Russia

C is for Collusion

Fandango13 Comments

0B512AEC-1FF4-4DC6-8A16-B55587B643BCThe president doth protest too much, methinks.

How many times has he spoken the words “No collusion”? How many times has he tweeted — in all caps — “NO COLLUSION!”?

8D67E740-7B10-4B19-ABFC-5CEADCBB46C5Collusion is defined as a secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose, such as acting in collusion with the enemy.

Anyone with half a brain, and even most of the brainless Trump supporters, can’t deny that Donald Trump, and all the president’s men, are guilty of either collusion or obstruction of justice — or both.

All you have to do is objectively examine the facts. Because once you do, if you still believe Trump when he says “no collusion,” I know of a Nigerian prince who wants to deposit a huge amount of cash in your bank account. All you need to do is give me your account number, your Social Security Number, your date of birth, and your mother’s maiden name and I’ll make sure he gets it.

See you tomorrow for my letter D post.

Facepalm

Fandango5 Comments

facepalm
The Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee today announced that it has completed its investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election. The Republicans on the committee unilaterally released a draft report in its year-long Russia probe.

Inexplicably, but not surprisingly, the draft report states that the committee found no evidence that President Trump or anyone affiliated with him colluded with Russian officials to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

The Republicans also determined that, while the Russian government did pursue “active measures” to interfere in the election, it did not do so with the intention of helping Trump’s campaign, contradicting the U.S. intelligence community’s findings.

The photo below was taken of the key Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee immediately after issuing the draft report.Three Monkeys

They Love Me in India

Fandango27 Comments

Image result for India flag

Just for grins and giggles, I looked over my blog’s stats for July. As expected, most of my views, fully half, came from the United States, my country, ’tis of thee. However, the country where another 28% of my blog’s views last month originated was India. INDIA!

Huh? I did not expect that.

I wanted to see if this was an anomaly, so I checked my stats for August, which, admittedly, is only four days old. What I found was that, so far, 53% of my views came from my home country, but 26% were, again, from India.

Seriously?

I figured that, outside of the US, most of my views would be from other English speaking countries like the UK, Australia, or Canada. But no. In July, only 7.6% were from the UK, 4.4% from Australia, and less than 1% from Canada.

What the hell, Canada? I have more views from Russia than from Canada. (Shh. Don’t tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller.)

It’s pretty much the same so far in August, with 10.9% from the UK, 4.2% from Australia and, again, less than 1% from Canada. Seriously Canada?

If someone from India is reading this post, please help me understand why I have so many readers from India. I’ve never ever been to India and going there is not high on my personal bucket list. So why?

What about all of you? From which countries are you posts getting the most views? Take a look at your WordPress stats. You might be surprised.

 

“We Will Bury You”

Fandango8 Comments

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When I was but a wee lad there was a huge cloud hanging over our country and it was scary. The “cloud” was this big, bad, bear on the other side of the globe called the Soviet Union.

People were freaking out. They were building fallout shelters in their backyards in preparation for the coming nuclear holocaust. In school we were doing weekly “duck and cover” air raid drills, as if crawling under a school desk with our hands covering our heads would protect us from an atomic bomb blast.

I distinctly remember two incidents that really scared me. One was when, in November 1956, the premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, uttered the words heard round the world, “We will bury you.”

When I asked my parents what that meant, they said that Russia wanted to destroy the United States and our democracy. Scary stuff, huh?

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But then, in October of 1960, I saw something really frightening on the news. At a meeting of the United Nations in New York, that same Nikita Khrushchev was banging one of his shoes on the table in protest of something one of the other delegates said. Here was the same foreign leader who had threatened to bury my country acting like a mad man at a meeting of the United Nations. Yikes.

I’m not even going to talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis that had the world at the brink of war just two years later. Nope, I’m not going to mention it.

But the good news is that a few decades later the Cold War had ended, the Soviet Union no longer existed, and global peace enveloped the world. Ha! Just kidding.

But relations between the United States and the Russian Federation were, if not cordial, at least stable. No more worries about being buried or about nuclear war.

Until Donald J. Trump became President of the United States, that is. Now I feel a little like that wee lad who was worried about the future of our country and our civilization. Between Trump, Kim Jung Un, and Vladimir Putin, three contemporary mad men — and world leaders — on a scale that Khrushchev could never quite achieve, we may all soon end up being buried.

This post was written in response to today’s one-word daily prompt: bury.

Malcolm in the Meddle

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meddle

When I woke up this morning and saw today’s one-word prompt, “meddle,” I thought of two things. One was serious and the other was nonsensical.

Serious: Russia meddled in our election

Without a doubt, Russia did meddle in our presidential election last year. And I — along with many others — believe that Russia’s meddling affected the outcome, resulting in the election of the most incompetent person to ever assume the role of POTUS.

I also believe that the Russians, flush from their success last year, continue to meddle in our democratic processes. If we don’t — or can’t or won’t — do anything about that meddling, our democracy will never be the same.

Nonsensical: Malcolm in the Meddle

I know that the actual name of the 2000 – 2006 TV show was “Malcom in the Middle,” not “Malcolm in the Meddle.” But as I read the prompt shortly after waking, “Malcolm in the Meddle” was the first thing that popped into my head. Which is a strange thing to have occurred to me since I never watched that show. Never ever. Not even once.

The mind works in mysterious ways.