The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Sunday
Apr282019
The Commentariat -- April 29, 2019
A Milestone in Presidential* History. Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "It took President Trump 601 days to top 5,000 false and misleading claims in The Fact Checker's database, an average of eight claims a day. But on April 26, just 226 days later, the president crossed the 10,000 mark -- an average of nearly 23 claims a day in this seven-month period, which included the many rallies he held before the midterm elections, the partial government shutdown over his promised border wall and the release of the special counsel's report on Russian interference in the presidential election.... As of April 27, including the president's rally in Green Bay, Wis., the tally in our database stands at 10,111 claims in 828 days." Mrs. McC: Sadly, I couldn't figure out exactly what lie was the 10,000th. Trump's public lies, IMO, ought to be an article of impeachment.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Barr Dictates Terms of His Testimony. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “Attorney General William P. Barr and congressional Democrats clashed on Sunday over the terms of Mr. Barr's scheduled testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this week, with Mr. Barr threatening to skip the session and the panel's chairman threatening to subpoena him. The dispute, which spilled out into the public with dueling comments from each camp, revolves around Mr. Barr's objections to the Democrats' proposed format for questioning him about the special counsel's report. And it throws Thursday's hearing into doubt. 'The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period,' the committee chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, told CNN. If Mr. Barr does not show up, Mr. Nadler added, 'then we will have to subpoena him, and we will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena.'... A senior Justice Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Sunday that the attorney general had agreed to appear before Congress, not its staff, and therefore should be questioned only by members of Congress. Mr. Nadler's plan also calls for the committee to go into closed session to discuss the redacted sections of the special counsel's report. But Mr. Barr and the Justice Department object to questioning behind closed doors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Josh Marshall: "Attorney General Bill Barr ... is refusing to show up to testify this week before the House Judiciary Committee unless he is accorded a veto right over the questioning format.... It's been increasingly clear that the committees should either designate one or two committee members experienced in questioning o have a committee counsel do the questioning. Absent that approach, you get what we've seen in other recent hearings.... For really effective questioning you need a solid and knowledg[e]able questioner who has a sustained period of time to pursue lines of questioning. The other approach is fine for garden variety testimony where there's some degree of good faith give and take. It doesn't work here.... Barr's antics are part of President Trump's strategy of massive resistance to any congressional oversight whatsoever." (Also linked yesterday.)
I have been a prosecutor for nearly 30 years.... I have prosecuted obstruction cases on far, far less evidence than this. And yes, I believe if he were not the president of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction. -- Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, on "Meet the Press" Sunday
Mimi Rocah & Renato Mariotti in the Daily Beast: "If Donald Trump were not now president he would have been indicted on multiple counts of obstruction of justice. And that case would be as strong, if not stronger, than many we saw working in New York and Chicago, respectively. The Mueller Report even noted one reason to investigate the president was to preserve evidence for possible future use even though Trump can't be charged now. And Mueller collected a stunning array of evidence that clearly shows that from 2017 until 2019, Trump engaged in a persistent pattern to try to end, or at least limit the scope of, investigations surrounding him and his family." Rocah & Mariotti, both former federal prosecutors, lay out their case. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One good reason not to indict a sitting president: unless his vice-president is elected president, that former hand-picked veep can't pardon him.
Natasha Bertrand of Politico outlines Jared Kushner's numerous contacts with Dmitri Simes, a Russian immigrant & U.S. citizen who heads a foreign policy think tank & maintains strong ties to Russia (he's currently co-hosting a Russian TV show).
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who once argued that President Bill Clinton should be removed from office for the appearance of encouraging obstruction of justice, said Sunday that he does not care whether ... Donald Trump did the same. 'I'm done,' he told CBS News.... 'I think it's just all theater. It doesn't matter,' Graham said of the allegations. 'I don't care what he said to Don McGahn, it's what he did.'... Asked whether he, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, planned to invite McGahn to testify, Graham said he would not." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, what he did, Lindsey, was order the White House counsel to fire the special counsel in an effort to end the investigation.
Robert Barnes & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post examine how Trump views the Supreme Court as part of his team of lackeys. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones: "The president ... called into Maria Bartiromo's Fox News show to complain ... that his administration can no longer separate children from their family.... 'The problem is you have 10 times more people coming up with their families. It's like Disneyland now. You know, before you'd get separated so people would say, "Let's not go up." Now you don't get separated and, you know, while that sounds nice and all, what happens is you have -- literally you have 10 times more families coming up because they're not going to be separated from their children.'... Trump alluded that his problems stem from the laws that require processing and court dates for asylum seekers.... 'The problem is we have to register them, we have to bring them to court,' he told Fox. '... You have to have Perry Mason involved. I mean, you know, it's all legal." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It makes me sick to hear of Trump, as he sits comfortably in the White House, comparing a trip to Disneyland with the suffering these families endured at home & then on the trek from their home countries to the U.S. He is one sadistic SOB.
Andrienne Varkiani of ThinkProgress: "... Donald Trump's anti-abortion rhetoric is getting more extreme by the day. At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Saturday night, Trump described a violent scene, claiming that a doctor and mother together decide whether or not to execute a baby after it's born.... For extra emphasis, Trump repeated it again with hand motions -- including a guillotine for the execution.... And in February, he responded to the failure of [Ben] Sasse]s 'Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act' by claiming on Twitter that Democrats 'don]t mind executing babies AFTER birth.'" --s ...
... Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "President Trump revived on Saturday night what is fast becoming a standard, and inaccurate, refrain about doctors 'executing babies.' During a more than hourlong speech at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump admonished the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, for vetoing a Republican bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to children born alive after a failed abortion attempt. The comments are the latest in a long string of incendiary statements from the president on abortion. The New York Times has previously fact-checked these claims, finding that late-term abortions are rare.... In another fact check, The Times found that infants are rarely born alive after abortion procedures[.]... Moreover, The Times reported, doctors do not kill the infants who survive, although families may choose not to take extreme measures to resuscitate them[.]... Bills like the one in Wisconsin and the one that Democrats blocked in Congress in February would force doctors to resuscitate the infant, even against the family's wishes."
Adam Bienkov of Business Insider: "Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has turned down an invitation from the Queen to attend a state banquet in Buckingham Palace with ... Donald Trump. In a statement published on Friday, Corbyn said..., 'Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honour a President who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric.'... Corbyn is the latest UK politician to reject the invitation for the event, set to be hosted by the Queen in June, after it was rejected by the Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and the House of Commons speaker John Bercow." Mrs. McC: Frankly, I don't get why May invited that fat fuck in the first place. He has treated her shabbily. Subjecting Elizabeth to Dinner with an Ass seems cruel, too.
Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Stephen Moore, President Trump's likely nominee for an opening on the Federal Reserve Board, apologized Sunday for his past comments about women that caused a firestorm last week. Moore ... has come under scrutiny for columns he wrote in the National Review in the early 2000s denouncing coed sports, arguing that female athletes were seeking 'equal pay for inferior work' and saying that only good-looking women should be allowed to be referees or sports reporters. 'These articles you're talking about were 17, 18 years ago. They were humor columns, but some of them weren't funny, so I am apologetic,' Moore said on ABC's 'This Week With George Stephanopoulos.'... Moore was adamant that he didn't think his past statements about women should disqualify him from the Fed. He called articles about his past a 'character assassination,' likening it to what Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh went through during his confirmation process. Conservative firm CRC Public Relations is helping to promote Moore and craft his messaging, much as it did for Kavanaugh last year." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: See, Stephen, character assassination is a deliberate attempt to ruin a person's reputation by planting & spreading false stories & rumors about him or her. Writing & publishing articles about what you yourself said or did is called "reporting." You assassinated your own character. These were self-inflicted wounds, & you don't get to blame someone else for them. Call it character assassination by suicide.
Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "More than two years after she withdrew from consideration for a White House national security position amid plagiarism accusations, Fox News commentator Monica Crowley is reportedly set to take a job as chief spokeswoman for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.... In 2017, she registered as a lobbyist for Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian billionaire whose large payments (for speeches) to prominent Americans, including Donald Trump, and apparent promotion of pro-Russian interests drew scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller. Crowley's lobbying for Pinchuk could complicate her role as the top flack for an agency that is responsible for imposing and policing US sanctions on Russia and on a prominent Ukrainian leader tied to Pinchuk." --s
Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "Donald Trump['s] pledge to abandon the 'badly misguided' Arms Trade Treaty, which restricts the transfer of weapons to terrorists and other malicious actors outside of the country, drew a standing ovation at the annual National Rifle Association meeting in Indianapolis, where Trump was speaking. Quite a few people were unhappy with Trump's decision, which he announced less than three months after removing the United States from a Reagan-era arms control treaty with Russia. The Arms Trade Treaty was signed by Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013 with overwhelming support from the international community. Only three countries -- Iran, North Korea, and Syria -- opposed it.... Unshackling the United States from international agreements has long been a primary goal for John Bolton[.]" --s
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "Donald Trump bucked decades of Republican orthodoxy by railing against free-trade agreements. To say I was skeptical of his plans to rip up or renegotiate nearly every major trade deal would be a polite understatement." Mrs. McC: The op-ed is of course firewalled, so I can't read it, but the headline writer characterizes Grassley's message as, "Trump's tariffs end or his trade deal dies." The op-ed is not entirely surprising, inasmuch as Grassley is a curmudgeon who has kept his seat by jealously upholding Iowa's special interests, often to the detriment of the rest of the country, but still it's good to see at least one GOP senator with the guts to knock Trump on one of his signature issues. The WSJ is a good spot for the op-ed, from Grassley's POV, as not many ass-scratching Trumpbots will be reading it.
John Feffer in Informed Comment: "[John] Bolton's broadsides against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela [as the 'troika of tyranny'] hint at ambitions for much more dangerous geopolitical conflict -- and nothing short of a new Cold War.... None of these countries poses even the remotest threat to the United States. They have dismal human rights records, but that hasn't been a concern for the Trump administration anywhere else in the world.... With all eyes focused these days on Trump and his myriad crimes, John Bolton's speeches are a reminder that even worse options are waiting in the wings." --s
Carl Segerstrom of Mother Jones: "In the name of energy dominance, the federal government is looking to curtail state environmental reviews and promote fossil fuel exports. By doing so, it's wading into an ongoing fight between coastal and Interior West states over permit denials for export facilities on the West Coast. Where the administration stands on that battle -- and its apparent willingness to trample on some states' regulatory authority -- exposes the uniquely flexible nature of its support for states' rights: It appears interested in shifting power to states only when the goal is less environmental protection." --s
Neil Lewis of the New York Times: "Richard G. Lugar, who represented Indiana in the Senate for 36 years and whose mastery of foreign affairs made him one of only a handful of senators in modern history to exercise substantial influence on the nation's international relations, died on Sunday in Annandale, Va. He was 87." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Former President Obama paid tribute to ex-Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) on Sunday, saying the late senator 'exhibited the truth that common courtesy can speak across cultures.' In a lengthy statement on the death of Lugar..., Obama noted his work with the former Hoosier in the Senate to expand Lugar's 1991 nuclear nonproliferation plan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "In a popular Washington bookstore, at virtually the same time as the latest synagogue shooting occurred, a crowd of so-called 'white identitarians' with a bullhorn showed up to disrupt the author of a book on racial resentment called Dying of Whiteness, chanting 'this land is our land.'... Christopher Hasson, a 50-year-old Maryland man who was a high-ranking U.S. Coast Guard officer with a security clearance, may walk out of jail in a few days, maybe less.... The failure of AG Bill Barr's Justice Department to move heaven and earth to keep Hasson in custody or even issue a press release alerting the public is symbolic of a giant blind spot in our nation's capital when it comes to the deadly threat posed by white supremacy. And that giant buck stops at the desk of President Trump.... This president -- with his vainglorious refusal to admit that an immoral strain of white nationalism helped elect him in 2016 -- and his administration are making the problem much, much worse.... Trump has repeatedly made clear his opinion that violent white extremism is not a problem in his America.... Terror attacks by far-right extremists more than quadrupled in the year that Trump became president, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That dramatized the fact that after spending billions on a vast infrastructure that primarily targeted Islamic extremism, the much greater threat in this country has a white face." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, remember how horrified everyone was when Hillary Clinton said some of Trump's supporters were "deplorables"? Sounds fairly quaint now, doesn't it?
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps dashing any hope that the world's largest social media platform might be a positive force in the fight against catastrophic climate change. In its latest disastrous move to fight the online epidemic of fake news, Facebook's fact-checking effort announced last week that it was teaming up with CheckYourFact.com -- an arm of the conservative, anti-science media site The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller, which has published misinformation about climate science for years, was co-founded by the science-denying Fox News host Tucker Carlson and is backed by major conservative donors, including Charles and David Koch..., the single biggest funders of climate science misinformation." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Kansas. What's the Matter with Football? Mitch Smith of the New York Times: Hours after the New York Giants drafted Washburn University cornerback Corey Ballentine, "he and a college teammate, Dwane Simmons, were shot a few blocks from Washburn's Topeka campus at a social gathering at which dozens of people were present. Ballentine was expected to make a full recovery, the university said. Simmons died.... The shooting in Topeka was one of several this year involving college football players away from the field." Mr. McC: Football is violent in more ways than one.
Way Beyond
Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "A turf war has broken out at the pinnacle of Brazilian politics, pitting a presidential son [Carlos Bolsonaro] nicknamed 'pitbull' and a Steve Bannon-backed polemicist [Olavo de Carvalho] against a group of retired military chiefs led by Brazil's vice-president, Hamilton Mourão.... Mourão's reprimand came after the president's account shared an expletive-filled YouTube video in which Carvalho showed off his gun collection and skewered what he called the shameless, vain and boastful military regime which took power in the 1960s.... Bolsonaro's son Eduardo who is also the South American representative of Bannon's far-right group called 'The Movement' joined the offensive.... It ... revealed a ferocious ideological battle raging between the two factions -- with potentially momentous ramifications for Brazil and Bolsonaro's presidency." --s
Norway. Special-Ops Whale. Hannahs Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force. Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported last week that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats. The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words 'Equipment of St. Petersburg'." --s
News Ledes
AP: "Director John Singleton, who made one of Hollywood's most memorable debuts with the Oscar-nominated 'Boyz N the Hood' and continued over the following decades to probe the lives of black communities in his native Los Angeles and beyond, has died. He was 51. Singleton's family said Monday that he died in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, after being taken off life support. Earlier this month, the director suffered a major stroke." ...
... Singleton's New York Times obituary is here.
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Reader Comments (21)
When the lies from the Liar in Chief exceeds 10,000 and nary a peep from the Veep or others that continue to kiss his ring and look the other way then–––then what? Nothing happens.
When once again we ponder–-and boy do we ponder–-how millions of Americans voted for Trump and millions will do it again. There have been many explanations and many comparisons but this morning after reading the news Pappy O'Daniel popped into my mind. If you've seen the film, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Pappy was played by the marvelous, late Charles Durning.
O'Daniel, a Texan of the 1930's, charmed radio listeners with gospel readings, country music, sentimental poetry but mainly this forum was to hack his flour company called Hillbilly Flour. In 1938 he was elected governor on the campaign theme of "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy"–-his platform consisted of:
The Ten Commandments
No sales tax
Guaranteed pension of $30 a month for every Texan over the age of sixty-five
He vowed to take care of "the hard working people of this country."
He plugged Hillbilly Flour in every speech and sales doubled.
Yea! cried the peoples–-and they voted him in. Once in, however, he pushed for a sales tax, an amendment to freeze taxes on oil and gas extractions at rock bottom rates and spent his time attacking Communists, Nazis and "labor leader racketeers." The oil and gas guys got what they paid for along with the big bankers but his working class people got screwed, and were lied to still continued to vote for ole Pappy in such large numbers that in a special election for the U.S. Senate in 1941 he defeated a candidate who might have served them better––a youthful New Deal backer named Lyndon Johnson.
So I worry that in this new election even after all the hearings we'll be having it won't stop those millions to vote for Trump again. It's clear that there's something about the American character that allows the long con of our politics to go on and on and....
I agree with you, PD. Every time there is a glimmer of hope that some "people" (they must be the "people" as in: "many people say...they all say...people are saying...people come up to me and say..." etc)have seen the light, the misinformation peddled by Faux, the Kochs, Facebook, Twitter et al has a shelf life of 500 years and cannot be squashed back into its squalid underground caves. I think the (missed) opportunities to actually declare truth to all the 10,000+ lies have passed us by. If only Obama had schooled himself faster on what/who these people really are... Schools have declared an education holiday and harnessed teachers who might be helpful so they can't speak truth, and these "beliefs" that eclipse truth are stronger than we know. Miss Lindsey is a prime example. He used to be conservative and now he is nuts/in league with a monstrous psychopath. Barr is another. What the hell happens to people??
@Jeanne: I think right-wingers' "morals" are more malleable than ours, and of course politicians' "principles." at least on the right, are almost nonexistent. People like Lindsey Graham & Bill Barr are all about personal power. They adapt. Big time. I was struck by how conniving Chuck Grassley's WSJ op-ed was. Though it goes against Trump, its audience is big business interests (fat-cat donors), especially agri-business; these people will look favorably on Grassley as a principled man standing up for them. Grassley might even get a shout-out in local papers for sticking up for Iowa farmers.
Liberals adapt, too, but I think -- generally speaking -- we do so in a more ethical way. That is, when we hear a new idea, or when we notice one becomes popular, we give it consideration, but not from the POV of "what's in it for me?" I remember when Bill Clinton's "third way" (middle-of-the-road) was the rage. I didn't like it, but it seemed it might be a viable way for liberal-light to go forward. I wondered if I had been wrong, asking for too much too soon. (I still wonder that.) I considered Clinton's ideas & ultimately rejected them, but I probably wouldn't have considered a myself a horrible person if I gave up & went with the flow.
Richard Lugar's obit sounded almost quaint. I wouldn't have agreed with a lot of his thinking, but he was a Republican who had principles. I hope when people like Lindsey & Bill read Lugar's obit, they wonder how their own will read. Because the answer for neither is in the neighborhood of "he was a great man."
The mercurial nature of confederate morals is indicative of their prime directive: Win at All Costs. Do whatever is necessary. This means that lying, rejection of rules, laws, morals, ethics are all perfectly fine, as is spitting on the Constitution while at the same time demanding that Democrats observe every article, religiously. Voting for a treasonous liar who has broken--repeatedly--all ten of the commandments evangelicals, who vote for him in droves, claim to hold sacred (including the one about murder; taking away healthcare is tantamount to murder, as is looking the other way when others are doing the murdering) is part and parcel of the prime directive.
Winning is all that matters. Oh, that and stepping on those you consider, or are told are, your enemies.
This mindset runs all the way from Trump down through every one of his cabinet members, through the entire R congressional contingent, running rampant through right-wing media, right down to that winger genius who made the sign reading "Get a brain, morans".
The Confederate President
One can admire Robert E. Lee for his skills as a battlefield commander, but what one cannot do, in any way, is consider him a great American. He lost that chance when he created and assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia. His fame as a destroyer of enemies was earned by killing Americans. By the tens of thousands. He spit on the Stars and Stripes, supported secession in the charge to maintain the right to own other human beings, and made war on the United States. This, in all ways, makes him far worse than other military commanders faced by the US down through its history including members of the German and Japanese high command during WWII. None of them killed more Americans and none of them were traitors to the United States.
Lee was.
Over the weekend, I read a fascinating book called "Manhunt:The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer", a page-turning account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath (for such a well known episode in American history, it's amazing what you don't know, or thought you did) and an almost hourly description of the movements and actions of John Wilkes Booth, his co-conspirators, and their pursuers until his capture and death at the Garrett farm in Virginia. Much of the story is told through eyewitness accounts, letters, and dispatches. One of the things that stands out (in stark contrast to how president* white supremacist views things today), in the minds of contemporaries, is the utter contempt felt by members of the United States military for the rebels. "We won't learn anything here" said one officer on the hunt for Booth, "they're all traitors in this place".
Traitors. Treason. Killers of Americans.
But not to Trump. To Trump, the greatest military leader of the Confederacy, the most accomplished killer of Americans of all time, is a "great man". This is more than just pandering to the racists and the haters. Trump IS a racist and a hater. Yes, he panders, but he's also no better than the worst of them. The worst member of the Aryan Brotherhood effects his racism on a one to one basis. Trump's racism is effected on an industrial, national, and world-wide scale.
Making the Confederacy Great Again.
PD,
Oh, that that person in the White House were just a hokum pushing seller of biscuits and garden variety liar of the Pappy O'Daniel mold.
We cannot underestimate the effect of a president who lies at a rate that would make Pinocchio's nose pass through the Great Magellanic Cloud at this point. The idea that truth, as well as morals, is malleable, is a bedrock of Republican "governance". Bushies claimed that they remade reality with every new lie. Trump DOES remake reality. At least for wingers. He has made it so that facts are all relative and all subject to reworking.
A few days ago, economic figures came out showing a growth of over 3% for the first quarter of 2019. Trump will ride this right back to the White House. I give him a much better than 50-50 chance of reelection. If the election were held tomorrow, he'd win by a landslide. And he may in 2020.
Democrats have a long, steep hill to climb, and Trump and his confederate supporters will be pouring hot oil down on top of them the whole way up.
Biden is right about one thing. If Trump gets four more years, you can kiss America goodbye.
Considering the various congresses in which Richard Lugar served, is almost like thinking about courtly, medieval tales, as if one were re-reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Then again, a story about a test of honesty and chivalry is about as far removed as one can get in the Age of Trump, a time of lies, greed, treason, narcissism, and cowardice. Hmm...On second thought, maybe that head-chopping-off business in Gawain isn't completely out of place today.
Seems like R's have replaced the 3 branches of government with
1. Big Oil 2. Big Pharma 3. Big Banks
Of all the Dems saying they're running for President, I haven't
read much of anything in the way of what their plans are to correct
the damage done by trump. Maybe it's too early or could be it's
an impossibility if the Senate is still has all the power.
if the Senate is still Republican and has all the power.
@Akhilleus: Yes, I think much more has to be made of the treachery of Lee & the other Confederates. We tend to associate the Confederacy with racism, but it should get equal or near-equal billing for treason. One can't "Make American Great Again" while holding up traitors as icons.
Lee was a singular traitor. Somebody should tell Trump that his "great generaling" was learned at the expense of the Americans he betrayed: he went to West Point & spent about three decades as an American soldier, rising thru the ranks, always on the taxpayers' dime, of course.
So, yeah, Robert E. Lee: racist AND traitor.
White supremacist murders on the rise.
Anyone think of why? How about a white supremacist in the White House daily filling the airwaves with hate-speech and racist rants?
Can't wait for Liarbee Sanders to attack anyone daring to make that connection. She should get her own honorary hood.
Marie said: "...Robert E. Lee: racist AND traitor."
Hey! Just like Trump! Except Trump wouldn't be leading anyone into battle, those bone spurs just popped up again, wouldn't you know it? Just his luck!
This Bill Barr hack job is astounding. Can he find his nutsack and face legitimate government oversight, or has he so incarnated Drumpfism that he's going to fall on the defense of "frustration" at "political enemies". What a sorry sack of shit, a true tell of the times. Not even his GOP allies are coming to his defense, yet, for being such an invertebrate. They are probably embarrassed for him, bless his poor neutered soul.
His sad media defense of the "do not call my summary" a summary, and the subsequent leaks to cover his ass, prove he still has some semblance of shame. So shame him, relentlessly. Call him a hack, demand Mueller straightaway, but don't relent on bringing Barr's sorry ass for a dressed down grilling and make it clear as day for those watching who he's covering for. The DOJ has become a sham. Make him defend the sham on record.
Startling truth...
Meant to pass this on last week, but here it is now.
Reading a poem by Maya Angelou, I came across this line:
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
It seems rather simple and even innocuous, in a way, that the natural world nurtures all creatures without favor, but considered against the blazing hatred and conniving chiseling of the Trumps of the world, who NEVER nurture without favor, who never help without something for themselves, this observation comes across as a spectacular revelation, a startling truth.
And in this short line, we have the primary disagreement between left and right. The idea that some are unworthy of being nurtured while others get everything handed to them, versus the idea of nurture without favor. And I can see where someone might take issue with this suggestion, pointing out that things like affirmative action or food stamps, or a humane immigration policy, ARE favoring one side against the other. But this position also reveals a philosophical distinction. Are we really on different sides? Shouldn't we be pulling for everyone? Is it a terrible thing to help those who have been crippled by fate, disfavored or cast aside by earlier generations or conditions that sought to place others above them?
Here's how Angelou ends her poem:
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Another seemingly obvious observation.
But in the Time of Trump, it's a bridge too far for him and his supporters. There is no "we", there is only "us" vs. "them".
(Remember, April is National Poetry Month. One day left to celebrate with a couple, or five or six, good poems. Here's a starter for ya.)
I meant to ask the assembled populace of RC---don't you all think that the Russians are surely the most enterprising of people--? Who would think about arming a whale...certainly probably not been tried by our own navy... In fact, our own government doesn't care if they get noised out of existence entirely-- sonic booms underwater? No problem-- No one has been creative enough to weaponize them until now... Whale, it is a whale of a story--
Had to go go Firefox to read this one (Bezos wants more money than most would think he needs for me to read the Post on Safari), but it was worth the effort.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/26/what-trump-gets-wrong-about-robert-e-lee/?utm_term=.e3e4322f4973
As the son who sent it to me said, it even contains a reason to like Condolezza Rice. Lordy knows, we both needed one.
Jeanne,
The US Navy has used dolphins for a myriad of things and even sea lions have been used. I'm glad they didn't harness belugas. They are wonderful animals that should be left alone. Apparently dolphins have some antisocial characteristics that are questionable.
First this on tax fairness:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/politics/democrats-taxes-2020.html?
Then this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/business/economy/gig-economy-workers-contractors.html?
The Pretender, clearly the American workers’ best friend.
Ken,
The end of that WaPo piece you linked has this reminder:
"Grant gave us a good way to regard Lee. Lincoln gave us a way to regard our country’s founding principle. That ought to suffice for the man who now holds their office."
But this conclusion is disingenuous at best, or perhaps overly idealistic. Trump doesn't read. He's not a "student of history" as he proclaims. He's an unreconstructed racist. He and Daddy Trump conspired to keep black people out of their buildings. He took out a full page newspaper ad demanding the death of five boys of color who were entirely innocent, he thinks white supremacist Nazis are "good people" and that those aligned against their hatred deserve "blame".
Nothing but hatred for non-whites suffices for Trump AND his supporters. Even those who don't count themselves (and actually may not be) racists. If you vote for a racist, you are culpable for the racist atrocities he abides or to which he contributes (like the murder of Jews who are guilty of nothing more than practicing their religion).
Trump clearly knows little about the Civil War or about much of American history. He knows enough to try to twist things to his advantage. In that regard, he is no better than a rising Hitler. The fact that he isn't (or may not be) the sort of demagogue that will transfer his beliefs and hatreds into the deathly actions of a Hitler does not in any way exonerate him from the charge of using hatred and racism as a handy political tool to whip up the morons and haters.
Trump doesn't give a shit about Lincoln, or history, or Lee, or the Constitutional convention, or the rule of law, or morals, or ethical behavior. He cares about what will work for Trump. He is an evil, vindictive, moronic asshole.
Dede Q,
You beat me to it (regarding the Navy's experiments with dolphins), but I guess I never thought of those creatures as having questionable antisocial characteristics. Ha. Flipper as Rambo. Flambo?
Something else that might matter from the NYTimes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/europe/spain-election-sanchez-vox.html?
Don't know what it might mean, if anything, for the US and the rest of Europe, but if it's a hint of people having second thoughts, I'll take it to be good new.
And, Akhilleus, I wholly agree that the Pretender's racism is so central to his being and so obvious in his behavior that anyone who supports him is declaring him- or herself to be a racist too.
That would be the whole of what remains of the Republican Party. They've put themselves in a postion where it would be impossible to paint them with too broad a brush.
They must be very proud of being white--or in the vast minority of cases where they are not-- perhaps closing their eyes and wishing that they were.