;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Mrs. McCrabbie: As much as I hate to link to a Fox "News" report, especially one co-authored by someone named Doocy, this is to rich to pass on: Peter Doocy, et al., of Fox "News": "Fox News has learned that the president's re-election campaign wants the Biden campaign to allow a third party to inspect the ears of each debater for electronic devices or transmitters. The president has consented to this kind of inspection, but a source said the Biden campaign has declined the ear check." Apparently President* Con S. Piracy has given up on his demand for urine tests after Biden refused to submit a sample of his mule piss, so Trump now is pretending that he fears that Biden not only is using performance-enhancing drugs, he also is getting the "answers" fed to him by Black-Girl-President-in-Waiting Kamala Harris or other unnamed smart people. Were I Biden, I'd show up with a big ole electronic-looking device in my ear & keep muttering, "testing, testing."
Ha Ha! Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Joe Biden's campaign released his 2019 tax returns on Tuesday, showing that he and his wife, Jill, paid nearly $300,000 in federal taxes last year.... The release, timed just hours before the first presidential debate, comes days after a bombshell New York Times report said that President Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017.... Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told reporters on a call that this marks 22 years of publicly available tax returns for Biden and 16 years for [Kamala] Harris. Bedingfield said ... the campaign's message to Trump is simple: 'Mr. President, release your tax returns, or shut up.'" The post includes a copy of the Bidens' returns. ~~~
~~~ Ryan Lizza of Politico: "After watching hours of Trump's debates from 2015 and 2016, what comes across in hindsight is that he had an under-appreciated style, strategy, and message.... The conventional wisdom about Trump arriving in Cleveland Tuesday as a manic and extremely, well, Trumpy, debater could be wrong. Trump won the Republican nomination partly on the strength of his debate appearances.... What comes across watching these events back-to-back is the power of Trump's populism and demagoguery and the relative restraint he showed [during his debates with Hillary Clinton] compared to what we have seen on his Twitter feed and at his press conferences for much of this year.... [Philippe] Reines [-- who played Trump in Clinton's debate prep sessions --] described that three-step response that Trump patented in 2016 as, 'word salad, weird digression, I'm great and she's terrible.'... [Trump] shouldn't be underestimated."
Alexander Vindman & John Gans, in a New York Times op-ed: "As the 2020 election grew closer, the president increasingly ignored the policies developed by his own government and instead pursued transactions guided by self-interest and instinct. The result is a patchwork of formal policies and informal deals that has undermined America's interests and credibility. But Mr. Trump's sloppy management matters less than its result: No one can trust American foreign policy right now.... Trust is the coin of the realm in national security.... Increasingly, the president and his loyalists in and out of government undermined [the] process [of developing & executing consistent, strategic international polices] with winks, nods and WhatsApp messages, seeking side transactions that prioritize personal benefit, break norms and invite corruption.... In the homestretch before the election, Mr. Trump has overridden many of the remaining safeguards against bad deals, and ignores his professional advisers even more often."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Big Con, Ctd.
Dan Alexander of Forbes: "In fact, Trump is a multibillionaire, worth $2.5 billion, by our count. His portfolio, which includes commercial buildings, golf properties and branding businesses, is worth an estimated $3.66 billion before debt. The president has a fair amount of leverage [Mrs. McC: i.e., debt] -- adding up to a roughly $1.13 billion -- but not enough to drag his net worth below a billion dollars.... In 2016 and 2017, according to the Times, Trump paid just $750 of federal income taxes. The scandal isn't that he's broke and paying those meager sums -- it's that he remains quite rich." Alexander runs down some of Trump's assets & liabilities.
As you read the NYT Trump tax story, remember the Eric Trump statement in 2014: 'We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' Now ask to whom does Trump owe the hundreds of millions of dollars coming due soon? -- Andrew Weissmann, former Mueller probe prosecutor, in a tweet ~~~
~~~ Greg Miller & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "... former intelligence officials and security experts said [Donald Trump's long-secret tax records] raise profound questions about whether he should be trusted to safeguard U.S. secrets and interests. The records show that Trump has continued to make money off foreign investments and projects while in office; that foreign officials have spent lavishly at his Washington hotel and other properties; and that despite this revenue he is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt with massive payments coming due.... Officials and experts said that Trump has made himself vulnerable to manipulation by foreign governments aware of his predicament, and put himself in a position in which his financial interests and the nation's priorities could be in conflict.... 'From a national security perspective, that's just an outrageous vulnerability,' said Larry Pfeiffer, who previously served as chief of staff at the CIA. Pfeiffer ... said that if he had faced even a fraction of Trump's financial burden, 'there is no question my clearances would be pulled.'... The [NYT's] revelations add to long-standing suspicions about Trump's approach to foreign policy and seeming deference to leaders of countries where he has either pursued real estate projects or could do so upon leaving office. The list includes Russia, Turkey and the Philippines, where Trump has sought to erect office towers bearing his name or made millions of dollars from licensing deals and other ventures."
"It Was All a Hoax." Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "From the back seat of a stretch limousine heading to meet the first contestants for his new TV show 'The Apprentice,' Donald J. Trump bragged that he was a billionaire who had overcome financial hardship. 'I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills and I worked it all out,' he told viewers. 'Now, my company is bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.' It was all a hoax. Months after that inaugural episode in January 2004, Mr. Trump filed his individual tax return reporting $89.9 million in net losses from his core businesses for the prior year. The red ink spilled from everywhere, even as American television audiences saw him as a savvy business mogul with the Midas touch.... The president's tax returns reveal ... how the popularity of [his] fictional alter ego rescued him, providing a financial lifeline to reinvent himself yet again. And then how, in an echo of the boom-and-bust cycle that has defined his business career, he led himself toward the financial shoals he must navigate today.... Just as, years before, the money Mr. Trump secretly received from his father allowed him to assemble a wobbly collection of Atlantic City casinos and other disparate enterprises that then collapsed around him, the new influx of cash helped finance a buying spree that saw him snap up golf resorts, a business not known for easy profits. Indeed, the tax records show that his golf properties have been hemorrhaging millions of dollars for years."
Martyn Mclaughlin of The Scotsman: "[T]he...New York Times exposé will ... lend even greater urgency to questions surrounding the Trump Organisation's finances [in Scotland]. 21 October marks the fifteenth anniversary of the incorporation of Mr Trump's first Scottish company.... [I]n that entire time, not a single one of Mr Trump's companies has paid a penny in corporation tax to authorities in the UK. The reason? Not a single one has ever turned a profit.... [W]hen he took over Turnberry in 2014 - a year in which he paid no federal income taxes, according to the New York Times - the £35m purchase price [for Turnberry golf course & resort] was settled in cash.... Mr Trump declared more than £1bn in losses from his core businesses in 2008 and 2009.... [I]n November 2008, as a global recession hit, the then Trump Organisation executive vice-president, George Sorial, told The Scotsman that Mr Trump had £1bn 'sitting in the bank and ready to go' to finance his course in Aberdeenshire.... [W]here did his money come from?" --s
Colbert explores Trump's financial difficulties:
Presidential Race, Etc.
** Washington Post Editors Endorse Joe Biden for President: "The Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years. Those challenges have been, to varying degrees, created, exacerbated or neglected by the incumbent: the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more lives in this country than anywhere else in the world; rising inequality and racial disparities; a 21st-century, high-tech authoritarianism ascendant in the world, with democracy in retreat; a planet at risk due to human-caused climate change.... In contrast to Mr. Trump's narcissism, Mr. Biden is deeply empathetic; you can't imagine him dismissing wounded or fallen soldiers as 'losers.' To Mr. Trump's cynicism, Mr. Biden brings faith -- religious faith, yes, but also faith in American values and potential." Read on.
Wired on how to watch the first presidential debate, which begins tonight at 9 pm ET: "... the presidential debates are simulcast across all the major networks and cable news programs. If you have cable or satellite TV, or a live streaming TV service or a Mohu antenna, check your local listings -- do those exist anymore? -- and you're good.... You can find the debate on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN. Basically it'll be harder to avoid it than to watch it. You can also stream it on those various networks' sites and/or YouTube channels. If you're looking for something to bookmark, CBS, CSPAN, and ABC News have YouTube streams ready to go." And more.
Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The disclosure that President Trump paid little or no federal income taxes for years, including while in the White House, convulsed the presidential campaign on Monday ... and immediately scrambled the equation and stakes of the first debate to be held on Tuesday night. While Mr. Trump tried to deflect the news about his taxes, and his Republican allies generally kept their silence, Democrats pounced and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... posted a video noting that the president paid less in income taxes than everyday Americans like teachers, firefighters and nurses.... 'The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent,' he wrote. 'I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits.' He later refused to take questions at his only public event of the day." A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times maintains that its reporters obtained the tax documents from "sources with legal access to [them]," so Trump's claim about "illegally obtained information" appears to be baseless. Here's the Biden Twitter ad:
Teachers paid $7,239
— Team Joe (Text JOE to 30330) (@TeamJoe) September 28, 2020
Firefighters paid $5,283
Nurses paid $10,216
Donald Trump paid $750 pic.twitter.com/5YE1cbYsBN
~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "President Trump heads into his and Joe Biden's first debate already on defense as he fights off attacks stemming from a damning report that he avoided federal taxes for years and has racked up more than $400 million in debt, potentially putting his family-run business on shaky ground. With Trump's campaign hoping the first meeting between the two candidates Tuesday night would help him overcome his deficit in both national and key state polls, the New York Times report documenting Trump's tax avoidance strategies became the latest impediment to the president's ongoing effort to revive his flagging reelection bid. The report gave Biden, his Democratic opponent, a fresh line of attack and left Trump struggling to defend himself on an issue that has dogged him throughout his presidency. For Trump, who has fought relentlessly to keep his tax records private, a report showing he had paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017 immediately posed a threat to his carefully crafted image as a successful businessman and 'America First' patriot. The revelations appeared to take his campaign by surprise.... 'How much more did you pay in taxes than President Trump?' Biden wrote on Twitter, linking to a website with a 'Trump Tax Calculator.'"
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "When President Trump steps on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio, no doubt he will claim the Buckeye State as his turf -- living proof of his economic prowess, his ability to deliver an American manufacturing renaissance. 'It's incredible what's happened to the area,' he said Monday, in remarks at the White House previewing his talking points about supposedly resuscitated Ohio factories. 'It's booming now.' It's a lie. Not only because the poorly managed pandemic recession has destroyed 720,000 manufacturing jobs on net nationwide, including 38,000 in Ohio alone. Also because even before covid-19 broke out, Trump had deserted Ohio's manufacturing workers."
Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "In a meandering press conference on Sunday..., Donald Trump repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent's son, Hunter Biden, of receiving millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow's late mayor Yury Luzhkov, asking why 'nobody even has any question about it.' But Trump himself sought to do business with Luzhkov's government in the late 1990s, according to press reports from the time, SEC filings and comments made by Luzhkov last year.... The GOP report does not support the allegation that Hunter Biden personally accepted money from Baturina.... Trump's dealings in Moscow under Luzhkov are newly significant in light of the report released by Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley last week, which accused Luzhkov of facilitating corrupt real-estate deals during his 18-year reign." --s
Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "For six months, the rules for how Americans can vote during the coronavirus pandemic have been locked in court battles while states across the country rushed to embrace mail ballots. Now..., voting rights advocates and Democrats have advanced on key fronts in the legal war, scoring victories that make mail voting easier, ensure votes cast by mail are counted and protect the wide distribution of mail ballots in some states. A review by The Washington Post of nearly 90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges have been broadly skeptical as Republicans use claims of voter fraud to argue against such changes, declining to endorse the GOP's arguments or dismissing them as they examined limits on mail voting. In no case did a judge back President Trump's view -- refuted by experts -- that fraud is a problem significant enough to sway a presidential election. Some of the Democrats' wins have been preliminary. And in many cases, judges issued split decisions, granting some of the changes sought by liberal plaintiffs and otherwise maintaining the status quo as favored by Republicans." ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania's Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stop a decision by the state's high court to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Democrats' favor on a number of mail-voting rules: permitting voters to turn in ballots via drop box in addition to using the U.S. Postal Service; allowing ballots to be returned up to three days after Election Day; and blocking a Republican effort to allow partisan poll watchers to be stationed in counties where they do not live.... The request was filed with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. It is likely to be referred by him to the entire court. The justices usually are reluctant to intervene in legal battles over voting close to an election. The court often defers to state courts over such matters." The AP's story is here.
Eric Lichtblau of Time: "For three weeks in August, as election officials across the country were preparing to send out mail-in ballots to tens of millions of voters, the U.S. Postal Service stopped fully updating a national change of address system that most states use to keep their voter rolls current, according to multiple officials who use the system. A USPS spokesperson acknowledged the failure in response to questions from Time, and said that at least 1.8 million new changes of address had not been registered in the database."
Channel 4 News (UK): "Channel 4 News has exclusively obtained a vast cache of data used by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign on almost 200 million American voters. It reveals that 3.5 million Black Americans were categorised by Donald Trump's campaign as 'Deterrence' -- voters they wanted to stay home on election day.... Vast in scale, it contains details on almost 200 million Americans, among more than 5,000 files.... It reveals not only the huge amounts of data held on every individual voter, but how that data was used and manipulated by models and algorithms.... The 2016 campaign preceded the first fall in Black turnout in 20 years and allowed Donald Trump to take shock victories in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan by wafer-thin margins.... Two senior members of the Cambridge Analytica team are working on the Trump 2020 campaign." --s ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post has a story here. ~~~
~~~ Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Associate professor of media design David Carrell walked through transcripts of Congressional interviews with former digital director turned ex-campaign manager Brad Parscale.... He cited Channel 4 News which cited a Trump campaign data leak, exposing how 3.5 million Black Americans were listed as 'Deterrence' in an effort to get them to not vote. When Parscale testified to Congress, Rep Jackie Speier (D-CA) asked Parscale if the campaign targeted people like 'white men.' 'I did not target by race specifically in GOTV and/or persuasion efforts,' Parscale testified under oath. The new leaked data revealed that Parscale lied. He was also asked, 'Did you participate in a voter suppression operation targeting African Americans?' Again, he lied, saying, 'no.'" --s More on Parscale linked below.
Rob Mudge of Deutsche Welle: "For their documentary People You May Know, Charles Kriel, special adviser to the UK Parliament on disinformation, and filmmaker Katharina Gellein traveled across the United States accompanied by a team of journalists and whistleblowers. Their film reveals the political connection between religious fundamentalists, oligarchs and Cambridge Analytica and its shell companies, which have fundamentally shifted the balance of politics in the United States.... [The] new film reveals how Cambridge Analytica, collaborating with a software company, has created a platform for US churches that targets the poor, the addicted and the disabled -- to radicalize them for far-right politics." --s
Patricia Yeo, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Brad Parscale, President Trump's former 2020 campaign manager, was taken to a Fort Lauderdale hospital Sunday night after his wife called police saying he had firearms and was threatening to harm himself.... After a three-hour standoff with police, Parscale was eventually physically taken down and detained by several officers and had 10 firearms seized from his home. Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Lauren Dietrich told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel..., 'We went out and it was very short. We went and got him help,' Dietrich told the Sentinel.... A police report obtained by The Daily Beast on Monday contradicts that account, however. Per the newly released records, the initial call came from a next-door neighbor who said [Candace Parscale] came to her saying her husband may have shot her... 'Candace,' had bruises on her arms and face that she told an officer she received earlier in the week from Brad Parscale.... According to the Sun-Sentinel, the encounter lasted for more than three hours. At first, Parscale barricaded himself inside his home, though he later spoke to the intervening officers. At one point, he drank a beer in his driveway. Only when Officer Christopher Wilson, a personal friend, arrived on the scene did Parscale exit his house. It took a 'double-leg takedown' requiring several officers to detain Parscale, who is at least 6-foot-6." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Lauren, you have some explaining to do. I really would like to know why the police chief lied to reporters about the extent to which the police had to go to subdue Parscale, especially since Parscale posed a threat not only to his wife but also to police officers.
Texas. Mustn't Let "Those People" Vote. Emma Platoff of the Texas Tribune: "A litigious conservative activist in Houston, the Harris County Republican party, and a number of Republican officials and candidates are asking the Texas Supreme Court to limit in-person and absentee voting options for Harris County voters during the pandemic. The county, the state's most populous and a major Democratic stronghold, began letting voters drop off absentee ballots Monday for the Nov. 3 general election at 11 annexes. In line with a directive from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, the county also intends to begin in-person early voting Oct. 13."
Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump has accused his opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., of being 'against God,' 'against the Bible' and 'essentially against religion.'... [Mrs. McC: Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic.] As Mr. Trump seeks to court Catholic voters with five weeks to go in the election, he and his top advisers are claiming that any discussion of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's religious beliefs is tantamount to an anti-Catholic attack, as the president tries to rouse his voters by ginning up a culture war with what Republicans call a 'woke clan' on the left. At a Sunday night news conference at the White House, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of 'playing the religious card' with Judge Barrett, his nominee to the Supreme Court, who is a mother of seven and a devout Roman Catholic. 'On the religious situation with Amy, I thought we settled this 60 years ago with the election of John F. Kennedy,' Mr. Trump said. 'Seriously, they're going after her Catholicism.' Without evidence, the president then accused Democrats of 'basically fighting a major religion in our country.'" ~~~
~~~ Amy Goldstein & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: "In his third chance to shape the high court, the president is turning to a conservative judge who could tilt its balance toward his goal of abolishing the [Affordable Care law]. Barrett has not participated in any cases during three years on the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that dealt with the decade-old law, which has widened insurance coverage and altered many other aspects of the nation's health-care system. Yet her academic writing and public action offer glimpses into her views: She has criticized the legal logic behind a Supreme Court decision that preserved the law and opposed a provision involving birth control. Among the most revealing was an essay she wrote at the start of 2017, four months before Trump nominated her to the circuit bench. In the essay published by a journal of Notre Dame Law School..., Barrett argues that judges should respect the text of laws and contends that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who wrote the majority opinion the first time the Supreme Court upheld the health-care law, 'pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, those advocating against Barrett's confirmation -- including Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi -- are not exaggerating when they argue that Barrett poses an existential threat to Americans' access to affordable health insurance. Trump, et al.'s challenge to the law comes before the Court for oral arguments November 10. ~~~
~~~ Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "The day after President Trump's inauguration in 2017, the Women's March drew millions of people to the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the country in a collective display of outrage and grief that was widely considered the largest single-day protest in American history.... Last week, the Women's March organization said it is planning a 'socially distant march' in Washington and more than 30 other cities on Oct. 17, days before Senate Republicans aim to vote on Trump's pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is pleasant to remember that even as Trump falsely & hilariously claimed to have the biggest inaugural crowd ever, the march against him was actually the largest in U.S. history. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: John Oliver has got me to thinking that Trump had a great idea, after all: annex Greenland! -- so long as it became a state with two voting U.S. senators.
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here.
Dave Lawler in Axios: "The global toll of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 crossed 1 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins.... More than half of those deaths have come in four countries: the U.S. (204,762), Brazil (141,741), India (95,542) and Mexico (76,430). The true global death toll is likely far higher.... India is approaching 100,000 deaths. It's currently tallying the world's highest daily totals, followed by the U.S. and Brazil."
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) resumed discussions over a possible economic relief bill as Democrats offered a $2.2 trillion package and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin immediately engaged in talks. Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke Monday evening and agreed to talk again Tuesday morning, according to Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.... Democrats described their new offer as an updated version of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act the House passed in May, which the White House and Senate Republicans dismissed as far too costly. Senate Republicans and Mnuchin have also said $2.2 trillion is too much to spend, but Mnuchin has said he is open to negotiations." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Please keep Mark Meadows out of the room! Reportedly, it was he who gummed up the last round of negotiations. I don't think that strident cheapskate could negotiate his way out of the proverbial paper bag.
** Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Top White House officials pressured th Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer to play down the risk of sending children back to school, a strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic, according to documents and interviews with current and former government officials. As part of their behind-the-scenes effort, White House officials also tried to circumvent the C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic was weakening and posed little danger to children. The documents and interviews show how the White House spent weeks trying to press public health professionals to fall in line with President Trump's election-year agenda of pushing to reopen schools and the economy as quickly as possible.... The effort included Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, and officials working for Vice President Mike Pence, who led the task force. It left officials at the C.D.C., long considered the world's premier public health agency, alarmed at the degree of pressure from the White House."
Tony Fauci Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You People. Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Dr. Anthony Fauci, directly called out both Fox News and Trump's newly-appointed Covid adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, for spreading misleading information about the Covid pandemic. During an interview on CNN on Monday with Brian Stelter, Fauci pulled few punches in naming the network and the Trump confidante as doing a disservice to the public.... The comments from Fauci came just hours after he publicly questioned the decision by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to effectively end all indoor lockdowns in that state. With Covid cases up nearly 20 percent nationwide since the week after Labor Day, Fauci warned that 'we're not in a very good place' and singled out Florida's full re-opening of bars as 'very concerning.'" Includes CNN clip.
Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Mrs. McCrabbie: In a new book he crayoned with Dave Bossie, Cory Lewandowski claims then chief-of-staff John Kelly body-slammed him up against a wall outside the Oval Office. I suppose Kelly might tell a different story, but since they're both liars, we'll never know.
MEANWHILE at State Media. Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Diana Falzone & Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "The recent mass layoffs at Fox News -- an estimated body count of around 70, amounting to a little less than 3 percent of the cable channel's workforce -- signal what current and former employees describe as the purposeful devaluing of fact-based journalism in favor of right-wing opinion, race-baiting, and conspiracy-mongering at the top-rated, Donald Trump-friendly cable outlet. Fox News' PR department used anodyne corporate-speak to characterize the job losses, namely 'restructuring various divisions in order to position all of our businesses for ongoing success.' But the layoffs, outside of the hair and makeup department, cut most deeply into the channel's straight-news operations at Fox News Digital and elsewhere, according to insiders, while protecting the ratings-heavy, revenue-generating domains of Fox & Friends in the morning, and of Trump cheerleaders Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham in primetime. The outlet's so-called 'Brain Room,' which the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes established as the 24-year-old channel's fact-checking and research unit, has been especially hard-hit, losing around one-fourth of its 30-person staff along with two supervisors -- a virtual frontal lobotomy, according to sources familiar with the cutbacks." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Whoda thunk Fox could have a brain drain? But there you go.
** Kentucky. Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "A juror in the Breonna Taylor case contends that the Kentucky attorney general misrepresented the grand jury's deliberations and failed to offer the panel the option of indicting the two officers who fatally shot the young woman, according to the juror's lawyer. The unnamed juror filed a court motion on Monday seeking the release of last week's transcripts and permission from a judge to speak publicly to set the record straight. Hours later, the office of Attorney General Daniel Cameron granted both requests, saying that the juror is free to speak and that recordings of the session will be made public." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There's been an extraordinary amount of lying going on in Breonna Taylor's case, from conflicting accounts of what went down in her murder to trying to frame Taylor as some kind of drug mole, to now, perhaps, misrepresenting what evidence Cameron put before the grand jury. (On the other hand, Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager, is a grand fellow who, as Akhilleus wryly put it, "just had a bad day.") ~~~
~~~ Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "A former Louisville police officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he recklessly fired into a neighboring apartment during the fatal drug raid. At an arraignment via audio conference call, an attorney for Brett Hankison entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to three charges of wanton endangerment stemming from the fatal shooting of Taylor in her apartment on March 13."
Maryland. Heather Murphy of the New York Times: "A Maryland county has reached a $20 million settlement with the family of an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot by a police corporal while he was handcuffed in a patrol car in January, officials said on Monday. The figure, announced on Sunday, makes it among the largest settlements in a case involving a killing by a police officer.... The corporal, Michael Owen Jr., a 10-year veteran of the Prince George's Police Department, shot the man, William H. Green, 43, multiple times on Jan. 27, while Mr. Green's hands were handcuffed behind his back and as he sat in the front seat of a parked police cruiser, officials said. Officials said Corporal Owen, who is Black, fired seven shots from inside his patrol car, six of which struck Mr. Green, killing him. Mr. Green, a father of two who worked for Megabus, had been pulled over and handcuffed because he was suspected of driving under the influence after hitting several cars, the police chief said at the time.... An initial police account suggested that a struggle preceded the shooting. But after a review of what occurred, investigators concluded that there was 'no plausible explanation for how Mr. Green could have attempted to control the gun' of the corporal, [Angela] Alsobrooks[, the Prince George's county executive,] said. Within 24 hours of the killing, police officers charged Corporal Owen with second-degree murder."
News Lede
AP: "Helen Reddy, who shot to stardom in the 1970s with her rousing feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' and recorded a string of other hits, has died. She was 78." ~~~
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Reader Comments (20)
The first story I read about Trump campaign poobah, Brad (Deter those nee-groes) Parscale’s weapons galore suicide threat, it sounded as if he and some of his pals on the police force had had a nice chat, a cup of tea, after which they drove him to see the doctor to make sure his tutu was feeling okay.
Later, more accurate reports, don’t sound quite so chummy and laid back.
Just wondering, if this had been a black Democrat who had worked for Obama or Biden, if everything would have been handled so delicately. Or would the guy be lying in a pool of blood in his own driveway because he squinted the wrong way and the cops, “fearing for their lives”, filled him with enough lead to line an X-ray room.
I’m sorry, but no one can convince me, at this point, that being white, Republican, AND a friend of the Dear Leader didn’t inoculate Parscale from the sort of take no prisoners, head slamming approach employed against black men and women.
@Akhilleus: Also, too, I can't get over the contrast between the police chief's public lies about taking in Brad, the gun-toting, beer-guzzling threat to anyone within gun-shot range, & police public lies about any black person the cops arrest, maim or kill. The first thing we hear is that Brad almost instantly agreed to be "Bakered" & stepped meekly into a patrol car, just as the first thing coming out of official copland is that the cops feared for their lives when they stopped, maimed or killed a black person.
Marie,
Yeah. “Oh, no biggie, just our good buddy Brad. He had an off night, but everything is fine now.” As opposed to “Aiiieeee! Dangerous murderius blackie. We could tell he was ready to steal our patrol car, go to one of his drug dealer friends’ house, get cranked, then break into Jim Bob’s Guns &Ammo Discount Warehouse, steal a couple of Uzis, a flamethrower, and a rocket launcher, come back here, after stopping in the nearest toney suburb to rape a few white women, and kill us all! It was self-defense. We HAD to shoot him. 85 rounds in the back from 10 ft. away. Now where’s our medals for bravery and our commendation from Trump?”
My colleague was trying to submit his change of address information online several weeks ago. He thought it was a computer problem on his end. I never thought it was just another aspect of election fuckery. In the end, we found post office and he wrote his information on a card. I haven't heard if it went through or not.
NiskyGuy,
I fear your friend might be, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed.
Trump’s lackey, DeJoy, prob’ly has a new rule in place that sez address changes have to be triple checked personally by Postal inspectors, but oops! Those guys were all laid off in “absolutely necessary” cost cutting measures to ensure that the USPS is run in a Trump like genius businessman way. In other words, like a building on fire with all the doors and windows locked from the outside.
Hey kids, how ‘bout a Trump Lie Pool for tonight’s debatey thing (None of these shows come close to what a true debate should be, but...)?
How long before Fatty racks up 100 lies? I’m in for 3:45. And how about 200 lies? I make that about 5 minutes.
Speaking of Trump lies, who thinks the moderators will sit by politely while Trump does his Vesuvius of Mendacity impression? I’m not suggesting in depth fact checking which could require parsing the presentation of various policy ideals. I mean calling the Orange Menace out on clear, obvious lies, like how the US has done better than any other country in the world in handling the pandemic.
Okay, never mind. That’s not gonna happen.
What I’d really like to see is for Biden to keep his cool and bang that fat fuck like a screen door, like he did to Lyin’ Ryan in the VP debates a few years ago. “It gets cold in the mountains in the winter? That’s all you got? Very nice, Paul. You can go now.”
It should be interesting to see this thing held in an empty room with no audience. But I’m betting that Fox will do what they’re doing now with sports broadcasts, piping in fake crowd noise. Trump lies, yuuuge cheers! Hooray for our donniekins! Biden says something true. Boooo! Commie bastard!
This may be pay-walled, but Rick Wilson on The Daily Beast has a funny take on OM's debate prep with three potential scenarios.
"Knowing he’s never going to prepare like a grown-ass adult president, I present a few selections from the more likely versions of debate prep. He rarely listens to anyone for long, but between his family, his White House sycophants, and his Island of Misfit Toys campaign team, everyone might get a tiny bit of the attention apple before it’s over… not that it will do a damn bit of good."
Please read Charlie's take on questions to be asked of Judge Amy... I don't know how to imbed a link, but here is the address:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34194750/amy-coney-barrett-catholic-evangelical-alliance/
Scroll down to the comments, recently shoved off of Facebook and back into Esquire itself...keep scrolling. When you come to the questions reader Pat3497 asks, follow those questions and further on replies-- She/he says that they were sent to Judiciary on Saturday. I think they are exactly what should be asked.
Of course, then the questioners will be accused of religion-baiting. Two senators have thus far announced they won't meet with her, and I think more should, protesting the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell and the rest of the repugnican crime party. I plan to write my Dem senator about this, and have already written twice to Dishonest Toomey, the little worm...
The Parscale “psych hold” beggars belief. It sounds to my retired LE ears like a domestic violence incident, complete with threatening a victim with a loaded firearm while under the influence. A domestic violence arrest here in CA would mandate the removal of all his firearms. Florida....yikes.
@Jeanne: Here's your link: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34194750/amy-coney-barrett-catholic-evangelical-alliance/
Back from our six month Dental checkup––hygienists not only masked up but wore shields so when looking up at her (our dental practice consists of ALL women) it was like looking at an alien creature with two tiny black eyes. Before entering our temps were taken. Both hygienists expressed their frustration at having to listen to patients that spouted the exact lies of Fatty and yet because of their position were unable to respond the way they wished they could have.
"you would not believe how stupid some of these people are" said to Joe who countered with a litany of colorful responses.
After listening to John Oliver the frustration builds again reminding us that in the end it's the bloody system itself that needs drastic change–-something we have been saying for years––something that Bernie and Warren and"the Squad " and many others have advocated. Oliver's recipe for change is to use the shell bearing turtle's "I'm strong as mule piss" and counter it with "You have to fight mule piss with mule piss!"
I wonder if I'll still be around to see the results.
From yesterday:
@AK: just want you to know how delightful your riff on those special notes were. I'd almost forgotten that at age 10 or so, I teamed up with my friend, also named Phyllis, and we sang barbershop––went to hospitals, Lions club, etc. We called ourselves the Philly Dillies––we were a big hit–-got written up in the local news paper. Soon two other girls joined so we had a real quartet––since they both had names that began with P (Penny & Pat) we thought of changing our name to "The Four P's" but my mother nixed that in a nano second–-wonder what she would have thought of mule piss–-certain words were verboten in those days––at least with some mothers.
Out of the Closet at Last!
Eric Trump (the stupid one...no, check that. The REALLY stupid one) went on Fox and Friends (sounds like a children's book, doesn't it? One in which all the friends get eaten) and came out of the closet. No, he did.
Here's little Eric, letting the F&F idiots in on his little secret, and a much bigger secret:
"The LGBT community, they are incredible. And you should see how they come out in full force for my father every single day. I'm part of that community, and we love the man."
Um...okay, so the big secret first. LGBT community are yuuuuuge Fatty fans? And they come up in full force for him every single day? When and where does this happen? Oh...must be on the same planet from which F&F is broadcast.
And now the little secret. Eric is "part of that community". In referring to all the LGBT Trump fans (the brain dead ones?) he uses the first person plural pronoun "we". Well, oooohhkaaaay. Get him a rainbow hankie. And this might answer a long simmering question. Is Eric into the rough trade? He always looks a little beat up and out of it.
But hey, LGBT communitarian types for gay bashing daddy. Sounds perfectly reasonable.
Just imagine aliens watching F&F then finally coming to Earth. They be like "Hey, we thought gays loved Trump, black people were all monsters, poor people needed to be ground up and eaten, women were available for groping, and Republicans were the self-sacrificing heroes of the planet, especially the really rich ones. Wha' happen?"
Re: Eric Trump. We don't want him in the LGBTQ community. He could be B T or Q. Who knows, or who cares.
Well, I just think it's great that Eric is gay -- or so he seems to imply. I've said for decades that gay people were just like straight people, so quit making a big deal about it. But I have to admit that, as far as I know, I've never met a REALLY stupid gay person, while I definitely have met REALLY stupid straight people. So Eric has proved my point: gay people, like straight people, can be REALLY stupid, too. Thanks, Eric! Also, nice to know that even REALLY stupid people can broaden one's horizons.
What PD said regarding Oliver's the "bloody system": Yes! but also check out what Krystal Ball said on The Hill today regarding WAPO's fawning endorsement of Biden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFBk5CZCxY0
Let's not imagine any rainbows of hope should Biden win. The same system that let the spectacular orange failure steal and further demolish public trust in government will remain. Unless there is some hidden attribute to emerge in how the former senator of Delaware (where the majority of fortune 500 corporations are registered to avoid paying taxes) imagines the role of government, the Biden presidency might amount to a band-aid applied to a gaping wound that requires surgery. Still, consuming a two week-old ham sandwich is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. That's the choice.
We got our mail-in ballots today. I have to do a bit of research on the Board of Education candidates, but otherwise am good to go.
This scene from Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan, leapt to mind as I started working on the ballot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPsoxpt0BU
But: good news! I expect to have many more breaths, so even better!!
Sure, because everything bad is the fault of Democrats...
I can’t even characterize the following nonsense as twisted logic because logic is to this bullshit as intellectual vibrancy is to Steve Doocy.
But...
Human insecticide vat, Ann Coulter, apparently doesn’t think Trump’s bragging about paying no taxes is a good plan. The system, she says, is broken. Okay, I agree with both of those contentions. But then she goes full “Kill All Liberals” Coulter, demanding that Democrats fix the problem.
Because....Republicans are too busy? Don’t know how? Don’t care? Democrats are solely responsible for the tax code?
Who knows?
But that’s not the saddest/funniest part. One of Coulter’s Kool-Aid mainlining fans insists, in a comment that is both hair rising in its blank ignorance, and hysterical in its hermetically sealed Bubble world insularity, that Fatty be voted back so’s he can fix the problem. I guess he’s spent the previous four years in deep thought about how exactly he’s going to accomplish this feat.
This idiot, er commenter, is suggesting that Trump fix the tax code, that is make it more more equitable for those in all income groups, meaning that Fatty would take it upon himself to pay tens of millions of dollars more than the chump change he now forks over, by changing a system that keeps his greedy fat ass afloat in spite of his incompetence as a so-called businessman.
Now that’s a perfect example of how and why this criminal is in the White House killing Americans instead of in a jumpsuit working in the prison laundry. Trumpbots are stupider than Ron Johnson and Eric Trump baked together in a pie. And that’s saying something.
But okay, Ann, Democrats would love to fix the tax code, but we have a teensy problem: your party likes it this way. And they are IN CHARGE!
Jumping Jesus on an IRS audit form.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1310772722142777344
I cannot write the word “businessman” without recalling Molly Ivins’ description of Dubya as a “West Texas bidnessman”. Hahaha. Molly, we hardly knew ye. Gone far too soon. What she could have done with the current Republican monkey in the White House. We can only imagine.
Okay, one more then I’m hanging up my index finger.
Confederates, some of them, in the wake of the Times report about their criminal tax cheat of a little king, are screeching for an investigation into who spilled the beans by handing Fatty’s tax information over to reporters. At the same time, others, including the aforementioned criminal tax cheat, are yelping that it’s all fake news. Invented. A hoax!
So which is it? If it’s all fiction, then no actual tax records we’re involved. If there’s a cry for an investigation, then the report is 100% true.
These are the idiots who move a desk through a doorway by having guys on both sides of the desk pushing.
Okay, I lied.
New name for Tax Cheat Man:
Brokeahontas. Hahaha...
@Ak. I like it. Even better than the Orange Cheat-o.
The biggest tell with his tax payment lie is - Given the variables year to year, who ever pays the same amount two years in a row? I never have.