Tag: Vodka

Union Victories

Union

Everything Trump touches dies. During a global pandemic, that has mostly not been good. However, because Trump chose to be the second President of the Confederacy, and applied the Trump touch (the same one that bankrupted casinos) we may now – 155 years after Lee surrendered to Grant – finally be done with the “heritage” of  traitorous racist scum.

Trump and Moscow Mitch McConnell – a long-time operative in the Confederate underground insurgency – have been working hard follow their Russian overseer’s orders “divide so we can conquer,” but they overstepped during protests against systemically racist policing.

With many thousands of Americans in the streets of cities and small towns alike, mostly peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police, Trump and the Republicans pulled out the tried and true appeals to “law and order,” and the thinly veiled white supremacist dog whistle of Confederate “heritage.” In typical Trump incompetence he took the GOP playbook too far and displayed his total ignorance of, and disdain for, the Constitution and norms of American governance.

By attempting to “dominate the streets, and use the U.S. military against protesting Americans, Trump has sparked a backlash that may continue for a while. His use of the National Guard to clear Lafayette Park for his photo op with a bible showed him to be very much the fascist dictator wannabe his critics claim. You just know he wanted to put on a uniform with full Mussolini-fascist regalia for his walk to the church.

Since then, Confederate monuments have been toppled at an increased rate, NASCAR – NASCAR!!!! – has banned the Confederate battle flag from its events, and a serious discussion has begun about renaming U.S. military bases for people other than Confederate generals.

In the midst of all of this there is still a pandemic going on, with more than 100,000 Americans dead and 2 million infected. The second wave has begun with cases spiking in states that prematurely opened, largely around the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend.

With that second wave of virus on the way, it may be time to put aside another historical flag, the Gadsen flag – the Don’t Tread on Me snake popularized recently by the Tea Party Republicans. But now is not the time for thinking of oneself, but uniting to defeat the virus, wearing masks, washing your hands and keeping safe social distance. If we must have a historic snake flag flying, make it Ben Franklin’s Join or Die flag with the sliced  snake to unite the colonies.

At this moment, with the Confederacy fading, and fascists in the White House, Americans need to be united about what this country is supposed to stand for. So pull out your copy of the Constitution and have A More Perfect Union cocktail. Via KindredCocktails from Imbibe magazine the drink is:

1.25 oz Lillet Blanc

.75 oz vodka

.75 oz Apricot liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe, garnish with a grapefruit 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!

Harvey Dumps on Trump’s Wall

Harvey

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey have left behind vast devastation in Texas and Louisiana and will dump heavy rains across additional regions of the U.S. for the next several days.

While those rains are set to spoil Labor Day weekend plans on the Jersey Shore, it is important to remember that the area that has been flooded in Texas is greater than the size of New Jersey. It is also important to remember that despite Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s leading the GOP on no votes on aid to Superstorm Sandy victims five years ago, the NJ Congressional delegation has committed to aid for Texas.

Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in 2005 cost $160 billion and, while it will be a while before we get officials figures, Harvey is expected to blow that away, perhaps approaching $200 billion.

The scope of the devastation, which continues to unfold as chemical plants are not reacting well to all that heat and water, is one that will impact Texas for years, and is already having an impact on Washington. As Congress prepares to get back to work next week, they will find Harvey has helped to change the dynamic.

Besides the fact that coverage of the floods has taken some of the spotlight away from Trump, his reaction to Harvey combined with Charlottesville and his lack of accomplishments seem to have left him diminished. And this time, it seems to be holding on.

One key effect of Harvey is likely to be on Trump’s border wall. Even though some Republicans in the House have called for using $1 billion of Harvey aid for the wall, most agree rebuilding in Texas will take precedence. Headlines like “Hurricane Harvey may have destroyed Trump’s Mexico wall before a single brick is laid,” in Quartz or “Hurricane Harvey Could Get Congress Out of Paying for Trump’s Border Wall,” in Mother Jones are painting a picture Trump doesn’t want to see.

Clearly, there is no better drink tonight than having a Harvey Wallbanger. It is absolutely the type of drink you could have gotten at the Balinese on the pier in Galveston in the mid 1970s when ZZ Top was singing about it.

Essentially a Screwdriver with a float of Galliano, you could even have one while watching Congress bang bricks out of Trump’s wall with each Harvey appropriation next week.

From Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology, the Harvey Wallbanger is:

2 oz vodka

3 oz orange juice

.25 to .5 oz Galliano

Build the vodka and orange juice in an ice-filled highball glass, stir, then float the Galliano on top.

Cheers!