat of NYT and WaPo articles showing an unraveling White House engaged in all sorts of skeevy skullduggery sourced to leaks in the FBI, the intelligence community, Dat Guy’s campaign staff and the White House itself. Inure yourself to comparisons starting with Deep Throat, and extending through CREEP, the FBI and the CIA and the IRS etc etc. Nothing to see there but coincidence. Mere coincidence.
The FIRST deep throat to ruin a second term.
And, finally, ignore a compulsively secretive, narcissistic, paranoid POTUS obsessed with rooting out leakers and stopping the death by a thousand cuts the leaks foretell. Not at all the personality set that leads to a group of “Plumbers” using background checks as an excuse to suss out and stop the leaks. Oh no, not THIS Administration.
The Scepter to his Throne
All of the above exists only in your lying eyes, your cheating heart and your evil mind.
Instead, focus on the Articles of Impeachment of Richard M Nixon, as passed by the House Judiciary Committee on July 27, 1974
Article 1, charge 4: interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees;
Article 2, charge 4: He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavored to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive, judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee
Clearly, with the latest revelations of contacting the FBI via Reince Priebus to ask them to lie to CNN and the New York Times, Trump has visibly, undeniably stepped into Watergate territory. To cajole the FBI Director and Deputy Director to dispute the misdeeds of campaign and White House staff as relates to their conduct with Russia is a ham-handed way to instruct them as to what the outcome of their investigation OUGHT to be.
NOW we’re there!
The other Nixon crimes listed by the House Judiciary Committee way back in my 12th summer are all still on the table, either possible but unknown at this time, or anticipated to happen if Congress actually gets around to handing out subpoenas on the Russia Connection. In the meantime, enjoy the conclusion of all three of the Nixon impeachment articles, which read as follows, (with a little light editing.)
In all of this, Richard M. Nixon Donald J Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, Richard M. Nixon, Donald J. Trump by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.
Sometimes CPAC Is Just So Funny
This just in!
Seriously, someone handed out little Russian flags with Trump’s name on them. The bozos waved them proudly.
Oh my goodness, we gotta get us some of those.
McCaul Would Build a Wall Except He Keeps Bumping Into It
Texas Congressvarmint Mike McCaul, who got elected on his wife’s Clear Channel money, is the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman which scares the doodle outta me because he’s not the brightest light on the Christmas tree.
A year before Trump was elected McCaul called The Wall “kind of a simplistic” and a “knee-jerk response.” Most folks in Texas don’t want a wall, especially the construction, oil, food service, mechanical and agricultural owners, because they get rich on the backs of poor wages and working conditions provided to undocumented workers.
Trump gets elected and McCaul starts swimming for shore as fast as he can.
“We are going to build the wall. Period,” McCaul wrote in a Fox News op-ed. “In the process, I pledge to stand side-by-side with the Trump administration to throw out Obama’s reckless immigration policies and start enforcing our nation’s laws.”
After a whole damn month of Trump, McCaul reverses himself after a trip to the Texas border.
He points out that there’s already a wall between San Diego and El Paso but not Texas. He now says that Texas needs a “multi-layered approach, using both infrastructure but also technology and personnel.”
He said that’s what the border patrol told him. Yeah, and they also said it would help if we cancelled nighttime.
Look, McCaul already knew he was going to oppose the wall, but he needed a place to escape while his constituents hollered for a town hall. Ta da! Border Patrol had to tote his prissy butt around for a few days to provide cover. Two birds, one stone: McCaul gets away from town halls and can now claim there’s a good reason to scrap the wall in Texas.
These guys are getting on my nerves.
The Wild Blue Yonder
So Trump says he’s saving us a boatload on the new Air Force One. I suspect he told the Alt Air Force about it.
“The Air Force can’t account for $1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the program to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing jets to serve as Air Force One,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder: “To my knowledge I have not been told that we have that information. I refer you to the White House.”
Dude, nobody is going there. It’s crazy there.
Fun With Guns: Hard Headed Woman Edition
Whoa, Babe. They make some tough women in Oregon.
A 24-year-old Redmond man has been arrested on assault and other charges, accused of firing a gunshot at his home, sending the bullet through a wall and fence and into a neighbor’s home, where it bounced off the head of a woman watching TV, officers said.
From another source (apparently it was a big story in Oregon).
Police say a Redmond woman suffered a small bump when a stray bullet crashed into her home and bounced off her head.
The city’s police department says the woman was watching television Monday when the shot was fired. The bullet went through a wall of her neighbor’s home and a fence before entering the woman’s home. It went through a picture frame and had slowed significantly by the time it hit her.
Ya think? Still, she needs a Superwoman outfit.
Thanks to Epp for the heads up.