10.Aug.2017

Just in case

Thanks to a friend's share on Facebook, took a gander at the Be Informed resources offered by the Department of Homeland Security. Top of the stack is the system for Emergency Alerts that I remember experiencing recently, complete with the "unique sound and vibration, both repeated twice." Says there, they come in three flavors: imminent threat, AMBER, and presidential.

How long do you suppose it's going to be before President Tweetoh learns that he has a bigger megaphone at his disposal?

But anyway, you might like to Be Informed about one or more of those 27 kinds of emergencies, arranged in alphabetical order. And Plan Ahead. The Topic du Jour is Nuclear Blast.

Taking shelter during a nuclear blast is absolutely necessary. "Remember that any protection, however temporary, is better than none at all, and the more shielding, distance and time you can take advantage of, the better."

Nice to have a basement. Or a sub-basement! And bricks are good. Better than sticks. Definitely better than straw.

And those eclipse glasses could come in handy, if you can get them on in time.

Shampoo yes, conditioner no:

"Wash your hair with shampoo or soap and water. Do not use conditioner in your hair because it will bind radioactive material to your hair, keeping it from rinsing out easily."

Investigation lit up

Our president's "maybe that wasn't tough enough," counter-bluster to North Korea is not the only furious fire in town. While the head man is off on his "working vacation," Robert Mueller and his team are spinning their grindstone, and interesting sparks are shooting off of it.

On top of July's FBI-executed search warrant, now there's subpoenas of Paul Manafort's bank records in the news. "A history of doing business with oligarchs and politicians in Ukraine and Russia," "with payments routed through foreign banks and investments in U.S. real estate" has to be a fascinating, complicated study.

It seems former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's old investigation wasn't retired when he was. Real estate, laundries, late filings to comply with the foreign-agent registration act, stuff like that. Story says Manafort is "cooperating with congressional requests for information about the campaign" but a spokesman declared last month that Manafort was not a "cooperating witness." Yet. Still, "cooperating." (What exactly are the alternatives to cooperating when the FBI barges in shouting "SEARCH WARRANT"?)

"As a practical matter, the blitz of recent subpoenas to global banks poses a challenge to Manafort’s ability to continue his day-to-day business activities as a consultant and investor, said one of the people familiar with the matter."

One would think.

9.Aug.2017

Miss Assess

James Risch talking to Wolf Blitzer (from Boise, Idaho, it says, who knew? He's keeping a low profile during his August recess):

"Well I don't know that he's threatening war..."

Um, whut?

What part of the plagiarized Harry S. Truman threat made after the detonation of a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima and just before a similar bomb detonated over Nagasaki was somehow ambiguous, Senator?

"...a person who says what's on his mind..."

You say that like it's a good thing.

"...he's very clear on what he's thinking..."

Minute to minute. That's actually the scary part. Most people have some sort of cognitive filter between the REM state randomness and what they actually put out in the world.

"Obviously we have a Secretary of State... we have a really good Secretary of State..."

As opposed to, you know.

"...this is a Very Serious Situation..."

No shit, Sherlock. Ah, but the president is "very dedicated" to protecting the country, "he has a passion for it, he means it."

"...you have a despot over there, like Saddam Hussein..."

Uh, sure, let's talk about Saddam Hussein, as you and any other half-sentient life form who followed the last 3 or 4 decades of world history would know was never any meaningful threat to this country and who was an ally of convenience in maintaining the balance of power in the Middle East, who we turned into a bogeyman for our political purposes, and then overthrew, creating, hello, utter chaos and devastation in the region which continues to this day.

"...believe their own baloney..."

Whoops, I lost focus. Who's believing what baloney just now?

WB: Given an unstable, unpredictable regime in Pyongyang, is it smart for the president to be issuing a red line warning like this?

Also, given an unstable, unpredictable regime at the Bedminster G.C.

JR: Well, Wolf, I'm not going to sit here and criticize the president. He is the president of the United States. He has said what's on his mind.

CNN teased the interview as "explosive," but my god, this is like the gal reading the nightly propaganda for the DPRK, without the production values.

And the stupid, that could burn. We're "facing a situation that could be just as extreme as, uh, what the United States was facing at the time President Truman did that."

Well that was August, anyway. 1945. After half a decade of World War.

When it suits him, Jim Risch can be as tight-lipped as a clam, but asked to comment on sur-@realDonaldTrump retweeting what used to be classified information touted by Fox ∧ Friends, another statement of the blindingly obvious:

"Those of us that deal with classified information every day really are not authorized to discuss it, comment on it, confirm or deny it or anything else. There's only one person who can do that, and that's the president of the United States. ... By simply uttering it, he does declassify it."

Yes, exactly.

"It's the job of the president to use classified information in the most appropriate manner he deems..."

What do you think of the job the president is doing, Senator? Is it appropriate? Blitzer pressed.

"I don't have to make that decision," Risch weaseled away from the tough question.

8.8.2017

Standing by for armageddon

A self-absorbed man, promoted three stations beyond his mental capacity, his tiny hands tucked around his back has now promised fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen if North Korea blusters another threat.

Forget which wag pointed out that we now have the opposite of T.R.: a man who speaks loudly, and carries a small stick. Delivering his pronouncements to reporters, from one of his golf clubs.

The effable alliteration will be featured in days to come, I'm "frankly" sure.

Except for the fact that we do have an arsenal comprising fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen. 72 years ago Sunday, and tomorrow, we gave the world the prequel, over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

4.Aug.2017

No sympathy for the devil

The Schadenfreude is running fast and thick for "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, convicted on three (of eight) counts in federal district court. 20 years in prison could adjust your outlook.

Contrary to his earlier prediction, he was not "so innocent" and none of the judge, jury and prosecutors are poised to apologize to him afterward.

And none of the counts had to do with his price up on Darprim, from $13.50 to $750 per pill, but karma works in mysterious ways. In this case, defrauding his hedge fund investors was enough, even if they weren't all that sympathetic as victims—and not even all that victimized?

"Jared Kushner" chipped in a good word for him, at least:

He seemed like a really good guy. Hopefully he’ll be able to straighten his life out.

— Jared Kushner (@jaredkushnr) August 4, 2017

Before the trial was quite done and dusted, this Dealbook piece, colorfully prepped the wrap-up:

"To the closing arguments in the trial of his client, Martin Shkreli, the lawyer Benjamin Brafman brought a tale about a wild dog and a wagon, a metaphor about himself as a lifeguard, a Texas accent to mimic an investor, a poster that asked in all caps, “WHERE ARE THESE WITNESSES?” and a bag of Ruffles as a prop.

"The government brought a PowerPoint presentation. ..."

And took four hours to summarize their 33 binders of evidence.

3.Aug.2017

Splodey heads gonna splode

Did you hear the one about the latest "real news" network? Facebook broadcast hosted by POTUS d-i-l you never heard of, Lara Trump? (That'd be Eric's wife.) You can believe it's true, because Snopes is covering it.

"...her first story concerned the president donating his second-quarter salary to the Department of Education.

"But not only did she not specify the amount of the donation ($100,000), she—unlike other outlets—failed to mention that her father-in-law has proposed cutting $9.2 billion in cuts to the same department."

Lord Tweetoh giveth, and Lord Tweetoh taketh away. Lord Tweetoh cannot negotiate space rent with the Secret Service, but says here taxpayers are dropping $130,000 a month for security at his "home" in NY, which he's been too busy golfing to visit much lately. So every month, we're losing ground to his quarterly salary donations. Even at $0, seems like he's being overpaid, and expenses are running wild. Are we going to run this like a business, or not? When does the Congress tell him "you're fired!"?

But nonsense from an alt-news network stood up by yet another Trump relative isn't quite as gob-smacking as the officially unending campaign:

"We contacted the White House press office seeking more information, but were referred to Michael Glassner—the executive director of the president’s 2020 campaign committee—for “campaign-related questions.” It is unclear what the connection is between the show and Trump’s re-election plans."

Re-election. Can you imagine the spluttering indignation from the GOP talking heads if the first year of a Democratic candidate was all about re-election? They would need better health insurance.

1.Aug.2017

No WH Chaos!

Half a year into the Fyre Festival presidency, our Commander in Tweet thus declared order had been restored. And indeed, one could imagine 4-star Marine John Kelly making it so, giving the Mooch a swift kick out the back door and bringing some military discipline to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This isn't a military coup, is it? It's back on the rails, albeit with this disturbing parallel:

"Mr. Kelly, the first former general to occupy the gatekeeper’s post since Alexander Haig played that role for President Richard M. Nixon during Watergate..."

Good old in-control Al Haig. Watching that chestnut moment, I was struck by how... normal it seems, in retrospecti, even if General Haig muffed the order of succession. He wasn't saying he took over, just that things were ok. Under control.

If only that feeling could suffuse the present day, what with North Korea launching missiles like the 4th of July, the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our capitulation to Russia and Assad in Syria, and China stealing our lunch money.

She's not quite as striking as that gal with the pink kimono in the DPRK, but I guess Sarah Huckabee-Sanders is now acting Communications Director?

“General Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House, and all staff will report to him,” Ms. Sanders told reporters later. But she added that Mr. Trump would decide how that would work.

"Decide" is an interesting choice of word. Do you think? Determine, seems likely, with that anti-Midas touch of his.

Everyone who comes in contact with Donald J. Trump is soiled, sooner or later. Mostly sooner.

Sarah Ellison's take on The Enablers in the August issue of Vanity Fair is an interesting read just now, after one of the six white guys got voted off the island, and another gave that gasp-inducing thumbs-down on the supposedly signature sabotage effort of Repeal & Replace or Just Repeal. On Paul "The Opportunist" Ryan:

"The bargain Ryan has made is clear—it’s the one spelled out by Grover Norquist back in 2012, when Norquist defended the choice of Mitt Romney by saying he’d also have endorsed a monkey, a plate of lasagna, or a potted plant. All Norquist wanted was “a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen” to sign legislation. Ryan wants to gut the safety net for the poor and cut taxes for the wealthy, and believes that with Trump he can do that. He said recently that he had dreamed of cutting Medicaid since his keg-drinking days."

Ellison chose "the Cynic" for McConnell, but that seems too sweet. I'd go with Saboteur, but then maybe that's not specific enough. Self-interested Hack?

Priebus, the apparatchik "Stooge" from Kenosha, is no more. His torch of "assuag[ing] differences, to keep as many people on board as he can, and to allow Trump to continue to be viable" will have to be carried by larger men. Requiat in pacem.

We expected Lindsay "The Instutionalist" Graham to stand up on his hind legs before the Maverick, so there is still the possibility of surprise in all this while we wait to see if the show is renewed for the fall season.

The most important man in the set is of course the Vice President, a.k.a. "The Accomplice," biding his time, absorbing the blows, dismissing one lie after another as inconsequential, his "personal agenda [of] a vaulting ambition somewhat masked by a placid half-smile and a demeanor of practiced sincerity." He has the best practiced sincerity. Also, he's been tweeting up a saber-rattling storm on his Eastern European tour, "strongly condemn[ing] Russia's occupation of Georgia's soil," for example, with someone artfully branding "VICE PRESIDENT PENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA" with quotes and bold-face and photos and hashtags. (Hint: find a picture with him looking Right At The Camera next time, like his profile pic, not that semi-squinting side-eye.)

This merry-go-round is a bit too spinny all at once. VF's Hive has its Farewell to Reince, Sessions hanging on for dear life, Trump going multi-armed Vishnu death panel on the Affordable Care Act, "trying to both implode and explode Obamacare simultaneously," and in the August print issue, a retrospective on swamp devil Roy Cohn and another on our very Goldman White House.

But it's Michael Lewis' explanation of Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming from Inside the White House that is the most arrestingly chaotic item in the trend list. Lewis describes a Deep State of deep incompetence, driven by willfully ignorant ideology.

From the "Whoops" fork in his presidential ambitions, Eagle Scout Rick Perry is now in charge of the agency he could not name.

"Since Perry was confirmed, his role has been ceremonial and bizarre. He pops up in distant lands [and the Jamboree!] and tweets in praise of this or that D.O.E. program while his masters inside the White House create budgets to eliminate those very programs. His sporadic public communications have had in them something of the shell-shocked grandmother trying to preside over a pleasant family Thanksgiving dinner while pretending that her blind-drunk husband isn’t standing naked on the dining-room table waving the carving knife over his head."

It gets worse. Like all of Lewis' work, it's thoughtful, readable, meticulously researched, and worth your attention. Especially for those of us in, around, downwind or downstream of the Hanford Reach, and those of us who use electricity, and science, and enjoy comfortable lives assembled through competent engineering, and project management.

There are alternatives being explored.

raveling

Tom von Alten