;)
The Commentariat -- October 26, 2017
Late Morning Update:
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "House Republicans passed budget legislation Thursday morning, narrowly overcoming internal dissension and Democratic opposition to clear a major obstacle in the GOP;s quest to pass large-scale tax cuts. The budget legislation authorizes special procedures that will allow Republicans to reduce federal revenues over the coming decade by as much as $1.5 trillion without Democratic help. The bill passed by a vote count of 216 to 212. No Democrats voted for the budget Thursday, nor did 20 Republicans. A key holdout bloc consisted of Republican lawmakers from states with high local tax burdens...."
Trump cites as proof that he has good manners his attendance at "an Ivy League school" half a century ago. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: And I am prettier than anybody because I went to a Big Ten school half a century ago. Also too, all college boys are polite young gentlemen & all Wisconsin co-eds are knock-outs. Update: as Jeanne has pointed out, she is just as pretty as I am.
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday will announce he is directing his Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, senior administration officials said, taking long-anticipated action to address a rapidly escalating epidemic of drug use in the United States. The move falls short of Mr. Trump's sweeping promise to declare a national emergency on opioids, which would have triggered the rapid allocation of federal funding to address the issue, and does not on its own release any money to deal with the drug abuse that claimed more than 59,000 lives in 2016. But it would allow some grant money to be used for a broad array of efforts to combat opioid abuse, and would ease certain laws and regulations to address it."
Well, Of Course He Did. Kelsey Tamborrino of Politico: "... Donald Trump raised the removal of Confederate statues and memorials on Thursday while touting his support for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie. 'Ed Gillespie will turn the really bad Virginia economy #'s around, and fast. Strong on crime, he might even save our great statues/heritage!' Trump tweeted on Thursday."
Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "Five women have come forward with allegations that Mark Halperin, one of the country's most prominent political journalists, sexually harassed them during his time at ABC News, according to a CNN report. Halperin, who has been a high-profile analyst for NBC News, often appearing on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' program, is co-author of 'Game Change,' the best-selling book about the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain. He formerly hosted a Bloomberg TV show called 'With All Due Respect.' Early Thursday, NBC News said in a statement: 'Mark Halperin is leaving his role as a contributor until the questions around his past conduct are fully understood,' the network reported. On 'Morning Joe,' Mika Brzezinski said: 'We are going to be following this story as it develops I'm sure we are going to be talking about it again when we know more about it.'' Mrs. McC: Don't worry; even without Halperin, the "Morning Joe" show will still be insufferable.
*****
** The Weak President. Elizabeth Drew in the New Republic: At his rallies, presidential candidate Donald Trump excited his most avid supporters through displays of toughness.... And then ,,, Trump not only didn't have an alternative to Obamacare ready on his first day in office, he never offered one. Moreover, when House Republicans presented to him their own ideas about what should be in the health care bill, they found him to be an easy mark.... He keeps telling us what a fine mind he has, but if so he seems loath to exercise it much.... And then, when it came to major substantive questions -- whether to stick with the Iran deal, how to resolve the status of undocumented immigrants who came into the country as children, and, most recently, how far to go in smashing Obamacare subsidies -- he turned these matters over to Congress to resolve. In addition, Trump has vacillated on several issues.... Trump has left a lot of the firing of people to others or used indirect methods.... Except for his use of executive orders (often to countermand ones by Obama) and his cyber-bullying, Trump is essentially a passive participant in his own government." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Drew is exactly right. My fear is that if her observation gains traction (as it should), Trump will decide to bomb someplace, as if that would be evidence of strength rather than stupidity.
Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday revived the controversy over his handling of a condolence call with an Army soldier's widow, disputing Myeshia Johnson's claim that he did not seem to remember her husband's name and calling into question the memories of others who heard the conversation. Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing for a fundraiser in Dallas, Trump said he called Army Sgt. La David Johnson -- who was killed after an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger that is still being investigated -- by his correct name 'right from the beginning.' 'One of the great memories of all time,' the president said, pointing at his head with his left hand. 'There's no hesitation.' Trump also said he had not specifically authorized the mission in Niger, which left four U.S. soldiers including Johnson dead and has prompted a slew of unanswered questions about how the mission went awry. 'No I didn't, not specifically, but I have generals that are great generals -- these are great fighters, these are warriors,' he said. 'I gave them authority to do what's right so that we win. That's the authority they have. I want to win and we're going to win.'" ...
... Gail Collins: "Early in this presidency, optimists believed that when Trump suddenly veered wildly from one position to another it was because of canny tactics. Now optimists believe that he's just ... really forgetful."
Safe Spaces for Morons. Jason Schwarz of Politico: "President Donald Trump is scheduled to sit down for an interview with Fox Business Network's Lou Dobbs at 7 p.m. Wednesday night, marking the 18th time that the president has been interviewed on a Fox television network, a preference unprecedented in the history of presidential TV interviews." --safari
Frank Rich of New York: "[T]he notion that Flake's words -- or Corker's or McCain's -- are going to change the mind of a single member of the Trump base ... is preposterous.... The Vichy leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will remain as supine as ever, hoping they land their beloved deep tax cuts in the bargain.... They still fail to concede that legislation is not Trump's aim, not even classic conservative GOP legislation like tax cuts.... With Bannon as his wingman, his aim is to blow up the Republican Party, purge it of a feckless and tired Establishment, and remake it with his own shock troops into a nativist and nationalist regime." --safari
** Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Alexander Nix, who heads a controversial data-analytics firm that worked for ... Donald Trump's campaign, wrote in an email last year that he reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton's missing 33,000 emails. Nix, who heads Cambridge Analytica, told a third party that he reached out to Assange about his firm somehow helping the WikiLeaks editor release Clinton's missing emails, according to two sources familiar with a congressional investigation into interactions between Trump associates and the Kremlin. Those sources also relayed that, according to Nix's email, Assange told the Cambridge Analytica CEO that he didn't want his help, and preferred to do the work on his own. If the claims Nix made in that email are true, this would be the closest known connection between Trump's campaign and Assange.... Robert and Rebekah Mercer, a billionaire father-daughter duo that spent big to boost Trump's presidential candidacy, are major investors in Cambridge Analytica." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Who Dat? A "Mislabeling" Error. Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Key members of ... Donald Trump's campaign team scrambled Wednesday to distance themselves from the data mining and analysis company Cambridge Analytica, whose CEO reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the presidential campaign to offer help in finding Hillary Clinton's 'missing' emails. The Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016 to help target ads using voter data collected from approximately 230 million US adults. Multiple outlets, including NBC News and The Washington Post, reported that the campaign paid Cambridge Analytica more than $5 million in September alone, up from $250,000 in August. But Michael S. Glassner, the executive director of Trump's campaign, said in a statement on Wednesday -- hours after The Daily Beast reported on the data firm's outreach to Assange -- that the only source of voter data that played a key role in Trump's election victory was the Republican National Committee.... Brad Parscale, the digital director of the Trump campaign's entire data operation, similarly downplayed Cambridge's role in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. 'I have said from the beginning this' $5 million 'Cambridge invoice is mislabeled in the FEC reports,' Parscale said. Parscale hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016, ;partly at the urging former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was the former vice president of Cambridge's board, according to The New York Times.
Adam Blake of the Washington Post: "The Post is reporting that the [Steele] dossier's author, [Christopher] Steele, wasn't brought into the mix until after Democrats retained Fusion GPS. So while both sides paid Fusion GPS, Steele was only funded by Democrats.... Despite there being no proof the FBI actually paid Steele, Trump suggested it might have in a tweet last week -- along with 'Russia ... or the Dems (or all).' Of those three groups, only Democrats have been reported to have actually paid Steele. And again, that was already kind-of known.... Given Democrats' argument that Russia's interference on Trump's behalf was beyond the pale, the Clinton camp and the DNC paying a Brit for information would seem somewhat problematic.... But ... the British after all are, unlike the Russians, America's allies. Also, Steele was not acting as an agent of a foreign government, which is what would likely be required to prove collusion in the case of the Trump campaign and Russia. Separately, the firm that the Clinton camp and the DNC paid also has alleged ties to the Kremlin.... The firm has worked with both Democrats and Republicans over the years." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ken Vogel of the New York Times also provides background on the financing of the dossier. "In a complaint filed with the F.E.C. on Wednesday, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit group that urges stricter enforcement of election laws, alleged that 'at least some of those payments [to the law firm for the Clinton campaign & the DNC] were earmarked for Fusion GPS, with the purpose of conducting opposition research on Donald Trump.' The complaint asserts that the failure to list the ultimate purpose of that money 'undermined the vital public information role that reporting is intended to serve.'" ...
... ** David Corn of Mother Jones: "The news that a law firm working for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee bankrolled the Trump opposition research project that produced the infamous Trump-Russia memos has touched off much howling in GOP and conservative quarters. The revelation that these Democratic outfits financed the digging of Christopher David Steele, the veteran British counterintelligence officer, was a scoop -- but it does not fundamentally change the landscape.... Republicans are asserting the Steele memos should be dismissed because they are a dastardly Democratic oppo concoction and saying this somehow undermines the whole Trump-Russia scandal. Yet at the same time, they are demanding an investigation of the fake Clinton-uranium scandal that was based on a debunked story subsidized and promoted by a big-money conservative donor and Trump backer." Read on. ...
... Paul Waldman explains why his new "Clinton scandal" is nonsense. Mrs. McC:: Of course, none of this affects the presidunce, who called the news "the real collusion. Believe me." or his consummately stupid, dingbat press secretary who wrote, in what I guess passes for an official "tweet," "Hard 2read this w/o concluding Clinton campaign colluded w Russia 2interfere in US election."
Steve Dennis of Bloomberg: "The Senate Judiciary Committee's bipartisan Russia probe has fractured, with Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein saying they're each going to set their own path on the investigation. The two senators spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday, where they agreed to pursue different issues without giving up on the original probe -- into the reasons ... Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and Russian attempts to interfere in the election. Feinstein ... said she doesn't understand a push by Republicans to once again investigate Hillary Clinton's emails or pursue a 2010 Obama-era deal by a Russian-backed company to purchase American uranium mines."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "This past summer, the Trump administration debated lowering the annual cap on refugees admitted to the United States. Should it stay at 110,000, be cut to 50,000 or fall somewhere in between? John F. Kelly offered his opinion. If it were up to him, he said, the number would be between zero and one. Mr. Kelly's comment made its way around the White House, according to an administration official, and reinforced what is only now becoming clear to many on the outside. While some officials had predicted Mr. Kelly would be a calming chief of staff for an impulsive president, recent days have made clear that he is more aligned with President Trump than anticipated. For all of the talk of Mr. Kelly as a moderating force and the so-called grown-up in the room, it turns out that he harbors strong feelings on patriotism, national security and immigration that mirror the hard-line views of his outspoken boss." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nice to see even Peter Baker has Kelly's number.
Kevin Cirilli, et al. of Bloomberg: "President Donald Trump does not intend to appoint National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn to lead the Federal Reserve, three people familiar with the matter said.... Cohn is likely to leave the White House soon after Congress disposes with the tax plan, two people said." --safari
** Donors with Benefits. Russ Choma & Nick Schwellenbach of Mother Jones: "During his 20 years as a US senator, [Jeff] Sessions pocketed hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars from both Drummond Company, the corporation at the heart of [a political bribery scandal ... involving the state's largest coal company and [a] powerful, politically connected law firm]..., Birmingham-based ... Balch & Bingham. But his ties to Drummond and Balch extend beyond the usual political contributions. Last year, according to documents obtained by Mother Jones and the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, Sessions intervened to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency action at issue in the bribery case, and he did so just weeks after conferring with Balch lawyers.... Yet Sessions, who filled a key Justice Department position with a Balch lawyer and who was prepped for his confirmation hearing by an attorney at the firm, has so far taken no steps to recuse himself." --safari
Gov't = Business. Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, announced plans Tuesday to increase entrance fees at 17 parks during their busiest five-month periods as a way to raise new revenue for infrastructure improvements. Under the proposed fee change, beginning next year, entries for cars would jump from $25 to $70 between June 1 and October 31.... The Trump administration's proposed budget would increase funding for energy development on public lands while cutting virtually everything else, including the budget for the National Park Service." --safari: A great way to pay for tax cuts for the rich by raiding the pockets of nature-lovin' liburals.
Republican "Intellectualism". Eric Hananoki of Media Matters: "President Donald Trump adviser and Breitbart.com columnist Kris Kobach cut and pasted into his October 24 column anti-immigrant bullet points that have appeared in random message boards, Yahoo! Answers, and chain letters for more than 10 years.... Kobach's Breitbart column also cited a piece by a white nationalist [Peter B. Gemma] who has reportedly been 'part of the American Holocaust denial movement.'" --safari
EPA Infections. Sharon Lerner of The Intercept: "Powerless Democrats watched in anger as their Republican colleagues in the Senate voted along party lines to advance Michael Dourson's nomination to become an assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.... Dourson -- a massively conflicted scientist known within industry for his ability to come up with standards companies liked, create science to justify them, and then 'sell' the package to the EPA -- is one step closer to assuming his role overseeing chemical safety in the United States. His actual tenure at the EPA seems to have already begun, since he was quietly appointed as an adviser to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt despite not having approval -- a move that may have the law." --safari
Contributor PD Pepe came upon this video of Ben Carson's "testimony" before a House committee:
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are any number of "correct" answers when you don't know the actual answer to a question posed during testimony. They all start with "I don't know," followed by a good-faith promise to provide the information and to otherwise accommodate the questioner. "Here's what I want to talk about" is not the answer to any question posed in a hearing, as Rep. Green suggests. P.S. Did I mention that the SUBJECT OF THE HEARING WAS PROPOSED HUD BUDGET CUTS? Well, Ole Doc was not even minimally prepared to talk about that, and he didn't want to talk about that and he said so to the Congressman, who was exercising his oversight duty.
GOP Dangerous Loons. Max Kutner of Newsweek, via RawStory: "A lawyer who President Donald Trump nominated to be a federal judge once likened the treatment of Christians during the Obama administration to that of people in Nazi Germany and under communist regimes. Jeff Mateer made the comments in radio interviews in 2013 and 2014, according to audio clips that CNN resurfaced." --safari
Power of Plutocracy. Jonathan Chait: "The human mind is an incredibly adept tool for generating reasons to turn one's own self-interest into a moral argument. The Republican Congress has turned this normal process of rationalization on its head. They have taken actions they truly consider to be morally correct, and convinced themselves that they are following their own self-interest.... [S]omehow Republicans have convinced themselves that their popularity depends upon passing this unpopular [tax] plan that would carry out unpopular goals.... A clever Republican Party would understand that this agenda is a way of spending its political capital. Instead they have somehow persuaded themselves that they are earning more of it." --safari
Sounds Good ... So Scrap It. Adam Cancryn of Politico: "A bipartisan bill to stabilize Obamacare would cut the federal deficit by $3.8 billion but wouldn't do much to change health insurance premiums for 2018, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. It would not substantially change the number of people who are covered. The report is about the bipartisan bill negotiated by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) which has broad support in the Senate but is unlikely to get a swift vote given opposition from President Donald Trump as well as from House Republicans." --safari
Steven Mufson & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "Puerto Rico's financial oversight board is moving to install an emergency manager at the island's state-owned utility amid criticism of a $300 million contract it awarded to a small Montana energy firm for work on the territory's crippled electrical grid. The board said Wednesday that it intends to appoint Noel Zamot, a retired Air Force colonel and member of the oversight panel, to oversee daily operations of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. The decision comes as ... Democrats called for an investigation into the utility's agreement with Whitefish Energy.... The Washington Post reported on Monday that Whitefish had only two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria hit the island and had never taken on repairs on the scale of the destruction suffered in Puerto Rico.... Under the contract, Whitefish is charging $330 an hour for a site supervisor and $227.88 an hour for a 'journeyman lineman.' The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish's workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman." Emphasis added. ...
... Molly Olmstead of Slate (October 24): "A tiny, 2-year-old energy company from a small town in Montana won a $300 million contract to fix Puerto Rico's hurricane-ravaged power grid, raising concerns about the decision-making behind the lucrative deal and the company's ties to people connected to the Trump administration, as well as the company's ability to fully meet Puerto Rico's recovery needs. Whitefish Energy ... now has by far the largest contract of any company involved in Puerto Rico's recovery, and, according to reporting from the Daily Beast, is primarily financed by a firm run by a major Trump donor who has connections to several members of his administration. The contract has also raised eyebrows because the company is based in Whitefish, Montana, the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (population: 7,436). Zinke's office told the Washington Post that Zinke knows the company's CEO ... but that Zinke had no role in the deal. A member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, Luis Vega Ramos, told the Daily Beast that connections to Zinke and Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló were Whitefish's 'most important expertise and assets.' Vega Ramos accused Whitefish of being a 'glorified middleman' that crafted a 'cozy sweetheart deal' to make money off subcontracting."
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "A pregnant undocumented teenager in federal custody whose attempt to have an abortion set off a monthlong legal battle with the Trump administration terminated her pregnancy on Wednesday morning. She underwent the procedure a day after a court ruling forced federal officials to allow it. The teenager, who is 17 and is identified in court documents as Jane Doe, tried to illegally cross the border in Texas in early September and was apprehended. Her pregnancy was discovered during a physical exam, and since then she had been fighting in court to have an abortion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
As a "Journalist," He's a Joke; Otherwise, Not o Funny. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Veteran journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed women while he was in a powerful position at ABC News, according to five women who shared their previously undisclosed accounts with CNN and others who did not experience the alleged harassment personally, but were aware of it. 'During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me,' Halperin said in a statement to CNN Wednesday night. 'I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I'm going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.'" ...
... Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times (October 24): "Leon Wieseltier, a prominent editor at The New Republic for three decades who was preparing to unveil a new magazine next week, apologized on Tuesday for 'offenses against some of my colleagues in the past' after several women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate advances. As those allegations came to light, Laurene Powell Jobs, a leading philanthropist whose for-profit organization, Emerson Collective, was backing Mr. Wieseltier's endeavor, decided to pull the plug on it.... Several women ... said they were humiliated when Mr. Wieseltier sloppily kissed them on the mouth, sometimes in front of other staff members. Others said he discussed his sex life, once describing the breasts of a former girlfriend in detail. Mr. Wieseltier made passes at female staffers, they said, and pressed them for details about their own sexual encounters." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The New Republic has long had the reputation of being a boys' club that was highly dismissive of women's intellects. In that light, Wieseltier's conduct is hardly surprising. ...
... Dave McKenna of Deadspin: "Earlier this week, actress Heather Lind said in a now-deleted Instagram post that former president George H.W. Bush had sexually assaulted her. 'He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side,' she wrote. 'He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again.'... Jordana Grolnick, a New York actress, has a story to tell that doesn't sound very different at all. 'I got sent the Heather Lind story by many people this morning,' Grolnick says. 'And I'm afraid that mine is entirely similar.' Rumors about Bush groping actresses in this manner have been circulating for a while. More than a year ago, a tipster passed word about the Heather Lind incident to Deadspin. We were told that Bush had, during a photo opp, groped her and told her that his favorite magician was 'David Cop-a-Feel' while fondling her."
Flying While Black. Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "The nation's oldest civil rights organization, citing a 'troubling pattern of disturbing incidents,' urged travelers -- particularly those who are African American -- to rethink whether they should fly with American Airlines. In a statement released Tuesday night, officials with the NAACP said the travel advisory would remain in effect 'until further notice.'... In issuing the advisory, NAACP officials cited four recent incidents of 'troublesome conduct' by the airline and said they 'suggest a corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias on the part of American Airlines.' The incidents involved black passengers being removed from flights for various reasons...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Legalize It. Adam Raymond of New York: "More Americans than ever think marijuana should be legal, according to a new Gallup poll that found a majority of Republicans supporting legalization for the first time ever. The 64 percent of Americans who told Gallup they support making marijuana legal is the most in the nearly 50 years Gallup has asked the question. It also represents a more-than-fivefold increase over the 12 percent of Americans who said they supported legalization the first time Gallup asked, in 1969." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
**The Purge. Kira Lerner of ThinkProgress: "Alabama's Republican secretary of state [John Merrill] wants potentially 674 Alabama citizens who voted both in this year’s Democratic primary and Republican runoff elections, in violation of a new law, to be charged with a felony and imprisoned for five years.... Merrill told ThinkProgress ... that he thinks the individuals who switched party affiliations should be sent to prison for five years and hit with a $15,000 fine, the maximum allowable punishment for the low-level felony." --safari: FYI, Merrill is best buds with Kris Kobach [R-piece of shit] ...
Way Beyond
Javier Hernandez of the New York Times: "Xi Jinping of China has so many titles -- more than a dozen and counting -- that he has been called 'chairman of everything.'... On Wednesday, he gained another five-year term as the party's general secretary and introduced a new leadership team with no clear successor, prompting speculation that he intends to rule beyond the customary second term." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Look for some jealousy-fueled tweets from our own Little King, knocking Xi & threatened another international crisis between two nuclear powers. The president of us* still doesn't get why he has not been anointed the "President of Everything."
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Reader Comments (15)
I think I can explain "the real collusion" in layman's terms, without any help from Ms. Huckleberry, her boss, or Fox "News" & Breitbart.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend that reminded me of an old song, "I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales," the PoW in the song referring to the playboy prince who later -- and rather briefly -- became Edward VIII, until he abdicated to marry Wallace Simpson.
My friend was telling me about a conversation he had recently with a British woman he's known & kept in touch with for 40 years. Somewhere in that conversation, he mentioned the woman's son, who is a well-known British artist (a painter). I don't think I'd heard of the artist, so the friend elaborated. He showed me pictures of an opening for one of the son's shows (which I think was a charity event), & there in one of the pix was William, the Duke of Cambridge, chatting up the artist son & his wife. According to my friend, the son had worked on projects with William before so they knew each other slightly. (William certainly knows thousands of people slightly. It's part of his job.) William, of course, is the son of the Prince of Wales.
So, I'm friends with a man, who's friends with a girl, who's mother of a boy, who's (slightly) friends with the Duke of Cambridge, who's dad is the Prince of Wales.
My "relationship" with the Prince of Wales is a lot like Hillary's "real collusion." She ran a campaign, & one of her contractors was a lawyer who apparently oversaw some oppo research for the campaign. Unbeknownst to Clinton & at least some of her top aides, the lawyer contracted with an American firm that did oppo research for Democrats & Republicans & had done some oppo research on Trump under contract to a Republican donor. As part of its work, the oppo firm hired Christopher Steele, a former British counterintelligence officer. Steele contacted various unknown Russian (and other) sources who dished some dirt, & he at least started putting together a dossier of some of Trump's real & as yet unverified escapades in & outside of Russia. The Clinton campaign allegedly never used the stuff he had gathered (altho David Corn of Mother Jones apparently got hold of the info shortly before the election, and the pieces of the dossier probably did not fall from the sky into his lap). Clinton says she was unaware of the dossier & never saw it before BuzzFeed published it this year.
So the "real collusion" goes like this: without Clinton's knowledge, a lawyer who worked for her campaign contacted an American company who hired a retired British official who contacted some Russians to dig up dirt on Clinton's opponent, dirt the Clinton campaign did not use.
And I'm close personal friends with the Prince of Wales.
Definition of moron: Someone who needs to say 'I'm very intelligent'.
Today's discussion of symptoms:
1. Mrs. McC. has discussed her opinion that trump* is demented. One common symptom of any dementia is "perseveration", which is defined as, "uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder." The La David incident looks like the perseveration of dementia to me.
2. Then there's trump*s peculiar silences regarding anything that's not about him - the most recent example has to do with the 4 deaths in Niger. But it's weirder that trump* not being able to talk about anything except himself. Either he has been blackmailed into not talking about this serious issue, or he is like a lot of demented people who disturb their families by no longer appearing
"concerned" about important emotional issues within their families.
The more closely one observes trump*s behavior, the weirder it appears. I'm going with some sort of prefrontal dementia.
And speaking of "prefrontal dementia" I was thinking of Ben Carson the other day and wondering how the heck he was doing in a job he is not qualified to do. Happened to come across this video of congressman Al Green (guy whips!) questioning Carson at a hearing the other day. It's a spectacle that is as funny as it is disturbing.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/10/25/ben_carson_does_not_want_to_talk_about_the_housing_budget.html
@PD Pepe: Thanks. Doc Ben has access to dangerous prescription drugs. It appears he's availing himself of the opportunity.
Mrs. B.,
Your Prince of Wales story reminds me of that game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which is based on the theory of six degrees of separation, the idea being that almost everyone can be connected in six or fewer steps. I'm not sure it's possible for me to connect myself with a Mongolian sheep herder, but it's instructive how far you can get pretty easily.
For instance, I'm connected to Adolf Hitler in 4 steps. I once met Ted Kennedy. His dad knew Neville Chamberlain, Chamberlain met Hitler. So, Me, Ted, Joe, Neville, Adolf. (I told him more than once to ditch that stupid 'stache. He never listened.)
The point is, if you want to play that game, you can go wild without ever deriving any real meaning. For that matter, just think of who you could connect to the little king. He's probably connected in one or two jumps to most of the worst mafia killers in the 20th century. And he himself might become one of the worst killers of the 21st century....but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Nonetheless, just think of the caterwauling triggered if such a chain of connections were used on Donaldo to "prove" various underhanded doings on his part. Just knowing a guy related to a guy who met a lady who once knew someone who did a thing doesn't prove shit.
Hey, now that I think of it, I once met an ethnobiologist in the Soviet Union who made a research trip to Mongolia....oh, wait a minute...
@Akhilleus: In the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, the trick is to find other actors' connections to Bacon through movies they've been in; i.e., Bacon costarred with Actor A who costarred in another film with Actor B, who costarred in another movie with actor C. Ergo, Actor C is connected to Bacon by three degrees of separation.
My Bacon Number is 2. I was an extra in a movie in which I had a scene with Joe Montegna, & I just checked & found that he was in a movie with Bacon.
Marie
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
Elizabeth Drew's piece about The Weak-kneed Donald, coupled with Frank Rich's observation about Trump's legislative indolence and his generally incurious nature regarding governing, stemming, Rich suggests, from his true goal (destruction), certainly sketch in some of the blank areas (lots of those) in the Trump Agenda. He "wants" things but, even if he knew how to achieve those goals, he doesn't have the time or energy to actually do it. He's a low energy, not very smart guy. So his goal is to tear it all down. Much easier to kick stuff over than to build something up from scratch. But then again, that's been a Confederate specialty for decades.
And to his base, none of that matters. And that has me really worried. And not just because they yearn to kick stuff over too. If everyone who voted for him this time around votes for him again, he will win another term. Chances are good that progressive votes will again be siphoned off by some whacko third party candidate or candidates, and so far there is no real mainstream candidate emerging from the Democratic ranks.
Three possibles, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Jerry Brown, will be older than Methuselah by 2020. Others, Elizabeth Warren, for one, aren't interested. Cory Booker? Yeesh. Not for me; there's just something phony about the guy. And if he did run, he'd probably squeeze out someone who might be able to pull it off. Chris Murphy from CT has gotten some buzz but his name recognition is terrible. Kamala Harris? Sure. I'd like that, but after seeing what the Confederate Hate and Lie Machine did to a white woman, they'd be running at the red line to go after a black woman. Especially an uppity black woman who doesn't know her place and dares to question white Confederates.
And worst of all? The DNC is a salmagundi in which most of the ingredients are out of date or undercooked. No one has a clue what's going on and they're almost broke. Meanwhile, the little king is raking it in like Alan Quartermain at King Solomon's Mines.
I hate to be pessimistic, but we could very easily be looking at another four years of Trump chaos. He's already running fund raisers and he'll be running non-stop campaign events for the next three years, thumping his weak-ass chest and giving out with those creepy mirthless grins, an orange rictus. By 2019 he'll have about three trillion dollars in his war chest. His base is completely chloroformed. Incontrovertible proof that he was responsible for Piss Christ and was running a sex slave operation out of a pizza joint wouldn't budge the needle for his fans. All they care about is sticking it to liberals and minorities and feeling better about being bigoted assholes.
I'll wait until the mid-terms to decide whether or not to start brewing my own absinthe. If we can turn the senate and pick up a half dozen seats in the house, I'll feel better. But gerrymandering and vote suppression are in full swing and there doesn't seem to be much Democratic push back on that front.
Hold on...."How-to-make-your-own-absinthe..." let's see what the web has on that one.
Oh, please tell me the movie was "House of Games". Love that movie!
Bea,
Kelly talked the other day about empty barrels. No matter how limited his view of the world (how racist, militarist and nationalistic ) may be, he has to be smart enough to know he's representing the emptiest barrel of all. I hope that's giving the sob the nightmares he deserves.
And am hoping you will rush to post those pretty pictures ( as well as the Pretender's transcripts and tax returns).
As my own 50th college reunion looms, pretty sure I won't be posting any of my pictures.
Whoa...
Just watched the clip of Rep. Al Green wiping the floor with a stupefied Ben Carson who would, ya know, rather not talk about certain things.
Wow.
Yesterday I commented on a wonderful plan by Li'l Randy to let totally inexperienced, unknowledgeable people, without the vaguest concept of areas of proposed scientific research make decisions on whether or not such proposals should be funded or not.
This is what that would look like. Ben Carson is making hard decisions about how much money to spend on federal housing, a topic of which he is familiar only to the extent that he recognizes walls and a roof are somewhere in the mix.
Ben Carson is supposedly an excellent brain surgeon and I have no reason to doubt his skill in that arena, but for a guy not to be able to give a simple answer to question about his own budget, a very big line item mind you, not some picayune bit of foot-noted delphic data, is as astounding a sight as I have seen in a long time. My favorite response, when pressed by Rep. Green (can he run for president?) about how much Carson was cutting from housing vouchers, was "Well, ah... what's your number?"
Say what? What's his number?
The guy appears completely befuddled, and in so far over his head as to set records for deep sea submersion, and no hope of reaching the surface with a flock of buoys tied to his butt.
Another of Trump's "best".
And speaking of deep sea submersion...
Three new studies suggest that predictions of sea level rise could be way off the mark. It looks as if, with no change in carbon emissions, sea level could rise significantly higher by 2100 than indicated by earlier models.
One study does suggest that if the Paris Accords were strictly adhered to, sea level rise could be mitigated somewhat. Possibly no more than a 1.7 foot rise (still substantial), versus a 6.2 foot rise using the Trump Plan (do nothing).
Aren't we lucky? How long before the term "sea level rise" will be officially banned from all government documents. If we don't say it, it won't happen, right?
Another staple of the Trump Way.
(Oh, and by the by, had these studies required government funding, under the Li'l Randy Plan, some oil company lobbyist could nix the money and kill the studies. Because who wants to hear bad news? Such a buzz kill, those scientists. Let's party like it's Standard Oil, 1899!)
I want some of that absinthe-- does it taste like chicken?
Ben Carson died some time ago, it seems. That was zombie Ben Carson being humiliated by Green.
Congratulations to the repugnican congress of the US, who proved once again that they don't need none of them frickin' Dems... Budget! Tax cuts! "Speaker Ryan" is such a weasel-- Once again I turn off MSNBC in favor of a calming CD--
And I went to a Big Ten school for grad school-- does that make me even prettier than Mrs. McC?
Jeanne,
As far as I know absinthe doesn't taste like chicken unless it was a licorice chicken, which sounds absolutely appalling, but, desperate measures for desperate times, as they say. I once made a chocolate omelette which I think permanently warped my palate, so what do I know?
Someone must have told the little king about the opioid epidemic, otherwise he'd never have known a thing about it.
Chrisco Christie supposedly said something about how if Donaldo neglected the epidemic, he'd be done. Of course Brave Boy Chris denied he said anything of the kind.
Really? C'mon Chris, man up for once. Bullies can pretend to be men every once in a while. You're saying that in a place like Jersey where this epidemic has killed over 1.900 people just in the last year, you couldn't stand up and say "Hey, Orangeade Boy. Let's have a little help here, okay? Asshole?"
Trump, pretending to have found out all on his own about the opioid epidemic decided to use the opportunity to throw his own brother under the bus.
"Yeah, my brother Fred was a fucking alky. It sucked. And I will save you from that because I--me--I know all about being an addict!"
This guy is a douchebag like you read about. And then some. And here's the problem. Were it anyone else who, with his sibling's permission, felt obliged to relate their story of addiction as a warning to others, I'd have no problem. But Trump? It's always all about him. I will bet you anything that Donaldo had nothing but contempt for his brother when he was dealing with his alcoholism.
This guy is a reprehensible reptile beyond anything I've ever seen.