In Redaction

Mueller the cat is fine until he goes to the Barr

     Mueller the cat discovers you can't be too careful about who you believe. You trust the wrong person with the truth and it's like they steal your head.

life by headlines

   # It is no surprise, but William Barr's reputation is getting kicked like the soccer ball at the playground. Time to ponder him later. 

    # The other headline is what got left out of the early "review." In journalism we call it "burying the lead." 

     Which lead, you ask? What strikes me at the moment is the summary implication of the Mueller Report.

      By way of explanation it seems that Kamala Harris, for example, could say one day-

      "China, if you have any information on the Trump regime, maybe e-mails, tell us about it." 

       She could encourage China to get active in social media and try to get her elected. Maybe she could meet with Chinese agents in Trump Tower to talk about their helping her campaign. 

     Or Kirstin Gillibrand could do likewise with Saudi Arabia, Sanders with North Korea, Warren with Norway.

     It is not illegal to meet with foreign governments who interfere in our election and who work to get you elected, and it is not illegal to deny the meetings or lie about what went on. It is not illegal to re-Tweet or post on social media, outright fabricated stories designed to sew divide in your nation.

     Oh and it's not illegal to secretly connive to build a hotel in any one of those locations, and to lie about that. So there!

     Can you picture the field of debate candidates all wearing blazer flag patches, or pins of their "interfering sponsor."       

     Can't you hear the announcer- 

     "Candidate Pete Buttigieg, sponsored by Oxford University, Betto O'Rourke running this year with interference from Mexico, Corey Booker who is meeting with agents from Canada, Joe Biden who is working on a resort deal in Sydney..."

such is the trump precedent

     The obvious question, if they did nothing wrong, why did they lie about so much? 

      There is so much more life in the Mueller report and on even more serious avenues. 

     The most immediate casualty is William Barr.

     The journeyman Republican lawyer joins a crowd of those made toxic by Trump. He was no brilliant scholar but he paid his dues as a conservative apparatchik. He was not a major player, but his reputation did not have stink on it, until he publicly auditioned to join the gang and then displayed what it  is to be a trump pimp.

wait till mueller talks

      The report is a treasure of findings and insight. Listen to the analysts as you will, but take time to read as much of the report for yourself. Read coverage from a range of views and try to ignore the obvious television yack yacks. 

      This began when Russia interfered in our election and did what they could to get Trump elected. How all of us, and some of us in particular responded to such an obvious intellectual, emotional and informational invasion draws the measure of our character. 

       Several investigations continue. The legislative branch will now exercise it's authority and role. What is toxic and flesh eating in the American body politic becomes more obvious. 

        We just may learn the faces of treason and the motivation of personal greed, and find a new bottom in integrity, capability and national fidelity. 

       

        but for now, a drive in wine country 

 Halter Ranch Winery

 it's a great year for lupine, even in the vineyards

  Oh, and Cheers! As one observer noted: as much as he tried to obstruct and rant and rave, Trump was unable to break the judicial system, because some around him refused to do what he asked or demanded. But, he tried....and now 

the ball moves to the Congressional Court. 

   See you down the trail.

WHEN TRUTH IS ON THE WIND

    Fixated on a kite in the breeze we can often forget about the person pulling the strings, down below.

     It's like a puppet master. Maybe it's a bit like Washington. While we are rightly fixated on the Russian intrigues look what's happening over here-in the House.

    Perhaps you have seen a list of House Resolutions that have been introduced-reminding you in the process that Republicans who introduced these pieces of legislation, control the House, Senate and White House.

     There are bills to :

• terminate the Environmental Protection Agency
• terminate the Department of Education
• defund Planned Parenthood 
• criminalize abortion
• provide vouchers for public education
• repeal the Affordable Care Act
• National Right to Work Law-getting rid of unions
• mobilize against sanctuary cities
• repeal wildlife protection

    At the risk of being pedantic, it's like this--

  teaching a child to never turn their back on the ocean-you just never know.

  circus trumpus!

   One of the great headlines about Attorney General Jefferson Sessions

 IF SESSIONS HAD NOTHING TO HIDE THEN 

WHY DID HE HIDE IT?

     I'm curious to know why he lied, under oath? I also want to know what his fellow Senators are going to do about it?

      If a Democrat would have done this, Fox News, Republicans and Conservatives would all be in a cardiac wing or cleaning their brains off the stratosphere. That's only a toe in this swamp.

how this administration resembles 
a trash dumpster

• Russians hacked and intruded into the American electoral system
• The web of contacts of the Trump administration with the Russian government of Putin is both weird and wide
• Trump expresses fondness of Putin, has done business with Russians and is opposed to justified sanctions against the Russians
• The President, his former national security advisor, attorney general, former campaign manager, son-in-law adviser and others have all demonstrated an inability to tell the truth about their Russian connections
• The President ordered a raid in Yemen despite intelligence it was not a good idea 
• When the raid ended in the death of an American and the loss of expensive equipment he called it a success
• When the military and intelligence said the raid failed to get good intelligence Trump blamed the Generals
• Every President has always accepted blame for a failed operation except Trump
• Reich minister Bannon is at war with Secretary of State Tillerson and the Trump children/advisers Ivanka and Kushner
• Completely without documentation Trump says his phones were tapped by the Obama administration

russia house

   There are many things to know about the Russian-Trump connection. Investigations are underway and this scandal in the new administration will not go away. Will it bring down this regime? Too early to know. But in the short run Americans deserve to know why all the contact and what were they talking about? 

     Why did the Trump organization have so many contacts with the Russians? It is without precedent-but everything about this gang of ideologues, amateurs, egoists, nationalists and white supremacists is without precedent. 

     Diverting attention and shouting lies, as they have and will do, won't stop the  professionals who are digging deeply into the Trump-Putin love fest. 

     There's never been an administration so troubled and scandal ridden, even before the boxes are unpacked.

republican ethic/morality

    Americans are waiting for more Republicans to acknowledge the President and his team are either corrupt, morons, or both but who got lucky with unhappy people and with those who truly are deplorable. 

    The trumpistas have already begun to screw the unhappy Americans, but Republicans could build an infrastructure and jobs creation program and do those people, and themselves, some good. They could, if they wished to. 
    There seems nothing to do with the true deplorables except to send them back to their racist, bigoted undrained swamps or they could take that group of haters and make them a brigade to send to Syria.

    In the meantime Rand Paul almost gets arrested for demanding that fellow republicans show him a copy of the so called new health care plan. Surely they have one. How many hundred times did House Republicans try to overturn the ACA? 

    So while the President is demonstrating ways he can be a maniac his party is starting to bludgeon itself and stumble over opportunity to do something except take pot shots. A couple of Senators have shown an interest in taking on the crazy Trump. 
    The House is another matter. Paul Ryan is looking for a spine. Maybe the far right wing can get their bearings by opening another Benghazi probe. Or go after Hillary's e-mails again. Or just maybe they could show a little of that vitriol and vigor by investigating the failed Yemen raid, or the Russian hack of the election or the lying Attorney General, or Mike Pence's Hillary disease-the e-mail indiscretions when he was governor, or the GOP could go after the lying...well you get the point....

trump land the movie

    I hope we all live long enough to see the movie and to read the books about this era. Can't you just imagine how writers and historians will play this. 

   Maybe in a movie those of you who voted for Trump will be able to find a good support group to help you get over it. Yes, you were fed up or ignored or unhappy but look what you did. It's like a "last call romance." You were in a bar for too long had too much to drink, and went home with someone only to wake up the next morning in a junk yard bed sleeping with rats and a goat. Your clothes were gone except your Make America Great Again shirt, that had been translated into Russian.

     By the way Republicans, you still have time to save your own reputations for the books, movies and real history. Mitch McConnell, even you could be admired if maybe you could convince the Donald to take you by the hand and just dance off the top of the Washington monument. Now is that a movie ending? Poor taste? How can you tell anymore? 

   See you down the trail.