;)
September 15, 2022
Late Morning Update:
Josh Boak & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced Thursday that a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a nationwide strike that could have been devastating to the economy before the pivotal midterm elections.... The president brought business and union leaders to the Oval Office on Thursday morning, then hailed the deal in remarks in the White House Rose Garden. 'This agreement is validation of what I've always believed, unions and management can work together -- can work together -- for the benefit of everyone,' Biden declared." This is an update of a story linked earlier today. ~~~
Priscilla Alvarez, et al., of CNN: "Two buses carrying migrants arrived Thursday at the US Naval Observatory -- the vice president's residence in Washington, DC -- from Texas, surprising volunteers who were not prepared to receive them there, volunteers in the district said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been busing migrants to the nation's capital to protest the Biden administration's immigration policies, said Thursday in a tweet that his state intentionally sent the buses to Vice President Kamala Harris' residence.... Thursday's passengers included families and young men. Around 70% to 80% of the migrants are from Venezuela, according to volunteers. They had a few belongings in trash bags and some documents.... SAMU First Response, one of the groups helping migrants in Washington, was not provided a heads up, according to the group's managing director, Tatiana Laborde." A photo accompanying the story shows migrants left sitting on the sidewalk outside the Observatory. MB: Republican cruelty knows no bounds. P.S. Vote Beto!
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Tankersley & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Biden, desperate to avert a damaging freight rail strike that could exacerbate rapid inflation, is pushing rail companies and unions to reach an agreement ahead of a Friday deadline, while exploring whether he can do anything unilaterally to assuage workers' concerns. Mr. Biden and his economic team have been inserting themselves into final-hour negotiations between rail unions and large rail companies, which are at loggerheads over scheduling and sick time. Labor groups have insisted that employees be able to take unpaid time off for physician appointments, a request railroad companies have been unwilling to grant. On Wednesday, in anticipation of a strike, Amtrak said it would cancel all long-distance passenger trains beginning on Thursday in order to avoid possibly stranding people given that many of its trains run on tracks operated and maintained by freight carriers. Also on Wednesday, members of a small rail union, whose leaders had reached a tentative deal with freight companies, voted down the agreement, signaling more difficulty in negotiations to come." ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Josh Boak & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Thursday that a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a strike that could have been devastating to the economy before the pivotal midterm elections. Railroads and union representatives had been in negotiations for 20 hours at the Labor Department on Wednesday to hammer out a deal, as there was a risk of a strike starting on Friday that could have shut down rail lines across the country. Biden made a key phone call to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at 9 p.m. as the talks were ongoing after Italian dinner had been brought in, according to a White House official.... The president told the negotiators to consider the harm to families, farmers and businesses if a shutdown occurred.... [The] tentative agreement that will go to union members for a vote after a post-ratification cooling off period of several weeks." The New York Times story is here. ~~~
These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions and peace of mind around their healthcare costs, all hard-earned. The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come. I think the unions and rail companies for negotiating in good faith and reaching a tentative agreement that will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy. -- President Joe Biden, on the tentative agreement
CBS News/AP: "President Biden, a gearhead with his own vintage Corvette, showcased his administration's efforts to promote electric vehicles during a visit Wednesday to the Detroit auto show, where he announced hundreds of millions of dollars to build roughly 500,000 charging stations across dozens of states. Mr. Biden arrived at the massive North American International Auto Show to plug the huge new climate, tax and health care law that offers tax incentives for buying electric vehicles. He toured a mix of American-manufactured hybrid, electric and combustion vehicles from Chevrolet, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis on a closed-off convention center floor, and greeted union workers, CEOs, and local leaders.... In Detroit, Mr. Biden announced approval of the first $900 million in infrastructure money to build EV chargers across 53,000 miles of the national highway system and 35 states." ~~~
Kylie Atlwood of CNN: "President Joe Biden plans to nominate Lynne Tracy, a career diplomat currently serving in Armenia, as the next US ambassador to Russia, according to three sources.... Tracy, who speaks Russian and was the No. 2 diplomat in Moscow from 2014 to 2017, would be the first female to serve in the role. She has been ambassador to Armenia since 2019." (Also linked yesterday.)
As the Noose Tightens. Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has complied with a subpoena from the Justice Department's investigation into events surrounding January 6, 2021, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, making him the highest-ranking Trump official known to have responded to a subpoena in the federal investigation. Meadows turned over the same materials he provided to the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack, one source said, meeting the obligations of the Justice Department subpoena, which has not been previously reported.... In addition to Trump's former chief of staff, one of Meadows' top deputies in the White House, Ben Williamson, also recently received a grand jury subpoena, another source familiar with the matter tells CNN. That subpoena was similar to what others in Trump's orbit received. It asked for testimony and records relating to January 6 and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Williamson previously cooperated with the January 6 committee."
Tierney Sneed & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The Justice Department is investigating felony violations of false statements, conspiracy and obstruction as part of its January 6, 2021, probe that led to a recent search of former Trump administration official Jeffrey Clark's home, according to an account of the criminal investigation made public Wednesday in a separate proceeding. Clark's legal team wrote that on June 20 'approximately a dozen armed agents of the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General executed a criminal search warrant at [Mr. Clark's] home at around 7 a.m. and seized his electronic devices' as part of an investigation into violations of laws concerning false statements, conspiracy and obstruction, according to a report published Wednesday by a committee of the DC Bar's Board on Professional Responsibility. This is the first time a document has named the specifics of what the Justice Department is considering as possible crimes.... Separate from the criminal investigation -- in which Clark has not been charged -- the DC Bar's disciplinary counsel brought an ethics complaint against Clark for the role he played in seeking to use his department to promote Trump's bogus election fraud claims at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. This is the first time a document has named the specifics of what the Justice Department is considering as possible crimes, as it looks at the top circle of political players around ... Donald Trump before January 6."
An Offer She Could Refuse. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York attorney general's office has rebuffed an offer from Donald J. Trump's lawyers to settle a contentious civil investigation into the former president and his family real estate business, setting the stage for a lawsuit that would accuse Mr. Trump of fraud, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The attorney general, Letitia James, is also considering suing at least one of Mr. Trump's adult children, the people said. Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., have all been senior executives at Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization."
Donald Trump, International Diplomat. Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "President Trump once offered what he considered 'a great deal' to Jordan's King Abdullah II: control of the West Bank, whose Palestinian population long sought to topple the monarchy.... The unreported offer to Abdullah is among the startling new details about Trump's chaotic presidency in the book 'The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021' by Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, staff writer for the New Yorker.... The offer to Abdullah of the West Bank -- which is bordered by Israel and Jordan, and which Trump had no control over -- came in January 2018. Trump thought he would be doing the Jordanian king a favor, not realizing that it would destabilize his country, according to the book." The article runs down a number of other Trump disasters.
Here's one I missed: ~~~
~~~ John Bowden of the Independent, republished by Yahoo! News (Sept. 12): "Donald Trump was spotted on the greens of his Virginia golf course on Monday.... Pictures appeared to indicate that Mr Trump was inspecting or giving a tour of his club's golf course with Trump Organization figures.... [Nixon whistleblower John Dean tweeted,] 'This is much like a mob meeting, right out of the movies! Golf shirts so no wires. Move around so no unseen electronic fixes. Way out of camera range so no lip reading.'... 'So, Donnie Soprano and da boys got together at da Banda Bing golf club to sort though some ... problems,' quipped Glenn Kirschner, an MSNBC legal analyst.... [Trump's one-time fixer Michael Cohen tweeted,] '... My sources say he was meeting with 2 lawyers in secrecy and didn't trust being at their offices. Notice there are no golf clubs on the cart!!!'...."
Katie Benner, et al., of the New York Times: John "Durham appears to be winding down his three-year inquiry without anything close to the [explosive] results [Donald] Trump was seeking. The grand jury that Mr. Durham has recently used to hear evidence has expired, and while he could convene another, there are currently no plans to do so, three people familiar with the matter said.... Over the course of his inquiry, Mr. Durham has developed cases against two people accused of lying to the F.B.I..., but he has not charged any conspiracy or put any high-level officials on trial.... After Mr. Durham's team completes its report [on the inquiry], it will be up to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to decide whether to make its findings public.... Mr. Durham and his team used a grand jury in Washington to indict Michael Sussmann, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer with ties to Hillary Clinton's campaign.... Mr. Sussmann was acquitted.... A grand jury based in the Eastern District of Virginia last year indicted a Russia analyst who had worked with Christopher Steele.... The analyst, Igor Danchenko, who is accused of lying to federal investigators, goes on trial next month.... In the third case, Mr. Durham's team negotiated a plea deal with an F.B.I. lawyer..., [which] resulted in no prison time." See also yesterday's Comments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Andrew Solender of Axios: "The chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack said Wednesday that the panel has received 'thousands of exhibits' from Secret Service agents in response to its July subpoena of the agency.... Uncovering information from the Secret Service has been a major focus for the panel since testimony during its public hearings in June and July revealed the agency's role in key events on Jan. 6.... Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters that the materials obtained are 'a combination of a number of text messages, radio traffic ... thousands of exhibits.' Thompson said the the materials consist "primarily" of texts from agents on Jan. 5 and 6, but declined to go into further detail because the committee is still reviewing them."
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A man who wore a 'Trump 2020' hat as he beat one officer and dragged another down the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty, admitting telling officers 'you're gonna die tonight' and repeatedly assaulting law enforcement. Jack Wade Whitton, 32, from Georgia, bragged in a message obtained by the government that he had 'fed' a cop 'to the people.' He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, which carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.... Whitton admitted that he hit an officer with a crutch when the officer was on the ground, kicked another officer and then dragged the officer he'd hit with a crutch down the stairs in a prone position. Other rioters then beat the officer with a flagpole and baton. Whitten then returned to the police line about 20 minutes later, kicked at officers, kicked a riot shield held by an officer, and yelled 'you're gonna die tonight,' he acknowledged in his plea." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Perhaps Whitton is one of the people Donald Trump says has "been treated very, very unfairly." ~~~
~~~ Maroosha Muzaffar of the Independent, republished by Yahoo!: "... Donald Trump spoke to the mother of Ashli Babbitt on speakerphone on Tuesday as she rallied for Jan 6 defendants outside of a Washington DC jail.... 'Its a terrible thing that has happened with a lot of people that have been treated very, very unfairly. We love Ashli and so horrible what happened to her.... We are with you. We are working with a lot of different people on this. We can't let this happen,' he can be heard saying in the video. 'You look at all of the riots that took place -- for a long period of time, not just 2020, the last long period of time, and almost nothing has happened to those people,' he continued." MB: Yeah, "those people." They get away with everything, don't they?
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it would let stand for now a ruling that Yeshiva University must recognize an L.G.B.T. student group. The vote was 5 to 4, with the majority saying that the university, a Modern Orthodox Jewish institution in Manhattan, must first pursue challenges to the ruling in state court. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the four dissenters, said that further challenges were pointless and that the majority had inflicted grave harm on the university's right to religious freedom. 'A state's imposition of its own mandatory interpretation of Scripture is a shocking development that calls out for review,' he wrote.... Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett joined Justice Alito's dissent.... The order dissolved an interim stay entered last week by Justice Sotomayor." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not going to seek out & read the background material, so I could be wrong here. But I'd be mighty surprised if the trial judge actually based her decision on Scripture she had "interpreted." From the Times report, it appears -- as you would expect --that what she interpreted was existing law. Update: The Washington Post's story suggests I'm right: it was the university, not the court that interpreted the Torah. Alito, et al., seem to be blinded by religious fervor. ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "On Monday, [Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan] let loose a burst of refreshing clarity during a talk at Temple Emanu-El in New York. 'Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves ... when they instead stray into places where it looks like they're an extension of the political process or when they're imposing their own personal preferences,' she said. She added that the public has a right to expect that 'changes in personnel don't send the entire legal system up for grabs.' That's as clear an indictment of the six right-wing justices as you are going to hear. Indeed, Kagan made a few irrefutable points while eviscerating Roberts's feigned cluelessness.... The dissenters [in Dobbs -- Kagan, Sotomayor & Breyer --] called the majority opinion for what it is: partisan hackery. 'The majority has overruled Roe and Casey for one and only one reason: because it has always despised them, and now it has the votes to discard them,' they wrote. 'The majority thereby substitutes a rule by judges for the rule of law.'" ~~~
~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Justice Elena Kagan warned again on Wednesday that unsound reasoning and politically convenient conclusions have infected the Supreme Court's recent opinions and are doing damage to the court's standing with the American public. 'When courts become extensions of the political process, when people see them as extensions of the political process, when people see them as trying just to impose personal preferences on a society irrespective of the law, that's when there's a problem -- and that's when there ought to be a problem,' Kagan said during an event at Northwestern University School of Law.... The recent criticisms from Kagan ... now seem more pointed because they come just days after Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern publicly that the court's reputation is being unfairly battered."
David Gelles of the New York Times: "A half century after founding the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, the eccentric rock climber who became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given the company away. Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company's independence and ensure that all of its profits -- some $100 million a year -- are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.... Because the Chouinards donated their shares to a trust, the family will pay about $17.5 million in taxes on the gift....
"Barre Seid, a Republican donor, is the only other example in recent memory of a wealthy business owner who gave away his company for philanthropic and political causes. But Mr. Seid took a different approach in giving 100 percent of his electronics company to a nonprofit organization, reaping an enormous personal tax windfall as he made a $1.6 billion gift to fund conservative causes, including efforts to stop action on climate change."
Sonia Rao & Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A Chicago jury on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of multiple child pornography and child sex abuse charges in the second federal trial looking into sexual assault allegations against him, according to the Associated Press. In June, the 55-year-old former R&B singer received a 30-year prison sentence from a Brooklyn judge."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Graeme Massie of the Independent, republished by Yahoo! News: "Florida governor Ron DeSantis has sent two planes of undocumented migrants to Martha's Vineyard.... Florida&'s Republican-controlled state legislature has handed the governor $12m to remove migrants from the state and transport them elsewhere." Update: The New York Times story is here.
Joe Henderson of Florida Politics: Sen. "Marco Rubio ... is a co-sponsor of a bill from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for a national abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.... Key Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, don't even support this bill. McConnell said most GOP Senators 'prefer this be handled at the state level.' That makes Rubio's decision to wade into this lava-hot issue even more puzzling.... A Florida Atlantic University poll in May showed 67% of Floridians believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.... Rubio routinely calls Democrat Val Demings an extremist on the issue, but it's not hard to imagine thousands of Florida women saying, 'Yeah? And your point?'"
Indiana. Poppy Noor of the Guardian: "A sweeping abortion ban went into effect in Indiana on Thursday, containing only extremely narrow exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest and making it the latest state to largely outlaw the procedure in the US. The ban is being challenged in court by the ACLU and several abortion care providers, with hearings set to start on 19 September. Indiana lawmakers passed the legislation during a special legislative session in early August, with a six-week pause before it came into effect."
Massachusetts. McKenna Oxenden of the New York Times: "A package exploded inside a campus building at Northeastern University on Tuesday night, injuring an employee and spreading fear among Boston's many college campuses, the police said. Officers were called just after 7:15 p.m. to Holmes Hall at 39 Leon Street, which houses the writing center on the private university's campus, for a suspicious package that had detonated, the authorities said. A further search revealed a second package, which was rendered safe by the Boston Police Department's bomb squad." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Local Boston TV news is reporting that the bomb may have been a hoax, perpetrated by the person who was injured.
Mississippi. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "Former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant helped Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre obtain welfare funds to help build a volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi, according to an investigative report by Mississippi Today.... The texts allegedly show Favre, New and Bryant conferring on how to divert at least $5 million for a volleyball stadium at Southern Miss, where Favre played college football and his daughter played volleyball at the time some texts were sent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New Hampshire Senate Race. Colby Itkowitz & DaveWeigel of the Washington Post: "Republican primary voters nominated Don Bolduc for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, selecting a far-right candidate over an establishment-backed rival to challenge Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a key midterm battleground. Bolduc has echoed Donald Trump's false claims that the former president won the 2020 election; he has voiced openness to abolishing the FBI; and he has accused party leaders of 'rigging' a 2020 primary that he narrowly lost. The retired U.S. Army brigadier general defeated state Senate President Chuck Morse -- an outcome that was a blow to Gov. Chris Sununu (R) and an outside group with ties to Senate Republican leadership, which sought to elevate the state Senate president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Sweden. Christina Anderson & Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: "Sweden's right-wing parties combined to win a remarkable, if slim, election victory on Wednesday, buoyed by surging support for a far-right nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, an electoral convulsion expected to shake national politics and likely end eight years of rule by the center-left. With over 99 percent of ballots counted, the Swedish Election Authority reported that the right-wing bloc had won 176 of the 349 seats in Parliament. The Swedish Social Democratic Party, the main party in the current governing coalition, grabbed the highest percentage votes as an individual party, but together with its allies, had secured 173 seats in Parliament, not enough to stay in power.... The new government is expected to be led by Ulf Kristersson, head of the Moderates, who would become prime minister in a minority administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Thursday are here: "Russia is warning the United States not to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, saying such an act would make Washington a 'direct party to the conflict' and breach a 'red line.' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has arrived in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a somewhat personal retaliation amid Ukraine's stunning counteroffensive, Russian forces hit Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine overnight, shelling a dam and leaving hundreds of homes flooded and citizens without water, according to Ukrainian authorities.... Zelensky said the dam hit in his hometown had 'no military value at all.'... Zelensky was in a car crash Wednesday but did not sustain major injuries, press secretary Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement on Facebook.... Zelensky made a surprise visit to Izyum, a strategic city in the northeastern Kharkiv region, on Wednesday, which he said was mostly recaptured from Russian control. He said in remarks overnight that there have been reports of 'murders, tortures and abductions by the occupiers' and that some of the scenes being uncovered were similar to what was found in Bucha, where Ukrainian civilians suffered some of the worst atrocities of the war at the hands of Russian troops.... Vladimir Putin met with President Xi Jinping of China in Uzbekistan, signaling the strength of their ties."
U.K. "The Queue." Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: "Thousands of people waited in line -- a very long line -- to pay homage at the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, who will lie in state until her funeral on Monday.... On Wednesday night, and into Thursday morning, [the queue] was three miles long and ever-moving, with initial waits as long as 30 hours, officials warned, making it a feat of endurance, an all-night and all-day marathon." ~~~
~~~ Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Borne on a gun carriage and saluted by the boom of artillery cannons and the tolling of Big Ben, the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II was carried on Wednesday from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, a last transfer of the sovereign's body from her family to the British state.... The queen will lie ... in state [at Westminster Hall] until her funeral on Monday. King Charles III, in dress uniform and carrying a field marshal's baton, walked behind the coffin, joined by his sister, Princess Anne, and their two brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. His elder son and heir, Prince William, newly named as the Prince of Wales, walked behind him, next to his brother, Prince Harry."
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Reader Comments (18)
Nice rant:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/14/trumps-legal-troubles-bare-secret-government-run-amok/
"If I did what Trump did, I'd be in jail" has become a cliche, delivered repeatedly by pundits on CNN & MSNBC when discussing Trump's theft of classified documents (and other stuff). I think we need a new cliche, something along the lines of, "If I did what Donald Trump did, the feds would immediately arrest me & interrogate me for days trying to find out what I'd done with all those classified documents."
Isn't that what you'd expect? I mean, some of these docs are supposed to be super-sensitive secrets vital to national defense, and Trump is suspected of handing them out as party favors to some of his favorite enemies of the state. So why not cuff him, plop him down on the hot seat & have a couple of mean feds bark at him in an effort to break him into admitting what he had done with the documents and what he planned to do with them? That's what they do on the teevee, and if they're mean enough & persistent enough, it works!
Looks like those of us who live near the BNSF tracks will still have our sleep interrupted by the horn blasts of passing trains, but that portion of the local residents who don't want Biden to have another problem may still sleep a little easier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/15/rail-strike-deal-agreement-biden/
Human beings? Only MAGA maggots are human beings!
Sez DeSantollini, attempting to out-MAGA Texas fascist asshole Abbott, by sending immigrants from Venezuela to Martha’s Vineyard. Because the Republican answer to serious policy disagreements are stunts using the most vulnerable of human beings as props.
Rather than engage in serious, sincere discussions about the best way to deal with the country’s immigration problem, which is not going away, confederates offer…nothing. Because “big beautiful walls” and charter planes and buses to DC, Chicago, and now Martha’s Vineyard, are not an answer or even the beginnings of serious policy discussions.
But the depravity of using human beings as part of your great big MAGA ha-ha joke is pure Trumpism. Even worse, DeSantis didn’t bother to alert Massachusetts officials so that these poor fucking people being shunted around on the fascist checker board could be properly cared for, because that would dilute the joke for the MAGGOTs for whom humiliation of immigrants is a plus.
Massachusetts social operations acted as quickly as possible, but Martha’s Vineyard likely doesn’t have a ready force of Spanish language translators so someone could tell these poor people what was going on and answer their questions. High School Spanish students were pressed into service. Just another way to improve the joke and expand the jollies for the bigots.
This fucking guy wants to be president? He needs a lesson in basic humanity. But, oops! Humanity is not what the MAGGOTs know anything about. Because they are the only ones deserving of basic human rights, and that includes pissing on other humans.
Could be that Martha's Vineyard was chosen because the Obamas
occasionally vacation there. But the season is almost over on
Martha's Vineyard, so I think he should have sent them to West
Palm Beach, Florida where it's just beginning.
@Akhilleus: If you transport human beings from Point A, where they chose to be, to Point B, more than 1,000 miles away & where they had no intention of going, isn't that, by definition, "human trafficking"? Especially when the purpose of said trafficking is for your own personal gain & not in any way for the betterment of the people you've trafficked. Let's just add that the season is over on the Vineyard, so there's no way the trafficked people will find jobs in their new "home."
Loud part even louder…
For R bigots, anyway. So here’s Brown Baby Killer and evil Trumpy race baiting n’ hating anus crevice, Stephen Miller with thoughts on the monarchy, a topic of interest to monarchical R’s. Trump, remember, fashions himself as a king.
“Key to monarchy is its mystery. Key to its mystery is that monarchs descend from an ancient line of fabled kings & queens. Though it may not be apparent now, a longterm concern for UK monarchy will be if, due to marriages, future monarchs have same family trees as their subjects.”
Future monarchies will have all that noble blood diluted by marrying members of mongrel races, right, Steve? I certainly hope Prince Harry considers himself properly schooled and scolded for marrying a woman with (heavens!) African blood! Holy debased royal scepter, Batman!
They don’t even try to hide their astounding racism. Nor their hatred of democracy.
God save the (white) king!
https://twitter.com/StephenM/status/1569321956725366786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1569321956725366786%7Ctwgr%5E4cb3022a1dc8204847072c7146cd9d06a3de5eec%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigbysblog.net%2F
@Forrest Morris: I see we had similar thoughts. I don't doubt that Trump would have been happy to employ some of them at Mar-a-Lago. If some speak English, maybe they could have sifted through & sorted some of those classified docs Trump still has squirreled away there.
Also, the new arrivals, who were all or mostly Venezuelans, might help Trump prove that Venezuela's former leader Hugo Chavez (died, 2013, but that's just an inconvenient glitch) fixed those Dominion voting machines to make it appear Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Marie wrote “Let's just add that the season is over on the Vineyard, so there's no way the trafficked people will find jobs in their new ‘home.’”
Quite. That fact, that these poor people will be loaded down with an extra burden and additional humiliation is no doubt a particularly wonderful lagniappe for a racist, fascist fuck like DeSantolini.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/15/republicans-climate-rules-legal-challenge-allow-emissions
The irony here of course is that these are PUBLIC companies that have no interest whatsoever in the public's welfare.
These companies need a new designation (private, predatory?), just as the entire country needs new definitions of other words like "fraud," "hoax," and "patriotism" whose meanings the Right has so abused it has transformed them into their antonyms.
Re: the Baker/Glasser book: the following from Jan. 4, 2017 posted on R.C.
""Over the past two decades, we've witnessed the building of the greatest, most pervasive surveillance apparatus and security state that humanity has ever seen. Now we are about to hand over that entire apparatus to a paranoid, score-settling sociopath whose primary obsession seems to be with crushing his personal enemies."
Jon Stokes–-author of "Inside the Machine"
An example, right from the beginning, our expectations for the worst presidency, perhaps in our history. We had, here on R.C. our pulse on what was going down and it hasn't been easy. Once more kudos to all of us who stuck with it and especially to Marie who did/does the incredible job of implementing it all. The sad fact is that those who need/needed to learn the truth are not those who will read the Baker/Glasser nor pay attention to impeachment trials or Jan. 6 committee or... We find ourselves at crossroads and depending on what happens this coming year might very well determine whether we survive as a nation that calls itself a democracy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We ain't ready for hundreds
of thousands of charging stations for EVs.
Here in W. Michigan we get most of our electricity from a coal
burning plant. There's also a natural gas burning plant.
The whole state has 3 nuclear plants and one is in trouble and will
no doubt be shut down because of a rod problem. Also getting the
nuclear fuel is going to be a problem.
So we have those mile long trains of coal from W. Va. going up north
of here to the shore of Lake Michigan. They need the water for cooling
towers.
Where will all this extra electricity come from? No one is suggesting
solar or wind power. I've heard complaints that the sun doesn't shine
here for months at a time. Ever heard of storage batteries?
And wind turbines kill birds and cause cancer. Where's the proof?
I would suggest starting gradually with Hybrids. The petrol engine
charges the batteries and the mileage is fantastic. Mine gets 43 to
45 mpg.
But what do I know?
If Steven Miller thinks inbreeding of royals is a good thing, he should consider why the Saxe-Coburgs (George I through Charles III, Windsors since WWI) came in to replace the Stuarts on the English throne. Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, had no children that survived as an heir. Anne had seventeen pregnancies, of which five were live births. None of her children survived to adulthood.
There were other things (lots!!) going on in the early 18th century that called for a change in reigning houses, but it seems pretty clear that Stuart-descended Anne's inability to produce any heirs called into question the utility of sticking with Stuarts.
Anne did leave us a fine furniture style, which remains highly popular in the US. Just no kids.
https://democraticunderground.com/10021759352
Turns out that the Venezuelans were lured onto a plane with
promises that they would be flown to Boston so they could be
processed and get work permits and jobs.
Sounds like something Vlad would try. But then again, he would
no doubt have them jump from the plane with promises of chutes
on the way down.
@ Forrest
What's different about the R's lying to immigrants?
They do it to their base all the time.
It's possible needy immigrants with learn not to trust R's far faster than their base ever will.
Forrest M: Spot on. EV's provide a marginal decrease in the primary transportation carbon footprint, pending fusion generators or something. For now it's mostly coal and gas. Nuclear would help but is mired in politics that will never approve distributed nuclear. Rooftop solar will work for some drivers, but widespread adoption is a long way off. And wait: EV batteries and control systems consume lots of lithium and transition elements, each one dirtier than the next, politically as well as environmentally. Only real solution: get people out of cars. And stop making so many people.
The big problem with Solar Power is that the existing electric super powers want to control it. No rooftop installations, just large fields of arrays that will largely supplant the coal and gas fueled plants. Just look at the savings for them and the continued power bills for the rest of us.
RAS: And Jesus spake: Great find, my man! I especially got a kick out of his fit about––-"It's CHRIST in Christmas, people!–-arms akimbo, yummering at high volume.