;)
The Commentariat -- January 29, 2018
It's kind of amazing that, with the plethora of news items on offer here in RC World, there are relatively few comments. I look forward every day to the ideas you all put forward. -- Akhilleus, at the end of Saturday's thread.
Ditto. Commenting on Reality Chex couldn't be easier. You can assume almost any pseudonym you like. I do suggest you keep a copy of your comment until it is published. To assure your comment has been published, just refresh the page; the comment should come up right away. The only rules are that (1) you don't attack other commenters -- disagree with their ideas, not with their characters or intelligence -- (2) you don't advocate ideas that shock the conscience, and (3) (which seems to be a difficult one) your comments stick to politics. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... P.S. re: Rule 1: Insulting or attacking me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, will not go well, as yesterday's thread attests.
Afternoon Update:
Adam Goldman & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe has stepped down as the F.B.I.;s deputy director, a move that was widely expected as he has repeatedly come under fire from Republicans in Congress and from President Trump. Mr. McCabe made his intentions known to colleagues on Monday, an American official said. He will immediately go on leave and plans to retire when he becomes eligible in mid-March." Mrs. McC: Well, the Von Trump Family Shitslingers can dance around the campfire tonight carrying McCabe's head on the end of stake. They're such WINNERS! Uh, wait. The next story seems to present a problem. ...
... Susan Glasser of Politico Magazine: "Congress late last year received 'extraordinarily important new documents' in its investigation of ... Donald Trump and his campaign's possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of the president, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) says in an exclusive new interview.... Warner calls out [Rep. Devin] Nunes [R-Calif.], the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in arguably more explicit terms than any Democrat has yet, saying he has read the underlying classified material used in the memo and that Nunes misrepresented it as part of a McCarthyite 'secret Star Chamber' effort to discredit the FBI probe of the president.... Warner offers a provocative rationale for why it is we are now seeing such a stepped-up campaign by Trump and his defenders against those who seek to provide us the answers. 'Mueller is getting closer and closer to the truth,' Warner tells me, and 'closer and closer to the truth is getting closer and closer to the president.'... The spectacle on Capitol Hill is sure to continue." ...
... Another Time Trump Lost It. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's frustrations with the Russia investigation boiled over on Air Force One last week when he learned that a top Justice Department official had warned against releasing a memo that could undercut the probe, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Trump erupted in anger while traveling to Davos after learning that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd warned that it would be 'extraordinarily reckless' to release a classified memo written by House Republican staffers.... For Trump, the letter was yet another example of the Justice Department undermining him and stymieing Republican efforts to expose what the president sees as the politically motivated agenda behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Trump's outburst capped a week where Trump and senior White House officials personally reproached Attorney General Jeff Sessions and asked White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to speak to others -- episodes that illustrate Trump’s preoccupation with the Justice Department."
Another One Bites the Dust. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, will retire from Congress at the end of this term, giving a boost to Democratic hopes of winning back the House of Representatives with wins in fast-changing suburbs.... Frelinghuysen, first elected in 1994, represents suburbs and exurbs of New York City that had long voted solidly Republican.... Donald Trump won just 48.8 percent of the vote in Frelinghuysen's 11th Congressional District. Democrats piled into the 2018 campaign, with Mikie Sherrill, a Navy veteran and federal prosecutor, garnering the most attention and largely clearing the field."
Eric Levitz of New York: Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, outraised Cruz over the last three months. O'Rourke has not taken money from corporate superPACS. Cruz will probably win -- because Texas. But Levitz has written a fine remembrance of just in case:
Ted Cruz is living proof that the invention of high-school debate was a world-historic error on par with the Manhattan Project. He is a seething mass of smug self-regard; a 'populist' who, whilst at law school, refused to study with anyone who hadn't gotten their bachelor's degree at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale; an anti-Establishment gadfly who tried desperately to win a spot in George W. Bush's inner circle; a one-time #NeverTrump conservative who spent much of the past year licking the president's boots; and (almost certainly) a serial killer with a taste for cryptography....
*****
Jeet Heer of the New Republic (Jan. 26) on the "paranoid style in American politics." Now, as it did in the era of Joe McCarthy, that paranoid style begins at the top & has quite a few prominent adherents. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Speaking of Sinister Plots. Jonathan Chait: "It is possible that the deafening drumbeat of charges in the GOP-controlled media about alleged liberal bias in the Justice Department and the FBI is only designed to prepare the base to disregard evidence of President Trump's culpability in the Russia scandal.... It seems much more likely now that the conspiracy theories and charges serve a different purpose: to give Trump cover to shut down Robert Mueller's probe and remake the Justice Department into an organ of his personal protection. Several new reports have clarified the president's disturbing intent.... So, why hasn't Trump acted yet? Reports have also answered this question: because his lawyers keep stopping him.... The question is how long this unstable equilibrium will last.... Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself because he was a key member of the campaign that was being investigated, and who also lied about his interactions with Russians, has selectively un-recused himself." (Also, Trump, not usually known for his subtlety, has found an odd euphemism for reminding fans that Rosenstein is an untrustworthy Jew. Disgusting.) Mrs. McC: Color me paranoid. Chait's evidence, especially two stories we've previously linked, is convincing. ...
... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "I can't overstate the level of anxiety among sources close to Trump after the president told the NYT's Maggie Haberman last week he was willing and eager to submit himself to a live interview under oath with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... One source, who knows Trump as well as anyone, told me he believes the president would be incapable of avoiding perjuring himself. ]Trump doesn't deal in reality,' the source said. 'He creates his own reality and he actually believes it.'"
... Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it. The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein's actions in the memo -- a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start -- indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.... No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.... Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer." ...
... MEANWHILE. Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers warned President Trump on Sunday not to fire Robert S. Mueller III, but showed little sense of urgency to advance long-stalled legislation to protect the special counsel despite a report that Mr. Trump had tried to remove him last June. 'I don't think there's a need for legislation right now to protect Mueller,' Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Right now there's not an issue. So why create one when there isn't a place for it?'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Right. Not an issue. Because Trump already has ordered the White House counsel to fire Mueller. So he would never do so again. ...
Ken Starr Thinks Trump Likely Should Be Impeached. Lois Beckett of the Guardian: 'If Donald Trump lied to the American people when he called reports he tried to fire Robert Mueller 'fake news', that would be grounds for impeachment, the independent counsel who investigated the Clinton White House said on Sunday. Ken Starr, who used Bill Clinton's false statements about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky as grounds for impeachment, told ABC's This Week: 'Lying to the American people is a serious issue that has to be explored. I take lying to the American people very, very seriously, so absolutely.' Starr said: 'That is something Bob Mueller should look at.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course the "fake news" shout-out was not the only time Trump lied to the public about firing Bob Mueller if the NYT is correct. According the the Times, Trump ordered Mueller's firing in June 2017. In August 2017, when asked by a reporter if he'd ever considered firing Mueller, Trump replied, "I haven't given it any thought." Worth noting also, as David Leonhardt does below, that an article of impeachment against Nixon is worded, "... made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States." ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times comes up with a list of Trump's publicly-known bad acts that should warrant an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice. Trump is unlikely to face impeachment anytime soon, or perhaps anytime at all. But it's time for all of us -- voters, members of Congress, Trump's own staff -- to be honest about what he's done. He has obstructed justice. He may not be finished doing so, either." ...
... "American Hustler." Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, pores through years of e-mails written by Paul Manafort's daughters. "When Paul Manafort officially joined the Trump campaign, on March 28, 2016, he represented a danger not only to himself but to the political organization he would ultimately run. A lifetime of foreign adventures didn't just contain scandalous stories, it evinced the character of a man who would very likely commandeer the campaign to serve his own interests, with little concern for the collective consequences." A long piece. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Donald Trump, Climate Scientist. Benjamin Hart of New York: "President Trump has a long history of mind-bogglingly foolish statements about climate change, the most notorious of which is probably his 2012 Twitter declaration that the phenomenon is merely a Chinese hoax. On Sunday, he added another whopper to his least-greatest hits collection. Speaking to kindred spirit Piers Morgan on the British network ITV, Trump said that, despite what you may have heard, the polar ice caps are actually thriving. 'The ice caps were going to melt, they were going to be gone by now, but now they're setting records,' he said.... [And he's been saying (& tweeting) it for years.] The president also told Morgan, sagely: 'Look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place.'" Mrs. McC: The worst part: he believes this. ...
... In case Daffy Duck wrote your science book, too, here's the Chicago Tribune's fact-check.
These next two stories are one atop the other in the Guardian:
Martin Farrer: "A round-up of some of the more eyebrow-raising statements in the US president's interview with Piers Morgan [begins with,] 'I think I'm very popular in your country.' Morgan interjects: 'Let's not be too hasty Mr President.' Trump continued: 'I know but I believe that, I really do. I get so much fan mail from people in your country. They love my sense of security, they love what I'm saying about many different things. 'We get tremendous support from people in the UK.'"
Nicola Swanson: "Protesters are readying themselves for the 'most incredible protest in our history' to coincide with Donald Trump's planned visit during the second half of the year. After a meeting between Theresa May and Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was confirmed that the US president would visit 'later this year'. A Facebook event set up to organise a large-scale protest already boasts of 20,000 attendees and a further 61,000 who are interested in attending."
Justin Bank of the New York Times: "President Trump bragged about lowering the black unemployment rate in a tweet directed at Jay-Z on Sunday morning. The message was seemingly a response to comments the hip-hop artist and businessman made during an interview with CNN on Saturday night.... Mr. Trump is right. Black unemployment in the United States reached its lowest level in December. But, as my colleague Linda Qiu reported two weeks ago, the record is the culmination of a longer trend, and there has been no shift in the larger racial unemployment gap[.]... Further, it's an open question whether a president can claim credit for economic outputs like unemployment." ...
... Mrs. McC: A friend sent me a thoughtful gift last week. Thanks, Trump! My neighbor has been ill, but she's feeling better. Thanks, Trump! The ice on my driveway from last week's icestorm finally melted. Thanks, Trump!
Preet Bharara & Christine Todd Whitman, in a USA Today op-ed: "One year into the Trump presidency, it's clear that the norms and boundaries traditionally guiding American political behavior have deeply eroded. That matters greatly. A workable democracy can thrive only when there are basic rules, often unwritten, that curb abuse and guide policymakers.... Now is the time to ensure the president and all our public officials adhere to basic rules of the road. It's time to turn soft norms into hard law. So far, President Trump has refused to divorce himself from his business interests, despite decades of tradition. He has repeatedly tried to influence federal criminal investigations. Policymaking processes have become haphazard. And we now see worrisome attacks on the independent press. All this shows just how easily a chief executive can ignore the unwritten rules that typically constrain presidents. We see similar erosion elsewhere in government, too. For example, a major tax bill, affecting the whole economy, enacted with no committee hearings.... Today, we're launching an independent democracy task force at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law to holistically review these informal rules, which ones should remain guidelines, and perhaps which ones should be enshrined into law."
** Julian Zelizer of the Atlantic: "Trump has proven to be a reflection of the nation's darkest political traditions.... Viewing the aggressive and socially divisive elements of President Trump's conservative populism as a deviation from the enlightened path of the nation romanticizes the American political tradition as being purely about cherished values such as liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, representation, free markets, and justice. This view of America whitewashes away huge swaths of U.S. history in order to perpetuate the myth that at its essence America is a shining city on the hill." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
Stars auditioned for a Grammy for their Fire & Fury readings. Watch to the end:
"This Land Is Your Land." Guardian: "Amid dangers from the Trump administration and climate change, sites including the Grand Canyon and Zion national park are facing yet another threat: 'massive disrepair'[.]... A huge funding shortfall [for the U.S. National Park System] means that the strain ... is showing Trails are crumbling and buildings are rotting. In all there is an $11bn backlog of maintenance work that repair crews have been unable to perform, a number that has mostly increased every year in the past decade.... National parks are just one part of an unparalleled system, managed by the government and held in trust for the public, and spanning over 600m acres of forests, deserts, tundra and glacier-covered peaks, as well as historical sites such as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. They are integral to American life: an ancestral home for Native Americans; a retreat for vacationers, sportspeople and hunters; a source of grazing; and an economic engine. Yet their future is uncertain. Earlier this month 10 members of a National Park Service advisory board ... quit en masse, complaining that the new administration was unwilling to meet with them and was not prioritizing the parks.... Meanwhile advocates have raised concerns that the Department of Interior, which oversees many federal lands, is staffed with lobbyists for the energy industry. Even absent such issues, climate change, privatization and energy extraction risk changing the face of the country's public spaces forever."
Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the subsequent visit of the evangelical vice president [mike pence] to Israel mark the culmination of a long, complicated and sometimes uneasy alliance between Israeli leaders and Christian evangelicals that dates back to before the establishment of the state. But the high-water mark, ironically, comes just as younger American evangelicals are growing less attached to Israel. Recent polls have sparked anxiety among Israeli officials and Christian Zionist groups, which are trying to reverse the decline.... In the eyes of most Palestinians, however, the influence of evangelicalism on the White House has been disastrous for their relations with the United States.Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, slammed the 'messianic discourse' of Pence during his visit.... Many Jews, for their part, have long viewed the missionary work of evangelicals and their messianic, prophetic beliefs with suspicion." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This worries me, not because I think the "messianic discourse" is a positive, but because I worry that anti-Semitism will become more powerful. It already is a driving force in the alt-right, of course. (And Trump seems to have caught the bug. See Rosenstein, Rod, above.)
Alex Hern of the Guardian: "Sensitive information about the location and staffing of military bases and spy outposts around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company. The details were released by Strava in a data visualisation map that shows all the activity tracked by users of its app, which allows people to record their exercise and share it with others. The map, released in November 2017, shows every single activity ever uploaded to Strava -- more than 3 trillion individual GPS data points, according to the company. The app can be used on various devices including smartphones and fitness trackers like Fitbit to see popular running routes in major cities, or spot individuals in more remote areas who have unusual exercise patterns. However, over the weekend military analysts noticed that the map is also detailed enough that it potentially gives away extremely sensitive information about a subset of Strava users: military personnel on active service."
A Secret Photo, Revealed. Esme Cribb of TPM (Jan. 25): "A journalist announced last week that he will publish a photograph of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan that he took in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting, but did not make public because he believed it would have 'made a difference' to Obama's political future. The photographer, Askia Muhammad, told the Trice Edney News Wire that he 'gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy.' 'But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover,' Muhammad said. Asked whether he thought the photo's release would have affected Obama's presidential campaign, Muhammad said, 'I insist. It absolutely would have made a difference.'... TPM has published the photo above with Muhammad's permission." ...
... Vinson Cunningham of the New Yorker: "The latter months of Hillary Clinton's losing 2008 primary campaign were characterized by a Pyrrhically effective, subtly racialized populist appeal to the people she referred to, at one point, as 'hard-working Americans, white Americans,' in states such as Michigan and Ohio. As Clinton chugged beers and downed shots of whiskey at every notch along the Rust Belt, her campaign disseminated photos of Obama looking especially black or exotic, or standing next to figures of questionable repute.... When I saw a recently released photo, by Askia Muhammad, of Obama and a beaming Louis Farrakhan, I immediately thought of the Clinton campaign. What fun they could've had with this one!" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND people chastize me for not being a big Hillary fan. One of a dozen reasons: Barack's so black.
** Cloak & Dagger One Step Ahead of Nixon. Eric Lichtblau in the New Yorker: Daniel "Ellsberg was aided [in his theft & distribution of the Pentagon Papers] by about a half-dozen volunteers whose identities have stayed secret for forty-six years, despite the intense interest of the Nixon Administration, thousands of articles, books, documentaries, plays, and now a major film, 'The Post.'... Ellsberg told me that the hidden role of this group was so critical to the operation that he gave them a code name -- 'The Lavender Hill Mob,' the name of a 1951 film about a ragtag group of amateur bank robbers. He has referred obliquely to his co-conspirators over the years. But he held back from identifying them because some in the group still feared repercussions. Now, [some of Ellsberg's team have] agreed to be revealed for the first time.... Several other members of the group told me that they still wished to remain anonymous, or declined interview requests."
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Reader Comments (35)
From today's commentariat :
"One source, who knows Trump as well as anyone, told me he believes the president would be incapable of avoiding perjuring himself. ]Trump doesn't deal in reality,' the source said. 'He creates his own reality and he actually believes it.'"
I think I’m very popular in your country.'
Trump said that, despite what you may have heard, the polar ice caps are actually thriving.
One source, who knows Trump as well as anyone, told me he believes the president would be incapable of avoiding perjuring himself. ]Trump doesn't deal in reality,' the source said. 'He creates his own reality and he actually believes it.'"
When is someone going to stand up and tell the truth. Serious, dangerous mental illness and it has become just another days bla bla bla.
MIRROR, MIRROR , ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL?
A year into his presidency, Trump has proven to be a reflection of the nation's darkest political traditions. Julian Zelizer gives us part of our nation's history that we so often forget and he ends with this:
"Perhaps the real reason that it feels so hard to look at President Trump is that Americans see too much of themselves in him. He is the mirror that exposes the nation's contradictions. The deal he keeps offering rural-Americans who make up his "base," namely that he can help them but only if they empower him to go after others, is one that Americans have heard many times before. In the end, maybe that is what makes Trump so disturbing––the President as American as apple pie."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-mirror-on-the-wall/551165/
Some newly uncovered Nixon comments on the subject of Jews...apropos of Marie's concern and mine of an uptake on anti-semitism.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/some-new-comments-richard-nixon-subject-jews-and-blacks/311870/
" ... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND people chastize me for not being a big Hillary fan. One of a dozen reasons: Barack's so black."
One of the crazy things about our history in terms of women being low on that long pole, is that black men got the vote before women (in a few states women did get the vote) overall and in 2008 when we finally had a woman make a serious run for the presidency, a black man beat her. I was for Hillary at first but changed my mind after listening and reading about Obama––plus–-it was more important, I thought, to have the first black president than the first female. I still feel that way. And I wonder where that puts me in the feminine basket?
On things of color:
When an audience member's questions stirs the pot" "Police called to Kittery race presentation" " or did the 'newspaper' need clickbait?
..."Tell Me the Truth - Exploring Cross-Racial Conversations was hosted by Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Southern Maine/Seacoast and featured a dialogue between two women on the forefront of Racial Justice, Shay Stewart-Bouley from the blog Black Girl in Maine and Debby Irving, author of “Waking Up White.”
As part of their presentation, Irving made a statement that would prove almost prophetic. She said that in doing the talks, they had to be prepared for awkward situations, and be prepared to deal with them."
And so, an awkward situation arose. But, did it really rise to the level of something as dreadful as the article seems to imply. Was the man, (Janetti) out of order. Should not his questions have been anticipated if an open discussion was desired. None of his quoted remarks sounded threatening nor did they appear personally directed at the speakers —perhaps discomforting—otherwise I certainly missed it. If you want to hear the other side of things, then listen to the other side.
The last sentence of the article perplexes as if the story is trying to make too much of what took place.
"After the event, Jannetti was still outside, under the watchful eyes of a Kittery police officer. Stewart-Bouley left by a rear door, picked up in a car."
If anyone reads the article tell me if I have misinterpreted!
The "Trump Justice Department" (snicker, snicker) as overseen by a small man with giant ears, surly ways, an optional respect for the rule of law, and the wizened heart of a true hater, seeks to enforce the personal prejudices of that little elf in place of several keystone Confederate beliefs, among them, a benevolent approach to the business community, states' rights, individual enterprise, and the aforementioned rule of law.
But Jeff Sessions' avowed hatred of marijuana and marijuana users has taken hold and, because GOP keystone beliefs, with the exception of anti-choice wars on women, seem to be entirely optional, depending on personal peccadilloes and political convenience, those beliefs are now relegated to the back of the bus. Funny, in'it? It used to be mostly minorities that were shoved to the back of the bus. But never mind about that now. Let's examine little Jeffy's problems and the immense negative consequences for states and the nation as a whole because he has a hair across his ass for hippie-counterculture-leftist hatred.
According to Forbes, the legal marijuana business brought in $7 billion in sales in 2016. The growth rate for that industry is higher than the dot.com boom at its peak. In an era of slowdowns in many industries, a business that grows by 30% in one year is not to be sniffed at (or unfairly and stupidly penalized because of personal prejudice). Industry analysts predict that legal marijuana sales could reach $22 billion by the time Sessions' dim boss is up for re-election, if he's not spending time in a cell by then, or lounging in a dacha outside Moscow after leaving the country hurriedly to avoid prosecution.
And this isn't good news for just weed entrepreneurs. States that have legalized marijuana stand to collect half a billion dollars in tax revenues this year alone. In a few years, that figure could go as high as $1.4 billion. That's not just a load of doobies, that's a load of dough for states that are now being gouged by the Trumpy administration's axing of support in the federal budget for a laundry list of services the little king doesn't deem useful to himself personally.
Which brings us to states' rights. Didn't the GOP used be big on states' rights? I guess that's only in cases where they seek to marginalize and punish groups they don't like or to enforce the conflation of religious indoctrination with public education. But what about the right of states to encourage new businesses that can help offset reductions in federal aid? Hmmm?
Okay, so scratch states' rights. Is the Trumpy administration really going to knife an industry experiencing 30% growth? Yup. So much for all that benevolence for the business community. How about jobs? This industry certainly will create jobs. No love for jobs? Not if it pisses of a certain evil elf, apparently. Same for individual enterprise.
Okay then, how 'bout rule of law? Oh, harumph, harumph! Rule of law you say? Why, we ARE the rule of law, sez Jeffy and Donnie. Okay morons. Try this on for size: Prohibition.
In another age in which religion trumped all other concerns, alcohol was prohibited. They even passed a constitutional amendment, fer crissakes. And what happened? Well, the whole thing went underground. Not only did alcohol sales and taxes go away, the money for illegal booze funded the rise of organized crime which then cost cities, states, and the federal government billions more, not to mention ruined lives and citizens killed. Billions, we're still spending. So is Jeffy's plan to return these billions to the criminal enterprises that have used them to fund other illegal activity? Because making marijuana legal means an entire arm of underground criminal activity is short-circuited and that money instead goes to legal businesses who pay taxes which help fund state and community needs.
But all that has to go away because little Jeffy isn't down with marijuana?
Am I missing something?
No. I'm not missing anything. This is yet another benefit of the Trump Debacle.
Thanks, guys! And thanks for giving us another example of the malleable tenets that supposedly support Movement Conservatism. What a stand-up bunch you all are.
Akhilleus,
I see four or five logical reasons for the crackdown on marijuana, all non medical. Well, the first kinda medical.
Weed can serve as relatively cheap medicine and is therefore competition to established pharmaceutical companies, not known for providing cheap medicine, and they don't like it. Their hired employees are just doing their bidding.
The drug war generally turns out to be a race war, something the party of Lincoln has been fighting since they kicked Lincoln out of their party.
Anti-marijuana enforcement makes blue states, as much an enemy of the Right as are people of color, an even easier target. What's not to like about that?
It's another easy path to righteousness and the appearance of virtue, a path Confederate True Believers have worn smooth over the years.
And maybe a final requirement for Repugnant policy: As you point out, in itself it makes no sense
To sum up the pot story, cartoon in today's paper.
two guys sitting at a bar. 'We can't legalize pot. Mind altering substances are immoral.'
'I'll drink to that!'
I can say as fact that pot users do not reside in blue states only. They're even in AL.
Ken and Marvin,
Right you guys are.
When prohibition hit, there was a strong undercurrent (well, maybe not so "under") sentiment that alcohol fueled the intemperate behavior and indolence of certain minorities and immigrants, lazy blacks and dirty Irish. The wingers have just updated their hate list.
Last time out, they gave us organized crime. What now?
And if we're gonna get all self-righteous about things, alcohol still causes far more deaths and poses far more personal health risks than pot. Gambling, as an addiction, destroys lives equally all up and down the social spectrum, but it especially takes from the poor to shore up the political goals of states strapped for cash. If you went door to door through some upper class neighborhood and asked how much money those families spent on Keno and Powerball tickets, I bet it wouldn't be higher than $5 or $10 a year, and then only as a lark when the pot was a billion dollars. In poor neighborhoods? Probably $5 to $10 a day on scratch cards and Powerball tickets. But that sort of addiction is okay. It replaces money lost when rich people get their tax breaks.
Plus, selective virtue has its own set of problems. Is lying weasel Jeff Sessions who works for, supports, and covers up for the single most amoral skunk in American presidential history really going to lecture the rest of us about morals?
@unwashed,
True enough, but the product is taxed only in those states which have approved its use, and as the recent tax boondoggle demonstrates, the R's delight in squeezing the blues.
MAG,
Wait, there are black girls in Maine? And LePage allows this? He's a lot more progressive than I give him credit for!
Hey, the link doesn't work anymore. The conspiracy theorist in me tells me that someone on that site monitors RC and took down the article just so's we couldn't read it. Without the benefit of perusal, I can't comment on it in any serious manner, but the idea that the cops would have to show up to protect a guy (white, I'm assuming) who asked an "awkward" question seems a tad over the top, unless the cops were there for something else and the reporter decided to make something out of it. Can't say.
It's all more proof, however, that Little Johnny and the Dwarfs are way out of line when they assume that race problems in America were solved years ago and therefore no special concerns about race need to be addressed. Superior analysts of current data points they ain't.
Thanks, boys. Remind me not to ask your opinion on who's gonna win the Super Bowl.
Nutella: Toute Suite.
Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition of marijuana. "Those who ignore
the past are doomed to repeat it".
Gangsters made out like gangbusters with prohibition of alcohol.
Could it be that those at the top who make millions from illegal
marijuana sales don't want legalization? They'd likely be out of
business. Could they be paying off someone? Don't answer that.
@AK: My bad, w/o realizing had added an extra 'letter' to the html link. This might work better. When an audience member's questions stirs the pot" "Police called to Kittery race presentation" " or more plainly:
( http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20180128/police-called-to-kittery-race-presentation )
Wait! I thought the Kittery race was like sailboats in January, thermal-lined windbreakers & yachting caps with earmuffs.
Marie,
I think you've stumbled on it! The answer. When Little Johnny and company are faced with issues of "race", they probably think it's a matter for the people running the Boston Marathon or the Indy 500.
Or guys sailing by the Portsmouth Navy Yard wearing yachting caps with earmuffs.
When I first read Bea's comment that she is "glad [Hillary] is not my president" I was disappointed. But then I realized that as much as I detest Trump and believe he is destroying our country and its institutions, maybe it is better that she is not our first woman president. The evil, detestable people who are now showing their true selves would have had done everything possible to attack Hillary to prevent her from accomplishing anything. Because she does have so much baggage, she would not have been the prefect role model for first woman president. Somewhat in her defense, however, while her acceptance of flawed men into her inner circle seems hypocritical, what choice did she really have if she needed to advance politically? Sadly, the people most adept at navigating politics, or even advancing in the professional world, are not saints.
If Hillary were President, then the true Republican agenda would still be hidden. The same propaganda techniques and fear they used to block Obama's agenda and to fool people into voting against their own self-interest would still be in play. As painful as this past year has been, sometimes the pustule needs to be popped open to reveal the infection inside. By letting the GOP rule, their true agenda is revealed, and hopefully people will come to their senses as reality sets in. I had hoped that the financial crisis would lead to this awakening, but I fear we did not hurt enough then. I just hope that the painful remedy to our current mess will not leave us permanently crippled.
My hope is that out of this mess arise many strong, true progressive candidates who can return our country to its true democratic values. I'm not convinced that would have happened with Hillary at the helm. We need better women leaders, who refuse to accept the status quo, in great enough numbers to have the power to really make a difference.
MAG, not having been there to observe Janetti's demeanor, its not clear to me that he was out of order.
However, he seemed to display a willful ignorance of his own white privilege, which I find typical of folks who grow up in an area that has only recently seen a person of color.
His point about No Irish Need Apply is specious, at best. After a few generations the Irish, and his ancestors the Italians, were assimilated because they were, after all, white.
People of color, unless they can pass as white, are not as easily assimilated into white society. Skin color is an all too easy identifier.
His comment that "the reason those groups succeeded is that they lifted themselves up" is like giving the other player Baltic & Mediterranean Avenues along with $200 while owning all the railroads, the utilities, all the other properties, hotels & houses AND the Bank, then blaming them when they are forced into bankruptcy.
Crazy at the Wheel
The always readable Jeet Heer's piece (linked above) about the return of paranoia (did it ever leave?) to American politics, through the kindly offices of that nice Donald Trump and his band of helpful paranoiacs at Fox and elsewhere in the wingnuttery, makes a number of useful connections between American derangement then and now.
But his most interesting point is buried toward the end of the article. The Tricky One (Dick to youse guys) was most certainly one of our most practiced practitioners of paranoid presumption and it's entirely reasonable to assume that Nixon's paranoia was the single biggest reason for the Constitutional crisis of his presidency. A point worth remembering. (In other words, crazy people are more likely to do crazy things.)
The fact that we seem to have avoided another Saturday Night Massacre does not allow for any deep breaths. It doesn't seem that Trump's paranoia is as deeply seated as Nixon's largely because Nixon, unlike Trump, actually was a pretty smart guy who thought very long and hard about things, especially about his enemies. Trump is as shallow as a puddle. His paranoia may be real, but it hasn't yet dominated his every waking moment as it seemed to have overtaken Nixon, wandering the halls of the White House, drunk and muttering to himself.
This isn't to say that Trump's paranoia isn't dangerous. In some ways, because he is so shallow, he may not even think a nuclear war could be all that bad. Besides, a whole lot of those people at Nagasaki were fine. Well, yeah, most of the survivors died of radiation poisoning a few weeks or months later, but hey, for those few weeks or months, they all had a great time! What's the problem? We got 'em, let's use 'em!
Equally dangerous is the subversion of reality promoted by winger media and politcians. I've said before that Confederates may be blithering idiots and indolent, incompetent swine in many ways, but they are past masters at propaganda.
Since Marie has approved a limited lifting on the ban of an Argumentum ad Hitlerum, I'm testing the waters by suggesting that, in a much reduced manner, the way Hitler used the built-in anti-Semitism among many Germans to blame Jews for everything, Trump and his band of liars are making great use of the salted earth wars the Right has been waging on truth and a responsible civic life to their own benefit. Trump for personal wealth and aggrandizement, the pols, well, for the largely same thing. The fact that Lyin' Ryan received a tidy sum of half a billion smackers from the Kochs for carrying their water while pushing the lie that the tax breaks would benefit John and Mary Doe is exhibit one.
At first, Confederate attacks were used to improve their political standing. But once in power, they realized that they could also undermine not only logic and the importance of critical thinking (only pointy-headed Ivy League liberals think "critically") and truth itself. They could, in due course, fashion their own universe with their very own facts.
The Bush White House claimed to create their own reality every time the Decider opened the pie hole. Trump lives in his own reality. The problem is, it changes every day (very much like the character in the late great Ursula K. Le Guin's novel "The Lathe of Heaven" where the dreams of one man changed reality for everyone on the planet.) The difference is that many of us remember what the real world is like. Trump does not and his supporters are thrilled to keep it that way.
Once Trump's paranoia reaches a tipping point, I have no idea what might happen. And the worst of it? The systems in place during Nixon's era to keep catastrophe at bay are no longer operative. The GOP has seen to it that all safety systems are permanently offline.
One would think that giving the keys of the car to a crazy person might not happen if you were sitting in the back seat. But that presupposes that the passengers are not themselves crazy. A supposition clearly not supported by the evidence.
@ Ken, point taken. I'm told by one who works in that industry that business is booming but they're having a hard time finding enough workers, even at $25/hr, to do nothing but trim product all day. Personally, I'd find it to be a mind-numbing task to perform day in and day out.
The Hillary Thing
Without getting too far into the weeds, I'm gonna say that as happy as I was to have a woman running as a serious candidate for president, I was always concerned about the baggage and about certain personal foibles. I was never much of a Bill Clinton fan but I held my nose and voted for him. Hillary isn't Bill, of course, but fairly or not, she carried a heavy load from those years. She became a good senator and earned respect as a Secretary of State, despite the made up Benghazi bullshit.
Had she won, I'm guessing Lisa's prediction would be exactly correct. The creeps perfected the imposition of their own agenda by denying much of Obama's. Had Hillary won, they'd put those techniques into overdrive. She'd be lucky to pass a law against child molestation.
And one other thing, four to eight years of Hillary hatred could have destroyed the chances of another Democrat for many years and could have solidified the state and local control of Confederates. They'd all be running against the "Hillary Democrats". I could be wrong about that, but look at how bad it is right now when they have their own guy in the White House and complete control of the Congress.
I do think that Hillary Clinton will be seen as a transitional figure in American political history, a person without whose presence further progress could have been stymied or delayed for decades. The fact that Clinton ran a serious campaign and came within a Russian hack of winning says a lot, even given her baggage and the fake news and lies spread about her. The next woman who runs will face a lot, but she won't have to beat back the idea that any woman striving for the Oval Office has an impossible task ahead of her.
And for that, I believe we owe her a lot.
@Lisa (LT)
Couldn't agree more.
The Republican Party is being purified to its impure fundaments. It's been going on for a long time, in my lifetime noticeably beginning with Nixon's southern strategy, then on to Reagan's elevation of greed to virtue status. Gingrich and Starr served up the party's elemental nastiness, a willingness to attack the opposition with any weapon, including an arsenal of deliberate and outright lies. The hapless but no less dangerous Bush II and his father substitute, Darth himself, moved the party more publicly toward authoritarianism.
Now they've elected a president who embodies all of the above.
The Repubnants are now in all respects visibly repugnant. We'll see if the electorate takes notice. So far, the signs are positive.
Forrest,
My favorite quote from that Nutella story was this tweet:
"Serieux ??!! Tout ça pour du Nutella ?!"
I mean, is it really that good?
@Ak: Sérieusement? Is it really that good?
Mais non in my opinion and I do have a sweet tooth—love chocolate, love hazelnuts, and raspberries...but, I just can't get past the cloying aftertastes of Nutella (and also Chambord). This is one time I find the French frenzy a bit bizarre!
McCabe is out, ditto another R not running for another term... We must stay tuned, as things get dicier and dicier. (Is that a word?) Let's not fight amongst ourselves re Hillary-- we need all of us in this lifeboat!
Ak: For some reason Nutella tastes much better when you're in
Bologna sitting in the shade with a jar of it and some pastries.
And that's no boloney.
So Trump starts his daily Twitter fest before flipping back the sheets. From the crap he sends early in the morning I figured it was scraps of crap that missed the bowl in the defecatorium.
He wants 25B$ for his wall. Was the bill he sent to Mexico City returned to sender marked "refused"?
And a thought on a past subject of contention; Are there any monuments or statues in the United States honoring the colonists who fought for the British Crown?
Forrest,
"Bologna without the boloney". I think you've hit on a great travel poster idea. Works for me.
Bobby Lee,
Why does no one ask Trump about the absolute, total, abysmal failure of his signature campaign promise, to make Mexico pay for his wall?
Remember when that idiot Palin did a little winky-winky for the knuckledraggers at some campaign event and tossed out that "How's that hopey-changey thing workin' for ya, huh?" The morons went wild. But in fact, Obama did bring change and he did bring hope. He insured millions of Americans that Palin and her party had been spitting on for generations. So the "hopey-changey thing" went fine.
How's that "Mexico will pay for my wall" thingy going for Trumpy, and why have no winger media outlets taken him to task for his lie and/or the gigantic egg he laid?
Never mind, we now why.
Some good news! 'New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen Is the Latest Republican to Announce He Will Not Seek Re-Election'.
This is my fake representative. A perfect example of the 'political scumbag'.
Um....per my last post....we don't "now" why...we know why.
Cripes. Flying fingers of fury do me in.
AK; yes, "now" we "know" why.
I'm watching more the NAFTA reality than the fictional wall right now. If Trump bails the main damage will fall on his base. But, will they blame him?
On the wall; did anyone note that as of yesterday the Berlin wall has been down longer than it was up?
Bobby Lee,
Indeed.
Who knew (this time I'll fill in one of the Pretender's many blanks with) trade could be so complicated?
See the article linked in the Reuters news above on the washing machine tariff's effects on the unfolding LG debacle in the Pretender territory of Tennessee.
Thanks to all RC commenters (and future and nascent and imminent commenters) for responding to my slightly snippy request for more engagement.
I just miss you guys is all.
This is so much more fun. Hope it is for all of you as well! Yee-Haw!
So who among us believes that Liarby Sanders is telling the truth that Trump and the White House had nothing to do with McCabe stepping down? I'm betting Rosenstein's feet are going to start feeling some serious flames now too.
After reading the Bloomberg piece about Trump's latest temper tantrum, I was amazed at how often Gen. Kelly came up in the article reportedly calling up the DOJ and ripping their asses for not following Trump's whimsical desires of obstruction. Knowing now that he's basically just an older version of white supremacist Stephen Miller, I'm rooting that he rolls even deeper into the mud of aiding and abetting Trump, and finds Mueller breathing down his neck too. Trump has been spraying his dirt on everyone in his latest episodes, purposefully so.