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Kabuki show

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

I realize that this is at least slightly tongue in cheek:

As we wait to see whether Donald Trump’s unpopularity will allow a Democrat to squeak through and win a thoroughly Republican district in suburban Atlanta, let’s look at an eye-popping new poll. President Trump’s popularity has collapsed among a key base constituency: Russians.

Yes, really.

According to a new poll from state-run polling and research service VTSIOM, President Trump’s support levels among Russians have collapsed (really not an exaggeration) since his missile strike in Syria. Only 7% of Russians disapproved of Trump in March. Now that number has spiked to 39%.

Meanwhile Trump’s approval has dipped from 38% to 13%.

via Talking Points Memo

I’m not sure if the folks at TPM took this seriously, but either way there’s something seriou to be drawn from it. It’s entirely predictable that state run Russian media would make such a report, since it is in the interest of both Russia and Trump to foster the impression, illusory as it might be, that Trump and the Russians are at loggerheads. There’s an insightful article at Vanity Fair about the way in which Trump’s attempts to manipulate the media here are something like what Putin can more easily do in Russia. Read the whole thing, but this is a fair summary:

What if all the Trumpian chaos that the “mainstream media” have come to take for granted as pugilism and vanity was part of a more cunning plan? What if Trump and chief strategist Steve Bannon were actually drawing from a sophisticated postmodern propaganda model developed by none other than Vladimir Putin, Vladislav Surkov, and their political technologists at the Kremlin? While Trump may not have state-controlled media at his disposal, as Putin does, to serve as 24-7 propaganda organs both domestically and abroad, his team is finding ways to shrewdly approximate Putin’s capacity to shape narratives and create alternative realities.

via Vanity Fair

It is definitely in both Putin’s and Trump’s interest to appear to be antagonistic to one another. So long as Trump can plausibly maintain that fiction, he can hope to survive the various investigations, keep the support of his base, and prevent Putin from revealing the kompromat he has on Trump.. And, so long as they can successfully employ the tactics set forth at length at the article I’ve linked to above, they can hope to achieve their real ends sufficiently under the radar to, if not escape all notice, to at least escape prolonged attention. How much attention, for instance, will Exxon’s attempt to skirt U.S. sanctions get?

At this point it’s not clear how much of this is deliberate strategy on Trump’s part, or how much is just a by product of Trump’s style, but either way, it’s working, if not to his advantage, than certainly to Putin’s.

Sidenote: I’ve linked to several Vanity Fair articles in this post. Its editor is a long time Trump antagonist (he’s the guy who gave us “small handed vulgarian”) and it looks like it will be a go to place for anti-Trump journalism.

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A word of caution re: Heather Somers

Monday, April 17, 2017

One of the good things that has happened (remember, always look on the bright side of life) since Trump lost the popular vote is the rise of the resistance movement, in its various and sundry groupings. We have several in this area. One downside of the movement is that it has attracted a lot of political amateurs, who have not necessarily acquired the appropriate amount of cynicism about the Republican Party.

Heather Somers, our airhead State Senator, has a way of telling people what they want to hear. During the last election one of our local environmental groups actually supported her over Tim Bowles, a former president of the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra club. Heather will, undoubtedly, toe the party line on the environment, and we know that ain’t good. Similarly, she’s been making accomodating noises to members of the resistance, many of whom have not yet learned that you can’t trust a Republican, particularly Heather.

During the last campaign Heather was finally brought to ground and had to confront the presidential election. Here’s what she had to say:

Now, her word salad is nowhere near as mixed and jumbled as, say, Sean Spicer’s response to any given question, but she at least matches Spicer in her lack of logic. Unfortunately, there were no follow up questions, and given that the questioner was from the Day, he would undoubtedly not have asked the obvious: what has Clinton done that is worse than what Trump says he will do.

In any event, I’d submit to any member of the resistance that hears pleasant noises coming out of Somers mouth that he or she should consider Somers’s argument that the composition of the Connecticut legislature is really more important than the identity of the President of the United States, particularly when one of the two possibilities is Donald Trump. If she believes it, she’s an idiot. The alternative is more probable: that her priority is Heather Somers, and beside that, the country’s fate is unimportant. Come to think of it, that makes her a lot like the Donald, doesn’t it?

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Still looking on the bright side

Friday, April 14, 2017

I have posted this video ever Good Friday since this blog began, but it has, perhaps, never been more salient. My original purpose was to mock religion, particularly the religion I learned at Our Lady of Sorrows, but there’s another, albeit equivocal, message here.

There isn’t much of a bright side for poor Brian and his compatriots, but they all manage to look on it-evenBrian, in the end. Poltically speaking, since this blog began, the bright side has never been dimmer. There is a bright side, nonetheless. Our institutions may have let us down, but there’s still a chance that the people may respond and save this battered republic. If we don’t, our fate can be no worse than Brian’s, and if he can look on the bright side, than so can we.

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Trump’s Foreign Policy

Friday, April 14, 2017

I’m a big Randy Newman fan, but inasmuch as Trump tends to go with the last thing he’s heard, it might not be a good idea for him to listen to this one. On the other hand, given the thumbs up so many of pundits (looking at you, Fareed) gave him for bombing Syria, maybe he’s arrived at this position independently, since it sure seems like Randy is channeling Donnie in this video

Update: A few hours after I posted this, I discovered Randy has a new, fairly timely song. Here’s the official video:

It is much to be hoped that musicians of today will take a page from their forebears of the sixties and give voice to the resistance. The times are a’ changing in not such a good way, and we need things to rally round. This isn’t the song that will do it, but it’s still fun to watch.

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Everyone else must fail

Monday, April 10, 2017

Dean Baker rightfully calls out the Washington Post for suggesting, at one and the same time, that there is both a surplus and a shortage of workers, and that to alleviate the shortage, we should “reform” the social security disability system.

At a time of unprecedented inequality, the Washington Post is quick to seize on the country’s real problems: a Social Security disability program that is too generous. The editorial was good enough not to get bogged down in phony arguments. It tells readers explicitly that rampant fraud is not a problem:

“Nor is the program’s growth the result of rampant fraud, as sometimes alleged; structural factors such as population aging explain much recent growth. Nevertheless, at a time of declining workforce participation, especially among so-called prime-age males (those between 25 and 54 years old), the nation’s long-term economic potential depends on making sure work pays for all those willing to work. And from that point of view, the Social Security disability program needs reform.”

So the problem is that the program is too generous for people who might still be able to work in spite of a disability.

…

Addendum: Where are the Robots?

I forgot to ask this important question. Just last week the Post ran a column that had us terrified that the robots were going to take all the jobs. Now they want us to worry that we don’t have enough workers because they are all living on their $1170 a month disability benefit. In economics this is known as the “which way is up problem?” Ostensibly intelligent people don’t have the slightest clue what they are talking about when it comes to the economy.

via Beat the Press

There’s another point to be made here, and I feel quite qualified to make it, as the bulk of my law practice consists of representing disability claimants. The Post presupposes that getting on disability is a piece of cake, and that all you have to do is quit working, file your application, and start collecting.

But it’s not quite that easy. The threshold question is this: how many people would give up the chance to work and make decent money in order to apply for benefits that can take anywhere from two to eight years to get, when the odds of success over that period are, perhaps, 40%. I’ve been representing claimants for more than 25 years now, and I’ve watched incredulously as relatively reasonable judges have been replaced by people whose sole objective is to deny claims, be they ever so meritorious. Let me share a few war stories, which, I assure you, are now typical. Let me start by clarifying that to get disability you don’t need to be a quadriplegic, you have to be unable to work on a sustained basis, which is a perfectly reasonable standard.

Consider this language, taken from a case involving a gentleman who has extremely bad knees. The judge is required to explain why he didn’t believe the claimant’s testimony about the extent of his physical limitations. Bear in mind we’re talking about a guy with bad knees.

“The claimant told Dr. [Name redacted]that he lived with his two children, ages 4 and 5, and he continued to drive (Exhibit 1F), which implies he takes care of them. At the hearing, the claimant testified that he lives with his younger, 9-year old son, and his girlfriend, who works as a manager of a wine and spirits shop. He said that he has a driver’s license, has no car, but drives rarely. The claimant testified that he came to Connecticut in 2009 by airplane. He said that since living in Connecticut, he has traveled by airplane to Florida to visit a friend. The claimant testified that he passes time by lying in bed and watching television. He said that he socializes with his girlfriend, but they do not go out. This level of activity is inconsistent with the allegation of total disability (Emphasis added)

That’s right. Somehow watching television lying down is inconsistent with a claim that you have bad knees, as is living in an apartment, and flying in a plane twice in five years. On appeal, the federal court remanded the case. That means the same judge hears the case again, with instructions not to screw up the same way he did the last time. This judge always finds another ridiculous reason to deny. This case has now been going on for 7 years.

Another example. The rules make it a bit easier to get on disability if you are near retirement age anyway. A younger worker must prove there is nothing in the world he or she can do. If you’re over 60, often you need only prove that you can’t do your past job, as the rules recognize the practical difficulty an older worker faces in starting a new career. My client was 62, had experienced several heart attacks and survived cancer. His old job was classified as medium, meaning he was required to lift over 50 pounds frequently. All the doctors that examined his case came to the obvious conclusion that he couldn’t do such a job. But the judge disagreed, because he did therapeutic yoga and he told an examining psychologist that he “took care of the stove”, whatever that means (The judge never asked). The US attorney agreed to send that case back as soon as he looked at the file.

These cases are not unusual. The intellectual dishonesty indulged in by some of these judges almost puts Donald Trump to shame. It is beyond belief that any appreciable number of claimants would opt to experience years of poverty on the off chance that they might get to live on $1,700 a month 5 or 6 years after they apply for benefits.

But, as Baker has pointed out in the past, Jeff Bezo’s rag wants very much to destroy social security. If the elderly should live in poverty, why not the disabled? It comes back to that great line the villain capitalist uttered in Superman 3, with which Jeff surely agrees: It is not enough that I succeed, everyone else must fail.

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Trump enablers

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Some people think the role of the press is to inform. Others appear to think its role is to propagandize. We do live in an era of fake news, typified by internet sites such as InfoWars, but there is a far more nuanced form of fake news that is even more dangerous.

Case in point, this article in this mornings New York Times, in which we learn that Donald Trump was motivated to bomb Syria by the workings of his heart, which was bleeding for the children who were victims of chemical weapons:

The images were heartbreaking: Children gasping and choking for breath, their mouths foaming. A grief-stricken father, cradling the lifeless bodies of his two children, swaddled in white blankets. But they were also familiar, a harrowing flashback to 2013, when the Syrian government unleashed the last major poison gas attack on its own people.

This time, though, a new American president was seeing the pictures and absorbing the horror.

Donald J. Trump has always taken pride in his readiness to act on instinct, whether in real estate or reality television. On Thursday, an emotional President Trump took the greatest risk of his young presidency, ordering a retaliatory missile strike on Syria for its latest chemical weapons attack. In a dizzying series of days, he upended a foreign policy doctrine based on putting America first and avoiding messy conflicts in distant lands.

Could it be that the Times or its reporter is not aware of Donald Trump’s mental illness, one symptom of which is his complete lack of empathy for all other human beings? His entire history is replete with instances of his utter disregard for the rights, needs or happiness of other people. It has always been about him. If he tells the press that he is acting out of regard for his fellow humans, shouldn’t an informed reporter think twice before passing on such an obvious lie? Under the circumstances, shouldn’t he or she look beyond Trump’s propaganda to see if, just possibly, there’s another story here? The Times is not alone in swallowing this guff, but it is representative.

I often tell my clients that part of a lawyers job is to be paranoid on their behalf and to anticipate the worst. Part of the media’s job is to be cynical on our behalf. That cynicism is not non-existent, but it does tend to disappear when the subject is a Republican.

One possible alternative explanation for Trump’s action pops up immediately to my cynical mind. It appears to be a perfect way to both divert attention from the Russia scandal and to plant the idea that Trump couldn’t be in Putin pocket, as he is bombing Putin’s ally. 

In this instance, it turns out that a healthy dose of cynicism would have been appropriate, since, as it turns out, Trump gave a heads up to the Russians, and by extension, the Syrians. Both the Syrians and the Russians removed themselves and their equipment from the bombing site. The entire exercise was an $80 million PR stunt.

And let us not forget that the Trump administration is acting in a way that is inviting a terrorist attack upon this nation (or a Trump branded property overseas). As the Bush folks proved, a terrorist attack is the perfect way to divert attention from the misdeeds of an incompetent, pro-corporate, anti-people administration. When that attack comes,  it will take years for the media to acknowledge that the attack was invited, by which time the damage will have been done. A Democratic Party committed to either helping the country or itself would be warning the nation about this danger right now.

Epilogue: After I wrote the above, my wife showed me this, which shows that some members of the fourth estate have a proper amount of cynicism.

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Tales from the Dungeon (That would be Popple Dungeon)

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

This is a totally non-political post, at least that’s the plan.

One of the stupider things we ever did was buy a vacation house shack in Chester, Vermont. It did not ruin us financially, only because we ended up renting it out for enough to cover the mortgage. Anyway, it is on Ethan Allen (street sign mis-spelled “Eathan”, which someone has defaced to rectify the abomination) Road. Ethan Allen Road is just off of Popple Dungeon Road, and don’t even ask me where than name originated.

Anyway, as a proud Vermont property owner, I have the Chester Telegraph on my RSS feeder, and yesterday I spent some time reading the police log, as artfully restyled by one of the Telegraph’s reporters. I know the editors, by the way, since they also sell hand squeezed lemonade at the Londonderry Farmers Market (one of the best Farmers Markets in Vermont) and they live near Ethan Allen Road, just around the corner, on, need I say it, Popple Dungeon Road.

So, the police log is just full of near criminal activity, but this was my favorite tale, particularly because it, too, has roots in Popple Dungeon.

Thursday, Feb. 23, 10:19 a.m.

A loose dog was found on Popple Dungeon Road and turned over to the police. The pup had no tags or even a collar so he was taken to the Springfield Humane Society, where he was recognized as Hank. The Humane Society was able to tell police that the owner lived another couple of miles up Popple Dungeon from where he was found. The officer was preparing information on the town’s dog ordinance but before he could speak with Hank’s owner, the dog re-offended. (See March 5, 2017)

Fast forward to March 5th, for more of Hank’s tail tale.

Sunday, March 5, 9:31 a.m.

Hank the Dog got back on the radar when Chester Police were called back to Popple Dungeon Road for the report of a loose dog. The responding officer found Hank’s owner out on the road looking for the dog and gave him a ride up the road to the complainant’s house. The agitated complainant “began to lecture (using some profanity)” Hank’s owner. She was upset that Hank repeatedly got loose and came to her yard. At one point, the complainant’s dog and Hank chased deer and Fish & Wildlife came to lecture about it.

The complainant said she had called the town several times. The officer told her how the process for a nuisance dog works under the town’s dog ordinance and then took Hank home. Hank’s owner told the officer that the complainant’s dog is often loose and coming over to his place. He said the dogs were inseparable. The officer explained the ordinance, warned that further problems could result in the dog being seized and issued a $25 first-violation ticket.

Of course, I haven’t heard all the evidence, but I’m on Hank’s side, and he can come chase animals at our place anytime he wants. Last summer my son and his wife saw some bears hanging around, so maybe Hank and his pal can keep them at bay.

The rest of the police log makes for fun reading as well. The writer makes Chester seem a little like a frozen Mayberry.

Epilogue: Well, I’ve reread this post a number of times, and I don’t see any obvious way to segue into an attack on Donald Trump or Republicans. So, it shall end as it began: totally non-political, though the reader should never forget that Donald Trump is an ignorant, lying narcissist, and Republicans are, to a person (mostly men, by the way), a bunch of lying, racist hypocrites.

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Just once I’d like to hear…

Monday, April 3, 2017

Mitch McConnell telling Chuck Todd why the Democrats should allow a vote on Gorsuch:

“Look, we litigated that last year,” the Majority Leader stuttered. “The American people decided that they wanted Donald Trump to make the nomination, not Hillary Clinton.”

via Crooks & Liars

Just once I’d like to see someone, preferably a Democrat pushing a Democratic talking point, point out that the American people did not vote to let Trump name a Supreme Court justice, the Electoral College did. The American people, by about 3 million votes, voted to give the pick to Hillary. If we had a rational method of picking our president, we would all be remembering the anti-Trump landslide in November. It’s asking too much to expect Todd to make that obvious point, but not too much to expect it from the Democrats. Just imagine what we’d be hearing from Republicans were the situation reversed.

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That’s the way you do it

Monday, April 3, 2017

A few more remarks like this and I may start giving to the DNC again:

On Friday, Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez told activists that anti-Trump protests “were hitting the Trump administration where it hurt,” and added that if Trump or his Republican minions had a problem with protesters considering his election illegitimate, well:“

I don’t care, because they don’t give a shit about people.”

via Daily Kos

Now, if he follows up by avoiding DINOs, we’ll be in great shape.

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A media fixation

Saturday, April 1, 2017

I’ve mentioned before that we get three newspapers: the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and the New London Day. So I’m in somewhat of a position to perceive patterns, an example of which appears on the front page of the Globe this morning. Beneath an article about yet another Trump disaster is an article about how Trump’s backers remain steadfast. We have been inundated, at least since Trump announced his candidacy, with articles sourced from the meth soaked natural habitats of under educated, talk radio listening, Fox viewing, ultra racists, in which we are given the views of assorted Trump backers. (Clinton backers were virtually ignored during the campaign, and Sanders was virtually a non-person during the primaries) It’s not just the Globe. The Times does it too, and I’ve looked around the web enough to know that they are not unique. The Day doesn’t have the staff to cover the Trump voter beat, as they are too busy pumping up the career of the execrable Heather Somers.

The Globe appears to have reporters exclusively assigned to the Trump voter beat, as this morning’s article is written by a Globe Staffer who made a trip to a mountaintop in Tennessee to bag some Trumpers. Of course, as always, he headed right for the local diner (apparently, other than Bill Griffith, diner patrons are all Trump voters), where he scouted out a faithful Trumper, to give her the chance to flaunt her stupidity. Women are preferred. My guess is that’s because it is even more unbelievable that a woman could support Trump than a man.

It is difficult to tell precisely what the subtext of these articles is supposed to be. Are we to marvel at the fact that there are so many stupid people in this country, who still prefer to blame their woes on those worse off than themselves, rather than the billionaires like Trump who have rigged the economy, and who remain eager to destroy the government benefits upon which they rely, in the Fox induced belief that only those people will be harmed? Or are we to understand these people, and sympathize with the fact that they feel left behind by the economy their votes have helped create? Perhaps we are to reflect on the fact that there must be something deeply wrong with an educational system that turns out so many people who are unable to think logically or rationally. Or, is this the media’s way of trying to prove that it is not (shudder) liberal?

This is not a new phenomenon really. At least since the emergence of the Koch engineered tea party, we have been subjected to countless articles in the press explaining and excusing the bigotry and stupidity of these people.

Meanwhile you may search media archives in vain for similar articles about Obama supporters during his presidency. In fact, you can practically search in vain for articles about Trump opponents today. Such articles are not non-existent, given the Resistance, but they don’t appear with anything like the clockwork regularity of these pieces, nor does the media send reporters gallivanting around the country seeking us out. Hint: we actually go to diners too, but you can also find us in libraries, bookstores, museums, coffee houses, and universities. We’re everywhere, really. In fact, we’re the people who actually subscribe to and read fact based newspapers, so you have an easy way to find us. Right now we’re 65% of the country, and we’re perfectly willing to talk to reporters. Also, we make sense, believe in facts, and do not spend our days watching Fox, which you might find to be a refreshing change.

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