Month: July 2018

The Patriot Game

Americano

And now as I lie here, my body all holes 
I think of those traitors who bargained in souls 
And I wish that my rifle had given the same 
To those Quislings who sold out the patriot game.
— The Patriot Game, Irish rebel ballad by Dominic Behan

President∗ Trump met with his top national security advisors on Friday to discuss strategy around Russian interference in the upcoming November elections. Unfortunately, this meeting can’t even be called a dog and pony show, because at 30 minutes there was barely enough time for the dog.

Nothing came of the meeting, which was held two weeks after Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the warning lights are blinking red over Russian attacks on the election. It was also only one week after House Republicans voted against spending money to improve election security. Never mind that we have already learned Claire McCaskill was one of two Senators who were targeted by the Russian military for hacks similar to what occurred in 2016.

Of course, the election security meeting took place about 10 days after Trump proved in Helsinki that he is a Russian asset beholden to Putin. Still, are there no patriots left in the GOP?

As the rest of us prepare to do our duty in November to remove the quislings who sold us out, it is time for an Americano cocktail. Refreshing and low alcohol, it is what we need on this battle march to the election.

This classic is:

1.5 oz Campari

1.5 oz sweet vermouth

3 oz soda water

1 dash orange bitters (optional, I like it this way)

Build in a highball glass over ice, garnish with an orange twist.

Cheers!

 

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Russian

The arrest, indictment, and denial of bond for Maria Butina certainly has any number of Republicans and NRA officials asking “how was I supposed to know she was with the Russians, too?”

The shit is now hitting the fan for those caught in the Russian spy’s honey pot. The 29 year-old suspect spy funneled Russian money through the NRA to the GOP, had a romantic relationship with a 56 year-old American, a long time Republican operative with ties to the NRA and the media.

Donald Trump may be able to take some comfort that he is not the only American ensnared by the Russians. The rest of us, however, will find no comfort in how extensively the Russians seem to have integrated themselves into our political and governing system. And this parasite continues to feed.

Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence has said the lights are blinking red like they were before 9/11, whether the Orange Whipped believes the Russians are looking to interfere in the midterm elections or not.

To get rid of the bitter taste of treason, I suggest beginning with a Russian cocktail. A classic dug up from the 1930 edition of the Savoy Cocktail Book, the Russian is equal parts of gin, vodka, and Creme de Cacao.

Shake well, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and, as the book says, “Tossitoff quickly.”

Cheers!

At Least We Still Have Alaska!

Alaska

The Treason Summit in Helsinki showed Trump’s true colors (not just orange) as a stooge of Vladimir Putin. His pathetic attempt to walk away from his comments, saying he meant to say would’t instead of would, is to believe people did not watch the full press conference.

It was, of course, of a piece with Trump’s method of berating allies (as he did at NATO just before Helsinki) while praising dictators. This was not our first example of the world coming apart, but it may have finally gotten through to at least some portion of MAGAts. Even Fox News was aghast at his performance.

We can’t be sure what was agreed to in the private meeting between Trump and Putin, but at this point the best thing that can be said about the summit is that at least we still have Alaska. After Trump’s turn as supplicant to the Russian strongman (did he say his name was Reek?), toast the preservation of our 49th state with an Alaska cocktail.

From Brad Parson’s book Bitters, the Alaska is:

1.5 oz gin

.75 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1 dash of orange bitters

Stir over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon twist

Cheers!

Breast-feeding, Ecuador, and Treason

Sanctuary

In today’s fire hose news cycle, the story about the U.S. aggressively opposing a U.N. breast-feeding resolution elicited one of those “WTF is up with that?!?” reactions before it was lost in the torrent of corruption, scandal, and crazy.

Yesterday on Twitter, @HoarseWisperer provided a very plausible potential explanation for the story, one that is gaining even more plausibility today. It is well worth the trip to Twitter to get it straight from the “Hoarse’s” mouth, but I’ll provide an overview.

The U.N. resolution encouraging breast-feeding seemed an easy and uncontroversial action until the unexpected opposition by the U.S. The NY Times headline talked of stunning world health officials. The U.S. threatened retaliatory action if the sponsor, Ecuador, did not withdraw the resolution. Even if it was doing the bidding of the infant formula industry, this was a bit over-the-top for the U.S. It ultimately passed after Russia took over sponsorship from Ecuador.

The Hoarse Whisperer explanation looks at the push against Ecuador in light of Friday’s indictments, where it seems Mueller may have Julian Assange and Wikileaks in his sights.

Ecuador, of course, has provided asylum for Assange in its London Embassy for years. The new President of Ecuador seems less thrilled with that arrangement and has expressed an openness to discussing a resolution with the U.K. As @HoarseWisperer put it:

“So, here we have:

1) Ecuador expressing openness to potentially turning over Assange

2) The Trump Admin threatening Ecuador about an unrelated matter; and

3) Mueller indicting an array of suspects on crimes leading straight to Assange

Assange is the middleman in an array of criminal activity related to Trump’s illegitimate election. He is the direct connection between members of Trump’s inner circle and now-indicted Russian intelligence operatives. Assange is directly or indirectly connected to everyone in the Trump orbit from Roger Stone to Steve Bannon to Cambridge Analytica to the Mercers…”

Today, shortly after the @HoarseWisperer thread was posted, The Sunday Times in London published a story that Ecuador is beyond open and actually talking with U.K. ministers about evicting Assange.

While watching to see what happens to Assange, have a Sanctuary cocktail. A Classic from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930 edition), it represents another London refuge from American law enforcement. The Sanctuary is:

.75 oz Cointreau

.75 oz Amer Picon (Bigallet China-China)

1.5 oz Dubonnet (Cocchi Rosa)

Shake well, strain into a cocktail glass

Cheers!

Back to Basics

Martini

There was a time when the President and members of Congress would put the interests of the United States above those of other nations — especially avowed adversaries.

Unfortunately, the summer of 2018 is not that time. Instead we have a President determined to make enemies of friends while doing the bidding of enemies. Trump tears apart our allies at meetings with the G7 and NATO while talking of ending sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. Meanwhile, a flock of GOP Senators spent the 4th of July (Independence Day FFS!) in Moscow sucking up to Putin.

Those Senators are part of a group — that includes a great many House Republicans — that seeks to end the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign participated in that interference. With elections coming up in November, the GOP has spent a lot more time denigrating the FBI and the intelligence community than it has in ensuring our election is protected against interference.

I’d like to go back to that time when the basic approach of our elected officials was to protect the integrity of our democracy rather than looking at holding on to power through the help of hostile foreign powers.

This corrosion of American values also appears to have spread to a third branch of our government, where Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy — who’s son loaned Trump $1 billion while employed at Deutsche Bank — resigned. This has given Trump an opportunity to name someone more likely to take the Executive’s side in disputes with the Mueller investigation.

The labyrinth of unethical behavior in our government right now is mind boggling, and that is just in the bits we learn every day (hourly). To best approach the complexity of corruption, it is time to simplify your cocktail. I suggest a classic Martini. I like mine as follows, but don’t complicate things. Stick with what you like.

2.5 oz Plymouth Gin

.75 oz Dolin dry vermouth

1 dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters

Stir over ice, strain into a chilled Martini glass, lemon twist

Cheers!