As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck.

Kelly who?

If Kelly goes, get ready for the White House to downplay his limited-time role
By Callum Borchers, Washington Post
February 10

If (Marine Major General and White House Chief of Staff John) Kelly exits the White House — The Washington Post reported Friday that he is willing to resign — expect Trump’s remaining team to do what it often does to former aides: downplay their significance.

The reasons vary. Sometimes the goal is to discredit an ally-turned-critic. Other times the objective is to distance Trump from someone who appears to have become a liability. Another aim might be to counter the perception (reality) that retaining key staffers has been a challenge.

Whatever the motivation, the message is that someone who leaves Trump’s orbit probably was not very important in the first place.

Deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah read from this familiar script Thursday when asked during a media briefing about Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former director of communications at the White House Office of Public Liaison.

“She had limited contact with the president while here,” Shah said.

Translation: Manigault Newman does not know what she’s talking about when she says the Trump White House is “not going to be okay,” as she did on “Celebrity Big Brother,” because she was never really involved.

Sean Spicer, when he was the White House press secretary, memorably claimed during one briefing that Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”

Spicer also described former national security adviser Michael Flynn as “a volunteer of the campaign” and dismissed longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone as someone who “worked briefly on the campaign.”

Remember George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to making a false statement to FBI investigators? White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hardly does, even though Trump once touted him as an “excellent guy” in an interview with The Post’s editorial board.

“I’m telling you that he was a volunteer member of an advisory council that literally met one time,” Sanders told reporters in October.

What about Carter Page, another former foreign policy adviser, whose contacts with Russians were probed by the FBI during the presidential race? Trump campaign communications director Jason Miller told the Hill in September 2016 that Page had “never been a part of our campaign, period.”

“Carter Page is an individual who the president-elect does not know,” Spicer said at a news conference in January 2017.

“I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him,” Trump added the next month. “I don’t think I’ve ever met him.”

Lately, Trump has decided that Page was part of the team after all, arguing that the FBI’s surveillance of Page amounted to inappropriate spying on the Trump campaign.

No one has been erased from Trump history more thoroughly than former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who, according to the president, “had very little to do with our historic victory.” Bannon was chief executive of Trump’s campaign.

“Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue,” Trump said in January.

“His role has been greatly exaggerated,” White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said of Bannon on CNN last month.

Deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley told CNN in a separate interview that “obviously, over the course of Mr. Bannon’s time in the White House, you’ve seen the results that he produced, which was zero.”

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

A Cold War prisoner exchange; boxer Mike Tyson convicted of rape; Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ opens on Broadway; Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a Changin” released.

The most important thing about Spaceship Earth – an instruction book didn’t come with it.

R. Buckminster Fuller

Continue reading

Or Theresa May and the Tories, or, maybe, both.

You might recall that after the snap General Election where Labour under Corbyn performed especially well (and not so incidentally crushed the hopes and dreams of Qusling Neo Liberal Torylite Blairites) and the Conservatives lost their Parliamentary majority, the Tories were forced into a coalition Government with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

While it’s pretty distasteful that the Conservatives were willing to accept association with the Paisley Party, the political arm of the Protestant Terrorists, they, like our own Conservatives, don’t know the meaning of shame and hypocrisy and basically have no morals or ethics at all.

One manifestation of this uncomfortable alliance is that the DUP threatened to bring down Theresa May’s Government and force a new Election, one that Labour is likely to win, unless she agreed to what is called “Paragraph 50”. Being the pro-Union with the UK fanatics that they are, the DUP insisted the Tories promise that there would never be a customs or any other border between Northern Ireland and the UK.

Well, ok you say, why is that a big deal?

Because Ireland is going to stay in the EU and there is this big long border between them and Northern Ireland.

You see part of the Good Friday agreement that ended the terrorist war in 1998 between Paisley’s Partisans and the British Army on the one hand and the IRA on the other is that there would never be a customs or any other border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

So where do you put the border between the EU and the UK?

Can’t have it at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland because of the Good Friday agreement. Can’t have it at sea or in British ports because of Paragraph 50.

Who cares about Ireland? Just put it at the border between them and Northern Ireland.

Well, that would be incredibly dangerous. From The Guardian–

Earlier this week George Hamilton, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, warned that any infrastructure at the border, however light, would become a target for armed groups and pose a danger to his officers. “The terrorists only have to be lucky once and get a result with catastrophic consequences,” he said.

Gotta love those Brits, such a talent for understatement. At best there would be rampant smuggling and the odd pot shot with a rifle. At worst it could reignite what was called “The Troubles” which was basically a state of open warfare between Ireland and the UK between 1922 and 1998. And it was damn successful too, you think the odd Al-Queda or Daesh attack is pretty terrible? The IRA taught them all they know.

Then there is that little matter of Brexit. Ireland, as a member of the EU, has an absolute single member veto power over any agreement between the EU and the UK. If they say no when Brexit day is come and gone Britain will have nothing but its membership in the WTO to trade under, not even the Most Favored Nations status China enjoys. All its previous Trade Agreements got folded into the EU and don’t apply anymore. To say it would be economically devastating is to be almost British in understatement.

Ok, so enforce Customs and Borders at sea or in the ports.

Then you violate Paragraph 50, piss off the DUP, they drop the Tories as coalition partners ending their working majority, and new Elections are held which the Conservatives will lose- badly. MPs will be booted from their seats in droves. Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

Do nothing you say?

Sigh, among the Tories there is a significant fraction of ardent Brexiteers who think May is a squish to begin with and are not so sure about the others. Something must happen or they’ll split and form their own Brexit Party. That’s why Cameron held the Brexit referendum in the first place and why May was forced to set a date.

Of course, since she did, the EU could just take it as a done deal and give the Brits the boot.

What I think is likely to happen is that conditions will deteriorate and May will either resign or be forced to call new Elections soon. Resignation doesn’t really solve the Tories’ problems as it’s not so much that she’s feckless (though she is) as it is that they are deeply divided. The Corporatists and Financial Toadies don’t like Brexit at all.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

The Beatles appear on TV’s ‘Ed Sullivan’; Sen. Joseph McCarthy launches his anti-communist crusade; World War II’s Battle of Guadalcanal ends; Soviet leader Yuri Andropov dies; author Alice Walker born.

I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.

Hunter S. Thompson

Continue reading

C’mon, it’s just a parade.

Triumph of the Will (English Subtitles)

The documentary of the Reich Party Congress, 1934. Produced by order of the Führer. Created by Leni Riefenstahl.

5 September, 1934. Twenty years after the outbreak of the World War, sixteen years after the start of German suffering, nineteen months after the start of Germany’s rebirth, Adolf Hitler flew once again to Nürnberg to hold a military display.

Or anyone for that matter. White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, Chief of Staff John Kelly’s Second-in-Command, punched his first wife in the face, choked her, and verbally abused and assaulted her on a pretty regular basis. His second wife he also verbally abused and assaulted constantly and once, because he wasn’t finished yet, roughly pulled her out of a shower naked so he could continue.

Yeah, that’s my idea of a dream roommate.

But actually, that’s not the really bad part. The bad part is that despite the fact he was denied permanent Security Clearance because of these actions (he’s vulnerable to blackmail at the least) he has been taking part in Highly Classified meetings and had virtually unlimited access to Top Secret documents (does this remind you of Jared Kushner? It should.).

And everyone in the White House knew about it.

Chief of Staff John Kelly certainly knew about it, he hired the guy. Orrin Hatch knew about it, Rob Porter came from his Senatorial staff and he once opined he wished he could find more Rob Porters because he’d hire them all.

John Kelly’s intial reaction was to issue a statement supportive of Rob Portman (drafted by Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director and Porter’s current girlfriend). Kelly said Porter was, “a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him.” “He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him.” More than that, Kelly urged Porter to stay and fight the “allegations” which are actually testimony from his former wives in their divorce proceedings. Yeah, mean spiteful witches- it was under oath and penalty of perjury.

But wait, there’s more

We shift our attention from the departed Rob Porter and focus on his boss, John Kelly, the Fightin’ Irishman. He’s had quite a few umm… “interesting” weeks.

He blew up the compromise on DACA causing the Trump Government Shutdown and then ran his mouth about how those who didn’t sign up out of completely justifiable paranoia or lack of financing (it costs $500 to apply) were instead “too lazy to get off their asses.” Is Kelly a racist? South Boston born and raised.

The reason John Kelly was and is so supportive of Rob Porter is that Kelly viewed him as a key ally in his bid to diminish the influence of Ivanka. This is why Ivanka is shopping for Kelly replacements. Watch your rear General, even if you were anything but a bigoted misogynous pig of dubious competence you aren’t the daughter he wants to bang.

Actually Kelly’s tenure has not been one of placid moderation however much you despise Scaramucci. The Captured Corporatist Media has had a vested interest in portraying him as a Centrist Technocrat because they are desperate to “Normalize” Trump. Trump is normal, he’s a normal Republican. His agenda (such as it is outside of desperate pleas for approval because his Daddy ignored him and thought he was worthless and his Mommy was a vain primping Golddigger) is simply the Republican Reaganite wish list. Kill Obamacare and the rest of the Social Safety Net? Huge Tax Cuts Cuts Cuts for the wealthiest .01% on the backs of the rest of us?

That’s as Mainstream Republicanism as it gets.

To drive the point about the Captured Corporatist Media home consider the case of Paul Ryan and the disingenuous portrayal of him as a serious, wonky, issue oriented, “reasonable” Republican. Gutting everything except Graft (that includes the Military) and transferring wealth upwards are his issues. He’s been dreaming about them since his College Kegger days.

Does not physically grabbing women’s genitals or otherwise assaulting them and bragging about it make him serious, wonky, issue oriented, and “reasonable”? Paul Krugman would beg to differ.

If you are treating Donald Trump as an especially abhorrent aberration you are exactly wrong. He is entirely normal, a product of his Party.

You can’t really call it a Birthday because TV Shows, like Corporations, ARE NOT PEOPLE!

That said, congratulations on the completion of your second year.

Wolf Attack!

I told you- #TrumpCantRead

Everything you see or use or enjoy is racist

Antifa, before it was cool

I call it just another example of White people appropriating Black culture.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Funeral of Jordan’s King Hussein; Premiere of ‘The Birth of a Nation’; a South Carolina civil rights protest turns deadly; the Boy Scouts of America is incorporated; actor James Dean born.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Hunter S. Thompson

Continue reading

I don’t suppose I have to tell you what a bad, authoritarian, and fascist idea this is. You know, I have contacts that could get me a ringside seat where I could sit with my pink pussy hat in silent protest, but the concept scares me to death.

Maybe if enough people think it’s a good idea I will anyway. I do have travel plans for July that will take me north of the border. If things go all pear shaped I could hop a flight from Halifax that would have me in Paris by Bastille Day. Have a baguette and a coffee and watch the Bikes Parade up and down the Champs-Élysées. Do you know that it was specifically designed by Napoleon so that he could move large formations of Troops and Artillery into the heart of Paris and put down any rebellions? Anyway since I was born in Michigan, a former French colony, and they have this right of return law, I could probably confuse things for a while and there’s always Denmark. Of course, you have to learn the language for permanent residence and unfortunately I only have Spanish, and that literary- it would be like talking with an Elizabethan accent in Brooklyn.

Well, we’ll cross that Rubicon when we come to it.

Oh, you just think I’m kidding.

Something that will probably not get the coverage it deserves is how stupid and expensive this all is-

Trump’s Military Parade Is Likely to be a Logistical Nightmare for Planners
By W.J. Hennigan, Time Magazine
2/7/18

Getting a wide-array of military equipment from across the nation — in some cases, the world — into Washington, along with the technicians, mechanics, and support staff, will not be easy. It may also prove difficult to choose which units to showcase, what uniforms they should wear, what equipment they should carry, and when they’re available.

The last time the U.S. had a large-scale military parade was 1991 when the U.S. military overran Saddam Hussein’s forces in Iraq after just 43 days of combat. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of Desert Storm, led the pageantry and later joined President George H.W. Bush behind a bulletproof glass partition to watch battle-clad troops march past. The event featured Patriot missiles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, M1-A1 Abrams tanks, and a flyover by four F-117 stealth fighters.

Streetlights had to be removed. The 67-ton tanks punched deep tread marks into the pavement. An army of 1,000 workers picked up heaps of trash left behind by the crowd of 200,000 (later estimates said crowds swelled to 800,000.)

The parade cost $12 million, which amounts to about $22 million adjusted for inflation in 2018.

Another hurdle is where to host the event. The National Park Service maintains lengthy (PDF) protocols in hosting national celebrations on Pennsylvania Ave., where the president has indicated it should take place. The Pentagon also has a laundry list of rules and regulations regarding parades, which are laid out in a 43-page Department of Defense directive (PDF) from 2001.
…
It wasn’t the first time Trump flirted with showing off fighting hardware. The Huffington Post obtained emails last year from his staffers asking about deploying heavy military equipment in his inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 2017. The email exchange revealed the complexities of a seemingly simple request by the Trump team when a Pentagon official told them they needed time “to make deliberate decisions about vehicle choice and configuration, paint scheme, uniform for crew members, etc.”

No equipment, except fighter jets, were approved for the event. All flyovers were ultimately canceled, however, due to inclement weather.

I’m not sure the money covered the holes in the street, equipment transportation, and salaries of all the troops marching and support personel required to keep the vehicles mobile, probably not. After all it costs $502,680,965 a day to keep our wars of choice going (see Joseph Stiglitz, $3 Trillion War, and that’s a conservative estimate from a Nobel Prize Winning Economist, spread over 5968 days since October 7th, 2001).

I have a thought, let Trump have his damn parade as long as he pays for it out of his own pocket. Then we’ll see if he’s the Billionaire he claims to be.