Friday, August 25, 2017

[U] History Will Record That Mr. Frazier "Started It"; Mr. Cohn Continued It... And "Bobby Three Sticks" [Will Likely Have] ENDED It...


UPDATED -- At Dawn, On Saturday: Even as Harvey weakens in the luminous Saturday dawn light, and moves toward Houston, and away from the crescent city seaboard, we will keep our weather eye on it, and on the events unfolding in San Francisco, and Berkeley over the weekend. In truth, I do not expect any version of what happened in Charlottesville. I expect the white supremacists will leave without clashing, or even really speaking -- given that criminal prosecutions may lie for the organizers, should their own followers create violence. That's how you handle hate groups -- with the force of law. Make the leaders accountable for the violence of followers. The arrest and no bail for one of the violent white supremacists seen on videotape in Charlottesville has really done the trick here, in my estimation.

Even so, I do love the hilariously creative protest idea of "poop-bombing" (with the cities' adorable pet canines) the parks/fields where the Nazis were going to march, in both Berkeley and San Francisco. And the dog owners will all come clean it all up, on Sunday, they say -- and have a love infused concert/party, then. Do read about it all, at the Wa Po, as it unfolds. [End, updated portion.]

Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth Frazier will remain on the masthead into next week, now -- as he was (in my estimation) the prime mover in this now open rebellion, from "inside the circle", of Mr. Trump's former loyalists -- that led to this moment. Not that Mr. Frazier was ever a "loyalist" -- the point is that he stood essentially alone, and fearlessly so -- against Donald Trump's hatred, on that Monday morning after Charlottesville, among some twenty other mostly silent, and supplicant CEOs. ["You can blow out a candle, but you cannot blow out a fire. . ." I think that's Peter Gabriel, on Bantu Steven Biko (circa 1977).]

So it is that more and more members of Mr. Trump's inner circle -- those personally picked by him to lead his Administration -- are now openly and forcefully rebuking him. This time (per the Washington Post, tonight) it is his National Economic Council Director, a former high ranking partner at Goldman Sachs:

. . . .[National Economic Council Director Gary] Cohn lashed Trump’s comments earlier this month blaming the violence in Charlottesville on “both sides,” saying in an interview with the Financial Times that “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.” The adviser, who is Jewish and has long given to Jewish causes, said the administration “must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups.”


The criticism was the first serious public condemnation of Trump’s behavior by a member of his inner circle since the beginning of his presidency and raised the question of how a president who puts a heavy premium on loyalty would react. . . .


Do go read it all. And "Bobby Three Sticks" is -- of course -- Robert Mueller III. Here endeth the beginning -- of the end, of 45's time at 1600 Penn. And do look for Alec Baldwin on SNL this weekend! I'm. . . out!

नमस्ते

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds to be both a violation of some kind of city ordinance and a potential puppy health hazard with parvovirus being do deadly years after contact. I do not approve. Free speech is free speech and should only be contested with more free speech. Lefties (and others- for fairness here), whom have never grasped this concept continue to be obtuse to it nearly five decades later.

Anonymous said...

"Days of Rage" and the Haymaket Memorial. History we have forgotten...

condor said...

I do hear you Anon....

As with all things "free speech" is never really free -- if and when the putative speaker blends into... prohibited conduct.

As a student of lawful dissent, I've well learned my Haymarket histories -- all of them.

Finally, what's a lil dog poop? Certainly no hecklers' veto there...

We may have to agree to disagree about these matters...

But do stop back -- just the same.

Namaste