Amid the widespread grief over Kobe Bryant's death, a small lesson in the evils of "regulatory capture" is manifest, and the rich and powerful should pay attention.
Most of us are familiar with the alarms that sound when a plane is on a trajectory that in pilot-speak understatement, is designated "a controlled flight into terrain." As the situation grows more urgent, a voice will be generated shouting "PULL UP! PULL UP! PULL UP!"
The warning is generated by a device called a TAWS (Terrain Awareness and Warning System). It costs about $37,000, plus $7000 in lost revenue for the downtime required to install. If you were rich enough to own your own helicopter, you would certainly want it equipped with one. Bryant, evidently, did not own his own helicopter, but instead used charters for his frequent air commutes.
The sad reality that is our Electoral College mandates a new version of "Clean for Gene"
It seems clear that the fate of the nation (and the world) hangs in the dank cheese cellars of Wisconsin, the hillbilly sections of rural Pennsylvania and the vote-suppressing suburbs of Michigan.
A flood of volunteers from out of state is called for.
Bernie Sanders was resurrected (from real, not virtual, near death...) by her endorsement, and his donations have exploded as reported today (35 Million for 4th Q 2019)
I used to say that she was a political comet. That's incorrect.
Which, of course, he did not say, thus wasting a golden opportunity.
Why should Biden duck testifying, anyway? if it were, say, AOC, or some other clapback *artist, the chance to make a direct attack on Trump with wall to wall tv coverage would be gold.
One of the Fugs most poignant renderings was a song called Wide, Wide River (of Shit,) the theme of which was an impending surge of misfortune in which the world might drown. I believe it had something to do with Vietnam.
This is a pretty hip room, politically, so everyone remembers ( all the way back to 2016) how the visible anguish over "should I run or should I not" exhibited by Joe Biden included a large, if vague, "evaluating it's impact on my family yadaya."
Today, we may translate at least a part of those concerns as touching upon the obvious corrupt cloud enveloping Hunter's Board of Directors seat with Burisma.
Amid the widespread revulsion appropriately manifested as the details of Epstein's predations emerge, ones mind is ineluctably drawn to his bother monster, Thomas Jefferson.
Let us perform a (truncated) inventory:
SEX SLAVERY:
Epstein, "sex slavery curious". Ordered books on the topic from Amazon.
Jefferson: Repeatedly raped is actual enslaved girl
Most of us, by now, are familiar with the (spine tingling) "Trackdown" episode that, beyond al plausible explanation, foretold the coming of our misery.
At the behest of Mi Reina (AOC) and my vestigial conscience, I am joining a cadre of canvassers today to help inform any who may benefit therefrom, that they have rights in the face of the impending ICE raids.
Principally, of course, the paramount instruction DON'T ANSWER THE DOOR.
This paltry bit of symbolic resistance causes me to confront the wider and more difficult question that lurks.
Heads of state who are bound by fixed terms must envy, from time to time, the parliamentary leaders who can snap their fingers (as it were) and muster up a surprise election.
Surely, one might think, this lightning bolt, when deployed, would signal that the perpetrator had caefully analyzed the electoral terrain.
As if to minimize his moronic display, explanations of Trump's July 4th encomium to the rag tag rebels of 1775 has been attributed to "trouble reading the teleprompter"...
In a week that produces a crescendo of evil, juxtaposing unspeakable cruelty to children with outright rape, how can the House not proceed with impeachment, regardless of the putative complaisance of the Repugnant majority in the Senate..
Failing to impeach is to turn a blind eye to the clear obligation that simple humanity imposes.
He cannot be allowed to proceed in this fashion untrammeled, at least by the clear accusation of his serial crimes, made concrete.
Remember the generalized outrage when it was bruited about that Jared Kushner (he of the purchased Ivy admittance) advised MBS Mohammed Bone Saw Bin Saud) that in the end, the furor over the Kashoggi atrocity would prove to be merely a speed bump?
Beyond outrage, there was derision--"Jared? PR advice? Y'gotta be kidding!"
"That would surely be an impeachable offense" is perhaps the most frequently repeated phrase from the mouths of guests on Chris Hayes' show.
Most recently, it came from Jamie Raskin, congressman and, more specifically, member of the Judiciary Committee, from which an Impeachment Resolution would have to issue.
"That", in this particular iteration, was a hypothetical advertisement on E-Bay offering pardons for cash.
Remember the scene in Carrie where the hand suddenly springs up from her grave, intimating horrors to come?
Well, (allowing for the dismemberment and burial at sea if true) the bony arm of Bin Laden once again grabs a nation by the throat and forces us to look into our (unattractive?) souls.
Pro tip: If someone knocks unexpectedly before dawn, just slip out the back, Jack (pace, Paul Simon...)
When you total up the years attached to the indictment pursuant to which Stone was taken in, he may get a chance to explore the tatooing talents of self-taught fellow inmates (to go along with the Nixon tatoo already on his back), it would appear that the dapper dark artist will be strongly motivated to give up his Godfather--or perhaps pull a "Frank Pentangeli" by way of "final exit"
