;)
The Commentariat -- September 20, 2017
** "#AlwaysTrump." Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "No matter how he leaves the White House, we'll never be rid of Trump -- and all that he represents about America.... To wish for Trump to go away is to believe that the forces underlying his rise to power will somehow cease to exist. But his success will only serve to inspire imitators.... We [must] put aside our delusion of returning to a world without Trump and see him for what he is: a symptom of something deep and intractable in the American psyche that was not caused by a single election, and cannot be cured by one." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's useful to remember that the majority of the founders of the U.S. were the rabble of Europe. Especially in the South, but in the Northeast as well, "immigrants" were the prisoners & riffraff the British chose to send far, far away. Many were prisoners of war, so they might not have been so bad (altho those happy few, those bands of brothers, tended to be riffraff, too). But others were just plain prisoners, jailed for crimes (though some of the "criminals" were merely debtors). These ancestors passed on their reasonable distrust of government & of societal niceties down through the generations. To make matters worse, the "better class" of immigrants -- those who received large land grants, for instance -- contributed their admiration for feudal arrangements & inherited entitlements. Their descendants still think they have a right to rule those outside the "tribe" without interference from do-gooder liberals who would deprive them of the freeeedom to abuse others. Heer is right; Trumpism will not go away. It has always been with us.
Trump Is "An Embarrassment to the United States." David Nakamura & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump warned the United Nations in a speech Tuesday that the world faces 'great peril' from rogue regimes with powerful weapons and terrorists with expanding reach across the globe, and called on fellow leaders to join the United States in the fight to defeat what he called failed or murderous ideologies and 'loser terrorists.'... Trump offered a hand to fellow leaders but also called on them to embrace 'national sovereignty' and to do more to ensure the prosperity and security of their own countries. Over and over, he stressed the rights and roles of 'strong, sovereign nations' even as they band together at the United Nations.... Trump also called the U.N.-backed Iran nuclear deal 'one of the worst and most one-sided' agreements ever, and 'an embarrassment' to the United States. His voice rising, Trump strongly hinted that his administration could soon declare Tehran out of compliance. That could potentially unravel the accord." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump offered the General Assembly a strikingly selective definition of sovereignty, threatening to act aggressively against countries like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela..., yet saying almost nothing about Russia, which seized territory from its neighbor Ukraine, and meddled in the American presidential election. But more important than how he defined sovereignty was Mr. Trump's adoption of the word itself -- language more familiar to small countries.... America, he said, would no longer enter into 'one-sided' alliances or agreements. It would no longer shoulder an unfair financial burden in bodies like the United Nations.... It was a defiant speech, peppered with threats and denunciations.... But it was more remarkable for how Mr. Trump departed from decades of bipartisan foreign-policy consensus. Even if they fell short, American presidents have generally staked out a global role for the United States in confronting the world's problems.... Some foreign-policy experts said Mr. Trump's definition [of sovereignty] was problematic because he applied it inconsistently.... His failure to mention Russia's interference in the 2016 election was in keeping with his general reluctance to criticize Moscow. But it was nevertheless remarkable, given that few actions constitute a more direct threat to American sovereignty than that one." Trump did briefly, if obliquely criticize Russia & China.
... Greg Jaffe & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Trump was selective in his view of bad actors -- North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela -- whose sovereignty should not be respected. He made little mention of China or Russia, congratulating both on their recent U.N. vote for more sanctions, and offered a glancing mention of Ukraine.... In a puzzling attack against communism and socialism, Trump limited his criticisms to Cuba and Venezuela, ignoring China, the world's communist behemoth.... The speech was animated by a bellicosity and swagger that is unusual for the world body.... He said that if the United States was compelled to defend itself or its allies that it would obliterate North Korea, a policy articulated by earlier administrations, albeit not in such Strangelovian terms.... [Mrs. McC: Get ready to LOL.] In previewing the speech for reporters, one senior White House aide described it as 'a deeply philosophical address.'..." Roll over, John Locke. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Making the World Unsafe Again. Robin Wright of the New Yorker has perhaps the best analysis of Trump's U.N. speech & its likely effects. None of it is good news. ...
... It Probably Sounded Better in the Original Russian." Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "If you liked the #MAGA speech that the American president just delivered to the UN, you'll love the original version": the one Vladimir Putin delivered in 2015. "Whatever nexus between Putin and Trump exists for Robert Mueller to discover, the evidence of their compatible visions of foreign affairs was on display at the United Nations clearer than ever, with Trump's aggressive incantation of 'sovereignty, security and prosperity' as the path to world peace.... Trump's vision of an America that does less abroad -- aside from issue apocalyptic threats -- and tolerates more is one that removes obstacles to a resurgent, aggressive Russia." ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump's address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday may have been the most hostile, dangerous, and intellectually confused -- if not outright dishonest -- speech ever delivered by an American president to an international body. It began -- as all Trump speeches must begin, it seems -- with a boast of how much better life in America has been since his election: stock market up, unemployment down, military stronger. This was a clue that the speech, though sometimes couched in the language of international principles ... was really going to be about Trump -- and Trump's dark vision of what the world should look like." Read on. ...
... Juan Cole: "It is very odd that you would blame the survival of the al-Assad regime on Iran alone and not bring up Russia. Russia has spent way more in Syria than Iran and has used its Aerospace Forces for intensive bombing over 2 years, a much bigger military impact than Iran's. And Trump himself keeps saying Arabs need strongmen to rule them." ...
Nicholas Fandos & Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday abruptly postponed an interview with President Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, shortly after the publication of his opening statement, which asserted his innocence and defended the president. Mr. Cohen was prepared to tell the committee's investigators that the president's critics were using rumors and innuendo about Russian interference in the election in an attempt to undercut Mr. Trump's presidency. But senators shut down the closed-door hearing, accusing Mr. Cohen of 'releasing a public statement' despite 'requests that he refrain from public comment.'... The senior members of the committee, Senators Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, issued a statement saying that they would reschedule Mr. Cohen's appearance and that he would appear publicly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Paul Waldman states the obvious: "Trump just made it harder to get North Korea to give up nukes.... There may be no way to convince Kim that there's a better future that could await him and his country if he gives up his weapons. But he certainly won't believe it if Trump is so loudly trashing the Iran nuclear deal and threatening to pull out of it at the earliest opportunity. Why would Kim ever believe a thing he says?"
Evan Perez & Shimon Prokupecz of CNN: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is reaching back more than a decade in its investigation of Paul Manafort, a sign of the pressure Mueller is placing on ... Donald Trump's former campaign chairman.The FBI's warrant for a July search of Manafort's Alexandria, Virginia, home said the investigation centered on possible crimes committed as far back as January 2006, according to a source briefed on the investigation. The broad time frame is the latest indication that Mueller's team is going well beyond Russian meddling during the campaign as part of its investigation of Trump campaign associates. Manafort, who has been the subject of an FBI investigation for three years, has emerged as a focal point for Mueller." ...
... Randall Eliason in a Washington Post op-ed: "Reports that the FBI wiretapped former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort ... [constitute] a big deal primarily because of what it takes to obtain such a wiretap order. The warrant reportedly was issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A FISA warrant requires investigators to demonstrate to the FISA court that there is probable cause to believe the target may be acting as an unlawful foreign agent.... The search warrant executed at Manafort's home in July was ... a significant step in the investigation. Unlike a grand jury subpoena, the search warrant required [Robert] Mueller's team to demonstrate to a judge that a crime probably had been committed." ...
... David Caplan & Mike Levine of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's staff has interviewed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as part of the Justice Department's Russia probe, ABC News has confirmed. The interview took place in either June or July, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Rosenstein had been interviewed. Mueller's investigators report to Rosenstein, who oversaw the Justice Department's Russia investigation following the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Asked whether Rosenstein might have to recuse himself from the matter, a Department of Justice spokesman said in a statement Tuesday, 'As the Deputy Attorney General has said numerous times, if there comes a time when he needs to recuse, he will. However, nothing has changed.'"
Sheila Kaplan & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The scientist nominated to head the federal government's chemical regulatory program has spent much of his career helping businesses fight restrictions on the use of potentially toxic compounds in consumer goods. That record is expected to figure prominently in a Senate confirmation hearing for the scientist, Michael L. Dourson, who critics say is too closely tied to the chemical industry to be its chief regulator. The source of the concern is a consulting group that Mr. Dourson founded in 1995, which has been paid by chemical companies for research and reports that frequently downplayed the health risks posed by their compounds.... If confirmed, Mr. Dourson would oversee the review of some chemicals produced by companies that his firm used to represent.... Mr. Dourson has a popular sideline as a writer of books that combine Bible stories with his views on science. His series, 'Evidence of Faith,' is an examination of the intersection of evolution and bible history." Mrs. McC: Oh, gawd.
Deirdre Walsh of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan urged the Senate to pass the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, calling the proposal 'our best, last chance to get repeal and replace done.' If it passed the Senate, Ryan said, he would bring it straight to the House floor vote a vote." ...
... Robert Pear & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Republican leaders pressed toward a showdown vote. And they choked off separate bipartisan efforts to shore up health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, hoping to give Republican senators no alternative but to vote for repeal." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd just like to note here that this bill is specifically designed to punish residents of states that signed up for ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion. As Pear & Kaplan note, "Under the legislation, states with high health care costs -- especially if they expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act -- would generally lose money, while low-cost states that did not expand Medicaid would gain." The bill's sponsors have admitted that's the point. Again, from the NYT report: "Mr. Graham and Mr. Cassidy have cited Maryland as a state that, in their view, has been receiving more than its fair share of money under the Affordable Care Act." Maryland's governor, Larry Hogan, a Republican, opposes the bill. ...
... Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The suddenly resurgent Republican effort to undo the Affordable Care Act was dealt a major blow on Tuesday when a bipartisan group of governors came out against a proposal gaining steam in the Senate. But it was unclear whether it would ultimately derail the attempt, as key Republican senators including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they had yet to make up their minds. The collective criticism from 10 governors arrived as Vice President Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to rally support for the bill.... 'We ask you not to consider the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson amendment and renew support for bipartisan efforts to make health care more available and affordable for all Americans,' the governors said in their letter. They added that they prefer a bipartisan push to stabilize the insurance marketplaces that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have been negotiating. The governors who signed the bill are particularly notable, since some are from states represented by Republican senators who are weighing whether to back the bill. Among them: Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I), who holds some sway over Murkowski, a potentially decisive vote who opposed a previous Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "The Graham-Cassidy Amendment ... Violates the Precept of 'First Do No Harm.'" "Bruce Jaspen in Forbes: "The American Medical Association joined a parade of patient advocates, healthcare groups and the largest senior lobby to oppose the Republican-led Senate's latest effort to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, saying it would lead to millions losing coverage and hurt Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.... But the AMA, AARP and a growing chorus of groups say Graham-Cassidy is no different than earlier failed legislative attempts in that it would lead to millions of Americans losing their coverage. The groups also accused Republicans of short-circuiting the legislative process by not having hearings on Graham-Cassidy." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... the [Republican] Party leadership is looking to ram through the Graham-Cassidy bill before the American public realizes how awful it is. Rushing the bill through this way is about the only way it could pass. Several previous Republican bills were doomed by the Congressional Budget Office, which issued analyses detailing how the plans would cause tens of millions of Americans to lose their health-insurance coverage. By waiting until last week to finalize their bill, Graham and Cassidy didn't leave the C.B.O. enough time to do a proper scoring before a vote is taken.... By targeting the low-paid, the sick, and the infirm, the legislation would create hundreds of billions of dollars in budget savings; these could then be applied to Republican tax cuts aimed primarily at rich households and corporations." ...
... Affordable Health Care? Ha Ha Ha. Cassidy: "... by stripping away the subsidies for the purchase of policies, abolishing the employer and individual mandates, getting rid of the lifetime caps on health-care outlays, and allowing insurers to force people with preëxisting conditions to pay more.How much more? According to a new analysis by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, opioid addicts and people with rheumatoid arthritis would face surcharges of more than twenty thousand dollars a year. (That's in addition to the regular premiums.) For people with serious heart conditions, the surcharge would be more than fifty thousand dollars a year. And for those with metastatic cancer, it would be more than a hundred and forty thousand dollars." ...
I've never felt better about where we're at. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the vote count for his bill ...
Graham feels good about killing sick people. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The Senate Health Committee chairman on Tuesday released a statement ending a bipartisan effort to find an ObamaCare fix amid a new GOP push to repeal the law. 'During the last month, we have worked hard and in good faith, but have not found the necessary consensus among Republicans and Democrats to put a bill in the Senate leaders' hands that could be enacted,' Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in the statement. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumers's (D-N.Y.) office dismissed Alexander's statement about the bipartisan efforts, saying the announcement Tuesday was 'not about substance' while pointing to the last-ditch GOP repeal push being led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.). 'We gave them many of the things they asked for, including copper plans and wide waiver authority. The Republican leadership is so eager to pass Graham-Cassidy that they're scuttling a balanced, bipartisan negotiation,' Schumer spokesman Matt House said in a statement.... Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the committee, had tried to keep the talks alive.... Alexander ... also blamed Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) announcement of single payer legislation last week for creating a partisan atmosphere as well." ...
... Paul Waldman: "Putting blame on the Democratic single payer bill is utter baloney -- that bill won't even get a committee hearing for years. One hundred percent of the fault here lies with the Republicans. And this was, believe it or not, a good-faith effort by some in both parties to stabilize the exchanges. But to the infinitely cynical Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump, that couldn't be tolerated." (Full comment.)
Dana Milbank: "... recent events make it feel as if we're in an earlier time, when a woman's job in politics was simple: sit down and shut up. This no doubt is the work of a president who, by word and deed, made sexism safe again, giving license to shed 'political correctness' and blame troubles on minorities, immigrants and women. Trump's golf tweet [where he seems to hit Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, knocking her down] no doubt was inspired by the attention Clinton has gotten for her new book, which has been met with a predictable response: wishing the woman who won the popular vote would 'shut up and go away' -- as Fox News's Greg Gutfeld put it. Many reviewers and commentators said similar. The public disagrees; the book is a No. 1 bestseller.... When Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) rose on the House floor this month to oppose an amendment by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Young twice called Jayapal, 51, a 'young lady,' and said she 'doesn't know a damn thing.' (Young later apologized.)... Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)..., at two different hearings in July shut down Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) when she aggressively questioned witnesses. Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, ordered her to be silent and lectured her about 'courtesy.' And this, in turn, echoed ... Mitch McConnell's infamous silencing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on the Senate floor in February when she read a letter from Coretta Scott King criticizing Jeff Sessions.... Male senators reading the letter received no rebuke.... In the White House last week..., Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the only woman in a room with 10 men, twice tried to answer a question. Both times, she was spoken over. Finally, the former speaker of the House broke through. 'Does anybody listen to women when they speak around here?' she asked." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hillary's book is a bestseller & probably not because she bought thousands of copies of it herself. See yesterday's Commentariat for context.
Richard Paddock & Hannah Beech of the New York Times: "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and de facto leader of Myanmar, stood before a room of government officials and foreign dignitaries on Tuesday to at last, after weeks of international urging, address the plight of the country's Rohingya ethnic minority.... In her speech, delivered in crisp English and often directly inviting foreign listeners to 'join us' in addressing Myanmar's problems, she steadfastly refused to criticize the country's military, which has been accused of a vast campaign of killing, rape and village burning. 'The security forces have been instructed to adhere strictly to the code of conduct in carrying out security operations, to exercise all due restraint and to take full measures to avoid collateral damage and the harming of innocent civilians,' she said.... As she spoke, more than 400,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority long repressed by the Buddhists who dominate Myanmar, had fled a military massacre that the United Nations has called a 'textbook example of ethnic cleansing.'" ...
... Amanda Taub of the New York Times: "In Myanmar, the Rohingya have long been demonized as outsiders in their own country. They have been present in Myanmar since the 12th century, according to Human Rights Watch. But excluding them from the nation, and later even from legal citizenship, has long been a political tool, part of the process of defining the nation by deeming some outside it." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that millions of Americans, including the POTUS*, want the U.S. to become a "white, Christian nation." Also, too, there are only a few ethnic groups who have been in the Americas, & in the U.S. particularly, since the 12th century. White Christians were not among them. The ancestors of many Hispanics, on the other hand, were. Donald Trump is proud of his heritage. It's mostly foreign.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Jake LaMotta, an iron-jawed boxer who brawled his way to the world middleweight championship in 1949 and whose tempestuous life was compellingly portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Robert De Niro in the film 'Raging Bull,' died Sept. 19 at a rehabilitation facility in Aventura, Fla. He was 95, according to his family, although some records indicate he may have been a year older. A daughter, Christi LaMotta, announced his death in a Facebook post but did not provide additional details."
New York Times: "Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico with a one-two punch of high winds and driving rain on Wednesday, and sent thousands of people scrambling to shelters. Electricity was knocked out on the whole island, a spokeswoman for the Puerto Rico State Agency for Emergency and Disaster Management said. The authorities warned weary residents not to let down their guard, because flash flooding and mudslides could be more deadly than the initial winds from the storm, now a Category 2 system."
New York Times: "Early Wednesday, the director of Mexico's civil protection agency, Luis Felipe Puente, said on Twitter that 216 people had been killed, revising an earlier toll of 248. Eighty-three people were killed in Mexico City, Mr. Puente said. Rescuers were frantically digging out people trapped under rubble, including the children buried beneath their school, volunteers at the scene said Tuesday night. At least 21 students were believed to have been killed in the collapse of the school."
New York Times: "Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 storm early Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and winds of up to 155 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. Shortly after 6 a.m., the eye of the storm hit Yabucoa in southeastern Puerto Rico after crossing the United States Virgin Islands as a Category 5 storm. It had weakened slightly but remained 'extremely dangerous,' the center said."
CNN: "Tropical Storm Jose is losing strength, but marching on. The storm formerly known as Hurricane Jose is still lurking in the northeastern US coast, packing winds of 65 mph and the threat of flooding.By early Wednesday, Jose was 195 miles away from Nantucket, Massachusetts, after dumping rain in North Carolina's Outer Banks and Virginia as it passed by the day before. 'Jose weakens as it moves over cooler ocean waters,' the National Hurricane Center said. 'Dangerous surf and rip currents along the US East coast will continue for several more days.' CNN affiliate WAVY-TV producer David Craft posted photos of cars partially submerged under water on streets in Norfolk, Virginia."
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Reader Comments (16)
More Both Sides lies.
Lamar Alexander's attempt to give Confederates cover if they fail yet again to ram through a pernicious, Dickensian vision of healthcare (grand if you're rich, perilous if you're middle class, non-existent if you're poor) which hands money over to hateful and vindictive red state leaders to do with as they will and prepares the way for outrageous tax cuts for the wealthy, by blaming Bernie Sanders for "partisan" talk of a single payer solution is nought but one more scurrilous attempt to evade responsibility for their own contemptuous and incompetent, anti-democratic scheming.
The current Graham-Cassidy plan to make a horrifyingly draconian dodge even worse was under way months before Sanders started reviving talk of a single payer plan. These assholes can't even admit their own toxic combination of misanthropy, malevolence, cupidity, and ineptitude, as perfect a description of the Party of Trump as one could hope for.
Akhilleus,
One of the many factors that baffle me about the on-going health care debate in the United States is the apparent (to me) absence of any fundamental discussion of the importance of an average citizen's health to national security. Consider the often used mantra: “the President (or Senator, or Congressperson, or Attorney General) wants to keep Americans safe.” Surely the best and most immediate way to keep citizens of the United States safe, is to make continuing, intelligent and rational efforts to keep them healthy and well educated. From what little I have had time to read, the Graham-Cassidy bill will make millions of Americans substantially less safe, including those who may themselves have excellent health insurance coverage. Another factor that baffles me is that there is little discussion of the reality, to me, that part of every citizen's meaningful and enduring wealth is the good health and good education of her or his neighbors. I wonder if John Donne's “No Man Is An Island” is still taught in high school English and Civics classes. Bernie Sander's to his credit when once asked to explain his religious beliefs responded, with welcome reluctance to talk about so personal a subject: “We're all in this together.” Exactly.
Jimmy Kimmel says Sen. Bill Cassidy "‘lied right to my face’ " Good to watch the video embedded above and also read this piece in the Washington Post by Emily Yahr about his position on health-care.
Per WaPo: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) coined the phrase “the Jimmy Kimmel test,” as in “Would a child born with congenital heart disease be able to get everything he or she would need in that first year of life?” Cassidy then appeared on Kimmel’s show, and the senator reiterated the importance of making sure middle-class families could afford health care.
...and then, if you can bear it watch a snippet of Lindsay Graham's announcement. (...Trump is focused like a laser on health-care...") He giggles when he introduces his cohorts. No wonder, Charles Pierce calls him Miss PittyPat.
In addition, a bit of catchup to Akhilleus: Thank you for bringing the writings of John McPhee to my attention! Using your main link from yesterday's post I tracked to other articles. His piece on " Editors and Publishers" is hilarious and brilliant.
But, gotta say…one article I picked at random to read about horse breeding had me practically falling off my chair with McPhee's “…giving Go Man GO a sense of grand reception.” (You’ll know what I’m referring to here)!
Regarding our national embarrassment at the UN yesterday, was that another example from the other deranged fool in the WH known as Stephen Miller?
@Unwashed: Miller's maniacal handprints are all over that speech. I swear he presents so clearly as the spy that came out of the cold only in this case he continues to look a little like a frozen figure–––that face, similar to Jared's––Dorian Gray's with the hidden portrait rotting away in the closet.
In Milbank's piece above he cites Burr as the one who shut down Kamala Harris. What he fails to include is that it was McCain in both instances that shut her up first and Burr followed because he was chairman.
I don't pay much attention to celebrity gossip but I find the news that Billy Bush and his wife of 20 years (they have three young daughters) have separated significant in the sense that the "Pussy grabbing" episode has not only ruined Bush's career but now apparently his marriage while the guy who actually bragged about his conquests is now the president*. There is something really sick about this.
Harvard rescinds their invitation to Chelsea Manning.
Harvard Business School Study finds U.S. Government is its own worst enemy. Oh, noes, say it isn't soooo.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/harvard-business-school-study-u-s-government-worst-enemy/
Meanwhile Mueller's net is widening while the hurricanes are still coming and earthquakes are killing Mexicans by the hundreds.
@PDPepe: Remember when Keith Olbermann had his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment? If that show were still on air, Stephen Miller would surely be selected nightly. The show would need to add another category, a Hall of Infamy, as he would be a constant. That said, many others from the Trump administration also make the extensive list of worsts!
Wonder if there is some sort of inverse C.V. file that documents those vastly unqualified persons upon which the GOP continually places in high-ranking positions. Its motto: Do As Much Harm As You Can.
The real problem isn't Stephen Miller or any one else in the WH. The problem is that the POTUS is incapable of writing a speech or coming up with something called a plan. It is one thing for a President to get the help of others in making a decision. It's another thing when he can't figure out the facts and his decision is to rely on others.
Yesterday my daughter who lives in OR, posted a video on FB of a crowd greeting Sessions in Portland. The chant was "F...k Jeff Sessions'. And the Emmy's were all about the clown-in-chief. (My favorite was the line in the opening song supporting treason on TV).
The new America.
Islander,
Excellent point. And I believe you may have answered, however obliquely, your own query as to how it is that supporters of the dreadful Republican approach to healthcare (i.e., mostly for the rich, with the occasional band-aid for the middle class, but zippo for the poor), and education, cannot see that healthy, well educated citizens benefit the entire society as a whole and make us, as a nation, safer.
The answer is clear. They don't care a fig for society as a whole. Their interest resides solely in how they can take care of their donor class and the rest of the 1%.
They also don't care about women, minorities, religious sects other than the Christian far right, or any non-whites, especially those unlikely to vote their way.
They don't see education as important as an enterprise to improve the critical thought of voters so as to allow them to make the best decisions. Education is a way, through people like Betsy Devos, to intimidate and impoverish critical thinkers and to brainwash the masses. Naturally, were people able to think for themselves, few of them would vote Republican unless they sided with one of their other preeminent values: bigotry, hatred, and fact-free legislative processes.
A healthy, educated populace is most certainly better off, and safer, so it's not really safety that they're after either.
They're after the continuation of their own power. Power to keep themselves in power and their donors in the pink and rolling in green.
Period.
Yesterday, Marie brought up John Locke in an aside about how far removed the current "leader" is from one of the most prominent philosophical "advisors" to the founders.
Pulling, just a bit, on that string, reminds us of the depth and breadth of various schools of thought that influenced Madison, Monroe, Jay, Jefferson, and others from that illustrious cohort.
And the thinkers from those schools themselves were influenced by other philosophers, making their own work, and by extension, that of the founders, that much more well thought out, with a depth that provided a 360 degree view of issues of great moment.
Take Locke, for example. It's only recently that I began to learn of his debt to Spinoza. I know what you're thinking...Locke? And Spinoza? No way. Yes, way. (Don't believe me? Check it out.) Locke, generally considered a more moderate and careful Enlightenment thinker, taking cues from the radical Dutch thinker who was expelled from the Jewish community in Amsterdam (a notoriously liberal place in the 18th century) for his revolutionary writings, especially his criticism of the Bible, seems, naturally, a stretch. Until you look closely.
Oddly enough, Spinoza (an eternally interesting guy)--often thought of as an atheistic, heretical sort--writes about the value of religion to a peaceful and law abiding state. (He even developed his own Ontological Proof--like I said, a very interesting guy.) Funnily enough, Locke says pretty much the same thing. What recommended Locke (and through him, Spinoza) to the founders, was an abiding sense of the value of toleration to good governance. Spinoza also wrote of the importance of recognizing the natural rights of man. I'm not learned enough to say for sure whether or not Tom Paine was a Spinoza fan, but it would surprise me not in the least. So even though he was appalled by the idea of a revolution (considering the political upheavals he lived through), he was at least partially instrumental in fomenting quite a big one.
Then there was Montesquieu's work on law and the courts. These thoughts helped the creation of the important third pillar in the American system of government along with the legislative and executive branches.
And Hobbes, and Machiavelli (yeah, him too), Descartes, Plato, even that nut Rousseau, and the great Scot skeptic, our old pal Hume, all had roles to play in the development of the founders' political philosophy.
These were guys who were not afraid to consider all sides (the traditional definition of a liberal, by the way), challenge their own most dearly held beliefs, and to return time and again to concerns of freedom, rights, toleration, proper governance, civic responsibilities, and the limits of civil and executive authority.
Jefferson and Madison had Locke, Hobbes, Spinoza, Plato, Montesquieu, and Hume to advise them.
Trump has Steve Doocy, Sean Hannity, and Alex Jones.
Notice the difference?
It's probably not fair to compare Trump to Jefferson (even though he himself does it, to great advantage, no doubt). Comparing a giant in any field with a later, less accomplished practitioner is not always fair. It would be like comparing Rembrandt with a decent, but not genius level, commercial artist.
But in Trump's case, it's like comparing Van Gogh with a guy who draws dicks on the walls of a men's room stall.
So is Locke spinning in his grave? Like a top.
https://wired.com/story/trump-2020-campaign-money/
It seems trump's 2020 campaign has already paid out $600K-------
to trump. For things like golf cart rentals, bottled water, hotel
rentals, etc.
To me, the scary thing isn't the payouts to trump from his 2020
campaign fund. The scary thing is that he even has a f---ing
campaign fund.
The Enemy of My Enemy is...My Enemy.
Confederates are curling their hair with napalm and setting it on fire because Senator Aqua Buddha is not aligning his cosmic bigotory bing-a-bings with their latest draconian effort to deny Americans the sort of healthcare that could push them past the life expectancy of Civil War veterans.
On the surface, one is tempted to say "Hoo-rah for Boo-dah". Until one realizes why he is refusing to vote for the Graham-Cassidy deathcare bill.
It's not BAD ENOUGH! It's TOO KIND.
It gives too much money to the poors. It covers TOO MUCH. And it actually provides SOME TINY BIT OF HEALTHCARE to questionable types who DON'T DESERVE IT!
This shit is beyond the pale for Senator Shove-A-Stick-in-Your-Eye.
By his lights, if you're poor, too fucking bad. If you can't afford healthcare, don't get sick. If you have a problem with your eyes, come see him, but bring cash. A LOT of it. Oh, and plenty of towels. There'll be a lot of blood.
Hoo-rah for Boo-dah.
HHS Sec'y Tom Pricey Saves Taxpayers MONEY!
(Not really. He's a lying sack of shit.)
Oh, man. Tom Price, galumphing insider trading cheater, who thinks that doctors should, like he did, take the Hypocritic Oath, is on the carpet.
Price has been yelping about saving money, saving money, saving money. What he really means is "No healthcare for poors, No healthcare for blacks, No healthcare for browns, but private jets for ME! Yippee".
Oh, and he's very big on SAVING MONEY, dontcha know?
This is why he takes private jets wherever he goes. It's cheaper. No, really. It is. You don't need half as much fuel! And they can only carry three cases of hand-crafted whiskey bourbon. Big Savings!
"In a sharp departure from his predecessors, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last week took private jets on five separate flights for official business, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial travel."
That's "sharp", as in stick. The one Tom-I'm better than these stiffs--Price is shoving up your ass.
Oh, and, according to HHS flunkies, the Health and Human Scumbag Secretary only takes private jets when commercial jets "aren't feasible". And what does that mean? Commercial jets are only feasible, for Sec'y Pricey, every seventh Thursday of each month.
Jesus, why is it that the cheating, hypocritical grifters and con artists evacuate the bushes en masse whenever we have a Confedrerate scumbag in the White House? It's like a run on the bank, circa 1929. They'd brain you if you got in their way.
If one tenth of the bullshit that went on during the first 9 months of Trump World, occurred during the entire eight years of Obama, there'd be calls for a rope. Oh wait. There WERE calls for a rope.
Never mind.
Jeez Akhilleus, you had to bring up Rand Paul. I had completely
forgotten about his expertise in self certified eye surgery. I had
to go and find one with 14 years of college, residency, internship
and a 99% plus satisfactory rate. Dumb me. And he takes my
insurance, no cash involved.
A nice polite Trump voter in the Loop in Chicago demonstrates the sort of brotherly love promoted by the Glorious Leader.
Trumpiness is in the air everywhere!
Must be one of those "fine people" Trump is so enamored of. Sure seems like it.
God, those blahs! So annoying. Can't even take a simple "You're a slave" joke.
Forrest,
Dude. You're just not with it. These days, Confederate "doctors" don't need edumacation or certificamacation. They say a prayer to Jesus and stick a needle in your eye.
If you go blind, it's like those Medieval tests to determine if someone's a witch. They throw someone in the water. If she drowns, she's not a witch. If she can swim, she's a witch. You go blind? You didn't deserve to see anyway.
Praise Buddha.