Wolf Country Gazette — Parcelled Rogue but still Clueless

Obviously, Daddy Trump Never Sang Faron Young to Young Donny

Oh yes that clap took me back to the teen years. She knows. And she knows that you know. And frankly she’s disappointed that you thought this would work. But here’s a clap. —Christine Pelosi, Twitter, Feb 6, 2018

 I’ve been sick a lot lately; and a discussion with my doctor yesterday convinced me that listening to Trump just screws me up — blood pressure pegs, rage kicks in, and I get headaches and can’t sleep. I can read Trump, listen to commentary on Trump, and even listen to snippets of Trump. But the thought of listening to an entire Trump speech is just too much. As a source of reliable information, he’s like a Ouija Board responding in Sanskrit; as an orator, he’s like a trash compactor; as a stylist, he’s just an orangutan throwing shit at the wall to see what fits.

So, I skipped listening to the man who makes me long for the clarity and logic of George W Bush or even George HW Bush. They got up to speak motivated by belief in something outside of the resounding echo in their heads. Trump just babbles, burps and belches, hearing huzzas and hosannas when he doesn’t swallow his tongue and choke to death.

In general, it’s safest to say that Nancy Pelosi got it utterly on target during and after the speech.

Tonight, the president spoke about the honor of being in the House chamber and all the progress that has been achieved here. But at the same time, he threatened the United States Congress not to exercise its constitutional responsibility of oversight. It will take days to fact-check all the misrepresentations that the president made tonight.

Perhaps it comes down to parenting. Not to make too much of it, but I suspect both 41 and 43 as well as 42 and 44 had spent a lot of their lifetimes in fear of a Pelosi Clap. Reminds me of the title line in “They shoot horses” when after shooting the cab dancer, her partner exclaims to be being asked why, “They shoot horses, don’t they?” Why make them suffer with their afflictions and torture us with their broken and twisted lives? Put them out of their misery.

I have spent a lot of my life around strong, smart and capable women. Irish, Italian, German, and Polish for the most part, but I’ve been exposed to very, very strong Native American women, and have known and admired a lot of exceptionally strong, smart and capable African-American women. They all have had their variations of the the Pelosi Clap, and frankly, I’d rather not earn another iteration.

As a civilian, a lot of the people who thought that they worked for me ( I was never so deluded.) were women, and they were primarily working mothers. The Pelosi clap and its equivalents are as devastating coming from someone below you in the reporting chain as from your mother.

It’s funny watching the tapes of Mango Manatee getting his applause and turning around like a stuffed monkey on a carousel, seeing Pelosi applaud with that smile, the cocked eyebrow, and react like a video of Mussolini drawing applause from a crowd of Fascist functionaries at a speech in Addis Ababa. He doesn’t get it, does he?

Rare as it is for me to praise George W. Bush, I have believed since I heard it that he summed the entire Trump blot on American history perfectly as he stood with Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama and Barack Obama as they were leaving the grandstand after the inaugural address. He can be seen on the video as slightly shaking his head as he speaks, summing up the next four years of the American Experiment in a way that will belong to the ages.

Well, that was some weird shit, wasn’t it?

Continued. It’s a week later,St Valentine’s Day and things continue to get more nauseatingly weird here in Wolf Country. It’s more like the Cabinet of Dr Caligari than 7 Days in May, but that doesn’t help. As an American, let me say that this really kind of sucks.

Former Acting FBI Director, Deputy Director and Counter-Terrorism Director, Andy McCabe has a book coming out about the challenges of protecting the United States from terrorists. One of the greatest threats threatening the nation is , of course, Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United and hopefully soon to be the second unindicted co-conspirator named in a Federal Indictment. McCabe, regardless of the Trump position on him, is an American hero for his work in the bureau as an operator and leader in counter-terrorism.

Pretty weird, and not in any sort of good way. Trump fires Comey and with the agency in shock, with people crying in the hallways, Trump calls McCabe and tells him he wants to help the acting director by making a visit to the FBI like the one he made to the CIA…oh, and calls his wife a loser. Nothin’ like team building the ultimate in terror and dumbfounded unfocused fury.

“When I came out of the Capitol, it felt like crossing a finish line. If I got nothing else done as acting director, I had done the one thing I needed to do.”

Then, Rosenstein asks McCabe about appointing a special counsel. McCabe asks to think about it, and RR seems reluctant at first, and then decides it the only thing to do.

“After reminding the committee of how the investigation began, I told them of additional steps we had taken. Then Rod took over and announced that he had appointed a special counsel to pursue the Russia investigation, and that the special counsel was Robert Mueller. The Gang of Eight had questions. What was the scope of the inquiry? Who would oversee the special counsel? How could the special counsel get fired? Rod answered every question. Then it was over.

“When I came out of the Capitol, it felt like crossing a finish line. If I got nothing else done as acting director, I had done the one thing I needed to do.”

As Rachel Maddow pointed out on this evening’s show, the White House has again lied about the president’s height; it’s not hard to check. (Section begins @ 9 minutes in)Put him next to someone who’s as tall he claims and then wonder who wears lifts in his or her shoes. The president is probably about 6’1″ and claims to be 6’3″ and the Navy Doctors at Bethesda back him up. Jeb Bush is 6’3″ and is much taller than the President. Barrack Obama is 6’1″ & change, and is obviously slightly taller than the president. As she pointed out, it’s not a big deal in iteself,  except for this:  The Presidential physical is part of the historical record and thus the Navy has besmirched it’s honor and risked public embarrassment to fed the ego of this toad. But, if we can’t trust them to tell the truth in little stuff, how do we trust them in big stuff?

Well, those of us who’ve had to prepare to bet our lives on the truth from our leaders and subordinates and peers know that we can’t. If I can’t trust my leader to not lie about what time it is, how can I trust them with the my life or the lives of my soldiers.The worst thing that can happen to a leader is to become a proven liar. If an officer or a senior NCO lies, their career is over; should they not be moved out to pasture soon, their chain of command loses credibility. If that happens, their service risks losing credibility.

If Trump lies, and the administration supports him, the United States loses credibility and that’s ultimately all we have short of war. He’s pissing that away, one bit at a time, like a drunken Fat Frat Boy trying to piss away a snowbank.

That doesn’t work of course. The snow bank always wins. God help the United States.