Sam McGee
Sam McGee's JournalWas I a bit uncivil?
I live in a very historic rural Virginia county. In the village that is our county seat, there's a complex of historic uildings, all dating back to 1740-1760: tavern/inn; blacksmith's forge; jail; couple of outbuildings. Also a few restored buildings. We have a blacksmith guild as well as guilds for woodworking, weaving, spinning, and cooking. A gift shop in the inn features products made by our weaves, quilters, blacksmiths, etc.
Two mornings a week I volunteer as dishwasher at the tavern restaurant.
I was washing dishes this morning, took a break to use the men's room. There, on a chair inside the door, was a MAGA Trump cap.
When I went to the men's room three hours later, the cap was still there.
I picked up the cap, put it in the urinal . . . and pissed on it. Left it there.
Was I uncivil?
It's good to see that Hillary's economic plans for coal country are working!!!
From Daily Kos:
Summary: A lithium-ion battery plant in California is moving to Kentucky coal country, bringing 850 good, current technology jobs.
Details:
EnerBlü, a company that makes rechargeable lithium batteries for mainline energy grids, microgrids, and electric cars, has transplanted its headquarters from Riverside in southern California to Lexington, the western edge of what used to be the heart of Kentucky coal operations. That will also be the site of its research and development center.
But there is a bigger, potentially more important project coming from the high-tech company: the establishment of Energy Innovation Park in Pikeville, on the eastern border of Kentucky, where 37 Appalachia counties are mired in economic stress, as bad or worse off than the bottom 10 percent of America’s 3,113 counties. The $400 million, million-square-foot EIP operation, located on the site of the former Marion Branch coal mine, will feature four manufacturing facilities, including a lithium battery factory.
Yes, I understand this means the loss of jobs in California, but, CA can replace the jobs. This is what Hillary had in mind for coal country -- good to see she's winning.
Boycott worked
I live in a rural VA county with only a few cafes or restaurants. Except for one excellent mainly seafood place (that's open only three nights a week and you can't get out of there for under $80), all are mom-and-pop greasy spoons.
A guy who owns a restaurant in Richmond recently re-opened a place that closed five years ago. Initial reports were that the food and service were okay, which is not bad for our rural area.
HOWEVER -- several local Democrats reported the three TV sets in the place are on Fox 14/7 and the owner refuses to change them. Six weeks ago, a couple of our Democratic Party ladies (both in their late 70's) visited, ordered, and sweetly asked if the owner would change the channel, or, turn it down. He raised almighty hell with them, went off on them about "you damn liberals," told them it's his TV and he'll do was he damn well pleases.
We Democrats decided to boycott him.
He closed yesterday.
I hate to put someone out of business, but, goddam it, it's time these assholes learned a few lessons.
"I want to report a crime!"
I just placed a phone call to the FBI office in XXXXX VA.
They have the typical answering system -- to report a crime, press 1; to report a bank robbery, press 2; etc., etc.
I pressed 1 to report a crime.
An FBI agent answered. This is generally how the conversation went:
Agent: "FBI. What crime do you want to report?"
Me: "I want to report treason, obstruction of justice, and assault on federal officers."
Agent: (She paused for a moment.) "Could you provide me with some details?"
Me: "These crimes were committed by a man named Donald Trump, his address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC."
I won't continue with verbatim, however, when I told her that, she took a minute before replying and I could tell from the tone of her voice she was about to crack up!!
I then went on to tell her that I have full confidence in the FBI's professionalism and integrity and I am appalled, sickened, and worried about the attacks on the FBI from Congress and the White House. We had a nice conversation.
If a lot of us call our local FBI offices with the same report, maybe they'll arrest the sonofabitch.
"Democrats lost their nerve"
This WashPost article claims Congressional Democrats -- specifically Schumer and Pelosi -- lost their nerve in the face of Republican attacks because of Chuck and Nancy's stance on Dreamers. According to the Post, Chuck and Nancy are concerned that their base will lose our energy before November and the best way to keep us energized is to cave to Republican lies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/why-the-democrats-lost-their-nerve-in-the-shutdown-battle/2018/01/22/8b2bd512-ffaa-11e7-bb03-722769454f82_story.html?utm_term=.7a20eb2f23b1
Is this bullshit or what?
I've said it before and will say it again: We Democrats are an army of lions being led by rabbits. Cowardly rabbits at that.
I'm active in Virginia Democratic politics, Progressive politics, and a big regional Indivisible group. Every Democrat with whom I have any contact is fired up, ready to roll -- and 100% behind a permanent DACA act. We are ready to elect Democrats in November 2018 and beyond, no matter what it takes.
Too bad our "leaders" don't share our fire and dedication.
Sarah Palin called 911 on her son -- son beat up his father, Todd Palin
According to court testimony and police reports:
12/16
-- Track Palin, Sarah's oldest child, called Sarah and Todd, told them he was coming to the family home to "beat (his father's) ass"
-- Track arrived, Todd grabbed a pistol
-- Sarah called 911
-- Track broke a window, lots of shouting, cursing
-- Track then proceeded to beat the shit out of his father, who later was taken to the hospital with blood all over his face and "fluid coming from one ear"
-- Todd and Sarah ran away from the house in separate cars
-- Track refused many commands from police, finally was cuffed and stuffed.
http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Police-say-Track-Palin-attacked-father-Todd-Palin-called-officers-peasants-465021853.html
Not that it's important any longer . . .
Track Palin -- Sarah's eldest -- is back in jail. Arrested 12/16, still in custody; charged with burglary, assault, and property damage.
Last year as Sarah was in Vegas campaigning for Trump, Track was arrested for beating his then-pregnant girl friend and threatening her with a firearm.
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2017/12/track-palin-arrested.html
Families turned away from Arlington National Cemetery
Annually, corporations and individuals donate funds to Arlington National Cemetery to purchase wreaths that are placed on the headstones at Arlington.
Families of those interred at Arlington are given priority treatment -- they apply for and are given entrance and parking tickets; a parking an assembly area is reserved for them; transportation is provided for those who need help to get to their family member's gravesite.
I'm a retired Army officer. My Army brat daughter is an attorney with a DC firm, she lives on Capitol Hill. She has several friends from our years in the Army whose family member(s) are interred at Arlington. For the past several years on this weekend, three of her friends come in from out of town, stay with her, then they go to Arlington where they place wreaths on the family graves then then place 200 wreaths on other graves. They are joined by volunteers who place wreaths on almost every grave at Arlington. And, yes, they have special wreaths for Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths.
Not this year. When daughter and her friends arrived, the family parking and assembly areas were filled and they were turned away. They could not find parking literally for miles. So -- they parked five miles away and took a cab.
A big part of the problem was tour buses filled with employees of companies that had donated funds to purchase the wreaths. It appeared -- though we can't prove this -- they were given priority behind families and ahead of volunteers. Daughter reports over 70 tour buses, some of them when signs showing corporate logos.
Another of her friends had brought, for the first time, her 92-yr-old grandmother to visit her son's grave (the father of my daughter's friend). At 92, she simply could not make the walk, cab ride, etc. They could find no one with authority to help the grandmother -- they left with grandmother in tears. Daughter and friends are taking grandmother back tomorrow when the crowds and tour buses are gone.
I'll be on the phone to Congress Monday as will daughter, her friends, the partners from her firm, and a LOT of unhappy families.
What is it with Russia and adoption?
Here's the short version. For the details, read William Browder's book "Red Notice."When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990's, one of the problems facing the successors to the commies was what to do with the state-owned enterprises -- everything was state-owned -- furniture industry, tractor industry, fertilizer industry -- everything. The new regime did two things:
1. Essentially gave these massive enterprises to Putin's cronies, and,
2. Advertised for investors.
Foreigners flooded into Russia looking to invest in Russian enterprises -- Browder describes this process in detail.
As time went on, a lot of Putin allies became phenomenally wealthy because they owned the former state-owned industries. These are, for the most part, the "Russian oligarchs."
Because these people were sitting on mountains of money, they looked for investments outside Russia, resulting in a flood of Russian money into the US -- much of it dirty money, stolen from enterprises or investors.
Wm. Browder and his Russian attorney, Sergei Magnivsky, discovered a massive Russian tax evasion scheme about the same time US federal attorneys started sniffing around all the Russian money pouring into the country. When Magnivsky went to Russian authorities and blew the whistle on the tax evasion scheme, he was arrested, tortured, and died in prison after one year.
Meanwhile, US attorneys in Manhattan and Jersey were busy catching, jailing and otherwise amking life difficult for Russian mobsters and oligarchs.
Browder went to the US Congress and to the Obama administration, urging them to pass legislation that would punish Russia for Magnivsky's death and continued human rights violations. It was a fight, but, finally, in 2012, the "Magnivsky Act passed. The Act hit Russia hard:
-- the Act slapped serious sanctions on Russia, making it difficult to impossible for Russia to move money into and out of the US;
-- the Act singled out several Russian oligarchs, officials, and mobsters, preventing them from entering the US, seizing their assets, and generally making their lives unpleasant.
The Putin regime went ballistic. Within weeks, Russia passed a law that:
-- prohibited adoption of Russian orphans by Americans, and,
-- placed similar restrictions on several Americans, most of them associated with the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY, which is where money laundering cases were brought against many of the sanctioned Russians.
One sidebar is this: A lot of the adoptions from Russia were done by and managed by American evangelical organizations -- the very people who helped put Trump in office. I don't know this, but, I suspect certain evangelicals may be putting pressure on the Trump junta to drop Magnivsky in exchange for opening adoptions.
Another sidebar: The US attorney who slapped the shit out of Russian mobsters and money launderers was Preet Bharara, former US Attorney for Southern District of NY -- and one of the first US attorneys fired by Trump. Bharara was one of the people named in the Russian law that banned Americans from traveling to Russia in response to the Magnivsky Act.
BOTTOM LINE: When the Russian say "we were talking about adoption," what they mean is this -- Russia wants the Magnivsky Act lifted because it is causing them serious problems. They want to start talking about lifting their restrictions on adoption of Russian orphans, hoping to use this as leverage to lift the sanctions in the Magnivsky Act. I doubt the Trump gang is smart enough to make these connections, and, I am concerned that they may lift the Magnivsky Act -- which is one of Putin's objectives
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