America At Its Best

Some of you know that I carried out a lengthy blog campaign in the summer and fall of 2006 against a secretive group of libertarian cronies of the Koch Brothers, going back AT LEAST to David Koch’s Vice Presidential campaign in 1980 with Ed Clark as the standard-bearer.

I phrase that last very carefully, because, even at the time, they were clearly working at Koch’s behest and paycheck and walked out of the Libertarian Party together a few years later. What I uncovered was what the mainstream media still can’t wrap their heads around: these guys spawn 501(c)3 charities and 501(c)4 “civic leagues” at a rate that would awe a rabbit.*

[* And, following the phony “IRS scandal” that the right wing flayed and pilloried the agency with for years, those organizations are, more or less, off limits to IRS scrutiny.]

But if you focus on the people, they keep showing up again and again and again.

And that’s where James Crumley comes in.

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Facebook is a Kafkaesque Nightmare

Mark Zuckerberg’s Rube Goldberg machine is starting to squeal. It seems that the scandal de jour is that they knew about the Russian intervention a full year before the election and chose stock price over country. (And customers, come to think of it.) Naturally, Mr. Z releases an apologia and a “fix” statement:

A Blueprint for Content Governance and Enforcement
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook

My focus in 2018 has been addressing the most important issues facing Facebook.  As the year wraps up, I’m writing a series of notes about these challenges and the progress we’ve made.  The first note was about Preparing for Elections and this is the second in the series…

Note that it starts with “Me.”

Let me tell you about “me” instead.

Where Are The Angry Tea Party Voices NOW?

To wit(less):

Vote as if your life depended on it. It probably does.

Putting the entire military budget on the credit card

Think Progress:

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal budget deficit had hit $895 billion and would rise to $1 trillion before the year ends — earlier than predicted. They attributed the growth to the tax cuts and spending bills.

The military budget for FY2018 is only $717 billion, or,

Why Military Spending Is More Than You Think It Is
BY KIMBERLY AMADEO, The Balance (investment blog)
Updated September 04, 2018

Estimated U.S. military spending is $892 billion.That’s from the spending bill signed by President Trump on August 13, 2018….

Actually, that’s only the half of it. (Or, technically, two thirds of it.)

GOPs in Congress just voted to make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

Does He Get A Parade Too?

UPDATE: Featured on Mike’s Blog Roundup at Crooks & Liars.

Tonight, for the THIRD time, the public and oh-so-photo-oppey THIRD swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh was held.

Who is standing in the center of the picture that ought not be there?

Saturday Night, in case Russians attacked or the national legal database was overtaken by ransomware, he’d already been sworn in TWICE.

Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as America’s 114th Supreme Court justice in a private ceremony at the Court on Saturday night, hours after a 50-to-48 Senate vote to confirm him. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the constitutional oath, and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy administered the judicial oath, according to a Supreme Court statement, “so that [Kavanaugh] can begin to participate in the work of the court immediately.”  ~ New York Magazine

Emphasis added. WHAT, pray tell, could be so deathly important that a normal, business-hours Monday swearing-in would be precluded?

Controlling the Supreme Court is far too important to play fair

After throwing a temper tantrum, Kavenaugh takes to the pages of Rupert’s Wall Street Journal to cry crocodile tears that he’s really a GOOD judge, yes he is, and NEVER goes off on partisan tangents or cries or weeps or engages in temper tantrums … on the court. But, understand, they were being MEAN to him. You see?

The maraschino cherry atop a cow flop sundae of unfair process, hidden documents, railroad timetables, arbitrary rulings, sudden adjournments, backroom deals and kangaroo courts, it all comes down to the next 24 hours. Just time enough for Kavanaugh to burnish his halo.

I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge
Brett M. Kavanaugh / Wall Street Journal

Yes, I was emotional last Thursday.  I hope everyone can understand I was there as a son, husband and dad.  —  I was deeply honored to stand at the White House July 9 with my wife, Ashley, and my daughters, Margaret and Liza, to accept President Trump’s nomination …

Remember how he began this quest, shamelessly lying and flattering Trump with nonsense about “nobody has ever held more consultations,” etc. when everyone knows Trump simply picked from a Federalist Society pre-arranged list. But soft. This must be placed in context: 

Kavanaugh disqualified himSELF — the hearing only catalyzed it

Kavenaugh probably perjured himself.

How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying
Nathan J. Robinson / Current Affairs
  —  This man should not serve another day as any kind of judge…  On Thursday morning, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford detailed under oath her claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attacked her and sexually violated her when he was 17.

But there’s no real need to go even THAT far.

Themis, Goddess of Justice

There is either something Ironic or Orwellian in the spectacle of a nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States of America making accusations of conspiracy and attacking the entire opposition political party.  And, if anyone believes that the histrionic, over-the-top, always attack/never defend performance of Mark Kavanaugh exhibits a “judicial temperament” then there is no hope for reason. It’s all and ONLY about Pavlovian/Skinnerian conditioning and we happy rats will all learn to pull the right lever. That was the lesson of 2016, after all.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe Dr. Ford or you disbelieve Dr. Ford. The point is, as they say, moot.

Mark Kavanaugh is not qualified to sit on the United States Supreme Court.