The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2018
Today is election day in Mississippi for a special election for the U.S. Senate.
Flat Earth Map:
Afternoon Update:
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday lobbed familiar insults and accusations at the special counsel investigation, a day after prosecutors said his former campaign chairman repeatedly lied to investigators in breach of a previous plea agreement. The continuing investigation is a 'Phony Witch Hunt,' carried out by a 'conflicted' prosecutor and a staff of 'Angry Democrats,' the president said in three morning Twitter posts." ...
... Uh-oh. Luke Harding & Dan Collyns of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 -- during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller.... A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is '100% false'." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oops. safari linked this earlier, but I hadn't seen it.
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... if it is true that Manafort met with Assange in the spring of 2016, it would be almost ludicrous to think they didn't discuss the Democratic emails stolen by Russia that WikiLeaks was soon to release in order to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy. And if that were true, it would mean the Trump campaign -- or at least the Trump campaign chairman -- had advance knowledge of the centerpiece of the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 election.... Today might turn out to be [a]... blockbuster [day], because we have not one but two new and potentially vital developments. Both of them involve ... Paul Manafort, and while it's always possible they'll turn out to be inconsequential, the fact that the president himself is highly distressed suggests otherwise[.]" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, indeed. Today may be the day Trump figured out Mueller has him by his ... parts. I hope it hurts as much as tear gas. ...
... Jeet Heer: "There are genuine grounds to be cautious about the report. It is based on anonymous sources, some of whom are connected with Ecuadorian intelligence. The logs of the embassy show no such meetings. The information about the most newsworthy meeting (in the spring of 2016) is vaguely worded, suggesting a lack of certitude." Mrs. McC: But if it is true, there's a good chance Mueller already knows about it because Rick Gates. ...
... Nicole Guadiano of USA Today: "A blocked number in Donald Trump Jr.’s phone records may be among the first targets for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee in January as they investigate possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Rep. Adam Schiff, who is poised to lead the committee when Democrats take over the House majority, told USA Today that his committee will have to prioritize the most important witnesses and records that Republicans blocked them from pursuing. The 'clearest example' of that obstruction, he said, is phone records that would show whether the blocked phone number -- logged as Trump Jr. was arranging a meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower -- belonged to then-candidate Donald Trump. Trump's son arranged the June 2016 meeting after being promised 'dirt' on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. At first, Trump Jr. said he never told his father of the meeting, but then later told Senate investigators that he couldn't recall who he spoke with that night."
Jeremy Kahn & Nate Lanxon of Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc. knew that Russian-linked entities were using a feature on the social network that let advertisers harvest large amounts of data as early as October 2014, according to an internal email a U.K. lawmaker said he had reviewed. Previously, Facebook has said it was unaware of this sort of Russian activity on the social network until after the 2016 election.... Facebook said that the document ... was taken out of context. 'The engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity,' the company said in an email to Bloomberg Tuesday." --s
Josh Marshall of TPM: "With a highly dangerous situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend [and the Saudi Arabia debacle], it's important to return to a basic point about President Trump and the danger he represents to the United States.... The problem in both cases is that Trump appears to be pursuing some definition of his own personal interests over national interests. It's not always clear just what that personal interest is, whether it is a narrow financial interest or some kind of threat-influence or whether he's just been buttered up by the strongman in question. But it makes the conduct of US policy almost impossible to predict or trust.... As a country we remain in a state of shadow paralysis, not even able to adequately discuss or devise responses to critical foreign policy because the President's actions are opaque and almost certainly corrupt." --s
Juan Cole: "To forestall ... total war and genocide [in Yemen], the UN Security Council has been attempting to achieve a ceasefire. CNN reported, however, that when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman saw the resolution, he was absolutely furious and threw a fit. The Saudis have some sort of hold over Trump. He has run interference for Bin Salman with regard to the murder of Washington Post columnist and dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Now Riyadh appears to have pulled some sort of strings to get Trump to block the UNSC resolution.... CNN obtained a copy of the British-crafted resolution, which critics of the war had already seen as inadequate. It only calls for a ceasefire at Hodeida port and compliments the Saudi war effort, slamming the Houthis for defending themselves. But even this mild resolution has been deep-sixed." --s ...
... Uki Goñi & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Argentine prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes and torture if he flies to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit this week. The move comes after advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should invoke a universal jurisdiction statute in Argentinian law... Judicial sources were quoted as saying that the likelihood that this will happen 'is very difficult', the newspaper Clarín reported, adding that Khashoggi's murder might not qualify as a 'crime against human rights.' However, the HRW submission is based on a wider pattern of torture as well as military operations in Yemen." --s
Revelling in Misery. Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "When border agents fired canisters of tear gas into a crowd of unarmed migrants in Tijuana over the weekend, officials in the Department of Homeland Security and White House quietly cheered. It was exactly the fodder they needed in the waning days of Republican-controlled Washington to pressure Congress for billions to fund the border wall. That sentiment, which was palpable at DHS in particular, startled some in the highest ranks of Customs and Border Patrol, an official in the agency told The Daily Beast. 'They are totally all in. They have gone batshit crazy,' one former senior official said of leaders inside DHS and the White House." --s
Sarah Kliff of Vox: "Obamacare's marketplaces are having a surprisingly good year. Two years into the Trump administration, more health plans are signing up to sell coverage. Premiums for mid-level plans actually went down 1 percent. This is after years of double-digit increases, many under the Obama administration. This all really surprises me. These positive changes are happening the same year that Obamacare's individual mandate -- the penalties for not carrying health coverage -- is going away.... I called up two of the experts I trust the most when it comes to understanding Obamacare marketplaces -- Chris Sloan at Avalere Health and Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation -- to figure out what was going on. Both of them agree: The Obamacare marketplaces seem to be pretty resilient to policy headwinds." --s
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "In April 2009, the Obama administration's Department of Homeland Security released a report warning [about the dangers of rising right-wing extremism].... Conservatives went ballistic.... Most notably, then-Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) attacked Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano for releasing the report at all.... As a result, the administration pulled back the report. Napolitano apologized for the portrayal of veterans and the report was removed from the DHS website.... In the time since, it has become clear that the warnings in the report were indeed warranted." --s
"Annals of Journalism", Ctd. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump's favorite morning 'news' source, devoted the majority of its three hours of Monday programming to fear-mongering over the migrant caravan and undocumented immigrants.... After claiming the caravan was 'supported by outside sources,' had a 'sense of entitlement,' and shouldn't be considered 'true refugees,' former U.S. Border Patrol deputy chief Ron Colburn said it was pepper spray being used against unarmed migrants and it was actually part of a balanced diet. 'You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.'" --s
Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "... the president's strong support for the crown prince [of Saudi Arabia] ... may have the opposite effect to the one intended.... Congress is now making noises about doing what the president would not: a public investigation that could lead to real sanctions. (If this sounds familiar, it's because it is a replay of what happened a year ago after Mr. Trump refused to punish Russia for meddling in our elections.)... Not only has Mr. Trump increased the chances that Congress will enact restrictions on the Saudi royal family or make it harder to do business with the kingdom, he has prompted Democrats to question his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. [Rep. Adam] Schiff [D-Calif.], who is expected to take over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January, has promised to investigate those, too."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was clearly taken aback last year when occasional Fox & Friends fill-in host Ed Henry grilled him about a number of ethical scandals facing his administration. And Pruitt had a good reason to be surprised. In past interviews with President Trump's favorite cable-news show, the then-EPA chief's team chose the topics for interviews, and knew the questions in advance. In one instance..., Pruitt's team even approved part of the show's script.... 'Every American journalist knows that to provide scripts or articles to the government for review before publication or broadcast is a cardinal sin. It's Journalism 101,' said David Hawkins, a CBS News and CNN veteran who teaches journalism at Fordham University. 'This is worse than that. It would and should get you fired from any news organization with integrity.'" --s
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday launched what some interpreted as a preemptive PR attack against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's final report -- a day after [Alan Dershowitz,] one of Mueller's most prominent critics[,] said he expects the investigation's conclusion will be politically 'devastating to the president.'... 'When Mueller does his final report, will he be covering all of his conflicts of interest in a preamble?' the president wrote, citing no examples. 'Will he be putting in statements from hundreds of people closely involved with my campaign who never met, saw or spoke to a Russian during this period?'"
**Luke Harding & Dan Collyns of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafortheld secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 -- during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House.... A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers...A separate internal document written by Ecuador's Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists 'Paul Manaford [sic]' as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions 'Russians'... Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged." --s
Spencer Hsu & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly as they questioned him in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Manafort denies doing so, and both sides agree that sentencing should be set immediately. The apparent collapse of Manafort's cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to more than a decade behind bars after pleading guilty in September on charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice. The court filing indicated Mueller's team also had suffered a potential setback, after gaining access to a witness with potential knowledge of several key events relevant to the probe during his tenure with Trump's campaign from March to August 2016, including a Trump Tower meeting attended by a Russian lawyer and the Republican National Convention." ...
... Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said Mr. Manafort's 'crimes and lies' about 'a variety of subject matters' relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement. But under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Manafort cannot withdraw his guilty plea.... After at least a dozen sessions wit him, federal prosecutors have not only decided Mr. Manafort does not deserve leniency, but also could seek to refile other charges that they had agreed to dismiss as part of the plea deal. The prosecutors did not describe what Mr. Manafort lied about, saying they would set forth 'the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies' in an upcoming sentencing memo." ...
... Marcy Wheeler suggests the Manafort plea deal was a Trump trap: "... Mueller's team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn't really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets -- they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while [Manafort was] reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test [i.e., answer Mueller's written questions]. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies." Mrs. McC: If Wheeler is right -- and she really is deep into Mueller's briar patch -- then there is a delicious irony here: for all of Rudy Giuliani's claims that Mueller's questions were a "perjury trap," indeed, Mueller -- knowing that Manafort's lawyers were communicating/coordinating/colluding with Trump's lawyers -- did set up Trump to lie in that "open book test." Of course, Mueller didn't force Trump to lie; it's just what Trump does. ...
... P.S. If, like Ken W. (commentary in today's thread), you're tuned back into the Russia Thing serial, Wheeler adds this: "And that 'detailed sentencing submission ... sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies' that Mueller mentions in the report? [and says he will file with the court]? There's your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won't be able to suppress."
Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic: "A far-right conspiracy theorist who landed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's crosshairs over his friendship with the longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone now says that Mueller has offered him a plea deal on one count of perjury related to his conversations with Stone in 2016 -- but he is not going to take the deal, he told me in an interview on Monday. 'I will not sign a statement that says I willfully and knowingly lied, because I did not,' Jerome Corsi said." There's more. Corsi claims he just "guessed" that WikiLeaks would publish John Podesta's e-mail correspondence but did not have advance knowledge. Also too, Corsi said he plans to file a criminal complaint against Mueller with acting AG Matt Whiteaker because Mueller's team "just advised me to commit a crime." The claim is bogus, of course. Mrs. McC: It seems unlikely Corsi didn't lie to Mueller's team. He's a conspiracy theorist; spinning lies is what he does.
"I Don't Believe It." Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday dismissed a grim report on climate change produced by his own government, saying he didn't believe the report's prognosis of dire economic fallout.... Trump said ... that it wouldn't mean much for the U.S. to address greenhouse gas emissions if 'all of these other countries,' like China, Japan, 'and all of Asia' did not cut back on pollution also, even though the United States is the only country that has rejected the Paris climate agreement. He claimed Monday that the U.S. is 'the cleanest' it's ever been. 'You know [the report] addresses our country,' he said. 'Right now, we're at the cleanest we've ever been, and it's very important to me. But if we're clean, but if every other place on Earth is dirty, that's not so good. So I want clean air and water. Very important.' Trump has long openly doubted climate science, and his administration has rolled back many of the regulations put in place by his predecessor aimed at mitigating some of the effects of climate change. He also has sought to prop up industries seen as major contributors to harmful emissions, such as coal." ...
... Paul Krugman: "While Donald Trump is a prime example of the depravity of climate denial, this is an issue on which his whole party went over to the dark side years ago. Republicans don't just have bad ideas; at this point, they are, necessarily, bad people." ...
... AND a Fun Fact, courtesy of Krugman: "As far as I can tell, every one of the handful of well-known scientists who have expressed climate skepticism has received large sums of money from these companies or from dark money conduits like DonorsTrust -- the same conduit, as it happens, that supported Matthew Whitaker ... before he joined the Trump administration."...
... ** A Tale of Two Crises (Well, One Crisis and One "Crisis"). Eric Levitz of New York contrasts the Trump administration's receipt of & reaction to its own dire climate change report with the horrifying, spectacular "crisis" of a few thousand Central American migrants trying to gain political asylum (and "provide the U.S. with (much-needed) agricultural labor.... Contrary to the president's rhetoric, the border clashes in Tijuana Sunday were not triggered by a violent, lawless caravan hell-bent on 'invading' the United States. Rather, they were triggered by the administration's decision to deliberately prevent asylum seekers from being able to present their claims legally, in a timely fashion.... If one assumes that the administration is indifferent to the fate of ordinary Americans -- and is concerned, above all, with advancing the pecuniary interests of its corporate donors (many of whom are heavily invested in fossil fuels), while retaining the enthusiasm of its xenophobic voters, then its actions are quite rational, indeed." More on the migrant "crisis" below.
When Trump TV (a/k/a Fox "News") Is Not Enough. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday suggested the United States should create a 'worldwide network' to combat the 'unfair' way the country is treated by the media, saying CNN doesn't have enough competition overseas. 'Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair....' the president tweeted. '....and false way. Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!'... The U.S. government currently funds Voice of America, an international radio broadcast source. Congress in 2017 eliminated the board of directors for the organization, with a new CEO position created, which is appointed by the president."
Adam Behsudi of Politico: "... Donald Trump said he expects to move forward with plans to escalate tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as of Jan. 1, even as he readies to meet with the nation's leader at the end of the week. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said it was 'highly unlikely' that he would accept a request by China to stand down from his plans to ratchet up tariffs on the $200 billion list from 10 percent to 25 percent. The tariff increase is expected to go into effect on Jan. 1. The White House has already put a 25 percent tariff on a separate list of Chinese imports valued at more than $50 billion. Trump said that if his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires later this week doesn't result in a deal, then he will slaps tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent on all remaining imported goods from China."
You Have to Lie a Lot to Manufacture a "Crisis." Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump ... made a slew of dubious statements Monday about Central American migrants at the southern border. Speaking with reporters in Mississippi, where he held two rallies for Republican Sen. Cindy-Hyde Smith, the president claimed that three border patrol officers 'were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and stones' Sunday during a melee with migrants attempting to enter the United States at a border crossing in San Diego.... Trump's account contradicted U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who said in a statement Monday that agents and officers 'effectively managed an extremely dangerous situation ... without any reported serious injuries on either side of the border.'... The president also promulgated a theory about 'grabbers' of children at the southern border, in reference to images of migrant children and parents seen fleeing clouds of tear gas dispersed this weekend by U.S. authorities. 'You really say, why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed and they're running up with a child?' Trump said. 'In some cases, you know, they're not the parents. These are people, they call them grabbers.'... Without providing supporting evidence, Trump asserted that 'over 500 people' within the migrant caravans are 'serious criminals and gang members,' remarking that 'the violence is very strong' and speculating that someone was 'organizing' the mass migrations through Mexico." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: To reiterate, among the hundreds of Central American criminals storming the U.S. border, some grabbed toddlers & carried them toward the tear gas so the kids could be used as props in a propaganda war against Trump's border policy, and someone (a super-rich, Jewish international leftist provocateur, perhaps?) devised this diabolical plan. That's a conspiracy theory on a conspiracy theory. ...
... Adolfo Flores of BuzzFeed News interviewed Maria Meza of Honduras whom Kim Kyung-Hoon of Reuters photographed running with her daughters away from the tear gas. Meza apparently was unaware she was just a dupe in an international conspiracy to undermine Donald Trump. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lest you think Trump is the only depraved liar making up excuses for teargassing toddlers, here's what Foxbots are learning:
... "You Could Put It on Your Nachos." Otillia Steadman of BuzzFeed News: "A former deputy chief for the US Border Patrol -- talking about the agency firing pepper spray at migrants trying to cross the southern border -- falsely claimed on Fox News on Monday that the gas was edible. 'It's natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it,' said Ronald Colburn, the current president of the Border Patrol Foundation. Colburn said the substance used was OC pepper spray, and that its contents were 'literally water, pepper, with a small amount of alcohol for evaporation purposes.' He added that pepper spray was 'a good way of deterring people without long-term harm.'... Dr. Rohini Haar, a medical expert with Physicians for Human Rights..., told BuzzFeed News that consuming pepper spray 'would make you very very sick.'... [Customs & Border Protection] told BuzzFeed News that agents had fired tear gas and pepper balls toward the Mexican side of the border.... It's unclear whether pepper spray was actually involved in the incident. Tear gas is also dangerous to consume, Haar said. 'The few situations in which people have actually ingested it have caused a lot of gastro-intentestinal distress,' she said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My guess is that Colburn recommended pepper spray as a tasty condiment for nachos is so Foxbots would say to themselves, "What's the big deal? 'Those people' eat nachos all the time anyhow."
... International Diplomacy, Trump-Style. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Mexico deport the caravans of asylum-seeking migrants pressing up against the U.S. border 'anyway you want,' threatening to close off the U.S. border 'permanently if need be.' 'Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A.,' Trump tweeted, offering no evidence to support his claim that the migrants are criminals." Mrs. McC: But offering evidence that he doesn't know that "anyway" in this construction is two words: "any" and "way." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "... tear gas, commonly known as CS gas [is] an aerosol compound considered a chemical weapon that has been outlawed on the battlefield by nearly every nation on Earth, including the United States. But as a riot-control agent, 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile is legal to use by both police and federal authorities in the United States and many other countries. On Sunday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents fired the chemical agent at mostly Honduran migrants attempting to cross into the United States from Tijuana, Mexico -- an unusual escalation of lobbing weapons over an international border at unarmed civilians seeking refuge, drawing condemnation from Democrats.... On the border Sunday, officials described aggressive men rushing fencing, necessitating a response that included tear gas. But women and children, some in diapers, also came into contact with tear gas, raising questions about whether the use of gas was an appropriate response.... 'I felt that my face was burning, and my baby fainted. I ran for my life and that of my children,' Cindy Milla, a Honduran migrant with two children, told the Wall Street Journal.... Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott, the senior Border Patrol agent for the San Diego area..., said 42 people, mostly men, were apprehended on the U.S. side of the border." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Chemical weapons such as CS gas are indiscriminate and “uniquely terrorizing in their application," which necessitated their ban in combat in 1993, said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association." Horton reports. So "lobbing weapons over an international border" sounds to me like a violation of international law.
Tara Palmeri of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's reluctance to hold Saudi leadership accountable for the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi stemmed from a partly aspirational $110 billion arms deal between the U.S. and Saudia Arabia that was inflated at the direction of Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, according to two U.S. officials and three former White House officials. Kushner, in a bid to symbolically solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia while claiming a victory on the president's first foreign trip to Riyadh, pushed State and Defense officials to inflate the figure with arms exchanges that were aspirational at best, the officials said. Secretary of Defense James Mattis supported Kushner's effort and ultimately endorsed the memorandum, according to a former NSC official familiar with the matter.... Another U.S. official said there was a back and forth between Kushner and Department of Defense and State officials on how to get to a larger number because the officials initially told Kushner that realistically they had about $15 billion worth of deals in works...."
Jennifer Rubin: "As striking as Trump's utter inability to grapple with basic problems, his staff's unwillingness to maintain any semblance of unity and loyalty suggests they no long think it's in their personal interest to be associated with a president who makes mincemeat of one policy issue after another. His childish inability to make hard decisions and engender possible complaints from his base makes him a hapless, inept figure. He's not so much leading as he is meandering -- with aides racing after him to prevent bigger disasters and embarrassments."
Being Ivanka Is "Awfully Tough." Quint Forgey: "The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), said on Monday that it was 'awfully tough' for government officials such as Ivanka Trump to comply with agency standards for secure communications when sending emails." Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is a hardened criminal. Goodlatte's committee "last week issued subpoenas to former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify before a closed-door meeting of the panel, in part, on their handling of the federal investigation into Clinton's emails."
Lauren Fox & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether individuals connected to ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida have had inappropriate influence over the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a letter sent to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The GAO's investigation comes after a ProPublica story in August raised questions about three people with ties to Mar-a-Lago, Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach-area doctor Bruce Moskowitz and attorney Marc Sherman -- all private citizens with no official government roles -- and whether they were affecting decisions at the department. Several former Veterans Affairs officials and a current official told CNN in August that an informal council was exerting sweeping influence over the department from the President's Mar-a-Lago club, corroborating ProPublica's report, which said the three individuals 'prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views.'"
Frances Robles of the New York Times: "FEMA is spending more than $1 billion on emergency repairs to homes in Puerto Rico damaged by Hurricane Maria, but much of it is going to contractors charging steep markups and overhead.... Homeowners, who were approved for up to $20,000 each in aid, in nearly every case received less than half of what they were approved for, while layers of contractors and middlemen took the rest, a review of hundreds of invoices and contracts associated with the program shows.... Records show a large gap between the amounts FEMA contractors hired by the Department of Housing were paid and the actual cost of the work that was ultimately performed." (Also linked yesterday.)
... What's good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa. -- Charles Wilson, GM President, 1953, in Senate confirmation hearings to be President Eisenhower's secretary of defense ...
... Neal Boudette & Ian Austen of the New York Times: "General Motors said Monday that it planned to idle five factories in North America and cut more than 14,000 blue-collar and salaried jobs in a bid to trim costs. The action follows similar job-cutting moves by Ford Motor in the face of slowing sales and a shift in consumer tastes, driven in part by low gasoline prices. And it drew fire from President Trump, who vowed early in his term to increase automaking jobs and brought pressure on the industry not to shift work to Mexico and overseas. Referring to G.M.'s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, he told reporters, 'I spoke to her and I stressed the fact that I am not happy with what she did.' The five G.M. plants will halt production next year, resulting in the layoff of 3,300 production workers in the United States and about 3,000 in Canada. The company also aims to trim its salaried staff by 8,000.... The plants include three car factories: one in Lordstown, Ohio, that makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact; the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, where the Chevrolet Volt, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6 are produced; and a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, which primarily makes the Chevrolet Impala. In addition, the company will halt operations at transmission plants in the Baltimore area and in Warren, Mich." ...
... David Lynch & Taylor Telford of the Washington Post: "Coming just weeks after Republican candidates lost several congressional seats across the industrial Midwest, GM's action carries a stark political warning for the president. If voters conclude that Trump failed to deliver on his promise to return lost jobs and prosperity to the region, his reelection hopes could be dealt a blow.... Before leaving the White House Monday for a campaign rally in Mississippi, the president told reporters he had complained to GM chief executive Mary Barra about the shutdowns. 'I was very tough,' the president said. 'I spoke with her when I heard they were closing. And I said, "You know, this country has done a lot for General Motors. You better get back in there soon. That's Ohio, and you better get back in there soon."' Trump said that he was pressing the company to replace lost production in the factories it plans to shutter with other models, citing the Lordstown plant, which makes the Chevy Cruze. 'Their car is not selling well. So they'll put something else -- I have no doubt that, in a not-too-distant future, they'll put something else. They better put something else in,' he said.... During an October 2016 campaign rally in Warren, Mich., site of one of the targeted transmission plants, Trump promised: 'If I'm elected, you won't lose one plant, you'll have plants coming into this country, you're going to have jobs again, you won't lose one plant, I promise you that.' Ohio Sens. Rob Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) slammed GM's decision to shut down the Lordstown plant, with Brown labeling it 'disgraceful' and blaming it on 'corporate greed.'" ...
... "The Real 'Gangster Government.'" Jonathan Chait: Trump "elaborated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, 'They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly. I love Ohio. I told them, "You're playing around with the wrong person."' Apparently concerned he had made the point with too much subtlety, Trump continued, 'I said, "I heard you're closing your plant. It's not going to be closed for long, I hope, Mary, because if it is you have a problem."'... His overt bullying of GM is a special case that calls to mind a spate of especially virulent hysteria that was summed up by the phrase 'gangster government' [in 2009 during the financial crisis].... Michael Barone quickly coined the phrase 'gangster government' to capture the conservative belief that the Obama administration was threatening the private sector with the untrammeled power of government.... The backlash against the alleged strong-arming of the bailout was so intense it reached well beyond partisan right-wing outlets. The Washington Post denounced it in an editorial headlined, 'The Obama administration bullies GM's bondholders.' The Economist called it 'an offer you can't refuse.' (The latter eventually admitted Obama had been correct.)... The fact that the Republican president is now publicly threatening a private company, and making perfectly clear his concern is not the overall economy but his specific needs in a particular swing state, casts an especially clarifying light on the 'gangster government' attack."
Brian Faler of Politico: "House Republicans on Monday evening unexpectedly released a 297-page tax bill they hope to move during the lame-duck session of Congress. The legislation would revive a number of expired tax provisions known as 'extenders,' address glitches in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and make a range of changes to savings- and retirement-related tax provisions. Other parts of the bill would revamp the IRS, provide new tax breaks for start-up businesses and offer assistance to disaster victims. The measure amounts to House Republicans' opening bid in negotiations with the Senate. They'll need Democratic support there to move any changes, and it's unclear lawmakers will agree to any of the provisions before adjourning for the year."
Election 2018
An Historic Victory. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Democrats won the House with the largest margin of victory in history for either party, according to NBC News election data. While votes are still being tallied, Democratic House candidates currently hold an 8,805,130 vote lead over Republicans as of Monday morning. The Democrats' national margin of victory in House contests smashes the previous record of 8.7 million votes in 1974, won just months after President Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace amid the Watergate scandal. Of the more than 111 million votes cast in House races nationwide, Democrats took 53.1 percent -- retaking control of the House of Representatives by flipping nearly 40 seats -- while Republicans received 45.2 percent of the vote."
California. Rory Appleton of the Fresno Bee: "Fresno Democrat TJ Cox has overtaken incumbent David Valadao in their race for California's 21st Congressional District seat. Cox now holds a 438-vote over the Hanford Republican – 55,650 votes to 55,212. This is Cox's first lead in the race.... The lead is far from set in stone, as Valadao-favoring Kings County and Fresno County -- which has broken almost dead even -- have thousands of outstanding ballots to be counted in the next few days. But it appears Cox is on his way to delivering Democrats their 40th flipped seat -- one that analysts and news media called for Valadao on election night." ...
...Maya Lau of the Los Angeles Times: "Alex Villanueva will replace Jim McDonnell as Los Angeles County sheriff, marking a stunning upset for a seat that hasn't seen an incumbent lose in more than a hundred years. McDonnell conceded the race on Monday.... Villanueva leads by nearly 126,000 votes, with only 100,000 ballots still to be counted. Villanueva, who retired at the rank of lieutenant after serving in the Sheriff's Department for three decades, won despite having no experience at the upper levels of law enforcement. He made his status as a Democrat a centerpiece of his platform and promised to expel immigration agents from the county jails."
Mississippi. Cleve Wootsen of the Washington Post: "Authorities removed two nooses and six hate signs found on the grounds of the Mississippi State Capitol on the eve of a U.S. Senate runoff election featuring a black Democrat -- and a white incumbent criticized for pro-Confederacy stances and remarks about a 'public hanging.'... The signs appeared on the same day that President Trump was scheduled to campaign in the Magnolia State for Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wootson doesn't write anything about the content of the signs, which suggested to me the signs were pro-lynching. But WLBT-TV, Jackson, has photos of the signs here. In fact, they warn against electing someone who has spoken in favor of "public hanging." One reads, "On Tuesday, November 27th thousands of Missippians will vote for a senator[.] We need someone who respects lives of lynch victims." It's not surprising then that Gov. Phil Bryant (R) & law enforcement officials have promised to investigate & prosecute.
New York State. Joseph Spector of the (Upstate New York) Journal News: "The [Democratic] party won eight [state senate] seats on Election Day, giving Democrats a secure majority of 39 members in the 63-seat chamber. The senators met privately at the Capitol, and then announced, as expected, that Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, would be the majority leader starting Jan. 1. The vote was historic: She will be the first woman and first black woman to lead a majority conference in the state Legislature."
Utah. Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Days after losing her re-election bid in deep red Utah, Representative Mia Love, the only black Republican woman in Congress, condemned President Trump on Monday in a scathing concession speech, describing him as having 'no real relationships, just convenient transactions.' She used similar language to attack her own party, accusing Republicans of having a 'transactional' relationship with minority and black voters. Ms. Love, who was elected to Congress in 2014 and had been viewed as a rising Republican star, lost her election by less than a percentage point to Ben McAdams, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County.... She also railed against the media, Democrats and her opponent, whom she called 'a wolf in sheep's clothing.'"
Michelle Goldberg muses on the insincere political operatives. Mrs. McC: I did, too when a couple of days ago, I read the Times story about Bill White and his husband, Bryan Eure, who literally switched from supporting Hillary Clinton to backing Donald Trump on election night 2016. "Trump is hardly the first politician to attract self-serving followers -- White and Eure, after all, used to be Clintonites.... But Trump is unique as a magnet for grifters, climbers and self-promoters, in part because decent people won’t associate with him. With the exception of national security professionals sticking around to stop Trump from blowing up the world, there are two kinds of people in the president’s orbit -- the immoral and the amoral." Whether she means it or not, BTW, Goldberg likens Lindsey Graham to a woman who "perform[ed] oral sex on a future member of the George W. Bush administration during the 2000 primary" as a means of maintaining her political "relevance." That seems fair.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "Ukraine's Parliament voted Monday to declare martial law in areas bordering Russia, responding to an attack a day earlier by Russian forces who fired on and impounded three Ukrainian naval vessels, leaving several sailors wounded. The action by Parliament, which called it a 'partial mobilization,' takes effect Wednesday morning, will last for 30 days and represents a further escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine had requested the vote, which happened as criticism of Russia was rising at the United Nations Security Council and NATO over the Sunday attack. Russia's attempt to use the Security Council session to blame Ukraine for the violence backfired, as ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France and others accused Russia of recklessness and violating Ukraine's sovereignty. Nikki R. Haley, the ambassador from the United States, called the episode an 'arrogant act' by Russia that the Trump administration and the international community would not accept.... The Ukrainians also received a strong statement of solidarity from NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said at a news conference in Brussels that all of the organization’s members 'expressed full support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.' He called on Russia to ensure 'freedom of navigation' for Ukraine and demanded that Russia 'release immediately the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized.'"
Way, Way Beyond
The InSight Has Landed. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "The InSight lander, NASA's latest foray to [Mars], has landed. Cheers erupted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which operates the spacecraft, when InSight sent back acknowledgment of its safe arrival on Mars. That was the end of a journey of more than six months and 300 million miles.... InSight landed at Elysium Planitia, near the Equator in the northern hemisphere. Mission scientists have described the region as resembling a parking lot or 'Kansas without the corn.' Within minutes, the first photograph from InSight appeared on the screen, eliciting another round of cheers.... In the months ahead, InSight will begin its study of the Martian underworld, with the aim of helping scientists understand how the planet formed, lessons that could help also shed light on Earth's origins. It will listen for tremors -- marsquakes -- and collect data that will be pieced together in a map of the interior of the red planet."
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I’m starting a new project. Interviewing the seven billion or so people who have never been to Antarctica to prove that there is no such place.
Per Fatty.
Who knew that a plodding near-year-and-a-half-long investigation could maintain interest for so long?
But.just when speculation is the only thing that keeps its embers barely alive, we have hints of more drama just around the corner, this time brought to us by the sleazy Manafort and conniving Corsi, whose brush with the Law just might fan the tale back into flame,
Plea deals out the window, it seems, just like that.
What's next? Jail time, already a near-life term for Manafort? Indictments for Corsi and Stone? A promised pardon from a Pretender who has just this week re-achieved his lowest approval ratings ever?
And that was before tear gas...tossed into another nation--at children...
All against the backdrop of an incoming (like that word!) Democratic House.
How long can Mueller stay mum?
Have to admit, I'm tuned back in to my favorite serial...panting for the next episode.
So Mary is moving out of towns and taking her plants with her and the King is furious that this operation negates his promise. And Sherrod Brown calls it "corporate greed." Oh, golly, really? you mean there is such a thing as that? I got a kick out of reading that one of the reasons for this operation was people were buying larger vehicles and why? Low gas prices. Now don't that just skin a cat.
The tear gassing I find abhorrent! There are no words to describe the absolute evil at the gates of entry.
A film to see: BlackKkKlansman–-Spike 's best, I think. I read one reviewer that said she thought the film let whites off the hook in the sense that most whites portrayed were so dumb and distasteful that the majority of white viewers wouldn't relate and realize their part in the suppression of blacks.
OTHER REASONS:
"The tariff war initiated by the Trump administration reportedly cost GM $1 billion in higher steel costs. But beyond declining sales and rising costs, GM claims it needs to save money in order to invest in emerging technologies, notably electric cars and self-driving vehicles. As such, GM is making a bold gamble that goes against the grain of President Donald Trump’s preferred economic policies, which are geared towards preserving existing jobs in manufacturing and and in extraction industries. GM is betting that the economy is experiencing transformation, with news technologies about to displace old." TNR
@PD, try to guess where those GM electric vehicles will be built and sold while our fat-ass 'mericans drive their pickups and SUVs burning temporarily cheap gas? (Hint: it begins with Ch and rhymes with Dinah.)
THE PATHOLOGY OF PREJUDICE:
To piggy back onto the film I mentioned:
https://newrepublic.com/article/152299/white-supremacists-learn-hate
Hard to feel sorry for Mia Love. What did she expect, tying herself to the party of racists and traitors and backstabbers and liars? Is she just now figuring out that Trump is in it for himself? Where has she been?
I guess things look a lot different when you’re not on the bus with the winning team anymore. Has she just now realized that her party’s goals include making sure that unarmed black men and boys will continue to be shot down in cold blood or incarcerated at record levels and keeping people who look like her as far away from voting booths as possible? They’re the ones who yucked it up while trading pictures of Michelle Obama as a gorilla and the White House lawn as a watermelon patch when a black man was president. Or was she home sick those days?
Does the Democratic Party need to do a better job of not taking the black vote for granted? Sure. But joining a party, many members of which see you as inferior and stupid? That’s about as self-defeating as you can get.
Oh yeah, I seem to recall that one of the reasons GM needed to be bailed last time (just about 10 years ago), in addition to irrationally exuberant expansion, was that they were building too many giant SUV’s and got pounded when gas prices shot up because they couldn’t change direction quickly enough.
Did they learn any lessons then? I read somewhere yesterday that some GM big shot is going on about how important it is for them to build a gazillion giant gas guzzlers while fuel prices are still low. (Pause for sad head shakes all around). I’m sure it’s impossible that gas prices will ever get back up to $4/gallon again, right? Right?
The last bailout also gave them a chance to shiv the union while making off with $33 billion ( yeah, they paid it back, but GM hubris and poor planning put a huge crimp in the economy, an economy that the last R president exploded, not to mention all the union jobs that were killed). Wonder how much the next bailout will cost us?
Thank you, sir, may I have another?
Last I saw Rick Gates hasn't made any news f#kn and finagling with his plea agreement, and continues apace in his cooperation with Mueller. Me wonders if it was Gates' material information that just pinned Manafort's balls to the cold steel of his prison toilet.
I can't think of many people that deserve a Lifelong American Traitor Award more than ol' Paulie. He must have that frozen stare beaming at the wall with the epiphany that his imagined persona, Paul "James Bond" Manafort, turned out to be "Very Useful and Dispensable Idiot" for Vladdy boy.
I'm joining the enthusiasm of @Ken with the cold realism of @Ak concerning the "Russer Thing". Trump will get off scot free, but I still the stink bomb that Mueller unleashes on this whole carny crew will make each shady character radioactive once Donny Diapers retreats to his NY towers, with the whole Trump family's "reputation" in tatters and to boot here's to hoping the Trump Org. implodes spectacularly as well under federal and state investigation as well.
Those Fox News people must lead desperate lives when the highlight
of your Thanksgiving weekend is watching women and children
getting tear gassed across the border. https://www.newsweek.com/
fox-news-tomi-lahren-migrants-tear-gas-thanksgiving-1231582
And here's a poem for PD Pepe:
Humpty Trumpty sat on his wall,
Humpty Trumpty had a great fall:
And all of his exes and all of his con-men
Couldn't put Trumpty together again.
Sad.
@Akhilleus: Okay, I'm not getting it. Do you mean Antarctica doesn't exist because Trump has never seen it or because an iceberg double the size of Luxembourg just broke off from it? Or something-something about this amazing discovery (which Trump also would find not believable)? Or what?
I would wager most RC'ers have already read it, and reading Krugman today I'm guessing he has, but just in case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants_of_Doubt
Though published about a decade ago, it's still a doozy.
Does it make little donnie feel more manly having gassed babies in diapers then calling their parents, half-blinded by the gas, criminals? Fatty has been ginning this thing up as a War For 'Merica, Dammit.
But the use of gas like that being sprayed at infants, is illegal in war (I admit I have never gotten quite used to the idea that some things in war are legal and others are not. I get why things such as mustard gas--and Trump's gas--have been outlawed, it has just always struck me as an odd distinction. Flame throwers and napalm are legal but other things aren't).
The truly frightening thing is that we now have a humanitarian crisis at the border manufactured by an idiot who knows nothing about anything.
But in the meantime, he gasses babies.
Those Hitler analogies are getting less and less ridiculous all the time.
@Unwashed: Reminds me of that old Southern song: "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, someone's in the kitchen, I know oh, oh, oh,–-Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah (voices raised here), strummin on the old banjo."
So put Bowie's CHHHH (ing) in front of Dinah and you gots just what you said we gots. As for all that strumming back there in the kitchen–-Trumpy's cabinet is void of voice much less a banjo and if there is any singing it's thems that are in Mueller's cross hairs.
and @Patrick: thanks for the poem––if wishes were horses...
Marie,
Yes...all of the above. And don't confuse poor little donnie with talk about underground continents and cratons. He thinks continents is when you keep your crap from falling out after eating a big taco salad with lots of cratons.
And tectonic plates. Are those gold plated dishes from Germany? Maybe he'll get some for the next shindig at Marred a Lago.
Gerrymandering still wins
Democrats (see link, above) in the recent midterms have netted 8.8 million MORE votes than Confederates but still only flipped 40 seats. In 1974, prior to all the wingnut gerrymandering and election rigging, Democrats, with a smaller net total of votes, flipped 49 seats. The math should have worked better for Democratic senate candidates as well had gerrymandering and vote suppression not been winning so many seats for Confederate traitors.
Whatever else they do, Democrats better get cracking around the country on making voting fairer and more easily accomplished. If you remove all the benefits R's maintain from vote suppression and district rigging, it's entirely likely that the Party of Traitors would be a minority party until Rapture.
@Mrs. Bea McCrabbie:
Could be that Akhilleus is referring to the fact that millions of people
do not believe Antartica exists. The theory is that there is a wall of
ice hundreds of miles thick surrounding Earth, which is flat and the
purpose of the wall is to hold the oceans back from flowing over the
edge. I kid you not! And that sun up there? It's revolving around
the earth, which is the center of the universe. God said so.
http:www.atlanteanconspiracy.com/2015/06/south-pole-does-not-
exist-html
And the comments in this article are mind boggling, to me anyway.
@forrest morris: Okay, I bit. But I now I don't believe Antarctica exists because the Internet gods sent me, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie (okay, also not a real person), a message. Here's what I got when I cut & pasted your link: "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist." The stars are aligned: climate change is a hoax, pepper spray is tasty and the earth is flat.
It seems to me, BTW, that as the icebergs melt, the oceans will squeeze through the Antarctic barrier & fall off the earth. So sea levels will get lower, not higher. Really, these scientists know nothing.
Fatty sez Mueller's gone rogue! Whoa, Nellie!
First, oh Fat One, it's important to understand the nature of a deal. You make a deal and don't stick to your agreement, the deal is off. You lose your money and go home. Or to prison. Second, if anyone alive should understand deal breaking, it's you, Fatty. You've broken enough deals to earn a place in the deal-breakers Hall of Shame.
Please try to keep up.
And is it any real surprise that Manafort lied? Like his former partner, Roger Stone, it's their nature. They're like the scorpion asking the frog for a ride across the river. Unfortunately for Manafort, Mueller is not a frog.
And leave us spare a guffaw or two for Fatty describing anyone as "having gone rogue". Ho-ho, Mr. By the Book. You're a funny guy.
@Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The article actually does exist. I'll send
a link via email. You may find it amusing (or not).
The problem with Drumpfy's twitter guffaws is, deep inside the shriveled heart, he knows he's only convincing his "low IQ" base of misfits and his syncopate inner circle who can't bear to tell the truth to his bloated orange mug.
Unfortunately, Fox News Nation doesn't not an American populace make (not yet, anyway). Expect lots of Executive Time this week, maybe a rerun of infrastructure week, and lots of Chinese and Russian recordings of shrill squeals emanating from the bedroom.
Mueller's got the whole lot runnin' skeert this week.
@forrest morris: Those flat-earthers are pathetically sincere. But, at least as far as I got, none of them came up with my theory of spilling oceans. So I am investing heavily in sunken islands, waiting for the day my ship comes in -- well, I won't need a ship; I can just walk to the former islands, set up my real estate office & rake in the profits. Meanwhile, I think I'll set up McCrabbie University to teach people how to get rich buying sunken islands on the cheap & selling them for fun & profit when they rise above the falling seas -- I'll ask the founder of Trump University for some tips.
Global warming for me but not for thee...
"Hey, Fatty your portly climate change denier here. It's lookin' great for MAGA fools, er, Real 'Mericans. Nothin' to worry about with all that climate change, global warming bullshit. Fuckin' Chinese makin' up all that nonsense. But if it were a real thing, we're the best at not bein' dirty. Not like them Japan-eze types. But hey, over in Ireland, where your ol' pal Fatty has them Micks payin' down small fortunes every time they step on his Best in the World Golf Courses, it's different."
Yup.
Fatty (the portly climate change denier) has applied for, and received, permission to build a wall. Oh, not THAT wall, a different one (he's big into walls, 'case you didn't know). Nope, this wall is being built to protect from the results of--hold on to your scally caps, laddies and lassies--GLOBAL WARMING! Can't have thim dunes fallin' down, now can we? Sure, t'would be terr-a-bull thing, that, just terr-a-bull. And them lookin' so fine.
"...during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump International Golf Links sought to build a seawall to protect a golf course he owns in Ireland from 'global warming and its effects.'
In a permit application for the wall, Trump International Golf Links cited scientific studies indicating that a rise in sea level could result in damaging erosion in a bay near the golf course.
'If the predictions of an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming prove correct ... it is likely that there will be a corresponding increase in coastal erosion rates not just in Doughmore Bay but around much of the coastline of Ireland,' the application says. 'In our view, it could reasonably be expected that the rate of sea level rise might become twice of that presently occurring. ... As a result, we would expect the rate of dune recession to increase.'"
Did you get that "in our view"? That means in Fatty's view. Climate change is real and we have to do something about it, especially if it affects his pocketbook.
It's always all about Trump, in'it? The rest of the world can go fuck itself.
Oh, also? That claim about the US being the cleanest in the world?
"The Environmental Performance Index currently has the US ranked 27th in the world — seven spots behind Japan."
Ta-da! Another lie!
Hey, if the earth really is flat, how did Magellan get back to where he started? And how do cargo ships do that now? Do they just turn around (but not tell anyone that's what they're doing) and go back? And what about all those neat-o bits of trivia about the phone lines in New York City being able to wrap thirty times around the world? Crap. There goes a whole category in Jeopardy. And a good one, too.
And that bit about the sun orbiting the earth? Hey, that must mean that the entire universe revolves around the earth. Aristotle was right after all? Who knew?
Just when you think human beings can't get any stupider...Well, look at how many morons voted for Fatty. That's a category of stupid all on its own.
@Akhilleus: They have global warming right around this one place in Ireland, because of unusual ocean currents thereabouts. But nowhere else, unless Trump invests in another golf course by the sea.
@Akhilleus: You are so old-fashioned. The New Flat Earth is not like the Old Flat Earth with its four corners. Rather, it is a circle with the North Pole at the center & -- as forrest tried to explain to us dummies -- the Antarctic rim all around the outer edge holding in the oceans. So Magellan just took the long way around. I've posted a real true map at the top of the page to bring you up to speed.
P.S. The flat-earthers are very mad at NASA for wasting all that taxpayer money on fake space exploration.
Marie,
Yeah, money better spent plugging holes in the ice holding the oceans in. Where's that little Dutch boy when we need him? Oh wait, he might be in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Maybe he met with Manafort too! Oh, the humanity!
Speaking of maps (and being old-fashioned), I miss those old maps showing cool stuff like sea monsters, giant horses with flippers and whales that looked like huge catfish, with galleons piloted by guys shitting their pantaloons as snake-like behemoths swim around their ship.
Oh, where are the fearsome reveries of yesteryear? Anything to escape visions of the orange blowhard.
As Wordsworth once said...
"I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn."
(From the sonnet "Trump is Too Much With Us")
How interesting that Larry (I'm not an economist, I just play one for the little dictator) Kudlow, who ripped the last real president for pushing GM to make some concessions for getting billions in bailout money from US taxpayers, calling him a "gangster", is now declaring, like his fool of a boss, that they will be pushing GM to make concessions, otherwise, they'll cut all their subsidies. Like gangsters.
These people are SUCH hypocritical assholes.
Melanie's second amazingly stultifying and uninspiring holiday (sorry, Christmas) decoration plan for the Blight House demonstrates, clearly, that bikini models are not designers. At least not designers of any great moment. Or interest. The piccolo does not write the concerto.
Boring, weird, slightly sinister, and quizzically imperious are not qualities that guarantee great holiday design.
Worst.White.House.in.History.
“John Bolton Won’t Listen To The Khashoggi Tape Because It’s In Arabic”
Really? Maybe re-hire all of those (fired!) gay translators who were fluent in Arabic (and other languages), yet subject to your - and your “brethren’s“ - hateful, ignorant bigotry.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-bolton-on-khashoggi-tape_us_5bfd9531e4b03b230fa7b323
(Apologies If Already Posted On RC)
If you look really closely at the map of the world above, you can see the outline of a tudor rose. This means that the UK plans to take over the world (again) -- proof positive!!!! I don't know what to make of the white spots at the bottom of the two other views of the world -- bald spots maybe?