The 2018 Midterms

OK, I'm not dead yet. The 2018 Midterms felt like kissing your sister at first. It was essentially a tie. But after thinking about it, taking the House was a much bigger deal than the GOP extending its control of the Senate.

So, a couple of thoughts after last night in no particular order.

Kim Davis was booted out of office in Kentucky. That has restored my faith in humanity.

Kris Kobach lost, to a woman, in Kansas.

The Republicans keep talking about turning New Jersey Red. Well, they have a long way to go. Democrats won 10 of 12 house seats, with one still up in the air. They also returned a flawed Bob Menendez to Washington over Bob Hugin with a good old fashion behind the barn butt whipping. Menendez won by almost 10 points. Imagine if the Democrats had put up a good candidate?

Staten Island elected a democrat to the House.

One last thing about Bob Hugin in Jersey just in case anyone had any doubts about the racism of even self proclaimed “moderate Republicans.”

Almost the first thing he did in his concession speech was blame his loss on Essex and Hudson Counties. Essex has a large Black population and Hudson has a large Hispanic population.

Well Bob, you also lost Bergen, Passaic, Union, Somerset, Middlesex, Mercer, Burlington and Camden counties. As a matter of fact, if you don’t count Essex and Hudson at all, you still lost by about 75,000 votes so kiss my...

Brett Kavanaugh

OK, I thought I had retired from this but I can't let this one go by.

Let's start with a simple admission that I'm not at all thrilled with Kavanaugh's legal outlook and I'm desperately trying not to let that color my judgement one way or the other.

We now have three accusations against BK from three different women.

1) That he, with another boy as witness, jumped on top of a girl in high school and essentially sexually assaulted her.

2) That he, at Yale, engaged in exposing himself to a girl at a party and forced his genitals on her.

3) Also I believe at Yale, he engaged with others to get girls inebriated and essentially organize gang rape sessions at house parties.

I believe accusation #1; I believe accusation #2; but I'm having serious problems accepting accusation #3. That strikes me as just way over the top and I find it difficult to believe that sort of action could be kept quiet.

Now when I say "I believe" what I mean is these sound like a reasonable scenario for a drunken rich boy. The third accusation just sounds too extreme.

I think the FBI should thoroughly investigate the accusations, make a report to the Senate and then the Senate should act as it sees fit.

However what I'm seeing is an attempt to railroad the nomination through and that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Here's hoping the Senate is above that.

The World Cup 6

Oh wow, I whiffed on the last two games. Serves me right for not remaining true to France. I'm so ashamed.

Third Place Game
Belgium - 2 England - 0

Final
France - 4 Croatia - 2

So i finish a rather pathetic 10-6. Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Now we wait until 2022 and Qatar. I'm still a bit concerned about how the games are going to play out in the extreme heat there but these are professional athletes so I suppose they'll work it out.

Then in 20126 they're coming to my neck of the woods with the final rumored to be played in Metlife Stadium just down the road about 20 miles from me.

But the big news is there will be a new format. The tournament will be expanded to 48 teams in 16 groups of three. Two of the three teams will advance to a 32 team knockout round so the group play is simply to eliminate one team from each group.

This means a total of 80 games rather than 64, 48 games in group play and 32 in the knockout rounds but the finalists will play the same number of games 7, except there will be one more elimination game and one less group round game. The tournament will also finish in the same 32 days.

The US, Canada and Mexico will host using existing stadiums. Mexico and Canada will host 10 games each and the US will host the remaining 60 including the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the finals.

Now I have a Personal Seat License at Metlife Stadium and I'm supposed to get early access to event tickets but I'm not sure if this will include the World Cup. We shall see I suppose.

Trump and NATO

Let me make myself perfectly clear. In my opinion Trump has proven himself to be a classless buffoon.

But that doesn't mean he's always wrong but because he has no class, even when he's right, he goes about it wrong.

This is the case with him, NATO and Germany. I have no problem demanding that Germany and the other members of the alliance pay their fair share of the military costs. Germany in particular has been hiding behind the American military while spending domestically.

I've said that a few times myself.

But like I said, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things and the Orange Haired Buffoon always seems to manage to do it in what I would consider the wrong way.

It sort of makes you wonder if he's smarter than he looks and is doing it on purpose because he's convinced that being nice hasn't worked in the past so why should it work in the future?

The World Cup 5

The semifinals are done.

France - 1 Belgium - 0
Croatia - 2 England - 1

I told you Croatia has ice water in their veins and they showed it again coming back from an early 1-0 deficit. In the meantime France takes a big step closer.

At least that brings me up to 10-4.

Belgium vs England - I'm not sure how much these guys care about the third place game but I'm betting England wants it more than Belgium. I'm taking England.

France vs Croatia - Here it is ladies. The big one for all the marbles and the most prestigious title in the world. Decisions, decisions.  I've picked France and Croatia in every game so far. Croatia has won all six matches. France has won five with a 0-0 draw with Denmark.

I feel really guilty about this, but I'm taking Croatia.

The World Cup 4

So the quarter finals are done and the results are:

Uruguay - 0  France - 2
Brazil- 1  Belgium - 2
Russia 2 (3) Croatia - 2 (4)
Sweden - 0 England - 2 

That's 3-1 for this round. Now I'm going to whine a little bit. I SAID I wanted to take Belgium but I let my so-called brain overrule my instincts. Maybe I should stop doing that?

So overall a rather lackluster 8-4. I suppose I should have paid more attention to the Group Round. Anyway, moving on to the semi-finals.

France vs Belgium - I've going to stick with France. Belgium could do it, but I think the French are ready to go all the way this year so I'm sticking with them.

Croatia vs England - I'm thinking Croatia on this one. After winning both knockout round games in a shoot out so far, these guys must have ice water in their veins.

Russian Meddling

Russia has been interfering in elections since at least the first decade of the 20th century when they would bribe French newspapers to write favorable opinions of Russia and its alliance with France.

Modern technology has made it easier and it may not even cost as much because no bribes are required, just some social media accounts.

Of course, they’re probably also filtering money into GOP political campaigns as well.

It’s illegal for foreign governments to buy campaign ads or contribute money to political campaigns. It's also illegal for American politicians to knowingly accept such contributions.

The Russians have been doing it under fake identities and phony news organizations such as RT (formerly Russia Today), a Russian owned “news” agency that operates in Washington D.C. Media organizations are generally exempt from registering but RT was forced to register as a foreign agent in 2017. 

The Russians spent at least $100,000 on Facebook ads targeted at specific audiences who then magnified the result by spreading the misinformation planted and they’ve probably heavily donated to Citizens United protected “Social Welfare Organizations” that can legally spend up to 50% of its money on politics and don’t need to identify its donors.

 And you can be certain they’re still doing it. The Republicans don’t care because all of this illegal activity helps the GOP.

The Trump administration is clearly bought and paid for by the Russians and he’s paying them back. It’s as simple as that.

The problem as I see it is no matter how much evidence is provided that the GOP is essentially owned by the Russians, their base will still vote for them and refuse to ever accept they were ever duped.

The World Cup 3

So the Round of 16 is over. Results of the last four games.

Brazil - 2  Mexico - 0
Belgium - 3  Japan - 2
Sweden - 1 Switzerland - 0
Columbia - 1 (3) England - 1 (4)

I went 3-1 on those games bringing my total to 5-3. Of course it took Belgium coming all the way back from a 2-0 deficit and England breaking its recent penalty kick jinx to do it but hey, I'll take what I can get.

So, on to the Quarterfinals and as tough a group of games as you can imagine especially since nothing seems easy in this tournament.

Uruguay vs France - I'm not deserting France. Vive le France. Sur la victoire.

Brazil vs Belgium - I'd really like to take Belgium here but I don't think that's going to happen. So I have to go with Brazil.

Russia vs Croatia - Yeah, sure, I have no idea but my gut says Croatia.

Sweden vs England - England, all the way.

The World Cup 2

The results for the first four games.

 Uruguay - 2 Portugal - 1 
 France - 4 Argentina - 3
 Spain- 1 (3) Russia - 1 (4)
 Croatia- 1 (3) Denmark - 1 (2)

 So that leaves me 2-2. I thought sure I was going to lose two games on penalty kicks. That's one more than I got wrong in the entire elimination part of the tournament last year where I went 15-1.

I suppose that's what you get when you don't pay enough attention.

The World Cup

It's knockout round time!!!

I got lazy this year and waited for the Group Round to be over. The big shock of course is the elimination of Germany. That leaves the door for Brazil to get some revenge for its debacle four years ago.

Anyway, on to making a fool of myself.

Uruguay vs Portugal - I'm going with Portugal.

France vs Argentina - This is a really tough one but I'm sticking with my friends, France.

Brazil vs Mexico - I think this is a bad break for Mexico following a disappointing outing against Sweden so I'm going with Brazil.

Belgium vs Japan - I have to go with Belgium.

Spain vs Russia - Russia has been playing really well but I have to go with Espana.

Croatia vs Denmark - Hmm, decisions, decisions. I'm going with Croatia.

Sweden vs Switzerland - I'm taking Switzerland.

Columbia vs England - Oh boy. I'm sticking with England but I have a bad feeling about this game.

Justice Kennedy to Retire

Well that's not good. This was always the problem with the 2016 election, the fear that the winner would be able to mold the Supreme Court for decades to come.

Trump will be making a payment on his dept to the Religious Right by nominating an extreme conservative. You can be sure that whomever gets the nod it will place both abortion access and gay rights in jeopardy.

This will probably leave Chief Justice John Roberts as the possible voice of sanity on the court.

The McMartin Trial

I just finished watching an HBO movie about the McMartin trial in Southern California and it terrified me.

Basically the McMartin's ran a child care center and they and teachers working at the center came under suspicion of molesting the children under their care. Questionable techniques used by a social worker led to an avalanche of stories by hundreds of children.

The thing just mushroomed after that with accusations getting wilder and wilder, parents understandably ready to keel haul the accused, the media hyping the sensationalism of the charges without really considering the probability of the accusations and the prosecution under enormous pressure to get convictions.

After seven years and some $15 million spent by the state of California all charges either ended in acquittals or were dropped. Of cou rse the lives of all of the accused were essentially ruined.

How easy it can happen.

Accusations are not convictions. Innocent until proven guilty has to be the basis of our legal system or we might as well go back to mob rule.

This is the danger I see in the feminist #MeToo movement. Yes, jackasses that rape or molest women should be dealt with but it's too easy for this to become hysteria where accusation equates to guilt.

Either the system works or it doesn't and if it doesn't, then we damn well need to fix it.

The Separating of Immigrant Families

Tearing children away from their parents for the "crime" of wanting political asylum in the US is about a barbaric an action as I've seen performed by the US government in decades.

Worse is that the motive for this appears to be political leverage to get appropriations to build that idiotic border wall.

This is really unforgivable and worse is the litany of crap coming from administration officials. First we get told it isn't happening; then we get told it's happening but it's OK because it's legal; then we get told it's OK because it's justified in the Bible and finally Trump tells us it's all the Democrats fault.

Right wing pundits are tying themselves into knots. The wave followed the "no, it's all a lie by the media" party line then it morphed into something like "well, these people shouldn't be coming to the border so it's really their fault."

Then, the worst one, comes from a Fox & Friends host who says "And these are not -- like it or not, these aren't our kids. Show them compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas."

WTF is wrong with these people?

Then of course there's the inevitable tu quoque whine of "well Obama did it too."

No, Obama didn't do it too and neither did Bush.

The Obama administration, overwhelmed by the sudden influx of illegal immigrants coming to the border from Central America, was putting whole families into detention centers until their case could be adjudicated by the courts but families were not broken up.

The problem was that the volume involved was so large that the wait stretched into months and the courts said that was unacceptable because there's this little thing about habeas corpus in the US Constitution.

So the policy was changed and people were released under the authority of the civil courts because entering the US illegally the first time is only a misdemeanor and the priority for deportation was given to people with felony convictions. Of course the problem with this "catch and release" approach was people often didn't show up for their civil hearing.

Trump's "zero tolerance" policy changed things and people trying to enter were arrested on criminal charges rather than civil charges. Essentially misdemeanors were promoted to the level of a felony.

Since you can't put children in adult jails, they were taken from their parents and put in detention centers.

Rightfully so there has been a firestorm over this.

The American Psychological Association sent a protest letter to the administration about the harm being done to children due to being separated forcibly from their parents.

All five surviving first ladies, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rosalind Carter and even Trump's own wife have condemned the policy.

American and United Airlines have refused to fly immigrant children for the government after pressure from the airline attendants.

The King of Holland has condemned Trump.

The pope has condemned Trump.

 Any human being with an ounce of decency has condemned Trump.

 Anyone defending this policy should be ashamed of themselves.

Anyone remaining quiet about it should really look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves why this doesn't upset them?

Wishful Thinking

 I keep hearing how Trump has lost support. I think that's just wishful thinking.

From what I’ve seen Trump’s support has held fairly steady and there are in fact a number of reasons that people keep supporting him.

(1) The economy is good. Much of the good economy is due to Obama but Trump is getting the lion’s share of the credit.

(2) The tax cut did put some extra dollars in the pockets of ordinary Americans. The fact that the ultra rich were the primary beneficiaries and the deficit is ballooning which will probably result in an economic disaster down the road is just not on most folk’s radar.

(3) Feminists and other SJW types have created a lot of enemies and these people see Trump as standing up to them. Hell, even I don’t like feminists.

(4) Evangelical Christians support Trump because he is making their wildest fantasies come true in the culture wars.

(5) Muslims are disliked and feared in this country because the overwhelming majority of Americans have never met a Muslim and only know what they hear on the news and the internet. Trump has played on that dislike and fear.

(6) A lot of people have bought into the idea that immigrants take jobs away from Americans or have lowered wages for Americans by working for less. Trump also plays on that idea.

All of these “reasons” upon closer inspection are an illusion but most people are working too hard every day to do a lot of closer inspection. The biggest success of Trump and the Republicans has been to undermine the reputation of those, such as the media, that can do a closer inspection.

Trump and North Korea

I'm going to give Trump some credit here. he may not have resolved all the issues, and he probably gave up a lot more than he got, but meeting face to face with Kim Jong-Un was a BIG step in the right direction and the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Agreeing to stop joint military exercises with South Korea without getting anything that we know of in return and not letting the South Koreans in on his plans looks more than a little weak.

Where did this guy even get the idea he was a great negotiator?

Paul Ryan Calls it Quits

There are days when you wake up to little rays of sunshine and this is one of those days.

Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand aficionado and hypocrite extraordinaire, will not run for re-election in November.

This doesn't mean another Republican won't step in and we could end up with someone worse as Speaker of the House, but for the moment, let's enjoy the image of Ryan going away.

Palestine

What is Palestine and who are the Palestinians? I see so many horseshit arguments essentially claiming the people who call themselves Palestinians have no claims to land in the Middle East.

The idea of 1,000 year ancestral lands is hyperbole at best but doesn't really enter into the picture. What occurred in the 19th century is irrelevant as well. What matters is what has occurred starting with the Mandate for Palestine in 1922 which is the first internationally recognized legal document associated with the area known as Palestine. What is Palestine? It is the area defined by the British and ratified by both the League of Nations and the United Nations. Who are the Palestinians? They are the descendants of some of the Arab population of Palestine in 1948 that fled the fighting. The name "Palestinian" didn't really come into widespread use until the 1960s. The Mandate for Palestine incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which the British government declared support for a Jewish homeland. The preamble of the Mandate states "Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." Note the "it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" part. Based upon 1914 Ottoman statistics there were approximately 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews in the areas of the Ottoman empire that made up the League of Nations definition of Palestine (there was no political subdivision called Palestine in the Ottoman Empire). The formation of a Jewish homeland was formalized in Article 2. Article 25 gave the Mandatory, Britain, with the approval of the league, the right to define the actual area covered by the Mandate which they did in the Trans-Jordan Memorandum in September of 1922. The memorandum excluded Trans-Jordan from articles 2, 4, 6, 7, 11 13, 14, 22, 23, and parts of the Preamble. The exclusion included all the articles of the Mandate concerning a Jewish National Home. The memorandum was also approved by the league so Jordan is not, and never was, intended to be the Palestinian homeland. It is important to remember that Britain, in the 1920s, was still operating according to its own imperial ideas and for its own perceived benefit. The League of Nations was little more than a toothless rubber stamp for those ideas. If Russia or the United States (or Germany for that matter) had been members of the league in 1922 perhaps things would have been different but neither of them were. From 1922 to the 1940s there was on again off again Jewish migration to the Palestine area where they bought and developed the land to everyone in the region's economic benefit. There was also what amounted to a three way pissing contest, sometimes violent, between Jews, Arabs and the British. Article 14 of the Mandate laid the following responsibility upon the British "A special commission shall be appointed by the Mandatory to study, define and determine the rights and claims in connection with the Holy Places and the rights and claims relating to the different religious communities in Palestine." This was something the British never got around to doing. Finally in 1947 Britain dumped the whole mess into the hands of the United Nations. At that time there were 1,180,000 Muslim Arabs, 143,000 Christian Arabs and 630,000 Jews in the area known as Palestine. The United Nations came up with a horse defined by committee and partitioned the area into an Arab controlled portion, a Jewish controlled portion and an international zone comprising Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Arabs rejected the partition and the shooting started shortly after the UN passed the partition resolution and hasn't stopped since. It's a mess. It's an absolute mess. I'm not sure what makes sense but technically, based upon the UN partition plan, the people who call themselves Palestinians may well be entitled to a homeland. On the other hand, also based upon the UN partition plan, the Jews are entitled to a homeland. Both are entitled to live in peace. The sooner the two parties recognize these realities the sooner things can start moving toward a permanent solution.

Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff

Ah yes, the expose on the inner workings of the Trump White House.

I haven't read the book nor do I intend to. Instead, I'm doing my best to ignore the whole thing. Here's the problem, I would have no way of verifying what Wolff says in his book and I know nothing about the author so I can't even use strength of character as a justification for accepting his claims.

I can guarantee you this. Some of the claims are true; some of the claims aren't true and a lot of the claims are partially true but embellished.

You're not going to sell many books if you don't do a really good job of playing to the fears of Trump's opponents.

So this is at the very least the old poison pen trick. It's trial by accusation and it's very, very difficult to refute all of the claims. It would be like getting all the bad stuff back into Pandora's Box.

Even if one could manage to refute all the claims there would still be a lingering stain.

The book sold a million copies in four days. This guy Wolff must be laughing all the way to the bank.

The only thing it's going to accomplish is it will wider the wedge. To Trump's supporters it's just another example of a corrupt media out to get their guy. To Trump's critics it will serve to deepen the puzzlement over how anyone could have voted for him.

I don't need a book to tell me Trump is potentially dangerous. It looks to me like he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

People with NPD don't take criticism well, need constant attention and admiration and can act unpredictably if they're not treated as they think they deserve.

This is NOT the sort of guy you want in possession of the nuclear codes.

Have to love those F-52s

Trump has announced that Norway has purchased a number of F-52 aircraft from the US. The only problem is there is no such plane as the F-52.

Norway bought F-35s.

I would give him a pass on this one if Norway has purchased 52 F-35s but they only bought forty. Maybe Trump was thinking of the Norwegians estimate of the life cycle costs of 52 F-35s that was presented in the Canadian House of Commons?

In any event, I don't think it's too much to ask of the Commander in Chief to know the name of his country's premier fighter aircraft.

Except it isn't a fighter. The F-22 is a fighter. The F-35 is a flying sensor platform with muscle. It's capable of bringing to bear punishment from multiple platforms in a network cloud that covers land, sea and air. Plus it packs a wallop all its own with no help from anywhere else.

As time goes on the F-35's array of software will be finding new and ever more destructive ways of bringing maximum violence to bear.

Shithole Countries?

I've decided that there is a real danger of getting "used to Trump."

I've not going to get into a discussion of whether places like Haiti or some African countries are "shitholes, " whatever that might mean, or not.

The issue is the President of the United States should not be using that kind of language in a public meeting.

We all know Nixon cursed like hell in private, and I'll bet Johnson wasn't far behind them, but at least in public were perfect gentlemen.

Now, I've been known to use profanity when the situation called for it, but never in polite company. This guy is a pig and the simple fact that it seems like the countries of people of color are shitholes while those nice white population are just spiffy implies a much bigger problem.

This moron is a serious embarrassment but the fact that people voted for him, and will most likely vote for him again, is an even bigger embarrassment.

We Don't Need No Leviticus

So I recently encountered an apologist that dismissed the need to use Leviticus in condemning homosexuality because Jesus fulfilled the law. This was a way of getting around all the other stuff in the OT that Christians ignore.

Instead he declared that Romans 1: 26-27 and 1 Corinthians 9-10 condemn homosexuality and that's good enough for him.

Except both Romans and 1 Corinthians are written by Paul and we know that Paul often uses his own opinion because he tells us that himself.

Besides, Romans 1:26-27 refers to Pagans as explained in line 22 & 23 and no one is really sure what 1 Corinthians refers to.

Romans 1:22-23 "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles." 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 "Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 

The problem with this verse are the two words translated here as "men who have sex with men." This translation is from the NIV which also has a footnote which states definitively "The words men who have sex with men translate two Greek words that refer to the passive and active participants in homosexual acts."

Yeah, well, maybe. The two words are "malakos" and "arsenokoites." The KJV is actually better and translates these two words as "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind."

The NKJV is totally dishonest and translates them as "homosexuals," and in a footnote says "that is catamites" which are boy slaves kept for homosexual purposes, and "sodomites."

The NRSV translates them as "male prostitutes" and "sodomites."

So what do they really mean? "Malakos" literally means "soft" but there are examples of it being used to mean "effeminate" as well. Since Paul is listing people who aren't getting into the "kingdom of God" I suppose "effeminate would make more sense than "soft." But "effeminate" is not the same thing as homosexual.

The second word "arsenokoites" is a neologism. There is no evidence of it being used prior to 1 Corinthians and subsequent uses are usually when Paul is being referred to or sinful behavior is being listed. It's a compound word consisting of "male" and "bed" so literally a "male bed."

Since Paul was listing sinful behaviors once has to assume it's a behavior consisting of a male and a bed. But exactly what, no one really knows. Granted, that something related to homosexual sex is very possible, but you would think the All Knowing, All Powerful, Creator of Heaven and Earth could have come up with something a tiny bit clearer.