Deja Vu all over again

With apologies to the great Yogi Berra, the Trump administration and its travails are looking more and more like a rerun of the Nixon government and Watergate.   As Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, there have already been uncovered enough scandals to have compromised virtually any previous US government.  From Carl Icahn's self dealing to cabinet appointees lying in their Senate confirmation hearings to Trump's nepotism, it has been virtually non-stop.   Add to that the abject failure of virtually every legislative gambit by the republicans and the looming investigations of the Russian assault on our liberal democracy and you may even think the investigation of a "third rate burglary" pales in significance.  However, we are dealing with a man who has opined he could shoot someone in broad daylight on 5th Avenue in New York and he still wouldn't lose votes.  While Nixon obliquely appealed to the underlying racism and misogyny in America, Trump has made his approach more explicit and has reaped benefits from that.  The scandal which brings this administration down will have to be so virulent as to render The Donald toxic to more than 90% of the population.  If he had masterminded Watergate, he could probably have written a best selling book detailing the entire episode and gone on a triumphant tour.  That is the difference between 1973 and today.

Outing the Lion

Looks like another white weekend for the NCR.  The forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow and Saturday.  I don't know about anyone else, but I am heartily sick of winter.  Usually by this time of year we are looking forward to the end of mud season and the start of spring.  Fortunately for the apple orchards in the North Country the weather has remained cold and the trees are still dormant.  The Hudson Valley has not been so fortunate and the orchards in that region are probably anticipating some level of damage as the trees responded to late February warmth by starting to break dormancy in time for severe early March freezes.  Between Mother Nature messing with the crop and Immigration and Customs Enforcement cracking down on their labor supply it looks like another tough year for growers.   March came in rather meekly, but is certainly going out in lion-like fashion.

Alien Possession

After seeing a summary of Cheeto Jesus' executive order designed to roll back progress on climate change, I'm inclined to theorize alien possession as the only viable explanation for this blinkered climate manifesto.   Whatever being has possessed the President must need a drastically warmed and unstable climate to thrive and is using the U.S. to push all of us over the edge.  I would suspect a fair number of republicans are also harboring alien alter egos also.

Post Outrage

As horrified by the Obama administration as many conservatives were, except in the fever swamps of Alex Jones imagination most were willing to grant that the government was competent and honest.  They may have abhorred the policies the democrats pursued, but when Nancy Pelosi held the Speaker's gavel and Harry Reid wrangled a factious Democratic majority in the Senate, they were able to enact an ambitious agenda which went far beyond the dems signature achievement in health care.  Obama kept extending his hand to the opposition party in a spirit of "post partisanship" and had said hand cut off numerous times before finally deciding he had no more f*cks to give and governed through executive orders for the last two years of his presidency.  Even then, competence and lack of drama were the hallmarks.  Less than 100 days into a scandal plagued and incompetent tenure, Cheeto Jesus and his henchman and their plans make Jimmy Breslin's characters in "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight" look like personifications of genius.  From a pornographically cruel healthcare bill to foreign policy follies including the Mexican wall fiasco, to the daily scandals generated by the unsavory people he surrounds himself with, Trump continues to exceed even his most vigorous opponents expectations of stupidity.  Where do we go from here?

Our coming obsolescence

While it is hard to tear my eyes away from the spectacle of the continued implosion of Cheeto Jesus and his government, I did see an interesting interview with an Israeli historian who suggests the continuing advances in artificial intelligence will eventually lead to our species being supplanted by AI within the next 300 years.  The process could happen sooner the author, Yuval Harari, believes if the present speed of automation increases with new breakthroughs.  Self driving cars and pizza delivering robots are just the tip of the iceberg.  Within our children's lifetime, many professions from construction to diagnostic healthcare will be the within the purview of AI, leaving most of the population of humans redundant.   Obviously there are many dystopian scenarios to be constructed from these predictions, and the author declines to speculate about where his predictions lead.  A science fiction author, Iain Banks has speculated about a future in which self replicating machines free the human population to explore the outer limits of its potential.  Harari is more sanguine.  He argues humans will retreat to the fantasy world we have been constructing for millennia.  Religion is what will give our descendents meaning in a world where we can no longer define ourselves through our work.  It is a dark view of the end of our evolution as a species.

Why we can't all just work together

As Trumpcare is flushed into the clogged sewer of failed republican attempts to sabotage national health care, the predictable pundit class is wringing its hands and wondering why we all can't work together for the 'Murcan' people.   If working for the people involves substituting a poorly thought out hatchet job on the middle and working class for a system which was making a big dent in the uninsured population, then I guess I would vote against working with the GOP.   As I have said many times before, the difference between the two parties is so wide and apparent it is a travesty to call it a two party system.  The assumption is both parties are ready and willing to govern when presented with a majority in Congress.  The fractious republicans are only united in opposition to everything the democrats stand for.  Their only legislative strategy is to try to destroy the democratic party's agenda and enact tax cuts for the wealthy.  As proven by the farcial attempt to destroy Obamacare, the republicans as currently constituted cannot present a coherent legislative narrative to the American people.  It was fine during the previous administration to vote 50 plus times to destroy the ACA because they knew it would be vetoed by the adult in the room.  With a juvenile delinquent running the executive branch there is now no voice of sanity to guide or restrain them.  It would seem we are in for at least two years of chaos.  Next up, the holy grail of tax cutting.  If they can't make this palatable to a majority of their own caucus the entire reason for their continued existence as a political party will be called into question.   That is why we can't work together with xenophobes, misogynists and racists, aka the modern republican party.

just desserts

I hate the idea we may have gotten the government we deserve.   The farce playing out in the House of Representatives today, the continuing gong show (RIP Chuck Barris) that is the White House and all the major and minor cruelties being visited on the American people by their "representatives" would seem to prompt the question why do we deserve this.  I understand that most people, especially younger parents have little time and inclination to sift through the daily stream of politics.  Unfortunately, the price of citizenship is vigilance and on that score the American public has been pretty myopic of late.  Lulled by the constant barrage of wingnut sponsored propaganda we have somehow ceded the levers of political power to a bunch of dim-witted lunatics who threaten the very idea of self governance.  The repeal of the ACA is the perfect example of this dysfunction.  Not only is the AHCA, the monstrosity they came up with after 8 years cruel and stupid, it doesn't even do what they touted.  After trumpeting it would reduce the deficit, the latest iteration done to please the knuckle draggers of the freedom caucus,  would barely reduce the 20 billion deficit by a rounding error.  These are the people we are entrusting our children's future to?

Gratuitously Cruel and Unusual

As the Speaker of the House tries to push the trainwreck also known as the ACHA across the finish line so he can dump the whole mess in the Senate's lap, the sweeteners he is using to entice reluctant members of his caucus to vote for it make it even crueler than the original.  As Kevin Drum points out, there are certain minimum benefits virtually every insurance policy must cover, such as hospital visits, routine doctor visits, mental health care, etc.  What the republicans are doing is knocking many of these benefits off the requirements.  What they will eventually reach is a mandate for a policy which covers nothing.  Insurance companies will then charge consumers whatever tax credits the republicans leave in the legislation for a policy that covers nothing.  Drum estimates up to 30 million Americans could wind up with policies paid for by the government by which cover nothing.  Great job.  States like New York, which stands to lose up to 7 billion under the new Medicaid rules would have to raise taxes up to 10% across the board to make up for the shortfall.  The legislation is not only cruel, but stupid as well.  If this is the best the GOP can do after 8 years of fulminating about the evils of Obamacare I fear for the future of the two party system.

Armed and dangerous

Much of the political conversation over the past couple of weeks has centered on the accusation of the president as a pathological liar.  Exhibit number one is his tweet saying his predecessor wiretapped the phones at Trump Tower before the election in an effort to dig some dirt that could be used against The Donald.  Many in the media have spent much time trying to get a consensus that we should call out the lies and the liar.  A smaller contingent are focusing on the lies as part of a diagnosis of mental impairment, bordering on psychosis.  Their argument is that in the moment, Trump really believes the unhinged rants he posts on Twitter.  This is a man who holds the codes which would unleash a nuclear holocaust.   As Bob Somersby of the "Daily Howler" blog points out, when Richard Nixon was confronted by the elder statesmen of the republican party with the enormity of the Watergate scandal, he resigned.  Does anyone think Trump would do the same thing if it is proven that associates of his campaign, acting with his knowledge and encouragement, colluded with the Russians to tilt the recent election?  Somersby doesn't think so, and without spelling out his diagnosis, says it is much more troubling than the lies we have been bombarded with before, during and after Nov. 8.  Unfortunately, their are no elder statesmen left in the GOP.  They are a collection of liars, thieves and buffoons who will enable this defective human being to be the worst he can be.  May the Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on us.

Bothered and bewildered

In the last two months we have seemingly become two nations with regards to attitudes toward the President.  Among republicans, Cheeto Jesus has almost the same approval ratings as Reagan and Bush Sr. and Jr.  The rest of the nation manifests an historic low approval.  What gives here?  Many pundits say this is just a function of a hyper politicized nation.  The same people point to President Obama's approval ratings at a similar stage of his time in office.  Republicans hated him almost as much as democrats hate his successor.  The difference here is Obama ran a scandal free 8 year administration.  Trump has not completed a hundred days and there are so many scandals regarding everything from pre-election dalliance with Russian intelligence to Trump family business ties with autocrats around the world that a scorecard is necessary to keep up.  This is not normal, and anyone who tells you it is should be carefully vetted for sanity.  Yesterday, the director of the FBI told congress it is investigating Trump campaign contacts and possible collusion with Russian intelligence to tilt the election to the republicans.  At the same time the Senate judiciary committee was starting the hearing for Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.  How can this be happening?  The clouds over this administration need to be dispersed before any substantive actions by congress can be considered.

The Spring of our discontent

With an average temperature of around 8 degrees this morning, the spring equinox would seem to have failed to produce any sort of spring like weather.  The next ten days are only somewhat more promising.  The situation is reminiscent of the Trump campaign; lots of extravagant promises and an abject failure to deliver on any of them.  It certainly looks like we will have snow on the ground at least until the first of April and possibly beyond.  Pastimes like gardening and golfing probably won't start on the NCR until at least mid-April.  In the meantime, there is always politics. 

Heritage

Despite Mike Pence, Mike Mulvaney, Peter King, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Paul Ryan, I think I'm proud to be half Irish......

What would St. Patrick do

The Trump "budget" was issued to an incredulous American public yesterday and if The Donald hoped the heartbreakingly cruel document would distract the press from covering the potentially disastrous Russia connection story he was disappointed.  As a statement of the republican view of government it horrified almost everyone who saw it.  From the EPA to Meals on Wheels, the director of the OMB, a little scum sucker named Mick Mulvaney, wielded an meat cleaver instead of a scalpel.  He virtually guaranteed opposition from all democrats and most republicans in even remotely competitive districts.  The "Freedom Caucus" is probably ecstatic, but even these stalwart assholes will hear from many voters in their district who benefit from the government programs being decimated.   As one pundit put it this spending proposal wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.  Alas, once it is dismissed, the press will continue to hound the administration for it's manifest corruption and continue to investigate its ties to Russia.  St. Patrick was celebrated for eliminating snakes from Ireland.  We need a latter day equivalent to rid us of the reptiles currently slithering through the West Wing and Congress. 

Shiny objects

In 16 years on the NCR I have never seen as much snow as we received on Tuesday and Wed.  The storm totals at Casa Monzeglio looked like about 20 inches of  the fluffy white stuff.  However, it seems most everyone from Westchester to Montreal got more than we did.  Anyway it was more than was needed or wanted.   The 10 day forecast is not very hopeful either.  Spring will arrive next week, but where is the weather usually associated with the vernal equinox?  Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues its imitation of a Three Stooges skit.  The repeal and replace healthcare bill is DOA, the "Muslim Ban" executive order has been shot down again and dems and some republicans are feeling energized and ready to fight some of the more outrageous initiatives coming from the White House.  So, why not distract the public with rallies, wiretapping accusations and a couple of pages of tax returns from a decade ago?  As the press chases these Maguffins the destruction of the republic continues apace.

The Not So Great Society aka The Raw Deal

As we brace for the first snowflakes heralding the Blizzard of 2017, it was with more than passing interest I read the various blog posts and media articles regarding the fallout from the Congressional Budget Office estimate of up to 24 million people losing health insurance due to the republicans' replacement of Obamacare with their very own torture memo.   I was particularly struck by Paul Ryan's characterization of the CBO score as "very encouraging".  I sure Savonarola said something similar as the full effects of the Inquisition started to be felt.  As one commenter put it " I don't know how Paul Ryan can look in the mirror every morning".  Obamacare was the largest redistribution of wealth in the US since the 1960s.  By taxing the rich, the landmark legislation was able to get 17 million more people insured.  Many more would have been insured if the many red states who refused Medicaid expansion had opted in.  The GOP plan is a reverse Robin Hood caper which claws back the taxes on the rich and strips many Trump voters of their newly found healthcare.  It is ironic that so many who voted for Cheeto Jesus will be screwed by the Congress they also enabled, mostly because they were so unsettled by a black President and the "others" who were being helped by the health care legislation.  As I have said for some time, racism is at the heart of politics in America.   This is just the latest ugly manifestation.

March madness

Not talking about the basketball tournament.   With winter storm or blizzard warnings posted for the northeast US, it looks like spring weather will be a casualty of Mother Nature's perverse desire to provide talking points to climate change deniers.  Even though scientists have predicted that episodes like the predicted storm are indicators of the kind of weather that will be generated by climate change, I am confident snowballs will be thrown in the House of Representatives and the Senate tomorrow.  At a brisk 5 degrees on the NCR this morning it was a treat to walk out of the house this morning.  The frost is back into the ground and it looks like at least 10 days to 2 weeks before we get any really warm weather.  It looks like this may be another year without spring.

Another Day

NPR provided another dispiriting glance into the fact free zone the average Trump voter lives in these days.  The host spoke to the same group of baby boomer republicans who questioned Trump's candidacy in June, but were virtually 100% behind him in the general election.   A former Charlotte city councilman who you might assume would know better declared "Trump has already gotten more done than any president  in my lifetime".  Instead of inquiring what these accomplishments might be, the vapid hostess moves on to ask about the Muslim ban, possibly the only thing Trump has "accomplished" and even that undone by an injunction, and all the assembled republicans could do was bleat about Sharia law and how muslim immigrants were "infecting" the country.  Despite the impressive solidarity shown by the assembly, afterward, one of the participants whispered two words to the hostess, narcissism and lies.  All things considered (that's an inside joke), it was a pretty gloomy picture of elderly racists who were so happy to vote against Obama they would support an unqualified, moronic, sociopath with something approaching glee.  America... sometimes I hate this place.

Military Bribery

The local NPR station did a story this morning about Fort Drum and its impact on the local economy in the North Country.  As you might imagine, with 14,000 soldiers and many of their "dependents" living in the area around Watertown their is a large trickle down effect in that area.  The base population is down from a high of over 20,000 during the zenith of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is still the major economic engine of the area.  Plattsburgh experienced a similar boom/bust military economy in the 1970s to late 1990s when the Air Force closed its base.  Areas like these are held hostage by the military activity in their environs.  The relatively easy money spent by the service personnel stunt the local economy into dependency on the military.  This situation is repeated throughout the US and does two things.  First it lulls the locals into a false sense of security and second creates a constituency for continued increases in military spending.  Instead of protesting the Trump administration's plans to increase military spending by $54 billion dollars at the expense of infrastructure and social needs, places like Ft. Drum are plotting how they can expand and hoover more sweet federal dollars into the area.  Repeat this in every location where a large military base or contractor is the largest local employer and you have a recipe for a militaristic state engaged in war for economic reasons with the support of a significant portion of the population.  I am old enough to remember the political power wielded by the Grumman corporation on Long Island in the 1950s and 60s.  Because the population of that area was growing so fast and Grumman began to lose some of its lucrative contracts, eventually the power was diluted by other economic activity.  In places like Watertown, with a shrinking non military population, the locals will remain boosters of the army base and its problematic imperatives. 

Villian or Villiage Idiot

Pundits on the left have a love-hate relationship with Paul Ryan.  Widely derided as a great publicist for himself as a serious and honest policy wonk, but also as an intellectual lightweight who has been pushed by the right as their answer to liberal policies they hate.   He is also criticized as a Midwest Machiavelli who is always a half step ahead of the opposition.   With the rollout of the republican answer to Obamacare, this dichotomy is on full display.  Half of the critics are complaining the replacement is an obvious slipshod mess which represents 7 years of republican thoughts on an alternative to the ACA.  Virtually no one who was not involved in crafting the bill has any kind words for it as it so transparently seeks to restore the status quo by ensuring failure over a 4 year period.  The strategy would seem to be to ram this thing through congress before the CBO can give it the score which would be the kiss of death.  The other narrative is Ryan is crazy like the proverbial fox and is putting forward a plan he knows will be rejected.  That way the GOP majorities can continue to slowly hamstring Obamacare so it will eventually wither away.  Meanwhile the republicans can run against.  Which is the real Paul Ryan?  I would guess it is a combination of someone who is in over his head.  His flailing legislative agenda and continued chaos in the White House make this bill the default mode for the republicans.

Heighten the contradictions!

According to Ben Carson, slaves were just immigrants by another name.   Betsy DeVos says Historically Black Colleges were early proponents of school choice.  I'm sure that as Scott Pruitt guts the EPA he will proclaim the agency's mission accomplished!  This is a small sampling of the views of Cheeto Jesus' cabinet members.  By the same logic, the repeal of the ACA and its replacement with a program which cuts taxes for the rich, makes insurance unaffordable for the working class and the poor and probably encourages employers to stop offering insurance to their workers will be hailed as restoring choice and patient centered care to Americans.  In other news, black is white, up is down and truth is lies.  Truly, we have stepped through the looking glass.

How low can he go

It would seem the answer to the above is there is no bottom to the pit the President is willing to dig.  Now it seems his own government is ready to call B.S. on his contention President Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower in the runup to the election.  The claim was denied by any number of present and former officials on the Sunday shows.  FBI director James Comey, who is apparently feeling a little buyer's remorse, called on the DOJ to deny this ever happened.    If one is willing to at least grant Cheeto Jesus credit for a certain low animal cunning, this latest Tweet Storm can be seen as an effort to deflect attention from Jeff Sessions recusal from any investigation regarding Russian meddling in the election.  However, a less nuanced but more realistic view of the entire affair is that we have an emotional two year old in charge.  Having seen my 2 year old granddaughter melt down because her dad presented her with a cupcake the wrong way at a family dinner last night, reports of Trump screaming at aides because they are unable to extricate him from his own mistakes make a kind of perverse but apt comparison.  I'm thinking a countdown calendar to the 2020 elections would be an absolute hit right about now.

House of Lies

The one constant of the Trump administration is the lies.  Taking their cue from the boss, every functionary seems to feel the need to demonstrate their ability to lie on both substantive and everyday issues.  Unfortunately for most of them, they are not in the same league as the fabricator-in-chief.  Jefferson Bauregard Sessions is the latest casualty unearthed by the fourth estate.  The newly minted Attorney General has had to recuse himself from investigations of Russian involvement in our elections amid calls for his resignation.  He seems to be treading the same path as former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who was dismissed after his lies to Congress were exposed.  I think Sessions will brazen the situation out unless more egregious falsehoods are uncovered.  But the damage continues to the reputation of the entire administration.  While somewhere between 25-30% of the population will support the President even up to the apocryphal 5th Avenue shooting, the ability of the administration to get anything accomplished with a republican congress rests on an assumption of broad public support for its policies.  The first hundred days have seen the patience of the rational portion of the electorate stretched to the breaking point.   Reflexive opposition will be the order of the day from now on.

It's still winter

Despite temperatures in the 60s on the NCR yesterday, Mother Nature is reminding us this morning that despite climate change early March can still pack a weather punch.  Blowing snow and temperatures dropping steadily into the 20s made the morning drive a little chancy.  Lows near 0 this weekend will put any fantasies about outdoor gardening to bed for the moment.  I did dig a few parsnips last night and confirmed the soil was thawed.  However, there will probably be a few inches of frost by Monday morning.  This freeze-thaw cycle will no doubt snap the tap roots on the spinach in the garden, leading to a die off later this month.  In the meantime, indoor projects will take up time until later in the month.