#maewestside

[maewestside]

TRUMPUTIN: HOW TO SPOT A DICTATOR IN FIVE EASY STEPS… by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, aka @maewestside

I’m praying for them, you know. All of them. Not between gritted teeth but with a grace I’ve learned from spiritual allies. I pause to grace, close my eyes and send healing thoughts into the universe, praying those perpetrating crimes against humanity are relieved of their spiritual maladies. The RNC was hacked and the files are holding pols hostage. At some point, they’ll have to do what’s right. I pray it’s soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been studying how a dictator comes to power, and I’ve mapped it out in Five Easy Steps so we can all recognize the signs:

1. “LYING IS THE MESSAGE”: While reading David Frum’s brilliant and prescient essay in The Atlantic from January 30, 2017, in which he predicts what America will look like in 2021 in stunning detail if we do not resist, he quotes a Russian journalist named Masha Gessen. Gessen notes that “lying is the message,” and by that she means when a dictator lies with the ease of breathing it’s to “assert power over truth.” The first lesson I learned in 2016 from a member of the Resistance who grew up in Romania: “It starts with the silencing of truth.” Today, as each Network gave “Trumputin” facetime, we witnessed the blather of nothing. As Gessen told Deutsche Welle regarding Putin, “the former spy has remained in the Kremlin despite a declining economy, diplomatic isolation and nearly continuous allegations of corruption and human rights abuses because of his ability to ‘have words mean nothing. He just keeps talking… it’s meant to create the impression that he knows what he’s talking about. But it’s also meant to drown you in meaningless stuff.’” Hmm.

Read the David Frum “Atlantic” article here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/

2. DISINFORMATION HIGHWAY: Now that we’ve established those with authoritarian leanings have no trouble lying about everything, the next step is to ensure the lies are amplified by the Disinformation Highway. A dictator utilizes multiple fronts to amplify lies: botnets, State News agencies, paid flacks and political loyalists/opportunists/consultants. There’s a lot of money in lies: as cognitive thinkers spend hours researching and refuting the lies, those on the corruption payola keep up the “theatre craft,” the tornado that creates the fog and the fury so beautifully described by Mike Mariani in Vanity Fair. Lying is a soulless gig. The truth always prevails eventually, but havoc is wreaked in the meantime.

To learn how the Kremlin creates chaos and to see if you can spot some right here at home, check out Mike Mariani’s Vanity Fair essay:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook

3. POWER GRAB: As the lies, subterfuge and the hacks on State News chip away at truth, bite by bite, and the Disinformation Highway piles up with bumper-car bots, riding roughshod over facts, what is really taking place is the consolidation of power. While cognitive thinkers cry foul, unqualified, but extremely loyal henchman are being installed into power at the highest levels. Dictators rush to replace talent and integrity with toadies and sycophants, who share in common a history of shade but offer their leaders the assurance they’ll do their bidding at any cost. When one’s moral compass is already blinky, what’s another three, four acts of corruption. Pockets will be lined, and thus, the corrupted are banking on a soft landing. That is until, the dictators turn on them and then it’s flee or plea.

4. MAFIA STATE: When a government is comprised of members of organized crime that’s what’s known as “a mafia state.” In America, we haven’t been immune to corruption, but it’s always been countered by the fact that, ultimately, we are a country of law and order. But when a leader is cultivated, financed and backed by the mob, it gets sticky. As we watch Special Counsel Mueller and his team of prosecutors navigate their way carefully, indictment by indictment, guilty plea by guilty plea, to take down a global crime syndicate, we see how naïve America has been in thinking it couldn’t happen here. We are watching our allies being alienated and dictators being praised. This is what a mafia state looks like. When a leader casts shade on our top intelligence agencies, that’s the markings of a dictator, shaping a mafia state.

For more on how it’s done, read this Deutsche Welle explainer: https://www.dw.com/en/vladimir-putin-how-a-spy-rose-to-power-and-held-on-to-it/a-43030900

5. VOTER TAMPERING: Dictators need to control all outcomes and this includes the voting systems. A dictator ensures victory at the ballot box in myriad ways: intimidation, stuffing the ballot box, voter suppression, hacking voter rolls, redistricting, hacking electronic voting databases, hacking the machines, and using bot networks to blast voters with so much false information that they will either stay home or vote for the dictator who paid hackers to advertise directly to a voter’s preconceived biases. Cognitive thinkers know about the data breaches, but we still are at the early stages of understanding just how much this digital arms race, to quote digital activist Professor David Carroll, is harming Democracy everywhere. Stay vigilant, read the latest indictment from Team Mueller and know that if we show up in gigantic numbers at the polls, we may yet have a chance to salvage Democracy. 

Ohm.

***

Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an investigative producer, mother and activist. Her short film, “Rigged,” debuted at the 2017 Orcas Island Film Festival: http://www.orcasfilmfest.com/rigged

[bigalbanks]

@maewestside 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[maewestside]

“ABUSE OF LOYALTY”: Free Press Interview with White Collar Crime Expert Tracy Green… by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

Play it like a podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKy-_kr310I&t=1850s

Click the link above to hear white collar crime expert Tracy Green explain the nuances of the Trump campaign investigation.

Green and I met cute on Twitter last spring. We were both investigating the Trump campaign FEC documents, with an eye on payments to its digital team. Green, a trial attorney, took the time to break down the prosecution tactics of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and why former Trump loyalists have been granted immunity.

Here are some of the highlights from our 40-minute interview, which took place just hours before Trump Organization’s CFO Allen Weisselberg was granted immunity (below, you’ll also find her detailed take on what that means for the Trump campaign). Green’s responses are in quotations:

"PAPER DOESN'T LIE": "Particularly in a high profile case, the prosecution can't risk making any mistakes. They need evidence and documents that no one can challenge in court. Whatever case they file, they want to make sure it's gonna be bulletproof."

"MOB" TACTICS: "Trump doesn't use email. He doesn't even like to use the mail. He likes to have things personally delivered. And he likes to have other people handle the communications. He doesn't appear to be texting. He delegates so it insulates him. When you come to try to make a white collar case...it makes it difficult because he's not leaving a paper trail." 

ON COHEN AND PECKER: "Mueller's team wants to make sure they have all the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt with documentary proof. They offered immunity (to Pecker) so they have a completely separate line of communication that's separate from Cohen, who lied repeatedly to the public. The FEC is like the IRS, we all know only one percent of the population gets audited, but if you get audited, the microscope's on you. Everything they got out of Cohen, they got from a search warrant so they didn't really even need him. Maybe he can provide the color commentary."

ON ‘SILENT BOB’: "It's hard to be patient for a process where Mueller and his team aren't giving interviews and can't. And they can't assure everyone, 'Don't worry! We'll get our man.' They're supposed to be independent. Most white collar cases take three to four years to prosecute and 98 percent of all federal cases, resolve by plea and if they do go to trial, most of the time they win."

ON WHY MANAFORT DID NOT PLEA: "Just going in and cooperating and offering evidence, can create a few problems. If you're gonna cooperate, you have to lay out everything you've done. If you were there on the grassy knoll, you've got to say you were there. It can open up all kinds of other exposure. And if he doesn't have hardcore documents that would be valuable enough, he may not get enough of a downward sentence. So just flipping isn't enough, you have to show you can make a case. He wasn't like Cohen, who's been around Trump for years. Trump has a close circle and there's no indication he would have trusted Manafort with his deepest secrets. Manafort's next trial will hit a little closer to home, and the prosecution will play it very conservatively." 

"ABUSE OF LOYALTY": "There's a criminal code of conduct. If you're doing something that's not legal and you get caught, you keep your mouth shut. But that's not how normal people operate. Normal people, would say, 'I did this, and I should have known. I'll just go in and tell people what happened.' They don't make up any lies. Trump has had a lot of litigation experience. They settle on the courthouse steps, but this is a whole different ballgame, and he had no idea. He's being held to a different standard now. It shows his own character issues."

IMPEACHMENT VS INDICTMENT: "These rules are there so things aren't political. And it is political. They need the votes and that's why no one is going to seek to impeach as long as the Republicans have a majority. Clinton knew when he had a number on his back. Does Trump have a number on his back? That's a political decision, and that should be separate from any criminal case. The general understanding is he won't be indicted and that doesn't mean he can't be prosecuted later. It's to avoid criminal prosecutions that would be politically motivated. It doesn't mean that people can’t feel Trump should be impeached because they don't feel he's fit. Keeping the pressure on and being demanding is important. Mueller's team knows this is a historic time. They want to bring integrity for the agents and they want to bring integrity to the Department of Justice."

ON ALLEN WEISSELBERG: “It is unclear whether Allen Weisselberg told prosecutors in interviews or produced records showing that Trump had knowledge of the payments in January 2017. I suspect that if Weisselberg had provided documentation to show Trump’s ‘actual knowledge’ when payments to Cohen were structured it would have been alleged in Cohen’s plea agreement. On the other hand, it was not alleged in the Cohen plea agreement that any of the two Trump Organization executives withheld this information from Trump or that the candidate did not know. 

“So we see that the plea agreement indicates that Trump directed Cohen but doesn’t say that Trump directed Weisselberg or the other Trump Org executive to make the payment. Weisselberg could have stated in his interview that he assumed Trump knew based on his conversations with Cohen or others but that he didn’t have a specific discussion with Trump. I am assuming that Weisselberg didn’t have any documents proving Trump knowledge in or before January 2017. The prosecutors have been very careful to not allege anything that they cannot prove with documentary evidence. One issue that could arise is whether any of Trump’s lawyers or the sons asked Weisselberg about the facts after inauguration or when the McDougal story broke days after the election or when Stormy Daniels’ story broke. There could be imputed knowledge or even obstruction issues there depending on the facts. 

“However, Weisselberg still appears to be at Trump Org so it would seem that he did not see the type of conflict that would make him leave the company. This will be a waiting game as the facts and documents come out. Weisselberg’s acts in structuring payments in January 2017 combined with Cohen’s plea representations, the Cohen-Trump tape in September 2016 as well as any Pecker statements that Trump knew by October 2016 of arrangements with Woman #1 and #2 will be strong evidence that Trump knew before the election of these payments. 

“Normally, I would expect that Weisselberg’s attorney would have spoken to Trump’s personal attorneys by now. In addition, if there were a subpoena for records to Trump Org it would not surprise me if its attorney asked to speak to Weisselberg or Trump attorneys as part of a joint defense. The same could be true of Pecker’s or American Media’s attorneys who could speak to Trump’s attorneys or not. So Trump’s personal legal team may know what was said by Pecker and Weisselberg and whether there is documented evidence showing Trump’s knowledge or direction at the time of the agreements with the two women.  

“Usually in a white collar case the joint defense is key to sharing information among lawyers. It appeared that Cohen was part of the joint defense and withdrew from it when he changed counsel a couple of months ago in or about June. By that time, American Media documents had already been requested and produced and Weisselberg had already been interviewed on the arrangements with the two women. So the Trump legal team may well have known by that time that Cohen was being investigated for campaign finance violations in addition to his other personal legal issues.  

“If Cohen’s attorney did not give Trump’s legal team the warm and fuzzy feeling that he was going to fall on his sword and claim that Trump never knew and perpetuate that narrative, it may explain why Trump or the Trump campaign believes there was a conflict and stopped paying for some of Cohen’s legal bills from McDermott, Will & Emery.”

****

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda is a veteran investigative reporter, free press activist, filmmaker and mother. Below, Green and Cuda marching in a 2017 Fourth of July parade.

[maewestside]

LIVE! SHOTS! FIRED! Or Each Day I Wake Up Drownin (Ten Ways to Combat the #Bot45 Blues)… by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

I once asked a tv reporter in a local market how she handled the sturm und drang of the nightly gore. She said, “Beats being the guy with the machete in his head.”

Point. Well. Taken.

Bleading meant leading, til that one fateful day, the sales guys who’d taken over the front office determined vapidity sold better in the 18 to 49 demo$ than even the quadruple axe murder bits, and by then, new$ had already lost its way. Truth wasn’t factored into the rating$.

LIVE. SHOTS. FIRED.

A famed erstwhile entertainment reporter said she knew there was trouble afoot when each night, she had the lead story in a local hourlong newscast. During sweeps.

As live shots at death scenes and backlots became normcore, and the procession of vapidity, with occasional interludes of gore, is what passed for news, brains suffer dry rot.

So here we are.

MEAN STREETS

While admiring the dewy mug of a very young Harvey Keitel in “Mean Streets,” his enlightened thuggy character Charlie utters these words: “You don’t f**k around with the infinite.”

Do you hear that Scamalot? That’s the thunderous gallop of karma approaching, catching up to each and every player that figgered he could game the system with impunity, while the Great Unwashed was none the wiser. Chaaa.

With the outing of each pervy anchorhack, a Very Vichy MSM, and digital CEO$ who bent over to the pick up the rubles from enemie$ both foreign and domestic while profiting off the mining of our data, things are looking clearer.

Not.

Time keeps on slipping… slipping… slipping… Kochdrip… drip… drip… drip. The Un-Mercer-ful bot and weaponized our data… Churchy Stinklair is buying more local tv new$. Our media is owned by churchy billionaire misanthrope$ and run by corporations.

REAL FAKE NEW$

But let’s make no mistake about it: when Scamalot cries “Fake”… that’s on a whole notha level.

Fringe Media still flatters the Real Fake President because it’s owned and operated by those who installed him as a pukey puppet #burpfarthurl. Fux und Blackbart profited bigly off the ascent of Dummkopf45, but alas, so did the rest of the media which is why it’s swi$hy. Sometimes excellent, but mostly shit. Money vs Truth… a conumdrum.

EACH DAY I WAKE UP DROWNIN’

Having spent the holiday weekend mining the brains of intellectuals, activists and good cooks to combat the blues of our country’s Current State of Fuckery, I’ve comprised a list of Ten Things that may help those who wake up to this shite each day and feel like they’re drowning, i.e., sensitive to the crushing enormity of the labor of Democracy as real fake new$ pounds our shores, while Really Bad Men (and a Few Ponzi Women) disrupt all that is good about our country to line their own pocket$ and the pocket$ of those who put them in power #sad pffft.

TEN THINGS TO PONDER AS YOU BATTLE THE KLEPTOCRACY IDIOCRACY:

1. BACK TO THE FUTURE How to End the Oil + War Economy Now and Clean Up Our Air in About 100 Years: Use Fossil Fuel exclusively for commercial air travel. We’ve known how crushing greenhouse gases are on our environment for decades but we’ve allowed penny loafered lobbyists paid for by Big Oil a seat at the science table. Enough.

2. ELECTRIC AVENUE In two decades, electric cars will be normcore. Start now. Working from home and/or giving up your wheels best thing you can do for the environment; monitoring your own carbon footprint, big step.

3. SEEK REAL NEWS Until the Fourth Estate is Truly Unshackled to Do Good Work Always, Rather Than Just Spotty Sometimes, learn who owns your news outlets. For example, the Guardian is an excellent source for American news (it’s run by a trust and doesn’t need to run truth past the sales dept) and follow our twitter crew at @foxycuda and @tahoesquaw1… while Tahoe curates the critical news from around the world and finds the truth within Vichym MSM, I try to explain its import in verbiage suitable for a postmod CyberRevo. (Thus the comparisons to Charles Dickens and Hunter S. Thompson, for which I am grateful, but also blame Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker and Lenny Bruce for illiciting my pen-to-jugular style.) We are at war for truth and that requires wit in the form of better catchphrases i.e. #treasonsgreetings

4. WE ARE THE SANE MAJORITY We, the Sane Majority, are constantly told our countrymen and women are devolving into apey, when in fact, the Sane Majority is kind, and da small base comprised of the greedy, the churchy, and those who haven’t gotten off their block of un-opportunity. Those numbers are shrinky dinking as truth grows from the concrete street art. But you wouldn’t know cuz it Vichy MSM is still writing puffpieces on Not-Zees and the various Thug$ of Scamalot, while terrifying us with continual closeups of dictators, including our own. Move along. Or just join the Fringe Apey and watch the reboot of “Jersey Shore” as your Democracy burns and more journos die globally whilst trying to warn us of fascism #sad pffft… a better idea: flip the House in 2018 and #nullify45.

5. MAFIA STATE OF MIND Thank you to Tahoesquaw1, who wouldn’t rest until she knew I watched all three Zembla docs on the Fuckery of Dummkopf45 (“The Dangerous Friends of Donald Trump”), and a new doc on the radiation poisoning of UK citizen Alexander Litvinenko (”Hunting the KGB Killers”), whose dying image serves as a reminder that radiation sandwiches are coming if we don’t speak truth to power collectively. I feel compelled to be among the twactivists that remind the kindly people who are being brainwashed by Fux und Blackbart und Churchy Stincklair, that dictator$ and anchorhack$ aren’t our friends. We are combatting evil in the form of well-OIL-ed infotainment amplified by Bots preprogrammed by enemies both foreign and domestic, and it’s leading to a major identity crisis of the churchy, who give pederasts a pass if it serves their tax bracket or real fake narrative. Peel it back and seek the truth. Eyes wide open. 

6. SING TOGETHER Who among you doesn’t have a brazen friend with a guitar? I joined Artivists LA and activist Samuel Curtis for some Resistance Caroling on Black Friday in Santa Monica, and the song we sang “We Shall Not Be Moved,” is still on heavy rotation in my mind, soothing me hourly as I recall revolutions of my youth sparked by peaceful music. Resistance Caroling is good for the soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX7OW2MJRO0&t=10s

7. BE HAPPY Although many of us haven’t felt joy due to the deranged Pageant Owner in the White House and his sub par toadie$, it’s our duty to manage self care during this time, and that means doing things that bring you some semblance of happiness. I interviewed Dr. David Reiss, one of the 27 mental health experts who authored “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and he said it’s imperative we manage self-care during these dark days and to never lose site of truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5XGeJ5Y8UI&t=26s

8. BREATHE Please be patient with humanity and remember everybody hurts, sometimes. As battle fatigue sets in for those who can’t believe a Pageant Owner Mobster is still our Real Fake President, despite how much factual information on the corruption from within we spit daily, it takes its toll on fractured nerves. If we divide troops now, we lose. We are the Sane Majority, and we will only win if we invite everyone to the party and keep them there. Even the glory hunters. Practice humility daily and realize those who don’t get it now, will eventually.

9. MOTHER EARTH Give us the keys. Y’all fukcin shit up. Imperative, we mandate the Nosferatu Cabinet of Scamalot to wear branding patches on their sleeves: #bigoil #bigtobacco #bigprison #nra #churchyfuckery #botbymercer #botbykoch #rupertscurvy etc. We can’t allow denier creeper$ to ruin our fragile environmental protections and continue to embarrass us on an international level. We already fought for these protections. GOP becoming the official doosh party poopers of the environment ramped up recently, as billionaires bot lobbyists to run interference on truth using God’s name so they could get one last $wig off the Oil + War economies. (See number one.) Use the system to get Scott Pruitt out of our EPA where he does not belong. And further, use the system to oust all the Real Fake President’s cozyboy$, aka war mongering pals thirsting for arms deal$. Old paradigm dies hard but it’s time.

10. BE DISGUSTED I was horrified to learn by a gal whose grandfather was stiffed by Trump, that many of her peers just think the Meinshit Show is funny. Ya, it’s a “Pussy” riot. Our Real Fake President cozie$ up to his dictator pal$ who kill, incarcerate, poison, torture or have people killed because they can. Go ahead, please remain comfortably numb while waiting for the door knock. Me? I’m gonna remain disgusted so I can continue fighting. Even for those who don’t get it. Especially them.

(Below, the author in Laguna Beach Nov. 2, 2016; last photo before the election. She wants her happiness back.)

[maewestside]

VICHY MSM: Or When a Writer Has to Do Math… by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

Because the things that Americans need as they sift through the debacle of Scamalot… clarity, truth… cannot easily be found in Vichy MSM, an unshackled gal like I must help clarify the narrative. When you’ve worked in corporate telly and print, you know the racket. Sometimes you’ll get some truth, and often you get the mandate from the billionare$ who sign the checks. Ergo, there’s no checks and balances on truth in reporting, so it’s difficult to find it anywhere consistently. Truth in corporate controlled media is like the rose that grows from the concrete. Cherish it.

Even the most noblest of things you see on TV are sponsored by greedcreeper$ who are cyberbombing the world with info-lie$ adjusted to ensure a winning portfolio. 

But as the rotating doors of Scamalot’s very own Stoolie$ reminds we truthseekers that THIS IS NOT NORMAL, I figgered, just as I gave you a character timeline of “Silent Bob” Mueller vs the Mob Carny, aka the “Diarrhea Tweeta,” I felt it was important for someone from #freepress to step up and count the “Fade Outs” lulz, those fired or who resigned from working with the Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened to Our Country and Certainly the Most Déclassé: the Real Fake President aka #Bot45, a full-on mental ca$e. 

So here goes, a writer who ain’t a mathemagician attempts the arithmetic of a Real Fake President who can’t control his staff lulz:

THE FADE OUTS, in order of their last appearance:

Tom Price, House and Human Services lulz… quit in di$grace

Sebastian Gorka, WH Counterterrorism Advisor lulz… re$igned

Andrew Hemming, Rapid Response Director lulz, who was tasked with peddling positive news stories to both media and #Bot45 #sad… resigned

Carl Icahn, Special Advisor… recu$ed hisself

Steve Bannon, WH Chief Strategi$t lulz… depend$ who you a$k or read, but hi$ removal put him outsky on his own tripsky, still funded by #mercercreeper and the queens of “glittering steel” lulz and getting lots of facetime on #vichymsm as loose gravel everywhere

Anthony Scarymucci, WH Communications Director… fired #burpfarthurl

Reince Priebus, WH Chief of $taffz lulz… fired lulz

Michael Short, Asst. Press Secretary… resigned

Sean $picer, WH Press Secretary… resigned lulz #burpfart

Michael Dubke, WH Communiations Director… resigned

James Comey, Director of the FBI… fired not lulz… very serious shit

Angella Reid, WH Chief Usher… “dismissed” not lulz… #trulysad

KT McFarland, Deputy National Security Advisor… reassigned lulz

Katie Walsh, Deputy Chief of Staff… dismissed? repurposed? after health care fail

Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York… fired not lulz 

Craig Deare, National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs… fired not lulz… (an example of the vainglorious #mental45 inability to not be fawned over relentlessly i.e., “kiss the ring, bitch”)

Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor lulz not lulz… #treasonweasel

Sally Yates, #shero, United States Deputy Attorney General… fired resulting in a promotion into the hearts of the American public

Patrick Kennedy, Under Secretary of State for MGMT… quit #word

Now gentle reader, this is only a fraction of reality: the night I arrived in Washington, DC, to partake in the Women’s March, I was hosted by a gent who had resigned his position in our government that evening and shook the hand of the gentleman who had hired him, President Barack Obama, on the way out the door.

My host, like many, had no intention to ever work under a Real False President, a man of such staggering inelegance whose staggering track record of failure and mobponzi-ne$$ was downplayed so profoundly by Vichy MSM which was profiting so tremendously off his rise… but I digress (stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before; and it’s not too late to sign my #cybertreason @moveon petition https://twitter.com/foxycuda/status/854824622901960704).

As we await the next resignation, firing, scandal or whatevs to oust SessionsCreeper, PruitCreeper, ConwayCreeper, the Golden Doo$h and of course the Diarrhea Tweeta hisself, we also want to remind everyone that we prolly won’t remember the names of those who bailed on #Bot45 early, but the stench of collaborator$ will last long after impeachment.

Gee, I’m guessing a few of my millionaire pals are wishing they’d listened to their only real friend in the media when I cautioned them a year ago to not take the call, the filthy lucre or the facetime.

Kliegeye is a permanent condition when the spotlight becomes an interrogation light.

#word

******

Emmy award-winning investigative reporter Heidi Siegmund Cuda’s latest film, “Rigged: A Tail of Corruption,” makes it big screen debut at the Orcas Island Film Festival, which takes place the weekend of Oct. 6-9. Cuda is one of three directors who won a grant to make a short film on the San Juan Islands. You can view her film, “RIGGED,” here: http://www.orcasfilmfest.com/rigged/

Cuda believes the world is being misrepresented by vichy media, which is inflaming hate for profit, when most of this world is beautiful and people love each other and this uptick in misery we are seeing is a for-profit stew that’s now metastasizing. 

[maewestside]

SIX FEET HIGH AND RISING: Glamazon Bravehearts of the Resistance I Salute Thee… by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

I like being the shawty of my crew: they’re six feet high and rising. 

Big brains, moxie, bravery, ne’er say ne’er spirit, and a down for whateva tude. Just when I need it the most. Reinforcements. We are bonded by our not-so-secret love of some six-feet-under goppers as well as some modern dems, flawed characters sure, but men and women who taught us much about how to survive in what is still apparently a man’s world.

But truly what we gals have in common is we allow the walls to collapse into us but just momentarily before breathing, flipping the script, cueing up James Brown, “This Is A Man’s World,” and then reminding ourselves not only of all the sisters we have on speed dial but of the men who support us. We are not alone as we soldier on, assuming the heavy load of democracy on our backs, because we knew it would not be easy, because it is never easy.

NATHIN WITHOUT A WOMAN

As we unite forces, the brainy broads with love in their hearts and warrior spirits, and the men who are bringing us not only their a-game of excellence, CEOS, PhDs, White Hats, Vets (of thee we sing), all that and a bag of gifs, all parties, but mostly the party of love. Knowledge. Kindness. More love, more knowledge, kindness, candles along clandestine alleys, Romanians, Ukrainians, Bosnians, Hungarians, invite us to follow them… as they show the horrors of the recent past so we won’t be fooled again. 

We must believe in things we cannot see.

Shit’s real, friends. 

Are we going to be Good Germans now, or are we going to be Americans, who must only look up from their televisions to see all the friends we have across the universe rooting for us to look up from our televisions. The sky is falling. It fell on your laptop, it fell on your news, it crushed the truth for filthy lucre.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Truth seekers are standing up, getting on twitter, wearing their love and unity on their sleeves, putting past squabbles behind because nothing is more important than saving democracy right now. And one of our brainy glamazon esq’s says, “No distractions. Fraudsters will lead you down 100 rabbit holes. Only two focuses: Mueller investigation and Congressional investigation.” #word 

So please as we focus on sending light to Bob Mueller… unite, march and don’t be timid on behalf of truth. Join the Bravehearts of the Resistance, you’ll make new friends. We march globally to impeach July 2 (impeachmentmarch.org).

TERMI-NADIR

We’ve descended to the bottom. It’s no longer a reality show, you don’t vote for the guy cuz he was on tv. You turn that shit off, put your nose in books, and move on with your life. Say hello to your neighbor, and stop buying into fear to sell you meds to combat that fear. Please turn off those still suffering the visible scourge$ of #rupertscurvy and #zuckerpunches. 

Please stop #sleepingwiththetvenemy.

NOT-ZZZZS

I’ll tell you a true story. Cuppla years into W’s war, ratings were sagging and I was told to find some not-zzzzs. Being punk adjacent that ain’t no thing. I made a call and found the smartest one I could find. I believe in giving everyone their best shot. So the smartest one I could find told me, “Hey, I just want to give out scholarships to white kids. There are scholarships for other races, and I feel it’s my right.”

Hmm. 

I went back into the office and said, “So there’s a show this weekend, buncha misanthropes and brigands, yeah, ‘Punkvoter,’ buncha carnies…”

https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/153932938156/slumlord-billionaires-and-other-tales-of

And so instead of delivering not-zzzzs, who will always be there in times of a ratings sag to inject fear and nonsense, I put the camera on something meaningful, Punkvoters who were rocking against W & the War. Thus I assisted my fellow Americans to feel safer about protesting a war of questionable merit. Score one for democracy.

ANARCHY IN THE U.S.A.

Ice T taught me we are here for each other, to work within the system to help each other get a leg up. When the system is kaput, anarchy ensues, and the crew of brainiacs I role with are really trying to save this country with a knowledge swap live on twitter cuz free press has no ownership. Among the innumerable cosmic things we have in common is a deep knowledge of #thuglife. 

Buncha dogooders.

Together we rise.

******

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda was just honored with a film grant to make a movie on her favorite island. She is humbled by the goodness and kindness of people she has met through the resistance, #bravehearts all.

(above art by dave zaboski, “purpose rising,” drawn at an early resistance meeting, nov. 2016, south l.a. the author sat next to him at the meeting, and watched him sketch, certain he’d gotten it wrong: women had lost. by the end of the meeting, tears had turned into strength, and she realized dave had it right and began her journey out of darkness.)

[maewestside]

A STAR SHINES: #acrosstheuniverse... by Jonathan Bucknell

A star shines #acrosstheuniverse

With light which is uniquely hers

Vast swathes of space and time traversed

Until her light meets you

Gazing happenstance a while

She meets your eyes your mind your smile

And rests there gently for a while

Her light belongs to you

For some an unknown personal meaning

Captures their hearts their mind their feelings

Which resonates sets pulses reeling

Because her light meets you

Like voices in a social force

Eviscerating those averse

To standing up against the worst

Her light will shine on truth

Receptive eyes and heart and soul

An openness to one and all

The 'power of love' choose to extoll

Her light is within you 

For those that have desire to see

From this perspective certainly

We are just one humanity

Her light resides in you

Now let us here a truth observe

This 'gentle twinkling' is converse

Great power there is in reserve

Her light shines on through you

True there is no recompen$e

No shiny thirty silver cents

For those who seek $ignificance

Her light is not for you

She therefore has no value see

To corporations GOP

And still she shines across the sea

Of ignorance and fear

That's why

A star shines #acrosstheuniverse

******

Words below also from Jonathan Bucknell of the U.K., written when he signed Heidi Cuda’s “Investigate Project Alamo” petition: https://twitter.com/foxycuda/status/866706702124498944

[maewestside]

MA$$ HY$TERIA: THE INELEGANCE OF #CYBERTREA$ON... by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

Pennywise rages in my head.

“Tonight I will rage, against the forces of fate, the tide is turning my way, you should know better than to f*$k with me…”

These lyrics on heavy rotation as my brain denies me sleep yet another night, because I am not a good German. I do not goo$e$tep. No sleep till war is done. I feel rested. 80 signatures on petition to force Facebook and the Choir Boy$ of Project Alamo to do a Big Reveal on what the $cion of Scamalot call$ “spammy” “me$$aging.” I’m hoping for 20 more signatures by Monday, so we have one Braveheart American for every #SanAntonio100, the number of #MEINTRUMPF $ilicon-$oulle$$ #collaborator$ it took to attempt to de$troy America, which is always great and which has far too much game to allow the inelegance of Cyber Trea$on to keep her feeling low too long.

Join me in tuning out #BIGFEARTV, which is just trying to $ell you $hit, and holding hands with your neighbors.

America: you’ve been cheated, and it’s okay. It’s never happened before, and it was a perfect $torm. Rating$ were down so they rounded up the u$ual $how Ponie$, and voila! TV magic. Rating$ through the roof! But truth in $hort $upply.

Billionaire Con$ in hock to bad actor$ committed Cyber Trea$on on our $oil, $oiling our $oul with the Last Ga$p of the Dying Brand of Greed.

We are a loving country, and we do not hate.

That is why I knew back in November we were undergoing gaslighting on a mass scale. The country I grew up in would never chant inelegant things about one of its Lady Leaders en masse, nor would it be tricked into believing all this loving progress we made in uniting together as humans in recent decades could be undone overnight, by $how Pony Phonie$ out to $ell you more $hit you don’t need. I investigate ar$e$ like these for lunch, and they’re one-trick Phonie$ parading around a$ better than the next guy lol.

I learned from an ol timey #gop mentor that we must always reach out to each other with olive branches not baseball bats. And from Captain & Tennille, that Love will keep us together.

So I am offering you an olive branch of love America: millions of our own were microtargeted with lie$ masqueraded as truth and tailored for their exact sensibilities by #BIG$HADYDATA whose frankencreator, allegedly and by his own admission, is in a bunker at Stanford dodging tomatoes from pals cuz he built the New-Tron CyberBomb. In his defense, he says he just built the data aggregator; Scamalot detonated it.

Sound familiar?

In multiple “exclusive$” in billionaire-owned media, the Choir Boy$ of Scamalot explained just how they did it (dumb bunnie$) #forbes #bw.

And it’s an excellent “Lord of the Flie$” postmodern parable of whu happen$ when bro$ hang in the $lummy gutter of greed too long. Things fall apart.

Remember the Project Alamo.

https://twitter.com/foxycuda/status/854824622901960704

******

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda’s petition to demand Americans get to see the so-called “dark” ads paid for by Project Alamo, who had blank checks from billionaire con$, was just signed by bravehearts from San Antonio. According to multiple billionaire-owned San Antonio “exclu$ives, #Scamalot’s $aving the children. (Just like Capone, Noriega and Escobar. Charmed I’m sure. #thuglife https://maewestside.tumblr.com/post/152395917691/thug-life-gangsters-we-have-known-and-loved-by)

Cuda, a veteran investigative producer, has seen what happen$ to the heart$ of men when they’ve been on Doo$h I$land unchecked for too long. #dooshbaggerygonewild

Below, Cuda chats with a mentor who staked her 25 years ago to move to LA during the ‘92 Uprising so she could pursue writing a book with Ice T (“The Ice Opinion”).

https://vimeo.com/213624187

(above street art of “project alamo wanted” poster began appearing in los angeles last week)

[maewestside]

BETTE DANGEROUS: And Other Women Who March... by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestswide

I’ll never forget the day Anna Nicole Smith gave up the ghost. It was February sweeps of 2007, and for #BIGNEW$ it was manna from heaven. The lovely trainwreck that was Ms. Smith was milked 24/7, with wall to wall coverage in all her boosomy glory. She was such a dish that the syndicated boy$ and girl$ trotted out her remains all the way through the holidays.

Beautiful trainwrecks are always ratings juggernauts, and they gave her facetime day after day to ensure hefty end of year bonuse$. Any time ratings sag, they go for the low-hanging fruit: jon benet (tragically, still dead); the kkk (tragically, still there); and casting shade on Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a full-time industry of the modern #gop. Even today, there’s some obscure twerp in bumf*&k who only gets ample FaceTime on #BIGNEW$ because he continues ye ol’ black widow routine on #HRC. A gag that started in an op/ed piece titled “Blizzard of Lies,” when a Nixon speechwriter got his facts wrong in the New York Times in ‘96, and no one called him out. 

Let me be clear when I say I have no respect for the modern #gop, because my #gop mentors wouldn’t suck up to the pageant queen. They would be strategically figgering out how to stabilize the union so their wives would sleep with them again. Or husbands.

They would have walked beside John Kerry and his dog at the Women’s March on Washington.

By the by, I am making a short film on the March, because when you have love in your heart, you don’t need much else. I was able to document the Women’s March on Washington because my mentors felt there might be some value in sending a news veteran there not currently shackled by a corporation. They supported a purveyor of truth in the eye of the Love Hurricane that didn’t have a foodchain attached to it. 

Voila. 

As I was seated on the plane with all the other pink-hatted enthusiasts, I was besieged with text messages warning me about danger from across the various ponds from those still tuning into FEAR TV. I gleaned from what I was reading that some thought we were marching with the baby killers and castrators. Whatevs. I haven’t watched a moving screen with a multitude of dizzying banners willingly since I exited stage right. Seated next to me was director/activist Dave Ambrose, who slipped me a dvd copy of the Greg Palast expose, “The Best Money Democracy Can Buy.” (I promised to watch it on my mini DVD player after I finished my study of Bette Davis in 1935′s “Dangerous,” where she performs Shakespeare ‘drunk,’ thus winning her first Oscar.)

Thanks to the generous support of some badass punk rockers, reformers, artists, and activists, a girl like I was able to be on that plane and present at The Revolution on behalf of #freepress. 

I was blessed to be teamed with a Veteran of the Fourth Estate as my running mate, producer/videographer Doug Ross. With a modified rig and a gopro strapped to my chest, it was veni, vidi, vici baby. We came, we saw and we conquered corporate controlled media.

#Freepress is slicing through the pre$cripted narrative and gumming up the works with a surgical precision that could only come with decades of #BIGNEW$ expertise and the kindness of strangers who repurpose my work on twitter. 

No small feat when you consider the enormity of the money chain we’re disrupting. Each initial headline I read by #BIGNEW$ about the March confirmed that they’d missed the point entirely. A real revolution was taking place, while they were still showing reruns of the pageant guy carny. It was just as well. 

The entire world united in love to show solidarity to those marginalized by the Billionaire Boys Club that scripts the #BIGNEW$ narratives, so it would make sense they didn’t get the memo. (As people argue one station is better than another, I remind them when a half dozen multinationals own most of the media, and billionaires own the rest, whose truth are you getting? )

As I flew into DC on the second plane I’d hitched to get to the March around midnight Friday (I didn’t care to make any appearances during the day on Friday. You could catch a carny act like that any night for a five spot and a pulse), unfortunately a moving TV image caught my eye. 

Because I suffer from Post Traumatic New$ Syndrome, I can’t watch tv but as I deplaned late Friday, I was assaulted by a headline in the airport, which referred to the Slovene as our first lady. Waterworks ensued, and I went into a brief emotional tailspin, but recovered almost as quickly, as I saw a fellow marcher in a full body catsuit and platform combat boots. (As an aside, please send the Slovene light. She needs this country’s kindness right now. This mess wasn’t her idea.)

As my crew and I met up the next morning to stroll among the million women who marched, we also danced and shimmied with the men who love women, and elderly men, and babies in strollers, and women who flew in from Sweden and Australia and Ann Arbor. 

Yes, a salty 100-year-old gal from Ann Arbor offered #freepress this sage advice: Ms. Mary Parker says women have come very far (she should know, she made her appearance here on earth three years before voting was legal for women). But she admonished, we still have very far to go and the way to get there is through hard work. 

Ms. Parker herself is no longer able to walk. So she rolled.

As I enveloped my soul in that sea of unbridled love, intentionally interviewing women of a certain age for their wisdom, we spotted two little women from New York. They were standing on a wall, with a captivated crowd, singing: “When I say ‘girl,’ you say ‘power.’ Girl! Power!” I watched them go through it a few times till they’d exhausted themselves. And even though you’re not supposed to stage in the field, the spirit of Bette Davis knocked me out of the director’s seat and in her Yankee voice, I heard myself saying, “Okay girls, now once more from the diaphragm!” With the poise of two mini queens, they sucked in some air, and let it howl. Doug Ross got it on wax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfFp5xqCl5w

******

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda followed the advice of her muses and wrote her own narrative. Below, Mary Parker and her daughter, at the Washington Monument, Women’s March on Washington, January 21, 2017).

[maewestside]

Of Ghosts and Spirits and Spies

By Heidi Siegmund Cuda

On September 17, 2016, at 3:02 pm, I pressed send on my first Resistance blog: “Dooshbaggery, and Other Things I Resigned From,” on my Maewestside Tumblr. On that day, the investigative producer who had schooled me informed me Trump would win the election.

It was an eviscerating narrative on the decline of the newsroom, and as soon as I pressed send, I knew there would be no going back into corporate media. Good fucking riddance. At the time it seemed a fair trade - I simply did not want a veteran con man and pageant guy to be president.

In that moment, I was no longer a full-time inhabitant of planet earth. I also began to inhabit Twitterlandia. I was up all night and into the morning investigating Trump and the goons in his orbit 24/7. In a few short months, I wrote dozens of columns, warning people on the fraud, pyramid schemes, unpaid debts, underage girls, all the grifts, all the hustles, the money laundering of a fake rich guy. I typed until my fingers bled, tweets littered the floor, my bedroom turned cold as I did what any mom and investigative reporter who found herself unshackled by a corporation would do: I reported. I wrote about his gaslighting. I wrote about “real fake news” before he uttered the phrase. I wrote about a “real genuine phony.”

Despite knowing he would win, on the night of the election, my back toward the TVs behind the bar at the Peking Palace in Downtown Los Angeles, I could see the red bouncing off the mirrors. My then-partner looking panic stricken as he tried to comfort me and tell me it was just the early returns. Like millions of people globally, I woke up that next morning to a bitter world, the fight ahead. I promised my poet daughter, tears rolling down her cheeks, I would make it right and get him the fuck out of there, not knowing at the time it would take the full term. I made it to the Women’s March in D.C. to document it on film, because I knew corporate media would get it wrong, and they did.

“(Trump) may not be good for America, but he’s damn good for CBS.” Fuck you, Les Moonves.

Sigh.

So the rift in the space and time continuum that resulted in the real fake presidency of a fake rich guy has now revealed the black hole where his heart should be. Trump is under criminal investigation. Not just for his central role in inciting a violent attempted coup but for potential espionage.

‘Ghosts and Spirits’

In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Chapter XXIII, On the Use of Spies, he writes:

“Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy.”

So let’s look at Trump’s people, his frens. They are foreign agents, or spies, or have weird entanglements in mafia states. They do their dirt in broad daylight, emboldened by pardon fraud, by Trump’s own nefarious foreign entanglements.

One day, and the day may be coming soon, Trump’s cult is going to learn he never cared about America or them. He played them. He used victim ideology to make money off them.

Let’s consider his frens:

Tom Barrack, Trump’s former advisor, charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government; Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, who admitted lying about his work on behalf of the Turkish government, and who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his links to a Russian ambassador; Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, convicted of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in relations to his work for a Putin proxy in Ukraine. Roger Stone, Trump advisor and longtime fren, charged with lying to Congress amid the probe into Trump-Russia. They all lied to cover up their crimes, allegedly and by their own admission. Manafort went to prison, Flynn and Stone, were pardoned, and Barrack is going to trial this month. Trump’s disgraced former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is a target of Georgia’s criminal investigation into election interference. The home of Jeff Clark, Trump’s outside lawyer, was raided by federal agents while he was left on the lawn in his underwear. Trump’s other outside lawyer, John Eastman, also had his electronic devices seized by federal agents.

‘Stop Me If You Think That You Heard This One Before’

And that’s just the short list. To read about the rogues gallery who enabled America’s first illegitimate presidency*, click here. More felon-spies are documented in my “witch hunt” thread.

Now let’s look at the some of the oligarch affiliates of Trumplandia. Konstantin Malofeev was recently indicted, and the Fox News producer who worked for him Jack Hanick was arrested in London for violating U.S. sanctions. Both Viktor Vekselberg and Oleg Deripaska had their properties searched and oligarch yachts are being seized globally. And lest we forget the plethora of recently deceased oligarchs, of defenestrations, bizarre quote unquote suicides, petro execs meeting unpleasant endings. Dead men tell no tales.

And speaking of defenestrations, Trump may want to stick to one-level abodes for awhile. The latest in federal seizures occurred at Trump’s Florida beach hotel, which was visited last month by federal agents who found more than 11,000 government records, with dozens marked Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential.

‘Violence and Chaos’

Both Trump and Flynn are ratcheting up violent rhetoric as if they know their days to unfreedom are hastening. As my podcast partner, Jim Stewartson, tells me, they need violence and chaos for them to have a chance of staying out of jail.

Despite media distortions, President Joe Biden’s brilliant speech on Maga Republicans drew a very distinct line in the sand: domestic terrorism will not be tolerated.

That includes ex-presidents and retired generals.

‘Lying On the Record’

On November 10, 2017, as I battled the Great Information War with furiously typing fingers, I documented the Lying Liars of Scamalot, the Trump associates who had lied to the FBI.

It seemed a bit of madness, that lies had become so normalized.

I wrote: “Next thing you know, video will surface of the Real Fake President pulling wings off flies. His lawyers will call it science.”

These are dangerous men, and they’re running out of time.

#ArrestDonaldTrump

#ArrestMikeFlynn

****

Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an independent investigative reporter and politico. To support her work or buy her independent book documenting her early Resistance writings, please go here: https://ko-fi.com/heidicuda15373. Below photo: Banksy Spy Booth.

[maewestside]

TRUTH IS OXYGEN - Writing Through the F*ckery of Our Times

By Heidi Siegmund Cuda, aka Maewestside

Life is beautiful. I found beauty in the work.

I who have nothing but the power of my pen found beauty in the Great Information War. The people I met along the way, the people who couldn’t be gaslit. The pain seems so inconsequential. The value of truth far greater than the pain.

The things I lost along the way, family, lovers, security, the price of this war is steep. I need truth like oxygen. And even on those nights, when my heart is spun up and spun out, I keep writing. Because someone somewhere is going to read it, and gain or offer another clue to the fuckery of our times.

Yesterday, the RadPod team interviewed Evita March, a brilliant cyberpsychologist. We talked a lot about psychopathy, sadism, and the empathy deficits of internet trolls. This war has given me a third eye, I see through the slime trails of troll venom to the desperate tragedies behind the keys, both foreign and domestic.

That Grotesque had a very bad day. I’m here for it.

As my recent reporting in Byline Times indicates, the mob roll up has commenced. I knew it would take this long. I was promised a summer of raids and arrests. A Republic, if you can keep it.

I am playing Jawbreaker until it bleeds, my room lit up with a thousand floating hearts and neon ghosts whispering to keep investigating, to keep writing.

Truth is oxygen.

****

Heidi Siegmund Cuda is a politico, investigative reporter, and an anti-fascist mother.

[maewestside]

Some Kind of Magic: How I Survived the Deception Wars with the Relentless Pursuit of Truth, by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, aka Maewestside

The imaginary hours. Wide awake at 2 a.m., researching, posting, digging, poking. Tweets strewn about the bedroom floor. News delayed is news denied. I am a veteran investigative reporter, who resigned from corporate controlled media just in time to be a useful warrior for truth, unshackled and loud. It’s 2017, and I am abandoned in my own home, my pursuit of truth during the Deception Wars was inconvenient. I am alone, and I’m fighting for truth to see sunlight during a time of grave deception. It’s my raison d’etre. No sleep.

I got into the war for my children. I am first generation German-American. I can’t be silent during a time of massive injustice. I am an environmentalist, who can’t be silent when our planet is at stake. I am a trained reporter, who can’t be silent when I knew the real fake president* was a veteran con man, who used people as for-profit marks. I had investigated all his ponzi schemes and knew him for who he was. For this, I am now banished in my own home, living in my daughter’s room, while my children are away at college. 

I began printing the truth prior to the election of 2016, punching through every angle to cut through the noise of deception, to cut through the billionaire-funded lies. I had to be brave, the loneliness was crushing.

Nevertheless, she persisted. I cut through the bigotry and the for-profit hate, countered the misogyny and brute normalization. I made it to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. And then something beautiful started to happen. A network of strangers began forming alliances, all in the relentless pursuit of truth. It was some kind of magic. Suddenly, I was no longer alone. I would push an investigation as far as I could, and a new European ally would post a clue so I could keep going. We crowdsourced our work and supported each other during profoundly dark days. The unthinkable was occurring: global democracies were under siege. A greed-union between a Russian war criminal and his henchmen, and money laundering Americans posing as businessmen. The war criminal trying to bootstrap his way back to power on the cheap.

Someday I’ll write a book and dedicate it to each and every one of you who lifted me up and encouraged me to keep going. Those of us who used our real names to fight this war suffered the slings and arrows of unloved trolls, who were just following orders from St. Petersburg and its London annex. Through our activism, some of us even found love. Disdain replaced by compassionate support. Homes now filled with warmth.

We’ve never known how this story would end. How the biggest traitor in world history would go down. We can look to history for clues: Manafort’s clients either flee to Moscow or meet unfortunate endings. Revolutions are messy things. Just ask the ghost of Tsar Nicholas. A con man does not go gently into that dark night. Most autocrats are dictating to hide their financial corruption, so it would behoove the real fake president* to exit stage right without fanfare, retiring to the old oligarchs’ home. Some would prefer he face life in prison, because treason is still a thing.

I do know that we are about to see what is left of America, what kind of stuff she is made of. I am hopeful, I am emo, I am awake. 

[maewestside]

KEEP YA HEAD UP: Legends Never Die, They Just Multiply

by Heidi Siegmund Cuda aka Maewestside

Every time you hear a 2Pac song, he’s reborn again. Each time another street-fighting hopeful enters the ring, Muhammad Ali lifts the rope.

We are the City of Angels, and angels are everywhere, sending indirect signs, helping us to keep our head up even in moments of great despair.

That love you feel for Kobe Bryant, that’s something special, something to carry in your heart. As long as he’s in your heart, he lives on forever.

Legends never die, they just multiply—schoolyard poets, writing licks on scraps of paper at recess; middle school athletes blessed with talent working as if they had none, because that’s what Kobe did.

The lessons they left behind, schooling us, a piece lives on in every heart that beats.

TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA

The impromptu weeklong memorial for Kobe and his daughter Gianna brought out the angels en masse. A courteousness and a grace permeated the crowd of mourners, decked out in that incongruous pairing of gold and plum, forgiven by aesthetes because the colors have come to embody greatness.

Anyone who saw Kobe play knows he’s legend. I got to see a 65-point game on March 16, 2007, where the Lakers were down by seven points in the last minute and a half, and with grace and ease, Kobe just kept nailing those three-pointers, leading the Lakers to victory over Portland. I remember thinking that he was the most graceful court dancer I’d ever seen, only learning this week just how hard he worked for those moves.

SHED SO MANY TEARS

Kobe once said, “I was blessed with talent though I worked as if I had none.”

That right there. Legends work hard. We only see the results. Fred Astaire glided across the dance floor as if on clouds of air, but the perfection was the result of endless practice.

Muhammad Ali danced like a butterfly and stung like a bee because he trained six days a week, shadow boxing, pounding the bag, sparring—not because he liked it but because he knew if he didn’t quit, he’d live the rest of his life as a champion. Word.

In the last year of his life, 2Pac would tell his driver to pull over so he could jump out and grab a spiral bound notebook, lyrics flooding out of him that he had to capture, instinctively knowing his time on earth might be short. His poetry, forever etched into our consciousness.

MAN OF THE PEOPLE

On night number five in downtown, the Kobe vigil was in full swing. Family units, travelers from Nicaragua and Tallahassee, women in stilettos, cuz, you never know. Vendors selling Kobe scarves, churros, handmade key chains, bacon wrapped hot dogs, his image etched on wood carvings, tshirts with the wings that were tattooed on his bicep now adorning his back.

I stopped for a pair of street tacos, asking the women preparing them what Kobe meant to her. She told me, “He spent time with us, the people, you know. He wasn’t above anyone.”

She said he stopped by her restaurant and refused to jump the line, telling her to treat him just like another customer. She wiped away a tear with her gloved hand, as I put four bucks in her fanny pack. There’s little doubt in my mind Kobe would have appreciated the entrepreneurism his tragedy inspired in the locals.

I walked through the streets admiring the freshly inked arms, reflecting how we mourn in L.A., with tattoos and paint, body canvas and abandoned buildings. Even if you didn’t hear the news that Sunday morning, all you had to do was drive through the streets, the handiwork of taggers already paying tribute. “RIP Kobe,” in Olde English, covering aged bricks.

HOW TO BE A MAN

“Dear Kobe, thank you for teaching me how to be a man, on and off the court,” wrote a fan on the canvas outside Staples Center. On a scrap of binder paper next to a flickering candle with “Long Live Kobe” written in sharpie, a mourner wrote a four stanza poem, the third stanza reading: “Oh what it means, to be a dad, Oh what it means, to rise from bad.”

At their best, legends make us better people. They make us work harder, strive for more and teach us to overcome adversity.

L.A. is an imperfect place, beautiful and flawed. The legends that spring from here are brilliant, beautiful and flawed. But it’s the brilliance and beauty that stay with us.

CALIFORNIA LOVE

The world is mourning the loss of a legend, but L.A. is mourning the loss of family. The kindness of strangers that permeates the downtown vigil is a moment for L.A. and one I cherish.

Kobe murals are popping up throughout the city, a sea of post-its creating a rainbow of love. So much raw beauty in this City of Angels.

As long as there’s a can of paint, the whirring of needles and archival footage, Kobe Bryant, like Pac and Ali, will flame eternal.

***

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda wrote the first book of rap, “The Ice Opinion” with Ice T; and “Got Your Back”, with the bodyguard of 2Pac. She also authored “Crazy Fool: Portrait of a Punk” about Sublime’s Bradley Nowell, and “Definition of Down” with Darlene Ortiz, an original b-girl and Ice T’s first wife.

[maewestside]

DIPSOS AND THE GIMMIES: PRESIDENT TROLL’S CLASS OF 2017…WHERE ARE THEY NOW? by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

I remember when I had my first beer.

I also remember when I had my last. With nearly two decades sans alcohol, maybe that’s why I have clarity to recognize the maladies of the dipsomaniacs, zapoys and gimmies surrounding President Troll. Upon closer scrutiny, there’s no shortage of DWIs, drug allegations, assault charges, money-love and drinking games linked to affiliates of this current White House. Clearly, being loaded probably helps lackeys justify their lackings. Truth, being the most lacking. Me, I’m just lactose intolerant. Truly, I love everyone. 

But with the avalanche of lies spewed forth this weekend by President Troll and on Vichy MSM (which just can’t seem to get over its addiction of giving facetime to stooge$), I feel it’s helpful to stay rooted in reality and offer up sobering facts to calm one’s noives. Thus, reducing the need for the general public to imbibe, toke, sniff or pop to battle the sour ennui of witnessing a president* battle PDS (Putin Derangement Syndrome, an ailment first diagnosed by Simon Tisdall of the Guardian).

To counter the ever relentless and mutating phony narratives, here’s a roundup of the goings of some of President Troll’s erstwhile staffers and advisors. Whether they suffer from spiritual or physical maladies, may they get well soon.

SCOTT PRUITT: The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency spent the better part of the year defending the GOP’s “freedom to pollute,” (catchphrase, courtesy Paul Krugman), justifying his first class travels and cheap digs rented from a top energy lobbyist. Embroiled in myriad lawsuits, Pruitt submitted his resignation in July after multiple corruption investigations. EPA staff now have to figure out what to do with his $43k private phone booth. Washington Post reports Pruitt allegedly made only one outgoing call to the White House on his fancy phone. Score one for the “fiscal conservatives.” Alas, Pruitt will likely go down in history as the worst choice for one of the most important offices in America. 

REX TILLERSON: It seemed a good fit: an oil industry captain as Secretary of State (lol), until Tillerson went rogue by backing the British government’s findings that Russia was guilty in the nerve agent attack in the U.K. That’s when Putin’s Apprentice went full nutter and fired Tillerson…on Twitter, which is where the former Exxon CEO learned of his dismissal. Those who would like to congratulate Tillerson for calling the president* a “moron,” can find him hosting a charity ball next month, with events taking place at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth and the Fairmont Dallas.

MICHAEL FLYNN: President Obama warned Trump not to hire Flynn. The rest is tragic history. Flynn, who forever will be haunted for leading a chorus of “Lock Her Ups,” is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to the FBI. The shortest serving National Security Advisor, Flynn admitted he had discussed Russian sanctions with the country’s Ambassador during the transition, after it had been disclosed. Currently, the three-star lieutenant general is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his ongoing probe of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

MICHAEL COHEN: Trump’s former personal lawyer just surrendered to the FBI today and no matter how President Troll tries to spin it, it’s bleak news for Trump Inc. Cohen reached a plea agreement with prosecutors investigating payments he made to women on behalf of Trump: pleaded guilty to eight counts and said he made illegal campaign contributions "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office." Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said Cohen had "testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime." Wow. And a disturbing tweet from Cohen a few days before Christmas in 2015 did not age particularly well. He Tweeted: “@HillaryClinton when you go to prison for perjury, your room and board will be free!” 12/19/2015. And so, here we are. Another carny en route to the Big House.

PAUL MANAFORT: Trump’s former campaign manager is in jail for witness tampering, while awaiting a jury verdict in the first of two trials for conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, money laundering, failing to disclose lobbying efforts on behalf of foreign entities and tax fraud. To truly understand the tragedy that is the rise and fall of Paul Manafort, check out “Russia, Are You Listening” with Matt Bevan on ABC Australia: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/russia-if-youre-listening/paul-manafort-the-dictators-fixer/9924894. Working with dictators of questionable integrity appears to be his sweet spot, and clearly, the money was never enough. THIS JUST IN: Jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts. Whispers of a pardon already fluttering in the air.

GARY COHN: In an effort to drain the swamp, Trump hired the president of Goldman Sachs to be his top economic advisor. Cohn, who stepped down after a year and is credited with helping to steer the massive tax cuts, reportedly resigned over Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, which Cohn opposed. Cohn, the former chief operating officer and president of Goldman Sachs, is currently unemployed. He was replaced by Larry Kudlow, whose well documented past with substance abuse resulted in his firing from Bear Stearns but didn’t get in the way of obtaining security clearance in the Trump administration.

STEVE BANNON: Referred to as a “parasite” in search of a host by a former Breitbart colleague in USA Today, Bannon has been on a global populist tour, acquiring facetime anywhere he can get it. The former Chief Strategist for the White House, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, the co-founder of the former Cambridge Analytica and the former husband of a third wife accused of smuggling drugs into a prison, Bannon is not exactly winning. You wouldn’t know that, however, if you tuned into MSNBC or ABC News or the New York Times or the Hill or NPR or CNBC or Newsweek etcetera over the last couple of days. Vichy MSM is falling all over itself to give the gasbag coverage. A petition is trying to ban him from stepping foot into the U.K., and billionaire Robert Mercer, who aided and abetted Bannon’s wingding aphorisms by funding the hacks of Cambridge Analytica and the spreading of hate rhetoric along the disinformation highway, is no longer bankrolling him. Although he’s been trying to find a new sponsor and continues his Leni Riefenstahl film career, he’s been publicly rejected by rightwing Euro-fascists.

ROGER STONE: The longtime friend and former advisor to the president* has indicated he is the unnamed source in Mueller’s latest indictment, and eight of his associates have now been interviewed by Robert Mueller’s team of prosecutors. Although he’s backpedaled on comments that he met with Julian Assange and had insider knowledge of the DNC hack, Stone acknowledged trading messages with Guccifer 2.0, which according to the Mueller indictment, is a front for Russian intelligence officers.

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: This sordid tale starts in a bar with Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. Whilst drinking in London, Papadopoulos told Alexander Downer, Australia's top diplomat to the UK, that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos soon thereafter struck a plea deal with Mueller's office, admitting to one count of lying to the FBI. He is now awaiting sentencing, with Mueller recommending six months.

OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: As Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci and Hope Hicks have learned, being a member of the Trump Admin isn’t exactly an enhancement on one’s resume. Manigault Newman one upped her former colleagues by going bigly. She didn’t just write a book and do the circuit, she kept receipts and is dropping them daily. I knew how much trouble America was in when moments after the 2016 Electoral College Victory Heist was announced, the Hollywood Reporter printed an “exclusive” feature on Manigault Newman’s elevator ride with Trump to accept the real fake presidency*. In the article, she threatened those who would not submit to Herr Trump, and I knew we were in for a long, ugly haul to regain the dignity of our country. Since no one who seeks redemption is beyond salvation, score one for reformed trolls everywhere.

HONORABLE MENTION:

ANDY PUZDER: I used to tell Andy I was his only friend in the media, so of course, he blocked me. Truly, I begged him not to hitch his star to the pageant guy, because I knew there was no way it would end well. He ultimately withdrew his nomination for Labor Secretary after allegations of abuse serviced, allegations he denies. A vocal supporter of Trump on the campaign trail, Puzder is now the former CEO of Carl’s Jr. and is currently promoting his latest book, “The Capitalist Comeback.” As someone who once produced and hosted a business series, the bottom line in the long run: it’s integrity that’s bankable.

***

There’s a theory that everything Trump touches turns to poo, unless Russia is picking up the tab (see Zembla docs on “The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump” for clarification). It’s understandable why a six-time bankrupt mob patsy would have allegiance to his providers de rubles, so calling former staffers ugly names and slandering our top intelligence agents is simply part of his job requirements as Putin’s Apprentice.

Yet as ugly as this divide in our country is, I am a firm believer that this too shall pass. We’ve weathered ugly before as a country, when that lame duck Buchanan was our president. Buchanan did nothing to prevent a country divided and handed over the keys to the White House to Abraham Lincoln with a shrug, leaving Lincoln to clean up his mess. It’s been awhile since the American people were tested and we were broadsided by Russia’s long game. It’s up to us now to save the republic, and I’m staying close to the truth and those who provide it.

To quote that great philosopher Winnie the Pooh from “Christopher Robin,” it appears I’ve come to the end of my thoughts.

Bottom’s up.

****

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda is a veteran investigative reporter, screenwriter, activist and mother.

[maewestside]

PRESIDENT TROLL GOES CLUBBIN’... by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

Among the things I learned as a nightlife columnist for the Los Angeles Times, nothing clears a dance floor faster than playing Nico at last call. Lights up, party’s over.

Among the things I’ve learned as a free press activist on Twitter, nothing kills a thread faster than an oily botnet of fake resistors. They’re like throwing a stink bomb on a dance floor. A serious bumout. No one wants to stick around when the trolls show up. After two years of this shite, I block and move on but the thing is, bots are inflicting real damage to democracy.

Unlike 2016, when Russia was programming fake love for Putin’s Apprentice, aka Donald J. Troll, the latest bots appear to be part of the Resistance. They appear to be anti-Trump; but they’re really anti-democracy. And you will know them by their trail of divisiveness. Anyone trying to divide the Resistance is not one of us. They’re bot. 

Working on a recent Congressional campaign with a stellar grassroots team and a brilliant candidate, we faced troll-venom daily. We faced constant personal attacks and of particular note was the hits we’d take when we had good news to share--out would come the coordinated Twitter bots. They’d show up as soon as we posted our good news, and they’d start spreading negative juju. Hateful, racist, ignorant lies, often cloaked with the pretense of defending democracy or lobbying for another candidate. Because we have friends in high and low places, it was easy to determine many weren’t real people at all, but part of an elaborate scheme to depress and suppress the organic narrative with disruptive dialogue. Geolocators revealed the trolls weren’t local. In fact, they were from all over the world, part of a botnet, a zombie network.

The term botnet, short for robot network, can refer to automated accounts that are legitimate, deployed to publish headlines and amplify real stories. But the malicious Twitter bots I’m referring to produce false narratives and fake followers for anyone willing to pay for them. They not only feign popularity for the buyer, they manipulate debates and twist public opinion in perfidious ways that are difficult to prove and prevent. Despite Twitter’s recent bot sweep--it was all quiet on the western front for a few weeks--I’m watching the return of these joykiller bots as we near the mid-terms. Particularly alarming: if a candidate appears to be popular due to botnet boosting, real people think they’re backing a winner. In fact, they’re backing a fraud (or someone who has no problem paying for fraudulent activities).

Troll armies are a cunning, cheaptrick by bad actors. The reason Russia pushed them hot and heavy in 2016 is they’re effective. Bots influence the dynamic of real discussions and opinions and ultimately, impact real elections.

As a veteran investigative reporter, I knew something was amiss back in 2016. There simply wasn’t that much hate in the world. I’ve brought cameras and pens into people’s homes for 30 years and know most people are good and kind and just trying to get by. I read Mueller’s troll farm indictment through tears. Everything I knew to be true was right there in black and white. Our intelligence agencies, fighting for democracy.

So what does President Troll do as the Mueller investigation zeroes in on truth? He clubs his detractors by churlishly taking away security clearances, and his best boys and gals are diminished to crude catchphrases when they’re no longer obsequious flatterers.

Oh what a tangled web.

I moved to Los Angeles in the ‘90s to write a book with Ice T. Among his mantras that always stuck with me: “Freedom of speech… just watch what you say.”

The fact is, we’re in a disinformation war and President Troll is clubbin’ everything and everyone that gets in the way of his tangled web of deceit. When he revoked the security clearance belonging to John Brennan today, the light of liberty dimmed just a bit more.

So here’s a question: Are we going to go gently into this dark night, handing over democracy without a fight? Or will we fight the power?

As voters showed up in record numbers this week, while neo-not-zees not so much (as I’ve written a million times, halfwits can always be dredged up during a ratings sag), the numbers appear to be on the side of democracy.

Let’s do something very American. Let’s face the music and dance.

****

Author Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an investigative reporter, filmmaker, political consultant and mother.

[maewestside]

THE SHELF-LIFE OF ANCHORHACK$: A Deeper Look at the Resumes of Scamalot... by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

In trying to ascertain why gungy grifter$ cling so close to the Real Fake President that it’s unseamly and unmanly, I finally zeroed in on the malignant trumpery afoot: many of the Diarrhea Tweeta’s cozyboy$ have one thing in common: they’re anchorhack$… former, current and some so vainglorious they’ll say anything for Vichy MSM FaceTime. 

Among the “Conservative Talk Show Hosts” of the inner circle jerks of Scamalot:

Mike “Devotional Gaze” Pence

The VP became uber churchy after two failed political runs, one featuring an ad campaign that revealed himself to be a bigot, and it wasn’t until he picked up a radio microphone and became the calm voice of bigotry and misogyny that a career was born. Freepress sources in Indiana tell me the churchy bit became amplified after an evangelical$ bailout over a bunk family oil deal (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2006/10/1/252402/-). Until being selected to run as VP of Scamalot, Pence was on his way out as Indianans had had enough of hi$ churchy routine. Jane Mayer of the New Yorker likens his “devotional gaze” directed at the Real Fake President as a look usually reserved for first ladies.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/mike-pence-talk-radio-225855

Sam “Weird Science” Clovis

Another wannabe politician who failed in his run for Iowa State Treasurer in 2014, Clovis had built a loopy fringe following through his conservative radio talkshow, “Impact With Sam Clovis,” where he espoused the usual info$lime found in bigoted pockets of AM radio. Clovis, not only hosted a radio show, he also blogged racist bull jive about President Barack Obama, and although he claims to be an academic, his writings reveal a tosser who calls climate change junk science and opines that legalizing same sex marriages could lead to nefarious chicanery. Now that it’s been outed Clovis talked to the Feebs about his role in RussiaGate, he withdrew his nomination for a position a grifter like he had no business being considered for in the first place: the Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist. To be sure, an anchor fomenter denier is some kinda weird science. Add sketchy to the resume and pffft.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-appointee-sam-clovis-was-a-birther-called-eric-holder-a-racist-black

Anthony “Ten Day$ of Infamy” Scaramucci

Aside from sperience at Goldman Sachs and “private wealth management,” Scaramucci joined Fox Business Network as a correspondent in 2014. He was fired ten days after his announcement as White House Communications Director. During his brief Scamalot stint, Scaramucci joined such White House talking heads as former Fox & Friends host, Heather Nauert, who currently serves as a spokesanchor for the State Department, and Lara Trump, who debuted her impression of a Fox propagandist for the Real Fake President’s Propaganda TV #sad.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/08/02/lara_trump_s_debut_as_an_anchor_is_part_fox_news_part_amateur_vlogger_100.html

Steve “Blackbart” Bannon

Anyone who knew Andrew Breitbart says he’d be puking in his grave. Once Bannon, the creeper of #glitteringsteel lulz and Cambridge Analytica, took Mercer’s cash, it was on. After Mercer’s original pick for president, Ted Cruz, flopped, he assigned Creeper Bannon to MeinTrumpf and we all know how well that worked out as the global dom nature of glory hunters blasé blasé. But all you have to do to feel their erstwhile brolove is have a listen to Breitbart Radio to see how flattery directed at MeinTrumpf will get even fringe grifter$ a gig in Scamalot. Below, WaPo’s foxy David Fahrenthold gives a blow by blow of the blowhards hit parade:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/clips-from-breitbart-radio-show-reveal-trumps-relationship-with-stephen-bannon/2016/11/15/5854c606-ab89-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_video.html?utm_term=..4443115d90d0

Sean “Shammity” Hannity

Although Shammity doesn’t hold an official position in Scamalot, the veteran Anchor Hack serves as Chief Apologist. In that position, Shammity not only is fending off pervy accusations of his own, but British government regulators just ruled his infoshow breached impartiality rules. In addition, his creepy coverage of the Roy Moore creeper-circus resulted in Keurig Coffee pulling ads off the Shammity Show today. Although I’m no fan of throwaway living, and prefer a French press with no filter or single use components, I do applaud businesses withdrawing support of veteran dooshe$ who assisted in turning our fathers into bigots (latest count: five advertisers have bailed). 

Remember when the boycotts aimed at his fellow anchor pervs started? Ya, turns out the shelf life on Anchor Hack$ finally expired in 2016 but America’s just batting cleanup.

Keep yacking boyz. You’re burying yourselves.

******

Author/columnist Heidi Siegmund Cuda is a free press activist, screenwriter and film director. Her short film, “Rigged: A Tail of Corruption,” made its big screen debut at the Orcas Island Film Festival in Oct. 

You can see “Rigged” at riggedfilm.us