Don and Vlad Share Some Traits

I'm reading Mr. Putin:  Operative in the Kremlin by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy these days. Some of their descriptions of Putin's personality traits and operating methods are not far off the mark for Donald Trump.

In speeches and writings...Putin has set out to determine  which groups' history will be part of the inclusive Russian myth and which groups risk finding themselves outside the collective history if they do not conform or [if they] withdraw their support for his ideas or policies.  The ultimate implicit threat is the risk of groups (like opposition protesters during the 2012 presidential election campaign) finding themselves designated as "them"--chuzhiye (aliens)--rather than "us", nashi (ours).  Putin's various performance pieces as a biker, an outdoorsman, a firemen, and his meetings with workers on factory floors or in factory monotowns simultaneously embrace diffferent Russian groups and social classes as nashi and appeal directly to them for political support.

Not an exact match but both are performers and willing to exclude entire groups of citizens from the the body politic in order to achieve their goals.  I can see why our alleged president likes Putin so much.  Everything I've read so far makes me think that given Donald Trump's susceptibility to flattery,  Putin will play him like a master. 

Maybe someone at the State Department could help out here?  Oh, wait...they're all gone.

Starving the Beast

Forget the votes to repeal Obama Care, the real power is the power of the purse, which is an exclusive Congressional authority.  Republicans control enough of Congress to make sure that nothing is spent to make a the Affordable Care Act a success.  This can't be good.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.
Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president’s signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.

The bathtub is always full. 

Morally Indignant Sharks, Indeed!

A fellow Veteran For Peace sent me this essay about Libya. It's a good reminder of why all the righteous talk of humanitarian missions is suspect.

If you are still insufficiently suspicious, read Tom Englehardt's analysis of why war is always such a preferred option of American foreign policy. Then read how we've all been down this road before.

The (drum) beat goes on.

Far Better Said

...than I can. If you want objective facts about Israel and Hamas, read Henry Seigman's article in the London Review of Books. And check out Eric Alternman in The Nation to see what happens to journalists who depart from the mainstream consensus in support of Israeli war aims.

(hat tip to Jerome at Bad Attitudes)

Jerry Falwell

Yesterday I was looking at the Whole Wheat Radio chat. For some reason, the part of tdiscussion was about Jerry Falwell and someone commented that he was sorry about something. I piped in that he was just a sorry individual. Later, I learned that he had just died and regretted my comment. As sorry an individual as he was, Falwell was a human being who was loved by his family and, I am sure, loved in return. I also learned via, skippy, that I violated the Thurman Munson rule of improve, which is never to make fun of someone on the day they die. I'm not an improv performer but I can see giving the newly deceased and his family a moment of peace in their sorrow

So now Falwell's been dead for over 24 hours, I can resume my normal perspective: Falwell was a bigot, a small minded individual and hateful. The world is no better for his life or even his passing. He institutionalized his hatred so that others may carry it on even as they claim to follow the Prince of Peace. If you need evidence, Timothy Noah has neatly catalogued Falwell's litany of hate and distortion at Slate.

Bring your own barf bag.

This Administration

The US Attorney firings, reports of political activity on government premises and other nefarious doings of the CheneyBush administration give me cause for a dark hope. The hope is that their corruption will burst into the light of day for all to see. From the blind arrogance of Iraq, to the stunning incompetence of Hurricaine Katrina to the cynical subverstion of Constitutional government this adminstration has ill-served America. Clearly, these people have little respect for law or ethics when it comes to seeking cutthroat advantage. These ideologues and conspirators have had six years of unchecked power with no oversight or accountability. The one thing you can always count on with unchecked power is its insatiability. Nothing I've seen about this administration suggests that it is at all imune from this iron law of human behavior. I suspect the scandals and schemes that now bedevil CheneyBush are only the first of many more.

Especially with a Congress that has rediscovered its oversight authority and is learning how to use it. CheneyBush no longer has his back covered and must suddenly answer for the actions taken under his command. He IS the commander-in-chief of EVERYTHING, you know. It's really all on him, The Decider. If events so far this year are any indication, the abuse and misuse of the public trust will be widespread. I would predict that the results will destroy what little credibility and trust the public has for CheneyBush and his henchmen, but the persistence of a 30 percent hard-core base after the waste and incompetence of the past six years, has so far confounded my faith in human nature.

This administration ain't so new.
Did pretty much what it set out to do.
Take from the many and give to the few.
And don't think it gives a shit about you.

--Cindy Lee Berryhill (1989)

Walter Reed, Inc

The company that maintains (or not) Walter Reed Hospital:

IAP is owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP, an asset-management firm chaired by former Treasury secretary John W. Snow. The company is headed by two former high-ranking executives of KBR, formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root. Al Neffgen, IAP's chief executive, was chief operating officer for a KBR division before joining IAP in 2004. IAP's president, Dave Swindle, is a former KBR vice president.

Dan Swindle? KBR?

Oh the irony! The irony!