It's reported today that Richard Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, is strongly considering resigning. Several of his colleagues say he will do so if Donald Trump signs an order to
end a probe by the Navy of alleged war crimes.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump involved himself in the case of Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer
Edward Gallagher, who's been accused of murdering a wounded ISIS
militant in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher was acquitted of this crime by a military court,
but found guilty of posing with the dead prisoner's body.
Without a written order from the Commander in Chief, the Navy plans to move forward with the review process. Stay tuned ...
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Friday, November 22, 2019
Lord Have Mercy
No matter how one translates that phrase:
Today, on Fox and Friends, Donald Trump disclosed that he distrusted former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch because she never hung his portrait on the wall of our Embassy in Kiev. In the same interview, Mr. Trump called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi paralyzed, totally incompetent, absolutely lost, crazy as a bedbug, simply nuts, not talented, and highly overrated .
Colloquialisms are tough to transl;ate, so I can't claim I ever heard her say it. But I'm sure my baba would have agreed that Donald Trump often acts as a pot calling a kettle black, or:
Horshchyk zustrity chaynyk
- Gospdaru imaj milosti Bosnian
- Ambuye chifundo Chechwa, a Bantu language
- Heer, geb genade Dutch
- Bhagavana daya karo Gujarati
- Omo wa jihi o motte imasu Japanese
- Xudan rheme Kurdish
- Herre vis nade Norwegian
- Hospody pomyluy as my baba used to say in Ruthenian
Today, on Fox and Friends, Donald Trump disclosed that he distrusted former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch because she never hung his portrait on the wall of our Embassy in Kiev. In the same interview, Mr. Trump called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi paralyzed, totally incompetent, absolutely lost, crazy as a bedbug, simply nuts, not talented, and highly overrated .
Colloquialisms are tough to transl;ate, so I can't claim I ever heard her say it. But I'm sure my baba would have agreed that Donald Trump often acts as a pot calling a kettle black, or:
Horshchyk zustrity chaynyk
Thursday, November 21, 2019
To Dream the Impossible Dream
Throughout the impeachment inquiry, Donald Trump's defenders, and Mr. Trump himself, have cited his "landslide" victory in the Electoral College in 2016. Trouble is, that's wrong. Merriam-Webster defines landslide as a great majority of votes, an overwhelming victory, or winning an election by a huge majority. Those frames don't fit the Electoral College.
Let's do the arithmetic. There are a total of 538 votes available in the Electoral College. One can reasonably assume that an overwhelming victory in that venue would require about 376. votes - roughly 70%. Even at 60%, hardly a big enough margin to characterize as overwhelming, 323 Electoral votes would be needed. In 2016, Donald Trump got 304 votes, or approximately 56%. A majority, but not a huge one.
The popular vote in 2016 paints a different picture. According to the independent, non-partisan Cook Political Report, Hillary Clinton garnered 65,844,610 votes; Donald Trump managed 62,979,636. That's a difference of 2,864,974. The total number of votes for all other candidates were 7,804,213, making a grand total of over 136,627,000 popular votes. In that context, while still not a landslide, Clinton's victory was statistically more impressive than Trump's in the Electoral College:
Let's do the arithmetic. There are a total of 538 votes available in the Electoral College. One can reasonably assume that an overwhelming victory in that venue would require about 376. votes - roughly 70%. Even at 60%, hardly a big enough margin to characterize as overwhelming, 323 Electoral votes would be needed. In 2016, Donald Trump got 304 votes, or approximately 56%. A majority, but not a huge one.
The popular vote in 2016 paints a different picture. According to the independent, non-partisan Cook Political Report, Hillary Clinton garnered 65,844,610 votes; Donald Trump managed 62,979,636. That's a difference of 2,864,974. The total number of votes for all other candidates were 7,804,213, making a grand total of over 136,627,000 popular votes. In that context, while still not a landslide, Clinton's victory was statistically more impressive than Trump's in the Electoral College:
- Electoral College Trump percentage: 56%
- Popular vote Trump percentage: 46%
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
After You ... No, After You
Today, Gordon Sondland again revised his testimony in the House impeachment inquiry. He threw all of Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry, and Mike Pompeo under the bus.
The Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reciprocated, by trying to throw Mr. Sondland under a different bus.
To me it was clear. Sondland was and is deeply committed to CYA, and to avoiding perjury charges. He didn't plead the Fifth Amendment; doing so might have proved problematic. But by presenting a memory as full of holes as Swiss cheese, Sondland managed to shift blame away from himself and to the Trump administration.
The Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reciprocated, by trying to throw Mr. Sondland under a different bus.
To me it was clear. Sondland was and is deeply committed to CYA, and to avoiding perjury charges. He didn't plead the Fifth Amendment; doing so might have proved problematic. But by presenting a memory as full of holes as Swiss cheese, Sondland managed to shift blame away from himself and to the Trump administration.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Republicans as Lilliputians
Jonathan Swift's fictional characters, Lilliputians , have been described as people only six inches tall, but with a full share of arrogance and self-importance. The list below offers synonyms for lilliputian from vocabulary.com . All of these seem germane to the behavior today of the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee.
If Only
... Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee - folks like Jim Jordan - had half the grace and dignity that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman demonstrated today.
Monday, November 18, 2019
If You're Gordon Sondland
... you know you're in trouble when:
- you testiy
- you re-testify, changing some of what you originally revealed
- you're called to testify a third time, on Wednesday 11/20
- your attorneys suggest that you may exercise your rights under the Fifth Amendment that day
- you find out that, having already altered your testimony, you have in effect waived your right to the Fifth
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Again, If You're Donald Trump
... you know you're in trouble when two Republican gubernatorial candidates for whom you campaigned in the past couple of weeks - one in Kentucky and one in Louisiana - each lost.
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