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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

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Nov042017

The Commentariat -- November 5, 2017

Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "The White House on Saturday disparaged the legacies of the only two living Republican presidents to precede Donald Trump, after reports that both men castigated Trump in interviews last year and refused to vote for him. Former president George H.W. Bush mocked then-candidate Trump as a 'blowhard' and voted for a Democratic president, while the younger Bush worried aloud that Trump would destroy the idea of a Republican president in all but name, according to 'The Last Republicans,' which is scheduled to go on sale later this month. The White House response followed a CNN report about the new book in an extraordinary war of words involving three presidents from the same party. 'If one Presidential candidate can disassemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had,' the White House wrote to CNN. It called the younger Bush's decision to wage war on Iraq 'one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump donned a military-style bomber jacket shortly after arriving in Japan on Sunday and projected confidence that the United States will confront threats in Asia, telling hundreds of U.S. troops that they will have the resources 'to fight, to overpower and to always, always, always win.' Trump's tough talk in a speech to U.S. and Japanese military personnel at Yokota Air Base, shortly after Air Force One touched down here, aimed to set a tone for his five-nation tour during which the president said he is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a regional summit in Vietnam later this week. The president told reporters during his flight that he wants 'Putin's help on North Korea,' as his administration attempts to consolidate support for its strategy to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program."

Ashley Parker & Courtney Teague of the Washington Post: "Stopping in Hawaii en route to his five-country, 12-day trip in Asia -- his longest foreign trip since assuming office -- the president appeared energetic and enthusiastic, from almost the moment Air Force One climbed into the sky." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Business, As Usual. Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress: "Oh his way to Asia for a five-country diplomatic tour, one of his most significant international trips since taking office..., Donald Trump stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, which is dedicated to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But on his way back to the airport, Trump made another stop -- this time at the Trump Hotel in Waikiki. According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump wanted to greet the employees and thank them for their hard work in making the Trump Hotel a 'tremendously successful project.' This stop, which happened amidst a taxpayer-funded trip, was both unexpected and unannounced, according to reporters travelling with the president."

"Trump Committed Another Impeachable Offense." Frank Bowman in Slate: "On July 27, 1974..., the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon because he sought to turn the immense power of the Justice Department and federal criminal investigative agencies against his political adversaries.... No respectable scholar of the Constitution doubts that directing the criminal justice and intelligence systems of the United States against political opponents ... is among the impeachable 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of Article II, Section 4. Friday morning..., Donald Trump sent out a series of tweets in which he explicitly urged the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for a grab bag of supposed offenses -- emails deleted from then-Secretary of State Clinton's private server, the Russia-uranium kerfluffle, activities by Tony Podesta (lobbyist and brother of Secretary Clinton's campaign manager), and the allegation that officials at the Democratic National Committee worked with Clinton's campaign to give it a boost over Sen. Bernie Sanders'.... Trump followed up these tweets with statements to the press in which he said he is 'disappointed' with the Justice Department and would not rule out firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions if Sessions won't investigate Democrats. In my view, Trump's tweets tiptoed right up to the line of an impeachable offense. His subsequent statements to the press stepped firmly over it." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One big difference: Nixon had the sense to do his dirty work in secret; he knew what he was doing violated his oath of office, even if he later "justified" his actions by claiming that "if the president does it, it's not illegal." Trump is either too stupid to know or too imperious to care that he repeatedly flouts his Constitutional duties & limitations. ...

... Leigh Caldwell & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "The Trump administration has downplayed the role of foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos during the 2016 presidential campaign. But the public record shows that Papadopoulos, who attempted to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a more prominent figure than previously understood." The story goes on to cite several instances in which Papadopoulos represented the campaign over a period of several months. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! Jeff Ostrowski of the Palm Beach Post: "Trump won permission to hire 70 [foreign] maids, cooks and servers at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the 2017-18 tourist season, according to newly released data from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2016-17, Trump hired 64 foreign workers at the Palm Beach property. The trend is similar throughout Palm Beach County."

Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "A majority of Americans say President Trump has not accomplished much during his first nine months in office and they have delivered a report card that is far harsher even than the tepid expectations they set for his tenure when he was sworn into office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.... Trump has an approval rating demonstrably lower than any previous chief executive at this point in his presidency over seven decades of polling. Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans -- 37 percent -- say they approve of the way he is handling his job."

NEW. "Way Bigger than Donald Trump." Jonah Shepp of New York: "... the Russian government has developed a sophisticated digital propaganda and misinformation strategy based on using hacked data from public figures and institutions in countries of interest to influence public opinion and elections in those countries.... Even more disconcerting is that because Trump was at best an unwitting beneficiary in last year';s election meddling, he cannot see past his own role in this story to understand these implications in the longer term.... Perhaps instead of trying to catch the administration in another lie, the White House press corps should start asking what they are doing to prevent this type of interference from happening again in the future. Responding to such threats is part of the president's job, and if he refuses to do so, he should pay a price for that negligence, at least in the court of public opinion."

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump promised to cut taxes for the middle class, but some would end up paying more under the 'Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,' according to a report released Friday night by Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeepers tasked with determining how much any tax legislation would add to the debt and how it would impact the poor, middle class and wealthy.... The JCT found that the GOP bill would add nearly $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next decade and that, on average, families earning between $20,000 and $40,000 a year and between $200,000 to $500,000 would pay more in individual income taxes in 2023 and beyond.... Democratic tax experts say most of the benefits go to the richest Americans. 'JCT's estimates show that this bill is heavily tilted toward the wealthy,'says Lily Batchelder, a tax law professor at New York University and former member of President Obama's National Economic Council." ...

... ** Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: The House tax "bill bristles with tax increases aimed at low- and moderate-income households -- small in their aggregate effect but burdensome on the targeted taxpayers -- that have no apparent social rationale. Here's a sampling.... The tax bill would eliminate tax deductions for interest on student loans.... Teachers lose their deduction for classroom supplies.... The tax plan eliminates a deduction for catastrophic medical expenses that already had been made less generous than in the past.... The bill repeals the adoption tax credit, which allows families to offset up to $13,570 in taxes for every child adopted out of foster care.... Despite a surge of weather-related disasters in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, the tax bill would repeal deductions for property and casualty losses.... The tax measure would continue the Republican attack on renewable energy by ending the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars.... Beyond these provisions, the tax bill would take away modest deductions and exclusions that help ordinary people live their lives." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: These "reforms" are a lesson in nasty. Even the stupidest members of Congress can understand the moral purpose of each of these tax breaks. Some are to help ordinary people suddenly hit with unexpected financial crises -- high medical costs, weather disasters. Some are to help people who do the right thing -- provide school supplies for kids, purchase a fuel-efficient car. Most are family-friendly -- help send the kids to college, take in an orphan, etc. Eliminating any of these deductions would place more American families in greater financial stress. And the "reason" for removing these deductions aimed at people who need them? Of course it's to put more money in the pockets of people who already have way more money than they need to live in luxury.

Don Sergent of the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News: "A Bowling Green man was arrested Friday and charged with fourth-degree assault after an incident at the Bowling Green home of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul. Rene Boucher, 59, is in the Warren County Regional Jail in lieu of a $5,000 bond, according to online jail records available Saturday afternoon. Paul suffered minor injuries, according to a news release from Kentucky State Police Post 3 in Bowling Green. Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine.' 'Senator Paul was blindsided and the victim of an assault,' Cooper said in an email."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Former Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile writes in a ew book that she seriously contemplated replacing Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden in the aftermath of Clinton's fainting spell, in part because Clinton's campaign was 'anemic' and had taken on 'the odor of failure.' In an explosive new memoir, Brazile details widespread dysfunction and dissension throughout the Democratic Party, including secret deliberations over using her powers as interim DNC chair to initiate the removal of Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) from the ticket after Clinton's Sept. 11, 2016, collapse in New York City. Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, surely that would have gone smoothly. ...

... Jesse Ferguson of the Clinton campaign: "We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate's health." ...

... Steve M.: "And while she was at it, [Brazile] was going to pick her presidential nominee's running mate for him.... Did she have the right to do this? Absolutely not. Three days after the fainting incident, The Washington Post's Joshua Tucker interviewed Richard Pildes, an NYU law professor and election law expert. As Pildes noted, the decision to remove a Democratic nominee is up to the entire Democratic National Committee, not the DNC chair. It's Josh Marshall's belief, after a look at the DNC's charter and bylaws, that the process can be initiated only in the event of a vacancy. In other words, Clinton would have had to agree to removal from the ticket, and Kaine as well.... And if Clinton and Kaine had been replaced, could they have made it onto state ballots? In many states they might not have.... This is insane." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "Most bizarrely, [Brazile] writes of fearing for her life after the murder of Seth Rich, the DNC staffer whose death has been the locus of deranged Republican conspiracy theories surrounding WikiLeaks and Hillary Clinton's emails. Whether Brazile's apparent fabulism will be dismissed as a bookselling stunt or cause any real internecine conflict among Democrats is unclear. But with a pivotal, uncomfortably close gubernatorial election just around the corner in Virginia, one thing's for sure: The timing for a massive distraction for the party could scarcely be worse." ...

... Paul Campos, in LG&$: "What's next, Pizzagate?"

Anne Bernays, in a Washington Post op-ed, on the indignities of being female.

Adam Vary of BuzzFeed: Kevin "Spacey is alleged to have consistently used his sexuality in a way that was unwanted and unwarranted, and often unrelenting. In Spacey's case, these stories also demonstrate the complex effect the closet can have for men of any sexual orientation when talking about sexual misconduct by another man. Spacey appears to have discovered how to weaponize the closet, shielding his own behavior from scrutiny under the guise of merely protecting his privacy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Brent Lang & Daniel Holloway of Variety: "Producers are exploring several options for getting 'House of Cards' back on track in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations against star Kevin Spacey. One scenario being discussed is to kill off Spacey's character, the villainous Frank Underwood, and have the show's sixth and final season concentrate on his equally manipulative wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, according to insiders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia announced the arrest on Saturday night of the prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers.m he announcement of the arrests was made over Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned satellite network whose broadcasts are officially approved. Prince Alwaleed's arrest is sure to send shock waves both through the Kingdom and the world's major financial centers. He controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world's richest men, with major stakes in News Corp, Time Warner, Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Motorola and many other well-known companies. The prince also controls satellite television networks watched across the Arab world. The sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son and top adviser of King Salman."

Juan Cole: "In a news conference this week, [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] expressed the opinion that fossil fuels would prevent sexual assault.... It should be noted that when governor of Texas Perry actively resisted Federal regulations to reduce prison rape, so he seems more interested in hydrocarbons than in do-gooding.... Lack of electricity is certainly a problem for development in Africa.... But electrification can be pursued in environmentally sustainable ways ... solar and wind are everywhere and there is no impetus to fight over control of them. As for fossil fuels, they are responsible for enormous numbers of rapes.... Take [South] Sudan ... it fell into civil war as elites of these two struggled for control of the vast oil wealth. It doesn't get the press that Syria did, but South Sudan is one of the most brutal civil wars on the planet.... Then there is the violent conflict in the Niger Delta of southern Nigeria. It is also over oil and its proceeds, and their distribution.... There is war rape." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

I used to think that Donna Brazile was a reasonable, stable person, but replacing Clinton because she tripped on a flight of stairs? I was happy to find out that Brazile could not, on her own, replace an elected candidate on a whim. Is this delusions of grandeur to go along with paranoia and an overly active dramatic sensibility? Oh, and a big thanks as well to Warren for her help in this craziness. The primaries were “rigged”? Please. Let Fox make those claims.

Is Clinton a controlling person? Uh...you’re all just finding this out now? That was news? And if Bernie is now the leader of the party, time for him to read everyone the riot act and calm things down before they displace the Trump Idiots as regular cold open favorites on SNL.

We lost a huge election we should have won. Let’s not make it worse by indulging in food fights, name calling, and finger pointing. There are problems? Fix them. And let’s get on with it. Let’s not hand a dangerous moron four more years because we look less stable than the psychos. Jesus.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

OK, SNL was a bit weird (see uncomfortable) with the opening, but...Weekend Update..and "The Huck" episode pretty darn hilarious. For some reason the NYTimes didn't get the Sarah Huckabee Sanders bit.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Don dons the warrior's mantle.

Astute readers (and all of you are) will recall that when DiJiT went to the aircraft carrier, his Navy handlers gave him his own fabric flight jacket. Cheap.

The Air Force has always been better at PR and "managing up" with VIPs. At Yokota, they gave him a "real" leather flight jacket! So cool! Just like in the movies.

And, ladies, note that they did NOT give him aviator wings on his jacket because those wings just have too much power over the sensibilities of young women, and his USAF handlers did not want to be responsible for what would happen when they started throwing themselves at him. Our star might not be able to resist their importunings.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Don dons the warriors' mantle.

When he visited the Navy earlier this year, they gave him a fabric flight jacket. But the Air Force is better at PR and VIP-handling, so they gave him real leather, just like Tom Cruise's.

But they didn't give him the aviator wings that go with that jacket. The USAF PR flacks know that those wings exert too much sexytime power over young ladies, and they did not want DiJiT tempted by their importunate love calls.

Also, note that he can't zip it. They don't make jackets large enough for his greatness.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Ms. McC: the first post didn't seem to go through, so I rewrote. They are both excellent posts, however ... delete the one you choose. Thanks.

(Or both of course, depending on your editorial judgment.)

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Patrick: Aah, they're both excellent. I'm leaving them both. I just discovered some posts of yours from back in September that got spammed, so I stuck them back in. Sometimes my spam program just decides -- for no reason I can discern -- to pick on a particular regular contributor for a while.

November 5, 2017 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Ms. McC: to help you discern a possible reason, in September I submitted some comments from a work location and your spammerjammer may have thought the ISP was sort of "generic large organization"-ish.

It was totally consistent. Nothing I sent from that desk got through. I thought it was system managers' prevention on my (sending) end, since those folks are notorious message controllers.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Still trying to figure out this House bill tax proposal. It's a head scratcher.

Seems they're taken away the personal exemptions for dependents, that hoary benefit of having a large family, but maintained and expended child tax credits, adding some new categories. How will the change affect families? Well, it just depends....on a number of factors.

One of which might/could be:

It seems the House bill also enshrines a definition of "child" in the tax code as beginning at conception. As one wacko defender of the rights of the unborn put it, “It is fantastic because the unborn child is appropriately represented in the tax code,” she said. “All of these things represent a serious commitment to treating the unborn child, as she or he should be, equal and protected in the eyes of the law.” (NYTimes).

Great idea! Hope she thinks of attaching a doctor's note certifying her pregnancy on her tax return on she claims an extra exemption.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: No doubt the geniuses in Congress have worked out ALL the kinks. I see that now one needs to have a Social Security number for each declared dependent. Is the SSA going to start issuing SS#s for Fetus Smith or TBD Jones?

Besides giving a boost to their Christian base, maybe Republicans think this is a good way to mitigate their indifference to reproductive care. By providing an exemption for the unborn child, the GOP can claim the financial benefit of the exemption makes up for the cost of prenatal care the parents-to-be would have enjoyed under ObummerCare.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterMrs. Bea McCrabbie

Hey, why not go all the way and allow parents— better yet, future parents—to claim a pre-conception exemption for kids to be born sometime in the future (date and time to be determined). For that matter, we can give Christianists the right to pre-arrest, pre-convict, and pre-imprison the as yet unconceived babies they deem likely to become terrorists. Or gay (same thing, pretty much, right?). Or members of Black Lives Matter. We could set up future wars to be fought by all the future people and determine before they’re even born who gets to live in luxury and who spends their life in poverty and pain, with shitty education determined by medieval witch doctors, no health insurance, low paying, soul sucking jobs, no right to vote, and no hope.

Oh, wait. We already have that. It’s called official Confederate policy.

Never mind.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Ak: Yeh, on your first post...I've been perplexed by all this overblown interest and nonsense with Donna Brazile's allegations and opinions. Over the years she was frequently trotted out on various talk shows as this amazing "reasonable" (as you stated) voice on Democratic positions and all things political.

Could rarely follow her rambling input, which always seemed to drag on and on and on...without actually saying much of anything. Tried to figure out what others saw in her as a knowledgeable political figure...but, usually found myself switching channels quickly as ennui took over! As to her considering to replace Clinton on the ticket, huh! What game is she playing? Book sales? Another paying position somewhere...anywhere...with anyone?

But then adding to my dismay, along comes Elizabeth Warren with her remarks and agreement about 'rigging' — my head exploded! Especially odd, as I recall those charming BFF photo ops and positive comments she had re Hillary throughout the campaign. Liz, I thought I knew you!

Barney Frank, please come back.

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Here's another article about the Trump administration's attack on governance and competency by Michael Lewis.
"Into U.S.D.A. jobs, some of which paid nearly $80,000 a year, the Trump team had inserted a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas-company meter reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company, with skills like “pleasant demeanor” listed on their résumés."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/usda-food-stamps-school-lunch-trump-administration

November 5, 2017 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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