Tag: Democracy

Working Around the Clock

Midnight Shift

The work to save our democracy and the rule of law in America from Donald Trump and his GOP enablers is not a 9 to 5 job.

The letter summarizing the Mueller investigation from Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General William Barr is a ridiculous whitewash of things we know and an overreach of his authority that is obvious without having seen the report. It is a reminder of all the invasive tentacles we’ll have to remove.

The anti-democratic, authoritarian forces — along with their gang of traitors, grifters and careerists — will not be defeated easily. Although we still need to see his report, the Mueller investigation has become — for this generation and this fight — the “it’ll be over by Christmas” mantra of the World War II era. But this is still the early days.

Clearly, the authoritarians are well dug in and better entrenched by the day. This battle has a long way to go, but for those of us in for the duration, perhaps more people will now realize the task ahead.

There is no Mueller silver bullet coming to save our democracy. The sleeping giant of the American people need to awaken again. It will take all three shifts working against the voter suppression, the Gerrymandering, and the propaganda machine to restore America. Mobilizing the vote needs to be our weapon of choice.

Before you punch the clock, have a Midnight Shift cocktail.

The drink is the creation of Jacob Grier that I got from an old 2012 post from Frederic Yarm. The Midnight Shift is:

1 1/2 oz Novo Fogo Gold Cachaça (I only had silver)
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Galliano
2 dash Mole Bitters
1 dash Absinthe

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange twist and add a straw (although I skipped the straw).

Cheers!

Time to Carve Up Some Trump Steaks

killing floor

Hard times is here and everywhere you go

Times are harder than ever been before

                                          — Skip James, “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” (1931)

The continuing government shutdown means Federal employees are about to miss another paycheck. Every passing day puts our national security, food safety, and even our scientific understanding of the changing climate more at risk as workers can’t do their jobs – or are doing them without pay and wondering how to buy food or pay the rent.

This kind of disruption must be a dividend Putin never thought he’d get with his purchase of Trump. Of course, this isn’t only on Individual 1, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could end the shutdown anytime by allowing a vote on house measures (that already passed the Senate).

McConnell, who wouldn’t let news of Russian interference in 2016 on behalf of Trump come out until after the election, is now keeping the government closed and just lifted sanctions on a key Russian oligarch. It is almost as though he doesn’t want his suspicious activity to be overshadowed by the growing revelations of Trump’s dealing with Russia.

While Trump and his GOP enablers in Congress bring hard times to America, the newly Democratic-led House of Representatives is preparing to begin its oversight work. The recent Buzzfeed report on Trump directing Cohen to lie to Congress, its brief elevation of impeachment talk, and Mueller’s pushback notwithstanding, the docket of Democratic inquiries would be enough to take down several administrations.

The list of Trump swamp creatures and their questionable (if not illegal) activities could have House committee rooms looking like the slaughterhouses of Chicago. This will all be warmup to the main event, when Trump himself makes it to the House killing floor. Between obstruction of justice, violation of the emoluments clause and possibly treason, he is likely to get carved up into the best Trump steaks yet.

While waiting for the Hearings to begin, have The Killing Floor cocktail. Via Frederic Yarm at Cocktail Virgin, The Killing Floor is:

1.5 oz James E. Pepper Rye (I used FEW Spirits Rye, the Chicago connection seemed right)
.5 oz Bigallet China China Liqueur
.5 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth
.5 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quinquina

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Cheers!

Vive la France!

75

Today, France delivered a major victory in the fight against resurgent fascism with the landslide election of Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen.

The Washington Post set the scene well, saying:

The anti-E. U. French leader Marine Le Pen’s larger-than-expected defeat Sunday in her nation’s presidential election was a crushing reality check for the far-right forces who seek to overthrow Europe…Given one choice after another since Trump’s U.S. presidential victory, Western European voters have delivered mainstream candidates to office despite a post-November sense that an anti-immigrant populist wave was washing over the Western world. Far-right candidates in Austria, the Netherlands and France have faltered.

Many battles remain, but in keeping with yesterday’s post, let’s have a drink to keeping the world safe for democracy for another day. In this case, the World War I inspired cocktail is the French 75.

In yesterday’s post, I quoted from President Wilson’s address to Congress seeking a declaration of war against Germany, using the famous part about making the world safe for democracy. However, Wilson’s closing is also important, and also echoes the aspirations we need today:

It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.

This speech was 100 years ago, yet here we are again.

The origin story of the French 75 varies between being developed at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, or by soldiers in the field looking for something refreshing to drink. Like its namesake cannon (the one used by Harry Truman’s outfit) the drink is smooth, but packs a wallop.

The recipe as taken from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh, aka Dr. Cocktail, is:

2 oz gin

1 oz lemon juice

2 tsp sugar or 1 tsp simple syrup

Champagne

Shake gin, lemon juice and sugar over ice, pour into a champagne flute or collins glass, top with Champagne, stir gently and add lemon peel garnish.

Cheers!

Safe for Democracy?

Sidecar

The passage of “Trumpcare” by the House of Representatives sucked up most of the attention this past week, but there were other things going on that will likely have a deeper and more lasting impact.

That is not to belittle what just happened with the AHCA vote, but as anyone who has seen Schoolhouse Rock understands, this bill has a way to go before it’s law. As E.J. Dionne said in The Washington Post, “the Anti-Health-Care Bill passed on Thursday bids to be the most remarkable redistribution of income in congressional history, from the poor and middle class to the very wealthy.” He added that this heartless vote will define the House Republicans and the Cook Political Report said the vote moved ratings on 20 House seats more favorably toward the Democrats.

So, yes, the healthcare vote could have a lasting impact on Republicans, but the more troubling impact for all of us came on the international front where we continued to turn our backs on 100 years of global leadership.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a speech to State Department employees saying that too much reliance on human rights principles really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, and our economic interests.

Tillerson’s move away from promoting human rights simply follows one of Trump’s few consistent policy directions. During the campaign Trump said the U.S. didn’t have the right to lecture other countries on human rights because things are so bad here now. In the past week, Mother Jones reported Trump renamed the White House office of “multilateral affairs and human rights” as the office of “international organizations and alliances.”

The last week also saw Trump say he would be “honored” to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who he has regularly praised, and invite Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. One of the only other ways Trump is consistent (in addition to golfing at one of his resorts every weekend) is his praise for dictators and despots around the world.

All of this comes weeks after the 100th anniversary of a moment that defined the direction of America for a century. After years of keeping the United States out of the war that would become World War I, neutrality was no longer viable and on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to seek a declaration of war. A part of his address would set us on a path that only now we seem to be leaving:
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.
The United States needs to reaffirm its aspiration to these Wilsonian principles. Today we are following the misguided isolationist path of America First and raising up opponents of democracy from Putin to Erdogan (leaders of countries where Trump has financial interests).
At this point 100 years ago America was mobilizing for the Great War. Those doughboys were the ones who helped make America great in the eyes of the world, and we largely stayed that way for the past century. Despite his slogan, Trump is threatening to tear down what makes America great.
As you mobilize for this fight, have a cocktail that grew out of WWI, the Sidecar. This classic recipe is:
1.5 oz cognac
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz lemon juice
Orange twist garnish
Shake over ice and strain into a chilled, sugar-rimmed cocktails glass (sugar not pictured), add garnish
Cheers!