;)
The Commentariat -- November 9, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Let's see how things are going for ole Shalt-Not-Covet-Thy-Neighbors'-Daughters Roy Moore:
Stephanie McCrummen, et al., of the Washington Post: Four women who were then between the ages of 14 and 18 "interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say [Roy] Moore [who is the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in an Alabama special election] pursued them when ... he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact." However, he kissed them & one woman, who was 14 at the time, says Moore removed her close & engaged in sexual touching. All four women are named in the story. "In a written statement, Moore denied the allegations.'These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,' Moore, now 70, said. The campaign said in a subsequent statement that if the allegations were true they would have surfaced during his previous campaigns, adding 'this garbage is the very definition of fake news.'" ...
... MEANWHILE. Andrew Kaczynski & Chris Massie of CNN: "Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, ruled in a 1990s divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that the 'minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle' of the mother. Moore, then a circuit judge, was ultimately removed from the case by an Alabama appeals court after the woman and her attorneys argued that he couldn't be impartial because of his views on homosexuality, according to public court documents reviewed by CNN's KFile."
John Kelly Really Is a Nasty, Racist Prick. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "On Monday, as the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called Acting Secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them, according to current and former administration officials. Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter, according to officials with knowledge of Monday's events, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...." Also worth reading is the part about DHS Secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen.
Damian Paletta & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Thursday plan to propose delaying a cut in the corporate tax rate ... until 2019, four people briefed on the planning said, a major departure from President Trump's insistence on immediate changes that he says are necessary to spur the economy.... The one-year delay would lower the cost of the tax cut bill by more than $100 billion, and negotiators are trying to preserve as much revenue as they can for other changes. But it could also delay decisions by companies to move back to the United States from overseas or have companies hold off on other decisions as they wait for the corporate rate to fall." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that the reason Senate Republicans are trying to "lower the cost of the tax cut bill" is not that they're all concerned about balancing revenue & spending; rather, it's because the bill must be "revenue-neutral" -- that is, not raise the deficit -- if it's to pass under the majority-rule budget "reconciliation" law. A bill that raises the deficit would require 60 votes to get to the floor. ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn's background as a Goldman Sachs executive leaves him more experienced in the art of talking to really rich people than communicating with the public. That ends up making this interview with CNBC's John Harwood, published this morning, an extraordinary document, because when Harwood pushes him on a few points, Cohn ends up basically surrendering and admitting the plain truth about the Republican tax plan: that it's a bonanza for big businesses and the rich, whose main benefit for normal people is a vague hope that prosperity will trickle down from those at the top." ...
... AND here's Gary Cohn telling John Harwood that repealing the estate tax "benefits a lot of different people." Mrs. McC: Yes, in that Gary Cohn and Donald Trump and (poor) Wilbur Ross and David Koch and Charles Koch are "a lot of different people." Cohn's assertion was in response to Harwood's question, "Are you seriously saying with a straight face that getting rid of the estate tax is about farmers and not about very wealthy families?" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Okay, so that and the trickle-down stuff has broken the last of my stash of finely-calibrated Bullshitometers, BUT then Cohn says to Harwood, "The most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan." "This," as Jonathan Chait admits, "is 100 percent true."
*****
More Election News:
Mary Jordan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Women racked up victories across the country on Tuesday, and are being credited with the Democrats' big night overall. It is a testament to the remarkable explosion of women candidates who have entered the political stage since Donald Trump was elected president one year ago. The wave is likely to continue. In 2018, 40 women are already planning to run for governor. Dozens more are considering congressional and other statewide office bids. And Tuesday's result has already become a rallying cry for activists.... It was a night of historic wins for women and minorities across the nation."
Virginia. Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Virginia Democrats are poised to claim at least a share of control of the House of Delegates after erasing a 32-seat Republican advantage in a 'tsunami election,' with control of the chamber likely to be ultimately decided by vote recounts." ...
... Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Virginia was one of four states that blocked ex-felons from voting -- disenfranchising 1 in 5 black Virginians -- until Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored voting rights to 168,000 ex-felons over the past year and a half.... Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie sharply criticized McAuliffe and his lieutenant governor, Ralph Northam, for this policy. But Northam's victory in the governor's race on Tuesday means that Virginia will continue to restore voting rights to ex-offenders. It's just one way that Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Washington yesterday could lead to an expansion of access to the ballot." --safari ...
... Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Two years after his 24-year-old girlfriend was shot and killed on live television, a Virginia Democrat on Tuesday defeated an opponent who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association for a seat in the State Legislature. Chris Hurst, a former news anchor whose girlfriend and colleague, Alison Parker, was killed on air in 2015, overtook Joseph Yost to win the 12th House District seat in the state's Legislature. He will be one of two Democrats to represent the state's deeply conservative southwest region in the House."
New Jersey. Freeholder Now Has Time to Cook His Own Damned Dinner. AP: "A New Jersey politician who shared a meme on Facebook during January's Women's March in Washington asking whether the protest would be 'over in time for them to cook dinner' is eating his words. Democrat Ashley Bennett, a first-time candidate who was angered by Republican John Carman's remarks, defeated him Tuesday as he tried to win a second term as an Atlantic County freeholder. The board oversees government in Atlantic County, a region of about 275,000 people that includes the struggling Atlantic City seaside gambling resort."
Montana. Thomas Plank of the Helena Independent Record: "Wilmot Collins will be Helena's new mayor, unseating incumbent Jim Smith in a close race Tuesday. Collins, 54, will be the city's first new mayor in 16 years after running a long campaign based in progressive principles."
Maine Update. Reuters, via RawStory: "Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage said on Wednesday he will not expand the state's Medicaid program under Obamacare, ignoring a ballot initiative widely backed by voters, calling it 'ruinous' for the state's budget. Maine looked set to become the first state in the nation to expand Medicaid by popular vote. About 60 percent of voters in Maine approved the ballot proposal in Tuesday's election, according to the Bangor Daily News newspaper.... LePage said he will not implement the expansion until it is fully funded by the Maine legislature." --safari
Philip Lewis & Willa Frej of the Huffington Post provide a list of "historic victories" in Tuesday's elections.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Fox "News" Goes Dark on Election Results. Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "The biggest political story of the hour is that Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie went down big in Virginia after running a Trump-esque campaign fixated on inflammatory culture-war issues, losing to Democrat Ralph Northam by what looks like it will end up as a ine-point margin. It's the biggest story of the hour, that is, unless you're watching Fox News: As observed by political writer Chris Hooks, Donald Trump's favorite network spent more than 90 minutes in prime time on Tuesday -- Election Night! -- between discussions of election results. Just before 9 p.m., Tucker Carlson read an update about the loss in Virginia and another Democratic gubernatorial win in New Jersey. At 9, Sean Hannity took over and slipped in a comment about why said Republican losses don't really count: 'Those results in New Jersey and Virginia -- not states Donald Trump won.'" ...
... Here's a chyron that ran on Fox "News" to explain Virginia's gubernatorial election results: "Republican Gillespie loses VA governor's race after failing to fully embrace Trump".
Time to Check in with Some Real Presidents:
Citizen Barack. Steve Schmadeke & Elvia Malagon of the Chicago Tribune: President "Obama was one of 168 people who showed up for jury duty [at the Daley Center in Chicago's Loop] and assigned to one of 16 panels. Eight of those panels, including Panel 6 which Obama sat on, were randomly selected to be sent home around lunchtime. A media scrum followed Obama's every move in the morning -- from departing from his South Side home in the Kenwood neighborhood to his 10 a.m. arrival at the downtown Chicago court complex.... Obama was a hit in the jury assembly room, shaking hands with would-be jurors and signing copies of his books that some brought, [Timothy] Evans, the chief judge, told reporters later."
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday expressed concern that President Trump's rhetoric reflects the same values as dictators around the world. Clinton said on the late night show 'Conan', that the world's dictators all want to blur the line between fact and fiction. 'They figure if you don't know what's true and you don't think you can ever know that, pretty soon everybody will accept the fact that democracy is no longer possible,' Clinton told host Conan O'Brien. 'Are you talking about foreign countries now or here?' O'Brien asked. 'That chilled me to the bone for a second.' Clinton hesitated. 'You just said a lot by saying nothing,' O'Brien said." With video.
Bully Grovels Before More Powerful World Leader. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump heaped praise on President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday, saying he was confident China would help defuse the threat from North Korea and reduce its trade deficits with the United States, which he blamed on his own predecessors, not the Chinese.... Congratulating Mr. Xi on his consolidation of power at a recent Communist Party congress, Mr. Trump said, 'Perhaps now more than ever we have an opportunity to strengthen our relationship.' Mr. Xi did not return the favor."
Jonathan Chait: Tuesday "President Trump spoke by phone with a dozen Democratic senators, in a bid to win their support for his tax-cut plan. You might think his private arguments would be at least marginally more sophisticated than the crude lies he has told in public. You would be wrong.... 'The deal is so bad for rich people, I had to throw in the estate tax just to give them something,' Trump said, per 'multiple people in the room who heard the president on the phone,' reports the Washington Post. This is a bizarre case to make, for several reasons. First, it is verifiably false.... Second, Trump is inviting questions about his own tax returns, which he refuses to disclose.... And third, there is the curious moral logic. Trump is arguing that a plan that forces rich people to pay more would be unfair.... Did he somehow think he was briefing the Koch Brothers?" ...
... MEANWHILE, Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn explains that the House bill is really a middle-class tax break because ... trickle-down!
Happy Anniversary, Donald. Hehehe. Gail Collins: "Donald Trump has been trying to celebrate his one-year anniversary as president, and all he gets is terrible political news. His party got skunked in Tuesday's elections, his associates keep getting tied to the Russians and the Republicans in Congress are flailing around like a bunch of panicked gerbils. Hehehehe."
** Make America Weak Again. Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The US has lost more than half its career ambassadors and a significant proportion of other senior diplomats since Donald Trump took office, the head of the foreign service association has said. Barbara Stephenson, a former ambassador to Panama and charge d’affaires in London, said that the top ranks of US diplomacy were being 'depleted at dizzying speed', and the state department was under 'mounting threats'. Stephenson pointed to a hiring freeze that has reduced the intake into the foreign service from 366 in 2016 to an expected 100 in 2018, and a cut in the number of promotions.... The depletion ... has been highlighted during Trump's Asia trip. Despite the urgency of the looming confrontation on the Korean peninsula, the administration has yet to nominate an ambassador to Seoul.... The administration has announced it wants to cut the state department and international aid budget by nearly a third. Congressional leaders have rejected that proposal and ordered spending to be sustained at last year's levels. But the secretary of state,Rex Tillerson, has gone ahead with his retrenchment plans." --safari
Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies' pending $85.4 billion deal.... The other possible way for the merger to win approval would be for AT&T to sell its DirecTV division, two of these people added.... If the Justice Department formally makes either demand a requisite for approval, AT&T and Time Warner would almost certainly take the matter to court to challenge the government's legal basis for blocking the transaction.... Because the proposed deal is a 'vertical' merger -- meaning that neither company competes directly against the other -- [the companies] believe there is little legal basis to block it. President Trump has long accused CNN of harboring a bias against him. Separately, Mr. Trump ... argued [during the campaign] that 'deals like this destroy democracy' and cited it as 'an example of the power structure' that he was fighting." ...
... Steven Overly of Politico: "Even critics of AT&T's proposed mega-merger with Time Warner expressed alarm Wednesday at allegations that ... Donald Trump's Justice Department is intervening in the deal for political reasons -- namely his oft-expressed complaints about CNN. 'Any indication that this administration is using its power to weaken media organizations it doesn't like would be a profoundly disturbing development,' Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said.... Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told Politico that the DOJ's reported actions 'merit investigation,' and that senators should ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions about it next week." ...
... Derek Thompson of the Atlantic: "There are two fishy details about the DOJ's objections. First, Makan Delrahim, Trump's hand-picked head of antitrust at the Justice Department, had previously announced that this merger would be acceptable.... Second, it's doubly startling for a Republican administration to suddenly reverse several decades of party leniency on just these sort of mergers, particularly with the president's favorite target, CNN, hanging in the balance.... For Trump to use the Justice Department to throttle his enemies would be a horrifying prospect, and it's one that he has publicly mused about. But ... another disconcerting possibility ... is that ... it could co-opt the news media's disgust toward the president to distribute a pro-merger narrative that would drown out the Justice Department's reasonable objections to its acquisition." ...
... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "On Oct. 22, 2016, Donald J. Trump made his own history in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he was holding a campaign rally.... 'AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN,' he told his audience, calling the proposed merger an example of a media 'power structure' that was working to suppress his vote and the voices of his supporters. It was, he said, 'a deal we will not approve in my administration.' [The DOJ's move on AT&T] raised the chilling possibility that Mr. Trump was making good on his threatening statements.... Adding to the chill was the lack of a compelling legal justification for the department's conditions, which appeared to come out of the blue.... The tussle over the merger details brings a new level of seriousness to Mr. Trump's virulent, anti-press speech, raising fresh concerns that it could result in real-world, governmental action." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Is there anybody who doubts that the president* would tell his Department of Justice to knuckle CNN's parent company because Jake Tapper was mean to him? Or that Sessions would wag his tail -- thanks, Kate -- and go right to work on this?"
Linda Greenhouse: The Departments of Justice & Health & Human Services have become centers for anti-abortion policy. AND of course they pick on the most vulnerable victims.
** More Morons. Travis Gettys of RawStory: "Eric Trump's brother-in-law has been promoted to help oversee a Department of Energy agency that once carried out President Barack Obama's climate change agenda. Kyle Yunaska, whose sister is married to the president's son, is now chief of staff for the department's Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, reported E&E News. He served as part of the transition team's 'beachhead' of temporary political appointees and stayed on in a permanent role starting in February. Yunaska doesn't appear to have a background in energy policy." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, no, safari. All the best people! This is another of Trump's "performance" appointments, his way of openly making farces of essential government functions. The nepotistic touch is a nice twist!
Dana Milbank: "President Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross ... is apparently not a billionaire. Forbes magazine, keeper of the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, reports that it dropped Ross from its list this year because of a 'phantom $2 billion' that Ross claimed he had but apparently does not exist. Instead of the $3.7 billion Ross claimed he was worth (Forbes last year put it at $2.9 billion), his financial disclosures showed -- gasp -- less than $700 million in assets.... Ross was disgraced, and mad. He claimed to Forbes that he transferred $2 billion into trusts for his children and others but offered no proof, and this claim was contradicted by his own staff.... It probably won't help that news of Ross's missing $2 billion comes just after the discovery from leaked documents that he invested some of the precious millions he does have in a venture with people very close to Vladimir Putin." Milbank figures Trump will fire Ross -- it's what he does to mere multi-millionaires. ...
... Reuters: "U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has divested his interests in oil tanker company Diamond S Shipping and is in the process of selling off his holdings in another shipping firm, Navigator Holdings, a Trump administration official said on Tuesday. Ross had originally intended to retain his shipping interests following his confirmation in February." --safari: This limpdick needs to resign, not inconventiently divest.
Miles Weiss & Jennifer Dlouhy of Bloomberg: "Federal investigators have issued subpoenas for information on Carl Icahn's efforts to change biofuel policy while serving as an informal adviser to President Donald Trump, according to regulatory filings. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York is 'seeking production of information' pertaining to Icahn's activities regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard, according to a Form 10-Q that Icahn Enterprises LP filed on Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigators also want information on Icahn's role as an adviser to the president." --safari
GOP: Party of Putin. Sam Stein & Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Since last spring, Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee have been privately investigating Russian meddling in Eastern Europe without the assistance of committee Republicans. Their efforts have been spearheaded by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the committee's ranking member, and have involved outreach to foreign diplomats from countries that have been targeted by the Kremlin.... It's unclear when the report will be formally released to the public. A sources told The Daily Beast that Republicans were asked to be involved in its crafting." --safari
** The Derp Is Strong. Duncan Campbell & James Risen of The Intercept: "CIA director Mike Pompeo met late last month with a former U.S. intelligence official [William Binney] who has become an advocate for a disputed theory that the theft of the Democratic National Committee's emails during the 2016 presidential campaign was an inside job, rather than a hack by Russian intelligence.... A senior intelligence source confirmed that Pompeo met with Binney to discuss his analysis, and that the CIA director held the meeting at Trump's urging.... Binney said that Pompeo asked whether he would be willing to meet with NSA and FBI officials to further discuss his analysis of the DNC data theft. Binney agreed and said Pompeo said he would contact him when he had arranged the meetings." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I blame Donna Brazile!
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The federal judge overseeing the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business partner Rick Gates imposed a gag order Wednesday in the case ordering all parties, including potential witnesses, not to make statements that might prejudice jurors.... U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington ... barred any prejudicial statements 'to the media or public settings' to safeguard the defendants receiving a fair trial, 'and to ensure that the Court has the ability to seat a jury that has not been tainted by pretrial publicity.'" ...
... Judge Jackson is a real card. You know she's just taunting President Shoots-off-Mouth. I see a contempt-of-court citation in Trump's future. ...
... George Papadopoulos, International Man of Mystery. Anthony Zurcher of the BBC: Besides meeting with Russians, George Papadopoulos also met a British Foreign Office official, two months before the US presidential election, for a 'working level' meeting.... The fact that Papadopoulos was presenting himself to the government of one of the US's closest allies as a representative of the Trump campaign undercuts the White House's recent assertion that Papadopoulos was a campaign volunteer of little importance.... Word of the Papadopoulos sit-down in London was first reported by Scott Stedman, a California university student, in a post on the website Medium. He writes that the Trump adviser met 'an unidentified, high-ranking member of the UK's department that handles foreign affairs'."
Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Tuesday night his 'memory has been refreshed' regarding his email exchange with Carter Page in which the former foreign policy adviser requested Lewandowski's permission to travel to Moscow.... 'To the best of my recollection, I don't know Carter Page. To the best of my knowledge, Carter Page ... had no formal role in the campaign,' Lewandowski said. The former Trump campaign manager had similarly told Fox News in March that he 'never met Carter Page.'" Mrs. McC: Amazing what a paper trail will do. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Lewandowski: I couldn't remember Carter Page because ... Father's Day. Also, it turns out I was about to get fired.
Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The gunman who committed the massacre in a rural Texas church fired continuously for several minutes, methodically shooting his victims -- including small children -- in the head, execution-style, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said on Wednesday. A video camera captured the blood bath inside the church, which left 26 people dead and 20 wounded -- the worst mass shooting in Texas history -- and state and federal investigators have reviewed that gruesome footage. The official estimated that the shooting in the video lasted about seven minutes. The church routinely recorded its services, and often posted the resulting videos online." ...
... Shaila Dewan & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "The case of [Devin Kelley, the Sutherland Springs shooter,] shows one of the [National Instant Criminal Background Check] system's biggest problems: a simple failure to forward records. At the Pentagon this week, the military services were scrambling to examine whether they had been reporting the convictions of military personnel of crimes like assault to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the three databases that make up the system. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asked the Pentagon's inspector general's office to investigate the Air Force's failure to report Mr. Kelley's conviction. Mr. Mattis, traveling in Helsinki, Finland, said that the inspector general needed to 'define what the problem is.' The problem dates back decades. In 1996, the inspector general found that the Army, Navy and Air Force were failing to report the vast majority of convictions to the F.B.I. Federal agencies, unlike state and local ones, are required by law to report criminal records to the F.B.I. But in 2014, the inspector general found that the Defense Department still was not doing so.... In 2015, the inspector general found that the armed forces (the study excluded the Army) were still failing to report 30 percent of convictions."
Tom Roeder of the Colorado Springs Gazette: "An Air Force Academy cadet candidate once thought the victim of racial slurs at the preparatory school on campus was actually the vandal who scrawled the threatening messages across the note boards outside his room and the dwellings of classmates. The academy confirmed that finding Tuesday afternoon, and stood by a stern speech given by its top general in the wake of the incident. Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria gathered cadets and staff members for a speech that has gone viral in videos posted across the internet. He said that those who can't respect others 'need to get out.'... The cadet candidate involved, whose name was not released, is no longer enrolled at the school.... Several sources say the cadet candidate ... committed the act in a bizarre bid to get out of trouble he faced at the school for other misconduct." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The incident was, to say the least, unfortunate, but it's good to know the academy isn't harboring a bunch of racist cadets. Anyway, this is a story for white supremacists to savor.
John Bowden of the Hill: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) released an update on his medical condition Wednesday via Twitter, writing that a new X-ray found six broken ribs and a buildup of fluid around his lungs. Paul has been in the hospital since Saturday, when he was assaulted while doing yard work." ...
... Thomas Novelly of the Louisville Courier Journal: "The history between U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and his accused attacker is filled with years of angst and petty arguments over misplaced lawn trimmings and branches, the neighborhood's developer said. 'I think this is something that has been festering,' said Jim Skaggs, the developer of the Rivergreen gated community in Bowling Green, where the two men live.... There have been disagreements in the past, Skaggs said, over lawn clippings or who should cut down a tree branch when it stretched over a property line.... Skaggs, a longtime Republican activist and a member of the GOP's state executive committee,& described [Pauls attacker Rene] Boucher as a 'near-perfect'" neighbor, but he said ... Paul 'was probably the hardest person to encourage to follow the (home owner's association regulations) of anyone out here because he has a strong belief in property rights.'... Even from the start of Paul's residence in Rivergreen, Skaggs said Paul has been difficult to work with." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This doesn't surprise me one bit. Li'l Randy just does not play well with others. Someone who occasionally must work with him recently told me how Paul interacts with, well, everybody & described him as "the most thoroughly unlikable little shit." ...
... His Old Kentucky Home. Margaret Hartmann of New York: "... Breitbart and Washington Examiner articles Paul and [& his staffer Doug] Stafford posted dispute [the lawn maintenance] notion at length. No less than seven neighbors insist that the Pauls are actually exceptional neighbors and citizens, who hold their lawn to the very highest standards.... We still don't know why Boucher pummeled Paul, but this recent unpleasantness should not dissuade anyone looking to purchase a home in the most idyllic gated community in all of Kentucky." ...
... The photo below, via Bing maps, purports to be of Chez Paul. The front lawn looks to me as if it could use a little Weed 'n Feed. Just sayin'. See also Akhilleus' comment in today's thread.
There's another photo here, from 2010, in which the lawn appears to be unmowed & overgrowing the walk, & the foundation plantings pretty scrufty.
Ben Collins of the Daily Beast: "On Tuesday, Twitter gave its preferred status, a verified check mark, to Jason Kessler, the creator of the white supremacist Charlottesville rally in August that left one dead. Kessler's new verified status comes just 26 days after CEO Jack Dorsey again recommitted to eliminating 'hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence' from its platform. Kessler previously deleted his Twitter account in August after he tweeted that Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed protesting the white nationalist rally he created, 'was a fat, disgusting Communist' and that her death 'was payback time.' Kessler blamed the tweet on taking too many prescription drugs mixed with alcohol." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I've continued to use the Constant Weader's old Twitter account. I guess I'm going to have to rethink that.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Bill O'Reilly's lawyers knew him well. According to testimony from an executive with 21st Century Fox, a contract for the fallen King of Cable News contained a helpful provision stating that he 'could not be dismissed on the basis of an allegation unless that allegation was proved in court.'... Analyses have shown that well above 90 percent of all civil cases are settled or dismissed before they reach a trial. Not only that, but a wealthy man like O'Reilly can use his assets to ensure that he'd never face a proven claim of sexual harassment.... Recent investigations have shown that sexual harassment is a media-wide phenomenon. The New Republic, NPR and ABC News are among the outlets where sexual harassment has taken place. Fox News stands apart, however, for the institutional sanction accorded to the creepy office pursuit of innocent and hard-working women." ...
AND. Cristiano Lima: "Fox News has hired Sebastian Gorka, the former Trump aide who left the administration earlier this year, two representatives for the network told Politico Wednesday. The move was first announced by Fox News host Sean Hannity on his daily radio program during an interview with Gorka, in which Hannity unveiled Gorka's new role as a 'national security strategist' for the network. Fox representatives did not confirm the title." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I know Fox publishes some ultra-right-wing online rag called "Fox Nation," but do the powers-that-be actually think they're a sovereign nation which needs a national security strategist? Are they mounting an army? Who's the secretary of state? Hannity?
CBS News Boston: "Former Boston television news anchor Heather Unruh said actor Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted her teenage son ... in July 2016 on Nantucket when her son was drunk at the Club Car restaurant." ...
... Mike Fleming of Deadline: "In an unprecedented bold move, director Ridley Scott ... [has] decided to remove Kevin Spacey from their finished movie All The Money In The World. Christopher Plummer has been set to replace Spacey in the role of J Paul Getty. Re-shoots of the key scenes are expected to commence immediately. Scott is also determined to to keep the film's December 22 release date."
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Last night Rachel cited Mike Pompeo's controversial dealings as CIA director and warned that the possibility of him stopping the Mueller investigation is not far fetched. It appears that intelligence officials have expressed concern about the possible politicization of Pompeo's job. Here is a Wash-Po article about these concerns.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/07/trumps-cia-director-mike-pompeo-keeps-doing-controversial-and-suspiciously-pro-trump-things/?utm_term=.ac4651e30424
A CUTE STORY
Back to Rachel who was having lunch at a local diner when a woman named Judy strode over and said: " Please tell Lawrence O"Donnell that he should run for president." Rachel did just that on her program a few nights ago when she and Lawrence connect in passing the baton from one program to the next. Last night Lawrence told Rachel that while he was at the local bookstore hawking his new book who was in the audience but Judy from the diner–-he even had a photo to prove it––there he is with his arm around Judy from the diner and Rachel couldn't stop laughing.
P.S. Something always to keep in mind:
Presidents can fire directors they don’t like and the CIA has no other customer. The big mistakes all come when presidents don’t listen, or let it be known that they don’t want to hear. The CIA is as serious, as prudent, as honest as the presidents for whom it works—never more. Directors deliver what is wanted, or depart. The F.B.I. answers to the attorney general, the Defense Intelligence Agency to the secretary of defense, but the CIA answers only to the president and once that is understood the mechanics of skewed intelligence all fall into place.
Mean morning thought, which sense tells me I should keep to myself, but my censor fortunately is still half asleep.
If I had spent years forced to listen to Idiot Randy lecturing me on property rights with his superior, dismissive nasality, while like most Repugnants the closest he approaches responsibility is the sound of the syllables passing his wet lips, I might like to break a few of his ribs, too.
There, I've said it. Color me hateful.
I wonder how many Dem. voters this year didn't vote last year. Maybe a lesson will be learned.
Quote of the Day, from M. Bannon:
"You can't fake the Trump agenda."
Is it not possible to fake a fake thing?
Discuss.
In response to Patrick: when Trump dissed Gillespie by saying "he did not embrace me or what I stand for" I had to LAUGH: in this case me = what I stand for, no? Poor GOP. Taming this whirlwind is a no-win bargain w/ the devil...
Concerning the encomiums of love coming from several neighbors of the Littlest Lawn Maintenance Boy, I have word from a friend in that area that the biggest supporters of the LLMB are a couple living in that gated community. The wife claims she's never heard of any issues with property rights and Li'l Randy is a lovely person. The husband? Oh, well, he's been put up for a federal judgeship by....you guessed it. And if you live in a Richie Rich neighborhood and have a US Senator living in a mansion down the street, one who has no problem making you a federal judge, or perhaps offering some otherwise unreachable favors, not many would go out of their way to say "Oh yeah, that Paul? He's a sonuvabitch, like you read about."
I see the little king has learned a new Chinese word (he already knows some Chinese, Kung Pao, as in chicken). The new word is "kowtow". And not only does he know the word, he knows how to do it. Get down on your knees in front of the king, er, he means president, he thinks, at any rate, the mighty and formidable Xi Jinping! Okay, okay, Donnie, that's enough bowing and scraping for one day. Melania is gonna have to get him knee pads if this keeps up. Hey, I can lend him the ones I use when I stain my back deck. They're a little worn, but hey, he won't wear out the knees in his baggy Brionis that way.
C'mon. Be a man, you fucking weasel. Because Trump thinks he only represents himself (Who else is there? He's the only one who matters) it doesn't occur to him that he also represents the United States, so obsequious kowtowing on his part makes the whole country look foolish. I'm not saying disrespect the guy and tell him his mother wears army boots, but Jesus, there's a fair amount of land between that and ingratiating, abject ass kissing.
Even a Venetian merchant had more self respect and balls when dealing with the Chinese. Marco Polo carried himself far less slavishly with Kublai Khan. (Now there's a guy who really knew how to make some deals.)
He probably believes he is "working" the guy for one of his Great Deals, but Trump likely registers to the Chinese as a weird, occidental oddity. One with nuclear weapons, of course, but not someone they can trust to do business with. In the meantime, so much for all that tough talk about how he was gonna stick it to the Chinese.
Have some Kung Pao, Donnie. Oh, and you can get up now. Xi is gone.
Patrick,
Fake a fake thing? You're getting us into meta-meta land now. Either that or we'll have to consider the logical consequences of negation. If you fake a fake thing, does that make it real? Or just fakier? I guess I'll go with the latter. It has plenty of fake rungs, that latter. And does that mean you couldn't go up or down? Just dawdle about with fake, fakier, fakiest? How about if you only simulated that fakiness? Would that be fakiestesque? And would the study of fakiestesqueness be fakiology? What if you wrote a fake paper on fakiology? Would that be proving the point, or just get you an F?
As Orson Welles would say, "F is for Fake". If Trump and his entire whoreson brigade fell down some holes, would they become whoreson wells? If so, they can all just fake off.
See what you started?
Patrick,
Lucky guy that I am, I now receive "Trump Breaking News" in my inbox. Tho' the delete button is my default move, today's header speaks directly to your invitation.
"Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday that if the Republican tax plan contains any increases for middle-class Americans, President Donald Trump will not sign it."
Discuss:
Mulvaney is lying.
Our budget director, like the Pretender who hired him, can't do math or perhaps, like his other Republican brethren, can't be bothered with something so mundane. It gets in the way of serving their masters.
Maybe depends on how you define "middle class." I see that definition changing by the minute in Trumpland. (When the middle class has entirely disappeared, Mulvaney's promise will be fulfilled.)
Or "fake" in Bannon's use has the meaning feint or deke. whose only purpose is to entice the suckers. Nothing real at all here, which I take to be your point.
Finally, could Bannon, self-appointed genius that he is, be intellectualizing on another plane? Could he have had faking fake on his mind?
Meta-faking? What a concept!
Akhilleus,
.....minds think somewhat alike, I see, even if this one is not great.
"Fake off?" It is to laugh.
Ken,
Meta-faking is indeed a trip to the other side. But in the Age of Trump, it's all either fakery or meta-fakery (which, to Aristotle's way of thinking, would be "something beyond fake", which I suppose one could express as the ne plus ultra of fabrication, or...some state in which truth values simply don't exist).
Oh, and by the by..."deke"? You must be a hockey fan. Either that or a crossword puzzle guy. Those are typically the only venues in which I've encountered the word, outside of the vocabulary questions of long-ago English SAT's.
@AK: Re: the fawning leader of the free world in China: What the heck is he doing? Here was a man that in almost every rally castigated China for numerous failures including their greedy fingers in all our prized pies. What he is doing today in China is not only horrific but diplomatically dangerous. It's as though a "plenty nice" potion has been put in his tea and he can't say anything but how wonderful this country and it's leadership –-that it's simply beyond his control to act differently. The royal treatment he's getting feeds his own magisterial persona.
Thinking about this I recalled my old friend Sally M. in high school who railed against certain boys who weren't paying her any mind. But when some of these same boys took her out she was the one who "put out" (necking wise) and she'd regale us with the details. We girls all called her on it and she always had the same come back: "It was beyond my control. I struggled, but really, it was beyond my control." Like Trump, Sally always felt entitled.
Sooooo....Roy (Ten Commandments) Moore, holier than thou bigot, would-be abrogator of federal laws, lech, and pursuer of girls far below the legal age. How nice and family friendly.
But don't worry, ol' Roy'll get out scot-free. He said the magic words by blaming his alleged misdeeds on the "failing" Washington Post and something called the "National Democrat Party", of which there is no such thing. But this is what Fox has taught the morons to call the Democratic Party. And because he's pulled out these magic words, Confederate hypocrites will circle the wagons and protect his (allegedly) lecherous ass.
Will a single one of them harbor suspicions that they may be supporting and protecting this (alleged) licentious stalker of young girls? Will they care?
Prob'ly not.
PD,
If you tell us that Sally also blamed these boys for climate change, I'll fall over.
I wonder if little trumpy brought up the issue of the Great Chinese Global Warming Hoax with Xi? I doubt it. But the Chinese have learned a lesson from the Saudi royals. Treat the little king as if he were a BIG king, show him a good time (don't know if Xi pulled out a glowing orb or not), and the little man will be kissing your fingers.
Supposedly this is a Trump feature, this fawning over those he wishes to impress. He thinks what worked with a real estate deal in Queens will work on the international stage. This act might have been accepted as a dutiful show of respect by the mafia goons Trump once courted, but I doubt Xi is impressed. I can only imagine the jokes going back and forth behind Trump's back.
The great Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, once said "Show respect to all, but grovel to none."
But the little king knows better.
(And while I'm on the subject, Tecumseh had another great quote: "When Jesus Christ came upon the Earth, you killed Him. The son of your own God. And only after He was dead did you worship Him and start killing those who would not.")
Just a thought.
So far, four women have come forward with stories of holy roller Roy Moore and his underage groping. Could there be more? Do these guys give it up after just a few tries?
Still, he'll deny it all and it will just be the word of a few "slutty" girls who were put up to it by the evil "Democrat Party", against the great defender of Jesus. He'll still get his votes.
The Continuing Story of Li'l Randy: Confederate Martyr!
Sooooo....this is the latest spin coming out of the camp of the Littlest Lawn Maintenance Boy and his supporters and patrons in Confederate Fabulist Land. It has nothing to do with...er, lawn maintenance at all, despite the fact that several neighbors (not the ones in Li'l Randy's pocket, however) have said that disputes about this sort of thing have been going on for years. No. It's all because DEMOCRAT!! TRUMP HATER!! LIBERAL!!!!! Aiiiieeeee!
Yup. You knew it would happen sooner or later, the politicization of yard waste. Right-wing media, in their classic, opportunistic pathogenic way, have glommed on to the latest Li'l Randy epode (eat your heart out, Horace) as a new way to say DEMOCRATS! Aiiiieieeeeee! Their esemplastic* power to devolve everything, no matter how complicated or contradictory, to "They're All Against Our Patriotic Wonderfulness" leaves one in awe.
Right-wing toadies sniffed through Rene Boucher's Facebook account and noticed, to their horror, that he doesn't worship at the Altar of Trump. Heavens! This automatically makes his mental status suspect, according Breitbart and the Washingmachine Examiner. Zounds! This Boucher person is not of the body!
So now it's all about a Demmycrap hater of Trump and the GOP going after poor, defenseless little Aqua Buddha who was doing his reg'lar guy best to drive his reg'lar guy John Deere around the yard looking busy. Like a reg'lar guy. Sure. Because Li'l Randy is a reg'lar guy like Melania Trump shops at Target.
Anyway, poor Randy, a martyr for the cause. Does this mean we can now purchase some Li'l Randy Confederate Martyr Relics© on his website? You remember, that website that used to hawk Rand Paul flip flops? Bet they're a lot more expensive now that Li'l Randy has had his ACA insurance taken away by Kentucky Confederate governor Matt Bevin. Oh, wait. Randy is a senator. He has wicked awesome insurance.
Never mind.
*Meriam-Webster word of the day earlier in the week. Been dying to use it. I tried it on my six year old last night. He thought I was talking about one of his army guys.
AK: My mister doesn't buy this Rand Paul shoddy lawn story–-he suspects it is something much more insidious. The blows that Rene dealt to the senator had to be because of something a lot more grievous than shoddy lawn upkeep, he thinks.
As for Sally––so glad you asked. No, at the time that Sally was living the high life climate change was as far in the future as tweeting and "The Twist." However given Sally's propensity for grand entrances, after she married and had two kids and had to face the fact that she wasn't Queen of the prom any longer, she began to drink–-heavily, so I've been told. One night coming home she struck a young boy getting mail from his mailbox and killed him. A year later, not being able to deal with this tragedy, she shot herself in the head.
You can perhaps understand why I thought of her today.
PD,
Wow. How soon the joys of youth are gone.
Regarding the Little One, I too felt that something a touch more severe than a lawn problem was to blame, given the ferocity of the attack. Still, having an unctuous little weasel like Rand Paul lecturing you about his Libertarian rights for years and years could drive many to despair.