They’re Baaaaack …

Posted on November 29, 2023 by jilldennison under Economic issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

While we wait for our elected members of Congress, having had a nice long 10-day or more vacation, to do the job we sent them to Washington to do, it looks as if we may have a very long wait. While they are back in Washington, it’s only for about another two weeks, probably only 12 working days at most before they leave for their Christmas break (in my entire career, I never got as much vacation time as these overpaid buffoons get!) And when they return from that, there will be only about two weeks until the next looming government shutdown. So surely they are diligently working on those appropriations bills to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, right? Right??? Well, um … sorry to disappoint you folks but right now they seem more concerned with other things.

Earlier this month, the House Oversight Committee, led by Representative James Comer, subpoenaed Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, to testify before their committee on December 13^th. Hunter responded that he would gladly testify before the committee in a public hearing. The reason for demanding a hearing open to the public is, as stated by Mr. Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell …

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door. If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings.”

But James Comer rejected the request for a public hearing, insisting on Hunter Biden’s closed deposition. Comer accused Hunter Biden of attempting to circumvent established rules, stating that such behavior would not be tolerated by House Republicans. That, in and of itself, seems fishy to me. But I loved Representative Jamie Raskin’s response to Comer …

“Let me get this straight. After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose? What an epic humiliation for our colleagues and what a frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it. After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in. The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense. Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again. What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.”

I have no doubt that if Hunter Biden had agreed to testify behind closed doors and out of the public view, the committee would have found multiple ways to twist and turn his words, to take them entirely out of context, and give their rabid base some fake meat to gnaw on. I hope Mr. Biden and his attorney stick to their guns and don’t give an inch. After all, how many Republicans refused to honour a subpoena from the January 6^th committee and others? And Hunter Biden isn’t refusing to honour the subpoena, but merely asking for transparency … something that seems to scare the hell out of Republicans.

Snarky Rides Again

Posted on October 11, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I suspect the snark will keep on rolling for the next few weeks, don’t you? I wonder who’s to blame for that? Maybe a whole bunch of people!

Ol’ Lindsey strikes out …

Good ol’ Lindsey Graham just doesn’t know when to sit down and shut up, does he? For those who may not be aware, Graham is running for re-election to the United States Senate this November. There was a debate scheduled for last Friday between him and his democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison. Lindsey was exposed to the coronavirus on October 1^st, when he attended a hearing with Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who has since tested positive. Jamie Harrison, a diabetic, requested that Graham be tested for the coronavirus prior to their debate, and Lindsey refused!

Now why would any sensible person refuse to be tested before such an event where other people could be exposed? Some speculate that he has tested positive already. At any rate, on Thursday evening, Mr. Harrison issued the following statement:

“If Sen. Graham will not take a coronavirus test, I cannot responsibly debate in person tomorrow night and allow politics to put my family, my campaign staff, Sen. Graham’s staff, and members of the media at unnecessary risk.”

Instead, each of the two men took part in an online forum that replaced the debate. During the forum, Lindsey was asked how to address civil unrest in his home state of South Carolina. His response …

“If you’re a young African American, an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal.”

GASP!!!!!! That statement alone should cost him his re-election! Lindsey won by a whopping 17 points back in 2014, but this year he is in a dead heat with Jaime Harrison. My bet is that this unconscionably racist statement will doom his campaign and we will finally be able to bid adieu to Mr. Graham.

Transparency???

Sean Hannity is another person without a conscience. Well, he works for Fox ‘News’ and is a close confidant of Trump’s, so it goes without saying that he has no conscience. But yesterday I read this statement by Hannity that caused my jaw to drop …

“First, we do start with a simple fact. The level of transparency in the Trump administration is unmatched. This president communicates with you, we, the American people often, he does it without a filter, he answers a million questions across multiple platforms, he does it each and every day.”

Say WHAT???

Now, Merriam-Webster defines transparent as:

a: free from pretense or deceit : FRANK

b: easily detected or seen through : OBVIOUS

c: readily understood

d: characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices

Not a single one of these can be said to be true of Donald Trump, any of his cabinet members, his press secretary or other spokespeople! Think about it a minute …

Free of pretense or deceit? How many proven lies has he told now? Last I checked it was something over 20,000 in just three-and-a-half years. He didn’t even tell the truth about when he first tested positive for the coronavirus! And as recently as yesterday, his “White House doctor” lied and said he was no longer a contagion risk, when scientists tell us otherwise.

And … he answers “a million questions” a day? First, that isn’t humanly possible, especially for a person who spends half his day watching television and playing on Twitter. But more to the point, during press briefings, he only chooses to answer the questions he likes … otherwise, he insults the reporter and moves on, or simply leaves the room. And even when he does answer a question, he answers it with a lie, so … what’s the point?

And the last one, (d) … accessibility of information? What about those tax returns and financial records? What about his continuing refusal to make public the results of his medical condition and when he last tested negative for the virus? What about ordering people not to testify before Congress? I could go on and on … I could make a whole post about Trump’s blatant lack of transparency, but why bother? You guys know the truth … Donald Trump has lied and lied to us since before he even took office, and there is not a damn thing transparent in his administration. Sean Hannity is every bit as much a liar and conman as Donald Trump is … just another clown in the GOP Circus.

Buses, planes & trains – stay off them!

Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) drafted an order requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States. It makes perfect sense if you think about it … in each of these venues, passengers are in very close proximity, sometimes nearly touching shoulder-to-shoulder, and given the airborne nature of the coronavirus, of course masks should be worn, as well as gloves if you ask me.However, Mike Pence, as the “head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force”, nixed the order from the start. He refused to even discuss the matter, with no explanation.

So, since he doesn’t wish to discuss the matter, we are left to draw our own conclusions that Pence, like his boss, does not believe in the wearing of masks or simply does not care if we live or die.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, who oversaw the drafting of the order, said …

“I think masks are the most powerful weapon we have to confront Covid and we all need to embrace masks and set the example for each other.”

Representative Peter A. DeFazio, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the House committee on transportation and infrastructure was highly critical of Pence’s refusal …

“It’s especially outrageous because the science is so clear: masks save lives. The millions of Americans who work in and use our transportation systems every day — from bus drivers, train conductors and flight attendants, to the frontline workers who rely on public transit — deserve to know their president is relying on experts’ best advice and doing everything possible to keep them safe.”

Y’know … this whole thing has gotten out of hand. People who insist on going about their business in public and refuse to wear a mask are a danger to us all, and they frankly don’t care who they put at risk – even their own families. I’m currently reading a book that takes place during World War II, and at the mention of blackout rules and rationing, I had the thought … I suppose half the people in the U.S. would refuse those, too, and put the entire nation at risk. There is such a thing as taking personal freedom too far, and insisting on riding a crowded bus sans mask is a step too far. Thanks, Pence, for showing us how little our lives are worth to you and your boss.

From ‘Alternative Facts’ to Rewriting History in Trump’s White House

Posted on July 27, 2018 by jilldennison under Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary

Just two days ago, I wrote a post about ‘alternative facts’, aka lies. I didn’t plan to revisit the topic this soon, but I came across an excellent editorial written by Jon Sopel, the North American editor for BBC, that confirms my take on the subject and provides some additional food for thought. I share with you his words …

It is time we sit and talk about truth and transparency.

Every now and then a few disparate things collide, and suddenly you see a pattern. And I don’t want this blog to come across as faux naïve. I’ve covered politics for long enough to know that politicians will try to shape and mould truth to best suit their purposes, to allow them to weaponise the facts that will give them greatest advantage.

And I know that politicians love transparency when it best suits them. But in the past two weeks, a line has been crossed.

Let me start with something seemingly minor. I was listening to the president and Theresa May at their news conference in the Chequers garden when Donald Trump, talking about Brexit, suddenly made the statement that he had predicted the result when he was at his golf course in Turnberry for the opening of his wonderful golf course the day before the EU referendum in June 2016.

I sat up with a jolt. I had been there with him on that trip.

We didn’t arrive until the day after the referendum. He wasn’t there on June 22nd. He was there on June 24th. I pointed this out on Twitter, saying it was a bit bizarre.

Now I can see as a bit of storytelling it works better to claim to have been the visionary who saw what was coming; I can also see that when you’re 72-years-old you might misremember dates and times. Who doesn’t do that occasionally? – although maybe not on something as fundamental as that.

Anyway back to my tweet saying the president was factually incorrect. Straight back shot Stephanie Grisham, who is the first lady’s director of communications, but more importantly at the time was Donald Trump’s press person for the trip to Turnberry.

She told me on Twitter the president was right to say what he had said – and she had the photos to prove it.So we produced the tweet from the president on the 24th saying “Just arrived in Scotland…” and from her saying that she had just arrived in Scotland.

Someone else found the flight manifest, confirming that the Trump private jet had arrived on the 24th. I fully agree a storm in a teacup. This is not the sort of thing on which world peace hinges.

But I struggle to fathom Steph’s motives. Why did she go wading in to defend a lie? And why when the proof was provided that she was incorrect did she not just say “fair enough – my mistake”.Psychology has a rather good word for this – “gaslighting”.

This is the Wikipedia definition of it: Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilise the victim and delegitimise the victim’s belief.

From Chequers we now go to Helsinki, and another extraordinary news conference this time with Vladimir Putin. The whole thing was slightly surreal, made more so by the guy sitting next to me being yanked out by the Secret Service after it became clear to them he was planning some kind of protest during the news conference.

During the course of the Q and A, Jeff Mason from Reuters was called to ask a question. He wanted to know whether Putin had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and had directed any of his officials to help him do that?

Vladimir Putin didn’t hesitate: “Yes, I wanted him to win because he talked about bringing the US-Russia relationship back to normal.”

It was quite a moment. But then I saw a tweet that Donald Trump put out yesterday to protest about how tough he was with Russia, which read:

“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!”

So I referred back to what Putin had said in Helsinki a week earlier. But here’s where it gets super murky. All reference to that exchange between Mr Mason and the Russian leader has been omitted from the official White House transcript. In the official record it doesn’t exist.

Just a clerical transcription error? Well maybe – there is some confusion over the translation, but maybe it would be good to correct the record.

Now for another random event which happened yesterday. The White House has said that it will no longer provide information about when the president holds conversations with foreign leaders, as it has always done hitherto.

The accounts of the chats may have been anodyne and terse, but they were a useful tool to keep track of foreign policy priorities. And it was always useful to compare and contrast what, say, the Kremlin would have to say about the conversation compared to the White House. Now we will no longer be able to do that.

And so to the final thing. Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Kansas City. And he came out with a memorable phrase that sounded as though it had been lifted straight from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. He said: “Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening.”

Or it is. There is just a concerted – and sometimes it would seem – systematic effort to make you think otherwise.

Forget alternative facts. This is rewriting history.