Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Corrupt Autocrats Hate Oversight

Never let a crisis go to waste.
As the American public remains gripped by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump has stepped up a series of audacious moves against a pillar of government oversight, the inspectors general of the United States government, which serve as independent watchdogs to root out abuse of power, fraud and other bad behavior by federal officials.

The President’s moves to push out and belittle the inspectors, made as Washington prepares to shovel out the door trillions of dollars in aid to Americans and businesses, have raised concerns Trump is trying to place loyalists in key oversight positions and dismantle the post-Watergate reforms designed to prevent executive overreach.
Trump wants to make sure that he can use the Federal government to line the pockets of his cronies and toadies (and his own family). That's what autocrats do.

It's a little more insidious with Trump. With Trump, corruption runs bone-deep. It seems no mater what nefarious and criminal group operates in the U.S., Trump has ties to them.

A follow-on report had more. Here is a teaser:
Three years after that third debate [with Hillary Clinton], almost exactly to the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stormed out of a meeting with President Trump concerning his strategically obtuse decision to withdraw US troops from Syria—a move that was more in Russia’s interests than ours. “Why,” she exasperatedly asked the press, “do all roads lead to Putin?”

It’s actually quite simple: Trump has been mob property his entire life. The difference is that now, in 2020, the mobster who owns him is not “Fat Tony” Salerno, or “Big” Paul Castellano, or Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, or even Semion “The Brainy Don” Mogilevich. The mobster who owns him is Vladimir Putin—which makes Trump, by extension, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian government.
It doesn't matter, though. Trumpanzees are immune to evidence, reason or persuasion. They are as chained to Trump as if they were indeed actually bound with adamantine chains.

You cannot reason with or argue with Trump's army of Kool-Aid drinkers. All that can be done is to outvote them. That is why what happened in Wisconsin is so insidious.

9 comments:

Ten Bears said...

The Muscovian Candidate.

Eck! said...

Since it seems most of the trump-pets believe CV-19 is a hoax
they may self solve the voting question... by becoming an occupant
of potters field or some similar who save for Chicago generally
do not vote. Problem solved!


Eck!

Constitutional Insurgent said...

Republicans would do well to remember, that every single action and utterance from this POTUS.....is totally cool, when it's a Democrat in the White House...right?

Steve J said...

CI. Wrong. Democrats generally believe in honesty and good Government. Remember the "scandals" of the Obama administration? That he wore a tan suit once, and would sometimes put his feet up on his desk?

Greybeard said...

"If you like your Plan, you can keep your plan".
"If you like your Doctor, you can keep your Doctor".
A BLATANT lie, and he knew it was a lie when he uttered it.
And the way he got elected State Senator in Illinois?
Shameful.
I live here. I know.

Constitutional Insurgent said...

Steve - my comment was a rebuke against the Trump sycophants....I don't for a minute believe that Democrats are really any better.

Dark Avenger said...

This is from the Wiki, feel free to annotate it as supported by public records and contemporaneous news reports when needed:

On December 11, 1995—the first filing day for nominating petitions—Obama filed his nominating petitions with more than 3,000 signatures; perennially unsuccessful candidate Ulmer Lynch, Jr., also filed nominating petitions.[15] On December 18—the last filing day for nominating petitions—Palmer held a press conference to announce she was running for re-election to the Senate, accepting a draft by more than 100 supporters.[16] Palmer then drove to Springfield to file her nominating petitions; also filing nominating petitions on the last filing day were first-time candidates Gha-is Askia and Marc Ewell.[16] On December 26, Obama campaign volunteer Ron Davis filed objections to the legitimacy of the nominating petitions of Senator Palmer, Askia, Ewell and Lynch.[17][18]

On January 17, 1996, Palmer announced she was withdrawing her bid for re-election because she was around 200 signatures short of the 757 needed to earn a place on the ballot after almost two-thirds of the 1,580 signatures on her nominating petitions were found to be invalid.[18][19] The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners had previously sustained an objection to the nominating petitions of Lynch because of insufficient valid signatures and subsequently also sustained objections to the nominating petitions of Askia and Ewell because of insufficient valid signatures.[18][19]

Obama therefore won the Democratic nomination unopposed.[20] On November 5, Obama won the race for the 13th Senate district, with 82 percent of the vote; perennially unsuccessful Harold Washington Party candidate David Whitehead (13%) and first-time Republican Party candidate Rosette Caldwell Peyton (5%) also ran.[21]


As for the promise, didn’t Cheetolini make a lot of promises he’s yet to fulfill?

Steve J said...

I don't troll the deep end of the Reich wing fever swamps, but to the best of my knowledge no one has ever claimed that President Obama personally benefited from his efforts to get health care for millions of people. Trump uses his position to enrich himself.

dinthebeast said...

I liked my doctor, and I kept him until I moved out of Alameda county...

And what was it again? "We're building a wall and Mexico will pay for it" or something?

"We're getting rid of Obamacare and replacing it with something beautiful that will be cheaper and have better coverage"?

I could literally go on all day as there are over fifteen thousand of them.

Whether watching their friends and family sicken and die while the economy crashes harder than in the thirties will shake loose any of Fergus' supporters remains to be seen, but I am not optimistic about that, as those same issues have been in play to a lesser extent for a long time now and haven't shaken his support among those who really like him.

As long as he can come up with a lie that fits their prejudices, they still have a powerful incentive to avoid looking like the marks and suckers he has played them for, and that goes back farther than his presidency to the bait-and-switch the Republicans have been selling their base since Nixon.

As for Putin, he's just having a good laugh at our expense about it, all the while getting more and more of what he really wants, which is to put the USSR back together.

-Doug in Sugar Pine