The Fat Man Grovels for Shelly Adelson's Dirty Money

The signs of our now fully decayed system of democracy are evident just about everywhere that one looks the days. From the ongoing travesty of the Obama administration and the neocon forced march into the jaws of what could be World War III with their ongoing pursuit of the head of Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the garish displays of greed and political fixing that has now overtaken anything that occurs in the voting booth. The latter of these would be the disgusting orgy of political fecklessness that was the Republican Jewish Coalition parade of political whores that is taking place in sin city. The parade of aspiring Republicans jostling for the money of the grand chiseler that is casino magnate Sheldon Adelson in which they prostrate themselves in front of a man whose true loyalties lie outside of our domestic borders is a shameful exhibit of garishness of which there are few equals.

Adelson, the ultra-right wing Zionist billionaire who counts among his personal friends the lunatic Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is right up there with the phony libertarian Koch Brothers and Wall Street bloodsucker Paul Singer when it comes to Republican party sugar daddies. I by no means undertake this diatribe without blame for the equally disgusting Democrats who have their own money machine to which they similarly prostitute themselves out to but the for sheer spectacle it just doesn’t get any worse than the GOP. Desperate to repel the likes of Rand Paul and Justin Amash as well as the growing libertarian influence within the ‘big tent’ the gaggle of aspirants to engage in the coming political scrum with the queen in waiting Hillary Rodham-Clinton to claim the office that will be vacated by the hated Barack Obama come January of 2017 is a carnival of perversion without equal in America.

Adelson pissed away a fortune gambling on Republican losers in 2012 including plowing tens of millions into the always futile presidential run of one Newton Leroy Gingrich, the philandering fascist dwarf whose big ideas including going to the moon turned him into a mockery. Adelson then continued to gamble heavily on the doomed horse Mitt Romney, he of the White Horse Prophecy who in a winnable election against a loser like Obama still managed to crap the magic Mormon underwear.  Adelson is nothing if not tenacious but as there is no such thing as immortality that fat Hebrew toad might as well spend as much of his loot as possible before taking the dirt nap.  Other than dodging accountability for his casino gambling empire there is one thing that old Shelly wants most of all and that is to have the US do Israel’s dirty work by attacking Tehran and turning it into the largest glass surface on Earth. The line of those who crawled up on their bellies to the kingmaker was filled with the undignified types who would gladly do exactly that if they could land the support of the rotten old bastard. 

Shelly and the Shellbacks

I recall a certain vomit-inducing exercise from back in my days when I served in the United States Navy – during a thing that was called military service that none of those fucking vile pricks on display can claim to have participated in – becoming a Shellback. This refers to the rite of passage of sailors who have been on a ship that has crossed the equator and despite the thoroughly disgusting and repulsive nature of the festivities is a thing which puts one in an exalted status.  I excerpt the following from Wikipedia:

The two-day event (evening and day) is a ritual in which previously inducted crew members (Trusty Shellbacks) are organized into a "Court of Neptune" to induct the Slimy Pollywogs into "the mysteries of the Deep".[citation needed] Physical hardship, in keeping with the spirit of the initiation, are tolerated, and each Pollywog is expected to endure a standard initiation rite in order to become a Shellback.[citation needed] Depending on the Ocean or Fleet AOR, there can be variations in the rite. Some rites have discussed a role reversal as follows, but this is not always a normal feature, and may be dependent on whether a small number of Shellbacks exist to conduct the initiation.

The transition flows from established order to the controlled "chaos" of the Pollywog Revolt, the beginnings of re-order in the initiation rite as the fewer but experienced enlisted crew converts the Wogs through physical tests, then back to, and thereby affirming, the pre-established order of officers and enlisted.

The eve of the equatorial crossing is called Wog Day and, as with many other night-before rituals, is a mild type of reversal of the day to come. Wogs—all of the uninitiated—are allowed to capture and interrogate any shellbacks they can find (e.g., tying them up, cracking eggs or pouring aftershave lotion on their heads).  The wogs are made very aware of the fact that it will be much harder on them if they do anything like this.

After crossing the line, Pollywogs receive subpoenas [4] to appear before King Neptune and his court (usually including his first assistant Davy Jones and her Highness Amphitrite and often various dignitaries, who are all represented by the highest ranking seamen), who officiate at the ceremony, which is often preceded by a beauty contest of men dressing up as women, each department of the ship being required to introduce one contestant in swimsuit drag. Afterwards, some wogs may be "interrogated" by King Neptune and his entourage, and the use of "truth serum" (hot sauce + after shave) and whole uncooked eggs put in the mouth. During the ceremony, the Pollywogs undergo a number of increasingly embarrassing ordeals (wearing clothing inside out and backwards; crawling on hands and knees on nonskid-coated decks; being swatted with short lengths of firehose; being locked in stocks and pillories and pelted with mushy fruit; being locked in a water coffin of salt-water and bright green sea dye (fluorescent sodium salt); crawling through chutes or large tubs of rotting garbage; kissing the Royal Baby's belly coated with axle grease, hair chopping, etc.), largely for the entertainment of the Shellbacks.

Once the ceremony is complete, a Pollywog receives a certificate [5] declaring his new status. Another rare status is the Golden Shellback, a person who has crossed the Equator at the 180th meridian (International Date Line). The rarest Shellback status is that of the Emerald Shellback (USA), or Royal Diamond Shellback (Commonwealth), which is received after crossing the Equator at the prime meridian. When a ship must cross the Equator reasonably close to one of these meridians, the ship's captain will typically plot a course across the Golden X so that the ship's crew can be initiated as Golden or Emerald/Royal Diamond Shellbacks.

When my US Navy ship, a Hull Class destroyer went through this traumatic yet ultimately cathartic ceremony I recall that our version of the "Royal Baby" was the nastiest, dirtiest senior petty officer on the ship and that the pollywogs were forced to suck a nut out of the fat slob's belly button I was able to skip that part only because when I got there I vomited all over the obese bastard and it was such a mess that there was a good deal of confusion until they got it all cleaned up. I do still have my Shellback card though which along with an x-rated business card from the legendary Subic City brothel "Marilyn's" is a prized possession to this day.

Leading the parade of those who would suck the peanut out of Shelly’s obese hairy navel was one New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who was fresh off of being “cleared” of any involvement in the Bridgegate controversy by his own internal investigation. It was the equivalent of Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante doing an internal audit of the Bada Bing Club but the lickspittle media will swallow it whole. Porky Soprano had to apologize profusely for having once dared to refer to the land which Israel has stolen from the Palestinians as “occupied territories”, such is the aversion to the truth in this country circa 2014. After his renouncing his most horrid transgression of telling the truth Christie waddled back into the good graces of Adelson and assumed his place with the rest of the con artists crawling through the swill to the foot of his throne. Another prominent governor joining Christie is the union-busting Koch whore Wisconsin kingpin Scott Walker, not sure how well that his dallying with Adelson will go over with the brothers Charles and David but an opportunistic piece of shit like Walker covers all of his bases and like a snake is possessed of zero loyalty.

One of the more troubling aspect of American politics in the neocon dominated era of post September 11, 2001 is the fixation on what benefits the state of Israel – or more appropriately that extremist element that has manifested itself in their government – to the detriment of what is good for America. It is not arguable that the Middle East wars of aggression undertaken in consistence with the PNAC/Clean Break neocon doctrines as well as the ongoing US defense of Israeli human rights abuses only serves to create more enemies for America. Former George H.W. Bush administration Secretary of State and Chief of Staff  James Baker once infamously remarked "fuck the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" and while this was probably just a bit too inclusive it was back in the day when the Republican party didn't turn the recognition of the state of Israel into a cheap and perilous partisan issue. This may be good business for the surveillance security military industrial complex that is just drooling over the prospects of ‘another 9/11’ for wealth beyond their wildest dreams but it is bad policy and dangerous as well. It serves neither America or Israel wall and there will come a day when those who like Adelson and the neocons who have sowed the seeds of discontent will reap the whirlwind.

As the late H.L. Mencken once pegged it: "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods" and it was ALL for sale at the Venetian Resort over the weekend.

(Image: Reuters)

Chris Christie's Colossal Abuse of Power

Watching the presidential hopes of anointed Republican savior Chris Christie go up in flames like the Hindenburg, another gas giant that met an untimely demise in New Jersey is a well needed bit of comic relief along the daily path to the great collapse. The New Jersey Governor, long a favorite of the corrupt GOP establishment of the Karl Rove wing of the party has been brought low by the very trait that so endeared him to so many, his arrogant, sarcastic, bullying way of doing business. He enraged the so-called tea party wing with his appearances with Barack Obama last fall prior to the presidential  election when Barry visited the area ravaged by Superstorm Sandy and gobbled up media coverage touring the ruins. This must have enraged the Romney campaign to no end but as it was the typical mess of a corporate run operation filled with micromanagement, egomaniacs and yes incompetence it was well on the way to blowing up without the help of the rotund one's sucking up to the hated Obama.

The issue that has brought Christie down, very imaginatively dubbed “Bridgegate” by the state-corporate media that really must have tapped their creative reservoirs to come up with that one is all about the wanton abuse of power that has permeated every institution in this once great country. The good Governor, a big fat blowhard of a bully if there ever was one has been caught in the middle of a nasty political reprisal scheme that involved aides within his office ordering lane closures on the George Washington Bridge under the pretense of a bogus traffic study. Two access lanes to what is said to be the world's busiest bridge were closed off for days creating a nightmare of gridlock. It appeared to specifically affect the town of Fort Lee where the mayor allegedly failed to support Christie in his recent reelection campaign. The resulting traffic fiasco likely cost businesses millions of dollars, screwed hundreds of thousands of innocent taxpayers caught up in this political vendetta and impeded the ability of emergency services, including ambulances from getting the sick and injured to medical care. This included a 91 year old woman who perished after paramedics were delayed from reaching her in a typically timely fashion. The lawsuits are going to be coming very soon and what is to this point known is only the edge of the scab that is about to be peeled away.

Christie, being the stand-up guy that he loves to boast about immediately began throwing staff members under the bus, claiming ignorance and conducting a press conference that was at times a monumental exercise in self pity as well as a shameless forum for the dispersing of  more of the same self serving horseshit that the fat man is used to serving up. First off the claim that it was a few rogue staff members like longtime buddy David Wildstein who according to El Gordo was a person within that buffer zone of accountability that is the “circle of trust” brought shame upon the Republican establishment front-runner by “betraying” that very trust. Wildstein may be perfectly willing to fall on his sword for his former boss, constantly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a state legislative committee inquiry but Christie’s story stinks. First of all he is a control freak along the lines of Tony Soprano and those who ran afoul of the HBO series mob boss either ended up sleeping with the fishes or received a visit from a baseball bat wielding thug like Paulie Walnuts. Think Nixon and the “cancer on the presidency” that led to the paranoid former president throwing his trusted aides to the wolves until there was nobody left but him to devour and we all know how that ended up.

It is also a nice bit of schadenfreude being enjoyed by many as they watch this sordid spectacle unfold and the very media that embraced the fat man from Jersey now descend upon him like a pack of rabid dogs. There are no more puff-pieces about the lap band surgery this week as all but the crooked party establishment types like Rove are now fighting a two-front war against the drooling Democrats as well as the so-called tea party. Christie’s joining his cohorts like Peter King in kicking Senator Rand Paul around are now likely envisioning roasting the fat pig on a spit.  Judson Phillips, the leader of Tea Party Nation (one of the group that hijacked the original libertarian movement and helped to turn it into servile GOP shock troops) could barely conceal his glee when interviewed by CNN:

"This incident is proof that once again the most dangerous place on the earth is the spot between Chris Christie and his presidential ambitions," Phillips told CNN.

"I strongly suspect there will be litigation as a result of this and the beauty of litigation is the truth will come out. I strongly suspect there is much more to this than what Chris Christie let on in his news conference."

Phillips is correct that there will be litigation and one would expect that those sacrificed by Christie are already in the process of cutting deals with prosecutors for copping to lesser charges by rolling over on the loudmouthed narcissist.

Justin Raimondo of the libertarian website Antiwar.com nailed it in his most recent column “Lessons of Bridge Gate”:

In Chris Christie’s world, there are no constraints: stop traffic to get back at a political rival? Spy on Americans? Violate the Constitution? Violate the trust of the people who elected you? You just go right ahead – because you’re Chris Christie, for Pete’s sake! Rules are for the Little People! When you’re a high-ranking member of the political class – when the "donor class" comes begging to you to run for the highest office in the land – the rules don’t apply. You’re exempt – just ask James Clapper.

Christie exemplifies everything that’s wrong with America, not only politically but psychologically: putting aside his "big government conservatism," the man’s a bully. The problem, however, is that America loves a bully. Videos of Christie going ballistic and telling off various of his constituents for daring to question his ultimate wisdom are part of what made him famous – and attractive to the "donor class" as a putative presidential candidate. And while he’s kept his (horrible) foreign policy views relatively close to his vest, so far, if he’ll cause a major traffic jam in his own state to spite a political rival what would he do to spite a rival nation – and what kind of consequences would it augur for the rest of us? I shudder to think about it.

Governor Christie is exactly the type of man that is attracted to positions of power in this land of lost honor and broken dreams and were he to manage to stomp his way into the White House he would make Obama’s pettiness and penchant for politics look like a third grader running a lemonade stand. Christie would being with him his entire rotten entourage of cronies and gangsters who would resemble more the Sopranos than the founding fathers. Christ, he could even appoint a stone fascist like Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. Just imagine this guy with the control of the war machine, the bully pulpit and the unrestrained surveillance powers of the NSA Stasi at his command.

Fortunately thanks to “Bridgegate” that more than likely is not going to happen; he has been hoisted upon his own petard although it required a heavy duty forklift for the task.