The strange rise of Pete Buttigieg

So Pete Buttigieg seemingly has come out of nowhere. Actually South Bend, IN a suburb pf nowhere. Somehow this guy no one had heard of a year ago has managed to become one of the front-runners in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Prresidency. On the surface, it doesn't make sense.But dig a little deeper and nothing about Buttigieg makes sense. How did a guy with no resume', no ideas, and no charisma manage to transform hiumself into a political power player overnight? And when I say "no charisma," I'm being generous. Dude is creepy as fuck. I don't know how he was able to be the mayor of South Bend when he lives in Uncanny Valley.

It's like he's learned how to immitiate human emotions and facial expressions, but it still just isn't quite right.
I mean, my God - when he smiles, my blood runs cold!

I've only ever seen one other person whose smile was so chilling, so malevolent, so sociopathic.

But anyway, that's neither here nor there. His not-quite-human demeanor is the least weird thing about the Buttigieg story. (And I will continue to refer to him as Buttigieg, not as "Mayor Pete," because I've finally learned how to spell Buttigieg and I'm kinda proud of myself.)


So what's so odd about Buttigieg's CV? Well, let's start with his military service. I didn't think there was anything strange about a young man having served in the army until yesterday when I saw this:

Pete Buttigieg is misleading voters about his ‘military’ record. He pulled some strings and got in with no training, no boot camp, no anything and very briefly did office work in a cubicle on a base in Afghanistan for a few weeks and quickly left: https://t.co/tSBqJEgBzK

— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) February 9, 2020

How is that possible? Apparently, there is a way to join the military without going through boot camp, but the Wall St Journal won't let me read the article without subscribing, so I don't know what it is. But somehow, his entire military career lasted about 9 months, according to this article in The Hill and that time was spent

. . .in the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) in Kabul, The ATFC “identifies and disrupts Taliban, Al-Qaida and other insurgent financial support networks in Afghanistan.”

Because that seems like a typiocal posting for someone who joined the Naval Reservs 10 minutes earlier. And who majored in History and Literature at Harvard. And then worked for a business consulting firm specializing in downsizing and price-fixing. Seems like the exact sort of person to be tasked with disrupting the flow of money to the Taliban and Al Queda. And I would have thought he was maybe a small cog in the ATFC machinery, a pencil-pusher, a number-cruncher. But no, according to the Hill:

Buttigieg represented ATFC at “high level briefings,” the documents say, and “coordinated intelligence sharing and targeting deconfliction” methods with multiple organizations.

">And he did this, mind you, WHILE serving as the mayor of South Bend. How does that work? Who gets elected mayor and says "Well, I've got a lot of spare time on my hands, think I'll join the Navy?"

Buttigieg’s reserve training took place at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, where he studied to become an intelligence officer. There, Buttigieg’s background as a McKinsey consultant and his Rhodes scholar pedigree earned him a direct commission into the Navy.

Harvard, Oxford, Rhodes scholar, McKinsey Consulting - that is checking all the boxes for guy who gets recruited by the CIA. (Or MI-6)

Buttigieg’s reserve training took place at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, where he studied to become an intelligence officer. There, Buttigieg’s background as a McKinsey consultant and his Rhodes scholar pedigree earned him a direct commission into the Navy.

Of course he did! Of course he fit right in with those FBI agents. I'd be surprised if he hadn't.

So that's pretty suspicious.

Then there's his odd little "Vacation" to Somaliland.

Which we will have to discuss in part 2. But I will leave you with this article from USA Today:

Exclusive: With 218 foreign policy endorsements, Buttigieg targets a big Biden asset

More than 200 foreign policy and national security professionals, including dozens of veterans of the Obama administration, on Monday are endorsing Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg for president.
Among those from the Obama administration who signed the statement are former Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, former deputy CIA director David Cohen, former Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon, former Under Secretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez, former State Department adviser Vali Nasr, former White House associate counsel Tess Bridgeman and former National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.
The list of 218 names also includes Anthony Lake, national security adviser for President Clinton; Peter Galbraith, former deputy U.N. envoy to Afghanistan; Virginia Rep. Don Beyer; a dozen former U.S. ambassadors; and former officials from the State Department, Pentagon, CIA, NSC and elsewhere.

Whaty is it that would make this collection of spooks, coup-plotters and regime-changers throw their weight behind a small-town mayor from Indiana?

What indeed?

They'll find a way to blow it.

Many years ago, when I was a kid, I was at a Giants baseball game with my dad and siblings when my dad ran into someone he knew from work. This was back when the Giants were terrible.  They chatted briefly and my dad mentioned the fact that the Giants were leading the game and his friend said "don't worry, they'll find a way to blow it." Well, the late 70's Giants got nothing on today's Democratic Party.

How do you screw up a caucus this badly?
The good thing about caucuses is the transparency. Everyone can see for themselves if their candidate has more votes than the other guy or whether Smith has more supporters than Jones or whatever. Everyone writes their choices on a card and signs it. No touch screens, no black-box voting, no reason to suspect fraud. So, is there a way for the Democrats to eff this up? They've got an app for that!

Shadow, Inc. is the name of the company that built this app. They are either a subsidiary of a company called ACRONYM, or ACRONYM merely invested in Shadow no one seems to be able to tell for sure.

(from the Intercept)

Kyle Tharp, a spokesperson for Acronym, released a statement on Monday night downplaying his company’s affiliation with Shadow.

“ACRONYM is an investor in several for-profit companies across the progressive media and technology sectors,” Tharp said. “One of those independent, for-profit companies is Shadow, Inc, which also has other private investors.”

But previous statements and internal Acronym documents suggest that the two companies, which share office space in Denver, Colorado, are deeply intertwined.

Former Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook may or may not have been involved in building this app, he denies it but everyone seems to think he was. Who knows?

Is something shady going on? I don't think so. Occam's razor and the recent history of the Democratic Party both indicate incompetence, not malfeasance. But for Gpd's sake why would you allow the company that is going to tabulate the votes to take money from two of the candidates? It just makes you look bad. It looks like a conflict of interest.


(via Daily Beast)

Those hiccups had already caught the attention of conspiracy theorists who noted that Shadow received tens of thousands of dollars last year from the presidential campaigns of Democrats Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. Those payments were simply for use of the company’s text messaging technology.

Seriously? There weren't any other tech companies out there whose text-messaging software you could use? You know, so it doesn't look like you're bribing the refs? So you wouldn't open the door to this kind of speculation?

This right?

The poll that has been released right before the election in Iowa for 76 years straight was scrapped because Pete’s team complained.

And Pete’s team funded the company that built the failed election app in Iowa.

And Pete declared victory before results released?

— Shaun King (@shaunking) February 4, 2020

Now it's Wednesday night and we still don't have the complete results. Which has allowed Pete Buttigieg to declare victory, Joe Biden to announce that he is "going to walk out of here with our share of delegates.," and Amy Klobuchar to state that she was "puinching above her weight," and Elizabeth Warren to say the race is "too close to call." Now, eventually we are going to get the complete vote tally and delegate count, and by all accounts, it's going to be Sanders and Buttiegieg wwith the lion's share of the delegates. But if Sanders, or any other candidate, finishes ahead of Mayor Pete, after Pete already declared victory, his supporters are going to think they were robbed. And they will have good reason to think so. When Warren's supporters find out that the race was not actually too close to call, it just took forever to get all the votes recorded and that Warren underperformed expectations, they're going to think she got screwed. That the app stole votes form her or whatever. Sanders supporters are already assuming that the delay was intentional and done for the purpose of hurting Bernie.

No matter what the outcome ends up being, this debacle is going to undermine the electorate's faith in the democratic process. It's bas enough that Republican idiots are already taking it as an article of faith that voter fraud is rampant and millions of "illegal votes" were cast for HRC in 2016 (whatever that means) we sure as hell don't need Democrats also thinking that elections are rigged.


None of this needed to happen. The Iowa caucuses have been going on since 1976. And it's been working relatively well. The process is too convoluted and it discriminates against potential voters who don't work bankers' hours, but there was never any problem with precinct captains phoning in the vote tallies. But some geniuses looked at the process and thought "no, we need to be able to use a smartphone app for this."

This is how corporate America thinks. I am a tiny cog in a small wheel in a Fortune 500 company. Over the last couple years, the company has been on a mission to take applications off of the desktop computers and move them to smartphones. Do the new apps have all the same features? Nope! Are their features that are gone now that made the job easier? Oh yes. But smartphone apps are the shiny new toys of corporate America, so they're inherently better, right?
I actually got to talk to one of the tech guys and tried to explain to him how the old application worked better than the new one and he just kept repeating "it's old technology. It's gotta go." These people have no concept of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."


So the Democrats, the only party imaginable that would be capable of losing to the dimwit son of an unpopular one-term president and a senile, racist game-show host with a string of bankruptcies behind him, of course take the same approach.
The old system works just fine?
 So what? It's old technology. We have a shiny new app that will make it batter!

 Have you tested the app?
No need! It's a shiny new smartphone app, it will, by definition, be better!

There's really no problem with the current system, no one is asking for an app..
We got a fancy new app!

But. . .
an app!

It really should be almost impossible to lose a second time to Donald Trump, now that the country has seen him in action for 3+ years. But don't worry. Democrats will find a way to blow it.

Weekend Playlist -- Going Home

Hopefully, at least a few of you have noticed (and mourned) my recent absence from the interwebs.

Verrrry funny, Zahid from the best show on Netflix Atypical! Very funny!

This has been due to a couple factors, one is that a couple co-workers quit so I've been working a lot of overtime in their absence, and two, I've been a bit under the weather. So, inspired by the way I've been feeling at work all week, today's playlist features songs about going home or wanting to go home.

Bad Ads -- E*Trade

Don't get mad, Get E*Trade.

So, this is the premise of this ad. There are people out there who have hoarded so much wealth that they've run out of legitimate ways to spend it and are purchasing yachts for their dogs. And we aren't supposed get mad. We're supposed to believe that, like the regular guy in the ad, we can, on a waiter's salary. invest so smartly in the stock market that we too can become fabulously wealthy so that way everyone's happy! Right? I mean, as an hourly wage-earner, there's really no reason you shouldn't be able to save up a little nest egg and then invest all of it in the Wall Street casino and then probably your stocks will double in value, then double again and again until your meager pitiful little life savings becomes a vast fortune. Because that's how it works, right?
Are you poor? Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Are you struggling to make ends meet? Well, whose fault is that? Yours, of course, because youi aren't doing what the smart dog-yacht-owning people are doing and increasing your wealth exponentially with on-line investing. What are you stupid or something? All you have to do is go on line, put in all the extra money you have lying around, pick a stock that is going top be the next Google or the next Amazon or whatever and bingo bango you're rich!

It reminds me of the old Steve Martin bit about how you can be a millionaire and never pay taxes. First - get a million dollars.

Fun with Headlines

All headlines via Yahoo News.

U.S.

Kentucky miners block coal train over missed paychecks

Associated Press•January 13, 2020

Look, I said the big beautiful clean coal jobs were coming back. I didn't say the paychecks were!

World

World War III Won't Start Over Iran, But It Could Start Thanks To North Korea

The National Interest•January 13, 2020

yeah. . . I'm sure this guy




is going to bring about the third world war. Let me know when he's done invading Poland.

World

The Reason Why China Refuses to Use Nuclear Weapons First in a War

The National Interest•

Um, because they're not insane monsters? Is this really a mystery to someone?

World

The Trump administration is warning allies to stay away from Huawei — but not everyone's listening

•

Wow, hard to imagine why our allies aren't heeding the advice of Dumbfuck McAderall!

Politics

Trump reportedly authorized the Soleimani strike 7 months ago, throwing a wrench through his argument that there was an 'imminent threat'

Business Insider•

Breaking News: Trump lies all the time about everything!

Politics

Pelosi warns McConnell, Senate Republicans they will 'pay a price' if they engage in 'cover-up'

USA TODAY•January 14, 2020

Yeahhhh, no they won't. There is never a price to pay if you're a Republican. They've all been ignoring subpoenas and deciding they don't feel like testifying and there have been zero consequences for any of them.

U.S.

Arkansas governor defends decision to accept new refugees

Associated Press•

Jesus Christ! Did you ever think we'd get to a point where public officials would have to explain why they are behaving like decent human beings?

Politics

House Democrats launch probe into Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy

Oooohhhh, a probe! That'll show him! I mean, this despicable policy has only been in effect for how many months now? You Dems sure you want to take such drastic action already?

World

How the Army Is Training European Militias to Stop a Russian Invasion

The National Interest•January 14, 2020

Washington is hoping that armed and trained civilians could spot and help stop a Russian invasion before it seized territory.

Oh my God, they think Red Dawn was a documentary!

U.S.

U.S. Navy: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Budget (and More Boats)

Popular Mechanics•January 14, 2020

Whaaaaaaat??? A branch of the military thinks it needs a bigger budget? What's next, NFL receivers who think they aren't getting thrown to often enough?

World

Andrew isn't the only prince with ties to a sex offender: Prince Charles once supported a bishop convicted of molesting more than a dozen young men

Yeah, pretty sure every member of every royal family has ties to at least one sex offender.

U.S.

I flew Spirit Airlines and had a nightmarish 34-hour delay with terrible customer service, and I'll never use the airline again

Business Insider•January 14, 2020

Yeah, that's not news. Someone having a positive experience with Spirit Airlines would be news.

Politics

They Donated to Trump’s Inauguration. Now These Big Donors Are Funding His 2020 Competition

The Daily Beast•

Gee, it's almost as if rich assholes like to bribe politicians from both parties. Weird, that.