Mobsters

I believe Christine Blasey Ford. I don't "believe the woman," as in following a meme, though women making accusations of sexual assault are almost always telling the truth. I believe this exact person. She told what really happened. Brett Kavanaugh lied. He attempted to rape her. The reason I believe the way I do is intuitive - she resonates as truthful. He doesn't.

There are plenty of other reasons. Kavanaugh was nominated by our illegitimate president and serial assaulter of women Donald J. Trump. Trump also insists Kavanaugh is innocent, as he does about himself.

Another reason to believe her is Kavanaugh's demeanor at the Thursday hearing. He was belligerent, disrespectful, enraged and evasive. He tried to distract the senators from the topic at hand with accusations of a "Democratic" search and destroy mission, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and of lying in wait with charges of sexual assault.

Nice try, there, Kavanaugh. You only showed yourself to be a paranoid, unstable political hack. You should never be a judge at any level, much less the Supreme Court. If the FBI does a reasonably thorough investigation of your past you very likely will no longer be a Federal judge. You can hack somewhere else.

One positive result of this debacle will likely be a recognition of the "Republican" party for what it is: a criminal organization. By reducing the judicial appointment process to a reward system for political hacks the "Republicans" have given the country a peek into their true nature as criminal sociopaths.

I can safely say that the “Republican” party is a criminal organization for four very good reasons: voter suppression, election theft, crony capitalism and climate change denial. Voter suppression and election theft go hand-in-hand, as does gerrymandering of congressional districts. The oft-repeated claim that both sides gerrymander does not lessen its criminality.

Crony capitalism – the regulatory and tax favoritism granted to corporations that pay - in the form of bribes - campaign contributions, junkets, vacations, gifts, jobs for relatives, and sometimes the blatantly illegal transfers of cash - is practiced by both parties, but to a much greater degree by the “Republicans.” That “Democrats” are also guilty of crony capitalism again does not make it any less criminal. It just points out that we have a corrupt political system.

The worst, and most revealing of "Republican" criminality is climate change denial. The entire planetary ecosystem is at risk, including homo sapiens - humans, yet "Republicans" insist that there is no evidence that fossil fuels are causing the planet to heat up. "Republicans" are paid by the fossil fuel industry and its collaborators in related industries, such as automobile manufacturing and provision of electrical power. It has nothing to do with ideology and all to do with raw, sociopathic criminality. They are paid to deny that climate change exists, and they can win elections with more advertising money.

We already have a rigged Supreme Court, with "Republican" appointees having carried the majority for the past few decades. Currently the court is tied at 4 apiece between "Democrats" and "Republicans," so one more will make it securely "Republican" again. It will be interesting to see if the FBI investigation turns up anything about Kavanaugh. I suspect it will. It may not be enough. The mobsters want very badly for their man to be on the court. They likely will get their wish.
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This album is appropriate. The Godfather of Soul. Here's another song. And another. And this. The Beatles. Johnny Cash. Randy Newman. Bob Dylan. Roy Orbison. Neil Young. Dave Mason. Peter Tosh. The Grateful Dead.

Here's a story from the past about Trump's gangster nature. Here's another. The New Republic calls Trump a mobster president. For a story on Trump's ties to organized crime, click here. Let's not leave his supporters out. Here's some background on how "Conservatives" go along with Trump. "Republican" Senate staffers kept Deborah Ramirez from testifying about Kavanaugh.

History repeats itself.

Trump's Tipping Point

The tipping point has been reached. Trump is now in decline, a rapid free-fall that we have all been expecting, except, of course, his "base." Few expected he would become president in the first place, given his history of fraud, spousal abuse, philandering, sexual predation, rudeness, bullying and complete ignorance and inexperience in political office or governance.

I didn't think he would last this long. Any number of scandals before and during his presidency should have prevented him from being "elected" or of having to resign, but his belligerence and intimidation have so far insulated him from accountability.

It was only a matter of time. The Mueller investigation, slow and steady, has been zeroing in on Trump since before it was the Mueller investigation - when James Comey was FBI Director, managing the probe until Trump fired him. Trump thought the fix was in when he appointed Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to replace Comey, but Democrats, led by their own soon-to-be disgraced senator Al Franken, maneuvered Sessions into promising to recuse himself from the inquiry. At that point Trump's fate was sealed. Though he is a criminal sociopath with an amazing level of hubris and ability to bully and lie, he is not very bright, and Robert Mueller is a master law enforcement official at every level. Trump has acted like a guilty man since the subject of collusion with the Russian government first surfaced.

The coup de grâce will be when Trump's sponsor Vladimir Putin realizes he backed a loser, and releases whatever information he has about the president to Wikileaks. This presumably will include the oft-rumored "pee-pee tape." Putin can discard Trump like a piece of refuse, and likely will. At least one observer is suggesting that Putin has already turned on Trump.

Trump has no friends. He does have people who claim to be his friends, but they abandon him the minute their freedom is in jeopardy. Now that Mueller is wrapping up his investigation we will likely see a mass departure, staffers quitting and turning evidence. For now, they are busying themselves in denials that they are not the elusive "Anonymous," in a strange inverse of the Spartacus legend, ludicrously declaring "I am not 'Anonymous.'"

It will be ugly, but we needed this lesson. We have allowed a politics of corruption, greed, grandstanding, scapegoating, bigotry and crony capitalism to fester and grow rampantly in recent decades. Both “parties” are guilty of this, but the “Republicans” are the more guilty, blatantly skewing reward to the wealthy while marginalizing the weaker and less well-off at every turn. They are as sociopathic and criminal as Trump, and we need to recognize this. We are a nation run by criminals – the worst sort of criminals – those who prey at the public trough while increasing the suffering of millions here and in the rest of the world.

There are many aspects of the Trump tipping point, but Hurricane Florence may be the one that sends him downhill quickly. The response he will best be known for is his attempt to re-underestimate the number of deaths in Puerto Rico in last year's Hurricane Maria. All he cares about is how he appears to the public. He's out of his element in crises. A carnival barker in the tradition of P.T. Barnum, Trump has no skill, or interest, really, in managing an emergency response.

One would think that Trump would want to avoid any reminder of Hurricane Maria. His way of lending assistance was to throw paper towels into a crowd of people in San Juan. It was all a joke to him, a chance to clown it up for the TV cameras. If anything, it shows not only how stupid he is, but how utterly callous and cruel he is as well. This is what we have for president of our country.

The contrast between the size, power and devastation of Hurricane Florence and the narcissistic, petty and ultimately weak President of the United States couldn't be more stark. It should be a wake up call for all Americans, though we shouldn't have needed one. He never should have been president. Indeed, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter are the only decent presidents we have had since, hmm, Franklin Roosevelt, and they weren't so great either. Maybe one positive result of all this is that the public will reexamine "Conservatism," which is the worst scam perpetrated on the American people in my lifetime. I wrote about it recently in a letter to Madison's Capital Times, but it got lost in the ideological shuffle, unacceptable heresy to the religion of "left" versus "right." C'est la vie. Time will change everything. Our unsustainable infinite growth economic system has now become obviously unsustainable. The only question is when the obvious will become too obvious to deny.
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Here's the "I Am Spartacus" video. Here's a song. Here's another. Van Morrison. The Waterboys. More from the Waterboys. Donovan. More from Donovan. Bob Dylan. Another from Dylan. Here's the first step in making change. This is the next step. Peter Tosh. Jimmy Cliff. Billy Bragg. The Grateful Dead. David Bowie. More from David Bowie.

Here's a voter suppression update from Rolling Stone. Here's an update about climate change.