The Trumpists Have Begun to Turn on Each Other Now. The Cannibal Feast Has Begun.
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)
WASHINGTON — "For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, like dogs upon their masters, worrying you..." —Henry V: Act II, Scene 2
Hey, Mike Pompeo! Come on down! From The New York Times:
House Democrats, kick-starting their impeachment inquiry into President Trump, subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, demanding he produce a tranche of documents related to the president’s dealings with Ukraine. Separately, they instructed him to make five State Department officials available for depositions in the coming two weeks. A failure to do so, the leaders of three House committees wrote jointly, would be construed as “evidence of obstruction of the House’s inquiry.”
I don't think there's any question that these committees had a list of people they wanted to subpoena all drawn up and ready to go. But it's important for the historical record to note that Pompeo got subpoenaed right after Rudy Giuliani, now completely out of control and raving all over television, managed to implicate the State Department in whatever incoherent "missions" he believed he was on in west Asia. In less than a week, the Secretary of State has been drawn into this incredible morass, and he's been drawn in by a completely unhinged, once-famous apparatchik. Either Pompeo is as corrupt as all the rest of them, or the State Department has spiraled completely out of control.
Whichever's the case, they've begun to turn on each other now and, as many subpoenas begin to pile up in many doorways, the cannibal feast can only get wilder and take in more people. There have to be some people in Camp Runamuck who still have reputations worth trying to save. The knives are out and the dinner bell is ringing.
Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Will Fox" (Blind Willie McTell): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.
Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here is the Ukrainian Youth Festival from 1957. Sorry about the Russian narration, but it's probably all propagandist bullshit anyway. Will Ukraine be a regular part of this feature for a while? I think you can count on that. History is so cool.
Joseph Wilson died on Friday. He was the career diplomat and husband of Valerie Plame, the C.I.A. covert operative who was outed for political reasons by the last impeachable Republican president. It was done in retaliation for Wilson's having discovered that the previous impeachable Republican administration was lying about Iraq buying uranium from Africa. He was a patriot when they were in very short supply, and he never wavered in his fight against the misuse of intelligence and the politicization of foreign policy.
As it happens, I saw the movie Official Secrets, about the British whistleblower Katherine Gun, who leaked confidential information regarding the U.S. government's attempt to spy on U.N. delegates who were wavering in their support of the war that the U.S. so dearly wanted. The movie moves like molasses, alas, but it was nice to get outraged all over again at the lies and deceptions.
Is it a good day for dinosaur news, Science Daily? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!
Rauisuchians are closely related to crocodiles as we know them today. They had a diversity of body shapes and sizes during the Triassic period. The specimens described in this research include some of the largest carnivorous members of this group, that were possibly up to 10 metres long, with huge skulls full of serrated, curved teeth. The study, published online in the Journal of African Earth Sciences last week, shows that the rauisuchians were some of the latest-surviving members of their group, and that when they were alive, they were thriving close to the Antarctic Circle -- the theoretical limit for their physiology.
"In the Triassic period, rauisuchians were widespread and their fossils are known from all continents except Antarctica," adds Tolchard. "They went extinct about 200 million years ago, paving the way for dinosaurs to become the dominant large land animals." "Rick's study demonstrates the value of re-examining old specimens, and now we finally know what was preying on all those herbivorous dinosaurs!" says Professor Jonah Choiniere, Rick's advisor and Professor of Comparative Palaeobiology at the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute.
Thirty-foot crocodiles? It's tough out there for a brontosaurus. They lived then, however, to make us happy now. And, I have to confess, a 30-foot croc makes me very happy that they're extinct.
Things are heating up in Washington, and among our Top Commenters as well. Top Commenter Pietro Paparella checked in with this week's Top Comment.
"Paine chose to hold the rally at the venue over the objections of Trump Jr. advisers who recommended holding it in a smaller ballroom instead, according to people familiar with the matter"...Were the truck-stop bathrooms full?
Cold, good sir, but a good question nonetheless. Here are 81.11 Beckhams to rent a bigger ballroom for your celebration.
I'll be back on Monday—or likely, sooner—with whatever comes next and, what the hell, we've all bought the tickets to Bedlam and we're in for the full tour. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, and try not to get out ahead of yourselves in planning the parades.
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