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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

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Thursday
Mar212019

The Commentariat -- March 22, 2019

It's a day ending in "y', so Donald Trump is saying offensive, stupid things:

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday renewed his attacks on Democrats as anti-Jewish' in response to a number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates deciding to skip the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington. 'I don't know what happened to them but they are totally anti-Israel,' Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. 'Frankly, I think they are anti-Jewish.' Trump's comments come one day after he said the U.S. should recognize Israeli control of the disputed Golan Heights territory." Mrs. McC: This is of course the same guy whose "closing argument" in 2020 was one long anti-Semitic screed., said the white supemacists in Charlottesville who chanted "Jews will not replace us" were "good people," and so forth. ...

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump suggested the public would view special counsel Robert Mueller's expected report on possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow as illegitimate. 'A deputy, that didn't get any votes, appoints a man, that didn't get any votes, he's going to write a report on me,' Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, referring to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.... 'For two years we've gone through this nonsense. There.s no collusion with Russia ... and there's no obstruction. They'll say, "oh, well wait, there was no collusion, that was a hoax, but he obstructed in fighting against the hoax,"' he said." Mrs. McC: Huh. Maybe Trump already knows the gist of Mueller's findings.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- Report Watch Edition

Stonewall, Ctd. Jeremy Herb & Pamela Brown of CNN: "The White House is rejecting a request from congressional Democrats to obtain documents tied to ... Donald Trump's communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a letter to three Democratic committee chairmen, White House counsel Pat Cipollone said that the courts have long established that presidential communications with foreign leaders are protected and confidential."

Lock Him Up! Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner ... uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year. The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws. In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee [-- Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)] said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months." What's the problem? (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Barbara Ortutay of the AP: "Facebook said Thursday that it stored millions of its users' passwords in plain text for years. The acknowledgement from the social media giant came after a security researcher posted about the issue online.... Facebook said there is no evidence its employees abused access to this data. But thousands of employees could have searched them. The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them. But the incident reveals a huge oversight for the company amid a slew of bruises and stumbles in the last couple of years." Mrs. McC: Did I mention Facebook owns WhatsApp? Jared's password is Hot*Grifter2. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Russia, If You're Listening, I Hope You're Able to Find the 30,000 Emails that Are Missing. Chad Day & Jill Colvin of the AP: "Ivanka Trump ... did not preserve all of her official emails as required by federal law, and her husband, Jared Kushner, used a messaging application to conduct U.S. business outside government channels, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on Thursday. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a letter to the White House that the use of private email accounts and the messaging application WhatsApp by senior administration officials raises 'security and federal records concerns.'... In his letter, Cummings also singled out former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, questioning whether they preserved documents related to a proposal to transfer nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. That proposal is under investigation by Cummings' committee, which is looking into information from whistleblowers who have said they witnessed 'abnormal acts' within the Trump National Security Council involving senior White House officials who were pushing the plan."

... Abigail Tracy of Vanity Fair: "'There is no "children' immunity,' Congressman Eric Swalwell told me on Thursday afternoon. Swalwell, who sits on both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, was describing the sprawling web of investigations picking up steam within the Democratic-controlled Congress that appear likely to cover ... the president's ... business interests, his cronies, and yes, even his family members.... The children have traditionally been behind one of Trump's red lines, but Democrats are trying to flip the script. 'We are not going out of our way to hear from the president's children, but the president has gone out of his way to involve his children in the campaign, in the transition and in the governing of our country,' Swalwell continued. 'You can't violate norms with the nepotism that he operates under and then put up a shield when those children land themselves as potential witnesses.'"

Jim Comey, in the New York Times, writes a high-minded op-ed about how he hopes the Mueller report proves justice has prevailed & how awful impeachment would be. Pardon me for gagging.

Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate has some advice for Bob Mueller on how to finish that big writing assignment.


Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States will formally recognize Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. 'After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!' the president tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mark Landler & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel's authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East. Mr. Trump's announcement, in a midday Twitter post, came after persistent pressure from Mr. Netanyahu, a close political ally who is fighting for his survival in the election scheduled for April 9, and has invoked his friendship with the American president as a prime argument for staying in office. But Mr. Trump's move, while popular in Israel and among some lawmakers in Congress, is likely to be condemned almost everywhere else. The United Nations has rejected Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights since 1967, when Israeli troops seized the 400 square miles of rocky highlands from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war. It will also reverberate throughout the Middle East and could undermine Mr. Trump's long anticipated peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinians."

** Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "... Donald Trump gleefully pressed on another culture war hot button Thursday afternoon, issuing an executive order that's supposed to address allegedly serious threats to free speech on America's college campuses.... As my colleague Ella Nilsen explains, it basically amounts to reminding universities about existing law. But that doesn't mean the order is insignificant. It reflects, instead, the degree to which the conservative movement ... has created a panic about the limitation of free speech on college campuses.... That's because this isn't a battle about free speech. it's a fight over political power and cultural control." --s

Presiduntial* Boredom. Steve M.: "I agree with George Conway that Trump has narcissistic personality disorder. I don't agree with those who believe that Trump's attacks on Conway, renewed attacks on McCain, and incessant tweeting last weekend are a sign of mental deterioration or dementia. Trump is just bored.... He has no battles to fight -- the Mueller report hasn't landed, the shutdown is over, the midterms and the Brett Kavanaugh fight were months ago, the North Korea initiative crashed and burned, the 2020 presidential campaign is just beginning ... and there won't be any significant legislation from this divided Congress anytime soon.... Trump has to be asking himself: How do I sustain my brand? The obvious answer: Twitter beefs! Fight with someone! Then fight with someone else! The base loves it! The base thinks it's presidential!" --s

Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Marines Corps Commandant General Robert Neller slammed ... Donald Trump's plan to dispatch troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in a series of recently-leaked internal memorandums. According to the Los Angeles Times, Neller warned the Pentagon that Trump's widely-ridiculed border deployments and proposed funding transfers under his national emergency declaration have caused 'unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency.' Specifically, Neller said the 'unplanned/unbudgeted' border theatrics and spur-of-the-moment funds-shifting had caused the Marines Corps to delay crucial repairs at U.S. military bases.... [Trump's] moves, Neller said, also caused the branch to cancel or reduce several military training exercises in at least five different countries."

Scott Bixby of The Daily Beast: "The Trump administration has sought to expand the government's role in fostering religious freedom both at home and abroad, but within its own immigrant detention centers migrants of faith have seen their own religious freedoms curtailed. Religious detainees have had their religious texts and items confiscated, been forced to eat forbidden foods, and have even watched as U.S. immigration agents threw their holy objects into the garbage in front of them, according to a letter of complaint sent to government watchdogs by the American Civil Liberties Union this week." --s

Sam Mintz of Politico: "A Federal Highway Administration spokesman made dozens of jokes over the past several years about mass shootings, abortion and the killing of Trayvon Martin, a review of his personal Twitter account shows. Doug Hecox ... a comedian, writer and adjunct professor in addition to his role at the highway agency[.]" --s

John Schwartz of the New York Times: "Vast areas of the United States are at risk of flooding this spring, even as Nebraska and other Midwestern states are already reeling from record-breaking late-winter floods, federal scientists said on Thursday. Nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states will have an elevated risk of some flooding from now until May, and 25 states could experience 'major or moderate flooding,' according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." Mrs. McC: Of course climate change is a hoax.

Presidential Race 2020

Mike Allen of Axios: "Close advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden are debating the idea of packaging his presidential campaign announcement with a pledge to choose Stacey Abrams as his vice president.... The popular Georgia Democrat, who at age 45 is 31 years younger than Biden, would bring diversity and excitement to the ticket -- showing voters, in the words of a close source, that Biden 'isn't just another old white guy.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jonathan Chait lists nine reasons this is a good idea for both Biden & Abrams. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ben White & Steve Shepard of Politico: "... Donald Trump has a low approval rating. He is engaging in bitter Twitter wars and facing metastasizing investigations. But if the election were held today, he'd likely ride to a second term in a huge landslide, according to multiple economic models with strong track records of picking presidential winners and losses." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Because This. A Cancer on the Body Politic. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Almost 8 in 10 Republicans who watch Fox News say Donald Trump is the most successful president in history. That was just one finding of a new poll showing the deep ideological divide between Fox News viewers and everyone else. The poll results were provided to The Daily Beast by Navigator, a project launched by Democratic groups Global Strategy Group and GBA strategies. They surveyed more than 1,000 registered voters online with the goal of examining the differences in views between Fox News viewers and non-Fox viewers.... The data show numerous ways in which Fox News-watching Republicans have radically different beliefs from non-Republicans and even Republicans who do not watch Fox News." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Whatever its potential merits, [the Electoral College] is a plainly undemocratic institution.... Narrow margins throw it into chaos."


Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Jimmy "Carter becomes the oldest living former president in United States history" today. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alex Shephard of the New Republic: Democrats have become the party of perpetual timidity. "... they inevitably tack toward the center when out of power, ever fearful of being labeled tax-and-spend liberals or, god forbid, socialists.... Now here comes a crop of fearless left-wing politicians, from first-term congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to septuagenarian Senator Bernie Sanders, whose fearless policies are generating much of the excitement among the rank-and-file. For the party to turn its back on them, out of certainty that history will repeat itself -- now that would be blowing it."

Never-Trumper Rick Wilson of the Daily Beast: "Damn near every elected member of the Republican Party failed another easy test this week as Donald Trump lost his grip on reality and spent days attacking the late Senator John McCain. They tripped over their own dicks in the face of Trump's egregious bullying, racing for political cover and sacrificing their few remaining shreds of dignity because they fear this mad president more than they love their own honor.... In the House, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, spoke clearly and strongly -- his voice resonating even more given the silence around it from most of his Republican colleagues there." --s ...

... So Let's See How That Went. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Crenshaw is a former Navy SEAL who earned two Bronze Stars and a purple heart for his service in Afghanistan, where he lost his right eye from an improvised explosive device explosion.... Supporters of ... Donald Trump quickly suffered an online meltdown." Brigham cites a number of Twitter responses, excoriating both Crenshaw & McCain. ...

... Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "By attacking McCain, Trump allies said Thursday, the president is stoking his supporters' rawest emotions and suspicions about the GOP's political elite."

Joan Biskupic, in a CNN piece about how John Roberts saved ObamaCare: "He was part of the majority of justices who initially voted in a private conference to strike down the individual insurance mandate -- the heart of the law -- but he also voted to uphold an expansion of Medicaid for people near the poverty line. Two months later, Roberts had shifted on both."

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Speaking in a halting, raspy voice, Cesar A. Sayoc Jr., sat in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday and described how he painstakingly assembled homemade pipe bombs that he sent to prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and other critics of President Trump last fall.... Mr. Sayoc, 57, paused his explanation and broke into sobs, finally collecting himself and speaking softly just before he pleaded guilty to the attack.... Mr. Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 counts, which included using a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transportation of an explosive. He faces up to life in prison if convicted."

Capitalism Is Deadly. Hiroko Tabuchi & David Gelles of the New York Times: "As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them. For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... AFP: "Indonesia's national carrier Garuda has cancelled a multibillion-dollar order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after two fatal crashes involving the plane, the company said, blaming passengers' loss of trust in the aircraft." --s

Julia Wong of the Guardian: "Facebook employees were aware of concerns about 'improper data-gathering practices' by Cambridge Analytica [in September 2015] months before the Guardian first reported, in December 2015, that the political consultancy had obtained data on millions from an academic.... The new information 'could suggest that Facebook has consistently mislead [sic.]' British lawmakers 'about what it knew and when about Cambridge Analytica', tweeted Damian Collins the chair of the [British] House of Commons digital culture media and sport select committee (DCMS).... After [the issue became] an international scandal, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Facebook 'learned from journalists at The Guardian that [former Cambridge University academic Aleksandr] Kogan had shared data from his app with Cambridge Analytica' in 2015. The article detailing this data sharing was published on 11 December 2015." --s

** "Spies for Hire." Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "The Saudi government's reliance on a firm from Israel [to surveil Saudi dissidents like Jamal Khashoggi], an adversary for decades, offers a glimpse of a new age of digital warfare governed by few rules and of a growing economy, now valued at $12 billion, of spies for hire. Today even the smallest countries can buy digital espionage services, enabling them to conduct sophisticated operations like electronic eavesdropping or influence campaigns that were once the preserve of major powers like the United States and Russia. Corporations that want to scrutinize competitors' secrets, or wealthy individual with a beef against a rival, can also command intelligence operations for a price.... The firms have enabled governments not only to hack criminal elements like terrorist and drug cartels but also in some cases to act on darker impulses, targeting activists and journalists. Hackers trained by United States spy agencies caught American businesspeople and human rights workers in their net.... The Middle East is the epicenter of this new era of privatized spying."

** Bob Moser, in the New Yorker, writes a damning reminiscence of his work at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in the news this week because the Center fired its co-founder Morris Dees. "For those of us who've worked in the Poverty Palace, putting it all into perspective isn't easy, even to ourselves. We were working with a group of dedicated and talented people, fighting all kinds of good fights, making life miserable for the bad guys. And yet, all the time, dark shadows hung over everything: the racial and gender disparities, the whispers about sexual harassment, the abuses that stemmed from the top-down management, and the guilt you couldn't help feeling about the legions of donors who believed that their money was being used, faithfully and well, to do the Lord's work in the heart of Dixie. We were part of the con, and we knew it."

Finland! Gabriella Paiella of New York: "... Bernie Sanders tweeted that it costs an average of $12,000 to have a baby in the United States, compared to just $60 in Finland -- at which point former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley decided to weigh in. 'Alright @BernieSanders, you're not the woman having the baby so I wouldn't be out there talking about skimping on a woman when it comes to childbirth. Trust me! Nice try though,' she replied, adding, 'Health care costs are too high that is true but comparing us to Finland is ridiculous. Ask them how their health care is. You won't like their answer.' Plenty of Finns took this as an invitation to tell Haley that they did, in fact, enjoy their health care.... Finnish journalist Anu Partanen ... [said,] '... It's ... extremely ironic that she would make that comment in relation to childbirth because that is exactly the area where Finland and all of Nordic countries really excel.... Typically people are very happy with the care they get while giving birth and you just pay a minimal co-pay for the hospital stay. Also, the American maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates are sort of shockingly high for the wealthiest country in the world, practically. On the other hand, Finland does, in those areas, particularly well -- Finnish rates are among the lowest in the world."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also too, "alright" is not a word, Nikki, you ignorant slut.

Beyond the Beltway

South Carolina. Will Sommer of The Daily Beast: "The wacko pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory has some friends in high places in South Carolina, where State Rep. Lin Bennett (R) has been posting on Facebook about her belief in QAnon.... Bennett, who represents a Charleston-area district, has been posting about QAnon on Facebook since at least last year, even helping to 'decode' the QAnon 'clues' for her Facebook friends." --s

Wisconsin. Todd Richmond of the AP: "A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Wisconsin Republicans' contentious lame-duck laws limiting the Democratic governor and attorney general's powers, brushing aside GOP lawmakers' concerns that the move leaves thousands of pages of statutes passed in so-called extraordinary sessions susceptible to challenge. Republican legislative leaders immediately vowed to appeal Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess" order, saying it will create chaos and calling Niess biased. The order is part of a lawsuit filed by a coalition of liberal-leaning groups. They allege the Legislature met illegally when it passed the lame-duck bills in December." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Brazil. Brad Brooks & Rodrigo Gaier of Reuters: "Brazil's former President Michel Temer was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of alleged graft in the construction of nuclear plant Angra 3, prosecutors told Reuters, rattling the political class and threatening to delay a major pension reform. Temer was president from 2016 to 2018, taking office following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice president for six years. His lawyer confirmed the arrest." (Also linked yesterday.)

Indonesia. Kate Lamb of the Guardian: "The spread of fake news and disinformation has spiked in Indonesia in recent months, weeks before millions are scheduled to vote in the country's elections.... In the world's third-largest democracy and a country that is among the top five users of Facebook and Twitter, fake news has been used to deepen existing social, ethnic and religious divisions -- a polarisation of identity politics for political gain." --s

Myanmar. Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "Burmese and Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to a growing trade in women from Myanmar' Kachin minority, who are taken across the border, sold as wives to Chinese men and raped until they become pregnant, a report claims. Some of the women are allowed to return home after they have given birth, but are forced to leave their children, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, titled Give Us a Baby and We'll Let You Go." --s

U.K. Raf Casert & Jill Lawless of the AP: "Worn down by three years of indecision in London, European Union leaders on Thursday grudgingly offered the U.K. more time to ease itself out of the bloc, delaying by several weeks -- but not eliminating -- the threat of a chaotic British exit. After a meeting that stretched through the afternoon and over dinner, the bloc said Britain could postpone its March 29 departure to May 22 -- if the U.K. Parliament approves Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the bloc next week."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/21/devos-roll-back-obama-policies-1288782

A followup to the recent report that the Pretend administration's success rate in the courts is running at an astonishingly low six percent.

Here is some more specific evidence that the Pretender's administration is downright lawless.

Nothing new there, but it seems that outside the comfy confines of the White House "because I said so" isn't persuasive enough.

Kind of a glass half full way to look at things, I know, but I'll go with it tonight

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Master negotiator extraordinaire, promoter of "super easy" Middle East peace deal, hands Netanyahu another major victory, further empties the U.S.'s bag of negotiation pressures, and extracts exactly zero concessions for the proposed policy change.

As we already knew, there isn't really any attempt at a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Drumpf just likes to ingratiate himself with any who will bow down, kiss his ass and throw some money his way. The second Abbas criticized Drumpf's clown car envoy Kushner of Arabia, Abbas signed his death certificate in the eyes of the Man King.

Apartheid is the policy, de facto & de jure.

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered Commentersafari

safari, since DiJiT is "transactional" I can't help but think that Israel did some nasty job somewhere, recently, or will shortly, for which DiJiT paid in "Golan recognition." Sort of the policy equivalent of $130,000.

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

As Anshel Pfeffer said in his biography of Netanyahu, that although Bibi is a fierce defender of the Jews, he doesn't have much regard for them, whether American or Israeli. I imagine he sees Trump as one of his lackeys, using him as he tried to use Obama who not only didn't budge but had an obvious dislike for the man BUT his administration still shelled out $$$ for Israel's bombs and mortar.

The following story is almost funny in a "told ya so" kind of way, although pathetic might be a better way to describe it:

An Iranian national was refused asylum by Britain's Home Office, which cited Bible verses about violence to argue that Christianity was NOT a "peaceful" religion. (no kidding!)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/world/europe/britain-asylum-seeker-christianity.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

@Marie: Shocked I was regarding your response to that nice Niki Haley person–-although Finland did a pretty good job. It is quite a treat these days of constant and immediate responses –-bitter-twitters–-it's like everyone is aimed and ready to pounce. What we do see, however, is the vitriol and derangement of those with whom we look upon as lovers of a man who is filled with vitriol and is, himself, deranged. And that is terrifying.

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@ Patrick,

Maybe something like a free one-year subscription of the Pegasus advanced spying program to hack his imagined enemies like Jeff Bezos, Roseanne and Jeffrey Zucker?

Certainly not out of the realm of possibility with Mr. Thin-Skin McGrieved.

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered Commentersafari

The latest (hard to keep track) addition to the growing gang of idiots:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/stephen-moore-federal-reserve-trump.html

He'll fit right! in.

March 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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