They're All in on This, Top to Bottom

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

21 November 20

That includes the Republican leaders in the Michigan state legislature.

he visit to Camp Runamuck by the Republican leaders of both houses of the Michigan legislature has set off the storm sirens. This is understandable, especially to those of us who quit asking the question, "He wouldn't do that, would he?" around about the night of the Indiana primary in 2016. From Politico:

It is unclear how many GOP legislators will visit the White House, but the group is expected to include Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. Jason Wentworth, who is succeeding Chatfield as speaker, was also spotted at the D.C. airport.

Shirkey and state Sen. Tom Barrett were met by a throng of protesters and reporters outside Reagan National Airport upon their arrival Friday. The pair passed through the airport without talking to the media. Earlier this week Shirkey told Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit news outlet, that the idea the legislature would defy the voters is "not going to happen."

Local dog refuses to hunt.

No one from the Trump's campaign staff will be at the meeting, according to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — who herself has doubled as a campaign surrogate, blurring the line between the two — and she downplayed the significance of the president summoning the state legislators. "He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country," McEnany said at a press briefing on Friday, her first since Oct. 1. "This is not an advocacy event."

I may be way out on a limb here, but I think the president* was associated with his campaign and, anyway, his personal lawyer was going to be stopping by.

However Rudy Giuliani, who recently took over the campaign's legal battles, told a New York City Fox affiliate Friday morning that he would be on hand at the meeting to answer any questions from Trump or the state lawmakers about the situation in Michigan "because I probably know the case better than anyone else." "I’m there just to answer any questions they have," he said on "Good Day New York."

The Michigan delegation was met at the airport in D.C. by reporters and demonstrators, some of the latter carrying big letters spelling out, "SHAME." Leader Shirkey finally resorted to singing a hymn to fend off a persistent reporter and Speaker Chatfield tweeted out that he was only doing his patriotic duty.

"No matter the party, when you have an opportunity to meet with the President of the United States, of course you take it," he tweeted. "I won’t apologize for that. In fact, I’m honored to speak with POTUS and proud to meet with him."

When the president* whistles, Chatfield rolls over. Good Speaker. Good boy.

They're all in on this, top to bottom and stem to stern. Shun them all if this ever ends.

Oh, hi there, Senator David Perdue. How're you doing? Getting by, are yez? From the New York Times:

Senator David Perdue, one of two Republican senators from Georgia facing runoff elections in January, began making large and ultimately profitable purchases of shares in a Navy contractor in 2018 just before taking over as chair of a Senate subcommittee overseeing the Navy fleet. The disclosure, first reported Wednesday by The Daily Beast, comes as both Mr. Perdue and Georgia’s other senator, Kelly Loeffler, have been under fire for their stock trades. Mr. Perdue, a millionaire and formerly a prolific trader of individual stocks, announced in May that he would divest from his large individual stock holdings after questions were raised about his well-timed purchases of Pfizer stock in February, after senators were briefed on the coronavirus threat.

This is the guy that Jon Ossoff called a "crook" to his face during their last debate. (Which really will be their last debate, since Perdue has, ahem, chickened out on debates before their January runoff election.) And, with all the money sloshing around the doubleheader run-offs in Georgia, his attitude towards profiteering in office is certainly a driving issue.

In the six weeks before the January 2019 announcement that Mr. Perdue was taking over as chair of the Senate Armed Services SeaPower subcommittee, he bought a total of $40,000 to $290,000 worth of BWX on dates when prices averaged about $40 per share, according to a Times analysis of Senate filings. The filings give only a value range for stock transactions, making it impossible to know how many shares are bought and sold. In the month after his appointment, the stock jumped more than 25 percent. Mr. Perdue sold his stock on dates from February to July 2019 when prices averaged more than $50 per share. In June of that year, he announced that he had helped push through additional funding for the Navy in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020, including money for an extra submarine.

Not that this kind of arrangement is against the rules of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body or anything.

While not officially prohibited, individual stock trades by members of Congress have long raised questions, according to Kedric Payne, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “This is just a perfect example of why many members of Congress have decided on their own to not trade individual stocks, even though there is no evidence of insider trading. It still begs the question of whether his official actions are somehow motivated by personal interest.”

The real corruption is what's legal. Somebody said that once.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Got My Whiskey" (Mel Walters): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: This week marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Nuremberg Tribunals. (I am not hinting at anything here. Honest. I'm not, as Kayleigh is my witness.) The play-by-play dude is very helpful in identifying the defendants. (Julius Streicher was "judged sane," which was a comfort to that thug, I'm sure.) Goering gets gaveled. History is so cool.

My old friend—and Marquette J-School idol—Jacqui Banaszynski writes the Nieman Storyboard newsletter which never fails to put a shine on my Fridays. This week, she spoke with one of my sportswriting heroes, Dave Kindred, about how he has transitioned onto writing narrative on Facebook. That, as the late Guy Clark put it, is a pair to draw to.

I always have been happy that Rachel Maddow is my friendly acquaintance. But, after her monologue about how the pandemic hit home for her, I am proud to know her as a fellow human. Good on yez, Doc.

Maddow: Don't get this thing. Do whatever you can to keep from getting it.

Rachel Maddow reveals that her partner, Susan, tested positive for Covid-19 and is still recovering, and implores viewers to consider their loved ones when they calculate their own Covid-19 risk. pic.twitter.com/oUz2DBLG63

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 20, 2020

Blog Official Cowtipping Columnist Friedman of the Plains sends us...bonus Oklahoma! From Newsweek:

Victory Church in Tulsa posted on Facebook that it was hosting a "Friendsgiving" on November 22 and encouraged people to "come share a meal with us & BRING A NEIGHBOR." "We always looking forward to this meal with you," the church wrote. "All of our campuses will be participating at their facility." Footage said to be from a recent service held by Victory Church, which boasts a 13,000-strong membership, appeared to show people not wearing masks or socially distancing.

It doesn't matter how Christian you are. Your immune system is agnostic.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, National Geographic? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

For more than a decade, paleontologists have speculated about a single fossil that preserves skeletons of two of the world’s most famous dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. Not only are the bones arranged as they once were in life, but the dinosaurs are practically intertwined. Each specimen is among the best of its kind ever found. Together, the pair—nicknamed the “Dueling Dinosaurs”—present a paleontological mystery: Did the beasts just happen to be entombed together by chance, perhaps as carcasses caught on the same river sandbar? Or had they been locked in mortal combat? Nobody has been able to study the fossil to find out.

How the fossil has come now to be available for scientists to study is a saga in itself. An accidental discovery. A stint in a Long Island warehouse. A failed auction. A decade of litigation. And now, finally, an arrival in a museum, which is where it belonged all along. We will know whether or not this is a relic of dino-MMA from millennia past. That's the way I'm rooting, anyway, because that would make me happy now, knowing that they lived back then.

I'll be back Monday with whatever chunk the president* decides to take out of democracy over the weekend. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, and wear the damn mask.