;)
The Commentariat -- October 22, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner on Monday said the White House is still 'fact-finding' on the circumstances of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death, but he said it has its 'eyes wide open' as the investigations into how he died continue.... 'We're getting facts in from multiple places. Once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe.'... He made the remarks in his first televised interview since the 2016 election, conducted by the political activist Van Jones, at the 'Citizen by CNN' forum in Manhattan." Mrs. McC: "What we want to believe"???
Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... we shouldn't be surprised if a few days before the midterm election, Trump does something dramatic -- like following through on his threat to send the military to the border -- to make sure that immigration dominates news coverage right before the election. It has already become clear that touting his accomplishments isn't getting the job of holding off a Democratic wave done.... So Trump ... falls back on what he always does: hate and fear. It might work, but the odds don't look good. By the way, if it fails and Democrats take the House, at least for the next two years he'll be able to say that Democrats really are stymieing his agenda [which is what he's claiming now, even tho Republicans control all three branches of government]."
Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history. Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. As oil continues to spoil the Gulf, the Trump administration is proposing the largest expansion of leases for the oil and gas industry, with the potential to open nearly the entire outer continental shelf to offshore drilling. That includes the Atlantic coast, where drilling hasn't happened in more than a half century and where hurricanes hit with double the regularity of the Gulf."
Michael Finnegan & Javier Panzar of the Los Angeles Times: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels, was hit with a personal judgment of $4.85 million Monday for his failure to pay a debt to a former colleague at his longtime Newport Beach firm. Less than an hour after his defeat in the Los Angeles lawsuit, the firm, Eagan Avenatti, suffered another setback at a trial in Santa Ana: The Irvine Co. won a court order evicting Avenatti and his staff from their suite at the Fashion Island mall for failing to pay the last four months of rent. The twin blows came as Avenatti was heading to New Hampshire for his third visit to the state that kicks off the 2020 presidential primaries. He is exploring a run for the Democratic nomination, and his troubled financial history could emerge as a significant campaign issue if he joins the race." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Avenatti: Two things we have in common: we both despise Donald Trump & neither of us is going to get his job.
Zachary Basu of Axios: "In a string of Monday morning tweets about the caravan of Honduran migrants currently in Mexico, President Trump stated the United States will begin cutting off foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. 'Sadly, it looks like Mexico's Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws! ... Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.'... Critics argue Trump's approach would over the long-term actually increase immigration from the three countries, which are struggling with high rates of poverty and violent crime. Incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has suggested a U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement to invest in Central America in order to address the root causes of immigration."
*****
Americans Prefer Idiots. Emily Birnbaum of the Hill: "President Trump's approval rating before the November elections has jumped to a higher level than former President Obama's ahead of the 2010 midterms, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll found Trump's approval rating at its highest level for that poll yet, at 47 percent. Obama's approval rating was 45 percent around the same time in 2010, according to a similar NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken in late October 2010." Mrs. McC: And we're never going to hear the end of it.
The Latest "Tale of the Arabian Nights." Tamer El-Ghobashy, et al., of the Washington Post: "Saudi Arabia's foreign minister denied on Sunday that the nation's powerful young crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi's killing.... 'This was an operation that was a rogue operation,' Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News. 'This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi.'... The attempt to distance Mohammed bin Salman from the journalist's demise did little to blunt an international uproar that could test Saudi Arabia's status as a regional power. At the same time, Saudi officials have failed to answer questions about where Khashoggi's remains are and have offered inconsistent narratives for how he was killed, undermining the government's assertion that Khashoggi died after a fistfight broke out when he was confronted by agents seeking to bring him back to Riyadh while he was visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. That explanation will face a fresh challenge on Tuesday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to reveal details of his government's investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, a move that could directly contradict Saudi Arabia's official account of what happened inside its consulate.... Senior Republicans and Democrats proposed a range of severe punishments, including sanctions on the longtime U.S. ally, the expulsion of the Saudi ambassador and the cutting of arms sales." Mrs. McC: We're counting down those 1,001 tales, and so far every one is fabulous, as in fable. ...
Bob Corker Is Not into Fables. Patrick Temple-West of Politico: "Sen. Bob Corker said on Sunday he thinks Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 'It is my thinking that MBS was involved in this, that he directed this and that this person was purposely murdered,' said Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee..., on CNN's 'State of the Union.'" ...
... "Murder in the Consulate." Martin Chulov of the Guardian has a very readable account of what is known about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Particular if you haven't been keeping up with the details, Chulov's report is helpful. ...
... Gul Tuysuz, et al., of CNN: "One member of the 15-man team suspected in the death of Jamal Khashoggi dressed up in his clothes and was captured on surveillance cameras around Istanbul on the day the journalist was killed, a senior Turkish official has told CNN. CNN has obtained exclusive law enforcement surveillance footage, part of the Turkish government's investigation, that appears to show the man leaving the consulate by the back door, wearing Khashoggi's clothes, a fake beard, and glasses. The same man was seen in Khashoggi's clothing, according to the Turkish case, at the city's world-famous Blue Mosque just hours [later].... The man in the video, identified by the official as Mustafa al-Madani, was allegedly part of what investigators have said was a hit squad, sent to kill the journalist at the Saudi consulate during a scheduled appointment.... In the apparent cover-up that followed Khashoggi's death, Madani, 57, who is of similar height, age and build to Khashoggi, 59, was used as a decoy for the journalist, according to the Turkish official.... Madani [is] a decade older than the other members of the 15-man [Saudi hit] team.... A senior Turkish official told CNN that the video showed that Madani was brought to Istanbul to act as a body double. 'You don't need a body double for a rendition or an interrogation,' the official said. "... This was a premeditated murder and the body was moved out of the consulate." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The "body double" claim appeared in one of the stories I've linked in the past several days. It seemed preposterous. Well, CNN has CCTV evidence, including of Madani walking into the consulate earlier in the day wearing casual clothing: a blue-checked shirt, blue pants & sneakers. When he left the consulate through the back door, he was wearing Khashoggi's clothing but, it appears, his own sneakers. ...
... Alternative Facts. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "In a 2007 deposition, Donald Trump said his estimates of his net worth go 'up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings....'... Now that he's president of the United States, Trump appears to be taking a similar feelings-based method to assessing the number of U.S. jobs gained from his arms deal with Saudi Arabia.... On March 20..., Trump claimed ... 'over 40,000 jobs in the United States.'... Last Saturday, Oct. 13..., he said the deal created 450,000 jobs.... On ... Oct. 17..., 500,000 jobs. On Friday..., 600,000. A few hours later, on Friday evening...'over a million jobs' in total." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's big fish story on jobs the Saudi deal is supposed to be creating gives you an idea of his net worth is, too. ...
... The Leader of the Free World. Juan Cole: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that Germany would put arms sales to Saudi Arabia on hold in light of the murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. She said that they 'could not take place in our current circumstances.' Meanwhile, foreign investors sold $1 billion worth of Saudi stock in the past week, as investors question the kingdom's stability with a mad prince at the helm who keeps a bone cutter by his bed." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Who's the sissy? The Bully Boy or the Chick Chancellor?
Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Trump's announcement that the United States would withdraw from a nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia drew sharp criticism Sunday from one of the men who signed it, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who called the decision reckless and not the work of 'a great mind.' In making his announcement Saturday, Mr. Trump cited Russian violations of the pact, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed in Washington in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev. Mr. Gorbachev, who is now 87 years old, cast Mr. Trump's decision as a threat to peace. In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Mr. Gorbachev called Mr. Trump's rollback of the disarmament agreement 'very strange.'"
Maya Averbuch & Kirk Semple of the New York Times: "In open defiance of the Mexican and American governments, thousands of Central American undocumented migrants, most of a caravan that has been heading toward the United States for more than a week, resumed their journey on Sunday in southern Mexico.... Most of the migrants on the move on Sunday -- by one local government estimate more than 7,000 people -- had crossed the border illegally in recent days by swimming or rafting across the Suchiate River, which separates Guatemala from Mexico.... On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Trump took to Twitter again..., saying that those migrants seeking asylum must first apply in Mexico. 'If they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away,' he said. But Mexican officials have said migrants seeking asylum are under no legal obligation to apply in Mexico.... Such caravans have usually numbered in the hundreds and have passed unnoticed. But the current caravan, by far the largest on record, has angered Mr. Trump, who has seized on it as a campaign issue to fire up his base before the midterm elections. While other caravans have generally withered as they have progressed north, this one has grown, perhaps in part as a result of all the media attention it has received." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, President Humpty Dumpty is actually attracting refugees with his racist mewlings. ...
... Miram Jordan, et al., of the New York Times: "Facing a surge in migrant families entering the United States and with the midterm elections two weeks away, the Trump administration is weighing an array of new policies that it hopes will deter Central Americans from journeying north. Each of the policies, which range from a new form of the widely criticized practice of family separation to stricter requirements on asylum, would face significant legal and logistical challenges.... The Border Patrol apprehended 16,658 people in family units in September -- a record figure, according to unpublished government data obtained by The New York Times. The total number of families that entered the country in the 2018 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, exceeded 100,000 for the first time in recent history.... The most talked-about alternative would be a variation of the family separation policy. Parents would be forced to choose between voluntarily relinquishing their children to foster care or remaining imprisoned together as a family. The latter option would require parents to waive their child's right to be released from detention within 20 days."
Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "While outwardly quiet for the last month, Robert S. Mueller III's investigators have been aggressively pursuing leads behind the scenes about whether [Roger] Stone was in communication with [WikiLeaks], whose disclosures of emails believed to have been hacked by Russian operatives disrupted the 2016 presidential campaign.... The question of whether Trump associates were in contact with WikiLeaks is at the heart of Mueller's inquiry." Mrs. McC: The WashPo reporters discuss Stone's intereactions with Randy Credico & Jerome Corsi, but they do not mention Peter Smith. ...
... As Jonathan Chait wrote last Friday, "... the most important mystery involving [Peter] Smith is how important his work was to the [Trump] campaign, and where it led. When he met with a cybersecurity expert in 2016, Smith represented himself as working on behalf of Michael Flynn, Trump's chief national security adviser during the campaign.... Smith and Flynn were in regular, close contact.... Investigators have evidence that Smith 'may have had advance knowledge of details about the release of emails from a top Hillary Clinton campaign official by WikiLeaks,' according to the [Wall Street] Journal. If true, this would mean that Smith ... got through to WikiLeaks and was, in some form, a channel of collusion between the hackers and the Trump campaign."
Resolved Mysteries. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "On Friday, Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted there was no basis for the president of the United States' claims about [Obama tapping his phone during the elections]" --s
All the Best People, Ctd. Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "Lana Marks has no diplomatic experience, a history of fabricating her past, and a skill-set devoted primarily to making six-figure designer handbags. But there's one hobby that appears to qualify her to become the U.S.'s latest ambassador: a membership at the Mar-a-Lago Club. On Friday, the Palm Beach Daily News reported that ... Donald Trump was poised to tap Marks [originally born in South Africa] to become the U.S.'s next ambassador to South Africa.... Her nomination would mean that Mar-a-Lago ... has now produced at least four individuals Trump has selected as ambassadors. In addition to Marks, Robin Bernstein, one of Mar-a-Lago's founding members, became the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic under Trump. Two other members — Patrick Park and Brian Burns -- were nominated by the president to ambassadorial positions in Austria and Ireland, respectively, but eventually declined the nominations.... As the Palm Beach Daily News wrote, 'Marks has repeatedly been accused of stiffing her attorneys, accountants, landlords and employees.'" --safari: Marks lies about everything, sells overpriced shit to rich folks, and reneges on her payments. Perfect ambassador for Trump's Amerika.
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "A U.S. general was wounded in an attack last week in Afghanistan's Kandahar province that killed two senior Afghan provincial officials and targeted a group that included the senior U.S. commander in the country, four people with knowledge of the assault said. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley is recovering after suffering at least one gunshot wound inside the Kandahar governor's compound, three of the people said..... U.S. military officials in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon have declined to comment on the attack or identify the wounded, describing them only as an American service member, an American civilian and a contractor who is part of the military coalition."
Election 2018
Florida. Miami Herald Editors: "Andrew Gillum [D] is the best candidate to pull Florida back to the center, back to making sure the middle class and working class don't continue to bear the brunt of Tallahassee's misguided spending; back to acting on behalf of the Floridians denied health insurance by the current administration; back to putting public schools, which serve the majority of the state's children, in the spotlight; back to being a leader in the fight against sea-level rise and the degradation of the environment."
Missouri. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Josh Hawley's tenure as Missouri's attorney general has been brief. And turbulent. Mr. Hawley, a Republican who is now trying to unseat Senator Claire McCaskill in one of the most closely watched races in the country, took up the job less than two years ago. A former law professor and clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, he brought a conservative intellectual pedigree but little management experience to the attorney general's office.... A review of public records and internal documents, as well as interviews with current and former employees, reveals a chaotic tenure as attorney general that has been costly for state taxpayers. Judges have criticized the office over its slow pace of discovery, and Mr. Hawley's staff had to renege on a settlement in a high-profile civil case. Mr. Hawley also quietly closed the environmental division and failed to fully vet one of his top supervisors, who departed after a female attorney in the office complained about his conduct." Read on. Even some Republicans can't stomach the little twit. Entitled AND incompetent.
Montana. Missoulian Editors: "... Kathleen Williams [D] is the congressional candidate Montana has been waiting for. Experienced. Knowledgeable. Thoughtful. Measured. Most remarkably, Williams exudes that unique combination of grit and camaraderie that embodies the very best traits of Montanans.... Her campaign to be elected Montana's sole member of the U.S. House has highlighted other important qualities lacking in our current representative. She shows up -- in communities large and small across Montana -- in person, listens carefully and speaks candidly.... U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte [R-Bully] has been Montana's representative in the House since he won a special election in May 2017. The Missoulian initially endorsed Gianforte for that race, with strong reservations, but was forced to take the unprecedented step of rescinding our endorsement immediately after Gianforte lost his temper and physically attacked a reporter, and then issued statements to police and through his staff that directly contradict his own official admission of guilt."
Texas. New York Magazine seems to have revamped their "Daily Intelligencer" section, & it's pretty great: it provides a running account of political news written by both by their own commentators (as it has done) & other news & commentary outlets. And they don't mind adding their own brief commentary & edits. For instance,
At least he's not lying
He's the president. -- Senator Ted Cruz, when asked whether Trump -- who is now supporting Cruz's reelection campaign after launching numerous personal attacks on him -- was his friend or foe.
West Virginia. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Facing some of the toughest campaigns of their careers, the West Virginia Democrat [Joe Manchin] and his moderate colleagues believe they've received an unexpected gift from [Mitch McConnell].... In a triumphant post-Kavanaugh media tour last week, the Kentucky Republican waxed about his regret over the missed opportunity to repeal Obamacare and the need to reform entitlement programs to rein in the federal deficit. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are vital to West Virginia. And in an interview on Saturday as he prepared for the annual Apple Harvest Parade, Manchin called McConnell's comments 'absolutely ridiculous' and said his Republican opponent, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, would vote to curtail benefits 'in a heartbeat.' Manchin also dredged up Morrisey's support during a 2000 congressional race in New Jersey for partially privatizing Social Security funds. 'He'll be a yes man, 1,000 percent, whatever they ask him to do,' Manchin said of Morrisey and GOP leaders."
Josh Marshall of TPM: "In the last two weeks I've felt a creeping anxiety about the outcome of the November election. But it is less because of what I think is likely than the stakes that are involved.... If Republicans are able to maintain control over the House after the last two years, with the President as unpopular as he's been, with all the signs of Democratic energy, Republicans and President Trump will both draw the lesson that they are invulnerable. Even under the most adverse conditions they didn't pay a real price.... For parallel reasons, Democrats will face a crisis of demoralization.... There is a general consensus ... that the Democrats will need to win the aggregate vote for the House by 6 or 7 percentage points just to win a bare majority of seats.... But after a while it starts to seem like a given, just part of the landscape. But it shows the challenge Democrats are up against. They have to win by a massive margin, maybe as much as 10 percentage points to win a healthy majority. This comes after President Trump became President after getting millions of votes fewer than Hillary Clinton. These are profound challenges and liabilities and Democrats will have to win elections under these skewed rules before they can get power to try to change them." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What Democrats really need to win to end this cycle of Republican hegemony are state houses & governorships. Republicans still have a structural advantage in the Senate because red Wyoming has the same number of senators as blue California, but in purple states, it is possible to elect Democrats to reverse gerrymandering & Democratic voter suppression.
Kenneth Vogel & Rachel Shorey of the New York Times: "Republicans entered the final month of the campaign with more money in the bank than the Democrats, providing them with vital ammunition as they wage a furious effort to hold on to control of Congress.... Overall, Democrats have outraised Republicans $1.29 billion to $1.23 billion.... [But that] does not capture all of the money at play in the final weeks, including spending by nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors, as well as seven- and even eight-figure donations that major donors or their advisers say have been -- or are expected to be -- given to super PACs after the period reflected in Saturday's filings.... But the analysis provides a broad assessment of the relative financial strength of the two parties in what is expected to become the first midterm election to surpass $5 billion in total spending." --s ...
... Maggie Severns of Politico: "The super PACs wrestling for the House and Senate majorities this fall are dramatically outpacing their fundraising in other recent cycles, new Federal Election Commission disclosures show, as big-money political spending continues to fuel heated battles for the House and Senate. The fundraising boom is bipartisan: House Majority PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, Senate Majority PAC and Senate Leadership Fund had raised more than $400 million combined as of Oct. 1 ... as post-Citizens United super PAC spending on politics grows.... [Sheldon] Adelson has charged ahead of other Republican donors to become far and away the biggest funder of the midterms in his party this year, having now donated at least $115 million to GOP causes." --s
Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "Literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses ... have been consigned to the history books, but one need look no further than the governor's race in Georgia to see their modern equivalents in action. The race between the Republican, Brian Kemp, Georgia's secretary of state, and the Democrat, Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the state House of Representatives ... is a virtual tie. But Kemp has invoked the so-called exact-match law to suspend fifty-three thousand voter-registration applications, for infractions as minor as a hyphen missing from a surname.... [And more.] The events in Georgia are part of a broader political project. The xenophobia and the resentment that Donald Trump stirred up during the 2016 election are fundamentally concerns about the future of the American electorate.... According to the Brennan Center for Justice, ninety-nine bills designed to diminish voter access were introduced last year in thirty-one state legislatures. Many of the recent Republican-led efforts stem from the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder.... [But voter suppression is occurring in states outside the South, too.] Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa ... have passed strict voter-I.D. or roll-purge laws."
Doug Pagitt, in a USA Today op-ed: "Religious leaders have given up moral ground at every renewed show of support for this administration and Congress. They stood by as families were torn apart at our border.... They cheered as health care was stripped away from the poor and the sick. And they fell in line to support the newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of harming multiple women. These are ... antithetical to what Jesus preached.... [The leaders'] insistence on walking in lockstep with the Republican Party often is primarily motivated by a single issue: abortion.... The Republican Party has used the issue of abortion as a tool to manipulate religious leaders across the country.... Franklin Graham, who uses the imagery of the Good Samaritan in his organizational name, mocks it by turning a blind eye to the women who raised accusations against Kavanaugh.... In such a time as this, evangelicals are called to dislodge control of Congress from Republicans who have abandoned our values. The Good News of God compels us to use our vote as a tool for the common good of all people, for if good is not accessible and common to all, it is not good; it is privilege." Thanks to Aunt Hattie for the lead.
** Roberts' Naked Partisanship. Stephanie Kirchgaessen of the Guardian: "Supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh once lobbied in support of a controversial judge who is now tasked with reviewing more than a dozen ethics complaints filed against him during his own confirmation process. Emails sent to the Senate judiciary committee and obtained by the Guardian show that beginning in 2001, Kavanaugh was involved in a high-stakes campaign to ensure that Timothy Tymkovich, another staunch conservative and a former Colorado solicitor general, would secure a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.... The revelation could create new concerns about the politicization of the supreme court.... The chief justice of the supreme court, John Roberts, asked Tymkovich to examine more than a dozen judicial ethics complaints filed against Kavanaugh while he was technically still a circuit court judge." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: When I looked up Tymkovich's background at the time news broke that Roberts was passing the Kavanaugh ethics complaints on to him, all I found out was that he was an arch-conservative. The fact that he is not only a Friend of Brett's but also Beholden to Brett shows us exactly what we suspected: that Roberts' intent was to sweep Kavanaugh's bad behavior under the rug. They all belong to a Clique of the Right-eous, and you and I don't.
Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "Pregnancy discrimination is widespread in corporate America. Some employers deny expecting mothers promotions or pay raises; others fire them before they can take maternity leave. But for women who work in physically demanding jobs, pregnancy discrimination often can come with even higher stakes. The New York Times reviewed thousands of pages of court and other public records involving workers who said they had suffered miscarriages, gone into premature labor or, in one case, had a stillborn baby after their employers rejected their pleas for assistance -- a break from flipping heavy mattresses, lugging large boxes and pushing loaded carts.... Refusing to accommodate pregnant women is often completely legal. Under federal law, companies don't necessarily have to adjust pregnant women's jobs, even when lighter work is available and their doctors send letters urging a reprieve. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is the only federal law aimed at protecting expecting mothers at work. It is four paragraphs long and 40 years old. It says that a company has to accommodate pregnant workers' requests only if it is already doing so for other employees who are 'similar in their ability or inability to work.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Although for years there has been a bipartisan bill in Congress to update the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Republican leaders have stalled it. Those evangelicals & others who support Republicans because abortion might give some thought to protecting women who want to have babies but whom GOP leaders refuse to protect.
Beyond the Beltway
When Wall Street Vultures Meet State Pensions. Gary Rivlin of The Intercept: "By 2016, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's declared Kentucky's the worst-funded state pension system in the country. At that point, the state was meeting only 37.4 percent of its funding obligation -- half the national median of 74.6 percent.... Hedge funds and private equity typically charge ... fees roughly 10 times what a pension fund would pay to invest in a plain vanilla stock fund.... In 2009, the year it began investing in hedge funds, KRS paid $13.6 million in annual management fees. Five years later, that figure had ballooned to $126 million.... Kentucky's gamble on alternatives has proven a lousy investment. Had KRS simply matched the performance of the median pension fund in the five years ending in December 2014, the pension would have produced an additional $1.75 billion in earnings.... Former Goldman Sachs banker Susan Webber, writing as Yves Smith on the financial website Naked Capitalism, described KRS as 'a contender both [for] the title of the most corrupt and the most incompetent public pension fund in the U.S.'" --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is what happens when you put Tea Partiers in charge of the government: corruption AND wasteful spending. See also Danny Hakim's story on Josh Hawley's excellent management skills, linked above.
News Lede
New York Times: "... in one of the most celebrated commando raids of World War II, Norwegian resistance fighter [Joachim] Ronneberg and his demolition team sneaked past guards and a barracks full of German troops [at a Nazi hydroelectric plant in Norway's Telemark], stole into the plant, set explosive charges and blew up Hitler's hopes for a critical ingredient to create the first atomic bomb. Mr. Ronneberg, the last surviving member of the 1943 raid and one of the most decorated war heroes of a nation renowned for valorous resistance to the 1940-45 German Occupation, died on Sunday in Alesund, Norway, his daughter, Birte Ronneberg, said. He was 99."
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TEXAS TURMOIL:
Cruz, one of the most prominent Republicans in America, is also one of the most reviled men in politics. Given that Texas is RED, Ted has a very good chance of clinching back his senate seat. From the get-go Cruz was cruising for that higher seat at the table believing he should be the chosen one–- with that air of arrogance and high aspirations. That strained smile ––one could almost describe it as pained–-that we see when he is called on the carpet for his many fabrications shows us a man that simply cannot deal well with carpet calls.
Now into this drama comes my boy Beto who is skate boarding over Ted's cement-like aspirations and causing a possible Texas turn-around. Some say O'Rourke isn't running for the Senate anymore ( which is premature given that the race is still to be won) but think he may be the rising star in 2020. In August, Vanity Fair said that Beto's campaign was a lot like being in Iowa with Obama in 2007. Well, yes, that may be but... Here's a piece from Alex Shepard that addresses these concerns:
https://newrepublic.com/article/151806/beto-orourke-isnt-running-senate-anymore
Hope this turns out to be no more than light morning entertainment.
Paul Krugman is worried:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-krugman-says-trump-might-deny-dem-house-majority-victory
My morning hope is that in two weeks and a day, he has some reason to worry.
As usual as elections approach, the polls are tightening, in part because many who don't pay attention to fundamentals still think things are going along just fine in our pumped up economy.
Some heartening reading on yet another dismal day in the Time of Trump (can’t seem to do link from iPhone, sorry)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/november-december-2018/the-democrats-of-trump-country/
The big takeaway is that we need for it to be socially acceptable to be a Democrat (or even - gasp!- a liberal) even in “Red” areas. Having more Democrats in local office will go a long way to helping with this. When people start seeing that government - and their lives - run better with Democrats in charge they might think twice about believing the latest smear by the Other Side.
Let us not forget the perspective.
Half of the US population has an IQ of 100 or less.
Democrats are part of human race.
Republicans are part of a tribe.
Democrats believe in democracy.
Republicans believe that democracy only applies to them.
As I have said (too?) often at greater length, Repugant trade, environmental and foreign policies create and exacerbate the mass movements of non-white populations Repugnants--today the Repugnant-in-chief--inveigh against, stoking fear of the "other" in order to ride a wave of short-sighted and simplistic nationalism into office and preserve their hold on power.
@Marvin
Does that scenario strike you as evidence of Repugnants' unadulterated evil or are they just plain stupid?
Rockygirl,
The problem is that Democrats have been successfully cowed, going back to Mike Dukakis, against using the term "liberal". They've come up with a number of euphemisms to describe their political stance, but there's a huge difference between the sides. Although there are substantially more people today who don't feel the need to hide their liberal persuasion, many politicians are still squeamish.
On the Confederate side, they are thrilled to be labeled "conservative". And some would even be okay with "Rat Bastard Nazi", I'm guessing (at least it would be accurate).
Democrats have allowed R's to tar and feather them (us) for far too long. In my red state, almost every R is sending out election mailings that say things like "Elect me to fight evil liberals here and in Washington, liberal liars who want to steal your guns and close our churches." And at this point, the term "liberal" might as well be "baby raper" to red state voters, but we shouldn't agree, even tacitly, by refusing to acknowledge what liberals have done for this country (and how wingers have tried to stop them at every stop along the way).
We need, more than anything (well, we could probably use a lot less gerrymandering and election rigging by Republicans, but that's later), to state clearly what liberals stands for. We need to state clearly the difference between a party that supports treason and election theft and more money for the rich, for denying healthcare and demolishing social security, and a party whose mission is to provide equal opportunity for all Americans, a decent living wage, healthcare, job security, and the rule of law, not the rule of whim by a doddering dictator and his weaselly minions.
We are never going to win anything by pretending to ride the fence on those things, pretending that we think Donald Trump is not such a bad guy after all and that we'll be happy to work with him and his traitors.
Now that won't get us a single vote from any who have love posters of Fat Donald up in their bedrooms, but they were/are never going to vote for a Democrat anyway. What we need is for real Democrats, and those chimerical independents who are antsy about having an ignorant a traitor for a president* to come out in droves and vote. If, as many researchers and careful observers are maintaining, Democrats can't simply get more votes and win, not the way Republicans have rigged the game, then we have to get a LOT more votes.
So be it.
But let's not pretend to be something we're not. Leave that to Confederates who pretend to be for the "common man" while burning down his house, taking his money and his kids' futures, and handing everything to corporations and their rich supporters.
We get down in the mud with them and play by their rules, we're tainted.
I want to hear candidates say "Yeah, I'm a liberal, alright, and here's what I stand for."
Ken Winkes
How about evil AND stupid. And lets be careful defining stupidity.
It's not just IQ. If you are a 150 but get all of your info from FOX, you are still stupid.
I'm more and more concerned about the midterms. All that talk of a Blue Wave must have made the Party of Traitors giggle. They know how strong their vote suppression is, how many states have been gerrymandered beyond recognition, how many shady voting systems are out there, and how much Putin's hackers are working in their corner.
Democrats are going to need a tidal wave just to make it up on the beach. On the other side, as long as Republicans get a tiny wave, it will be strong enough to wash inland for miles.
If Democrats don't at least take the House, I'm almost sure Trump will win in 2020 and R's will have plenty of opportunity and time to pretty much outlaw Democratic victories for years to come.
A couple of days ago Safari asked "Who in their right mind would vote against" ... the Colorado ballot initiative that would (modestly) expand the buffer zones between homes and industrial oil and gas facilities. (Safari is right--this measure is a small step to give some measure of protection from all kinds of horrors that fracking produces in neighborhoods). I pondered Safari's question, as, when returning home from the mountains and exiting I-70 into a heavily populated area, I was confronted with 2 huge billboards in white and red "JOBS MATTER" "VOTE NO ON 112"-- that's the simple message the oil and gas industry is trying to send Colorado voters confronting our ballots.
My ballot is 3 pages long with not only governor, other state offices, US rep, county offices, 18 judges to recommend on retention and 14 ballot initiatives. (My Denver neighbors down the street have a 6 page ballot with 9 Denver initiatives in addition to the state-wide ones).
It took my husband and me about 90 minutes to complete our ballots last night, to carefully read the wording and research initiatives that we were not familiar with. In Colorado, most of us are fortunate that we have the luxury of being able to vote in the comfort of our homes. I am grateful that I can do this, but have sympathy for those that really have to struggle to make their voices heard and have to try to fill out long and confusing ballots after waiting in line--sometimes for hours. Voting really is a sacrifice for so many in our country. I am grateful for those who do make the sacrifice, do the research, and vote thoughtfully and thoroughly.
Little Johnny Gives Up All Pretense
Anyone trying to convince themselves that John Roberts isn't/won't be as much a partisan hack as Trump and McConnell and Kavanaugh, can stop wasting their time.
If Roberts wanted to ensure the viability of the Supreme Court as an unbiased, fair minded institution, he would have found a truly independent judge to examine the many ethics complaints against Trump's latest future Nuremberg Trials defendant. Instead, he hands it off to a guy who owes his career to Kavanaugh.
This demonstrates three things with perfect clarity.
One, Roberts is every bit the hyperpartisan hack that Kavanaugh is.
Two, if he was truly concerned about the reputation and the authority of the Court, he would have been careful not to handle the situation
in so shoddy a manner. He's not.
Three, furthermore, he doesn't care that one and two are so obvious.
This brings us to four: we are well and truly fucked. If the chief justice doesn't give a shit about even the appearance of fairness or of judicial prudence, he won't care to side, in the most Pavlovian manner, with the coming tsunami of right-wing challenges. And look for Confederate majority opinions to serve as textbook examples of casuistry in action.
Good explanation of Repugnant stupidity, Marvin. Rife as it is, it does have more than one source.
Thanks.
Would guess something like this is happening across the country (from Washington Fuse Votes, a progressive organ here in WA State):
I left out the donation appeal for RC readers, presenting it only as an illustration of what we're up against.
"Dear Friend,
This is as dirty as it gets. A Republican PAC is telling thousands of progressive voters in key districts that Fuse wants them to support write-in candidates instead of the progressives on the ballot. They are sending deceptive mailers using our logo and Progressive Voters Guide recommendations for these candidates from past elections, claiming they are for this year’s races.
We can’t let these shameless Republicans use our good name to deceive voters and steal votes from progressives in critical races. Hundreds of thousands of people count on our Progressive Voters Guide each year as a trusted source of election information. If we don’t fight back aggressively and immediately, their sleazy tactics could confuse voters and tip the balance toward the Republicans in these key swing districts.
Here’s our two-part rapid response plan:
1. We’re working with our lawyers and progressive allies to file a legal complaint today calling on the Public Disclosure Commission to shut down this PAC and punish the people behind it.
2. We’re launching an online ad campaign and working with reporters to generate news stories that set the record straight and support these progressive candidates.
We've posted copies of their deceptive mailers on our website to expose their appalling scam, but we need your help to pay for these unexpected legal bills and online ads. None of this was in our budget, but thousands of people are voting each day and we must act immediately.
The Republican PAC behind these lies is funded by Peter Zieve, a notorious racist and Islamophobic Trump supporter from Mukilteo.2 It’s run by Glen Morgan, an infamous Republican troll who has filed more than 400 frivolous legal complaints against progressive candidates and organizations across the state, including Fuse.3 Now, with the backing of a rich racist, he’s sending tens of thousands of false and deceptive mailers to progressive voters in a desperate attempt to confuse them."
Nice folks, ain't they?
Thanks Marie for displaying the picture of that beautiful man, Joachim Ronneberg, reminding us of his heroism and dedication.
The gop wins the messaging war because they are better at the visceral use of language, (e.g the Democrat Party). One particularly egregious example is the so-called "pro-life" movement. To date the liberal response is to call it "anti-choice" as a better alternative to "anti-abortion" whose opposite position the rethugs would label "pro-abortion" which no one is.
It is incumbent upon us to find a punchier descriptor for this demonstrably false "pro-life" stance. Therefore let's resolve to call it what it in fact is, not pro-life, not anti-abortion but *Forced Birth* and their proponents are Forced Birthers. Afterall they probably think The Handmaid's Tale is a utopian dream.
@ Maxwell's Demon
Great suggestion. I'll pass it on to a writer who's been thinking about the power of the abortion issue.
Thanks.
Beyond that, the Right has an inherent advantage in that their supporters are more likely to feel their way than to think their way to a decision, so messages aimed at the gut will likely hit them where they think.