leaks? nixon called a plumber ( and look where that got him )

from allegations of sexual misconduct to leaks regarding a phone call ( which may or may not have been made...alternative facts...fake news...all very orwellian and we will get back to that soon enough ) congratulating vlad putin on an election result that allowed him to barely squeak out another term ( "it is enough for the people to know there was an election. the people who cast the votes decide nothing. the people who count the votes decide everything" joe stalin ) the trump administration seems to be having some trouble finding a calm center where the master of the "art of the deal" can work his magic...there is a solution to all this that is so obvious it beggars the imagination that it has not been forcefully proposed...well..someone has to bite the bullet so here it is...bring g gordon liddy back from retirement...or from the dead if necessary...an old hand at plumbing leaks and a venerable fixer from the 1970s he could set things in whoretown straight for the big guy"...he has a sterling track record folks...from a wonderfully choreographed "black bag job" on the office of dr. lewis j. fielding in an effort to discredit daniel ellsberg...which was blundered in keystone kops fashion by his cuban operatives who jimmied open a file cabinet with a crowbar only to find no ellsberg file...they threw pills around the office to make it look like "junkies" had broken in trying to find drugs and then celebrated a "clean" job later with champagne...competence like this is not an everyday occurrence...hard to find a good plumber ( and this was only one example of the good work he did for the president )..woman problems? after liddy left the white house staff for the greener pastures of the committee to re-elect the president ( creep ) his plan called GEMSTONE to disrupt the democratic national convention ( with the cubans taking part again to sabotage the convention center air conditioning and roast the democrats out..a nice touch john mitchell liked but refused to fund ) included a sub-heading titled CRYSTAL which entailed floating a barge off miami to serve as a listening post to electronically surveil the democrats' headquarters and as a bordello staffed with, in liddy's words " the finest girls from baltimore" to entrap democratic delegates and blackmail them...someone with these credentials could make the the president's troubles disappear...such a valuable asset to the administration should not be overlooked...implausible? break out the newspeak dictionary and look up doublespeak and doublethink...they are daily events in whoretown these days...there is no going back...the only way out is through...the time for talk is over.

divine right

“I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party.”_____________al franken___________shades of tricky dick…it isn’t illegal if the president does it…nixon invoking the divine right of presidency…well…hypocrisy is a common weapon of power and we are up our necks in it vevery day…al franken may indeed have used a position of celebrity to unduly impose himself on women ( I don’t know…i wasn’t there…neither were you…or kristie gillibrand for that matter ) and there may indeed be some with cause to be angry over that…that isn’t the issue in the senate however…I believe franken when he says his intention was to represent all the people of his state...even though the system would never allow that…what franken’s problem was is that he brought a sense of critical thinking and heterodoxy to an august and thoroughly orthodox institution...the government set up by the constitution was never meant to represent all the people…it was the successful counter-revolution put up in the face of the assumption of the mass of people that the “spirit of 1776” was the valid grounding for the government "by and for the people” ( shay’s rebellion, among other events )…when he wrote “the fundamental constitutions of carolina” in 1669 john locke ( putative philosophical godfather of the framers ) wrote that his intent was to “avoid erecting a numerous democracy”…in other words the franchise should be limited to what the federalist paper called “the best men”...read white male landowners ( and there is a significant movement in this direction in the present era )…you cannot survive questioning the prime directives of an oligarchy posing as a democracy…wealth and special interest have always been at the heart of congress…during the first congress there was considerable debate over the “impost” ( tariff ) bill that was to serve as a financial basis for the federal government…merchants in congress haggled, debated, and delayed the bill until they could land the cargoes they had at sea to avoid paying the proposed tariff ( it eventually passed ) all the while charging customers higher prices to cover the cost of the proposal…one hand has always washed the other in swamptown…or wherever the capitol has been located ( for a clearer understand of how all this came to be, a three book reading list..the federalist papers[dreary as it may be at times]. An economic interpretation of the constitution of the united states by Charles beard…and William maclay’s journal of the first congress )...so roy moore...oligarch wannabe and cracker…will be elected...oh the urban areas will reject him…the rural cracker will not…and he will be seated in the senate because he will do the bidding of his handlers just like the rest of the whores...there is nothing unusual in this…northing unexpected if you pay close attention…it is the way of things and the institutions are buttressed against change…minority rule over the “ interested and overbearing majority” [madison federalist X] was always the intent.

tools of opulence and ambition

"viewing the subject on its merits alone, the freeholders of the country would be the safest depositories of republican liberty. in future times a great majority of the people will not only be without landed, but any other sort of property. these will either combine under the influence of their common situation; in which case the rights of property and the public liberty will not be secure in their hands, or, which is more probable, they will become the tools of opulence and ambition; in which case there will be equal danger on another side." james madison. the records of the federal convention of 1787. max farrad ed. vol.II p.203___________like jay or hamilton, madison doesn't have much faith in the ability of "the people" to actually rule themselves...and at fist glance, given the current state of the presidency, it may seem his prediction has a touch of prescience...except for the "freeholder" part...it starts to come unglued there...a freeholder, in this context, is someone who holds real property...a landed individual...a member of the upper crust...the elite in varying proportions...but of a superior class than the industrial masses...elite rule, of which republicanism is a milder form than say oligarchy...but elite rule none the less...that the "great majority" was kept "without any other sort of property" through policies promulgated by that "republican liberty" ( especially the upward redistribution of wealth that has been going on for the last thirty-six years ) which was allegedly established to represent those self-same "people" was of little consequence to madison since he equated "property" ( which would not be "secure" in the hands of the people ) with "the public liberty" ensuring that, in his view, the unpropertied could not grasp "liberty" and so could not rule themselves much less the country...as much as some of the elite may loathe him, don trump is of that elite..no less so than clinton is...or madison was for that matter...unfortunately for madisons analysis "the people" are more than able to see the deck is stacked against them and they are irate...trump manipulated that anger to his and the elite's advantage...there is nothing new here people..nothing at all.

divine right of presidency

i have read recently that the presidents legal team has claimed that don's tweets about the non-existence of any "comey tapes" constitute evidence that they do not exist...if true it is a wonderful example of magical thinking and one of the best attempts at evasion of an issue since old dick nixon offered to allow the stone deaf john c. stennis listen to his white house tapes and...when that failed had his counsel argue in open court that the president was above the law for four years at a time...effectively arguing that the divine right of kings had been democratized into the republic...this did not work incidentally...of course this was in the days before "alternate facts" existed ( or, at least were termed such...plenty of orwellian machinations and "special vocabularies " back in the 70s children...this is nothing new...in fact it is laughably familiar )...one supposes that this puny and almost mindless effort will not either but the politically "uneducated" are howling and the national psyche grows stupider by the day...the best i can come up with is the trump team has opted for the "chaos defense"...if the marx brothers were still alive they'd be top advisors.

time to get out of dodge

okay...history does not repeat itself...the variables of non linear causality prevent that...things never happen exactly the same and the dialectic grinds on...like it or not...but christ on a bike the parallels are getting weird...richard nixon was not a stupid man..he was utterly twisted and he believed fervently that the president was above the law for four years at a time ( he was wrong and when he ordered his counsel to plead that defense in open court his lawyer damn well made sure the judge understood it was his client that was saying that, not him )...even believing he could do anything he pleased he was astute enough to know he had to be quiet about it...inverse of the current washington freak show masquerading as a national government but coming off as being venal as a low-rent county board of commissioners...is this hubris or just stupid? i know where my opinion falls on this...you may come to your own decisions in your own sweet time...but don't dawdle...one of these days is going to be a fast one and you will bludgeoned by events so warped you'll need fun house mirror to see them straight..so..where is this screed going? just a note to point out that old dick flew off to saudi arabia and then israel in june of 1974...in a strong international diplomatic position reflective of his "outhouses in peoria" outlook on public affairs...he cam back and resigned the presidency on august ninth...

( i always keep a copy of dick's resignation handy..have one up on the wall )...repeat..history does not repeat itself...hope spring s eternal too...of course that would leave us with mike pence...hope may be deffered.

oh i've seen failed coverups

when archibald cox ( bottom photo ) issued a subpoena for tapes relating to the watergate break-in held by richard nixon, the president refused and offered the "stennis compromise" on 19 october 1973 instead...offering to allow the notoriously hard of hearing john c. stennis of mississippi review the tapes...cox refused and on 20 october 1973 nixon ordered attorney general eliot richardson ( top photo )to fire cox...both elliot richardson and his deputy wiliamr uckelshaus refused, resigning instead fo carrying out the president's order...nixon appointed robert bork as attorney general who eventually did the deed...the upshot? in the end public opinion forced the appointment of a new special prosecutor, leon jaworski who continued to look at the corrupt practices of the nixon administration...is don trump's canning of comey another cover-up...probably...there was some integrity in the nixon administration despite his example of leadership by "because i say so" ( sounding familiar ) that seems utterly lacking in the current swamptown freak show...there still is public opinion...and there may be some spines left in the house of representatives ( i know...it seems unlikely...but stranger things have happened )...nixon was as venal and dismissive of the constitution as don is...we all know where that ended up..his arrogance detached him from the political realities and he found himself claiming victory ( the famous image of the "vee" salute from the steps leading to the helicopter ) as he resigned...there is still hope...hope that dims when we have a close look at who the successor might be.

corporate agenda

a 21st century corporate labor relations primer 1.) hire those rendered desperate by class warfare at the most marginal hourly rate possible. 2.) accept error and poor workmanship as long as productivity does not fall to more than 40%-50% of previous production standards, lower wages will compensate for losses. 3.) simplify and outsource work processes whenever possible to deny employees as much knowledge based leverage over terms and conditions of work as possible and insure corporate survival as older, skilled employees leave/die/retire. 4.) Automate processes when and wherever possible