The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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Trump as Octopus.

Just as Brett Kavanaugh is about to become Trump's "made man" on the Supreme court---protecting Trump from such nuisances as Emoluments fraud and fifty shades of tax evasion---it's probably not the best time to be watching the great Italian T.V series, The Octopus, or La Piovra,--- one man's life long fight against the Mafia. With the new revelations of tax fraud and shady dealings by Trump just revealed by the New York Times, and with a Trump boy on the Supreme Court for protection, the morphing of Republicans into the Trump Mafia Party party seems far too real. 

Memories of my Yale blackout.

 

Yesterday I said I'd eat my hat if Kavanaugh were not in fact confirmed and now I wouldn't bet a nickle that he will be confirmed. My comment yesterday was before Jeff Flake, in a heartfelt moment, did the right thing to slow down the confirmation process by insisting on at least a cursory FBI investigation of current credible allegations against Kavanaugh. One fact that was not clarified in the hearing was that one does in fact remember black out incidents---because of the very odd feeling when you actually wake up. I remember that I blacked out, once at Yale from drinking, and once much later in life--- two days after my son was born.

2018 and repealing Afrocare

After losing sleep and bouncing off walls for two days I am ready to fight back against Trump---to think about 2018 and beyond. Fighting back means getting the brain to avoid its propensity for "story" and focusing on facts and action plans. Trump can achieve big parts of his non-economy agenda through executive action and getting his nominee(s} confirmed in the Senate. Conservative judges will appease a large part of the religious right but not to suffer reverses in 2018 and beyond he has to deliver both additional red meat to his base plus economic success to everyone else. Obviously he can deliver red meat easily. But if he overdoes, and especially if he doesn't deliver on the economic front, 2018 might not be a cake walk for him and Republicans. 

"The married women of Bucks County"

A new T.V. show, "The married women of Bucks County" will begin streaming on major networks next week and is being advertised so vigorously on websites like the New York Times that you want to slam your laptop because the print won't move when you click it.

I wanted to understand why Hillary Clinton is still being panned by the media and all I see is ads for emotionally unavailable, well-to-do ladies taking their parents to therapy while calling the bank to transfer funds into their kids' checking accounts. The dresses of these ladies do not suggest sexual availability, they aren't in a drunken stupor at a bar with their single friends, and don't finish off the night with a new tattoo or running down traffic signs on the way home. Why in hell would anyone watch a show about financially secure women who you couldn't entice out to a clandestine lunch if your life depended upon it.? In any case, I am annoyed that no one is analyzing Hillary Clinton's speech---except for brain trusts like Chuck Todd.

Ryan will pimp for Trump

 

I've been laboring under the misconception that the rise of Donald Trump says something new about our Presidential election process and the Republican party itself. But in retrospect, the fact that Trump ran hard right in the primaries and will try to move to the center in the general election does not seem to be a structural change in the Republican party or the behavior of its registered voters. True, Trump is extreme, but the fact that he is more intense does not negate the fact that he extended trend lines well established by his forebears.

Oh, her?

 

The affair ended,

teaching me about women,

they will disappoint.

No matter,

they're all the same,

what was her name?

 

We talked late in August,

at her kitchen table,

lemonade in hand,

I heard about him,

and everyone else

on the planet.

I wasn't buying it.

"You call these five years an infatuation?

Well, lady, the numbers just don't add up!"

 

I may have knocked over a glass,

or a chair, as I stomped out,

Is Chuck Grassley just McConnell's Glitch?

While Senator Grassley appears to be the big dog on the front porch stiffing the President's pick for Supreme Court Justice, he may come out on the short end of the stick before this nomination runs its course. Blocking a moderate, well qualified nominee may turn out to be the wrong strategy in that when Republicans realize that Merrick Garland might be the best option compared to all the other scenarios, Grassley is going to look like a limp corn dog for his initial subservient blanket obstruction. He surrendered his authority without the remotest of factual arguments. Has he even tangentially referred to what might be the desires of the citizens of Iowa?

Dad to the Rescue

 

Driving up to Vermont, I thought of him

Mom had given me some momentos---

Masonic ring, leather wallet,

a stack of canceled hundred dollar checks

---some great contacts there, such as

McGovern, Happy Chandler and Kefauver.

 

I was in my mid thirties when a head hunter

on Park Ave asked me what my Dad "did".

Unprepared for this question pitched directly,

----"Retired" I lied.

What your Dad "did" has no bearing upon

an introduction of you to an investment bank,

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