Thursday, January 14, 2021
Cruzifictions
Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it.
— Henry Brooks Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
One of the joys in running for and being in the United States Senate is that you can make a complete ass of yourself repeatedly without anyone noticing. It is either because of the fact that you are surrounded by like-minded braying fools or, those who are not numbered among them, have simply grown accustomed to your maunderings and realize that when dealing with an ass it is impossible to stop the braying. There is no better example of this than Texas’s own, Ted Cruz, whose countless sycophantic fictions seeking favors from the trump now and in a possible future election are legion.
One of the most impressive things about Ted Cruz is that his background belies his idiocy. He graduated with honors from Princeton, went on to Oxford and Harvard Law School, and then clerked in the United States Supreme Court. None of those, we now know, provides insurance that as life progresses you will not make a fool of yourself. One of the easiest ways to effect that is by serving in the United States Senate at the time the president of the United States is the trump. Not only does the trump provide you with the opportunity to make a fool of yourself. He provides you the opportunity to prove that political opportunism is more important than principle. If you have no principles to start with, however, that is not as difficult as it might at first appear. Ted Cruz is a good example of that.
When in 2016 the trump and Ted Cruz were competing to win the assorted primary elections that would help determine who the Republican candidate for president would be, there was considerable tension between the Republican candidates, and nowhere was it more pronounced than in the competition that took place between Mr. Cruz and the trump.
One of the more stunning accusations leveled by the trump against Mr. Cruz during the 2016 primaries was the trump assertion that Mr. Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald “prior to Oswald’s you know, being shot. . . . I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald, shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible.” Commenting on that outburst, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who, following the trump’s success at the ballot box in 2016, became one of the trump’s best buddies, said of that comment that: “Any doubt left that Trump is completely unhinged? His assertion Ted Cruz’s father was associated with Lee Harvey Oswald should remove ALL doubt.” Mr. Cruz responded to the trump’s remarks about his father with equal ferocity, calling the trump a “pathological liar,” “utterly amoral,” “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen” and “a serial philanderer.” At one point he went so far as to state that: “If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the backup camera, I’m not confident which pedal I’d push.” Time, as we now know, heals all wounds and in the Cruz case offers driving lessons. Today Senator Cruz would offer the trump a ride were he to encounter that hypothetical.
Senator Cruz has long since forgiven the trump for unkind allegations made by trump about his father and himself during the 2016 campaign. He has shown that political loyalty (and hope for help in future years) is more important than adherence to principles. In an action Senator Cruz knew would not change the outcome of the last election, he led a group of know-nothing United States Senators in a demonstration of loyalty to the trump by sponsoring a resolution to create an election commission to investigate claims of voter fraud in some states. Senator Cruz and his cohorts were not impressed by the fact that more than 50 lawsuits alleging voter fraud in those states had been thrown out of courts all over the country. He pretended to believe that 11 Republican senators would unearth information that somehow had been overlooked by the lawyers who had represented the trump in that litigation. Senator Cruz and his sycophantic colleagues knew before the vote was taken that no election commission to investigate claims of voter fraud would be created. They just wanted to show their allegiance to the trump in the hope that in future elections the trump would return the favor when they were seeking higher office.
Senator Cruz and his cohorts were undeterred when a mob of protestors directed by the trump invaded the Capitol causing 5 deaths and considerable property damage. Indeed, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, Senator Cruz’s reliable cohort in organizing the effort, was seen shaking an encouraging fist in the air as the mob began its march to the Capitol building. The ensuing events did nothing to cause him to regret his encouragement or withhold his support from the effort.
As observed at the outset, being in the United States Senate does not imbue a Senator with wisdom, common sense, or integrity. If you doubt that, just look at Ted Cruz, Brian Hawley and their nine colleagues.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
The trump and Jesus
Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. —The Holy Bible, The Book of Nehemiah
It was a great week for forgiveness. It was the week that the Christian world was celebrating the birth of Christ. Christ was a friend to sinners during his brief life. Even as he was having a last meal with his disciples and facing the end of his life, he forgave the sins of a man who was brought to him seeking forgiveness. When on the cross he asked for forgiveness for those responsible for his crucifixion.
Like Jesus, trump who was facing the end of his life as president, found it in his heart extend forgiveness to a wide variety of people. Unlike those Jesus forgave who were facing the prospect of punishment for their sins at some future time, however, the trump bestowed forgiveness on sinners who had already been punished for their sins. The sins for which many of the pardons were forgiven were sins committed by people who in sinning had shown their loyalty to the trump during the period he was applying for residency in the White House or during the time he occupied the premises. There were, however, a few exceptions to that.
Among the exceptions were pardons given to four murderers who committed their murders in Iraq while in the employ of Eric Prince, the brother of Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education during the trump administration. The four murderers worked for Erick Prince’s company, Blackwater Worldwide, a security firm. The pardons of the murderers had the unfortunate side effect of once again drawing attention to the fact that a cabinet secretary’s brother employed murderers. Such renewed, and almost certainly unwelcome attention on Betsy and Eric, did nothing to reduce the joy the four murderers almost certainly felt upon learning that their sins had been forgiven, as it were, and they would soon be free to walk the streets again and obtain gainful employment. The fact that it once again drew attention to Eric and Betsy was something about which, as the vernacular has it, they could not have cared less.
Charles Kushner’s pardon was somewhat different, and had he known of the pardon in advance, he might have suggested that the trump not bother issuing it. Unlike the pardon the trump bestowed on four murderers who were, as a result of the pardon, able to return to normal lives, Charles had been convicted of criminal conduct almost 20 years before his pardon was bestowed. His punishment of a relatively short time in prison has been fully served.
The crimes of which Charles had been convicted included such mundane things as 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Drawing attention to his conviction for two of those crimes was not the reason Charles did not want the pardon bestowed. It had to do with his conviction for witness tampering. The witness tampering charge pertained to interactions between him, his sister, and her husband. The tampering took place before he was convicted or had even been threatened with being charged with any criminal conduct. He would happily have had that conduct forgotten and not restored to public consciousness by issuance of the pardon. It was not to be and herewith a brief history.
The Justice Department was investigating Charles for tax fraud and Charles’s sister, Ethel Schuler and her husband, William, were cooperating with the Justice Department in its investigation. When Charles learned of their cooperation he was, for obvious reasons, outraged at such sibling betrayal. Accordingly he resolved to even the score and chose a unique way to do that.
Charles hired a prostitute to use her charms to seduce his brother-in-law, William. He arranged for the encounter to be recorded on video, if not for posterity, at least for a long enough time that he could use it to revenge himself for what he perceived to be sibling perfidy. After the encounter between William and the prostitute had taken place and successfully filmed, Charles sent the video to his sister on the occasion of her son’s engagement party that she was hosting.
Considering this behavior some 20 years later, an impartial observer might consider Charles’s behavior particularly egregious since it could not have had any effect on the investigation and might have caused his sister’s marriage to fail. Be that as it may. That is what he did. But for the pardon, most of us would have completely forgotten that unfortunate episode in the otherwise exemplary life of Charles Kushner. If asked about the pardon now that it has been issued, Charles might consider adopting the attitude displayed by Jesus when on the cross and ask God to forgive trump because he doesn’t know what he is doing. The rest of us could join in that since we have all suffered the consequences of having the trump demonstrate repeatedly that he hasn’t known what he’s been doing for the last four years.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Cybernetics and The Space Force
We have decided to call to call the entire field of control and communication theory whether in the machine or in the animal, by the name of “Cybernetics”, which we form from the Greek [for] steersman. — Norbert Wiener, Cybrnetics
It was a joyous occasion and it was only too bad that the trump was unable to attend because of the press of business in what, during his tenure became known as the “Offal Office.” The occasion was the announcement of the name to be given to those serving in a new branch of the armed forces known as the Space Force. The Space Force had been created almost exactly one year earlier by the trump. That the trump, who had famously avoided military service through a fake medical condition, would create a new branch of the armed forces in which he could also refuse to serve were he younger and subject to the draft, strikes only his detractors as slightly bizarre.
Following the creation of Space Force, $15.4 billion was transferred from the U.S. Air Force budget to Space Force. That money includes funds for space research, satellites and launch services, space operations, and maintenance and war-related satellite services and space operations.
As with all entities, it was important to find a name for those who will be participating in work of the new creation. Hundreds of suggestions from taxpayers were considered during the year following its creation before a final decision was made. The presenter at the occasion of the announcement was a slight disappointment since it would have seemed that at such an important occasion in the history of the United States, he who was responsible for the creation of the new entity would be in attendance at the event. The trump was, however, absorbed in petulance as a result of the election that had taken place a few weeks earlier and was not in the mood for any kind of celebration even if the event being celebrated was his idea. Accordingly he delegated the important task of making the announcement to Vice President Mike Pence.
Delighted at having been entrusted with this important task, the Vice President proudly announced that, “henceforth, the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as ‘guardians.’” In making the announcement the Vice President said that the guardians would “ensure that America remains as dominant in space, and from space, as we are on land and sea and air.”
At almost the same time as the Vice President was imparting the exciting news of what members of the Space Force would be called and how we would be protected from hostile forces from outer space, we learned that instead of being attacked by hostile forces from outer space, we had been cyber attacked by foreign agents sponsored by Russia or China depending on who was describing the attack. The trump, who remains reluctant to speak ill of anyone Russian and continues to enjoy wallowing in ignorance, attributed the attack to China. The rest of the country, including Mike Pompeo, the trump Secretary of State, (who took the unusual step of differing with his mentor) said that he believes the attack came from the trump’s good friend and ally, Vladimir Putin. The source is less important than the vast amount of damage it is capable of doing and may already have done to sensitive agencies within the United States government and major U.S. technology and accounting companies.
According to Politico, which first reported the breach, hackers gained access to, among others, the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration, those being the entities that maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Those entities were only two of several other federal agencies that were the target of the hackers. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that “this threat poses a grave risk to the Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.”
One of the questions the inquiring mind may ask is how did this all come about? At least a partial answer was given by Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI director for Counterintelligence. In an interview with MSNBC three days after the Politico report, he said of the cyberattack: “Make no mistake, our nation is under attack and it appears to be ongoing.” He attributed the successful attacks to the fact that the trump had placed a higher priority on protecting the country from immigrants than protecting government agencies, private companies and critical infrastructure entities from hackers. As he explained in the interview “We have a president diverting money, billions of it, to build a wall, changing personnel at the top of the Pentagon and we’ve not heard word one about the plan or strategy to respond to this ongoing attack.”
According to Wilson Topics, a blog of Science and Technology Innovation Program, “satellites and other space-based assets are vulnerable to cyberattacks. These cyber vulnerabilities pose serious risks not just for space-based assets themselves but also for ground based critical infrastructure. . . .” The Vice President could have said that one of the tasks of the Guardians would be to protect the country from cyber attacks from space since that wasn’t mentioned when the trump introduced the program a year earlier. That would have made The Space Force more relevant to current events. He didn’t. Too bad.