William Barr has released his summary of the Mueller report to Congress. The two big takeaways from the letter are as follows: Concerning the question on whether “the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” the Barr letter states (quoting …
A Ridiculously Quick Take on the Mueller Report
Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report has finally been released to the Department of Justice, and thus far, the item on which people are focusing the most is the apparent fact that Mueller has recommended no further indictments. This little bit of news has apparently caused “glee” in the White House, which believes that “this was a …
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Of Course Trumpkins Are Latter-Day Chekists. Of Course They Are.
Since June 16, 2015, when Donald Trump announced for the presidency, America has been inundated with a veritable cascade of Trumpian awfulness. The outrageous behavior--consisting of multiple forms of bigotry, outright ignorance on the part of the president and his minions, complete incompetence, blatantly unpatriotic behavior and appalling corruption--has come to the public's attention at …
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The Good and “You’ve Got to Be Kidding” of John Bolton
Now that John Bolton is going to be Donald Trump's third national security adviser in a little over a year(!), it behooves us to consider what we might expect during Bolton's tenure. The position of national security adviser is exceptionally influential--especially given the recent tendency over the span of several administrations to concentrate significant amounts …
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Movie Review: “The Death of Stalin”
I suppose it is worth stating anew the observation and fact that few--if any--movies actually tell a historical tale in what can be called a faithful manner. Such is the case with The Death of Stalin, which, while unfaithful to historical facts, shows laudable fidelity to stating and underlining a higher truth: The so-called "leaders" …
Defining Deviancy Down
So, at the end of the 1986-1987 Supreme Court term, Associate Justice Lewis Powell decided to retire from the Court. Accordingly, Justice Powell submitted his resignation letter to President Reagan. The president nominated Judge Robert Bork to replace Powell. Bork got voted down 58-42 by the United States Senate, the first Senate rejection of a …
Donald Trump and the Lost (or Never Possessed) Art of the Deal
Because the incumbent president of the United States regularly inundates us with boasts about how he is supposedly a clever and masterful negotiator--notwithstanding the overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting that as with other claimed skills, the incumbent president of the United States suffers massively from a severe and pronounced case of the Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes …
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Wanted: A Pro-Life Movement that Is Actually Pro-Life, and a Morality Police that Is in Favor of More than Just a Selective Application of Morality
Today, the National March for Life was held. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, that is the day when purportedly pro-life people don't come out for increased sex education and/or increased distribution of contraceptive devices--approaches which may actually help bring down the number of unexpected and unwanted pregnancies, and relatedly, the …
The Trump Administration Is More Incompetent than You Can Possibly Imagine, Even after Taking into Account the Fact that the Trump Administration Is More Incompetent than You Can Possibly Imagine
I suppose that it is a healthy sign for me that I continue to be amazed by the blundering, mistake-prone, disaster-inducing ways of the current administration; my constant state of disbelief and shock may indicate that my standards for competence, organization and professionalism have not been diminished. Then again, the fact that my standards--and those …
If It Is a Day Whose Name Ends with the Letter “Y,” then It Is Time for Jane Mayer to Rail about the Koch Brothers
The latest manifestation of Jane Mayer's Ahabesque quest to label the Koch brothers as pure evil comes in this article, in which Mayer solemnly intones about the dangers of having Mike Pence as president, and states that said dangers mainly revolve around Pence being an alleged tool of the Koch brothers. To be sure, I …
