Sanders

He should have worn a white suit but perhaps he was concerned about being mistaken for a different Sanders (c’mon, I’m talking about Colonel, not Huckabee).

Abrams

The parade of Holocaust survivors was intended to provoke Sanders. The comments about Venezuelan Socialism both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. Abrams was provoked by unrepentant Jim Crow Vote Stealing (as well she might be). Nancy Pelosi seemed to be provoked by the pretense of bi-partisan action Congressional Republicans will never allow to come up for a vote, let alone pass (look at her face, it speaks volumes).

Unindicted Co-conspirators Bottomless Pinocchio looked guilty, because he is.

So sorry Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio but I find the hidden mysteries of Masonry (which I’m happy to talk about any time with anyone excepting the grips and words because if you can’t be trusted to keep something stupid and silly secret, what exactly can you be trusted with?) and the secrets of Oak Island far more fascinating than anything you could possibly say.

Have I mentioned we’ve found the 90 Foot Stone? Yep, in the basement of a Book Bindery in Halifax. Hasn’t been seen in over 100 years. We have French Drain Flood Tunnels in Smith’s Cove with Coconut Fiber Filters!

I’ve been to Oak Island, last Eclipse, the one Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio squinted at, ruining his retinas for the rest of his life. He doesn’t read anyway, even Teleprompters. With my Macular Degeneration and Cataracts I take my eyes seriously (oh, I am also literate in case you haven’t noticed) and I had the good fortune to bump up against a member of the Film Crew who had salvaged a piece of Welder’s Glass and it was in fact the best live view of an Eclipse I’ve ever had. Even more gratifying was that I met the Mom of a different member of the Film Crew who had no idea what was happening.

Do you want to talk about Gilbert du Motier’s influence on the Revolution of 1776, 1789, or 1830? Oh, I’m not typically ignorant? Interview someone else. I also know what the parts are on a Corvette better than the Ensigns assigned as Guides.

The funny thing about Oak Island is that I read exactly the same Reader’s Digest in the basement of my Grandmother’s house in Michigan (mere blocks away from Roger Moore) that Rick and Marty did at about the same time and almost the same place, and if I had Oil Drilling Services money I would have bought the whole Island too and I’d be hiring Parker Schnabel to ask me, “So, how deep do you want the hole?”

Well, probably bedrock would do.

Parker is not known for archeological finesse so I’m prepared for a slower reveal, but with any luck at all I’ll be back this summer and in addition to good beer they’ll have solved their marijuana supply problem (takes a while to work out the logistics).

What? You’re going to punish yourself despite my advice? Well, as soon as it’s up on YouTube I’ll probably post Stacey Abrams’ and Bernie Sanders’ responses as an update but until then I give you Jennifer Rubin (who is not a Liberal or a Lefty).

Can we skip to the State of the Union response?
By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
February 4, 2019

State of the Union speeches were boring, long-winded and ultimately irrelevant long before President Trump arrived. I got my hopes up when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered Trump the alternative of submitting his State of the Union remarks in written form. No such luck — Trump is set to deliver his address Tuesday before a joint session of Congress.

Trump’s State of the Union is even less significant than the State of the Unions offered by recent presidents. Trump lies more than past presidents and has a greater gap between rhetoric and action than most. In other words, it does not matter what he says Tuesday night. In a nanosecond, the words evaporate and we return to Trump tweets, fabrications and attacks.

Trump’s State of the Union also suffers because he has become a bore — regurgitating the same points, incorporating no new ideas or information (for he is incapable of learning) and spouting the same know-nothingism. He is drearily predictable.

With near-certainty, Trump will utter repeatedly debunked lies, lots of them. He’ll talk about national unity but take no responsibility for the deep divisions he has caused nor for the racism and hatefulness he has exhibited. He’ll make a slew of unfounded foreign policy pronouncements attributing newfound (and nonexistent) respect in the world to his own brilliance. (He seems not to notice that he is the subject of international derision and an endless source of frustration to allies.)

At least with a teleprompter, he can avoid the kind of word salads — or as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calls them, “word vomit” — he tossed up in his interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan.
…
It’s frightening to hear his stream of consciousness patter but entirely understandable given his aversion to reading and his hours upon hours of executive time wherein he gets information from Fox non-News hosts and other sycophants.

Pundits will find a platitude here or there in his remarks to praise, identifying this as the source of hope that he’s — wait for it — becoming more presidential. In fact, like his syntax, his presidency is unraveling before our eyes; his attachment to reality becomes more tenuous by the day.

Nevertheless, there is some anticipation, even excitement, about Tuesday night. It derives from the selected politician to respond to Trump, losing Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Unlike Trump, her message, her arguments, her priorities and her rhetoric will be new to the vast majority of Americans. (As with the president’s weak Oval Office speech on the border and the Democratic leaders’ response, one wonders if Abrams’s ratings will be higher than Trump’s.)
…
Abrams can remind the country that we aren’t consigned in perpetuity to a president entirely lacking in intelligence, empathy and decency. About a year from now the presidential primary voting process begins. Voters will have a chance to find Trump’s replacement — someone new, interesting, grounded in reality, personally decent and inspirational. When we see the Trump vs. Abrams contrast on Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of what it might be like to have a president we can respect, maybe even admire. Abrams’s appearance should underscore that 2020 will be the ultimate change election.

So I just listened to Morning Joe debate whether to give Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio a “Symbolic” victory on his Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racism.

I imagine you can already tell my position on this revolting development, but just in case you can’t- I’m against it.

Bob Woodward, who has journeyed from crusading journalist to Access Suck Up Hack and Toady (Bernstein will hardly talk to him anymore), was vehement in his defense of “Centrist Compromise”.

And where does that leave us Bob? In a Banana Republic Dictatorship where an idea only supported by 25% of the most racist people (plenty of other racism to go around). It is negotiating with a Terrorist, a Gangster who is obviously guilty of Treason!

Where you gonna be Bob when Mueller proves Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio is nothing but an Agent of the Russian Government, a spy? Well we can’t indict him and throw him in jail because he has the support of the most deranged Minority of a Minority Party?

Thank goodness it’s not 1940 Bob because instead of-

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation.

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,

We shall fight on the seas and oceans,

We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,

We shall fight on the beaches.

We shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills.

We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

You are counseling this-

We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe.

We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.
…
My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour.

I believe it is peace for our time…

Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.

It is hard for me to express my utter contempt (at least in terms fitting for publication, I’m much more forthcoming in private) for the Bob Woodward, Versailles Village D.C. consensus that represents a “Centrism” of the .01% who merely wish to be left alone with the results of their 40+ years of thievery and don’t want to be bothered with judgemental expressions of any but their most obsequious slaves.

I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

NO WALL! Not a dime you racist bastards! I want you to LOSE, and more than that I want you to be SEEN TO LOSE, as a lesson for future generations that might be tempted to adopt Facist, Racist policies like yours.

Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away.

What?

Those words. “Run away.” I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Runaway. I want children laughing outside your door, because they’ve found the house of Colonel Runaway. And when people come to you and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love!
(beat)
Is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name. Look, I’m angry, that’s new. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen now.

The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.

Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.

That was the Doctor. He’s much more diplomatic than I am. Churchill said this-

In this crisis I think I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today, and I hope that any of my friends and colleagues or former colleagues who are affected by the political reconstruction will make all allowances for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act.

I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.

You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs – Victory in spite of all terrors – Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.

I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

He’s also much more diplomatic than I am.

The Republican Party and Republicanism must be crushed like a bug. Torn out root and branch. No compromise of weakness is acceptable. Squeemish Republicans with a ‘(D)’ squishes and the minuscule 4% who identify as ‘Socially Liberal but Economically Conservative’ may avert their eyes and make meally mouthed platitudes while the work is done, but done it must be.

La terreur n’est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible; elle est donc une émanation de la vertu ; elle est moins un principe particulier, qu’une conséquence du principe général de la démocratie, appliqué aux plus pressants besoins de la patrie.

Not the ground I would have chosen but strong none the less. If you can’t say stripping babies from their mother’s arms and throwing them into Concentration Camps to die is unacceptable what will you do?

Wait until they come for you?

What did Lincoln say?

A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this government can not endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

Time has come to chose. Slave or Free?

It is truly amazing how fast the wheels are coming off for Unindicted Co-consprirator Bottomless Pinocchio.

Oh that. Look, I could catch you up on the plot which is extremely complicated and involves about 10 love triangles as well as umm… magic you know so it requires a thorough suspension of disbelief. There’s also a Basic Cable level of Sex and Violence, Brakebills is not Hogwarts. What I really want to point out is how talented the Actors are, it’s not like Cop Rock where they break out in song every episode, only once in a while. They’ve also done a passable rendition of “One Day More” from Les Misérables.

But you probably want to know what’s causing the sparks coming off the bottom of the Radio Flyer.

If Trump declares a national emergency, Pelosi can jam Republicans. Here’s how.
By Greg Sargent, Washington Post
February 4, 2019

Senate Republicans appear to be in a panic about President Trump’s threat to declare a national emergency to realize his unquenchable fantasy of a big, beautiful wall on the southern border. Republicans are reportedly worried that such a move could divide them, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has delivered that warning to Trump in private conversations.

Republicans have good reason to be deeply nervous. Here’s why: According to one of the country’s leading experts on national emergencies, it appears that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can trigger a process that could require the GOP-controlled Senate to hold a vote on such a declaration by Trump — which would put Senate Republicans in a horrible political position.

Trump reiterated his threat to declare a national emergency in an interview with CBS News that aired over the weekend. “I don’t take anything off the table,” Trump said, adding in a typically mangled construction that he still retains the “alternative” of “national emergency.”

Trump does have the power to declare such an emergency under the post-Watergate National Emergencies Act, which also requires him to identify which other specific statute delegating emergency powers he’s invoking. Trump is expected to rely on one of several statutes that authorize military officials, in a presidentially declared emergency, to redirect funds for purposes that are either “essential to the national defense” or support “use of the armed forces.”

The Post reports that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has privately told Trump that a national emergency is “viable,” and officials at the Army Corps of Engineers are searching for ways to build the wall. This would be challenged in the courts, which would have to decide whether the statute Trump invoked actually does authorize this type of spending.

But Pelosi has a much more immediate way to challenge Trump’s declaration. Under the National Emergencies Act, or NEA, both chambers of Congress can pass a resolution terminating any presidentially declared national emergency.

Elizabeth Goitein, who has researched this topic extensively for the Brennan Center for Justice, tells me that if Pelosi exercises this option, it will ultimately require the Senate to vote on it in some form as well. The NEA stipulates that if one chamber (Pelosi’s House) passes such a resolution, which it easily could do, the other (McConnell’s Senate) must act on it within a very short time period — forcing GOP senators to choose whether to support it.

Alternatively, Goitein notes, the Senate could vote not to consider that resolution or change its rules to avoid such a vote. But in those scenarios, the Senate would, in effect, be voting to greenlight Trump’s emergency declaration.

The NEA lays out a timetable for this process, and by Goitein’s reading, it would all take place within the protracted period of barely longer than a month. “In short, there could be 36 days between introduction of the resolution in the House and a vote on the Senate floor,” Goitein told me, “but that vote would have to happen,” and once it did, one way or the other, it would put senators “on record.”

A Democratic leadership aide tells me the House might opt for this move if Trump takes the plunge. “The House will vigorously challenge any declaration that seeks an end run around Congress’s power of the purse,” the aide says.

Republicans themselves have let it be known that they fear this scenario. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), an adviser to McConnell, has said that a Senate vote on any Trump-declared national emergency would be inevitable, and McConnell has told Trump that Congress might have to act in such a fashion. Both of these appear to be references to a scenario like the one outlined above.

Both men have also said this would deeply divide Republicans. One unnamed Republican senator even told the Washington Examiner that Trump would suffer major defections in such a vote.

GOP senators would have to decide between going on record in favor of a presidential declaration of a national emergency for something that everyone knows is based on false pretenses, a move that would be opposed by two-thirds of the country, or opposing it and possibly forcing a Trump veto (which they then would have to decide whether to override), enraging Trump’s base.

You get ’em Nancy. Make their lives as difficult as possible.