The Collect Call Of Chtulu

When You're Lost In The Rain In Juarez

... and it's Eastertime, too.  Greg Stillson, GrandTurtlebear of the Church Of I Kill You !, may have been a Busy Wittle Evangelical Xtian; Oh Please let it be true. Break out the Good Popcorn.

REUTERS / WASHINGTON - Republican Ted Cruz on Friday denounced an article in the National Enquirer tabloid claiming he had extramarital affairs as "garbage, complete and utter lies" and accused his opponent Donald Trump of being the source of the story.

"It's tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen," Cruz told reporters at a press conference in Wisconsin, as the battle for the Republican presidential nomination reached new levels of personal rancor.

Trump issued a statement saying he was not responsible for the article. "I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin' Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence," Trump said..

The National Enquirer, a tabloid known for its gossip and unflattering celebrity photos, published blurred images of five women with whom it said Cruz has had affairs. The newspaper did not name the women.

By Thursday afternoon, #CruzSexScandal was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

We have the Good Popcorn now, and will watch what happens next -- because, if you haven't been able to determine this on your own, an auto da-fe in America is a bit of a moveable feast: yesterday, Trumpo is all lit up; today, it's Stillson.  And the Corn Of Pone pops on as America's version of fascists stab publicly at each other; hee hee hee hee.

Shame that it signifies the continued unraveling of democracy here in the Respublik, but, hey; what are you going to do? You can't bite City Hall; it bites you.

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And No One Is Suprised

Crash Dick

Lehman Bros. CFO, Erin Callan (L), And CEO Dick, Circa 2008

As the 2008 Crash was still ongoing, the U.S. Congress (at that point, still controlled by Democrats) held hearings in the House Of Representatives; if the Crash had happened a year later, the Rethugs would have been in charge, and it's doubtful hearings would have been conducted.

One of the principal figures called to testify was Richard "Dick" Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers -- before all the fun, valued in the multi-billions of dollars, the only "investment bank" to have utterly and completely failed when the Crash came, sending its employees into the street carrying cardboard boxes of personal items and a Thank You, then declaring bankruptcy in September, 2008.

His testimony came roughly three weeks later -- it had already been reported that Fuld would be paid $250 million in direct and indirect compensation for the year, before the bankruptcy was filed.

Mr. Fuld, by turns combative and contemplative, and often pained by interruptions of his answers, repeatedly denied that any misrepresentations [i.e., of the true value of CDOs being sold as investments to clients] took place. Even when confronted with internal documents that seemed to tell a different story, Mr. Fuld said he believed until five days before the Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing that Lehman remained in decent health.

“No, sir, we did not mislead our investors,” Mr. Fuld said in response to a question from Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, who wanted to know how Mr. Fuld’s public statements could be valid in light of efforts by JPMorgan Chase to secure $5 billion in extra collateral from Lehman in the final days.

“To the best of my ability at the time, given the information I had, we made disclosures that we fully believed were accurate,” Mr. Fuld said.

Now, Erin Callan, Lehman's Chief Financial Officer in the last eighteen-plus months before its collapse, has published a memoir of those times, "Full Circle". Callan had repeatedly warned both "Dick" and senior managers at Lehman that their exposure to toxic mortgage packaging in CDOs was not only "bad", but Ruh-Roh Bad. As the only woman in a testosterone-soaked boardroom atmosphere, not onkly was she being paid less, but "Dick" and his sycophantic buddies didn't feel they had to listen to her, either.

 This Little Piggie Had Roast Beef (Photo: Doug Mills / NYT)

When Callan ... took over as CFO, the plan to get rid of some commercial real estate assets was “in the 18th draft,” ... She pushes her colleagues harder on the topic pretty much from the start, a claim Callan substantiated by emails obtained by both the commission and the bankruptcy court examiner’s report penned by Anton Valukas...

Callan... was smacked down by the kind of diversionary tactics that men rarely are forced to confront in the workplace. These episodes are even more galling when recalling Fuld’s nickname: the Gorilla, so-called for a penchant for punchy patter... Callan nevertheless appears to be the only one who had the sexist card played against her – and at precisely the moment her persistence was most needed.

The New York Times in October, 2008 also noted,

While defending his own pay [~$500 Million between 2000 and the 2008 bankruptcy]...  Mr. Fuld was asked why Lehman approved nearly $20 million in payments for two departing executives about a week before the bankruptcy filing...

.

The committee also released e-mail messages sent in June [2008] in which Mr. Fuld and George H. Walker, a Lehman executive and cousin of President Bush, responded in what Mr. Waxman called a mocking tone to a suggestion that executives at the company decline bonuses.

In November, 2008, "Dick" transferred ownership of the principal home he shared with his wife, bought by them in 2004 for $13.75 Million, to her for the sum of $100. He was named by Conde Nast Portfolio as the "worst American CEO of all time".  Fuld has not been barred as a securities trader and has continued to operate unhindered in the financial sphere since the Crash.

Lehman Bros. London Office Sign, Auctioned At Christie's, 2012

Callan saves one surprise [in her book] for the end. In January 2015, Fuld called her. It was their first contact since she left Lehman. He apologized for leaving her “on my own to handle things” and told her he still thought she was the best choice to be CFO... Fuld at the time, however, was months away from making his first public speech since Lehman’s collapse. He again would blame everyone but himself for the bank’s collapse. 

There was a crime, but no punishment. "Dick" lives very comfortably -- as do the heads of the Five Families, the Dimons and Blankfeins. Tens of millions of Americans (so far; you think this is over?) have been savaged by the greed and sociopathology of people like him.

Everyone knows what the Crash was like; c'mon, folks, you lived through it. This was less than eight years ago. And none of these persons have spent one day in jail -- think about that.

And -- very little has changed to prevent another Crash from happening again. Think about that.

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News Item: Sanders Wins Michigan

Trumpo Speaks From Jupiter

 Senator Sanders In Miami (Photo: Alan Diaz / Associated Press)

  

MEHR: This must mean something. Oh my yes, and watch now as the Clintonian jockeying in the middle furlongs becomes more intense and mean-spirited. Hillary The Inevitable ! will not be denied!!!

Via the New York Times:

Mrs. Clinton, addressing supporters in Cleveland, did not mention the Mississippi or Michigan results, instead alluding to the vitriol in the Republican field. “As the rhetoric keeps sinking lower, the stakes in this election keep rising higher,” she said. Running for president, she said, “shouldn’t be about delivering insults; it should be about delivering results.”

But it was almost as if her speech did not happen: Not one of the major cable news networks carried her remarks, which came as Mr. Trump was speaking.

Trump Waits To Speak In Jupiter, Fla. (Original Photo: Todd Heisler, New York Times)

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Random Barking: News With Cheese

Trumpo The Clown

They're coming after Trumpi.

You can smell the smoke from pine-pitch torches; you can hear the sound of the posse, the jingle of tack and spur and the whisper of rope as riders gather, out of sight, just off Main Street. And away in the distance, you can hear the faint taptap taptap of the carpenters as they build sections of The Scaffold.

People on Main Street are keeping watch from their windows. If you listen closely, there's the unmistakable rustle of popcorn bags (and they have the good popcorn too, with caramel and sea salt ), meaning whatever is about to happen is expected to be engrossing -- a Survivor / The Apprentice fusion. Or, so they think.

Clouds are heavy in the Western sky. The sound of keening, growling, slobbering and splashing from Feral Kochs, the Addled Sheldon, the Little Rupert (Now In Heat!), and the squirming GOP Priebusfish is heard in the land. You smell something in the air -- and it's the odor of an auto da-fe.

We have public burnings in America every day; just cruise the Intertubes and ZuckerBook and Tweety. But we haven't had a good, political death-of-a-thousand-cuts since 1998, when they strung up Saintly Billy -- but only halfway. Rethugs, from their perch on the Moral High Ground, put The Hurt on him: Impeachment. And Monica.

There was the good popcorn, speechifying, and that image of Little Chelsea bravely saluting her father's cigar humidor as it was ceremonially wheeled out of the White Haus. Billy was allowed, bloodied but still in one piece, to walk away from his auto da-fe with a limp forever more. Or, so they thought.

Now, Trumpo's the target... except, it isn't only Rethugs who are coming after him. It's a section of the actual power structure of America -- and no one does an auto da-fe quite as well as the The Owners of our Great Nation. They see Trumpo as a drunken party-crasher, spoiling their mood, with the potential to upset the balance of a system which, ultimately, is for Their benefit.

You've seen Rules Of The Game , The Draftsman's Contract (if not, you should). The actual PTB, the top one-hundreth of one per cent, will do whatever they fucking well please to protect their interests. For them, the only rule is, Because I wish it. And it won't matter how big his hands, or any other parts of his anatomy, are. The irony is, Trumpo is one of their class -- a billionaire, an Owner, himself. S'all In The Game, Yo.

But too, also, the GOP Powerbars cannot allow Hillary The Inevitable ! to win in November -- because, they think, if Saintly Billy's wife becomes Leader, with scarred and oily Billy re-entering The White House in her wake ... there would (as that alien said in "Galaxy Quest") be blood, and pain, the likes of which you cannot imagine!! It's all too horrible for the Rethugs to contemplate.

But. Trumpi could surprise. He could become Leader -- the outward personification of an America where we are judged by our class and net worth, and not by the content of our character.

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MEHR, MIT  "WE HAVE REACHED THE TRUMP = HITLER MOMENT" :  

Someone had to go there first; turns out it's the President Of Mexico (via Reuters):  "Mexico's president has said his country will not pay for White House hopeful Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and likened his "strident tone" to the ascent of dictators like Adolf Hitler". 

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Shrimp And Brie Nachos  
 

>> 6 ounces Brie cheese, cut into about thirty small pieces
>> 2 tablespoons olive oil
>> 2 garlic cloves, finely minced or garlic-pressed
>> 1 teaspoon paprika
>> 1 pound shrimp (~30), peeled, de-veined and tails removed
>> ¼ cup chopped red and green pepper

Place tortilla chips on a serving dish. Top with small pieces of brie cheese and set aside.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the garlic and saute for 1 to 2 minutes until soft but not brown. Stir in paprika. Lower heat and add shrimp. Saute shrimp for 3 to 4 minutes, or until pink.

Remove from heat. Place 1 shrimp on cheese 'n chip. Garnish with chopped red and green pepper and serve. 

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OhJay 

Runner-Up Winner, Tor Johnson Look-Alike Contest

Years ago, a springblade knife was found on O.J. Simpson's property in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. If you were a sentient human in America in the early 1990's, you saw photos of Simpson's home, where he lived with his wife, Nicole Brown, before she separated from him.

As we all know, she was murdered by a psychotic killer wielding a knife, in a manner so brutal that (as the autopsy report noted) Brown had effectively been decapitated. Her friend, Ronald Goldman, was also brutally killed in the same manner.

The murder weapon was never found -- but after Simpson's acquittal on First-Degree Murder charges (and no, he cannot be tried again for that crime; more's the pity), a construction worker on Simpson's property found the knife and turned it over to an LAPD officer. The officer apparently held on to it for years without informing his superiors or the Detective division in Hollywood.  The LAPD admitted it now has the knife, but will not provide details about who had it or for how long, because it is embarrassing.

Simpson is in prison now in Nevada, convicted in 2008 on armed robbery and kidnapping charges, sentenced to 33 years, with a nine-year minimum. He is eligible for parole in 2017 (Oddly enough, one of Little Rupert's fishwraps, the New York Post, reported in October 2012 that Simpson had attempted to sell a knife to an unnamed buyer for $5 million US -- apparently the buyer believed it was the never-found murder weapon. Simpson had reportedly lowered his asking price for that item, leading the Post to choose the headline, "O.J.... Slashes Price").

This knife has been referred for laboratory analysis -- but even if a DNA report showed Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman's blood and hair were all over the weapon, it would only put a line under what is commonly assumed may be true -- that Herr Simpson is a brutal, psychotic killer who (except for the best legal team money could buy) should have already been sentenced to Death Row or prison for life in California.

Auf nicht wiedersehen, OJ, you murderous nutter.

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Is This The Best Cheese In The World?
From Britain, Where Cheese Is Desert

 The Telegraph.uk provides a look into the judging of cheeses. "It was like the Eurovision Song contest," the Telegraph told us, "but with less singing. And more cheese."

And the winner?  Le Gruyère AOP Premier Cru, Cremo SA - Muhlenen, Switzerland.

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Little Rupert Weds Model: His Lub Has Come Along

Little Rupert: Happy At Last, For The Moment

Little Rupert Murdoch, Oligarch and The Joey Goebbels-Wannabe, married a former model and jet-set fixture from the mutant zone Texas. It's Rupert's fourth marriage, and Jerry Hall's first (after a Caribbean wedding to Mick Jagger in the 90's was deemed to have no legal standing).  He is Old; she's 59, maybe.

But, "why shouldn't he be happy??" The fourth (and probably final) Mrs. Murdoch certainly looks ecstatic -- why not? Even with the inevitable Prenup, she's hit the Jackpot; it's The Gravy Train for her for the rest of her days.

Have fun, you two.  Meanwhile, Lil' Rupert's media still pumps sewage into the world, day in and day out, 24-7.

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Stranger Danger

UK View:  Can't Look; Can't Look Away

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MEHR, MIT SALZ:  Courtesy of the blog on the other side of the mirror, there is no better proof of the state of the Republican party and right-wing politics in America than that offered by the cultural sinkhole mutant zone devolving state of consciousness Texas (where --and this, a local joke -- the Cockroach is the state bird): 

"When you drive away all the reasonable people from your party," we are told, "you end up with Trump and the head of the Republican party in Travis County, Texas... [a state where] The lowest common denominator is very, very low."

The newly elected chair of the Republican Party in the county that includes the Texas Capitol spent most of election night tweeting about former Gov. Rick Perry’s sexual orientation and former President Bill Clinton’s penis, and insisting that members of the Bush family should be in jail.

He also found time to call Hillary Clinton an “angry bull dyke” and accuse his county vice chair of betraying the values of the Republican Party ...

... Morrow’s main complaint is with “establishment” Republicans, who he does not believe should hold elected office, he said. Last week, he tweeted that the Republican National Committee was just a “gay foam party.”

 

Morrow has a long history of critiquing prominent state Republicans in vulgar, and often sexually explicit, terms...

... Travis County GOP...vice chair Matt Mackowiak [is] apoplectic. Mackowiak, a Republican strategist, immediately announced over social media that he would do everything in his power to remove Morrow from office... “I’m treating this as a coup and as a hostile takeover.”

“Tell them they can go fuck themselves,” Morrow told the Tribune.

The post concludes with a straight shot at what the emergence of Trump means, politically and culturally -- that in many places, America is much like Yeats' poem; A Box Full Of Bad Crazy That's Looking For A Way Out:

There will be many more mini-Trumps and Trump rallies just as there were many tea party rallies. The gun nuts and militia movement will join with them; the white nationalists already have.

Even if the right manages to take down Trump it is too late to take down his followers. The right has been stoking the fears and resentments of their base for decades and now they are seeing the result of their labors. They thought they could milk the followers forever without consequence. They were wrong.

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UND JETZT:  Gilding the Lily, or proving the point Susan from Texas made (via Reuters):

One of Donald Trump’s sons appeared along with a white supremacist while giving an interview on a conservative radio show, adding to concerns that the front-runner in the battle to be the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election is willing to accept support from extremist supporters.

Donald Trump Jr., who is actively campaigning for his father, gave an interview on Tuesday on "Liberty Roundtable," a conservative Utah-based radio show...

During the show he was questioned by ... another radio host whose show "The Political Cesspool" is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leading U.S. civil rights group, as "racist and anti-Semitic."

During the interview, conducted over the telephone, Trump Jr. talked about what a good father Donald Trump was and how his campaign is changing the Republican Party.

“It’s not a campaign anymore, it’s a movement,” he told his interviewers.

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Step Right Up; They're Naked And They Dance

Stupor Tuesday

It's been the Silly Season for some time now; unfortunately, that means we're talking about the state of the crippled mutant freakshow reality television program which has been passing as theater politics in the USA for nearly a quarter-century now.

Electoral-Vote.com, a website dedicated to voting Americans who live abroad:

Failing to denounce the KKK immediately was a huge blunder by Trump, certainly his biggest of the campaign. Bigotry (and, as a bonus, Duke is a vicious anti-Semite as well) is socially unacceptable in modern American society, and very few Americans are comfortable thinking of themselves as racist.

Trump's declarations about Mexicans and Muslims are both clearly just that, but he's been able to encode both as being about "national security." The Klan's endorsement, and Trump's wavering, both blow a huge hole in that fiction. Adding a bit more fuel to that fire is the fact that France's version of David Duke—Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was thrown out of the French far-right National Front party by his own daughter for being too racist—also proffered his endorsement [of Trump]this weekend.

(Original Photo: Bryan Snyder / Reuters)

But today is a big day for Senator Bernie Sanders, Hillary The Inevitable !, Trumpolina;  Little Marky Rubio; Grand Turtlebear Teddy Cruz of the Church of I Kill You ! (Yes; he has assumed the mantle previously worn by Crazylady Michele Bachmann [Hot Hot Hot]); and John (Who?) Kasich.  Much is at stake, and All Eyes Are On The Prize, whatever that actually might be. 

Americans Like Everything To Be A Cartoon Contest

Per Wikipedia, Republican and Democratic Super Tuesday contests are being held in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota (all with caucuses); and Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia (all with voting primaries).

Republican caucuses only are held in Alaska and Wyoming, and a Democratic caucus in American Samoa.

Again per Wikipedia, "The Republican candidates can win about half of their 1,237 delegates" in Super Tuesday's caucuses and primaries. The Democrats compete for "over 880 delegates, roughly one-third of those needed to win" that party's nomination. So, yes; it's a big deal.

 At The End Of A Life Of Unceasing Toil For Your Owners™,
The Reward: A Tub Of Slaw

Who will win? Who will lose? Who will claim the Tub Of Slaw™? Who's to say if it's good or bad? And, Are These Even The Right Questions?

_____________________________

Jeb Bush's America

America's Jeb Bush

( Click To Enlarge.  It Is Easy And Fun ! )

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Ding-Dong; Tony's Dead

One Less Partisan

...If anything, the consensus among the [Republican] presidential candidates seems to be that George W. Bush didn’t cut taxes on the rich nearly enough, and should have made more use of torture... When we talk about partisanship, then, we’re not talking about arbitrary teams, we’re talking about a deep divide on values and policy...

...Justices have always had known political leanings, and the process of nomination and approval has often been contentious. Still, there was nothing like the situation we face now, in which Republicans have more or less unanimously declared that President Obama has no right even to nominate a replacement for Mr. Scalia...

-- Paul Krugman, "How America Was Lost", New York Times online, February 14, 2016

Scalia's gone, taken out in his sleep at an exclusive West Texas guest ranch where the conservative elite meet to shoot skeet, and quail.  I learned of his passing yesterday from a Guardian.uk cellphone news alert while waiting on line in a coffee shop.

A lot of people were getting the same alert from their own newsfeeds at the same time; two women in line ahead of me looked at their smartphones, one saying, "Scalia's dead. Oh, thank God. I'm so glad it wasn't Ruth Ginsburg." Turning to me, she said, "I'm sure his family loved him, but that man was evil." She paused, waiting to see if she was talking to someone who agreed (I did). "I mean, he did evil things."  She paused again, then said quickly, and with emphasis, "He was a shit, and I'm glad he's dead." 

The News Punditi's general line in eulogizing Scalia for the Nightly News seems to include (A) His intellect, (B) His conservatism, (C) His pugnacity and "biting wit".  All of it combined in a single individual who, as a member of the highest court in this country, was party to (if not the intellectual engine behind) legal decisions which affected millions of Americans in a manifestly negative way.

Oh, and by way of proving he was "fair and balanced", the Punditi tell us he was friends with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "We disagree, but we're still friends," one video clip has Tony saying.

I'm sure his family and friends see him much differently than I do. But, as the woman said to me in the coffeeshop line, based on his actions, I'm not at all sad he's gone.

In my life, I've met people who have done horrendous, evil, violent things. In a former occupation, leaders of RICO-level criminal enterprises, and their enforcers; and as a journalist, people who developed the original weapons of mass destruction. I've  met and interviewed for-real, actual nazi war criminals who had served their imposed sentences (I thought they should have been hung, and told one of them so -- no surprise, his response was a dry, Entschuldig; aber Ihren Meinung macht nichts [Excuse me, but your opinion makes no difference]). 

All of them had opinions about art and music and current events. Some were sentimental. Some liked this food or that; some of them were actually engaging, insightful, intelligent. They made jokes, told interesting stories.

And however they expressed it, all of them felt what they did was justified and natural in the scheme of things. Whether it was the demands of science, power of a nation-state, racial eugenics, or some outlaw code, each of them were convinced beyond question their actions were right, even necessary.

And it was Scalia's actions that leave me cold. I won't go through a list of cases where his influence was critical; it's almost enough that he added his vote to tip the scales in the Court's decisions, even if he didn't write the majority opinion (but, Bush v. Gore, and the Citizens United cases do come to mind). And when he found himself in the minority, his Opinions spewed bile on the appellants, and on the Opinions of the Justices in the Majority. Tony apparently never lost anything gracefully.

Scalia supported his opinions (written, or spoken) with long, intellectual arguments that tied back to a tradition of strictly interpreting the Constitution  -- which his beloved Federalist Society will claim stretches back to John Adams and other conservatives.

If you pull up any YouTub videos of Scalia talking (something he loved to do), it's clear he felt an absolute surety in his beliefs; not one iota of regret for the legal decisions he made; and not one drop of compassion for the individuals involved.  In fact, he seemed to enjoy taunting those whom the Court's decisions affected -- because they were liberals, leftists, different and wrong. They were his opponents, his enemies, and the enemy of what he believed in. 

For any of us, the great and the ordinary, what matters in the end is the sum total of our actions in this life towards other human beings, and the world. It doesn't matter if we told good jokes, or dressed well; that we went to the right colleges and worked for The Right People. It doesn't matter if we lived in a large home, invested wisely, knew which wines to order, and were one of the Smartest People In The Room.

Antonin Scalia was a Justice-For-Life. That position alone; being able to make partisan rulings in law that affected the lives of millions of people, meant he was not an ordinary man. And then he would often dismiss, ridicule and deride the people whose lives he affected -- as if 'winning' wasn't enough; he had to urinate on his opponents to prove it.

He was a shit for what he did, and I'm glad he won't be able to do it any more.

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MEHR MIT -- KENNST DU -- ETWAS!

Hopla; Wir Leben

(I discovered a link on the miracle machine with no title, connecting me to something Bloggy.  I clicked, and it delivered this -- a draft of a post about the 2015 landmark gay marriage decision by the Supremes. Tubby Tony's true colors were on full display that day, giving all of us a taste of what in future we will be, uh, missing with his passing.

(Earlier, when the case was being argued, Tony gave us a preview. In an April 28, 2015 New Yorker article, Jeffrey Toobin noted: “There was a shocking, ugly moment during the argument of... the same-sex marriage case... a spectator rose from a back row and started screaming, ‘If you support gay marriage, you will burn in Hell... It’s an abomination!’ [G]uards carried him from the courtroom.

(“That wasn’t the ugly part, though. In the quiet moment after the man was removed, as his shouts vanished into the hallway, Justice Antonin Scalia filled the silence with a quip. ‘It was rather refreshing, actually,’ he said.”

(Tony: an impartial jurist and a class act; representing what is 'best' about American justice to the rest of the world.)

Reuters:

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of the court, said that the hope of gay people intending to marry "is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."
...
In a dissenting opinion, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia said the decision shows the court is a "threat to American democracy." The ruling "says that my ruler and the ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court," Scalia said.

Wasn't that true about the Citizens United decision, Tony? Of course, there's no comparison between allowing America's political system to be nakedly purchased by a wealthy elite, and recognizing that love, commitment and dignity deserve the protection of law. 

The New York Times online: 

“If you are among the many Americans — of whatever sexual orientation — who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”
...
“The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic,” Justice Scalia wrote of his colleague’s work. “Of course the opinion’s showy profundities are often profoundly incoherent.”

Poor 'Fat Tony' Scalia. Quite the ironic riposte from the architect behind the Bush v. Gore and 'Citizens United' decisions. But, mob bosses like Tony have never possessed much by way of humility or what was once referred to as "good sportsmanship".

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MEHR, MIT NICHTACHTUNG:  Over the weekend, a friend and I agreed that there was just something hanging in the air around Scalia's demise.

We're not suggesting conspiracy, necessarily; however, the 'manager' of the "ranch" where Scalia was a guest described the Great Man as being found in a bed with sheets barely wrinkled, in "perfect repose", a pillow over his head. A judge pronounces an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court dead, by phone, and there is no autopsy.

"What'dya think?" my friend asked.

"Blow and Hoors," I said. "No doubt about it."

Politiki Note

Eye Oh Way

Election years are when the currents of American society rise and collide in all their noisy, discordant glory; it's particularly true in Presidential campaign years.

A time when every politician in the contest tries to evoke a connection between the electoral process, and the rural-farming, pre-industrial, small-town roots of the nation's past : of torchlight parades; Lincoln and Douglas debating; Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt campaigning from the platform at the back of the last Pullman car in a train that whistlestopped through the heartland.  It's a myth of continuity, of fairness and democracy, an attempt to bind us to an age that disappeared long ago; and it begins with the caucuses in Iowa.

Half of my people are from Iowa -- Muscatine (Pop. 22,000+); Moscow (Pop. 361); Atalissa (Pop. 311). Small places, at the eastern edge of the Great Plains not far west of the Mississippi. And the chances are good that some third cousins, twice removed, are casting their ballots tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll get to see who the winners are. There is a large contingent, left, right and center, that are praying on their knees that this will be the end of Trumpolina. We'll see.

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MEHR, MIT EINE KLEINE SCHADENFREUDE:  The Paper Of Record's headline this morning -- "Cruz Wins In Iowa, Dealing Trump a Humbling Loss".  But in looking at the percentages, it wasn't exactly a crushing rejection of Trumpolina by Iowa's caucusers: 27.6% = Cruz, 24.3% = Trumpy; 23.1% = Lil' Markie. So not yet the singing of O Donny Boy, Da Pipes Da Pipes Is Callin'...

And, please remember that the 'winner' in this nightmarish scenario is Greg Stillson. Greg Stillson, ladies and gentlemen. This is a person who will be ecstatically happy to shove their concept of religion down the throats of every member of American society. It is an evangelical Xtian's sacred duty to do so, and so help bring about whatever crazed, brain-damaged delusional mutant freakshow image of their own private interpretation of selected parts of the Bible the will of god (well, somebody's god, anyway).

As a Repub candidate, I'd take Donny any day. But it all comes down to money. It comes down to whomever Addeled Sheldon, the KochBrudern, Lil' Rupert and a few other HNWIs at home and abroad (remember, offshore contributions, properly sheep-dipped, aren't illegal after the Scalia Court's Citizens United decision!) want to purchase to be that candidate. 

On the Democratic side, ony a few tenths of a percentage point separated Hillary The Inevitable !  from Senator Bernie Sanders: the contest continues into New Hampshire.

And, the press recognizes that this election season, the focus is not "jobs" or "the economy" or "the war(s)"; it's about a fundamental Rage At The Machine. As Michael Barbaro noted in the Paper Of Record:

The vote here in Iowa was a portrait of red-hot America, so disaffected that it turned to a pugilistic evangelical Republican who calls for demolition of a system saturated with corruption. And it sent a forceful message to Democratic leaders that it was unwilling to put aside its resentment of Wall Street and corporate America to crown a lifelong party insider who has amassed millions in speaking fees from the big banks.

Monday night’s results confirmed that despite the widening cultural and political fissures that have divided right and left, voters are united in an impatience, even a revulsion, at what they see as a rigged system that no longer works for them.

For Republicans, the enemy is an overreaching government, strangling their freedoms and pocketbooks. For Democrats, it is an unfair economy, shrinking their paychecks and aspirations.

_________________________________

We Are Schocked -- Shocked To Learn That Gambling Has Been Going On

The Usual Suspects

'More Bacon'?*   We Didn't Make This Stuff Up
(Screenshot: NYT Online, December 29, 2015)

See these beautiful, pretty people? You live to make their lives soft, and good, and to help provide them with treats. There are different rules for them -- easier rules, which they get to make. Because you, kamaraden, are part of the peasantry. It's their world; we ultimately serve them in it.

I had already seen another article that made me see red (yes; a pun, ha ha) earlier this morning. Then, the New York Times online published an article this afternoon, entitled, "For The Wealthiest, A Tax System That Saves Them Billions", as reported by Noam Scheiber and Patricia Cohen:

With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the “income defense industry,” consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means...

All are among a small group providing much of the early cash for the 2016 presidential campaign. Operating largely out of public view — in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service — the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government’s ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans.

...From Mr. Obama’s inauguration through the end of 2012, federal income tax rates on individuals did not change (excluding payroll taxes). But the highest-earning one-thousandth of Americans went from paying an average of 20.9 percent to 17.6 percent. By contrast, the top 1 percent, excluding the very wealthy, went from paying just under 24 percent on average to just over that level....

“We do have two different tax systems, one for normal wage-earners and another for those who can afford sophisticated tax advice,” said Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego who studies the intersection of tax policy and inequality. “At the very top of the income distribution, the effective rate of tax goes down, contrary to the principles of a progressive income tax system.”

Yes, this is on the final. And, what else is new? 

________________________________________

* "Have you seen the little piggies / In their startched white shirts..."

________________________________________

MEHR, MIT MEHR: John Lloyd, a Senior Fellow at Oxford, writes in a contribution to Reuters online: 

 There are corruptions. and then there are corruptions that undermine the very fabric of civil society...  while remaining almost always within the law, are ... more destructive. These corruptions wear the cloak of propriety yet produce great social divisions and permit the powerful to wrest funds from the powerless.

A few days before Christmas, the New York Times carried a story that said, in terms both bald and bold, that the very richest Americans have had developed for themselves “a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the ‘income defense industry,’ consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means.” The effect, said the Times, has been to create a kind of “private tax system” that carves deep into the state’s ability to tax them, and puts the very wealthy’s tax payments on the same level, proportionately, as those on middle class incomes.

...And where wealth gives the very rich huge access to political goods and decisions, that “democratic quality” suffers. It cannot be a coincidence that all of the Republican candidates are proposing dramatic tax cuts. This includes even the most populist of them, Donald Trump, in spite of his crowd-pleasing call for hedge fund managers to pay more. These proposed cuts would lower taxes on the middle classes – but would assist the mega-rich more. 

Nice.

London Financial Times: Donald Trump 'Pillaging' Greece, Ass...

Hey, We Didn't Say It

(Screenshot: FT Online, June 16, 2015; Video Section)

The Donald, in all his bling-like faux splendor, appeared today before members of the media (all present wondering whom they had enraged to be stuck with such an assignment), and made his by-now-expected quadrennial announcement that He, and The Weasel Who Lives On His Head, are again running for the Republican nomination for President of these United Sates.

El Donaldo used Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World"  (better, I'm guessing, than excerpts from Scene de la foile from 'Lucia de Lammermoor', particularly as Don doesn't look that good in a torn dress). Young blasted back at Donny via Twitter, and Cindy Lauper called out both The Donald, His Weasel and his wife for "fat shaming" on Celebrity Apprentice.

Meanwhile, in other, less important news, Greece and TPTB in the EU, IMF and ECB continued to reenact the playing-chicken scene from Rebel Without A Cause; Prime Minister Tsipras plays the role of James Dean, and Angela Merkel plays Sal Mineo. We all know how that ended up.

__________________________________________________________

Greg Stillson For President

I Saw The News Today Oh Boy

   Sen. Ted Cruz; June 6, 2014  (Photo: Texas Tribune / Bob Daemmrich)

Martin Sheen As Greg Stillson In The Film Adaptation Of King's The Dead Zone (1983)

We've all seen the news.  Yesterday, Senator Ted Cruz of Canada the Soverign Nation Republic State of Texas announced that he was running for the Republican party's nomination as its candidate for President in the 2016 election. He said many things, and repeated the word "imagine" many times.

As I watched him speaking in a number of film clips on mainstream news, I was suddenly reminded of a character in contemporary writing and film -- Greg Stillson, in Stephen King's The Dead Zone.  If you've seen the 1983 film (possibly the best screen adaptation of any of King's books), then you've seen Martin Sheen playing the role of a local politician in Maine, a Huey Long-style populist who runs for Senator -- very much what would pass for a Tea Partei candidate today.

Stillson says he believes in America, and Values -- oh, and the truth, so long as he agreed with it. And, outwardly a confident and canny politician, King's character was written as an evangelical, too -- and very much convinced that it was his destiny to become President and Do God's Will (well; the will of somebody's god, anyway).

But the truth was that inwardly, Stillson was altogether not all he seemed -- and whatever it was people were voting for when they looked at him, what they got was very different.

Stillson is introduced in the novel at the beginning of the book as a struggling traveling salesman for a Bible-printing company ... During a stop at a house in rural Iowa, Stillson is attacked by the absent homeowners' dog and, enraged, sprays ammonia in the animal's eyes before beating it to death. As he drives away, Stillson comes to the realization that he is destined for greatness. (Stephen King Wiki)  

It is possible the truth is, in the long, oily wake of the Scalia Court's decision in Citizens United, that America's elections are now the property of people like the Koch brothers, Addled Sheldon, and Little Rupert? Just another thing to be purchased. Because they can. Because Freedom.

But, maybe not. Maybe that's not the truth. Maybe elections might be the last place where, when casting a vote, we are in fact all equal and anything is possible. The truth? We have a moral obligation to work against ignorance and malevolence, or we will get the leaders we deserve.

The truth, too, is that King's novel and the film it's based on are just that -- fiction. In the real world, people like the Senator from Canada Texas are all too present a reality, and using the political process (such as it is) we should work pretty damn hard to ensure he or anyone like him, if they receive the nomination of any party, will be defeated at the polls.

 I'd suggest going here and adding your name, and even spending a few dollars. And yes, this will be on the final.

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Live With Less, Little People

Kleiner Leute; Was Nun?

This just in from Davos, via Bloomberg:

Billionaire Jeff Greene, who amassed a multibillion dollar fortune betting against subprime mortgage securities, says the U.S. faces a jobs crisis that will cause social unrest and radical politics.

“America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence,” Greene said in an interview today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We need to reinvent our whole system of life.”

...Greene, who flew his wife, children and two nannies on a private jet plane to Davos for the week, said he’s planning a conference in Palm Beach, Florida, at the Tideline Hotel called “Closing the Gap.” 

I'm in favor of a society less entranced by possessing and amassing wealth -- of being defined by income, possessions and lineage. It's what I thought America became a country for (though our history certainly wouldn't support that view, now would it). But to me, a movement towards a more collectivized culture means it would by definition be more egalitarian.

However, I don't think that's Jeffy's Big Vision. What I imagine he's on about is that the "Common Person" will be the ones to lower their expectations -- to accept pay cuts, after years of flat wages, and thereby reduce our possessions. To live more simply, as befits our station.

How this can support an alleged Free Market society by reducing the amount of things made, and purchased, and so eliminate jobs, income... I don't believe Jeffy has thought this through. Perhaps we're going back to a Pre-Downton Abbey, Lord-and-Peasant society for real, and all of us Little Folk will till the soil on the estates of the Masters? Sort of a 'Tom Jones', landed Gentry sort of thing?

The Oligarchs, who already have such expectations of their world, will love it.  And those at the top of the pile will not, of course, have to lower any expectations, as they are the "job creators" and all.

Das wir sagen kann, "Hopla -- Wir Leben!" nicht genug ist.

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Your Money's No Good Here, Mr. Putin

Sad Vlad Doubles Down




There's something about the tragedy playing out in Ukraine since the Fall of last year -- and in particular the attitude of Sad Vlad, The Putin (who always, to me, seems sad; he is Sad Vlad) which reminds me of Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.

A man finds a sense of belonging and place, self-justification and a measure of success, but only within a terrible illusion of evil and death -- one that ultimately consumes him: The image of Jack Torrance at the bar in the Gold Room at the Overlook Hotel, believing he's in the middle of a party and not realizing where he actually is -- or is not -- and what's coming. 
 

LLOYD:  Good evening, Mr. Putin.  (Leans forward) What'll it be?  

 PUTIN:  Hair of the bear what bit me, Lloyd!

 LLOYD:  Crimean Surprise; certainly.  How's everything going, Mr. Putin?

 

PUTIN:  Y'know, I don't understand it, Lloyd. I never laid a hand on their goddamned heads, those Ukrainian-whatevers. I love the little sons of bitches! There's not a goddamned thing I wouldn't do for 'em. And look how they treat me. 

LLOYD:  Ukrainians. You can't live with them, but you can't live without them. 

PUTIN:  Words of wisdom, Lloyd; words of wisdom.

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Reprint Heaven: The Thing That Would Not Die, Episode XXXXVIII.2

Silvio!! On The Comeback Trail

Little Silvio Berlusconi -- Oligarch; lover of women Horndog; corrupt politician (who last week described bribes as just a cost of doing business; what's the big deal?) -- is attempting to push his Italian Pene del Europa Party (or whatever it's called) back into power in Italian elections held this past weekend.

You need to understand:  Berlusconi's return into Italian politics after being indicted on charges of bribery and misuse of office is the functional equivalent of squeezing Elliot Spitzer, Robin Williams and Richard Nixon together in one pint-sized package.

Load him up with hormone treatments, hair plugs and plastic surgery, and you have Silvio Berlusconi. Put Silvio!! in office as the Prime Minister of Italy and you get an EU Clown Show, coupled with the highest official in the nation treating Italy as an extension of his personal business empire.

At the moment, the election returns reported give Italy's Center-Left parties a five- or six-per-cent edge over Berlusconi's Rightist party -- so the Return Of The European Horndog may be postponed until his political allies in the Italian Parliament can provoke a new election cycle.

Here are a couple of items from the past to provide some context for the Freakshow we may have to witness:

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Berlusconi Attacked By Cathedral 

(December 13, 2009)

No; It's Not Simon Pegg In Star Trek (A Bit Old, For Simon)
-- It's The Capo d'Buffoono Capo! (UK Mirror, 11/13/09)

Earlier today (tonight, in Italy), Silvio Berlusconi, 73-year-old Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy and Chief Clown of the European Union, appeared at a political rally in Milan when he was struck by the Duomo Cathedral which borders the square where the rally took place.


Milan's Duomo Cathedral Of The Maria Bambina, Which Is Being
Held For Questioning By Italian Police After The Surprise Assault

Berlusconi, whose reign as Primo Penis L'Italia has been threatened by a series of sex scandals, alleged mafia connections and criminal charges of bribery and money laundering, had appeared at the rally in a local hotel, but was continually heckled by onlookers. Even though he was the only person in the room who happened to have a microphone and a really large public-address system, Silvio! had to spend some time shouting them down.

While exiting the building, Berlusconi had been slowed, walking through a crowd of people, shaking hands (for any other head of state, taking that kind of risk is unheard of), when he was attacked. Obviously bleeding, he was whisked to a local hospital, reportedly having suffered broken teeth, a fractured nose, and various contusions and cuts, but was otherwise still able to have sex (after a fashion) with women forty-five years younger than himself.



(Screencaptures: BBC Video Footage, December 13, 2009)

The 623-year-old Cathedral which struck the Prime Minister was thrown by Massimo Tartaglia, who had gotten close enough to the Capo de Tutti Frutti in the crowd as he left the rally. That Tartaglia (who reportedly "has a history of mental problems") was able to get so close to a major European political figure to carry out the assault is troubling to Italian authorities.

But, even more astounding is how Tartaglia was able to reduce a gigantic, Gothic-style building to the size of a paperweight, and throw it, striking Berlusconi in the snout (probably had been between the thighs of some-a young girl not long before, eh?).

How the huge stone building was then returned to its normal size and position without being seen by anyone is unknown, as Tartagliga was immediately seized -- which raises the spectre of a wide conspiracy.


Italian Authorities Consider A Connection Between The Cathedral,
And Another Architectural Feature With Time-Travel Capabilities

"We have not ruled out aliens from space, or time travelers, using futuristic technology to injure our beloved Silvio," an anonymous source in Berlusconi's security detail told the BBC.

It is also not known whether Massimo is related to the Tattaglias in the Godfather saga ("Sonny hit Bruno Tattaglia at three o'clock this morning"), and what this may mean for Diane Keaton, James Caan and Al Pacino.


Bruno Tattaglia: "Scotch? Pre-War -- Or, A Little Strangling?"

The Duomo was ordered by Italian police to remain in place in Milan and not to attempt to leave the city. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the Duomo claimed it had never met Tartaglia before and that it had been quietly hosting an evening Mass when it was picked up and swung at the Prime Minister.

"I am innocent", the Cathedral told the BBC. "It's true -- I don't like the immoral and disgusting acts by which the Prime Minister has besmirched his office. But I have never, ever caused harm to anyone, except witches, and Protestants, and a whole bunch of Jews." The Duomo has asked for Papal lawyers from Rome to be present during further questioning.


Silvio's Own Television Network In Italy, Providing Unbiased
Coverage Of The Prime Minister's Glorious Reign Over What's Now
The Theater Capital Of Europe (Photo: UK Guardian 11/09)

[Okay; if you haven't figured it out, or don't follow the links I handed to you: Tartaglia allegedly struck Berlusconi in the face with a souvenir model of the Duomo cathedral. The symbolism is obvious and even amusing -- and no, I'm not going to explain it to you.]

While his popularity ratings remain above 50 per cent, Berlusconi's hold over his office may slip as the result of poor life choices and too much bouncy-bouncy. Dogged by rumors of connections with the mafia as a Billionaire oligarch; publicly romping with women (which led to a messy, continuing public divorce from his second wife); and after a law granting him immunity from prosecution as Prime Minister was overturned earlier this year, Silvio! may be the first leader of Italy in several generations to be convicted of criminal acts while in office.

Silvio's own television network and newspapers continue to broadcast a campaign of positive reports about him (he is reported to like dogs and enjoy life), but many Italians dismiss them as obvious propaganda. Basta!

Then, there is Berlusconi's former pay-for-play mistress, Patrizia D'Addario, who recently published a tell-all autobiography about the Buffoono's inner circle, and their sex life, entitled "What You Require, Mr. Prime Minister".


The Oligarch Minister and a Simple Italian Prostitute Girl

It seems that she saw her chance for opportunities, attention, money, and more money in her relationship with Silvio!; but even if some of her alleged details are incorrect, he is still the married head of the Italian government and was still committing adultery with (at least) D'Addario in a relatively public fashion -- not to mention whispers about the 18-year-old Silvio was seen hanging with after D'Addario smeared him in the press, which seemed one way to thumb his nose at the world (I don't give a rat's ass what you think!) -- ho ho ho; that Silvio!!.

Even his own handlers are stumped by what to say about the public backlash towards their Capo's antics. Asked about the assault, Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Buonaiuti told CNN, "There has been such a buildup of hatred toward the premier, and this is not good... This campaign of hatred has been building quite rapidly recently, and I am not surprised that what happened tonight took place."

Doctors at the hospital in Milan have indicated that CAT scans of Berlusconi's head show no abnormalities, but want to perform additional tests to be certain.


Silvio's! Physicians: Shocked by the assault -- except Dottore Tano
Carridi (At Right), CAT scan director, who wanted extra Pet Treats.

The physicians also agreed that he has Un Poco Pene, then showed scans to reporters and cleaning women on the night staff before blowing off the remainder of their shift to eat Pasta Pesto, or play with catnip bags in the shape of the Pope.

__________________________________________________________________________

See Naples And Divorce 

(May 9, 2009)

73-year-old Silvio Berlusconi ( Silvio!! ) is a flamboyant, corrupt mover and shaker who has been able to control most of Italy's major media, its largest banking and insurance group, and a major soccer team, and to operate an investment company whose funding sources are impossible to trace; there have been allegations of drug-money laundering and Mafia connections.

And Silvio has become the country's Prime Minister. Three times. He's worth some $9 Billion US, and has his own Center-Right political party, "The People Of Freedom". Berlusconi pushed his way into Italy's political scene and was successful only because he's been able to create a Center-Right (mostly Right-wing) coalition to run the country. Italy is a Parliamentary system, with Silvio forming a majority coalition to run the nation from the fractious jumble of its political parties.

The country has had over 50 governments since 1945. It's hard for a Parliament to accomplish anything for The People when the central government goes into the food processor every six months or a year -- and anyone who can form a relatively stable governing coalition can be a very powerful figure. Silvio knows it. And, like any egotistical greedhead global businessperson, he's going to take advantage of his position, and of the country's potential for instability, to increase his personal, uh, 'leverage'. Hey; it's a dog-eat-dog world, right? (As a dog, I take real exception to that, but we'll let it go.)

Italy is also a nation which has included Mussolini's daughter and several Porn starlets as members of its Parliament (most famously, La Ciccolina, former wife of [con] artist Jeff Koons), and which has theme restaruants and unrepentant speakers trumpeting the good old days of fascism. But for Berlusconi, beyond government, Italy apparently exists to provide him with many personal financial opportunities, fine living, and babes. Oh, that Silvio!

Silvio's second wife, 43-year-old former actress Veronica Lario, has had enough and wants a divorce. They've been married 19 years, since Silvio divorced his first wife to marry Veronica after seeing her (then a 24-year-old performing on stage) for an hour one night.

"It was love at first sight," Silvio said. "[Veronica] has been a perfect wife. She's never embarrassed me."


La Fascisti Silvio! and Lil' Boots toast La Dolce Vita

Pity the reverse isn't true, but so what; who cares? He's Silvio! The past ten years have seen a number of pathetically typical scenes, where Berlusconi publicly parades and spends private bouncy-bouncy time with leggy supermodels. He even installed two of them as Cabinet ministers in his government. Ah, that Silvio!

After the last of these, Veronica demanded Berlusconi publicly apologize. He did -- and it was a stage-managed publicity event spun by the media he owns. Not bad, eh? Humiliate your wife, and turn it all to a political advantage! Ha ha ha -- Silvio!!!

What put Veronica over the top was Silvio's recent attendance at a girl's 18th birthday party in Naples -- the daughter of a friend; his attentions -- not altogether neutral or paternal -- gave some the impression that Mt. Vesuvius wasn't the only thing smoldering.

Italians shrug and wave a hand; it's what happens. Aah, so what? It's such good theatre; it's got everything -- operatic passions, greed, envy, the wealthy lusting after barely legal teenagers. Not like he can't afford to buy a few Indulgences, eh? The Pope is a bastard Tedeski, it's true, but those Germans are practical, and Silvio can charm fish from the ocean, that one.

But, let's not be so hard; he's Silvio!!. A buffoon with cash; one of the super-wealthy who happen to be the head of state -- and see nothing wrong with boffing a few young women, bending his country's laws (easier to do when you run the country) so he can wet his beak a little, eh? And a few bribes, some threats; hey, you can't make an empire without spilling a little red wine. Life's a banquet, and Silvio is right there, cutting in line and elbowing others out of the way to get a little more.

Berlusconi is what happens when people, cynical and disgusted with the antics of their politicians, lose any real interest in government. They're all corrupt; they're all inefficent; you can't fight Tammany Hall. Ultimately, someone like a Berlusconi appears -- flamboyant, voluble; tough-minded, who enjoys the pursuits of a man. Huey Long meets the Emperor Augustus.



The Leader both plays off the People's cynicism, and feeds it. They claim to be a fresh wind of change who speak for The Little People; at the same time they treat the country as a private feeding trough, which only reinforces the idea that Government is unreliable. Ideals? Just advertising slogans. They dye their hair in what (for a 73-year-old) is an impossibly dark shade and parade with women a quarter of their age to prove to anyone they are potent and powerful.

This formula of crony patronage and power is older than recorded history, a country kept in constant political turmoil while its assets are acquired, traded, sold or leased. And as the one at the top of that small crowd of oligarchs who benefit, the Leader, Capo tutti del Capo, enjoys his relatively brief time at the top of the pyramid. Because those persons almost exclusively focused on the acquisition of power and material possession are, of course, the highest expression of the human species.

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Silvio !! Chapter MCMXXXXXXLVII: The State Is ME! 

(October 14, 2011)

Government By Commedia del Arte

Silvio! Salutes -- Himself, Of Course

To me -- and I don't think I'm alone -- one hallmark of These Days™ we're living through is the slow, steady erosion of things based on illusion, and lies.

The financial Bubble was spun out of caviar wishes and champagne dreams; it was a manipulation of each stage of the process from real estate sales to loan origination to the packaging of CDOs and pushing them on investors, by rentiers -- persons who

play no productive role in the economy themselves but who monopolize the access to physical assets, financial assets and technologies. They make money not from producing anything new themselves, but purely from [possession] of property (which provides a claim to a revenue stream)... (Wikipedia).

For the past three years, for some, this has become clearer. To other people, that same dawning clarity is threatening on a visceral level, an aberration.

This has been a global game, and in Europe, the results are the same -- political, corporate and financial illusions are beginning to come apart like the legendary cheap suit. And nowhere has the Illusory State been more pronounced than Italy, where a working Center-Right coalition in its Parliament has given the country its longest-lasting, most stable government in fifty years.

However, "stable" is a relative term. Silvio !'s government has been marred by accusations of corruption (expected in Italy, which has been a Kleptocracy on some level for centuries) and mismanagement, which Berlusconi's coalition was supposed to change.

Unfortunately, that coalition was brokered by a narcissistic Oligarch, pompous and vainglorious -- the Latin version of Sad Vlad The Putin: Silvio!

And unfortunately for Little Silvio, after besting his detractors and enemies and remaining the Prime Minister of that near-failed state, now the world's financial crisis is coming home -- to live with his people.

Not Silvio -- he's a bunga-bunga billionaire; personally, he'll be very comfortable. The Italian people? Not so much. And that could spell the end for Little Silvio's reign as the Clown Prince Of the European Union.

From today's New York Times:

In his narrowest escape yet, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi barely survived a confidence vote on Friday, saving his government from collapse but leaving it all but incapable of legislating effectively.

With 316 votes for and 301 votes against, Mr. Berlusconi’s center-right coalition won the vote. But it failed to secure a solid majority, making it increasingly difficult for him to pass legislation aimed at protecting Italy from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Had he lost, Mr. Berlusconi would have had to resign, marking the end of an 18-year political era in which the billionaire businessman shaped Italian politics in his own image, entwining the country’s fate with his own.

...the Berlusconi government was now hanging by a thread and could fall at the next bump in the road — when enough disgruntled lawmakers from within Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition calculate that they would be safer jumping off a sinking ship rather than staying aboard and risking drowning...

Since 2009, the European debt crisis has felled governments in Ireland, Portugal and Slovakia, led to early elections in Spain and a cabinet reshuffle in Greece. So far, Mr. Berlusconi has proven to be a tough outlier — not least because the European Central Bank in August agreed to buy Italian debt. But the bank did this in exchange for promised structural changes that the government has not yet carried out, a mix of tax increases and changes to the pension system...

This week, opposition leaders — and the president of Italy, in an unusually strong statement — told Mr. Berlusconi that surviving a confidence vote was not the same as governing... the center-left opposition has repeatedly called on Mr. Berlusconi to step down.. [and] repeatedly accused Mr. Berlusconi of buying the votes of would-be dissidents within his own center-right coalition.

On Friday, Mr. Berlusconi was saved by loyalists who prefer to have the government limp along rather than fall and potentially be replaced by a group of nonpolitical technocrats with a mandate to carry out the structural changes including tax increases, changes to the pension system and a growth stimulus bill now deadlocked in Parliament.

Foreign investors and many of Italy’s business leaders hope for such a technical government, but lawmakers have resisted out of fears of losing power.

---