;)
The Commentariat -- March 27, 2018
** Springtime for Hitler. Peter Goodman of the New York Times: "In the aftermath of World War II, the victorious Western countries forged institutions -- NATO, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization -- that aimed to keep the peace through collective military might and shared prosperity. They promoted democratic ideals and international trade while investing in the notion that coalitions were the antidote to destructive nationalism. But now [that] model [is] being challenged by a surge of nationalism and its institutions under assault from some of the very powers that constructed them -- not least, the United States under President Trump.... But the United States is far from the only power tearing at the foundations of the postwar order. Britain is abandoning the European Union.... Italy just elevated two populist political parties that nurse historical animosities against the bloc. Polan and Hungary, once viewed as triumphs of democracy flowering in post-Soviet soil, have shackled the media, cracked down on public gatherings, and attacked the independence of their court systems. This re-emergence of authoritarian impulses has undercut a central thrust of European policy since the end of the Cold War."
Katie Rogers & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by western allies in response to Russia's alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four." (Linked yesterday; new lede.)
Alan Rappeport & Prashant Rao of the New York Times: "President Trump secured his first major trade deal on Monday as the United States and South Korea reached an agreement to renegotiate their trade pact, with Seoul agreeing to reduce its steel exports and open its market to American cars in exchange for an exemption from Mr. Trump's global tariffs on steel and aluminum. The deal ... appears to end a dispute that had strained ties between Washington and a reliable Asian ally. It also seemed to confirm Mr. Trump's 'America First' approach to trade, in which he has sought to extract concessions in return for exemptions and revisions to the blanket steel and aluminum tariffs announced by the White House this month." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... David Dayen argues in the New Republic that Trump's "trade wars" are little more than shams -- melodramatic announcements & press releases hyped by the media.
Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "Amidst the numbing chaos that is the Trump administration, these past few days are worth reflecting on because three events have moved the needle in a bad direction. 1. The hiring of John Bolton highlights Donald Trump's instability, his total lack of any coherent worldview, and most of all -- and most dangerously of all -- his need to feel that no limits are being imposed on him.... 2. Trump&'s slapstick handling of the budget shows us -- again, but probably more than anything before it -- just how massively in over his head he is in the job.... 3. The Stormy Daniels story.... The threats made against her are the real story here.... Depending on how it plays out it stands the chance of reminding the country of something that many have forgotten, or never knew: The president of the United States has mob ties."
Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After 61 weeks in the White House, President Trump has found two people he won't attack on Twitter: Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. The verbose commander in chief has posted more than 2,900 times on Twitter since taking office, using the term 'FAKE NEWS' to describe everything from the Russia inquiry and allegations of chaos in the White House to harassment accusations, the size of his inaugural crowds and heated arguments with world leaders. But he has been uncharacteristically silent in recent days -- to the relief of his advisers -- as a pornographic film star and a Playboy model described intimate details of sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.... Inside the White House, Mr. Trump is eager to defend himself against allegations that he insists are false, those close to him say. And he is growing increasingly frustrated with breathless, wall-to-wall news media coverage of the salacious details from the two women. On Monday, Ms. Clifford's [a/k/a Daniels] lawyer added new charges to the suit she filed: that [Trump lawyer Michael Cohen defamed Ms. Clifford in denying her claims; that he and Mr. Trump pursued the deal to specifically help Mr. Trump's election prospects; and that he then structured the agreement to shield from public view what was, effectively, an illegal $130,000 campaign gift." ...
... Jill Colvin of the AP: "The White House is disputing adult film star Stormy Daniels' claim that she was threatened to keep quiet over her alleged affair with Donald Trump and said the president continues to deny the relationship.... Trump, who frequently takes on his foes in person and on social media, remained uncharacteristically quiet about the matter Monday.... Instead, he left the denials to his White House staff. Spokesman Raj Shah declined to say whether the president had watched Daniels' interview, but said Trump did not believe any of the claims she made. 'The president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims,' Shah said." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is the second time that Sarah Sanders took a mysterious mid-week "vacation" when the White House press corps would inevitably raise a matter involving abuse of women; the first time was when the Rob Porter story hit the fan. Either Sanders thinks straight-out lying about abuse is a bridge too far or Trump thinks only men are equipped to handle such allegations. ...
... Justin Baragona of Mediaite: "A day after 60 Minutes aired the much-hyped interview with his client, Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti took to Twitter to brag about the huge ratings, taking a page out of the Trumpian playbook. Linking to a New York Times piece on the program's ratings, Avenatti posted that since 'this is what really matters (LOL),' the ratings for Daniels' interview 'CRUSHED (BY MILLIONS) any Apprentice show in the last ten years as well as Mr. Trump's Nov 2016 appearance.'... 60 Minutes noted earlier [Monday] that last night's program was its most-watched since a 2008 interview with Barack and Michelle Obama." ...
... CBS News: "A night before CBS News' '60 Minutes' aired its interview with Stephanie Clifford, better known as the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, President Trump had dinner with Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney." Mrs. McC: Just wanted to chat about his golf game, I guess. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jill Filipovic in the Guardian: "The threats [to Daniels] sound ham-fisted and cartoonish, almost like something out of a mafia movie. But then, 'ham-fisted and cartoonish' also describes Michael Cohen, many of Trump's long-serving employees and contacts, and the president himself.... This is a president who hired 'the Mooch' to run communications in the White House, and whose original team of mostly male toadies seemed more like Goodfellas extras than professional politicos. Trump has well-known and longstanding ties to organized crime. And he has made a career of publicly threatening journalists or anyone who crosses him with physical violence. Given Trump's history..., Daniels' threat story doesn't seem all that far-fetched.... The bribery and the silencing should be a political scandal. But there's another story worth discussing here, too: how unfettered male power begets sad, bad sex.... At the very least, our president embodies the worst of male sexual entitlement and rank misogyny. We knew that before the election, and put him in the highest office in the land anyway. What does that say about us?" ...
... Amy Zimmerman of the Daily Beast argues convincingly that Stormy Daniels has internalized slut-shaming. AND media pundits are damned good at it, too. Mrs. McC: At the same time, I see this as the major difference between Daniels' character & Trump's. Daniels is introspective & contends with mistakes she's made; Trump can't face his own, much worse behavior & sends out goons to clean up for him.
... Jay Michaelson of the Daily Beast has a theory: "Pretty much all [non-disclosure agreements] become voided once the confidential information becomes widely known.... In this case, when the Wall Street Journal revealed the details of the contract on January 12, 2018, that information stopped being confidential. So why not just say that?... [Because t]his dispute isn't about the affair: it’s about ... pictures or texts.... The only question Daniels refused to answer [in her interview with Anderson Cooper] was about whether she's got more evidence of the affair. [Daniels' attorney Michael] Avenatti suggested the answer is yes: he tweeted a photo of a DVD inside a safe.... If Daniels has retained copies of pictures or texts, then she is in clear violation of the central parts of the confidentiality agreement.... If that DVD has pictures of Trump, it is literally Trump's copyrighted property. Unless, of course, the agreement is null and void.... Now you can see why Avenatti is pursuing this weird and unlikely strategy to say that the agreement was never valid in the first place: that's the only way for that DVD to matter." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Maggie Haberman: "President Trump has stayed in touch with Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who stepped down after allegations that he had abused his two former wives came to light, according to three people familiar with the conversations, and has told some advisers he hopes Mr. Porter returns to work in the West Wing. The president's calls with Mr. Porter have increased in the last few weeks.... Mr. Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee..., was hustled out of the White House so quickly two weeks ago that he did not have time to collect his jacket. Mr. McEntee had a gambling habit that could have led to financial issues, White House officials have said, but early news accounts painted him as under criminal investigation, reports that were later contradicted. Mr. Trump has told advisers that Mr. McEntee is a 'good kid' who was dealt with unfairly and that he would like to bring him back." ...
... Mrs. McC: All Porter did was beat up his wives & lie about it. What's the big deal? As for McEntee, Trump himself is under criminal investigation & he has spent his life hanging with criminals, so why should McEntee get the boot?
Sam Stein & Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Two more high-power attorneys have had to turn down ... Donald Trump. Tom Buchanan and Dan Webb confirmed to The Daily Beast that Trump reached out to them about representing him, and that they couldn't do it. [They claimed "business conflicts."]... Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that numerous lawyers were eager to work for him. But so far, his team has been shrinking rather than expanding." Mrs. McC: Yeah, their "business conflicts" were probably that they figured they & their firms would lose business if their names were associated with Trump. Besides, would you hire a lawyer who was likely to neglect your case because s/he was always having to drop everything to babysit the Brat-in-Chief? ...
... Abigail Tracy of Vanity Fair: "At the very moment when Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is spinning into higher gear, Donald Trump's legal team is falling apart in extraordinary fashion.... 'I don't think you have seen anything like this,' said former Obama general counsel Bob Bauer, struggling to identify a historical antecedent. 'Like so much else around Trump, [the shake-up] is marked by confusion, a lack of consistency, and an apparent reflection of the president's uncontrolled impulses.... 'As far as I can tell, Ty Cobb is the only attorney left on the Trump team with experience handling federal criminal investigations,' said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor...." ...
... David Corn of Mother Jones: "I asked [top GOP lawyer Ted] Olson about being recruited for Trump's squad. He rolled his eyes, suggesting that this was never going to happen and that it was not just a matter of conflicts.... Washington, I noted, is full of Republican lawyers who generally do not mind being in the middle of headline-generating scandals and earning a bit of notice. Olson laughed: 'That's right.' And not one of them had contacted him to say he or she was willing to sign up? 'No,' he [said]. Trump seems to believe he's a hot ticket for DC's top legal talent. The word on the street is different."
The Week: "White House attorneys are looking into whether two loans worth more than $500 million given to ... Jared Kushner's family real estate business violated any criminal laws or federal ethics regulations, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal obtained a letter from David Apol, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who had raised concerns over meetings Kushner had in the White House with executives from Apollo Global Management and Citigroup right before each company loaned Kushner Cos. millions. Responding to Krishnamoorthi, Apol wrote that he discussed the matter with the White House Counsel's Office, and he was notified that they were already investigating the loans and whether 'any law or regulation has been violated and whether any additional procedures are necessary to avoid violations in the future.'"
Swamp. Ben Wieder & Peter Stone of McClatchy D.C.: "Top Donald Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy sought help last summer from the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee [Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.] and lobbyist Rick Gates ... to help his defense firm Circinus and win points with some controversial political allies in Bucharest [, Romania] ... Broidy ... sought the assistance of Gates, with whom he had worked on President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, to win a U.S. Commerce Department endorsement for his company as it tried to win work in Romania.... McClatchy previously reported that Broidy invited two prominent Romanian politicians to several events connected with Trump's 2017 inauguration, months before Broidy's defense company, Circinus, opened up shop in Romania seeking a share of contracts valued at more than $200 million.... During the inaugural visit, the two Romanian politicians -- then-Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu and Liviu Dragnea ... met briefly with Trump..., Royce... Devin Nunes, R-Calif..., [and] Michael Flynn.... McClatchy received the messages and documents from an anonymous e-mail account. Broidy's lawyer, Lee Wolosky, said in a statement that Broidy believes Qatar hacked Broidy's computer and disseminated the information." --safari
Charles Pierce comments on the Trump/Mnuchin request that Congress send the Presidunce* a line-item-veto bill. "[Mnuchin] doesn't know. Worse, he doesn't care. Worst of all, he's sitting in the position he's in right now because he doesn't know and he doesn't care. About the country. About its Constitution. About anything that is outside the safety-deposit box he has for a soul." Read the whole post because it's a hoot. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Three more people lost their jobs at Ben Carson's Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) on Monday, amid a widening ethics controversy. The three people, one of them a former White House staffer, worked as aides in the office of Hud's chief information officer, Johnson Joy, who was removed from his job last week over reports published by the Guardian. Two sources at Hud said the aides had their contracts terminated unexpectedly by Accel Corporation, a Maryland-based private employment agency that supplied Joy's office with multiple staff.... Accel's arrangement with Hud is being examined by the department's inspector general and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which oversees federal workers' employment rights.... Sherrod Brown, a Democratic senator from Ohio, last week accused Carson of filling positions at Hud 'based on patronage rather than competence', following the Guardian's reports."
Sara Ganim of CNN: "Several employees at the Interior Department have told CNN that Secretary Ryan Zinke repeatedly says that he won't focus on diversity, an apparent talking point that has upset many people within the agency. Three high-ranking Interior officials from three different divisions said that Zinke has made several comments with a similar theme, saying 'diversity isn't important,' or 'I don't care about diversity,' or 'I don't really think that's important anymore.'"
Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "The 2020 census will ask respondents whether they are United States citizens, the Commerce Department announced Monday night, agreeing to a Trump administration request with highly charged political and social implications that many officials feared would result in a substantial undercount.... Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross 'has determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data,' [a Commerce Department] statement said.... But critics of the change and experts in the Census Bureau itself have said that, amid a fiery immigration debate, the inclusion of a citizenship question could prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally not to respond. That would result in a severe undercount of the population -- and, in turn, faulty data for government agencies and outside groups that rely on the census. The effects would also bleed into the redistricting of the House and state legislatures in the next decade." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, that's the idea, isn't it, Wilbur? As for me, I will not answer the question. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... this could significantly increase [Republicans'] advantages for two reasons: 1. It might dissuade noncitizens from participating in the census, thereby diluting the political power of the (mostly urban and Democratic) areas they come from. 2. Even without that, it would hand Republicans a new tool in redrawing districts even more in their favor."...
Lee Fang of the Intercept: "ICE, the federal agency tasked with Trump's program of mass deportation, uses backend Facebook data to locate and track suspects, according to a string of emails and documents obtained by The Intercept through a public records request.... Law enforcement agents routinely use bank, telephone, and internet records for investigations, but the extent to which ICE uses social media is not well known. A Facebook spokesperson, in a statement, said that ICE does not have any unique access to data.... Last month, ICE released a request for proposal for a private contractor to provide tools to track target employment data, credit checks, vehicle accident reports, pay day loans, and other data sources. The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has made aggressive new efforts to obtain social media data from those entering and exiting the country."
Reuters: "... Donald Trump on Monday nominated Rebecca Slaughter, chief counsel to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to the Federal Trade Commission, the White House said in a statement. Slaughter, if confirmed by the Senate, would hold the position for the rest of a seven-year term ending in 2022. She would become the second Democratic commissioner along with Rohit Chopra, a former official at the Consumer Financial Protection Board.... The agency has five commissioners but only three can be from one political party."
Congressional Races
Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "When Representative Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania announced on Sunday that he would join more than 40 other congressional Republicans not seeking re-election in November, he left no doubt about the reason: President Trump's conduct made it impossible to talk about anything else.... While Republicans have been bracing for months for a punishing election in November, they are increasingly alarmed that their losses may be even worse than feared because the midterm campaign appears destined to turn more on the behavior of the man in the White House than any other in decades.... Mr. Trump's erratic style could end up alienating crucial blocs of suburban voters and politically moderate women.... And perhaps most ominous for Republicans, there does not appear to be an obvious middle ground.... Last November, Ed Gillespie [-- Virginia's GOP candidate for governor --] sought to avoid either inflaming or embracing Mr. Trump, and he was still soundly defeated." ...
... **Ian Milhiser of ThinkProgress: "A new report by the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that congressional races are so heavily rigged in favor of Republicans that the United States can barely be described as a democratic republic. The upshot of their analysis is that, to win a bare majority of the seats in the U.S. House, Democrats 'would likely have to win the national popular vote by nearly 11 points.' To put that number in perspective, neither party achieved an 11-point popular vote win in the last several decades. The last time this happened, according to the Brennan Center, was 1982, when a deep recession led the opposition Democrats to a 269 seat majority against President Reagan's Republicans." --safari: Read the whole post. So much of our democracy depends on political "fair play", but today's GOP has chosen crow bars and baseball bats. ...
... The Big Con. Paul Krugman: "In 2010 an explosion at a coal mine operated by Massey Energy killed 29 men. In 2015 Don Blankenship, the company's former C.E.O., was sent to prison for conspiring to violate mine safety standards. In 2018, Blankenship appears to have a real chance at becoming the Republican candidate for senator from West Virginia. Blankenship is one of four Republicans with criminal convictions running for office this year, several of whom may well win their party's nominations. And there is a much broader list of Republican politicians facing credible accusations of huge ethical lapses who nonetheless emerged victorious in G.O.P. primaries, ranging from Roy Moore to, well, Donald Trump.... What's striking about today's Republican landscape is that people who are obvious crooks, con men or worse continue to attract strong support from the party's base.... Republicans have won elections partly by denying the reality of their policy agenda, but mainly by posing as defenders of traditional social values -- above all, that greatest of American traditions, racism.... G.O.P. politicians tend disproportionately to be con men (and in some cases, con women), because playing the party's political game requires both a willingness to and a talent for saying one thing while doing another. And the party's base consists disproportionately of the easily conned...." ...
... "Laboratories of Democracy". William Douglas of McClatchy D.C.: "Patrick Register, a candidate for Congress in North Carolina, wants to make magic with voters via Tinder.... With almost no money and the May 8 North Carolina Democratic primary rapidly approaching, Register thought that posting on a dating app that bills itself as 'your most dependable wingman' ... was a great idea.... Register, who is divorced and currently not dating, says he isn't looking for a personal relationship. He's just looking to match with voters to find out what's on their minds." --safari
Sarah Jaffe in the New Republic: "... student activists, who led March For Our Lives rallies this weekend in Washington, D.C., and across the nation, are protesting a lack of gun control and a dysfunctional democracy where the so-called adults in the room are doing nothing to stop mass gun violence. They are either defending the way things are, or are actively making the status quo worse on a range of issues that go beyond a strict definition of gun violence but tie back to that issue -- health care, racism, income inequality, and wars of adventure.... The March For Our Lives was a declaration that the status quo is intolerable. Like the Women’s March that greeted Donald Trump's inauguration, it was representative of what political theorist Jodi Dean called a 'mobilized middle.'"
Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "The acting director of the Federal Trade Commission confirmed Monday that the agency has an open investigation into Facebook's data privacy practices.... In 2011, the company settled charges brought by the agency alleging that the social network misleadingly told its users they could keep their information private. As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to no longer make 'further deceptive privacy claims' and to better inform its users going forward about how it shares their information. The question now is whether Facebook violated the terms of that FTC agreement when it allowed Alex Kogan, the Russian-American academic, to extract huge amounts of personal data from Facebook and then pass it to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook's stock price had lost as much as6 percent of its value on Monday after the FTC confirmed its investigation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Lauren Pearle of ABC News: "Government watchdog group Common Cause Monday filed a pair of legal complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Department of Justice accusing Cambridge Analytica LTD, its parent company SCL Group Limited, CEO Alexander Nix, SCL co-founder Nigel Oakes, data scientist Alexander Tayler, and former employee-turned-whistleblower Christopher Wylie of violating federal election laws that prohibit foreigners from participating directly or indirectly in the decision-making process of U.S. political campaigns. The defendants are all non-U.S. citizens, according to the complaints.... The legal filings allege that Cambridge Analytica and its executives ignored [their attorney's] advice and allowed foreigners to be involved in 'management decisions of U.S. political committee clients concerning expenditures and disbursements during the 2014 and 2016 elections.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Charlie Warzel of BuzzFeed: "Facebook Has Had Countless Privacy Scandals. But This One Is Different.... Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal has everything: peculiar billionaires, a once-adored startup turned monolith, a political mercenary who resembles a Bond villain and his shadowy psychographic profiling firm, an eccentric whistleblower, millions of profiles worth of leaked Facebook data, Steve Bannon, the Mercers, and -- crucially -- Donald Trump, and the results of the 2016 presidential election. On its face, the incident read as confirmation of many people's worst fears -- that the online platforms we live on are manipulating us, using the personal information we provided in good faith without our knowledge. Add to it that one of those many unintended outcomes could have been Donald Trump's election and you've got the makings of a lasting outrage.... This is a scandal triggered by a specific incident, but that is broadly about the ways massive companies track us, harvest information from us, and then sell us as coercion targets in sophisticated information campaigns...."
** Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times: "Linda Brown, whose father objected when she was not allowed to attend an all-white school in her neighborhood and who thus came to symbolize one of the most transformative court proceedings in American history, the school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education, died on Sunday in Topeka, Kan. She was 75.... In 1954, in a unanimous decision, the court ruled that segregated schools were inherently unequal. The decision upended decades' worth of educational practice, in the South and elsewhere.... By the time of the ruling, Ms. Brown was in an integrated junior high school. She later became an educational consultant and public speaker." ...
... Here's Brown's obituary in the Topeka Capital-Journal, by Katie Moore & Tim Hrenchir.
"Capitalism is Awesome," Ctd. Peter Gosselin & Ariana Tobin of Mother Jones: "For nearly a half century, IBM came as close as any company to bearing the torch for the American Dream.... Its profits helped underwrite a broad agenda of racial equality, equal pay for women and an unbeatable offer of great wages and something close to lifetime employment.... But when high tech suddenly started shifting and companies went global, IBM faced the changing landscape with a distinction most of its fiercest competitors didn't have: a large number of experienced and aging US employees.... The company reacted with a strategy that, in the words of one confidential planning document, would 'correct seniority mix.' It slashed IBM's US workforce ... replacing a substantial share with younger, less-experienced and lower-paid workers and sending many positions overseas.... In making these cuts, IBM has flouted or outflanked US laws and regulations intended to protect later-career workers from age discrimination." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Pamela Wood, et al., of the Baltimore Sun: "Austin Wyatt Rollins, the 17-year-old who opened fire on classmates at Great Mills High School in Southern Maryland last week, injuring one and killing another, died from shooting himself in the head, officials investigating the case said Monday."
Gal Lotan & Krista Torralva of the Orlando Sentinel: "Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen was considered by the FBI for development as a possible informant prior to carrying out the 2016 mass shooting, an agent testified today during the trial of Mateen’s widow, Noor Salman. That revelation came hours after Salman's defense filed a motion seeking to have the cas dismissed or declared a mistrial due to information that Mateen's father was an informant for the FBI for more than a decade and sent money out of the country in the months before the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)
Reuters: "Atlanta is still struggling with its ability to collect online payments of bills and fees, officials said on Monday, four days after a ransomware attack snarled the computer system of Georgia's capital city. Hackers caused outages of services offered through the city’s website and broader computer system while demanding a ransom of $51,000 paid in bitcoin to unlock the system. 'This is much bigger than a ransomware attack, this really is an attack on our government,' Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told a news conference. 'We are dealing with a (cyber) hostage situation.'" --safari
What Would Matthew Do? Adam Tamburin of The Tennessean: "The leader [former Executive Director James Finchum] of a Nashville nonprofit [Matthew 25, which houses, feeds and treats homeless men] resigned in January amid allegations that he repeatedly sexually harassed an employee -- including one instance when the woman said he exposed his penis and masturbated in front of her in his office.... The lawsuit stated the woman made attempts to handle the issue internally as early as June 2016, and those were 'either ignored or rebuffed.'" --safari
Way Beyond
James McAuley of the Washington Post: "The Paris prosecutor's office is investigating whether anti-Semitism was a motivation for killing of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor that has outraged France's Jewish community. Mireille Knoll was stabbed multiple times and left in her burning Paris apartment on Friday. French authorities have taken two suspects into custody, according to a judicial official...."
Share Article
Reader Comments (15)
Remember, Zinke disregards "diversity" because he comes from Whitefish, Montana, home of the nascent alt-right movement and pasty extraordinaire Richard Spencer, with whom Zinke's kids aren't down with the brown. Zinke is a clutsy, corrupt oil shill, but he also hides his KKK hold under his whitey-boy cowboy hat.
And how dreadfully ironic that Donald's lizard brain is apparently floating back to nostalgia of wife-beater Rob Porter just as revelations simultaneously arise that he and/or his goons allegedly threatened physical violence on the author of one of his dirty bungalow affairs. Could this be coincidence or an indirect message to Stormy that he'd indeed like to blacken her eye, "crying all the way to the ground", you know, Biden style.
What an abdurd news cycle....
Thanks for the Dayan piece, Bea.
Nice to have confirmation from someone who knows much more than I do about trade. While skepticism can be satisfying in itself, having a few facts in hand never hurts.
I found safari's link to the Atlanta ransomware attack that snarled their computer system extremely disturbing. No mention of who these hackers are, just that they want a ransom. Would this be an inside job or are the Russians involved?
IS "PORN STAR" THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE STORMY D.?
A conversation between Jeet Heer and Josephine Livingstone about language we use for people at the intersection of sex work and politics.
https://newrepublic.com/article/147662/porn-star-best-way-describe-stormy-daniels
Here's a link to the Charles Pierce article about Mnuchin and the
constitution that he and the president* don't much care for.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a1953065/mnuchin-
line-item-veto-trump/
*a/k/a David Dennison.
The Ruinous War On Yemen and the U.S. involvement: Juan Cole:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-saudi-trump-war-on-yemen/
Has Dumpkoff addressed this? I don't think so! but his cozy relationship with the bearded Prince of S.A. along with the cozy connection with that great diplomatic leader Jared K. shows us exactly where they stand on this.
To sum up America another way, after reading lots of articles on the subject, it is clear that a 'porn star' has much more credibility than the POTUS.
And Trump has another problem: lawyers like to win!
@forrest morris: Ooops, sorry about that. Link added.
Tom Nichol's Twitter, RadioFreeTom, has an interesting thread on the young people from Parkland. I think that he is way off base. Some people assume that these kids can ever go back to a normal life.
On the other side, one writer compared them to the mother who used her anger and grief in a positive way by starting MADD.
I do think that we need to pay attention to those survivors who cannot cope. And the horrorible comments and threats from those despicable people who are threatened by their passion.
Ann,
I've read several finger-wagging pieces lately by sources of uncertain ideological stance (until you think about it) advising the Parkland kids and their supporters and fellow travelers not to rely on passion, to tamp down their idealism, because "the world is not an ideal place" and "reality should be their guide, not la-di-da idealism". Plus, being overly passionate and optimistic is not necessarily that useful, blah, blah, blah.
So, be good girls and boys, idealism never works. Be "pragmatic". In other words, the NRA and Confederate cronies are hoping and praying that you will dry up and blow away so they can all get back to the business of arming America to the teeth. Just reconcile yourselves to the idea that things won't change. Go back to school, plan for prom, get laid, smoke a fattie and leave all this big world stuff to the grown ups like Trump and LaPierre and McConnell and Ryan.
The problem is that "pragmatism" in the face of NRA bullying and money has never worked. We NEED their idealism and their optimistic sense that things CAN change.
If the Parkland kids want a real world example, they can look back at what kids did during the Vietnam War. Protesters were vilified (and in some cases, shot). Nixon's henchman, H. R. Haldeman talks, on tape, about hiring thugs to go out and beat up young people protesting the war in front of the White House. Eventually, the protests worked. Nixon resigned in disgrace and Haldeman went to prison.
Keep at it, kids. Don't listen to those "pragmatic" adults telling you to behave and learn CPR or some other bullshit.
Agree with Ken on the Dayan piece.
As with so many other things in life, and especially in Trump World, the large print giveth and the small print taketh away. Trump's grandiose statements are modified (sometimes immediately) by a combination of his own lack of ability and interest in pursuing more serious and muscular policy choices.
Trade is not an especially sexy field of study for most Americans, even those whose jobs are directly affected by trade imbalance, so a loudmouth claiming to be "fighting for the little guy", especially against those awful Chinese, goes a long way with the Trumpenproletariat.
Trump's trade sideshow is all lights and noise with little action (pretty much a Trump signature at this point). But Dayan's article points to one of the more baleful consequences of having such a narcissistic ignoramus in charge. He doesn't care if anything good comes of his show, only that he looks good doing it.
In many cases, he is actively working to tear down what truly makes America great. In others, it's his inaction (born largely of stupidity and a refusal to learn the nuts and bolts of his job) that hurt the country.
There are so many ways this horrible excuse for a human being damages the nation and hurts the chances of its citizens for a better life.
As long as little Donald is taken care of, what is else is there?
Um....so the White House is going to "investigate" the latest problems that have come into view, a pair of shady loans to Young Jared, is that the idea?
Isn't this a bit like having Vinnie and Sal investigating possible wrongdoing by the Mafia? Along comes the DA and a cadre of attorneys trained in looking for money laundering and loan sharking, when all of a sudden, a couple of gunsels come out of the don's house, hold up their hands and say "Don'a you worry, boys. We got'a this. You boys can go now. We take it from here, capisce?"
I can already see the "report's" conclusion: NOTHING TO SEE HERE. Also NO COLLUSION!
Such a joke.
This past Friday I had more flights from hell with emergency diversions, missed connections and last second seats. As it turned out I got on a plane on its way to DC Reagan before continuing on the rest of my journey. I happened to sit next to a woman wearing a t-shirt that had #MSDStrong on the front, along with what looked like half the plane. All on their way for the march on Saturday.
We got to talking. She mentioned that she was a teacher at the middle school adjacent to MSDHS. She talked about how her school was locked down for three hours, watching kids escape the high school, scrambling over a fence between the two campuses that she herself would not have been able to scale. She also said that she "lost" two kids that day.
According to her the kids that we've seen and watched are the real deal. They're smart, with many in AP classes and others taking college courses while still in high school. They're also driven and self-motivated to excel at everything they do. They're competitive, yet still very collaborative in problem solving. They're also engaged with their fellow students as well as their community.
She said that these kids aren't likely to give up or be cowed by the NRA. They are ready, willing and able to fight for what they believe needs to be changed. What we saw with the marches last Saturday provides an indication of what they can accomplish.
The hardest thing for me to comprehend from our conversation was the extent to which schools seem to have been turned into day-time prisons with single-point access drives with automatic gates to let the buses in/out, continuously locked entry doors, armed resource officers roaming the grounds, and other features of modern school life. How things have changed since I was their age, but then guns were not an issue as they are today.
Akhilleus,
Though it wasn't his explicit subject, it seems to me Krugman's piece today provides a perfect template through which to view the trade wars. Krugman neatly describes the Repugnants purpose (turbocharging the inequality engine) and method (racism).
Republicans' purpose is to keep funneling gobs of money to the top while blaming largely non-white countries (where our minorities are their majorities) for our trade imbalances.
The equation? Nationalism is racism (except in boardrooms, where all that really counts is money).
NYT interview "Roseanne Conner, Like Her Creator, Supports Trump"
Comments section: almost everyone says they are not going to watch.
A great half hour of escape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7Dtmtl3LI
The Mash Report from the BBC. Many good portions, with a strong segment on SOTU speech starting at about 11:00.