;)
Ides of March 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.... The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump's political activities.... Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a red line the president has warned him not to cross."
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Thursday is expected to make a final pitch to the Justice Department about why he should not be fired just 72 hours before his retirement, leaving Attorney General Jeff Sessions to decide the matter with a deadline rapidly approaching. McCabe arrived at the Justice Department about 1 p.m. He is not meeting with Sessions, who was traveling Thursday, but with other senior officials.... The decision could be consequential for McCabe's financial future, as if he is fired, he could lose significant retirement benefits."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump's administration imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals on Thursday in retaliation for interference in the 2016 presidential elections and other 'malicious' cyberattacks. It was the most significant action taken against Moscow since Mr. Trump took office. The sanctions came at the same time the Trump administration joined a collective statement with Britain, France and Germany on Thursday denouncing Russia for its apparent role in a nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil, calling it a 'clear violation' of international law. But the statement included no joint action in response. The American sanctions announced on Thursday targeted many of the same Russian organizations and operatives identified by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, in an indictment that outlined an audacious attempt to spread disinformation and propaganda to disrupt American democracy and, eventually, influence the vote on behalf of Mr. Trump. The sanctions also responded to other cyberattacks, including a previously undisclosed attempt to penetrate the American energy grid." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the announcement. Mrs. McC: No word from Donaldovich. ...
... Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "Administration officials holding a conference call on Thursday demurred when asked whether the president himself would directly address efforts to counter Russian election-meddling in particular, on which Trump has repeatedly cast doubt. 'I'm not in any way qualified' to predict the president's public position, one official remarked.... But the fact that the Trump administration has now included these targets among its sanctions lists complicates efforts to discredit the Mueller probe -- an argument Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made in a statement Thursday. 'The fact that the administration has issued sanctions against individuals and entities indicted by Special Counsel Mueller proves that his investigation is not a "witch hunt" as the president and his allies have claimed,' Schumer said."
... Karla Adam & Matthew Bodner of the Washington Post: "The United States and two major European allies on Thursday formally backed Britain's claims of likely Russian links to a chemical toxin attack against a former spy, calling it the 'first offensive use of a nerve agent' in Europe since World War II. The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled another step in mounting international pressure on Russia over apparent ties to the assault. The statement said the four nations shared the view of British investigators of Russian ties to last week's attack against a former double agent and his daughter[.] There was no 'plausible alternative explanation,' the statement added, noting that Russia's 'failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: And not a word from our top Putin puppet.
Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Although the number of [Trump administration] departures is unusual, the biggest change in how Washington operates is the way in which Trump has gone about swapping out personnel. Tillerson learned that he was being fired via a presidential tweet. FBI Director James B. Comey found out he was sacked last year by seeing a headline on cable news. Last summer, chief of staff Reince Priebus's White House career ended when other top officials hopped out of the black Suburban SUV that was carrying them from Air Force One back to Washington, leaving Priebus the lone passenger in a vehicle that then peeled out of the president's motorcade. In these and many other cases over the first 14 months of Trump's administration, there was no 'You're fired' moment, at least not from the president. Presidents often outsource the unseemly business of firing people to their chief of staff, but 'what's really unusual about this president is the public humiliations,' said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who studies presidential transitions at the Brookings Institution."
Steve M. is not impressed with Trump's lie to Justin Trudeau (story linked below): "... I think Trump would dispute the notion that he 'made up information.' Yes, he admitted he 'didn't even know' what the U.S.-Canada trade balance is. But to Trump, that doesn't mean he was making stuff up.... Trump doesn't need facts -- he inevitably grasps the truth because, as he never tires of telling us, he has a very high IQ[.]... So of course he was right. And he was right without checking first. In fact, if you have to bone up before a trade meeting with another head of state, that proves you have a lower IQ than Trump, and therefore you have genes that are inferior to his!" ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "What we have is a president who is publicly bragging about the fact that, in a meeting with a foreign head of state, he was (1) ignorant about our trade relationship and, (2) he made up a lie.... Trump's remarks ... this tell us a lot about why he lies so much. The first thing to note is the fact that he went in to that meeting with Trudeau completely ignorant of the facts. That confirms a lot of what we're learned about him: he isn't simply ignorant, he's not the least bit interested in knowing the facts.... He isn't merely shameless, he thinks there is some value in not knowing what he's talking about and simply making things up.... He bragged about this episode [Wednesday] night because he thinks it makes him look tough and Trudeau weak.... According to the Washington Post report on this speech, the president went on to denigrate almost all of this country's allies.... He thinks that berating our allies makes him look tough.... Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- matters to Donald Trump other than clinging to the idea that he is winning via dominance. He will bully, lie, cheat or steal in order to fulfill that delusion." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: LeTourneau has it right. And Trump thinks you & are dimwitted, loser weaklings because we rely on facts to form our "theories," as Steve M. calls them. If we discover we've made a factual error, we do "weak" things, like apologize and/or change our "theories" to adapt to our corrected knowledge base. This is another reason Trump admires dictators. They spew propaganda & order everyone to accept their lies.
See also David Roberts' essay, linked this morning at the bottom of the page.
One Sick Family. Andy Shain of the Charleston, S.C., Post & Courier: "The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday for carrying weapons at her affluent Columbia-area high school, authorities said. Morgan Roof, 18, also was charged with simple possession of marijuana, the Richland County Sheriff's Department said. An administrator at A.C. Flora High School alerted a school resource officer about a student having pepper spray and a knife and making a Snapchat post that alarmed the campus. The incident took place on a same day when thousands of students nationwide walked out of schools to protest gun violence.... [Morgan's Snapchat] post read: 'Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17min, They are letting you do this, nothing is going to change what (the expletive) you think it's gonna do? I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.'"
Saudi Family Values. Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "When Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits the White House next week, he's expected to be welcomed as a reformer who's expanded women's rights in one of the most restrictive countries in the world, allowing them to drive and attend sports events. Yet ... fourteen current and former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence shows Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- often referred to by his initials MBS -- blocked his mother from seeing his father, King Salman, more than two years ago and has kept her away from him as the young prince rapidly amassed power. Prince Mohammed, a key ally of the Trump White House, has concocted various explanations of his mother's whereabouts.... U.S. officials interviewed for this story believe, based on several years of intelligence, that MBS took action against his mother because he was concerned that she opposed his plans for a power grab that coul divide the royal family and might use her influence with the king to prevent it. The officials said MBS placed his mother under house arrest at least for some time at a palace in Saudi Arabia, without the king's knowledge.... Donald Trump defended the Saudi government for 'harshly treating' those who were imprisoned as part of the effort."
*****
** "Conor Lamb Wins Pennsylvania House Seat." Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, scored a razor-thin but extraordinary upset in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania after a few thousand absentee ballots delivered Democrats a win in the heart of President Trump's Rust Belt base. The victory still may be contested, but Mr. Lamb's 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania's 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count, county election officials said. That slim margin, out of almost 230,000 ballots cast, nonetheless upended the political landscape ahead of November's midterm elections and emboldened fellow Democrats to run maverick campaigns even in deep-red areas where Republicans remain bedeviled by Mr. Trump's unpopularity." ...
... Elena Schneider of Politico: "The special congressional election in Pennsylvania appears headed to a recount, with Republicans preparing behind the scenes to cry foul after the vote count showed Democrat Conor Lamb leading Republican Rick Saccone by 627 votes. The GOP is considering challenging the accuracy of voting machines in the district, in addition to confusion over the state's changing congressional map later this year, according to two sources familiar with the process...." ...
... Elaina Plott of the Atlantic: "Trump broke his silence on the election at a private fundraiser for Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley Wednesday night, telling a crowd of donors that Lamb had run 'a pretty smart race, actually,' according to an audio recording of the remarks obtained by The Atlantic.... 'The young man last night that ran, he said, "Oh, I’m like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything." He ran on that basis,' Trump said. 'He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, "Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me."'... Trump had been unusually silent about the race on Wednesday, a departure from past elections Republicans have lost during his time as president." ...
... Nate Silver: "One reason that the results are especially scary for Republicans -- Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner in a district that President Trump won by 20 percentage points -- is because it came on reasonably high turnout, the sort of turnout one might expect in this year's midterms." ...
... Harry Enten of CNN: "... at the present time, [Democrat Conor] Lamb's performance in Pennsylvania 18 is merely the latest sign Democrats are surging right now, spelling trouble for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.... The overperformance in special elections by Democrats is key to understanding the national environment heading into the midterms. When parties do well in special elections, they usually do well in the midterms. When they do poorly in special elections, they usually do poorly in the midterms." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... BUT. "Porn Stache." GOP Blames Candidate for Poor Showing in Pennsylvania. Amanda Terkel, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Saccone was overwhelmingly favored to win the race. The district was so solidly Republican that Democrats didn't even field a congressional candidate here in 2014 and 2016. GOP groups dumped nearly $11 million into the campaign on advertising and media messaging ― an astounding amount for a district that will not exist due to redistricting next year.... An anonymous Pennsylvania GOP strategist told The Washington Examiner they had a very specific complaint about Saccone: His moustache was disgusting. It's a porn stache,' the strategist said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
<... Frank Rich: "The Republicans are stuck with only one plan for November: Donald Trump. They can run, but they can't hide from the president they have embraced unequivocally since his inauguration. The Democrats' plans? The very question is an oxymoron. They have many ways to try to commit self-sabotage between now and Election Day, and will surely indulge in more than a few during the ideological battles of primary season."<
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Britain's tough response in holding Russia responsible for a poisoning attack on its soil increased the pressure on President Trump to join with a NATO ally in taking action, even as he has been reluctant to retaliate for Moscow's intervention in the 2016 election in the United States. Mr. Trump, who was visiting California before heading to Missouri on Wednesday, has not personally addressed the attack since London assigned blame to Russia. Aides released a statement in his name on Tuesday evening after he spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain by telephone expressing his solidarity.... Critics noted that, under the NATO charter, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.... By Tuesday morning, lower-level American officials joined in backing Britain as it retaliated against Russia.... The pattern resembles the way Mr. Trump has responded to the consensus finding of American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections. He has allowed top advisers to condemn Moscow for its election meddling but personally has used equivocal language in saying he accepts the conclusion — and generally expresses no outrage or criticism of Mr. Putin." ...
... Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "Britain called an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to formally accuse Russia of trying to murder a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil with a military-grade nerve agent. The March 4 attack in the British cathedral town of Salisbury was 'indiscriminate and reckless,' Ambassador Jonathan Allen said, part of what he suggested was a pattern of Russian misbehavior that had become a threat to international peace and security. He received unequivocal support from his American counterpart, Nikki R. Haley, who, unlike her boss, President Trump, has bluntly rebuked Russia on a range of topics. 'Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent,' Ms. Haley said, calling the poisoning 'an atrocious crime.' The Security Council session was unusual. Permanent members of the council do not normally accuse one another of what under certain circumstances could be construed as acts of war."
M.J. Lee & Curt Devine of CNN: "New documents obtained by CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360' on Wednesday suggest a deeper link than previously known between the Trump Organization and the company that Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, established in 2016 to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for silence about her alleged affair with Trump. The documents also offer the first evidence of an individual employed by the Trump Organization -- other than Cohen -- being involved in an ongoing legal battle regarding Daniels' alleged affair with Trump. A 'demand for arbitration' document dated February 22, 2018, names Jill Martin, a top lawyer at the Trump Organization based in California, as the attorney representing 'EC, LLC.' 'EC, LLC' is Essential Consultants, according to Daniels' lawsuit, a company that Cohen established in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Daniels. Martin's title at the Trump Organization is vice president and assistant general counsel, according to her LinkedIn page. The address listed for Martin on both documents is One Trump National Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, which is the location of Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles." ...
... Jen Kirby of Vox: "This is a big deal because it ties a top Trump Organization lawyer directly to the scandal for the first time. [Trump person attorney Michael] Cohen has said that he personally paid [Stormy] Daniels the $130,000 in exchange for her silence, but has denied that the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign had anything to do with it.... Martin responded Wednesday with a statement from the Trump Organization that indicated she was working on the Daniels matter in a private capacity." ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "BuzzFeed may have found a legal opening to allow the porn actress Stormy Daniels to discuss her alleged relationship with ... Donald Trump and a $130,000 payment she received just before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is now trying to void. The same Trump attorney who brokered the deal with Daniels, Michael Cohen, filed a libel suit in January against BuzzFeed and four of its staffers over publication of the so-called dossier compiling accurate, inaccurate and unproven allegations about Trump's relationship with Russia. Now, BuzzFeed is using Cohen's libel suit as a vehicle to demand that Daniels preserve all records relating to her relationship with Trump, as well as her dealings with Cohen and the payment he has acknowledged arranging in 2016. On Tuesday, BuzzFeed's lawyer wrote to Daniels' attorney asking that the adult film actress ... preserve various categories of documents. Such preservation letters are often a prelude to a subpoena. If Daniels' testimony is formally demanded in a deposition, the nondisclosure agreement would likely be no obstacle, legal experts said." ...
... Jim Dalrymple of BuzzFeed: "Multiple women are exploring potential legal cases against ... Donald Trump, following the lead of an adult film actress who has filed a lawsuit in order to speak out about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006, her attorney said Wednesday. Michael Avenatti, who represents Stephanie Clifford -- better known by her professional name Stormy Daniels -- told BuzzFeed News that other women have reached out to him for representation in cases against Trump. Avenatti did not answer questions about the number of women, or the nature of their allegations. When asked by BuzzFeed News if other women had approached him about potential legal cases, Avenatti replied, 'confirmed.'"
Trump Boasts He Lied to Trudeau. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was the case.... The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada."
Cristina Alesci and Aaron Cooper of CNN: "Defense Department employees charged just over $138,000 at Trump branded properties in the first eight months of Donald Trump's presidency, according to a CNN review of hundreds of records.... The CNN analysis found military personnel spent more than a third of the total amount, or $58,875.69, on lodging and food at what appears to be Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Most of the expenses generally align with the 25 days the President spent at his Florida club from February to April.... Some watchdog groups, former government ethics officials and Democrats say the President's businesses shouldn't accept any taxpayer dollars."
Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's personal lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, contributed more money last year to the president's re-election campaign than is legally permissible, according to a recent letter from the Federal Election Commission to the Trump campaign.... A March 8 letter from the FEC to Bradley Crate, the Trump campaign treasurer, put the campaign on notice that there were 108 donors who had made 'excessive, prohibited and impermissible contributions to the Trump campaign in the last quarter of 2017. Dowd's name appeared on this list...."
Trump Plans to (Have Somebody) Fire Most of His Top Staff. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Speaking to reporters shortly after tweeting that he had replaced Tillerson at Foggy Bottom with hardline C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo, Trump indicated he would soon move against his remaining antagonists, many of whom he appointed with glee, in the executive branch. 'I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want,' he said. Some of what's driving Trump is a desire to surround himself with loyalists.... Three sources told me that the next official likely to go is National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.... Last Tuesday, Trump met with ultra-hawkish former U.N. ambassador John Bolton in the Oval Office to discuss a potential job offer.... Bolton responded that there were only two jobs he'd consider: secretary of state and national security adviser. Trump said, 'O.K, I'll call you really soon.'... Sources said Trump has discussed a plan to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions ... [and] replace Sessions with E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt, who would not be recused from overseeing the Russia probe.... Trump has told people for months that he wants [Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump] to go back to New York." Sherman also suggests Trump is considering getting rid of John Kelly. ...
... Jonathan Swan & Mike Allen of Axios: "Never in the 14 months of the Trump White House has there been such a mood of acute anxiety from within the West Wing.... Nobody knows what exactly is happening, who's about to be fired, or which staffer will next be frogmarched out the door by security for some shadowy clearance issue.... It's not just Johnny McEntee --; the president's trusted body man -- who's been pushed out for security clearance issues in recent days. The same thing happened last week to an aide to the First Lady. He was escorted from the premises and his former colleagues don't know what the security clearance issue was that forced him out." ...
... Frank Rich: "Trump's top appointees, exemplified by the Cabinet, are in their jobs for only three reasons [same link as above]: to demolish the federal government; to spend taxpayers' money on luxury travel and office refurbishing; and to toady to the president in public and obey his policy whims in private. Tillerson is out because he succeeded in only the first of these by decimating the State Department. His successor, Mike Pompeo, will not make Tillerson's mistake. He's the very model of a heel-clicking Vichy Republican.... Trump doesn't want adults in the room; he wants malleable dolts (Ben Carson, Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos) who are happy to join him in his Oval Office playpen, where he can make all the rules and hoard the toys." ...
... digby: "If you thought that all that crazy shit [Trump] promised on the campaign trail couldn't possibly happen well, think again. Look for some really dangerous foreign policy coming down the pike. He's just as stupid as he always was but now he's powerful. And he's on a roll."
Former Cheesy TV Personality Chooses Cheesy TV Personality as Economic Advisor. Eamon Javers & Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... Donald Trump plans to name Larry Kudlow as his top economic advisor, sources told CNBC. Trump could announce his decision to choose Kudlow as his National Economic Council director as soon as Thursday. The president offered the CNBC senior contributor and on-air personality the job on Tuesday night, and Kudlow accepted, a person familiar told CNBC." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "Kudlow Has Been Wrong about Everything for Decades." Jonathan Chait: "The appointment of Lawrence Kudlow as head of the National Economic Council indicates how firmly supply-siders control Republican economic policy, and how little impact years of failed analysis have had upon their place of power.... Kudlow attributes every positive economic indicator to lower taxes, and every piece of negative news to higher taxes.... Now that true believer Lawrence Kudlow is taking the helm, the dawn of fiscal sanity in the GOP is receding ever farther into the distant future." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Trump has just put the country's economic fate in the hands of the man who has arguably been more publicly and consistently wrong about the economy than any person alive. Kudlow's tendency to err has been nearly flawless.... If you heeded Kudlow's advice in the months before the 2008 crash, you would have been ruined.... Kudlow, a CNBC pundit..., is not trained in economics." Milbank lists some of Kudlow's greatest hits. It's a stunning list.
** Former Cheesy TV Personality Chooses Cheesy TV Personality for a Top State Job. Andy Borowitz should have written this report. Except it's a true joke. Chantal Da Silva of Newsweek: "In the major White House shake-up on Tuesday that saw former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sacked, the Trump administration also promoted the U.S. Department of State's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, to the fourth-highest ranking position within the division. Nauert, a former Fox News host who joined the State Department as a spokeswoman in April 2017, will now serve as acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, replacing Steve Goldstein, who was fired shortly after Tillerson, having publicly contradicted the White House on how the secretary of state was notified about being axed." ...
... The All-"Fox & Friends" Administration. Former Cheesy TV Personality May Choose Cheesy TV Personality for Cabinet Job. Rob Tornoe of Philly.com: "Fox & Friends weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, who was reportedly among Trump's top candidates to be Veterans Affairs Secretary during the transition, is on[c]e again being rumored to run the department, this time as a possible replacement for the agency's current secretary, David Shulkin. According to Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich, Hegseth is among the frontrunners to replace the embattled Shulkin, an Obama administration holdover that [who] used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe and currently faces allegations he used a member of his security detail to help him purchase and transport furniture from Home Depot."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Rand Paul is vowing to do everything he can to stop Mike Pompeo from becoming secretary of state. The libertarian-leaning GOP senator said Wednesday that Pompeo's earlier support for the Iraq war and defense of enhanced interrogation techniques -- or 'torture' in the view of Paul and many other senators -- is disqualifying. And the Kentucky senator indicated he may be willing to filibuster both Pompeo's nomination and CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, who he says is 'gleeful' in her defense of torture techniques." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeff Hauser of Slate: "Like so much today, what ailed the rule of law under [George W.] Bush is returning in even more virulent fashion under Donald J. Trump. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is abusing a little-used statute in an unprecedented way that is leading to an end run around the Senate's advice and consent authority with respect to U.S. attorneys. Given what we know about the ongoing investigations into the president and Trump's authoritarian instincts, this is a frightening and dangerous development.... On Jan. 3, the Justice Department announced the appointment of 17 interim U.S. attorneys to replace acting officials whose time had run out. The 17 interim appointments were nearly exclusively from states with at least one Democratic senator [so these Democrats couldn't 'blue slip' the appointees].... Lethargic oversight by the Senate Judiciary Committee majority and the media have allowed Trump and Sessions to install loyalists in U.S. attorney positions across the country, especially in districts that are the locus of Trump and Kushner family legal exposure."
Rene Marsh & Gregory Wallace of CNN: "Newly released emails cast doubt on claims by Secretary Ben Carson and his spokesman that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of a $31,000 furniture set for his Department of Housing and Urban Development dining room. Emails [obtained through an FOIA request] show Carson and his wife selected the furniture themselves.... HUD spokesman Raffi Williams initially denied the Carsons had any involvement in the dining set selection.... A HUD spokesman went further at the time, blaming the purchase on an unnamed career staffer." Actually, staffers "asked for repairs to the chairs of the existing furniture." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Pamela Brown & Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was set to officially retire on March 18, but according to a source familiar with the matter, he could be fired just days before and lose his pension after a more than two-decade career at the bureau. The embattled official abruptly stepped down at the end of January and has been on leave since that time. CNN has learned the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has recommended McCabe be fired and now the decision is up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The issue stems from findings in an internal Justice Department watchdog report that claims he misled investigators about his decision to authorize FBI officials to speak to the media about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kevin Drum: "Trump has tweeted more than once that McCabe should be fired, and now he's close to getting his wish.... For what it's worth..., McCabe was arguing in favor of investigating the Clinton Foundation, which would hurt Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump. Whatever. So what is it that McCabe supposedly did wrong? 'The details of why the inspector general viewed Mr. McCabe as not forthcoming are not clear.' Anyway, McCabe is scheduled to retire on Sunday, but if he gets fired on Friday instead it will reduce his retirement benefits. Trump actually tweeted a few months ago that he thinks it would be outrageous if McCabe got his full benefits[.]... Our government is being run like a mafia family. A very, very petty mafia family."
Why Trump Warmed to Japan. Caleb Melby of Bloomberg (March 13): "Two months after Jared Kushner joined the White House as a senior adviser, his family firm sold a stake in a Brooklyn building to a unit of a company whose largest shareholder is the government of Japan. The buyer of record in the $103-million deal for 175 Pearl St. was Normandy Real Estate Partners, a New Jersey-based investment firm. But documents filed in Tokyo show that it was operating on behalf of a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. By law, the Japanese government owns at least a third of NTT, in effect a controlling share. Questions have been raised repeatedly whether Kushner, whose family business has been in search of overseas investors, might pursue a personal agenda while helping run U.S. policy. This is the first known deal with a government-affiliated firm since he entered the White House." ...
Washington Post: "Several Democrats joined Republicans to pass legislation that would exempt mid-size and regional banks from some of the strictest levels of supervision put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. The bill's backers argue it will jumpstart the economy and strip away unnecessary red tape, while critics — including progressive Democrats such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) -- argue it will encourage the type of risky behavior that destabilized the global economy a decade ago.... The House version makes deeper cuts to banking rules, but Republican leaders are hopeful they can reconcile the two measures and send it to President Trump's desk. This is a developing story. It will be updated."
Senate Race. Robert Costa & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Insurgent Mississippi conservative Chris McDaniel plans to run for retiring Sen. Thad Cochran's seat, ending his primary challenge against the state’s other Republican senator, Roger Wicker.... His decision spares Wicker a potentially bruising primary. But it opens up a new challenge for Republican officials who don’t like the controversial conservative state senator."
NBC News: "Exactly one month after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, survivors of the massacre joined tens of thousands of students across the U.S. by walking out of school on Wednesday morning. The mass protests were held at 10 a.m. local time in each time zone and lasted 17 minutes, one for each of the Parkland victims. Organizers said the purpose was to highlight 'Congress' inaction against the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
... The New York Times report, by Alan Blinder & Julie Turkewitz, cites numerous schools' walkouts. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Trump's Excellent Plan to Arm Teachers! Amy Larson of KSBW: "A teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a gun inside a Seaside [California] High School classroom Tuesday, police said, and three students were injured. Dennis Alexander was teaching a course about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class when his gun went off at 1:20 p.m. Alexander was pointing his gun at the ceiling when it fired. Pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground. A news release from the Seaside Police Department said no one suffered 'serious injuries.' One 17-year-old boy suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into his neck, the student's father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW." See also commentary by P.D. Pepe & Akhilleus below.(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ed Kilgore: "California state law requires a special authorization for anyone to bring a firearm onto public school property. Alexander did not have that authorization. He's been placed on administrative leave by the school district, and also by the nearby municipal police force on which he was a decorated reserve officer. What makes the incident even more striking is that Alexander is a member (and currently mayor pro tem) of the (non-partisan) Seaside City Council, first elected in 2006."
Gail Collins is trying to place people in White House jobs. I didn't find her column especially amusing, but I did find her some perfect candidates. Among them a gorgeous grifter, an insider-trader & a whole board of directors who drove their huuuge company into bankruptcy. If the FBI immediately deems them security risks & a year or more from now, John Kelly marches them out of the White House without their jackets, they can move seamlessly to the Trump campaign. How prominent a job they get would probably depend on how well they do on their "Fox & Friends" demo discs. ...
... Katie Thomas & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: Elizabeth "Holmes, a Stanford University dropout who founded her company, Theranos, at age 19, captivated investors and the public with her invention: a technology cheaply done at a local drugstore that could detect a range of illnesses, from diabetes to cancer. With that carefully crafted pitch, Ms. Holmes, whose striking stage presence in a uniform of black turtlenecks drew comparisons to Steve Jobs, became an overnight celebrity, featured on magazine covers and richest-woman lists and in glowing articles. Her fall -- and the near-collapse of Theranos -- has been equally dramatic in the last few years. On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Ms. Holmes, now 34, with widespread fraud, accusing her of exaggerating -- even lying -- about her technology while raising $700 million from investors." ...
... Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "A former top Equifax executive was charged on Wednesday with insider trading for selling nearly $1 million in company stock after he learned about a major data breach in 2017 but before it was publicly announced. Jun Ying, the former chief information officer of Equifax's core United States consumer reporting division, exercised all of his vested stock options and sold nearly $1 million in shares a little more than a week before Equifax announced that hackers had broken into its systems, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The breach compromised sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 140 million Americans. Mr. Ying avoided $117,000 in losses because of the timing of his sale, the S.E.C. said in a civil complaint."
Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Toys 'R' Us, the iconic retail chain that has sold toys and games to millions of children for generations, is closing up shop in the United States. The company decided to close or sell its remaining stores after its executives met with creditors throughout the day on Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the discussions. More than 30,000 American jobs are at risk as a result. Liquidation sales will take place over the next few months, as the company clears the shelves at its roughly 880 Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us stores around the country. In September, the private-equity-owned retailer filed for bankruptcy, one of the largest ever in the retail industry."
** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Roberts of Vox reveals "the real problem with the New York Times op-ed page: it's not honest about U.S. conservatism."
News Ledes
Miami Herald: "The [Florida International University] pedestrian bridge across Southwest Eighth Street [in Miami, Florida] collapsed Thursday afternoon, trapping an unknown number of people and cars underneath. The bridge was installed at Southwest 109th Avenue Saturday morning, intended eventually to provide pedestrian access across Tamiami Trail from FIU's main campus to Sweetwater, where thousands of students live in off-campus housing or in FIU's newer dorms. Before Saturday's installation, FIU said the method of overall installation significantly reduced the risk to workers, walkers, drivers and minimized traffic disruptions for construction." ...
... Mrs. McC: This is a developing story. MSNBC tentatively reported that "mass casualties" had occurred. ...
... New York Times Update: "At least four people were killed, according to the Miami-Dade County fire chief, Dave Downey. Some reports put the number of dead at six to 10."
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Reader Comments (22)
Sure sounds like the Vichy Republicans are coming up with every excuse under the sun to brush off and ignore the Pennsylvania loss. This is a pretty damn good sign that they've got absolutely ZERO introspection capacity right now, meaning they'll change absolutely nothing from now 'til the midterms, except more gerrymandering and voter restrictions. That's literally the only card they've got now to sway elections in their favor, except perhaps modest tax relief that most people will hardly recognize, and could get eaten up through Donald's trade wars. This bodes very badly for the country 'til November, but plays into the "wave" dynamics for the Democrats. Of course the Koch's will flood the country with their billion dollars of tax-break giveaways to try to buy off votes anyway they can, but it didn't work in Pennsylvania, Virginia or Alabama.
The only sure thing is Drumpf will get even more disheveled, and likely start lashing out even harder at perceived enemies (everyone) both domestic and foreign. But other things equal, we should be looking at a Mr. Schiff with a very dangerous gavel in his hand.
One can hope.
I must take exception to the use of the word "accident" to describe an unintended discharge of a firearm or car crash. By definition an accident is a random event for which no cause can be attributed. It's an overused word to describe incidents were cause CAN usually be attributed. Basically, someone fucked up while doing something they should have or should not have been doing.
In the case of the teacher(s) misfiring their weapon, why did they have a loaded weapon in the school in the first place? Are they macho men that think they're going to stop an invader with an AR-15 a la our presidunce? Why was there a round chambered much less the gun even being loaded in the first place? Why wasn't the safety selector on?
Even with car crashes, someone fucked up by speeding beyond their or their vehicle's capability, texting, driving while shit-faced, not paying attention to their surroundings. The police blotter is filled with incidents where people go off the road in bad weather or trying to avoid deer in the road. If they were true "accidents" why are they cited for "failure to drive right"?
I believe these so-called "accidental" discharges should be handled the same way - citations issued for failure to shoot right.
After all, even past airline crashes and space shuttle catastrophes underwent extensive investigations to determine the root cause of the failures. True accidents are extremely rare - black swan events like my birth.
@unwashed: An interesting thesis, but one definition of "accident" is "an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury." (via the Googles) Although I have scrupulously avoided "accidents"* involving deer, I would submit that a person who is driving unimpaired & carefully but hits a deer (or other being) that suddenly jumps in front of his car had experienced this definition of "accident."
I think when people say that some misfortune happened accidentally (or accidently!) they mean it happened unintentionally.
As for the well-trained, gun-toting teacher -- the epitome of Trump's "gun-adept" teacher -- I'd call that a "stupid, completely avoidable fuck-up." He took active steps that caused the "accident" -- wielding a loaded, cocked gun in the presence of school kids. Although he did not intentionally fire the gun, he did everything -- including pulling the trigger -- to assure that the gun would fire & would potentially cause injury to himself or others. That, as you say, is not really an accident; it's a likely outcome of a series of dumb-as-shit decisions.
*At about 4 am one morning, when I had been driving & moving furniture for about 24 hours straight, I came to a curve in the road in a heavily-treed, rural area. Just as I pulled into the curve, I thought, "It's close to dawn. I should be careful to look out for deer." On the far side of the curve, there was a big ole buck standing in the middle of my lane. I slowed to a stop (instead of accelerating, as I normally do coming out of a curve) & waited till the deer ambled off the road. I'm not normally a nut, but I couldn't get over the notion that somehow that deer & I had some kind of "psychic connection" as I approached the curve which saved us both from an "accident."
Gail Collins latest column is amusing, but I had to read the comments through tears (of laughter).
@Gloria: Indeed, the column is one of Gail's best. I read the comments from Newest to Oldest...all along watching for Gemli's. He didn't disappoint! Love the line of his on the qualifications needed for working in this Trump administration:
"I think there’s a minimum age for working in government. But as far as I.Q. goes, the floor’s the limit.
When I first watched Heather Nauert speak as U.S. Dept. of State's spokeswoman I was taken aback by not only her delivery but by her attire. The former smacked of a lack of knowledge (she failed to answer many questions posed to her), the latter was the cleavage displayed. Whoa, Nelly, I thought, we gots a hot number here to give us the skinny on State's affairs. Now I find out that she was once a Fox participant––one of those blond babes with legs on that friendly Foxy friend's show––the one that dictates what Doofus does. So are we to imagine Trump watching one morning and liking what he sees says, "Yowsa, let's give that little gal a position"? Such a smooth operator, this guy, loves T.V. personalities cuz he wants/ thinks? he can run the presidency like he ran his Apprentice Show––you're in, you're out––wham! just like that. So this morning's read here tells me that Heather has been promoted for the Under Sec. for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. One hopes she stays upright and her affairs are strictly on the up and up but hey––here today, gone tomorrow...
And who is here today or will be if he is confirmed––WILL Kudlow be confirmed???––-another T.V. personality who has been wrong about almost everything, but a guy that has a lot in common with Trump and has, I suspect, like Trump, little use for "intelligence" unless it caters to his idiosyncrasies and reinforces his preconceptions.
The marches and huge gatherings of our children yesterday, their voices loud and clear for gun control, were an amazing feat––potential voters, potential politicians perhaps, a generation that has experienced first hand what it means to fight for what is right. This should give us hope––something that seems to be slipping away day by day.
Thanks for the Robert's essay link.
It neatly knits elements of my own thinking about the Times' attempt to be op-editorially even-handed to detail about the history of that attempt (not making a study of such things) I was unaware of.
I had noticed Trumpism has pushed Brooks into territory that often seemed uninterestingly sane and that Stephens wouldn't have anything to say if the Pretender were not so outrageous, and have even wondered what I would do if I were charged with presenting both sides of a story in a serious way when one side was so obviously nuts.
Always made me think of the public defender charged with representing a murderer who was apprehended standing over the corpse with the bloody knife in one hand and a digital recording of the deed in the other.
Maybe I shouldn't react this way, but when I do read Brooks or Stephens these days, I often agree with what they say, but that agreement is usually mixed with a tincture of head-shaking pity.
As writers and thinkers, they have an impossible job.
On they other hand, they have chosen to represent a party whose base has been animated by nothing but nastiness for fifty years, and they had to know it, yet continued to make a good living by ignoring or glossing over the filth at its heart.
Which would make them the mountebanks they likely are, deserving no pity whatsoever.
Start the Clock
Ho-hum, another possibility for grandstanding, another Rand Paul stunt to get him and his moth-eaten wig on the TV.
So Li'l Randy has a hair across his ass about Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel because....what is it this time? Deficits, tax cuts, immigration, birth control, aid to Israel, military attacks on ISIS? Oh, I know. Torture.
Hey, will someone in the back of the room start the Rand Paul Flip-Flop Clock? Thank you.
Let's see how long it takes him to change his mind and vote for both of these Torquemadas.
You might recall Li'l Rand's many, many, many flippy-floppies over the years (see abbreviated list above). He's for it (or against it) then he's against it (or for it).
The only thing that matters is that he gets his two minutes on the nightly news and gets to give his oh so passionate and sincere soundbites reinforcing the idea that he, the littlest Libertarian, is the last decent and honest man in America.
He'll give a few speeches about how it's important blah, blah, blah, America, blah, blah, torture bad, blah, blah, and if he doesn't think this stunt is good enough, he might do another Mr. Smith filibuster. But once the circus leaves town, he'll do what he always does. Cave.
You may recall his last stunt, whining about deficits, deficits, deficits (you may recall that he, like the Lying One, is a major fan of Ayn Rand--who you may also recall was as big a fraud as both of her little acolytes) back when the little dictator and his Confederate cronies in Congress were talking tax cuts. Oh....deficits, very bad, he squealed. Tax cuts will bring huge deficits. So what did he do?
Voted for the tax cuts.
He'll play this latest stunt out until there's no more rope left. Then, the Rand Paul Flip-Flop Clock alarm will ring and....
Flip-Flop! Mike Pompeo? Great guy. Gina? She was only doing her job.
Like brave, brave Li'l Randy, who stands against all odds, like Horatius at the bridge, for....what is it again?
The Roberts piece in Vox (linked above) provides a persuasive and entirely plausible presentation of what's going on inside the Trump Grievance Machine. The other day I mentioned how amorphous and evanescent were the major pillars of Confederate ideology. It's true. On just about every front.
The idea that "character counts" has disappeared without a trace. Fealty to national defense and budgetary discipline have also gone down for the third time. Evangelicals vociferously support a guy who, were he a Democrat, they'd be demanding he be placed in a cell forever and a day. No one seems concerned that the entire cabinet is composed of intellectual midgets and pocket lining crooks. And now the State Department will be run by a crazy person and the CIA by a rendition and torture queen.
Roberts' essay takes this observation a step further by offering a rationale for why the prime tenets of right-wing ideology seem so malleable and insubstantial. Because, as he suggests, there is no real ideology. There are no intellectual underpinnings. Nothing but hatred and resentment.
It's a good piece. But I would take issue with his conclusion that many liberals don't understand that the conservo-dolts featured on the Times Op-Ed pages do not represent the current state of conservatism, whatever the hell that might be these days.
I think we have a pretty good handle on that. Brooks and Douthat are laughing stocks. I don't believe David Brooks has ever represented anything much beyond his own sense of a sort of an ersatz country club conservatism. But it's not even that. It's impossible to call his vision a white shoes genteel conservatism, because he was all in on the Decider's scandal plagued War of Choice. He was fine and dandy with torture. Until it became a thing. So fuck him.
As for the Breitbart-Fox crowd, everything out of their blood-spittled pie holes is a lie. And not just lies, but dangerous, demeaning, insulting, violent lies, easily disprovable.
But the Times, like many other MSM outlets has, for some time, been cowed by the brickbats and attacks from the right demanding that their most livid kooks be taken seriously and given a podium right next to pundits who can actually think and craft serious, cogent arguments. Thus we have a guy, Larry Kudlow, who, it has been effectively pointed out, has NEVER been right on any major economic point, and who has had a job shooting his mouth off for years on TV, and now will get a chance to put his 180 degree wrong ideas into deadly practice.
How could a guy that wrong for so long still have a job? Fear. Fear that the loons will yell "LIBERAL MEDIA!" Guess what? They do anyway.
So the Times should stop trying to satisfy the nuts. I understand they want to offer a variety of opinions. Fine. But they're in a spot because they certainly cannot give space to rabid, bloodthirsty white supremacists, crackpots, and lunatics to spout off on their Op-Ed pages. Still, that doesn't mean we don't know these people are out there.
We can't miss them. They work in the White House.
He was a rat then, he's a rat now, he'll always be a rat...
Buried in the story on the upcoming dissolution of Toys 'R' Us is this little tidbit (from the Times story, linked above, also mentioned in the WaPo article):
"The company was bought in 2005 by the private equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the real estate firm Vornado Realty Trust.
Weighed down by the debt that its owners heaped on the company when they bought it, Toys “R” Us has not adequately invested in its fading stores and e-commerce operations. Unable to compete with other retailers, it has lost market share to better capitalized toy sellers."
Did you catch it?
Bain Capital. Vulture capital grifter firm started by none other than Mittens (Let me cut your hair) Romney.
So, "weighed down by the debt...heaped on the company" by the new owners, Bain Capital, included, Toys "R" Us proceeded to sink under the waves. Thanks, Mittens! Way to save that company!
Now before anyone checks and says, "Wait, Romney left Bain in 2001" let me point out that the culture of Bain, "find 'em, buy 'em, fuck 'em, forget 'em", was carefully crafted by the Rat and continued long after he departed to try to take over the country. And after he left the company as founder and CEO, he had an agreement in place to collect a vulture's share of the profits Bain made on screwing companies for the next ten years. The Toys "R" Us fucking took place in 2005 and Mittens pocketed plenty off that deal.
This doesn't let the toy company off the hook for being schmoes, but it doesn't hurt to remember that Romney has always been a conniving, money grubbing, rat bastard and still is. Those fairy tales he told on the campaign trail of all the companies he saved are countered by actual facts like the demise of Toys "R" Us, and the stories of all the employees of other companies Bain swallowed up who then were stripped, first of their pensions, then their jobs, as Romney and his pals broke up those businesses and sold them off in pieces to pay for things like mansions by the sea with elevators in the 12 car garage.
Utah deserves what it gets with this shithead as their senator.
@Akhilleus: I'm not sure the casual follower of MSM is aware of how nuts & corrupt confederates are. Sure, they're aware there are some shriekers like Rushbo & Hannity, but if you read an MSM story about some bill making its way through (or stymied by) Congress, there's no hint in the story that Mitch McConnell is a reptile or Paul Ryan is a lying phony. And if a NYT editorial rails against some confederate Congressional stunt, it's reasonable for said casual reader to brush it off as, "Well, okay, that's what the liberals say." It has taken someone as awful as Trump for MSM writers & teevee presenters to work mildly negative implications into their straight news stories. I suspect once Trump is gone, we're going back to 99% he-said/she-said "journalism."
But I agree with you & David Roberts: the NYT should not be paying columnists to deliver right-wing rationales for the corrupt or anti-democratic policies they advocate. This leaves the definite impression that these opinions have value -- after all, they're paying these people -- and credibility.
I do think it's fine for the Times to publish right-wing or libertarian or whatever op-eds as long as they identify the author. I recall they once published an op-ed ostensibly written by Vladimir Putin. But there's a big difference -- IMO -- between (1) supporting wingers & (2) providing them an occasional forum.
A few comments:
-- PD : The job Kudlow is going to does not require Senate confirmation; the job Nauert is now doing as "Acting Under Secretary" does require confirmation, but so far she has not been nominated. She can be "acting" for quite a while.
-- the Vox/Roberts article is great, and made me think that maybe the NYT can run a weekly OpEd called "Right Wing World"(TM RC) with a box around it saying "just so you understand ...". Because, correct, the NYT conservative voices have nothing to do with what's really going on in the fever swamp. Maybe they could hire Driftglass to provide commentary on the junk in that box -- he is a one-note Cassandra, but as he often points out, he's right about these people and has been for (decades?)
-- Heather Nauert - another piece of evidence that nothing matters anymore. The noon brief used to be a place where reporters on the foreign affairs beat could actually do business. Now it is just podium-read press releases and word games. But she sure is perky, Lou!
-- The WaPo has been running op-eds from a small-town paper editor in Ohio who is a DiJiT supporter, for the past several months, I suppose on the theory that readers should be exposed to "what are they thinking?", and so far the guy seems to demo that they aren't (thinking), but it does convey that the DiJiTistas FEEL a lot, and it matches what Roberts was saying (tribalism). But it is so painful to read that I gave up after about the first three or four. Painful because it is hard to take that otherwise good people can be so stupid and mean, and I get enough reminders of that already.
Vootee, as Dave Garrowunway would say.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, they get it at the LA Times, tho again, no mention of the next senator from Utah: "The downfall of Toys R Us can be traced back to a $7.5 billion leveraged buyout in 2005, when Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust loaded the company with debt. For years, the retailer was able to refinance its debt and delay a reckoning. But the emergence of online competitors, such as Amazon.com Inc., weighed on results. The company's huge interest payments also sucked up resources that could have gone toward technology and improving operations."
Something occurred to me last night about these rats' long term planning. You remember Peter Thiel, big$$ guy who broke Gawker Media and was on Trump's transition team. I think it's possible that that chain of events had something to do with some of these malevolent forces; e.g.,the Mercers, breitfart, Russians etc. Say what you will about being tacky tabloid media, Gawker had some serious investigative chops. I think they were kneecapped as part of the plan to grease the skids for Trumpism.
It annoys me to no end that in trying to understand the goings-on in my country and the world I have to sound like a conspiracy theorist to myself. Am I nuts or is all this stuff nuts?
The only thing that surprises those of us who are sentient about cadet bone spurs bragging of not knowing anything about US - Canada trade was that he even knew that he didn't know. I don't believe that. Surely "people were saying ...." Certainly not surprised that he would go into discussions with a close ally and world leader with no briefings. Might interfere with "Executive Time".
Dem election campaign material "trump/scott Infrastructure Plan".
Every week is Infrastructure Week!
Dem election campaign material "trump/scott Infrastructure Plan".
Every week is Infrastructure Week!
Fleeting Expletive,
It appears that Peter Thiel went after Gawker, not so much because that site outed him (it didn't) but because he didn't like their other reporting about his misogynistic and anti-immigrant stances.
This isn't to say that Gawker was squeaky clean. It seems they were guilty of some pretty nasty yellow journalistic excesses. But they also did some decent reporting as well, the kind that Thiel and his pal Donaldavich Trumpskyev didn't take to.
The Hulk Hogan "banging my best friend's wife" videotape was just a way in for Thiel who spent millions looking for ways to kneecap Gawker for their unforgivable sin of making him look far more Trumpish than he could stand.
But if he wasn't an anti-immigrant, misogynistic creep, would he have cottoned to Trump in the first place?
This bullshit, highly contingent Libertarian thing allows for such a broad spectrum of attachments it almost doesn't even count as a political philosophy. If the idea is "do whatever the hell you want, and fuck anyone who says different", then what kind of philosophy is that? Fucking Anarchists advocate more structure than that.
It's really just a way to cloak your solipsism, self-interest, and megalomania in a fancy sounding term. The Jeffersonian sort of Libertarianism has little in common with arrogant self-promoters like Thiel and Li'l Randy.
Oh, here's another wild thought. Remember that one alleged victim of T's sexual misconduct was paid 150K by the National Enquirer, allegedly. The proprietor is Mr. Pecker (too lazy to google but a thing I remember) and he is a Trump fan and was a competitor of Gawker. Gawker was murdered by whoever the shadow players are, via Hulk Hogan, with Republican goals.
Now, I'm a big fan of the series "The Borgias" where familial triple-crossing and the exploitable foibles of grifting hotshots is deliciously wicked but not too hard to follow. So I'm thinking media wars and sucking up and figuring how to get "whole" by making deals. These things are done with considerable finesse and messages are sent indirectly, perhaps. It's Game of Thrones, baby! Also I'd read a book called "Exploitable Foibles".
Just had word that Vanessa Trump is divorcing Junior––they have five children. I reckon this is probably something that was in the hopper for quite awhile since they have been living apart for some time.
Found the David Robert's piece most engaging. I liked Patrick's mention of Wash-Po including snippets from right-wing renegades to give us liberal bubble people a taste of the bitter fruit that's out there. And like Patrick, reading that junk is hard to take––suffice to know we gots amoral misfits roaming around in this country of guns and red caps.
Saw something on PBS the other night that made my skin crawl. A Jewish man's bistro in Germany was being harassed by some German anti-semitic by-passers–-video showed one man yelling outside the bistro vile things like "you dirty Jews should all have burned long ago–-you don't belong here."
Evil lurks in the hearts of men––the Shadow knew that long ago.
Joey Gibson, WA State senate candidate.
Joey "I am not a racist," he says. (wink, wink). The Alt-Right is here at home. If he doesn't win, a potential NYTimes columnist?
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/02/patriot_prayer_leader_joey_gib.html
McCabe will do well. The book and movie options will far outstrip his meager pension. Not to mention the speaking tours and guests shots on cable. Holy Crap! What did he do to DESERVE the incredible riches coming his way?