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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Monday
Oct082018

The Commentariat -- October 9, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on Tuesday she would resign at the end of the year, marking a high-profile departure of one of the few women in the president's cabinet." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as UN Ambassador, according to two sources briefed on their conversation. The timing of her departure is still unclear, the president promised a 'big announcement' with her at 10:30 a.m.... Haley discussed her resignation with Trump last week when she visited him at the White House, these sources said. Her news shocked a number of senior foreign policy officials in the Trump administration." Update: It's happened. CNN is reporting she just notified her top staff of her resignation this morning. She'll be leaving at the end of this year. The move came as a surprise to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo & National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday further outlined his conspiracy theory that protesters were hired to oppose Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.... 'The paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they haven't gotten their checks - in other words, they weren't paid! Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious - less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!' Trump tweeted.... Trump has yet to put forth any evidence to back up his claim of widespread paid protesters."

Greg Sargent: "When Trump purports to apologize to Kavanaugh on behalf of the 'nation' while sneeringly dismissing those claims, even as a majority opposes Kavanaugh and believes those charges, Trump is ... highlighting the degree to which this episode represents the further entrenchment of minority rule. With Kavanaugh now on the court, this could very well get worse. The New York Times reports that Trump's unusual public apology to Kavanaugh is actually part of a broader strategy of using the battle over his confirmation to enrage and galvanize conservative voters in the midterm elections. Trump injected partisan politics into the swearing in of a Justice who is supposed to remain neutral, for the explicit purpose of polarizing the country in ways he thinks will benefit his party. But when Trump uses the term 'nation,' it should be understood in the way that exclusionary populist demagogues (of which Trump is one) generally employ such formulations: Trump is, in effect, defining the nation to exclude the Americans who are deeply troubled by Kavanaugh, the charges against him, and the larger debate it encompasses."

*****

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Donald Trump rose to prominence and the presidency on the strength of his self-proclaimed mastery of 'The Art of the Deal.' It was that business acumen, Trump claimed, that allowed him to turn a paltry loan from his father into a vast empire. But last week, The New York Times revealed that Trump was not the self-made billionaire he had claimed to be but rather the recipient of at least $413 million from his father, in part through tax schemes the paper described as 'outright fraud.' The painstaking investigation ... is not just a skillful demolition of the origin story Trump told. It's also a rebuke to generations of journalists who bolstered Trump's tale. Trump provided the myth, but he needed the press to trumpet it out to the public. The result was a lie so durable that no single story, however brilliant, can unravel it.... the Times article names four journalists and biographers whose work was particularly vital: Gwenda Blair, David Cay Johnston, Timothy L. O'Brien, and the late Wayne Barrett. But on balance, reporters were taken in by Trump's skillful manipulation, vulnerable to his understanding that they were 'always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better.'... No longer relying on the press to burnish his image, Trump has convinced his supporters that critical news outlets can't be trusted." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Wouldn't it be great if media outlets had spent as much money & effort chasing down Trump's fake business successes as they did chasing down every nuance -- real & imaginary -- of Hillary Clinton's e-mails!!!?

Isabel Dobrin of Politico: "... Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he has no plans to fire deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who will accompany the president on his day trip to Orlando aboard Air Force One. 'I look forward to being with him. That'll be very nice,"'Trump said of Rosenstein. 'We're going to be talking. We'll be talking on the plane. I actually have a good relationship, other than there's been no collusion, folks, no collusion. But I have a very good relationship.' Asked directly if he has plans to fire Rosenstein, Trump said 'no, I don't.' He added later that he 'didn't know Rod before, but I've gotten to know him and I get along very well with him.'" Mrs. McC: Rosenstein probably reminds Trump every time they see each other about his great service to the country as a member of the Ken Starr team. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "A top Trump campaign official [Rick Gates] requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals. The Trump campaign's interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company's pitches were narrower than Moscow's interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump's favor.... The proposal to gather information about Mrs. Clinton and her aides has elements of traditional opposition research, but it also contains cryptic language that suggests using clandestine means to build 'intelligence dossiers.'... There is no evidence that the Trump campaign acted on the proposals.... It is unclear whether the Project Rome proposals describe work that would violate laws regulating foreign participation in American elections."

Byron Tau of the Wall Street Journal: "A veteran Republican operative and opposition researcher solicited and raised at least $100,000 from donors as part of an effort to obtain what he believed to be emails stolen from Hillary Clinton, activities that remain of intense interest to federal investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller's office and on Capitol Hill. Peter W. Smith, an Illinois businessman with a long history of involvement in GOP politics, sought and collected the funds from at least four wealthy donors as part of the plan to obtain Clinton's stolen emails from hackers just weeks before election day in 2016.... Smith's effort to find what he believed were some 33,000 deleted emails Clinton said were personal was first reported by the Journal in a 2017 story, but the extent of his planning went far beyond what was previously known. Smith died 10 days after describing his efforts to a reporter for the Journal." Not firewalled; a "digest" version available via MarketWatch.


Mark Landler & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "A day after the United Nations issued its most urgent call to arms yet for the world to confront the threat of climate change, President Trump boarded Air Force One for Florida -- a state that lies directly in the path of this coming calamity -- and said nothing about it. It was the latest, most vivid example of Mr. Trump's dissent from an effort that has galvanized much of the world. While the United Nations warned of mass wildfires, food shortages and dying coral reefs as soon as 2040, Mr. Trump discussed his successful Supreme Court battle rather than how rising seawaters are already flooding Miami on sunny days."

On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entir Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of personal and political destruction based on lies and deception. What happened t the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process. In our country, a man or a woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. And with that, I must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. -- Donald Trump, at Brett Kavanaugh's third swearing in, Monday evening

Um, no to all that, you lying dirtbag. But, say, Donald, why don't you swear in Brett every damned day between now & November 6 to keep this perfidy fresh in our minds? -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

... Ashley Parker & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump further politicized an already contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle Monday evening, beginning a ceremonial swearing-in for Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh by apologizing to both Kavanaugh and his family 'for the terrible pain and suffering' he said they were forced to endure.... Since Kavanaugh was confirmed on Saturday, Trump has seemed more interested in inflaming rather than reducing the tensions over his Supreme Court pick amid questions over whether the high court is becoming too politicized.... The White House ceremony, which included cocktails and a band, in some ways felt like a cross between a campaign rally and a wedding reception. In addition to all of the high court justices, attendees included conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein." As the night wore on, Trump went up to the residence to watch Hannity, and Kavanaugh drank Rosenstein under the table. (Okay, maybe I made up that last bit.) ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump went further on Monday than he has before in dismissing sexual misconduct allegations against Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh as the creation of political opponents, calling them 'a hoax' and 'fabricated.' With Justice Kavanaugh now confirmed and sworn in, Mr. Trump moved beyond simply questioning the credibility of his accusers to asserting that their stories were made up entirely. Last week he mocked the main accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, for gaps in her memory but did not explicitly suggest that her account was invented.... When he boasted about Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation to the police chiefs in Orlando, they applauded enthusiastically.... 'It was very unfair what happened to him,' Mr. Trump went on. 'False charges, false accusations. Horrible statements that were totally untrue.' He added: 'It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people who are evil. And he toughed it out. We all toughed it out together.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump -- and apparently some police chiefs -- find something heroic and "tough" in not only sexually assaulting women, but lying about it & trashing their victims. ...

... Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that he expects a lot of Democratic voters to support Republican candidates in the upcoming midterms because of how the party's lawmakers handled sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.... Trump dismissed the allegations against Kavanaugh -- including that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when the two were in high school — as 'a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Democrats must stand up to this line of attack, and it's not that haaaard. "Sexual assaults are hoaxes" is easy to counter, especially when the Number 1 messenger is also the country's Number 1 sexual assaulter (and by his own admission). One blind spot Democratic candidates have -- think the swiftboating of John Kerry -- is that they view Republicans' attacks as so ridiculous the attacks aren't necessary to address. Unfortunately, that's giving wa-a-a-ay too much credit to voters. Run a 30-second (or 15-second!) spot all over the country of Trump's grab-'em-by-the-pussy (bleep!) moment with a voiceover: "This man says sexual assault is a hoax." Sleazy? Yes, I think it's called fighting fire with fire. ...

... Becky Bohrer of the AP: "Alaska Republican party leaders plan to consider whether to reprimand U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The party has asked Murkowski to provide any information she might want its state central committee to consider. Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican. He says the party took that more extreme step previously with state legislators who caucused with Democrats. He says all this follows outrage from Alaska Republicans." ...

     ... digby: "By the way, Sarah Palin is threatening to run against [Murkowski] in 2022 over the Kavanaugh vote. But she'll quit before it ever gets started." ...

... ** Paul Krugman: "... the readiness with which senior Republicans embraced crazy conspiracy theories about the opposition to Kavanaugh is a deeply scary warning about what might happen to America, not in the long run, but just a few weeks from now.... When people on the political fringe blame shadowy forces -- often, as it happens, sinister Jewish financiers -- for their frustrations, you can write it off as delusional. When people who hold most of the levers of power do the same thing..., it's a tool: a way to delegitimize opposition, to create excuses not just for disregarding but for punishing anyone who dares to criticize their actions. That's why conspiracy theories have been central to the ideology of so many authoritarian regimes.... The G.O.P. is an authoritarian regime in waiting." This is a must-read by somebody who's usually right. ...

... Cass Sunstein in Bloomberg: "... it is unspeakably cruel to ignore the intensity and the depth of the feelings of those who identify with [Christine Blasey] Ford. To treat Kavanaugh’s confirmation as an occasion for celebration, or for glee, is to twist a knife. It deepens both public and private wounds.... Political gloating is normal. Mocking human suffering is not."

Election 2018

North Dakota Senate. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota has repeatedly made headlines this year in his race against Senator Heidi Heitkamp because of off-the-cuff comments that range from inflammatory to indelicate. But his latest provocation on sexual misconduct sparked a furious and tearful rejoinder from Ms. Heitkamp on Sunday, one day after she voted to oppose the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.... He ripped into the #MeToo movement. 'That you're just supposed to believe somebody because they said it happened,' Mr. Cramer said, alluding to Christine Blasey Ford ... and, more broadly, women who have come forward to claim that they were sexually abused or assaulted. Invoking his wife, daughters, mother and mother-in-law, Mr. Cramer said: 'They cannot understand this movement toward victimization. They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people whose grandparents were tough and great-grandparents were tough.'... Heitman responded, 'I think it's wonderful that his wife has never had an experience, and good for her, and it's wonderful his mom hasn't.... 'My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn't make her less strong.... She got stronger and she made us strong. And to suggest that this movement doesn't make women strong and stronger is really unfortunate.'"

Okay, So Taylor Swift Does Matter. Claudia Rosenbaum & Michael Blackmon f BuzzFeed News: "Since Taylor Swift flexed her star power Sunday with an Instagram post that encouraged her 112 million followers to register to vote, Vote.org has experienced an unprecedented flood of new voter registrations nationwide. 'We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post,' said Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for Vote.org. For context, 190,178 new voters were registered nationwide in the entire month of September, while 56,669 were registered in August. In Swift's home state of Tennessee, where Swift voiced support for two Democratic candidates running in this year's midterms, voter registrations have also jumped." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, I never thought of voting till Taylor Swift said it was cool. ...

... So You Thought Wingers Were Nuts. Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "Taylor Swift's declaration that she plans to vote for Democrats next month fell like a hammer across the Trump-worshipping subforums of the far-right Internet, where people had convinced themselves, for reasons it will take some time to explain, that the world-famous pop star was a secret #MAGA fan.... In some ways, it's not much different from how every other conspiracy theory arises out of nonsense on that anonymous message board[.]... The delusion traces back to the middle of the Obama administration, 2011, when a certain fraction of 4chan users convinced themselves that Swift had let them name her cat.... [She didn't.] Amateur sleuths began sifting through the website in search of more supposed secret messages from the pop star [all of which were bogus].... A few years later..., a neo-Nazi blogger came across a joke meme that mashed up photos of Swift with quotes from Adolf Hitler. He apparently mistook these as authentic and published them on the Daily Stormer under the headline: 'Aryan Goddess Taylor Swift: Nazi Avatar of the White European People.'... The mood was more foul than usual after the forum's imaginary protege declared her real feelings. The Washington Post's language policies prevent linking to most of what 4chan had to say. Suffice to say, a meme of Pepe the Frog openly weeping with a gun to his head appeared in one of the most popular threads, more or less summing up the mood." ...

... AND Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday fired back at Taylor Swift over her endorsement of Democrats in next month's midterms, declaring that his enthusiasm for the pop megastar's music has waned by 'about 25 percent.'" ...

... So you got your enthusiastic Taylor Swift fans, you got your sad & angry ex-Taylor Swift fans, and now you got your Christopher Columbus & Marco Polo fans. Thanks to PD Pepe for introducing us to some more of America's well-informed electorate. (That bit there at the top of the page: "Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance"? Yeah, it's relevant. Every day:

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Justin Wise of the Hill: "Former White House communications director Hope Hicks is joining Fox as its chief communications officer. The media company made the announcement on Monday, saying that Hicks will be based in Los Angeles." Mrs. McC: Great! I'm sure Hopey-Dopey will make Fox "News" even more fair and balanced. Trump probably insisted the Trump Media outlet hire Hicks. (Also linked yesterday.)

Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Google kept quiet for more than six months about its discovery of a bug that put at risk the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Google+ users, the company said Monday, a delay that could spark a new round of regulatory and political scrutiny. The decision to not immediately report the software bug -- in a process that included briefing chief executive Sundar Pichai -- was discussed in an internal document that expressed concerns about the company's reputation and the possibility of increased scrutiny from regulators, said a person familiar with internal deliberations at Google. Google said Monday that it did not immediately announce the data leak because it was unsure which users were affected."

Beyond the Beltway

Jesse McKinley, et al., of the New York Times: "A driver with an improper license. A limousine company with a trail of failed inspections and ties to a scheme to illegally obtain driver's licenses. And a limousine itself that had also been deemed unsafe. Two days after a devastating limousine crash in upstate New York that killed 20 people, officials revealed new details about their inquiry that suggested that the trip never should have been allowed to happen.The mounting questions about the accident increasingly centered on the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, which had a shoddy record, operated out of a back room in a low-budget hotel and had a history of dealings that seemed to extend to Dubai. On Monday, officials moved to suspend the company's operations and seize its vehicles. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told reporters that the limousine involved in the accident had failed an inspection last month and 'was not supposed to be on the road.'" See also yesterday's Ledes.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hurricane Michael approached a fortified Florida Panhandle on Tuesday and strengthened into a Category 3 storm that is expected to make landfall on Wednesday as the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike the mainland United States so far this year. The National Hurricane Center said that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, and would reach the Florida coastline on Wednesday. Emergency declarations were issued for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and the authorities ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate as they opened storm shelters and shut down schools."

The Washington Post "has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Michael to make these stories available without a subscription."

Reader Comments (19)

About those wingers who "proved" Taylor Swift was one of them. When I was 9 or 10 years old, the neighborhood kids & I briefly made up a few games that required us to invent bogeymen. I recall that one afternoon we pretended all the red trucks that drove by on Red Road were full of dangerous bad guys who were out to get us. We watched for red trucks (there were quite a few), and as each approached, we ran away, gleefully screaming in mock fear. The thing is, we knew the "signs" we invented were fake. It was a game, for pete's sake. The 4chan people play the same game. But they're mostly adults, I think, and they actually believe the red trucks are full of bogeymen coming to get them. Also, they can vote. They really are dumber than 9-year-olds making up excuses to take off running & screaming for the joy of running & screaming.

October 8, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Will someone please tell Cory Booker to knock off that talk about impeaching Kavanaugh? We don’t need that. That’s the sort of thing that gets the mouth breathers even crazier than they are now and guarantees that confederates who might have been on the fence about going out to vote will swim through crocodile infested swamps to get to the polls.

Save that shit for later. Let’s be constructive and work to get our voters out, not convince foot draggers that Democrats really are nuts.

October 8, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

President* Pussy Grabber’s mewling, obsequious, and hyperbolic apology to an unhinged mean drunk with a penchant for sexually assaulting women is nothing less than a pardon for his own many transgressions against women unwilling to allow his hand up their skirts. It is a stunningly obvious blanket apology from the head of the nation (however illegitimate that might be) to the very put upon, heroic figure of one Donald J. Trump. There is also, no doubt, more than a smattering of outrage on his part that so many millions have so virulently rejected his choice for a Supreme Court justice, an action that cannot stand.

But sad, petty and obvious doesn’t make this fool any less dangerous.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The new U.N. report re: climate is once again a dire warning and this is the last one–-if we ignore it this time we do at our peril which obviously doesn't budge the blokes in that "climate change is a hoax" circle. We are already seeing the results of what we have done to this planet–-they have been spelled out graphically by scientists ––with pictures! to those for whom the hurricanes and mud slides and other calamities don't change their minds. Here's a good run down on the situation with video and transcript. Be sure to send this to any one of those deniers you may have the pleasure of knowing.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/world-needs-to-make-near-revolutionary-change-to-avoid-imminent-climate-disaster-is-there-hope

@AK: I want to thank you for the video you posted yesterday of Nicole Wallace busting Marc Lotter's butt good and proper! Now that's the way to deal with these miscreants. If only––oh, if only, we had had more Wallace ways when the man with the golden hair first came down that elevator.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Michael Lewis' new book, "The Fifth Risk" examines how the Trump administration has been staffing the federal government and its "ignorance of the mission." Here is Michael's interview on the PBS News with video and transcript.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/michael-lewis-traces-the-gutting-of-the-civil-service-under-trump

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

And one more: watch Jimmy Kimmel's guy on the street ask the great unwashed what they thought of Christopher Columbus being on the S.C.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jimmy-kimmel-christopher-columbus-supreme-court_us_5bbc59e8e4b028e1fe40c74d

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The Krugman piece linked above and a story about Jordan Peterson, the Canadian professor who has become an immensely popular guru by, it seems, telling boys it's ok to be boys, (I simplify, but so does Peterson), which I read last night in a recent (May 2018) "Esquire," both raise the same question:

How did the United States manage to raise so many sick fucks?

I still maintain most of those--most, not all-- at the top of the Repugnant Party know better. They are unpardonably immoral and cynical manipulators of the masses.

But what about those masses?

I remember when immediately after the 2016 election PD, I, and others couldn't help but look suspiciously on the people we passed on the street, even on our neighbors, and wonder if this one or that one could be one of THEM, an ignorant and misled voter.

Now I wonder if he or she is just one of the millions of sick fucks who should be in treatment.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Marie,

Right on with your suggestion (best I've heard in a long time) that Democrats not sit back and take it like they usually do. But it has to be done the right way. We can't start running off at the mouth about impeaching Brett Kavanaugh. That shit is not helpful.

But running a spot that replays PPG's bragging about his constant sexual assaults on women would be. Here's how I'd do it.

Open with the Access Hollywood clip "you can do whatever you want to them...." blah, blah, blah, then insert one of Trump's quotes about how he never said that, then finish with a repeat of him saying exactly that. This points up both his misogynistic, predatory nature and his hollowed out amoral predilection for lying about everything.

As was pointed out yesterday by both Jeanne and myself (and no doubt seconded by everyone else), Democrats far too often try to take the high road (at least that's what I'm going to call it) and let the brigands and liars and crooks get away with murder.

In my experience, turning the other cheek never works with bullies (sorry Jesus, maybe sometimes that's called for, but not with these scumbags). What works is smashing them in the mouth. And this isn't a tit for tat, "You hit me so I'm hitting you", no, it's something my parents taught us: stand up for yourself and don't take crap from anyone.

Already Confederates have got their propaganda machine in overdrive painting Democrats who tried to keep a criminal off the Supreme Court as an angry, socialist mob trying to destroy a good man. And it's working. The MSM, ever Pavlovian, repeats their every slur. And Democrats? I think I heard Chuck Schumer say "I know you are, but what am I?"

Yeah. That'll work.

We need to be taking names and kicking ass. Fuck this politeness bullshit. There's a time to be civil and there's a time to shove their crap back up their fat asses.

Four weeks, guys. Tick-tock.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

So Nikki Haley's resigning. I hope the door hits her in the ass on the way out.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@Akhilleus: I like your spot. Voters s/b hit every day with reminders of what a sexist ass Trump is.

October 9, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Nikki Haley's resignation was expected, she has telegraphed a two-year term for quite some time. But this is a bit early, especially just weeks before the mid-term. So why now?

I suspect she feels that she does not have to put up with Bolton AND Pompeo each acting unilaterally to do things that require her to defend and explain U.S. surprises. Last week Bolton precipitously announced the U.S. is abnegating the dispute resolution protocol of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. That is one of the primary tools the U.S. ambassador to the UN has to force issues to the front of the UN agenda. The decision cannot have been supported by Haley & staff, but it furthers Bolton's project to wreck U.S. multilateral diplomacy.

At some point, with the annual General Assembly finished, Haley probably just said "I don't need this crap" and hit the chute.

Anyone who has ever worked around Bolton would do the same if they had the option.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Still a Pig

Trump, "complimenting" Nikki Haley on her job as UN ambassador said that she "made the job glamorous".

So...her resume doesn't matter. Her work in advancing his Me First, Fuck Everyone Else agenda, or whatever other skills she demonstrated in such an important position.

She's still just a girl.

And he's still a pig.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Oh, and there's already speculation that Mad King Donnie is getting ready to appoint Princess Ivanka to replace Haley at the UN.

That should be a howl. I can see it now. Princess Ivanka calls a meeting of the Security Council to complain that the slave laborers in the Chinese factories she used to manufacture her half-assed clothing and shoe lines were allowed far too many bathroom breaks and days off. Two days off a month is just too much to bear.

But oh, she's a BIG supporter of human rights. That is, the rights of other humans to make her rich.

The really astounding thing is that such speculation might actually be accurate.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

And I hear Eric is being considered for ambassador to Transylvania.
If he can find Romania on a map.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

I wonder how many liters of Democrats' blood they'll have to stow for the plane ride to Romania? I understand vampires get crotchety if they don't imbibe for long periods of time.

And what about Junior? Oh, I know. He can be game warden at an African wildlife preserve. That way he gets first dibs on the most endangered species.

And Melanie can be appointed haute couture consultant to Bombay orphanages. "Oh, my dear. You simply cannot come to my Welcome Melanie" dinner wearing such rags. Don't you have anything in Prada or Givenchy? And where are your shoes? Haven't you any Jimmy Choo's? What a place!"

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Oh, man. This is good.

Director Richard Linklater ("Waking Life", "Boyhood") made this retort to Tailgunner Ted (Tough as Texas!) Cruz's incessant bragging about what a fighter he is.

Hahahahahaha......

Te-ehd.

HAhahahahaha....

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Fat Boy Knows All

Subsequent to the surprising announcement by "Glamour Girl" Nikki Haley that she was quitting her job as the UN ambassador, Fat Boy claimed he knew it all along. An announcement that clearly caught everyone in his rat bastard administration by surprise. But Fat Boy sez he's known all about it for over six months.

This guy lies with more frequency than he breathes.

Had Fat Boy known for six months that Nikki Haley was going to jump ship, there is no way he'd be able to contain himself. Several times Haley has stated that she was not in sync with a Trumpian ploy or other. Trump, had he known that she was going to quit in a few months, would have ripped her a new one and "hinted" that he was going to fire her anyway and had already found a replacement.

He's an immature, ignorant liar.

I could have added seven or eight additional qualifiers (disqualifiers, actually) but I'm too tired.

He is incapable of admitting error or surprise or that he is not perfectly omniscient.

In fact, he's more like omni-scent. He stinks everywhere.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

If anyone is interested in joining in D.C. Nov. 12th &13th to participate in the Climate agenda for the next congress here's where you can sign up:

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/2018-congressional-education-day/

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/abrupt-release-hundreds-migrants-phoenix-start-dam-breaking-n918256

If we only had a wall, we wouldn't need intelligent forethought, but when it comes to immigration and so many other things, we don't have intelligent people planning anything...so we need a wall.

And that latest UN report on climate change strongly suggests we need a wall to keep the CO2 out, too, and we need it now.

Maybe that's what the Pretender and his stooges working in the bowels of the EPA have in mind.

October 9, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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