;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 14, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "The Justice Department's quasi-judicial Office of Legal Counsel told ... Donald Trump before he forced former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign that he could appoint an official who had not been confirmed by the Senate, like acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, to take his place. A 20-page OLC opinion authored by Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, released by the Justice Department on Wednesday, states that OLC had 'previously advised that the President could designate a senior Department of Justice official, such as Mr. Whitaker, as Acting Attorney General.' The OLC opinion conceded that it was rare for the acting attorney general to be an individual not confirmed by the Senate. The only example they found was from 1866, before the creation of the Justice Department. Nevertheless, the opinion concluded that Trump's appointment of Whitaker would be legitimate." The article includes a copy of the opinion.
Michael Rose of Reuters: "... Donald Trump, who attacked his French counterpart in a series of tweets on Tuesday, should have shown 'common decency' instead since the country was mourning the anniversary of deadly attacks in Paris, a French government spokesman said. In five posts sent on the same day France marked the anniversary of the 2015 attacks that killed 130 people, Trump blasted the key U.S. ally over its near defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and President Emmanuel Macron's approval ratings.... 'Yesterday was November 13, we were marking the murder of 130 of our people,' [spokesman Benjamin] Griveaux said. 'So I'll reply in English: "common decency" would have been appropriate.'"
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... as the [right-wing Federalist Society] prepares to gather on Thursday for the start of this year's convention, more than a dozen prominent conservative lawyers have joined together to sound a note of caution. They are urging their fellow conservatives to speak up about what they say are the Trump administration's betrayals of bedrock legal norms.... The group, called Checks and Balances, was organized by George T. Conway III, a conservative lawyer and the husband of President Trump's counselor, Kellyanne Conway."
Trump Loses Even Fox "News." Haley Britzky of Axios: "Fox News is supporting CNN's lawsuit against the Trump administration over the White House's revocation of Jim Acosta's press pass and plans to file an amicus brief in the case, according to a statement from the network's president Jay Wallace."
Jonathan Chait: "The point [of Robert Mueller's investigation] is to establish legal accountability for the president. Well-functioning democracies don't have criminal oligarchies running the country with legal impunity. The kind of deep systemic corruption Trump is implementing, in which establishing a political alliance with a ruling family is a key step in amassing and protecting wealth, depends on selective legal enforcement. More to the point, it requires business partners. Maybe Donald Trump can't be hauled off to prison, but his partners can. And that prospect can scare off the collaborators Trump needs. Second, and more to the point, even if Robert Mueller can't kick Trump out of the White House directly and the Senate won't, there's a body of people who can: the 2020 electorate. And the Trump investigations are building a powerful case that will be brought to bear on that election.... The breadth of Trump's legal exposure exceeds that of any president in American history.... He barely managed to win the presidency as a brash, controversial novelty. He will have to win it a second time as a known crook." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One thing Chait is not figuring into his 2020 calculation is that Americans like to give their presidents a second term even when the president isn't especially popular. Gerald Ford lost because Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter lost because of double-digit inflation, an energy crisis (gas lines) & other problems like the Iran hostage fiasco. Bush I lost in a three-way race; Ross Perot was the "decider" of 1992 election.
Chris Mooney & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth's oceans are warming faster than previously thought now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are. Two weeks after the high-profile study was published in the journal Nature, its authors have submitted corrections to the publication. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, home to several of the researchers involved, also noted the problems in the scientists' work and corrected a news release on its website, which previously had asserted that the study detailed how the Earth's oceans 'have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought.'... The central conclusion of the study -- that oceans are retaining ever more energy as more heat is being trapped within Earth's climate system each year -- ... hasn't changed much despite the errors." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a normal kind of error that one would expect to occur occasionally -- and is in fact one reason scientists publish their studies in popular journals like Nature. Unfortunately, the person who discovered the central error -- a British mathematician named Nic Lewis -- is a climate change skeptic. So of course wingers are having ... a day at the beach, so to speak.
Meet One of Trump's "Very Fine People." Jessica Schulberg, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Jeffrey Clark, the 30-year-old man federal agents arrested [in Washington, D.C.,] Friday after he called the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting a 'dry run' and his relatives worried he might try to launch a race war, wasn't shy about being a neo-Nazi. In April 2017, when someone asked Clark at a White House rally organized by 'alt-right' coiner Richard Spencer whether he considered himself a fascist, he said no ― he considered himself a Nazi. Antifa activists photographed him at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. He has posed for pictures in front of Nazi symbols and holding Nazi memorabilia. On Gab, the favored social network of racists and anti-Semites, Clark had the username @PureWhiteEvil and called himself 'DC Bowl Gang,' a reference to Dylann Roof, the bowl-cut racist who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015."
*****
Eli Stokols of the Los Angeles Times: "With the certainty that the incoming Democratic House majority will go after his tax returns and investigate his actions, and the likelihood of additional indictments by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Trump has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment, according to multiple administration sources. Behind the scenes, they say, the president has lashed out at several aides, from junior press assistants to senior officials. 'He's furious,' said one administration official. 'Most staffers are trying to avoid him.' The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of a brooding president 'trying to decide who to blame' for Republicans' election losses, even as he publicly and implausibly continues to claim victory.... Publicly, Trump has been increasingly absent in recent days -- except on Twitter. He has canceled travel plans and dispatched Cabinet officials and aides to events in his place.... Just as Trump was returning to Washington on Sunday evening, [mike] Pence was heading to Asia in the president's place.... Trump's absence, experts said, is notable, and a glaring affront to many Asian leaders." ...
... Tim Marcin of Newsweek: "The White House has reportedly created a new strategy to get ... Donald Trump to zero in on policy matters -- a schedule block called 'policy time.' It's reminiscent of Trump's 'executive time,' which seemed to consist of tweet storms and cable TV viewing. Politico White House reporter Annie Karni tweeted on Tuesday: 'A new thing on Trump's private schedule that I haven't seen before: In addition to some 'executive time' today, he has two blocks of 'policy time.' Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey followed up on Karni's tweet by adding that 'policy time' was instituted by Chief of Staff John Kelly in an effort to get the president to focus on issues." Mrs. McC: Not that I want Trump to do anything because everything he does is wrong, but Trump is the first president* in recent history who has had to be cajoled or tricked into doing even a tiny bit of presidentish work. ...
He's just a bull carrying his own china shop with him whenever he travels the world. -- Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley ...
... Josh Dawsey & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: Last Friday, when Britain's PM Theresa May called Donald Trump to congratulate him on GOP election wins, "Trump berated May for Britain not doing enough, in his assessment, to contain Iran. He questioned her over Brexit and complained about the trade deals he sees as unfair with European countries.... For Trump, that testy call set the tone for five days of fury -- evident in Trump's splenetic tweets and described in interviews with 14 [officials who observed his behavior].... ... During his 43-hour stay in Paris, Trump brooded over the Florida recounts and sulked over key races being called for Democrats ... that he had claimed as a 'big victory.' He erupted at his staff over media coverage of his decision to skip a ceremony honoring the military sacrifice of World War I. The president also was angry and resentful over French President Emmanuel Macron's public rebuke of rising nationalism...." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Funny how Grumpy Trumpy berates a female head-of-state to her face (assuming they had a video link), but waits till he has the Atlantic Ocean between them to criticize a male head-of-state (Macron). ...
... John Wagner & James McAuley of the Washington Post: "President Trump unleashed verbal attacks Tuesday on French President Emmanuel Macron, taking aim at his approval rating, his country's employment rate, its trade policies on wine and his vision for the military.... n the first of several barbs Tuesday on Twitter, Trump again misrepresented what Macron had said during last week's radio interview and reminded him of the U.S. military's role in aiding France in World War I and II.... In his tweet on Tuesday, Trump again referenced France's spending, writing: 'Pay for NATO or not!'... Trump's burst of tweets came on the anniversary of coordinated terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015, in France -- a very solemn occasion in the country. The French government declined to comment on Trump's tweets.... Following Trump's Tuesday attack, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to Macron's defense, echoing his initial call for a 'real European army.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
By the way, when the helicopter couldn't fly to the first cemetery in France because of almost zero visibility, I suggested driving. Secret Service said NO, too far from airport & big Paris shutdown. Speech nextday at American Cemetary [sic] in pouring rain! Little reported-Fake News! -- Donald Trump, Tuesday, in a tweet
Rather than 'pouring rain,' photos showed [Trump] standing without a hat or an umbrella under overcast skies when he delivered remarks [Sunday], though he did grasp an umbrella at one point while paying tribute at one soldier's grave. -- Eli Stokols, in story linked above
... Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "In a series of churlish tweets on Tuesday, Donald Trump discovered, again, that he really doesn't like France. His weird-ass bromance with French President Emmanuel Macron would seem to be over, and many people [in France] will be relieved. Trump's reputation for vulgarity, ignorance, and impulsiveness -- although it may be prized by some of his American fan base -- does not sit well with the French.... Trump, who humiliated himself in Paris this weekend, disparaged Macron for denouncing Trumpian (and Kaiserian and Hitlerian) nationalism as a plague on humanity that brought on two world wars.... Although Trump didn't reference it, he probably was most upset when the official Twitter feed of the French army made fun of him by showing a soldier crawling under wires on a wet sidewalk with the caption: '#MondayMotivation There's rain but it's not serious [laugh until you cry emoji] You're still motivated [fist emoji].'" --s
The prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems is causing the Stock Market big headaches! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday ...
... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Donald Trump just co-opted a new buzz phrase he hopes will define the next two years in politics: 'Presidential harassment.' His jab at the tactics of the incoming Democratic House represents an early effort to spin a new era of investigations and oversight that is about to shake the White House as a power grab by his opposition. Trump's appropriation on Twitter of a concept first coined by ... Mitch McConnell last week, points to the critical nature of the fight the President must wage to safeguard his hold on power, one that will surely start to feel pressure as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill with newly-elected members in tow." (Also linked yesterday.)
Phoniest Prez* Ever Forgets Migrants. Maggie Haberman & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "For weeks before the midterm elections, President Trump warned ominously about the threat from a caravan of migrants streaming from Central America toward Mexico's border with the United States.... But since the election last week, Mr. Trump has tweeted about the caravan exactly once -- to issue a proclamation preventing those who cross the border illegally from applying for asylum in the United States. Fox News, which faithfully amplified Mr. Trump's warnings about the migrants, has gone similarly quiet on the subject. There was little dispute, even before Election Day, that Mr. Trump was exploiting the caravan for political purposes. But analysts, historians and veterans of previous administrations said there were few comparable instances of a commander in chief warning about what he called a looming threat, only to drop it as soon as people voted. While the caravan has faded from television screens, the costs of Mr. Trump's response to it have not. Nearly 6,000 active-duty troops remain deployed from the Gulf Coast to Southern California, where they are putting up tents and stringing concertina wire to face a ragtag band that is still not near the border."
Jon Swaine & Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Robert Mueller is seeking more information about Nigel Farage for his investigation into Russian interference in US politics, according to a target of the inquiry who expects to be criminally charged. Jerome Corsi, a conservative author, said prosecutors working for Mueller questioned him about Farage, the key campaigner behind Britain's vote to leave the European Union, two weeks ago in Washington. Corsi said investigators for the special counsel also pressed him for information on Ted Malloch, a London-based American academic with ties to Farage, who informally advised Donald Trump and was interviewed by FBI agents earlier this year.... The New York Times and Washington Post have reported that Mueller has taken an interest in the biggest funder of the pro-Brexit campaign, Arron Banks. The New York Times has reported that Mueller has obtained records of Banks's communications with Russian diplomats." --s
Eliana Johnson & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Trump's move last week to install [Matthew] Whitaker as [Robert] Mueller's boss may already be backfiring. The appointment has drawn bipartisan criticism and led to questions about Whitaker's qualifications and whether he would limit the investigation or bury its findings. The state of Maryland on Tuesday filed the first legal challenge seeking to overturn Whitaker's appointment, while on Capitol Hill newly empowered House Democrats are already making plans to have the acting attorney general appear as one of their first witnesses when the next Congress launches in January. The uproar over the appointment, which effectively removes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as Mueller's primary supervisor, has put Whitaker in a difficult spot, trapped between setting off a political firestorm by clipping Mueller's wings and angering a president intent on having him do just that.... [And Justice] Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec issued a statement late Tuesday signaling that Whitaker could still recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation, a shift from the department's initial position ... that Whitaker had no plans to step out of the way on the Russia probe." ...
... Lackey Lindsey Takes a Break. David Morgan & Amanda Becker of Reuters: "Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he supported a bill that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from any politically motivated firings and would urge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on it.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he also supported the bill but would not lobby McConnell to allow the measure to move forward.... Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who is retiring, and Democratic Senator Chris Coons have pledged to seek a floor vote on a bill to shield Mueller as soon as Congress resumed this week after a recess for the Nov. 6 elections."
"A Smooth-Running Machine," Ctd.
Christopher Cadelago & Nancy Cook of Politico: "Bottled-up hostility in ... Donald Trump's administration flowed to the surface Tuesday during a remarkable 12-hour period following an awkward midterm détente and tense trip to Paris over which the president is still seething. 'It's like an episode of "Maury,"' one former Trump aide observed to Politico as the spectacle unfolded. 'The only thing that's missing is a paternity test.'"
Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is considering yet another shakeup of his administration, preparing to remove Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and looking at possible replacements for Chief of Staff John Kelly, including Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Nick Ayers, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: Since Trump goes to his hidey-hole while Kelly tells staff they're fired, who is going to fire Kelly? mike pence? (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgess: "If the administration is measuring [Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen's success by how many undocumented immigrants have been detained or arrested, she excelled. According to numbers first reported by The Daily Beast, a record 44,000 people are currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The previous record high was just last year, at 38,000.... The 44,000 immigrants in detention exceeds the 40,520 detention beds funded by Congress and the department has requested more funding to fulfill the immigration goals of the White House. But that isn't enough for Trump, which is why Nielsen is reportedly on the chopping block." --s ...
... Kevin Breuninger of NBC News: "... John Kelly may be out of his job soon as a result of a conflict with first lady Melania Trump and other people in the White House, seven sources have told NBC News.... Two White House officials told NBC that Melania Trump had told the president earlier in 2018 that Kelly had repeatedly turned down requests to promote some of her aides, even as Kelly's staff received promotions. Trump reportedly directed Kelly to approve the first lady's requests after learning of the disputes. Melania Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told CNBC in a text message that 'Chief Kelly and the First Lady have never "clashed."'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Melania Trump raised concerns with her husband earlier this year, amid the height of the controversy over his alleged affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels, that [John] Kelly had repeatedly denied her requests to promote some of her aides, two White House officials told NBC News. The requests languished for months as Kelly insisted there weren't enough available positions for the first lady's aides to have senior titles, these people said. During this same period however, West Wing officials working for Kelly received promotions, the White House officials said. Having learned of the dispute, the president was furious and told Kelly to give the first lady, who has a smaller East Wing staff than her recent predecessors, what she wanted, these people said. 'I don't need this shit,' Trump told Kelly, according to one person...." ...
... Maggie Haberman & Ron Nixon of the New York Times have more on the palace intrigue smooth-running machine." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Weird News. Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The office of first lady Melania Trump is calling for the ouster of deputy national security adviser Mira R. Ricardel, amid reports of tensions between Ricardel and White House officials. 'It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,' the first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement Tuesday....It is unusual for the first lady's office to weigh in on personnel matters elsewhere in the White House, particularly in the realm of national security.... A senior White House official said Ricardel is expected to be fired, but she was still at her desk Tuesday afternoon. National security adviser John Bolton tapped Ricardel in April to serve as his deputy.... Three current and two former White House officials said Tuesday that Ricardel had berated people in meetings, yelled at professional staff, argued with the first lady and spread rumors about [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly has sought for months to oust Ricardel, calling her a problematic hire in the West Wing, and Mattis has told advisers that he wants her out as well, the officials said."
Brian Stelter of CNN: "CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House's suspension of Acosta's press pass, known as a Secret Service 'hard pass,' last week. The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban.The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning. Both CNN and Acosta are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. There are six defendants: Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Sanders, deputy chief of staff ... Bill Shine, Secret Service director Randolph Alles, and the Secret Service officer who took Acosta's hard pass away last Wednesday. The officer is identified as John Doe in the suit, pending his identification. The six defendants are all named because of their roles in enforcing and announcing Acosta's suspension." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Maxwell Tani, et al., of The Daily Beast: CNN's decision to sue the White House and those involved in revoking Jim Acosta's 'hard pass' came after other options failed.... According to the complaint, CNN head Jeff Zucker privately reached out to different members of the White House press office, and even directly appealed to Chief of Staff John Kelly.... Numerous Trump White House officials, current and former, have said that they privately celebrate whenever a Trump vs. Acosta narrative emerges in the national press, because they view CNN -- and Acosta in particular -- as a useful foil in their sparring with mainstream media reporters." --safari: Revoking press freedoms is all a fucking game for these cretins. ...
... MEANWHILE, Sarah Has a New Story. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In a statement Tuesday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested that the decision was about [Jim] Acosta refusing to yield the microphone while questioning the president: '... After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions -- each of which the President answered -- he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern....' Less than a week ago, it was primarily about him supposedly placing his hands on and getting too rough with an intern. Sanders said at the time that the White House would 'never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman.'... The day after the altercation, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp doubled down on the idea that Acosta was being punished for an alleged physical altercation.... By this time..., it had been established that not only did the video of the incident not show Acosta placing his hands on the intern but that Sanders herself shared a doctored video of it.... By Friday, President Trump himself was still litigating the video. 'Nobody manipulated it. Give me a break,' he said.... The alleged assault simply isn't there, and the fact that the White House needed to use sped-up video -- what can only be called propaganda -- to bolster its point shows how shaky the foundations of the decision and its initial justifications were. That the White House isn't sticking with that version when faced with legal action shows how dodgy it was to begin with."
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The Pentagon's new focus on threats from China and Russia after almost two decades of fighting terrorism 'too often rests on questionable assumptions and weak analysis,' an independent bipartisan commission concluded in a sharply critical report issued on Wednesday that challenges President Trump's commitment to supporting a strong military. Over all, the panel that was appointed last year by Congress praised the general direction of the National Defense Strategy that was issued in January by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. But it warned that projected budget shortfalls, overtaxed military forces around the globe and other risks were imperiling the plan, just as it was taking effect."
Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected leftist congresswoman from New York, joined a protest on Tuesday morning inside the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to call for immediate action on climate change.... The group's demands include a push for Pelosi and House leadership to back a 'Green New Deal,' a broad plan supported by Ocasio-Cortez and a number of other newly elected Democrats." --s
Election 2018
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "What looked at first like a modest Democratic majority in the House has grown into a stronger one: The party has gained 32 seats so far and appears on track to gain between 35 and 40 once all the counting is complete. And Democratic losses in the Senate look less serious than they did a week ago, after Kyrsten Sinema was declared the winner in Arizona on Monday. It now looks like Democrats are likely to lose a net of one or two seats, rather than three or four as they feared last Tuesday.... The president's strategy of sowing racial division and stoking alarm about immigration failed to lift his party, and Democratic messaging about health care undercut the benefit Republicans hoped to gain from a strong economy.... There are warning signs for Democrats, too: Mr. Trump's party remains ascendant in rural America, giving Republicans a durable advantage in the Senate, where less-populous states have influence greatly disproportionate to their voting numbers. And Republicans demonstrated a tenacious hold on two of the country's biggest swing states, Ohio and Florida, giving Mr. Trump an important foothold on the presidential map."
Ed Kilgore: "The best unofficial chronicler of turnout rates, University of Florida political scientist (and proprietor of the United States Election Project) Michael McDonald, estimates total midterm turnout at just under 116 million. That's well under the 138 million or so Americans who voted in the 2016 presidential election. But turnout is never, ever, as high in midterms as in presidential elections. And an apples-to-apples comparison of midterm voting as a percentage of the Voting Eligible Population (VEP) shows that 2018's 49 percent is the highest recorded in the last 25 midterms, dating back to 1914."
Arizona. Meghan Keneally of ABC News: Republican Martha McSally, who narrowly lost her Senate bid to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, soon could end up in the Senate anyway. Sen. Jon Kyl (R), whom Gov. Doug Ducey (R) appointed to fill Sen. John McCain's seat, has committed to serving only till the end of this term. "Ducey could appoint McSally ... to hold [the] seat until the 2020 election."
California. Michael Finnegan & Maya Sweedler of the Los Angeles Times: "California Republicans lost a fourth seat in the House on Tuesday as Democrat Josh Harder gained enough votes to oust GOP Rep. Jeff Denham in the San Joaquin Valley. Denham's loss, projected by the Associated Press, came amid signs that two other Republican seats are also in growing jeopardy. The continuing tallies of hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in the Nov. 6 midterm election are consistently favoring Democrats, underscoring the increasingly bleak fortunes of the California GOP. In Orange County's latest ballot count Tuesday, Republican Rep. Mimi Walters fell 261 votes behind her Democratic challenger, Katie Porter. Walters finished election night more than 6,200 votes ahead, but her lead steadily dwindled until it vanished on Tuesday. Young Kim, the Republican running to succeed GOP Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton saw her lead over Democrat Gil Cisneros shrink to 711 votes in the updated Orange and Los Angeles county tallies." ...
... Grace Panetta of Business Insider: "Rep. Mimi Walters, who is fighting for reelection in California's 45th Congressional District, repeatedly charged Democrats are attempting to 'steal' her seat by tampering with votes, according to recent fundraising emails sent out by her campaign.... In at least three emails sent out between Sunday and Tuesday, Walters' campaign charged that 'Democrats are already preparing for a recount to try and steal this Republican seat after the fact.' The campaign also wrote 'the left has spent tens of millions against me, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure they can still win this seat.'" Mrs. McC: This, of course, is straight out of the chapter of the Trump Party campaign playbook titled "But What if I Lose?"
Florida. Jane Musgrave of the Palm Beach Post: "A Palm Beach County legislative candidate on Tuesday won and then quickly lost the first round of his legal battle to extend the deadline for election recounts to be completed as growing political heat generated lawsuits in federal and state courts in Tallahassee. Ruling on a lawsuit filed by Democratic Florida House District 89 candidate Jim Bonfiglio, who is trailing by 37 votes in his race against Republican Mike Caruso, a Leon County judge ordered that Palm Beach County elections officials be given until Nov. 27 to complete their recounts. However, Judge Karen Gievers' decision to lift Thursday's 3 p.m. deadline in Palm Beach County was trumped when Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner petitioned to move the case to federal court. 'We're now in federal court territory, said Marisol Samayoa, a spokeswoman for the campaign arm of the Florida Democratic Party. A federal judge in Tallahassee, who is hearing other challenges associated with the statewide recount, gave all sides until 5 p.m. Wednesday to explain why the county's deadline should or shouldn't be extended. In addition to Detzner's legal maneuvering, incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the Democrat who is trailing by 12,100 votes in his battle against Republican Gov. Rick Scott, also entered the legal fray. Nelson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee asking that all elections supervisors in the state be given more time to recount ballots." ...
... New York Times Editors: "The Real Florida Recount Fraud [is being perpetrated by Republicans like Rick Scott and Donald Trump.] Sowing doubt in the integrity of the recount is part of a Republican strategy that involves lawyers and operatives on the ground, much like what happened in the 2000 election, and a preview of what's likely to happen leading up to the 2020 election."
Maine. Elena Schneider of Politico: "GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin has sued Maine's secretary of state over ranked-choice voting, calling the system unconstitutional as the state elections authority tabulates ballots in Poliquin's too-close-to-call race with Democrat Jared Golden. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, seeks a preliminary injunction against the ongoing ranked-choice count until a judge can weigh in on the system. Poliquin has 46.2 percent of the vote to Golden's 45.5 percent with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, with the remainder scattered among third-party candidates.... Exit polling found that voters who supported an independent candidate as their first choice leaned Golden's way on the second-choice ranking, according to the Bangor Daily News." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mississippi. Google Takes Pro-Lynching Stance. Popular Information: "U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) was caught on tape 'joking' about her willingness to attend a lynching at a campaign event in November. 'If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row,' Hyde-Smith said on November 2.... One corporation that apparently was unbothered by Hyde-Smith's remarks: Google. On Tuesday, Google donated $5000 to Hyde-Smith's campaign, according to documents filed with the FEC.... Hyde-Smith has refused to apologize, claiming her remarks were a complement. 'I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous,' Hyde-Smith said in a statement.... At a press conference on Monday, Hyde-Smith robotically refused to answer any questions about her lynching comments." Mrs. McC: Hyde-Smith's Democratic challenger in a special Senate election is Mike Espy, who is black. ...
... Amber Heisel, et al., of the Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press: "As state and national controversy swirls around U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's comment about a 'public hanging' in her race against an African American opponent, Gov. Phil Bryant opened a press conference [Monday] morning implying that black women are participating in 'the genocide of 20 million African American children' through legal abortions. 'See, in my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African American children that have been aborted. No one wants to say anything about that...,' Bryant said, with Hyde-Smith and National Right to Life President Carol Tobias standing nearby. Bryant's use of the abortion-as-genocide conspiracy theory about a woman's right to choose a legal abortion [is] ... popular with white conservatives."
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In a sensible world, Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill would have nothing whatsoever to do with the Affordable Care Act. On its surface, Bethune-Hill is a racial gerrymandering case which, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday, will be heard by the Court for the second time.... [Yet] Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in Bethune-Hill, this seemingly irrelevant gerrymandering dispute could enable the Trump administration to collude with a highly partisan judge to shut down the Affordable Care Act in a bevy of red states." Read on, it's difficult to summarize. --s
Stereo Williams of The Daily Beast: "Stan Lee has passed away at age 95.... Lee created characters and told stories that reflected the struggle in American society between the idealized way we view ourselves and the harsh ugliness in our culture that is impossible to ignore.... Lee set Marvel apart not only by placing its super-powered protagonists in the middle of real-world troubles but beyond that, by giving voice to those issues. To fully appreciate what that means, one has to understand the cultural landscape when Lee rose through the ranks at Marvel." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: See also Akhilleus's commentary in yesterday's thread.
Beyond the Beltway
David Goodman of the New York Times: "To attract Amazon, New York’s leaders agreed to remake plans for the Queens waterfront, move a distribution center for school lunches and provide a sweeping package of $1.7 billion in incentives from the state and hundreds of millions more from the city. They even agreed to allow a helipad for Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive. Under the plan, within 15 years the company could occupy as much as eight million square feet of office space, the rough equivalent of three Empire State Buildings.... Gone is the city's vision of a mixed-use community filled with apartments, some of them for residents of more modest means. In its place will rise office buildings that will house 25,000 or more workers.... But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed relieved to be able to finally discuss the long-secret negotiation and appeared jovial on Tuesday as they spoke about the economic benefits." ...
... Josh Barro of New York: "I’m going to present the best argument I was able to gather for New York's multibillion-dollar subsidy deal to bring Amazon to Queens. I don't think it's ultimately a convincing argument, but it's the best one available, and it's worth at least thinking about. The idea is that it's very important that Amazon is going to Queens, and that by doing so, it will serve two key development goals for the city: moving office development out of the congested Manhattan core, and building a tech cluster that can challenge Silicon Valley."
Julia Jacobo of ABC News: "Ohio authorities have made four arrests in connection with the murder of eight family members who were fatally shot 'execution style' in 2016. All four arrested belong to the same family from South Webster, Ohio, and were charged 'with planning and carrying out the murders,' Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced in a press release.... Each is charged with eight counts of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications, DeWine told reporters.... While DeWine did not discuss the motive of the murders, he said the custody of a young child 'plays a role in this case.'"
Way Beyond
Oliver Holmes & Hazem Balouhsa of the Guardian: "Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza have locked themselves into an escalating firefight, launching scores of bombings and reprisal attacks in violence sparked by a botched Israeli special forces raid miles inside Gaza on Sunday evening.... Israel’s military said about 400 rockets and mortars had been fired from Gaza since Monday afternoon, possibly the highest concentration launched in such a period from the enclave, and its warplanes had carried out more than 100 bombings." --s
Share Article
Reader Comments (14)
A little time travel--to yesterday's Akhilleus request--and to 1969 and youth.
Cubberley Redux, for Akhilleus (and anyone else):
Probably better to read Sylvia Berry Williams’ “Hassling,” an account of two of the critical Cubberley years by one of the school's very talented English teachers. I had a desk next to hers in the Department office, and would have been even more hesitant than I already was to say anything to that august group had I known she was taking notes…Your mention of “The Wave” might prompt me to take it off the shelf and actually read it. As you say, “The Wave,” and those years at Cubberley still echo loudly in the present. They sure do for me.
For me, it was an exciting and disturbing year. I did my best to teach two sophomore English classes, to keep on top of the subject matter and the students—both with varying degrees of succcess-and when the swirl of the revolution exported from the nearby university campus in 1969 hit the high school, I mostly kept my head down. In addition to teaching two classes for the year, I had university classes of my own, a wife and new-born baby, and work to do for our rent up in the hills above the Bay, so I’m sure I missed a lot.
I noticed enough, though. There were fire alarms, sometimes pranks, sometimes real fires in the bathrooms, there was the war that then had an almost inescapable physical presence in that university town, there were cultural clashes occasioned by the group of black students imported from E. Palo Alto into a proudly academic upper middle class school with some of the best SATs in the country. There was plenty of anger to go around. The young principal didn’t survive the year, and the schism that developed between the social studies and English department was far too wide to bridge.
Ron Jones was a self-styled revolutionary with short hair who taught social studies, from what I understood with a strong political bent. My boss, the English Dept. chair was in the midst of writing a series of grammar texts published by Addison-Wesley. Both were brilliant men, and whatever else they had in common, as the year wore on, they became avowed enemies, each leading a faction of school staff in opposition to the other.
I don’t mean to suggest their differences were personal, or that one of them was for the Vietnam War, the other against it. As I remember it, their differences lay in how to approach and solve problems. Mr. Jones was much younger than my boss and that may have had something to do with it. He preached action. My boss, reason. Teachers chose up sides, the screeds flew back and forth (the English Dept. chair, dead now for many years, was a hell of a writer), some student took sides, and turmoil continued throughout the year.
The school survived….for a time. It was closed some years later. Ron Jones resigned before he was fired, a demonstration to me that revolutionary that he was, the institution and the learning it imparted were more important to him than some thought his ego would allow them to be.
Me? I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, and when that year was over, though I did more than just survive, my belly told me I was not old enough to be in charge of young men and women only a few years younger than myself…there was that drug thing creeping into high schools, too, which didn’t make things easier, so I took a two year sabbatical from teaching.
Turned out though that after those two years in a job I hated, I learned I was addicted to the classroom, so I relapsed and went back for the next thirty five years.
And am still pontificating.
Amid all the talk of imminent firings in TrumpWorld, I can only imagine the poor secretary over at Faux News taking endless calls from brunts and grunts nationwide trying to schedule some last minute hail mary facetime with the presidunce*. Fraudsters, hucksters, mysoginists alike are all fanning out across our great nation suit shopping, hair stylin', and rehearsing their lies under the heat of a shining bulb and a too-tight tied tie cutting off their already limited brain juice.
That the entire pool of the nation's talent has been whittled down to the untethered sycophants at Faux and the extremists of the Federalist Society says everything we need to know about the next two years of politics, all directed by a childish loser too baked into his worldview to improve an iota of his existence.
After the WWI and Veterans' Day debacle, airballing a political layup and revealing himself to be even smaller and more shriveled than anyone could have imagined, DD gave us some serious psychological clues about his supposed mockery of being "presidential". He knows he's not, and will never be, presidential material. It's so far out of his league that he can't even act the part. He's defective, damaged goods. Even when he tries, he looks like a b-league actor in Hollywood, slurring words and epitomizing low energy. He probably hate watches Obama speeches at night and cries with his combover covering his face. Pathetic wretch.
He's a self-tortured soul, become fat and bloated and balding. The last remaining self-pride he can preserve is his heavily manufactured hairdo, just as fake as he is. Thus explains his refusal to be seen in the rain and risk having his last semblance of self-pride melt away live on teevee. He feels impotent every day he wakes up in Washington. His dick dampening hair pills have only added insult to injury. He knows the show must go on so he gets up, tries, flails, and flares up like a confused, overgrown baby.
Everyone else must pay for DD's impotence: the perfect concluding episode to "White Man's Burden".
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/13/why-oil-prices-tumbled-from-four-year-highs-into-a-bear-market.html
Overblown tech stocks, trade fears, and oil, all behind the market slide two days ago. And oh, yeah, the Democrats.
Oil particularly interests me because its one of this exploitive administration's favorites. Anything for oil. Pump away and consume, consume. It keeps the big money donors happy and keeps prices down for all the Pretender's fans (OK, I'm generalizing here) who like to drive really big trucks, blue-collar limos now going for (gasp) over fifty thousand bucks.
When the Saudis see a looming oversupply and want to cut production, the Pretender tells then to keep pumping. Then the oil analysts pull the plug, oil futures fall precipitously and the market loses two percent in one day.
The Pretender blames the incoming Democratic Congress. ( A caravan of woman and other minorities slow-marching toward Washington?) But not one news outlet buys it. It's now the child-in chief's (nice portrait, Safari!) market.
It's something else he didn't know was so complicated, and it's all his.
A few days ago we were discussing Nancy Pelosi's legacy and her position in the new House–-should she keep her leadership or turn it over to one of the new whipper snappers. Some of us, including me, opted for the former at least for the following year–-let these new members get their sea legs before they think they can be leaders.
Yesterday I came across an exchange between two academics; John Lawrence who extolled Nancy and chided Michael Hirsh who had written a piece about Pelosi's leadership and future position in the newly formed House. Hirsch had much praise for Pelosi but felt her time was up. To back up his argument ( Lawrence had said that Hirsh would do well to study Pelosi's allocation of women and minorities to crucial committees and leadership) he cited what he calls "no worse abuse of cronyism" than when Pelosi, while still speaker in 2009, appointed her old California acquaintance Phil Angelides to head the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission despite his lack of qualifications. Pelosi and Reed chose Phil over a supremely qualified woman, Brooksley Born ( the woman who blew the whistle on the sham derivatives and was ignored–-by all the men––during the financial crash. One of the true heroes during that time.) Born was also a brilliant lawyer and was short listed for A.G. In contrast, Angelides had no investigative experience plus he made a mockery of the probe from the very beginning. In short, flimsy Phil done make patty cakes with the likes of the big bankers.
I found this interesting.
Looks like that other house, the one that's big and white and run by people who have been driven crazy or were crazy to begin with is ready for some serious housecleaning. The head house honcho appears to be ready to huff and puff and blow the damn place to smithereens. @safari's "White Man's Burden" is apt.
@Ken: you are a true blue teacher––this comes through loud and clear.
Oh, where have all those wage increases gone? Oh, where or where can they be?
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-inflation-posts-biggest-jump-in-nine-months-on-higher-cost-of-gas-rent-used-cars-cpi-shows-2018-11-14
Another complication for the I'm so very smart Pretender...
Ken,
Whew. Thanks for that walk back in time. I myself was one of those students back in 1969. I was a freshman in high school back then. As it is with any specific period of time, it's almost impossible now to convey to anyone who wasn't there how crazy that time was in this country.
The divisions were real, the emotions were raw. I think I mentioned not long ago that about a year earlier, in the winter, spring and summer of 1968, I had job as a paperboy. It seemed like every morning there was some amazing shattering headline. The Tet Offensive stories dominated early in the year, then Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were killed. At home there were riots in Chicago during the Democratic Convention, abroad there was the Prague Spring and riots in Paris in May. The war, the Civil Rights movement, the burgeoning pop culture scene, drugs, political strife, and by year's end, Nixon.
Bad times. By 1969, it was all coming together AND coming apart.
In any event, I'm glad you stuck with teaching. It's an absolute sin that the profession has become such a target for Confederates who believe the only teachers who are any good are the ones shoving right-wing propaganda and Jesus down kids' throats.
I've always thought that if some visitors from another planet showed up and decided they could figure out which humans were considered the most (and least) important by measuring how society compensated them, they'd think that a guy who owned a casino, in business for the sole purpose of separating suckers from their money, was more important than any teacher, most of whom make an infinitesimal fraction of what a glorified three-card monte dealer like Sheldon Adelson makes.
But teachers (the good ones) make a vital contribution to a society: they teach kids, and not just English and math and science, but the more subtle things like proper decorum in public settings, how to think critically, how to write, to communicate ideas, and how not to be little creeps.
Around that time (I think it was 1970), my school had a new English teacher, a young guy a few years out of college. He used Bob Dylan lyrics to teach poetry. It was a trip. Not that I didn't appreciate "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (I actually loved Whitman), but to have a figure of authority bring Bob Dylan into the classroom....the times they certainly were a changin'.
Thanks for that trip in your Wayback Machine.
Safari,
Loved your line about Fatty "airballing a political layup". Man, you got that right. Visiting that cemetery should have been an uncontested layup, an easy way to assert a tiny bit of presidenshul bona fides. Instead, Fatty throws up a brick, even missing the backboard. In tennis they call it an uncontested error. Someone screws up all by their lonesome with no outside interference. Just pure stupidity, like the guy who scores on his own goal.
But he has had many opportunities to be at least a tiny bit presidenshul. He's blown them all. All bricks. It's not just that he isn't presidential. He lacks heart, he is bereft of common human decency and feeling. Both Clinton and Obama had the ability to connect with people on that level. Even Dubya did. Not everyone does, of course. We all know people who are comfortable being around others when there's trouble or grief. The ones who feel completely at ease and are able to say and do the right things to make others feel better. Not everyone can do that, but Trump is not even within a detectable range. Oh, he can reach people (well, certain people) emotionally, but the emotions are anger, hatred, bitterness, envy, and whatever emotions are required that make one want to step on someone's face.
He's like the character Jack in the "Lord of the Flies" (I know we've talked about LOTF before, but it's hard to avoid such comparisons in the Age of Fatty), the kid who runs the savages, plying them with fear and superstition and hatred of the other boys who refused to join their tribe.
This is a skill shared by Fatty with all authoritarian leaders. If you can't lead with reason and a belief in progress, then use hatred and fear, appeal to the worst in your followers, largely because the best is not in you.
The best is not in Trump. Probably never has been.
It says something about the state of our country that such a person got within shouting distance of the White House, never mind getting free room and board inside for four years.
Love to see those R yahoos shrink their collapsing tent even further.
From the Freedom for Only Me party:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/jim-jordan-gop-house-leadership-989749
There may have been crazier White Houses with a larger quantity of nincompoops, narcissists, and utterly tone-deaf, self-serving jamokes but I sincerely doubt it.
So now we have Melanie calling for someone's head. And getting it. Another of her complaints (aside from her annoying feeling that someone, somewhere, actually cares about something) is that her aides aren't getting promoted to positions she believes are their due.
What, pray tell, is she talking about? That an aide to this most vacuous of First Ladies should be given some position of authority? Doing what? Chief Scheduler of White House Shopping Trips? Purchaser of Even More Insulting Items of Clothing? Official Collater of Melanie-in-Bikini Pictures? What?
And I'm not shedding any tears for this Ricardel person. She sounds like a real piece of work. And not for nothin', but anyone who is considered vital to the operation by a dangerous,unhinged mook like John Bolton must be a crackpot of the first order. Kelly wants her out too, but then again, he wants everyone out. Himself included.
My favorite line in this most recent of the myriad Fatty White House Clusterfucks comes from Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s communications director, who declared, nose firmly up in the air, that (must be read with phony upper-class, high-pitched "Lady Bracknell" accent ) "It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House". Hmmph. So there. But seriously, folks, "the honor of serving in this White House"?
Ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-ho, and a couple of tra-la-las.
Honor? You mean like the honor of running down to Dunkin' Donuts for a dozen glazed? That kind of honor? Because the word "honor" and the term "this White House" are about as oxymoronic as you can get, accent on moronic.
This, by the way, from a person supposedly expert in communications who allowed Melanie to walk out the door on her way to meet with immigrants imprisoned by her hubby wearing a jacket that said, basically, "I don't give a shit about anything". Nice job there, Steph.
Well.Oiled.Machine.
Hahahahahahahaha.
Washington Post headline: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis travels to the border with Mexico, after troops were sent to bolster President Trump's immigration crackdown."
So, once again, the town of McAllen, Texas is in the spotlight -- and ambivalent about the honor. The local press manages to keep a straight face in the lede:
McALLEN — With 5,600 troops deployed a couple towns over at Base Camp Donna in anticipation of an immigrant caravan that is heading for San Diego, the city of McAllen is trying to balance being cooperative with federal law enforcement but upholding the image of the city.
https://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_86aa8308-e82a-11e8-867a-d7f3572f47fc.html
The article goes on to quote McAllen's ever upbeat mayor, Jim Darling: “This has nothing to do with us, we just happen to be here.”
Sounds like something Yogi Berra might say, reflecting on our current national nightmare.
Win or Lose, R's Believe They Rule
In the wake of electoral victories for the Democratic Party, and facing imminent investigations of Trump the Traitor, R's revert to the game plan they've thrived on for decades: Do as we say, not as we do.
When in control of the house, the senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court, the R party rules as if there are no rules. The working premise is "We can do whatever the hell we want, and all you hundred million or more Americans who don't like it, can just fuck off. We can shove barbed wire wrapped poles up your asses sideways but if you guys suddenly take over the house, it's time for bipartisanship and comity and you all have to forget every illegal, nasty, anti-American thing we've done over the last 25 years."
In other words, when we lose, and our fascist president* who has been running roughshod over the Constitution for two years is in danger of being pulled over and read the riot act, all you Democrats need to back off and agree to be nice to us because otherwise, you're all un-American commies.
This has been their plan for decades and it's still in force.
They can rip and romp, piss on the Constitution and tell everyone else to bend over and take it. They can tell a sitting president that he has no business appointing a Supreme Court justice who won't toe their Nazi line. But the second the shoe is on the other foot, it's evil and un-American for Democrats to hold them accountable for their unconstitutional and illegal actions.
Bottom line is, only Confederates get to rule. Democracy is just something they pretend to like.
Win or Lose, R's Believe They Rule
In the wake of electoral victories for the Democratic Party, and facing imminent investigations of Trump the Traitor, R's revert to the game plan they've thrived on for decades: Do as we say, not as we do.
When in control of the house, the senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court, the R party rules as if their are no rules. The working premise is "We can do whatever the fucking hell we want to, and all you hundred million or more Americans who don't like it, can just fuck off. We can shove barbed wire wrapped poles up your asses sideways but if you guys suddenly take over the house, it's time for bipartisanship like you read about."
In other words, when we lose, and our fascist president* who has been running roughshod over the Constitution for two years is in danger of being pulled over and read the riot act, all you Democrats need to back off and agree to be nice to us because otherwise, you're all un-American commies.
This has been their plan for decades and it's still in force.
They can rip and romp, piss on the Constitution and tell everyone else to bend over and take it. They can tell a sitting president that he has no business appointing a Supreme Court justice who won't toe their Nazi line. But the second the shoe is on the other foot, it's evil and un-American for Democrats to hold them accountable for their unconstitutional and illegal actions.
Bottom line is, only Confederates get to rule. Democracy is just something they pretend to like.
The fact that scientists didn't automatically dismiss Lewis is another point in their favor. The wingers ignore any information that doesn't come come from one of their preapproved sources. Scientists on the other hand have an open mind and are willing to accept criticism. They can adjust their views and incorporate new information no matter where it comes from. It is why one group deals in facts and the other deals mainly in fantasy.
RAS,
Think that Mr. Lewis will include the revised conclusion that the oceans are still warming, just not quite as fast, in his press releases crowing about the error he found?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/11/14/another-global-warming-foul-up-scientists-catch-major-error-on-oceans-warming-re-n2535949