;)
The Commentariat -- November 6, 2017
Late Morning Update:
L'état, C'est Moi. Jonathan Swan of Axios recounts a June 2017 meeting in which President Trump told Native American tribal leaders how to cut the red tape that accompanies energy exploration on their lands: 'Chief, chief, what are they going to do? Once you get it out of the ground are they going to make you put it back in there? I mean, once it's out of the ground it can't go back in there. You've just got to do it. I'm telling you, chief, you've just got to do it.'"
Patricia Dvorak of the Washington Post: "It was the middle-finger salute seen around the world. Juli Briskman's protest aimed at the presidential motorcade that roared past her while she was on her cycling path in Northern Virginia last month became an instantly viral photo. Turns out it has now cost the 50-year-old marketing executive her job. On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima LLC, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things." Read on. Briskman did not ID her employer. It appears that if Briskman had been a man, the company would not have fired her.
** Junior Promised Russian Lawyer Tit-for-Tat. Irina Reznik & Henry Meyer of Bloomberg: "A Russian lawyer who met with … Donald Trump;s oldest son last year says he indicated that a law targeting Russia could be re-examined if his father won the election and asked her for written evidence that illegal proceeds went to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, said in a two-and-a-half-hour interview in Moscow that she would tell these and other things to the Senate Judiciary Committee on condition that her answers be made public, something it hasn't agreed to.... 'Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,' Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. 'I understand our side may have messed up, but it'll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,' he added, according to her. Veselnitskaya also said Trump Jr. requested financial documents showing that money that allegedly evaded U.S. taxes had gone to Clinton's campaign." ...
... Greg Sargent: “We know now as a matter of fact ... that the June 2016 meeting was held for the explicit purpose of getting a dump-truck's worth of Russian 'dirt' on Clinton -- Donald Trump Jr.'s email chain confirms it. And let's not forget, as The Post has reported, that Trump himself helped dictate an initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. that misleadingly claimed the meeting was 'primarily' about Russian adoptions. This was later proven false, which means Trump himself has been directly implicated in an effort to mislead the country about his own top campaign officials' eagerness to benefit from help from the Russian government. Whatever legal conclusions Mueller ends up reaching, we now know that Trump's top campaign officials were eager to collude with Russia to help him win the election and that Trump himself helped to cover that up." Veselnitskaya is not the most reliable witness.
Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump declared that the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex., that left at least 26 people dead was not 'a guns situation,' saying instead he believed that 'mental health' was the problem. Trump's comments came at a news conference in Tokyo, when he was asked about the shooting at a South Texas church and if stricter gun laws were the answer.... Though the alleged shooter has been identified as Devin Kelley, 26, the full mental state of Kelley has yet to be determined. Kelley, a Texas man who enlisted in the Air Force in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child, and received a bad conduct discharge from the military in 2014."
Jack Holmes of Esquire: "... this president's ability to distinguish himself in the eyes of our Eastern allies is so potent he could start getting the job done before he even arrived. And so it emerged in The Japan Times, that nation's oldest English-language newspaper, that Trump has some intriguing views on the relationship between Japanese feudal history and North Korean ballistic missiles. '... Threats from North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development programs were set to be high on the agenda in his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday.... The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said....' Many have already sunk the slam-dunk snark-shot that katanas are a non-ideal weapon against cruise missiles." Do see Akhilleus' commentary below.
*****
The Paradise Papers
** Most Corrupt Administration Ever, Ctd. Jon Swaine & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin's son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.... Leaked documents and public filings show that Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova. Ross, a billionaire and close friend of Trump, retained holdings in Navigator even after taking office this year. The relationship means that he stands to benefit from the operations of a Russian company run by Putin's family and close allies, some of whom are under US sanctions.... Democratic senators wrote to Ross in February demanding that he disclose 'the full extent of your connections to Russia'. Ross did not respond." --safari ...
... The New York Times story, by Mike McIntire & others, on Wilbur Ross's Kremlin ties, is here. "In a written response to questions by the Times, James Rockas, a spokesman for Mr. Ross, said that Navigator's relationship with Sibur began before Mr. Ross joined the board in March 2012, and that he had never met the Russian oligarchs who are Sibur's major shareholders. Public records show that Mr. Ross's firm became a major investor in Navigator in November 2011, three months before the company chartered its first ships to Sibur. 'Sibur was not under sanctions at the time the contract was signed and is still not subject to sanctions,' Mr. Rockas said. More broadly, he said that Mr. Ross 'recuses himself from any matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels, but has been generally supportive of the administration's sanctions of Russian and Venezuelan entities.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Ross (via his spokesman) lied about the timing of his & Sibur's association with Navigator, as the Times story claims, can't we assume he is lying about other aspects of his business holdings? ...
... Richard Engel & Aggelos Petropoulos of NBC News: "Wilbur Ross ... shares business interests with Vladimir Putin's immediate family, and he failed to clearly disclose those interests when he was being confirmed for his cabinet position.... The documents seen by NBC News, however, along with a careful examination of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, tell a different story than the one Ross told at his confirmation. Ross divested most of his holdings, but did not reveal to the government the full details of the holdings he kept.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said members of Congress who were part of Ross' confirmation hearings were under the impression that Ross had divested all of his interests in Navigator. Furthermore, he said, they were unaware of Navigator's close ties to Russia. 'I am astonished and appalled because I feel misled,' said Blumenthal. 'Our committee was misled, the American people were misled by the concealment of those companies.' Blumenthal said he will call for the inspector general of the Commerce Department to launch an investigation." ...
... Kevin Drum speculates that Ross held onto the investment, which hasn't been very profitable, & misled the Senate "for reasons other than money." ...
... All the President's Swamp. Jon Swain & Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients' funds out of reach in tax havens.... The leaked documents reveal that for various periods between 2002 and 2006, [economic advisor Gary] Cohn was president or vice-president of 22 separate entities in Bermuda for Goldman Sachs.... Secretary of state [Rex Tillerson] is named in the leaked files as a director of an offshore firm used in a multibillion-dollar oil and gas venture in the Middle East that became embroiled in controversy.... Treasury secretary [Steven Mnuchin]'s former bank financed offshore private jets for wealthy clients.... The Trump administration's most senior banking watchdog [Randy Quarles] appears in the Paradise Papers in connection with an offshore bank that is under investigation by US authorities for possible tax evasion.... New US ambassador to Russia [Jon Huntsman] helped lead a previously undisclosed offshore company, according to the leaked files.... Ambassador to India [Kenneth Juster] benefited from the offshore business of his former investment company and its billion-dollar purchase of a shipping corporation.... [Carl] Icahn, a friend and former adviser to Trump, owns a $250m mining company spread across three tax havens and structured in a way that limits the information it must disclose to US authorities.... The chairman of Trump's inaugural committee [Tom Barrack] leads a $58bn real estate investment trust that channels some of its profits to the low- or no-tax jurisdictions of Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Lebanon.... SEC chairman [Jay Clayton] received income from a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands.... A biotechnology company headed by [Ben] Carson, Trump's housing and urban development (HUD) secretary, set up offshore firms that could have reduced its tax bill." --safari ...
... From Russia to Silicon Valley. Jon Swaine amp; Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial investments in Twitter and Facebook through a business associate of Jared Kushner, leaked documents reveal. The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner.... The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year's presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner." --safari ...
... Andrew Desiderio & Noah Shatchman of The Daily Beast: "Top White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is also implicated. The documents reveal that Russian tech leader Yuri Milner invested $850,000 in a startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded in 2014. Milner has long had a reputation in Silicon Valley as a big-league investor; his firm at one point owned major chunks of both Facebook and Twitter. But Milner was never considered particularly Kremlin-connected. These new documents call that reputation into question. The investing arm of Gazprom, the state-backed energy company, financed a share of Facebook worth up to $1 billion; a Kremlin-owned bank invested $191 million into a Milner firm, and some of that money was then injected into Twitter. Despite Milner's investment in his startup, Kushner said in July that he told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting that he never 'relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.... Kushner, who still has a stake in Cadre, did not previously disclose the firm's other business ties.'" --safari...
... Nick Hopkins of the Guardian explains the importance of the leaked "Paradise Papers", outing users of offshore tax havens. ...
... Max de Haldevang & Zachard Seward of Quartz also have a guide to major revelations in the Paradise Papers. ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "The leaked documents, which are being referred to as the 'Paradise Papers,' came from Appleby, a prominent law firm based in Bermuda that specializes in offshore bank accounts. They were originally procured by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, then given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which made them available in part to several outlets. Approximately 13.4 million documents were leaked, with tax details of more than 100 public figures exposed."
Jane Perlez of the New York Times on how China's Xi Jinping plans to coax Trump into "a special relationship that sets China apart, as the other great power in an emerging bipolar world." Mrs. McC: Give him some golden things, Jinping. Tell him he's smart & handsome & say, "Oh, Mr. President, you hands are so-o-o big."
** Julia Ainsley, et al. of NBC: "Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser [Michael T. Flynn] and his son as part of the probe into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation." --safari ...
... digby: "Flynn isn't just dirty, he's nuts. Everyone knew he was nuts too. And he was Trump's most important National Security Adviser. Also, one of Trump's most egregious obstructions of justice was firing the acting AG who warned them and then telling the head of the FBI to go easy on Flynn." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "The White House called an unscheduled press briefing on Sunday to clarify Michael T. Flynn's role in the Trump campaign, claiming that his job consisted entirely of making coffee when George Papadopoulos was busy with other matters.... [Sarah] Sanders said that, in the weeks to come, the White House is likely to release the names of additional campaign staffers whose roles were limited to the preparation of coffee beverages, and that such names might include Jared Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr."
... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... documents and interviews show there are at least nine Trump associates who had contacts with Russians during the campaign or presidential transition. Some are well-known, and others, such as Papadopoulos, have been more on the periphery.... Trump in the past denied that he or his associates communicated with Russia during the campaign. Now, he and his allies are seeking to minimize the importance of the contacts that have emerged.... Experts who have studied Russian tactics see something different: a picture emerging of a concerted and multifaceted Kremlin effort to infiltrate Trump's campaign." ...
... Michael Kranish & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post report on where Rick Gates, long Paul Manafort's deputy, fit into Trump world and what some of his previous business interests were. Mrs. McC: Whatever he did, "While Gates listed $2.2 million in assets in 2011, he filed a 2016 credit application saying he had a liquid net worth of $25 million and that his wife was worth $30 million...." That's a helluva jump. The $2.2MM sounds like total assets: houses, vehicles, college funds, retirement accounts AND liquid assets like checking accounts. $25MM in liquid assets, however, is money you can pull out of your pocket, so to speak. It would not include real property, IRAs, etc. ...
... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions needs to return to the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after recent revelations suggest that Sessions's previous statements were false.... "This is getting a bit old with Jeff Sessions," he [told Chris Wallace of Fox 'News']. 'I asked a question "did anyone ever talk to you about talking with the Russians?" I didn't ask about collusions. So we now know that somebody at a meeting, Mr. Papadopoulos, raised the idea of meeting with Putin. There's nothing wrong with Trump meeting with Putin if he wanted to. It would be wrong to have the Russians help the Trump campaign,' he said. Graham's comments come after The New York Times reported that unsealed court documents revealed that Trump and Sessions were aware of correspondence between members of the campaign and Russian actors, despite saying earlier this year they were unaware of such communications."
Lynnley Browning of Bloomberg: "House Republicans should slow down their consideration of a tax-overhaul bill after investigative reports Sunday alleged offshore tax-avoidance by U.S. multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., congressional Democrats and tax-advocacy groups said. But the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee [Kevin Brady] indicated Sunday that the panel would stick to its plans to consider the bill this week.... House leaders want to pass the bill by Thanksgiving.... In all, the bill is 'very weak' on combating aggressive tax evasion by both corporations and individuals, said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who's an expert on financial crime and international tax abuse." --safari
Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Republicans are mostly a party of cultural grievance-mongers, not ambitious legislators. That's why Donald Trump is their president. That's why they don't seem to notice or care that Paul Ryan is a total fraud. They'd be a lot happier if they just owned it. At the end of the day, mostly adhering the policy status quo while catering to the symbolic and social recognition demands of the ethno-sectarian majority is a perfectly plausible approach to the problems of party politics." --safari
Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) sustained five fractured ribs after he was assaulted by a neighbor at his Bowling Green home on Friday, a top adviser said Sunday -- and it's unclear when the senator will be able to return to Washington for work. 'Senator Paul has five rib fractures including three displaced fractures,' his chief political strategist, Doug Stafford, said in a statement Sunday. 'This type of injury is caused by high velocity severe force. It is not clear exactly how soon he will return to work, as the pain is considerable as is the difficulty in getting around, including flying.'... Authorities say Paul's neighbor, Rene Boucher, tackled the senator from behind at 3:21 p.m. on Friday, leaving Paul struggling to breathe and bleeding from cuts around his mouth. Boucher, 59, has been charged with one count of fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor that can carry up to one year in prison.... Officials have not disclosed a reason for Friday’s altercation." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So how come we heard yesterday, "Kelsey Cooper, Paul's Kentucky communications director, issued a statement to the Daily News indicating that 'Senator Paul is fine'"? (Yesterday's linked story has been updated to indicate Paul suffered rib fractures & lung contusions. The "Sen. Paul is fine" part has been disappeared.) And excuse me -- beating a person bloody, fracturing his ribs & leaving him unable to work is a misdemeanor??? There's something odd here. Update: The New York Times fingers the cops for the misdiagnosis: "The injuries ... appear to be much worse than the 'minor' injuries that the police had reported on Saturday." Well, no, Kelsey there works for Paul.
Beyond the Beltway
David Montgomery & Christopher Mele of the New York Times: "A gunman wearing all black and a ballistic vest opened fire with a rifle outside a small Baptist church in rural [Sutherland Springs,] Texas and continued firing inside the building on Sunday, killing at least 26 people and turning a tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country's most recent mass horror. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas confirmed the death toll, which has steadily increased throughout the day after the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.... At least 20 people were also injured.... Two law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., identified the gunman as Devin P. Kelley, 26." ...
... The Houston Chronicle, in association with the San Antonio Express-News has updates here. The front page of the Chron has links to related stories.
Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Runners taking part in a 5km race in a small city in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon ... followed a zigzag course that took them, literally, all around the houses. The event was intended as a live demonstration of the absurdity and insidiousness of the way voting boundaries have been redrawn -- or gerrymandered -- in Asheville, a liberal town at the western end of the state. The head-spinning route of the 'Gerrymander 5K' ...follow[ed] an invisible line that since 2011 has divided what was previously a single US congressional seat into two odd-shaped districts.... Each half was thus in a new district dominated by a traditionally Republican rural area. The result was that the GOP now has a firm lock on power in Asheville, a progressive enclave in a red state that is now represented in Washington by two Republicans, one an ultra-conservative." --safari
Way Beyond
Long Live Shady Practices. Hilary Osborne of the Guardian: "Millions of pounds from the Queen's private estate has [sic] been invested in a Cayman Islands fund as part of an offshore portfolio that has never before been disclosed, according to ... an investigation into offshore tax havens." --safari
Guardian: "Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, including a prominent billionaire, and dozens of current and former ministers, reports said, in a sweeping crackdown as the kingdom's young crown prince consolidates power. Saudi King Salman appointed two new ministers on Saturday to key security and economic posts, removing one of the royal family;s most prominent members as head of the national guard, as part of a series of high-profile sackings that sent shock waves in the kingdom." --safari...
...Saudi Power Grabs. Juan Cole: "The Secretary-General of Hizbullah, the Lebanese party-militia, Hassan Nasrullah, gave a major speech Sunday in the wake of the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri. Nasrullah characterized this step as a Saudi move dictated to Hariri by Riyadh.... Nasrullah said he was surprised by Hariri's sudden move. He maintained that until recently, Hariri had reported at cabinet meetings that Saudi Arabia wants a stable Lebanon and backed the national unity government.... Then Hariri recently went back to Riyadh, Nasrullah said, and this time he did not come back.... So the Hizbullah leader is implying that something changed in the politics of the royal family all of a sudden, and they imposed this resignation on Lebanon through their proxy.... In any case, Hariri's resignation has caused a crisis in Lebanon." --safari.
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Reader Comments (26)
Today's Guardian has a wonderful explanation of the Paradise Papers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/greedy-swine-are-using-tax-loopholes-to-offshore-billions-also-cows-go-moo?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Pat
So very inconvenient for all of these tax shelter revelations to appear right as the Confederates are turning the gears on their Magical Mirage Machine of such needed "tax reform", i.e. Shoveling more money to the rich. Do you think they've seriously considered closing down tax haven loopholes, or going after that morally bankrupt money to plug some of the holes in their Great Tax Giveaway? I bet you know the answer...
"In all, the bill is “very weak” on combating aggressive tax evasion by both corporations and individuals, said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who’s an expert on financial crime and international tax abuse."
Paul Ryan and his "Death [Estate] Tax repeal helps farmers" bullshit is mind blowing at the level of horse shit the GOP is openly shoveling into the mouths of their sheeple awaiting another shearing. And yet their rubes keep voting... This fog machine the "Movement Conservatives" have powered up is a fantastically efficient project to corrupt our laws to parcel off our country to monied interests. Their laser-focused commitment to weakening our country's foundations has to be acknowledged.
Chapeau, scumbags, chapeau.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-05/offshore-tax-haven-reports-stir-call-to-slow-pace-of-house-bill
I see that Democrats have asked Ross to explain himself regarding his money making scheme with Putin’s family. He never responded. Big surprise there. The Rosses, the Mnuchins, the Devoses, the Trumps, and the rest of his billionaire bandits consider themselves royalty, above the mean, common requirements of citizenship and free from standard responsibilities and obligations of decency, morality, and law. Remember Ann Romney’s furious “We’ve given you people enough!”?
Their duty is to themselves and their money. They might also, like the little king, feel the necessity of ego building, but things like answering an official request for information that could jeopardize national policy by direct connections to an adversarial foreign power are beneath these people. He’ll have to make up some bullshit now, but make no mistake, Trump has turned control of the government over to greedy pigs whose only loyalty is to their bank accounts. If American interests or the needs of the American public, or requirements of law get in the way, too fucking bad.
This is not just the most corrupt administration in history, although it is certainly that. These people are a clear and present danger to the American experiment. They go along perfectly with their slightly less rich protectors and servants in Congress who are an equally clear danger to democracy.
My daughter's post in response to the Texas shooting,
"Thoughts and prayers” is possibly the most mindless, laziest and hypocritical string of words ever assembled into a phrase.
It's about time for another taxation without representation protest
since a lot of us have been gerrymandered out of anyone to vote
for other than our city council. Democrats have given up running
for election where I live since we've been attached to a 99%
Republican stronghold.
How about another Boston Tea Party? Someone with a tilting
teapot could lead it quite well.
I'm thinking of a bumper sticker: Make America Great Again, Fair
And Responsible Taxation, or MAGAFART.
@Akhilleus: I can't quite figure out what's in the Kool-Aid. Why don't Paul Ryan, et al., resent the billionaires & multi-millionaires they must court? Most members of Congress hate dialing for dollars.
It would be one thing if the billionaires were calling up these guys and saying you're really great, here's a bundle of cash and could you please do me this eensy-weensy multi-billion-dollar favor. But that's not how it works. To keep their jobs, elected officials, especially in the GOP, are directly dependent upon the whims of rich scumbags. And they have to listen to their venom, too.
Many -- or most -- of the rest of us depend on the high-&-mighty, too, but the connection usually is less direct, so we're not reminded of it every day the way members of Congress are.
Democrats don't enjoy the game, either, but at least when they're asking Tom Steyer or Move-on for money, they share some of the same beliefs Steyer & Move-on hold, & those beliefs are clearly closer to the public good than anything the Koch brothers & Tom Cotton might cook up.
At the same time these fine GOP public officials have their tongues in recesses often proximate to golden toilets, they must pander to the hoi-polloi, & pander with inventive lies they themselves know are bull. The masters of the universe have twisted their Congressional factotums into pretzels of perfidy.
The GOP Kool-Aid must be magical.
@forest morris: Ha ha ha ha ha. And, hey, it could work!
@Marvin Schwalb. I just checked Trump's Twitter account. He's hoping god is with the people of Sutherland Springs, & so forth. Nothing about keeping guns out of the hands of crazy white people.
FIRST––Marvin––please tell your daughter I'd hug her for that if I could.
PARADISE LOST
Last week I mentioned my liberal fever dreams –- taxing religious entities. Unfortunately, those nasty virus gods heard me and punished me with one of their bugs. Fever dreams aplenty with sore neck, and nausea. The body responding to the country's situation. So––today the news of the Paradise Papers cheered me no end. We, on R.C., many moons ago discussed this after the New Yorker had a long piece about off-shore hidey-hides. The offshore industry makes “the poor poorer” and is “deepening wealth inequality,” said Brooke Harrington, a certified wealth manager and Copenhagen Business School professor who is the author of ‘Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent.’
“There is this small group of people who are not equally subject to the laws as the rest of us, and that’s on purpose,” Harrington said. These people “live the dream” of enjoying “the benefits of society without being subject to any of its constraints.”
So you can see the dreams of some of us are not like the dreams of the winners–-the ones who cheat in order to have more of what "the rest of us " don't.
PD,
And not only do those Richie Riches enjoy the benefits of society and a government that (sort of) maintains the infrastructure supporting their wealth, without being subject to constraints the rest of us acutely feel, they also don’t have to pay for those benefits, or at least their fair share. Some, like the fat man now living in the White House, don’t pay anything at all.
Fitzgerald was only partly right. The rich aren’t like you and me, they’re also not like anything else in the natural world. No animals, not the largest and most powerful, can refuse to play their part in the biosphere. None can take and not give back anything.
Oh wait. I’m wrong. There is something in nature they resemble: cancer cells.
Forrest,
MAGAFART: brilliance itself. I think that’s what comes out of the Trump pie hole every time it opens. That is, before the Doritos go in.
@"Tootie" (aka Forrest Morris): Where do I buy one of those bumper stickers?
@MAG: People are saying that those bumper stickers will soon
be coming from China. Perhaps the president* will bring some
back on Air Force One.
And now we know what the Queen carries in that always present
hand bag. Numbers for secret off shore accounts. Who woulda
thunk, she being so demure and all.
Breathtaking... I am simply almost speechless reading about the vats and cauldrons of money that these people running our country ship off to those offshore areas, where, behind the fancy banks and jewelry sellers' establishments, the people are dirt-poor. It seems that our monied class is, as a group, a cabal of thieves. I recommend public hangings.
The Idiot Abroad, or "Off with their heads!"
According to the Japan Times, "U.S. President Donald Trump has said Japan should have shot down the North Korean missiles that flew over the country before landing in the Pacific Ocean earlier this year, diplomatic sources have said, despite the difficulties and potential ramifications of doing so...Trump questioned Japan’s decision not to shoot down the missiles when he met or spoke by phone with leaders from Southeast Asian countries over recent months to discuss how to respond to the threats from North Korea, the sources said.
The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said."
A country of samurai warriors? This same exchange has been reported in multiple news feeds but so far I can't find any names on the record except for "diplomatic sources", which is not a lot different than "anonymous sources in the White House".
But let's say, for shits and grins, that Trump actually did say this, or something like it. It certainly sounds like something he'd say. I won't get into the whole Bushido Code thing except to say that the Japanese population is not composed of samurai warriors. (The last time Bushido took over as a cultural control, during WWII, it was responsible for some pretty horrific stuff, not to mention that samurai were in the upper echelons of Japanese society and were allowed to behead anyone below their rank without cause. Is this what Trump means?)
But that's a bit beside the point. Even if he didn't invoke the image of a country of warriors cutting commoners' heads off with large swords, there's a very good reason Japan didn't shoot down Korean missiles, a reason he would have been apprised of had he asked the question of experts instead of blurting it out.
They didn't because they can't. According to thediplomat.com, Japan employs two missile defense systems but "neither system would have been able to intercept the Hwasong-12 IRBMs that North Korea launched over Japanese territory."
And there are other reasons for not shooting or attempting to shoot down these missiles. The Japanese defense minister, "...ruled out Japanese attempts to intercept North Korean missiles unless they constitute an 'attack on' Japan. In the end, Tokyo may have also calculated that even if its SM-3 destroyers may be capable of interception under highly specific conditions, the costs of a miss, which would erode the credibility of missile defense, may be too great."
What we're talking about here is a combination of defense capabilities, constitutional requirements, and realpolitik. None of which Trump has a clue about or the slightest interest in. He watched "Bridge on the River Kwai" once and he knows all about Samurai culture.
(If you do read the Japan Times piece, take a moment to scroll through the comments. Sheesh. The Confederate trolls are out in force attacking anyone who doesn't bow to the little king's genius. One guy goes so far as to say "What Trump means...." and then goes on to suggest that Japan re-militarize along the lines of WWII. Someone else loses their shit altogether and starts whining about how small school children in the US were forced to sing the praises of the "wonderful Obama". The thing is, you find this sort of nonsense everywhere today. These idiots are legion and they're in attack mode full time. There's no attempt at debate or rational discussion. It's all "LIBERALS ARE TRAITORS!!!!" Okay, I realize that we (me?) are sometimes guilty of blanket judgments against wingers, but that's because, largely, it's correct. You back a moron and a traitor and a liar, it's hard to give you kudos for your sagacity.)
And speaking of winger morons, the latest conspiracy theory running like wildfire across the Confederacy is that the murderer who shot all those people in a Texas church is a liberal member of the Antifa movement who wants to kill all conservative white Christians, and who shouted something about a "communist revolution" before opening fire.
Naturally this is all invented bullshit. No one knows, yet, what this guy had in his head when he shot all those poor people. But that will never stop the Wingnut Conspiracy Machine.
Look for reports of this on all the usual suspect websites and maybe even on Fox. Here's how it will go (the Trump trick): "Certain websites/people are saying/reporting that..." And there ya go. It'll be Katie bar the door.
They never miss a trick, or an opportunity to portray themselves as just good, holy, patriotic Americans who are hated and victimized by liberals who want to take their guns and kill them.
Do a Google search for "killer in Texas was antifa" and you get 308,000 hits.
@Ak
You must've missed the apocalyptic fever dream of the Confederate Class that I linked a few days ago. Those "good people" itchin' to kill their fellow Americans are grasping at straws to wish this latest Texas mass murder into being the opening salvo in CIVIL WAR!!! How they function in society obsessed with these outrageous fantasies is beyond me. Mental health issues indeed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/far-right-conspiracy-theory-us-civil-war
This comes along with a new investigation by Propublica that finds, "Right-wing extremists communicating in confidential online chats in recent months have shared scores of documents detailing the manufacture and use of bombs, grenades, mines and other incendiary devices."
http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/11/white-supremacists-share-bomb-making-materials-in-online-chats/
After reading that article, it's reallllly assuring to know that Trump has these people's backs, and ordered the Dept. of Homeland Security (against all evidence) to back off of these dangerous white extremists and instead plow resources into fighting "Radical Islamic Terrorism".
So Trump says the Texas church shooting was a "mental health problem" and not a "guns problem".
Okay.
Is he going to recommend that the New York truck driving terrorist be handled by the department of motor vehicles?
Safari,
Thanks for reposting the Guardian link. Whew. One problem (of the plethora) with such off the chain talk about civil war (I love the quote from the guy in the video suggesting that violent murder and civil war is a chance for peace) and cleaning the guns to go out and shoot liberals, because "Well, they'll kill us if we don't kill them first", is the further disassociation with reality and the world of facts. The farther down the rabbit hole these people go, and that includes the little king and his court, the easier it is to believe, and propagate, the most preposterous whoppers. And like most paranoid theories, the storyline is constructed in such a way that dissenters from the crazy are asked to prove a negative. "Can you prove that no Antifa types are going to kill us? A-ha! Told you!" This way lies madness.
Another consequence (or perhaps a cause) of such madness is that history and its antecedents are seen through a teleological lens. Things were meant to be this way. This sort of historical inevitability is a prime mover in right-wing Christianist circles, and the idea of some fantasy antifa "murderers" out there looking to kill Christians is the perfect excuse for all sorts of end time craziness. Historical inevitability effectively short circuits all freedom of choice, which, according to deterministic thinking, doesn't really exist anyway, because god has it all planned out and there's nothing we can do about it, so, if I kill you, nothing personal. It was meant to be.
Seriously, the pathology underlying these positions is so deep and dense and daft it defies attempts to parse it without going mad oneself. Teleology is, at times, a sort of mobius strip that folds back on itself. There's a self-referential aspect to it all that encloses the whole in an impermeable shield. This is the way it is because the way it is is this way and there's no other way it could be because this is the way it is because the way it is is this way...
It's like that old routine "You remind me of a man..." except without the funny.
Another head scratching moment in the life of Aqua Buddha.
So the Littlest Libertarian was attacked over the weekend. The attack caused five broken ribs and other assorted damages. Why? No one's talking at the moment. And the fact that this attack is listed as a misdemeanor adds to the mystery.
I can tell you, broken ribs is not a pleasant condition. I once broke a few in a fall through a weakened railing. The seven foot drop busted four ribs. It was excruciating. And it lasted for a loooong time. I can still feel it. For me, it took a good fall. This is the sort of thing you get from a baseball bat attack if you're already on solid ground, not from wrestling around. Whatever this guy's motives, he was not messing about. Barring the (I think) unlikely situation of two off-base doctors living right next door to each other in a swanky neighborhood, there's a reason no one is talking about.
No one deserves to be whacked like that, especially if the guy did attack Li'l Randy from behind (his story). But this is just one more weird, whacky event in the Li'l one's story.
Wait and see if this other doctor turns out to be a registered Democrat. Fox will go wild.
Am getting numb to all the violence: Texans shot, including children? Ho hum. They get what they deserve. Texas, ya know... Rand Paul roughed up for some yet-to-be-named reason? Well, la-di-da. He IS a really annoying guy... And His Clunkiness is praying for people-- bet THAT is a total fabrication, like everything. It's hard to get worked up anymore-- how angry will I be when VA goes down in flames in yet another Dem defeat...? Well, I have lots of post-Halloween chocolate to enjoy. Somewhere, sometime, there will be another liberal success.
Trump on Texas shooting: 'Mental health issue' to blame, not guns.
So taking bribes from the NRA is a mental health issue?
And accessing guns to the mentally ill is OK?
And the killer could done just as good a job with a knife?
So, I suffer from a mental problem. It's called logic.
So, lemme get this straight. 26 people are gunned down. But it's not a gun thing. By that thinking, the tsunami of deaths connected to opioids is not a drug thing either. It's a "mental health" thing.
I guess that also means that Trump being in the White House is not a Russian collusion thing either.
It's a mental health thing.
Sidebar: it appears that the Texas church shooting was purely a family "thing", a domestic issue. Poor Christianists. It's not, after all, a conspiracy by liberal haters who want to kill them because they love Jesus and are such good 'mericans.
And don't overlook the fact that this nut was, supposedly, denied a carry license because of his history of abusing his wife and child. But that didn't stop him from purchasing multiple deadly weapons. Still, look for Fox and Breitbart, etc. to declare that gun control laws don't work because this asshole still had guns. What they don't consider (or care to consider) is that you can purchase guns in Texas (and plenty of other states) from the back of a pickup truck in a Walmart parking lot, no questions asked.
Oops. But never mind. The headlines in Right Wing World are "GUN CONTROLS FAIL, so THERE", and "IT WASN'T A GUN THING SEZ PREZ".
Well, now I feel so much better.
Ice melting in Antarctica isn't a global warming thing, the ice must be bad; and lung cancer has nothing to do with cigarettes. It's a personal flaw.
Let's hope more Democrats get out and vote TOMORROW.
A win on the ballot initiative to expand Medicaid would be a loss for Gov. Paul LePage (R), who vetoed five bills to extend health care to more Mainers. "Whadda a dick! (leftover from a previous comment)"
More pre-election news: "Chris Christie, Bye! Bye!"
In a political era marked by populism, a former Goldman Sachs executive and major Democratic donor is the front-runner to become New Jersey's next governor.
On Tuesday, New Jersey voters will choose between Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Kim Guadagno, the state's lieutenant governor. Murphy, the former bank executive, holds a comfortable lead in all recent polls.
Trumpy, the little king, the Potemkin king?
L'etat, c'est moi?
I think it's more like Lestat, c'est moi.
A blood sucking monster at the head of the table, placed there by a conniving Slavic gangster.
MAG,
After the most recent debacle, Democrats who stay home don't get to say a thing. Nothing.