;)
August 16, 2022
Morning/Afternoon Update:
The New York Times is live-updating primary election results.
Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Tuesday signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, an ambitious measure that aims to tamp down on inflation, lower prescription drug prices, tackle climate change, reduce the deficit and impose a minimum tax on profits of the largest corporations. At a bill signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, Biden praised the legislation as among the most significant measures in the history of the country. 'Let me say from the start: With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,' Biden said. His administration had begun amid 'a dark time in America,' Biden added, citing the coronavirus pandemic, joblessness and threats to democracy."
Luke Broadwater & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog, who is under criticism for his handling of an investigation into missing Secret Service text messages around the time of the Capitol attack, is refusing to cooperate with congressional demands, even blocking his employees from testifying before Congress, two top Democrats said on Tuesday. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the Oversight Committee, and Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Joseph V. Cuffari, the Homeland Security inspector general [and a Trump appointee], demanding that his office comply with their requests for documents and transcribed interviews.... The clash is the latest development surrounding missing text messages from around Jan. 6, 2021, that were sent and received by Secret Service agents and later erased." CNN's report is here.
It/s not theirs, it's mine. -- Donald Trump, to aides attempting to get him to turn over documents to the National Archives ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Pat A. Cipollone and Patrick F. Philbin, the White House counsel and his deputy under ... Donald J. Trump, were interviewed by the F.B.I. in connection with boxes of sensitive documents that were stored at Mr. Trump's residence in Florida after he left office, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Cipollone and Mr. Philbin are the most senior people who worked for Mr. Trump who are known to have been interviewed by investigators after the National Archives referred the matter to the Justice Department this year.... Mr. Cipollone and Mr. Philbin were Mr. Trump's representatives to deal with the National Archives.... Mr. Philbin tried to help the National Archives retrieve the material, two of the people familiar with the discussions said. But the former president repeatedly resisted entreaties from his advisers.... Mr. Philbin is among eight people who currently or used to work for Mr. Trump who have been contacted by the F.B.I. since a grand jury was formed this year."
Betsy Klein of CNN: "First lady Dr. Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, her spokesperson said Tuesday. 'After testing negative for Covid-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening. She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive,' said Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director. The first lady, who is double vaccinated and twice boosted, is taking Paxlovid, Pfizer's antiviral drug.... The first lady is currently in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, with President Joe Biden, who is due to return to Washington for a bill signing later Tuesday."
Jaclyn Diaz of NPR: "Former California Rep. TJ Cox is facing dozens of federal charges related to allegations the Democrat participated in multiple fraud schemes, including one involving his run for Congress. The Justice Department released details Tuesday of the 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, one count of financial institution fraud, and one count of campaign contribution fraud against Cox. He served in the U.S. House for a single term, from 2019-2021. During the 2018 race, he narrowly defeated Republican David Valadao.... Cox lost the rematch against Valadao. According to federal prosecutors, Cox's alleged schemes spanned years, at least from 2013-2018, and involved multiple frauds. Cox allegedly targeted companies, both for-profit and nonprofit entities, he was already affiliated with, according to the unsealed indictment. In two different fraud schemes, Cox illicitly netted more than $1.7 million from diverted client payments as well as company loans and investments that he solicited and later stole, according to prosecutors."
Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the plea agreements for a Maryland couple who had tried to sell submarine secrets to a foreign country, arguing that the prison time for one of the defendants was less than some low-level drug dealers receive. The couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, originally pleaded guilty in February to charges that they took part in a conspiracy to sell submarine secrets. Their plot had started to unravel almost as soon as they put it in motion, when Brazilian intelligence officials turned over to the F.B.I. a letter the couple had anonymously written in 2020, offering to sell nuclear secrets. The disclosure began a lengthy effort to learn the couple's identity and retrieve the secrets they stole. Mr. Toebbe had agreed to a deal that would send him to prison for 12 years, while Ms. Toebbe agreed to serve three years, which would have likely freed her in two years."
~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Primary Elections. Steve Peoples & Mead Gruver of the AP: "Tuesday's [primary] contests in Wyoming and Alaska offer one of the final tests [link fixed] for Trump and his brand of hard-line politics ahead of the November general election. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney ... is fighting to save her seat in the U.S. House on Tuesday as voters weigh in on the direction of the GOP. Cheney's team is bracing for a loss against a Trump-backed challenger in the state in which he won by the largest of margins during the 2020 campaign. Win or lose in deep-red Wyoming, the 56-year-old daughter of a vice president is vowing not to disappear from national politics as she contemplates a 2024 presidential bid....
"In Alaska, a recent change to state election law gives a periodic Trump critic, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an opportunity to survive the former president's wrath, even after she voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial. The top four primary Senate candidates in Alaska, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election, where voters will rank them in order of preference.... Murkowski is the only pro-impeachment senator running for reelection this year.... Endorsed by Trump, [Sarah Palin] finished first among 48 candidates to qualify for a special election seeking to replace Rep. Don Young, who died in March at age 88, after 49 years as Alaska's lone House member. Palin is actually on Tuesday's ballot twice: once in a special election to complete Young's term and another for a full two-year House term starting in January."
Ben Gittleson of ABC News: "President Joe Biden plans to sign the Democrats' massive climate, health and tax bill into law on Tuesday at the White House, marking a major accomplishment for his domestic agenda less than three months before midterm elections. Biden will deliver remarks and sign the bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, at an event in the White House's State Dining Room, the White House announced Monday. It will likely be a smaller ceremony, with Congress out of session and most members involved in the bill's passage out of town."
Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department objected on Monday to making public the affidavit used to justify the search of ... Donald J. Trump's home in Florida, saying its release would 'compromise future investigative steps' and 'likely chill' cooperation with witnesses. In a 13-page pleading, filed in a federal court in southern Florida in response to requests by The New York Times and other news organizations to make public the evidence included in the document, prosecutors suggested that the department has undertaken a broad, intensive inquiry into Mr. Trump's handling of some of the most secret documents of the government after he left office. The prosecutors acknowledged interviewing witnesses in connection with the investigation of Mr. Trump's retention of the material. They also wrote that releasing the document could compromise the continuing investigation.... They added that releasing the affidavit could harm 'other high-profile investigations' as well. One of the reasons proposed by the government for not releasing the affidavit was to protect the identities of witnesses against death threats." The Guardian's report is here. Politico's story is here.
** Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for Rudolph W. Giuliani have been told that he is a target of a criminal investigation in Georgia into election interference by Donald J. Trump and his advisers. One of Mr. Giuliani;s lawyers said in an interview that he was notified on Monday. On the same day, a federal judge rejected efforts by another key Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to avoid giving testimony before a special grand jury in Atlanta.... Mr. Giuliani is scheduled to appear before the special grand jury on Wednesday at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. His lawyer, Robert Costello, said in the interview that Mr. Giuliani would probably invoke attorney-client privilege if asked questions about his dealings with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Giuliani, who as Mr. Trump's personal lawyer spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power, emerged in recent weeks as a central figure in the inquiry being conducted by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., which encompasses most of Atlanta. The rejection of Senator Graham's effort to avoid testifying came in a written order from a Federal District Court judge in Atlanta, Leigh Martin May. Mr. Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, is now set to testify on Aug. 23." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ A CBS News story on Giuliani is here. A CNN story on Graham is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: From the report: "'If these people think he's going to talk about conversations between him and President Trump, they're delusional,' Mr. Costello said." Well, maybe not this week. But sometime. I recall reading some while back that Rudy charged Trump and/or the Trump campaign an exorbitant amount for his legal expertise, such as it is, so Trump stiffed Rudy. So I'm not so sure Rudy is unflippable.
Weisselberg Takes the Fall. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: “A senior executive at Donald J. Trump's family business who was charged with participating in a yearslong tax scheme is nearing a deal with Manhattan prosecutors but will not cooperate with a broader investigation into Mr. Trump, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. If it becomes final, a plea deal for the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, would bring prosecutors no closer to indicting the former president but would nonetheless brand one of his most trusted lieutenants a felon.... While Mr. Weisselberg, 75, is facing financial penalties as well as up to 15 years in prison if convicted by a jury, a plea deal would avoid a high-profile trial and spare him a lengthy sentence. Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Mr. Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month jail term. With time credited for good behavior, he is likely to serve about 100 days." An NBC News story is here.
Emma Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with ... Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported, according to emails and other records obtained by The Washington Post. As they worked to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat, the lawyers asked a forensic data firm to access county election systems in at least three battleground states, according to the documents and interviews.... Attorney Sidney Powell sent the team to Michigan to copy a rural county's election data and later helped arrange for them to do the same in the Detroit area.... A Trump campaign attorney engaged the team to travel to Nevada. And the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol the team was in southern Georgia, copying data from a Dominion voting system in rural Coffee County. The emails and other records were collected through a subpoena issued to the forensics firm, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, by plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit in federal court over the security of Georgia's voting systems." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie's Fashion Note: I do think Sidney will look smarter in an orange jumpsuit than in those fake leopard outfits she prefers.
Betsy Swan of Politico: "A federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack has subpoenaed Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann for documents and testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter.... Herschmann ... did not work in the White House counsel's office, but did provide Trump with legal advice. Because of that responsibility, there will likely be litigation over the scope of the subpoena and over how executive and attorney-client privileges may limit Herschmann's ability to comply.... During the tumultuous final weeks of Trump's term, Herschmann clashed with other aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president to fight the election results. He was also present for many of the most consequential meetings in that period of time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The apparent position of Republicans loyal to Trump is that any law enforcement activity targeting him is by definition illegitimate, no matter how grave the suspected activity. So a GOP-controlled House next year would likely undermine investigations into Trump any way it can, regardless of what is learned about Trump in the interim.... While many have noted that a GOP House could stage phony Benghazi-like hearings, there's another possibility: using specific parliamentary tools to, in essence, defund the investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Torsten Ove of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "A Mercer County man threatened to murder FBI agents last week afte the bureau's search of Donald Trump's Florida estate, saying 'come and get me you piece of [expletive] feds' and 'I am going to [expletive] slaughter you,' according to a federal complaint filed Monday in Pittsburgh. Adam Bies, 46, is charged in U.S. District Court with influencing, impeding or retaliating against federal law officers. He is in U.S. custody and is set for an initial appearance hearing [Monday] afternoon before a federal magistrate judge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A New York Times report is here.
2022 Senate Elections. Natalie Allison of Politico: "... the National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling millions of dollars of ad spending, sending GOP campaigns and operatives into a panic and upending the committee's initial spending plan. The cuts -- totaling roughly $13.5 million since Aug. 1 -- come as the Republicans' Senate campaign committee is being forced to 'stretch every dollar we can,' said a person familiar with the NRSC's deliberations. Republican nominees in critical states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina -- places the GOP must defend this fall -- have failed to raise enough money to get on air themselves, requiring the NRSC to make cuts elsewhere to accommodate.... While the scale of these cuts is unprecedented, the NRSC is also ahead of its typical schedule on its ad spending, having already spent $36.5 million on television spots this cycle, as opposed to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's $1.9 million to date."
Amin Khodadadi & Rhoda Kwan of NBC News: "Iran said Monday that Salman Rushdie and his supporters are to blame for the stabbing attack that left the famed author hospitalized with serious injuries. In its first public comments since the assault, Tehran denied any involvement but sought to justify the attack, which has been celebrated on front pages and in coverage across the country's media.... The attack on Rushdie was met by global shock and outrage, and left the Western literary world reeling. But Iranian media celebrated the incident.... [U.S.] Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the coverage. 'Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life,' he said in a statement late Sunday. 'This is despicable.'"
Lauren Gurley & Caroline O'Donovan of the Washington Post: "Dozens of Amazon employees at the company's air hub in San Bernardino, Calif., on Monday abandoned their workstations mid-shift over low wages and concerns regarding heat safety. The walkout in Southern California marks the first coordinated labor action in Amazon's growing airfreight division, which uses Prime-branded planes to fly packages and goods around the country much like UPS or FedEx. The employees, who are independently organized, said they didn't plan to return to work on Monday, in an effort to pressure Amazon to raise wages and improve safety. Organizers said more than 150 people walked out Monday afternoon, and managers had already slowed some operations in anticipation of the action. While a small fraction of the 1,500 employees who work at the hub in various shifts walked out, such a work stoppage can create logistical headaches and disruptions."
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Jonah Bromwich & Jan Ransom of the New York Times: "A doctor found guilty last month of sexually assaulting patients was found dead at the Rikers Island jail complex Monday even though his lawyer had called for him to be put on suicide watch just minutes after he was convicted. The doctor, Ricardo Cruciani, a 68-year-old neurologist, was found early Monday morning sitting in a shower area of the jail with a sheet around his neck, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. Shortly afterward, medical staff arrived to attend to him. He died about an hour after he was discovered, the documents show. Mr. Cruciani is the 12th person to have died this year either while being held in the city's jails or shortly after being released. His death came about two weeks after a jury found him guilty on 12 counts of predatory sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape and other crimes, stemming from his treatment of six patients that he saw around 2012." The Guardian's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The federal government should have closed down Rikers long ago.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "'Morning near Dzhankoi began with explosions,' an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, without claiming responsibility for any possible attack near the town in Russian-occupied Crimea.... An ammunition depot was on fire early Tuesday, local authorities confirmed as they pledged to investigate. Russia's Defense Ministry said the fire caused ammunition stored in the depot to detonate, according to state news outlet RIA Novosti.... The United Nations and Russia discussed safety around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Monday about how to ensure the safe functioning of Europe's largest nuclear plant, which is under Russian control, as strikes around the plant have intensified in recent days.... Russia's Black Sea fleet is 'struggling' to effectively control the waters off Crimea's coast following Russian forces' withdrawal from Snake Island and the sinking of Russia's flagship, the Moskva, in April, the British Defense Ministry said.... Inside Ukraine-s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, workers describe explosions and constant fear. Six of them spoke to The Washington Post's ... [reporters] about what it was like to work at the sensitive site -- under Russian military control since the early days of the war -- as Russia has begun to use the area as a shield for its attacks in recent weeks, triggering global fears of a nuclear accident."
Kenya. Declan Walsh, et al., of the New York Times: "On a continent where military coups and rubber stamp elections have proliferated in recent years, Kenya stands out. Despite its flaws and endemic corruption, the East African nation and economic powerhouse has steadily grown into a symbol of what is possible, its democracy underpinned by a strong Constitution and its hard-fought elections an example to other African nations seeking to carve a path away from autocracy.... On Monday, a winner was declared in its latest presidential election, ending an unpredictable battle that had millions of Kenyans glued to their televisions and smartphones as the results rolled in. William Ruto, the president-elect, beamed as he addressed a hall filled with roaring supporters, lauding the 'very historic, democratic occasion.' But the losing candidate, Raila Odinga, rejected the result even before it was announced. A fracas erupted in the hall where Mr. Ruto had been speaking, and where the votes had been counted, sending chairs and fists flying. And four electoral commissioners stormed out, casting doubt on a result that is almost certain to end up in court."
News Lede
New York Times: "Edward Peter Leclair's hand shook as he reached for his water bottle inside a courtroom last Thursday and waited to hear whether a jury in Denton County, Texas, had found him guilty of five counts of child sexual assault. The drink was slightly cloudy, but as the judge read aloud the guilty verdict for each count, Mr. Leclair, 57, quickly chugged it. About five minutes later, after he was taken by bailiffs to a nearby detention cell, he began throwing up. An ambulance took him to a hospital. Forty-five minutes later, he was dead. Immediately, Mr. Leclair's lawyer and prosecutors, who were in the courtroom and described Mr. Leclair's actions, asked themselves: What had Mr. Leclair put in his drink?... The medical examiner's office in Denton County is investigating the cause of death and whether it was related to some sort of poison. But prosecutors believe that Mr. Leclair, who was out on bond, sneaked cyanide -- a deadly chemical -- into the courthouse and put it in his Dasani water bottle as jurors deliberated...."
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Plato, Popper, and the TrumpyPox
Today, it’s likely we will see Lynn Cheney begin her ride out of Congress, being shown the door by bug eyed sufferers of the TrumpyPox, a disease that destroys brain cells, diminishes the heart to a blackened mass of pus, and eradicates all notions of decency and morality.
Recently, re-reading parts of Karl Popper’s magnum opus, “The Open Society and it’s Enemies” caused me to go back to certain sections of Plato’s “Republic”. Popper, if you’ve read this book (and if you have, kudos, it’s a hummer), was no fan of Plato’s ideal of a country run by philosopher kings, with power and national identity couched in the idea of the Noble Lie, passed on in Book III. Plato leaves it to Socrates to lay out the plan on what has become known as the metaphor of the metals.
The idea is that you are destined for certain things from birth. If you’re born iron, you work in the fields, gold, you live in the palace and run things. It’s a plan for social stratification and a form of historicism that Popper sees as a precursor to totalitarianism. Now Plato is no Hitler (or Trump). After the death of Socrates, Plato soured on the country’s nascent democracy, feeling that his old teacher was railroaded by schmucks who had no business deciding his fate. But his Noble Lie was conceived as a way of giving everyone a basic rule book, the better for everyone to help make the country a better place.
So, altruism, right? Yes. Unfortunately, the idea of the Noble Lie has had a long shelf life and we still see it in phrases like “blood and soil”, “states’ rights”, “the Big Lie”, and “replacement theory”. Popper’s alarm at how such instructions could easily create a closed society, one which rejected progress and critical thought out of hand in favor of turning things over to the anointed few, Hitler, Stalin, etc, became the impetus to write this book in the shadow of WWII.
But for many, the idea of the Noble Lie was a godsend. Political theorist Leo Strauss declared that politicians he supported (right leaning libertarians) whom he deemed the fittest to lead, had no obligation to concern themselves with truth or facts, at least if they wanted to stay in charge and do what they felt had to be done. From that we got Bush-Cheney, and more recently, Trump and his horde of liars and traitors. They all have their own lies to keep everyone in line.
These days, it’s not just the Big Lie about election theft, it’s anything and everything Trump and the Republicans see as dangerous to their positions. Plato proffered the idea of philosopher kings, what we have now are profiteering pricks. And to see how incredibly toxic the TrumpyPox is, one has only to consider that Liz Cheney, scion of a rabidly right wing family of liars and war profiteers, is now considered unclean by the running dog, boot licking lackeys of Trump-style lies and power grabs on the right.
But Plato does have some decent ideas to pass on. Later on in the “Republic”, in Book VIII, Socrates, in a discussion with his pal Glaucon, is considering that what’s valued by a society is what forms the nature of its nation:
“And what is honored [by a country] is cultivated, and that which is not honored is neglected.
In the valley of TrumpyPox, what is honored is definitely not democracy. Or truth, or facts, or decency. They cultivate power, lies, violence, fear, paranoia, and hatred.
Popper was right about the enemies of open societies. They’re getting ready to shut the door on ours.
Thought today’s Krugman a little weak, so tried to help out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opinion/republicans-environment-climate.html
Three thoughts:
First all evidence is that the current Republican Party has so far and stubbornly removed itself from racial, cultural and environmental reality they have boxed themselves into the Great Box of Denial.
It began with small steps, but over the last three decades the party found that to keep what power it had (aided by our anti-democratic Constitution), it had to appeal to ever greater extremes, racial and religious especially. It was the only way it could expand its tent.
Now it's boxed into its self-created echo chamber, living in an anti-democratic, even violent fantasyland, abandoning both sanity and principle to maintain its grip on power.
It has no choice.
And oh, yeah, Republicans didn't much like the IRA's long-overdue swipe at drug companies and its reversal of the R's years-long war on the IRS either, both critical pocketbook issues for them.
Allen Weiseselberg and maybe (hopefully) Rudy Giuliani headed for the slammer. They can join Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. Other associates of the Fat Fascist, fellow conspirators, and garden variety crooks and traitors who have been charged or pleaded to or found guilty of crimes are Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Elliot Broidy, Tom Barrack, Michael Flynn, George Nader, and George Papadopoulos, not to mention the dozens of thugs who answered Fatty’s call to overthrow the government who have already been sent to prison.
I’m probably forgetting a few, but the fact is, this guy has always surrounded himself with shady, disreputable, crooked, and violent assholes. He truly is a crime lord, and as these douchebag dominoes continue to fall, it’s clear that anyone who associates him or herself with this creep ends up before a judge at some point, and many will, or should, don DoC togs. King Midas in reverse, as the old song goes.
“I’m not the guy to run with,
I’ll throw you off the line
I’ll break you and destroy you
Given time
And now we have the very real possibility that a guy who is being investigated for Espionage Act violations, among many, many, many other crimes, will be Republicans’ overwhelming choice for president.
Enemies of not just an open society, but rule of law, and a decent society.
https://youtu.be/bzB7nqh-O5g
Oh yeah, and Steve (burn it all down) Bannon, and Alex Jones, although Jones was a crook prior to his glomming on to Trump.
@Akhilleus: Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. You forgot Lev & Igor! And I'm sure there are more I forgot, too. There are so many, we would have to develop a lo-o-o-ong mnemonic to give ourselves a chance to remember them. But let's wait -- there will be more.
The Lady and the Trumpbot
I don't think I appreciated until yesterday how much the crazy permeates Right Wing World. It isn't just the politics of the denizens of RWW, it's their entire worldview.
I have a teeny little Biden/Harris bumper sticker sitting not on my bumper but in a front window of my cottage. The sticker has been there for two years, and I don't have any particular intention to remove it. Other than that sign, I don't believe I have communicated my particular political affiliations or views to my HVAC installer/repairman.
I had an HVAC system installed in early 2016, and it hasn't worked right since a few months after it was installed. It's under warranty. I have no idea what the underlying problem or problems are, but I know that it won't start unless I go outside, pull out some super-sized breakers, wait a minute, then plug them back in. Depending upon how bad the problem is, the A/C then keeps working for a time, as long as 16 hours, as short as 30 seconds.
Depending on how bad it is, I call the A/C guy. When it gets down to the point the HVAC runs for only a few hours, I call him. The system often won't start at all at the beginning of a cold or warm season. So he's had to come out about a dozen times, and each time, he gets it working for a while.
I got it going, intermittently, when we had a hot spell in May; then I didn't use it for more than a month (so as not to have to do the breaker dance), but when it got hot again in July, the A/C would not even turn on despite my best breaker dancing moves.
I emailed the installer/repairman & asked him to give it another shot. This time, I suggested he bring a specialist because maybe the problem was different from his various diagnoses, inasmuch as the system outages always manifested in the same way.
When he wrote back right away, he said he wasn't going to work on my system ever because I was so nasty. To the best of my knowledge, I've never been nasty toward him, and I don't think suggesting a specialist for a repeated, unmitigated failure is nasty. He faulted me for not telling him in May that it was down again, although he knows that I have never (except probably the first time) called him at the first sign of trouble.
I thought about it and yesterday I wrote to him that I would have to contact the manufacturer myself as his response was so off-putting. And I said I would share that response with the manufacturer. He wrote back and said the "real" reason he wouldn't (try to) repair my A/C was that I was a nasty elitist liberal who is ruining the country.
I think the "real" reason is that, generally speaking, he's an incompetent, contemptuous, bullying prick. And that, I would guess, describes a lot of Trumpbots, on and off the political trail.
Holy crap, Marie. If the bumbling fool of an AC repairguy can tell you something like that, without fear of being a customer service failure, where will it end? I can just see that happening in many different venues by many other "people." I would go right to the manufacturer and tell them exactly what he said to you. I am angry on your behalf. But it may be just the beginning. If we can't shut down people like that, either by boycott or whatever, what's to stop his imitators to refuse to stop your bleeding after an accident, or provide the drugs needed for your continued existence. We have old bumper stickers all over our basement fridge-- I am reasonably sure every repair person in our basement has seen them. So far no nastiness, but how long before it happens...? We luckily live in a blue town, blue neighborhood, but a red county. But we are all potential victims of right wing horribleness.
Well, Jeanne, lucky you do not live next to Lauren Boebert and her rowdy family. Listen to neighbors call 911 complaining about these crazy critters.
https://soundcloud.com/denverpost/listen-lauren-boeberts-neighbors-911-calls-describe-threats-husband-running-over-mailbox
Marie,
If the guy is self-employed, that’s one thing, in which case I’d complain to the local Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce. If he works for someone else, I’d let them know that you are getting ready to contact those groups. Letting the owner know you’re writing to the manufacturer is a good idea as well. People are in business to make money, not, at least typically, enemies.
On my twice daily walks with the dog I am constantly walking by houses that still fly Trump-pence flags. If I see the owners out in their yard I’m always pleasant, say hello, and have never felt the need to call them nasty Trump loving wingnuts.
There is no “both sides”. I’m sure not all Trump voters are such insulting assholes, but the vast majority of nastiness—and violence—comes from the right, whipped up by liars and bomb throwers.
And any technician who is unable to diagnose and fix what sounds like a simple problem (improperly installed or defective breaker switches, perhaps) has no business getting pissed if a customer suggests a little help from someone smarter. In fact, they should have no business at all.