excerpt from The Guardian: essay dated 10/28


"Because if there’s one person who’s in the middle of all of this, but who has escaped any proper scrutiny, it’s Nigel Farage. That’s Nigel Farage, who led the Leave.EU campaign, which is being investigated by the Electoral Commission alongside Cambridge Analytica, about whether the latter made an “impermissible donation” of services to the leave campaign. Nigel Farage who visited Donald Trump and then Julian Assange. Who is friends with Steve Bannon and Robert Mercer. Who headed an organisation – Ukip – which has multiple, public, visible but almost entirely unreported Russian connections. Who is paid by the Russian state via the broadcaster RT, which was banned last week from Twitter. And who appears like clockwork on British television without any word of this."

A very interesting read that gives us an idea of how wide and deep this conspiracy actually is. Oh my!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/28/trump-assange-bannon-farage-bound-together-in-unholy-alliance?CMP=share_btn_tw

via Rick Wilson dedicated Never-Trumper. He's been running this ditty periodically since last year:

Remember, remember,
The 8th of November,
'Twas Putin, and treason and plot;
I see no reason
Why pro-Russian treason
Should ever be forgot.

I agree whole-heartedly. Never forget. Nor forgive.

Read a Guardian article this morning, something I was alerted to over at TPM. While we've been caught up in all the smokscreening, gas lighting and other confusions, Trumpty-Dump and his sycophants are concocting a witches brew, taking us back to a Cold War footing.

Of particular concern, not only to us but the world at large, is a draft document, a Nuclear Posture Review presented to the Orange Sun King in September.

Once you go to the article--link provided below--check out paragraph 3. This pops out:

" . . .language governing conditions in which the US would use nuclear weapons and investments aimed at reducing the time it would take the US to prepare a nuclear test."

Makes me feel I've taken a ride in the way-back machine. But not that far back when we're changing language to justify something unthinkable. If you'll recall, Bush & Co. changed the language to justify what constituted and justified torture, the use of which had been deemed a war crime for decades.

This Posture Review draft is targeted to be spiffed up and completed by the end of the year. It should be called the Crispy Critter Review because that's what this maniac is pushing the world towards.

Mueller can't work fast enough. As Rachel Maddow has warned countless times: 'We cannot afford to simply pay attention to what these people say. Pay attention to what they do.'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/trump-us-nuclear-weapons-arsenal

that journalists--those purveyors of fake news--have made The Donald appear less civil than he really is? It must be true because DT said it and He is, by his own pronouncements and those from sycophants surrounding him (think Miss Sarah, Press Secretary Extraordinaire), the only source of what is real and true.

Strange that. Not that we would ever doubt the Trumpster's word but . . .

I find disrespecting a Gold Star widow uncivil.

I think calling football players kneeling in protest 'sons of a bitch' uncivil.

I find equating neo-nazis and white supremacists with the protestors in Charlottesville uncivil, particularly after a young woman died.

I find torpedo tweets against legislative colleagues, Left or Right, because of criticism be it mild or mighty, uncivil and frankly, unbecoming to the Office of the Presidency.

I find the suggestion of limiting what newspapers print--threatening to revoke licenses and/or changing libel laws--uncivil.

I find calling foreign leaders, even the ones we don't like, childish names (think Rocket Man), uncivil and once again unbecoming to the Office of the Presidency.

I find blaming 'your' Generals for the deaths in Niger and earlier losses in Yemen not only uncivil but the mark of true cowardice, a lack of character worthy only of a worm, a creature that wriggles when exposed to harsh sunlight.

There's more, of course. The list is long and tedious.

But the point is clear: journalists do not need to make Donald J. Trump appear less civil than he really is. Because Donald J. Trump does exactly that through his own words and crass behavior.

Someone needs to supply the Trumpster with a recorder so he can play back his own ridiculous statements. Then he can cry "Fake News" all he wants. And we can nod, a moment of universal agreement.

In case anyone was wondering if the House Intelligence Committee was serious about the Trump/Russia probe, the Daily Beast reports that only 3 out of 13 Republican members regularly attend the Committee's meetings. Their attention is elsewhere. Probably the Clinton Uranium story because . . . diversion.

Link here to full article:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-on-houses-trump-russia-probe-not-that-interested-in-trump-or-russia

Why am I not surprised????

I've had the TV running in the background this morning. Three separate GOPers have claimed the stories of a Republican Civil War nonsense, that Republicans have always, always had battles & disagreements between themselves. Word for word, the message is being broadcast--nothing to see here, we're all on the same page.

Which, of course, belies the old standard: Republicans fall in line; Democrats need to be herded like stray barn cats. But the technique underscores the methodology of embedding the Big Lie: Repeat the Lie, again and again, until people accept it as fact. Republicans have that routine down pat.

I think we can safely assume the heat has been turned up on the pot of thrashing froggies. The Manafort story last night--State (non-pardonable) charges of money-laundering--is making a lot of people nervous and antsy. I read one report that there was panic on the Hill yesterday afternoon. Jeff Flake's speech on the floor of the Senate surely didn't help, an appetizer of things to come.

There was a previous Oped on Marc Faber--think it's still up in the news section--regarding his provocative statement about thanking God the US was founded by white people. But it wasn't until I went to Salon and read the entire piece that I found another equally appalling but pertinent nugget, a ghastly apology for Confederate monuments. Precisely this (boldface mine):

"In his newsletter, Faber also praised the Confederate monuments that have become a national debate in the wake of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Faber said the monuments were "statues of honourable people whose only crime was to defend what all societies had done for more than 5,000 years: keep a part of the population enslaved."

You cannot make this crazy shit up. In fact, if you mentioned this to one of the wing-nuts, the Confederate flag/monument lovers, they would swear you were lying through your teeth. Though I suspect many feel the same way, the sentiments are frequently couched in words like . . . tradition and honoring the historical past. Like Faber they would no doubt argue that they were not racist.

No sir, not an ounce of racism in those words.

I caught the tail end of a MSNBC round-robin discussion of a group of 'concerned' Democrats, who were calling for unity, solutions to ongoing problems, working together, while claiming they did not to know what the Democratic Party stood for?

Really?

Just off the top of my head:

The Democratic Party stands for protecting the rights and security of women, minorities and immigrants, those who too frequently are demeaned and dismissed. They also stand for protecting the rights and security of everyone else as in voting rights--expanding the franchise, not compressing it.

The Democratic Party stands for a strong national defense, one based on diplomacy and mutual respect, while supporting nuclear non-proliferation policies.

The Democratic Party stands for healthcare for the American public, the right to healthcare, not a privilege.

The Democratic Party stands for a vigorous defense and support system to fund Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, the Democratic Party stands for offering assistance to children of the poor through healthcare insurance, food vouchers for school lunch programs and nutritional assistance for poor women and infants. They support benefits for the disabled.

The Democratic Party stands for clean air and water, a pollutant-diminished environment for the sake of the health and general welfare of our people.

The Democratic Party stands for solutions and ideas to mitigate the effects of Climate Change without invoking God or Fate of wishful thinking.

The Democratic Party stands for the education of our children, a quality, well-resourced public education, a system not based on zip codes.

The Democratic Party stands for workers' rights, rather than the Robber Baron philosophies.

The Democratic Party stands for retooling workers for the 21st Century, rather than lying to them, pretending the 'good ole days' of King Coal (or any other waning industry) are coming back or that ravaging the place you live--polluting streams and creeks, destroying the natural habitat of wildlife and fauna in the name of profit-making--is anything less than counterproductive and short-sighted.

The Democratic Party stands for sensible regulation be it guns or the financial sector.

The Democratic Party stands for a fair tax system, not an excuse for the rich and famous to shovel more money into their bank accounts.

The Democratic Party stands for the American people, the American Constitution and the protection and furtherance of our democratic Republic.

What else is there?

If a self-proclaimed Democrat doesn’t know this already, I don’t know what to tell them, beyond they haven’t been paying attention. Or perhaps they’re not really Democrats.

Whatever.

I would suggest these people reread the 2016 Democratic Platform, the most progressive platform in decades. If you can’t find the Democratic Party in that document or in the things I’ve listed above then you’re willfully blind and/or working off another agenda.

I’ve had it with the naysayers and whiners. Our eye needs to be fastened on the only thing that counts: 2018 elections.

The country’s safety depends on it.