Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnell, is in a bit of a bind.

This is hot off the presses:

The House Oversight Committee on Monday launched an investigation into whether Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is using her office to benefit herself and her family.

“The Committee is examining your misstatements of fact, your actions that may have benefitted the company in which you continued to hold shares, and your compliance with ethics and financial disclosure requirements,” Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi(D-Ill.) wrote in a letter to Chao.

The investigation follows allegations of ethics violations committed by Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in her role in the Trump administration.

This is living, honest to God, cash back guarantee, iron clad proof that the rich think they are never rich enough. Mitch McConnell is 77 years old and Elaine Chao is 66.  What the hell are they still gathering money for? To bribe St. Peter?

So, come to find out, Brett Kavanaugh, who, by the way, likes beer, lied during his confirmation hearing.  Apparently, he has to be mean, loud, aggressive, and make awful faces when he lies.

Do you know who else lied under oath?  Bill Clinton. And he got impeached for it. So we shall see who is above the law.

Also come to find out, the FBI isn’t exactly Sherlock Holmes when it comes to investigating people Trump likes. Hell, in this case, they weren’t even Nancy Drew.

The FBI chose to ignore corroborating evidence from dozens of witnesses. Yet they claim they did a 10 month investigation.

Scariest of all, of course, was Trump’s tweeting.

In the first tweet, he misspelled libel, calling it liable. Suggesting that the Justice Department should come to Kavanaugh’s rescue is one more example of the imperial presidency.

Trump simply does not understand government, much less democracy.  And he’s scaring the crap outta me.

And we’re moved in and I love my new house. I live here with Bubba and boxes. Lotsa boxes.

Early yesterday morning, two Aramco crude facilities were attacked.  Shortly after, satellite photos showed plumes of smoke coming from multiple locations at a scale that could be observed from space.   The Saudis announced that HALF of their production had been taken off line.  When international trading started a few hours ago, crude prices jumped $6.00 per barrel, increasing to over $60.

Just a little while ago, Trump tweeted: “Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”

Yemeni Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks.  Mike Pompeo accused Iran for the attacks.  I call bullshit. This has all the markings of Wag the Dog as a pretense to start a war with Iran.  Here’s why I say this:

1. The Houthis have been using quadcopters and other small commercial drones bought off of Amazon for their attacks on Saudi Arabia.  These drones have little capacity to carry munitions that would cause significant damage.
2. Iran has apparently been supplying parts and training to build cheap drones, yet they are small with little capacity to carry significant explosives.
3. The attack early on Saturday morning caused enough damage to shut in FIVE MILLION BARRELS PER DAY of Saudi production.  This kind of damage was not caused by homemade drones or quadcopters from Amazon.

The Saudi facilities that were allegedly attacked are massive, with modern controls and redundant systems.  To claim that an attack with homemade drones was significant enough to shut down 5 million barrels per day of production is laughable.  This incident is one of three things:

1. An actual attack from Iran, which would be suicide by said country, and an accusation I reject.
2. An attack by some other power trying to instigate a war (the US) which is certainly a possibility.
3. The entire story is bullshit.  Trump and Mohammad bin Salman are in cahoots to start a war with Iran and jack up crude prices.

I’ll take Door Number 3, Monty.  This “attack” stinks like yesterday’s crawfish boil, and Trump tweeting that he’s awaiting instructions from Saudi Arabia is the tell.  Let’s be clear here:  The storyline is that a fleet of small homemade drones from Yemen, built by Iran, was so effective that it knocked out 50% of Saudi Arabia’s production.  Bullshit. Alternatively, Iran was so stupid as to attack Saudi directly with powerful drones (or warplanes) guaranteeing a lethal response from the US and its Middle East allies.  Bullshit.

I believe that this is nothing more than pretense to justify attacking Iran.  Worse, Trump is subjugating the US to Saudi dominance, publicly announcing that he is awaiting instructions from that murdering SOB MBS for how our country should respond.

Christ on a Crutch.  2020 or impeachment can’t come too soon.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

We are here.

Re: Badass

I’ve had a remarkable exchange with an acquaintance over Valerie Plame’s campaign ad that I posted yesterday.  He was MOST offended by the ad, first complaining about her “careless driving” (while demonstrating CIA driver skills training) and then saying he could never vote for her because she was “wasting fossil fuels” and “making climate change worse” by driving a Camaro backwards.  No shit, that’s what he actually said.  He’s a Warren/Buttigieg aficionado, so that tells you something about the mind set.  Then, he actually suggested that she should have been driving a Tesla in the ad.  I spit my sweet tea all over my keyboard when I burst out laughing at that, but then came to the conclusion that we’re f*cked if this is the mindset of liberal Dems.

Can you imagine the derision if Plame had been driving a Tesla while showing that she’s a skilled, trained CIA operative?  It would be just like the memes of Obama riding a bike:

Or Michael Dukakis in a tank:

There are dozens of examples of GOP derision of Dems as latte sipping pantywaists.  No, it’s not fair, and it’s not honest, but politics ain’t beanbag.  Liberal Dems need to understand that Democratic candidates in red states don’t need THEIR votes, they need the votes of people who usually vote Republican and who are unaffiliated.  You’re not going to get those votes riding a bike in Mom jeans and a bike helmet or driving a Tesla to be “environmentally responsible”.  You get those votes by being tough, not dancing around tough issues and parsing your words.  Plame understands that.  Warren and other Dem candidates don’t.

Normal unaffiliated people are attracted to strength.  Plame gets that.  Dukakis (or his campaign chair) didn’t.  Fortunately, Obama’s speaking skills and intellect overpowered his nerdiness.  Warren polls well among like kind because she speaks their language.  She doesn’t speak to Joe Six Pack, and doesn’t have a prayer in the swing states.  “Having a plan for that” is not enough.  Candidates have to inspire.  Obama got that.  Biden gets that. Plame gets that.  Jon Tester of Montana gets that.

Are issues like climate change important?  Goddam right they’re important.  But we’re going to make zero progress by running a candidate who can’t beat the Russians and Cheeto Jesus in the rust belt.