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
Tuesday
Apr022019
The Commentariat -- April 3, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to authorize a subpoena to compel the Justice Department to hand over special counsel Robert Mueller's full report [with no redactions] to Congress. The committee voted 24-17 to approve a resolution authorizing subpoenas for Mueller's report, including accompanying exhibits and other attachments, as well as its underlying evidence at a business meeting Wednesday morning. The Justice Department did not comply with an April 2 deadline set by six Democrats chairing committees in the House for sending the full Mueller report to Congress."
All the Best People, Ctd. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General is reviewing allegations that acting secretary David Bernhardt may have violated his ethics pledge by weighing in on issues affecting a former client, the office confirmed Tuesday. The move comes as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is preparing to vote Thursday on whether to confirm Bernhardt as the next interior secretary, after which his nomination is expected to advance to the Senate floor. At least two outside groups and two Democratic senators asked the agency watchdog to look into Bernhardt's effort to weaken protections for imperiled fish species and to expand California farmers' access to water, even though he once lobbied on behalf of a massive agricultural water district that stood to benefit from the changes."
Oink Oink. Be Careful What You Eat. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration plans to shift much of the power and responsibility for food safety inspections in hog plants to the pork industry as early as May, cutting the number of federal inspectors by about 40 percent and replacing them with plant employees. Under the proposed new inspection system, the responsibility for identifying diseased and contaminated pork would be shared with plant employees, whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners. There would be no limits on slaughter-line speeds. The new pork inspection system would accelerate the federal government's move toward delegating inspections to the livestock industry. During the Obama administration, poultry plant owners were given more power over safety inspections, although that administration canceled plans to increase line speeds. The Trump administration in September allowed some poultry plants to increase line speeds." Mrs. McC: Come back, Upton Sinclair.
Doha Madani of NBC News: "A Tennessee social justice center that has hosted iconic civil rights leaders was destroyed in a fire and a 'white power' symbol was found on the site, the center said. The symbol, which officials did not describe but said was connected to the white power movement, was discovered after the main office was completely destroyed in a fire last week, the Highlander Research and Education Center said in a news release Tuesday. It was spray-painted on the parking lot connected to the main office. No one was hurt in Friday's blaze."
Amy Russo of the Huffington Post: "... former FBI Director James Comey said he remains troubled by his potential role in the rise of Donald Trump, questioning the impact of the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. In October 2016, just one month before Election Day, Comey reopened a probe into then-candidate Clinton's use of a private server to conduct government business when she was secretary of state, meaning she may have violated security regulations. The scandal tarnished her reputation and indelibly marked her campaign.... Two days before the election, Comey announced that the FBI stood by its previous conclusion that Clinton committed no criminal acts. 'I hope we had no impact ... but all it does is increase the pain," he [said].... [BUT WAIT!] 'It doesn't change how I think about the decision.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Get that? Hope I didn't, but if I did, I still did the right thing.
~~~~~~~~~~
"The Party of Health Care"? Never Mind. Eileen Sullivan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump announced that Republicans would not present a health care overhaul proposal until after the 2020 election, punting on coming up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, which the administration is currently fighting in court to invalidate. The issue now will dominate presidential campaigns in the months leading up to the 2020 election.... It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what the Trump administration would do if courts ruled in favor of abolishing the health care system established by President Barack Obama. Last week, the Trump administration broadened its war on the health care law by arguing that the entire Affordable Care Act should be invalidated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The "plan," as usual, is to invalidate ObamaCare & replace it with nothing. This has been the plan all along, but this seems to be the most overt declaration of that intention since the 2018 elections. ...
... Update: McConnell Burst a Trump Bubble. John Wagner & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump abandoned plans to press for a vote on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act ahead of next year's elections following a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that he and Trump had 'a good conversation' Monday afternoon in which he said that Senate Republicans had no intention of trying to overhaul President Obama's signature health-care law during a campaign season-- a move many in the GOP saw as politically perilous, given that the issue helped Democrats in last year's midterm elections. 'I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,' McConnell said, also pointing out the difficulty in crafting a bill that could pass the Democratic-led House. 'We don't have a misunderstanding about that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... BUT. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate thinks the "plan" is actually a conscious "strategy": "Donald Trump is now hoping that his kryptonite -- the courts -- will save his presidency.... He has taken a position against Obamacare in court that he apparently expects to lose, so he can blame someone else for his failure to repeal and replace the health care law.... Reporting last week from the New York Times revealed that the decision to support the legal fight for a wholesale repeal came at the urging of Trump's acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.... The whole thing proved a massive unforced error.... Republicans quickly flew into a full-blown political panic about the reversal.... On Monday night ... Trump tweet[ed] that he is backing off the whole ACA replacement plan until after the 2020 election, at which time he will present us all with a 'really great' health care plan built of the stuff that made Trump Steaks and Trump University so very great. Further, at least according to Axios, Trump was telling people behind closed doors that he believed the Texas suit would fail. It seems he wanted to back the failing lawsuit because it would be good 'branding' for him to oppose Obamacare as part of his 2020 reelection bid. So, Trump's plan, it seems, is that either the ACA is struck down by the federal courts, making the total breakdown of America's health care system the courts' fault, or that it is upheld by the courts, so he could blame the judiciary for his own failure to fulfill his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Either way, Trump, personally, would be off the hook."
CBS News: "President Trump reiterated a threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border after a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, saying he stands ready to take drastic action if the country doesn't do more to curb illegal immigration.... Along with a list of frustrations over immigration, however, Mr. Trump included immigration judges. U.S. immigration court backlogs are at all-time highs, with not enough judges to adjudicate the cases. That problem was exacerbated by the government shutdown earlier this year. 'We need to get rid of chain migration, we need to get rid of catch and release and visa lottery, and we have to do something about asylum. And to be honest with you, have to get rid of judges,' Mr. Trump said in his laundry list of frustrations with the U.S. immigration system." ...
... Stupid Presidunce Tricks, Ctd. Courtiers Coddle the Boy King. Nancy Cook & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "... Donald Trump's senior economic aides are scrambling to impress upon him the potentially dire economic costs of his threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both Kevin Hassett and Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic advisers, have shared papers and data with Trump over the last 36 hours, illustrating the way economic growth could slow down even if the president shut down the border for just one day -- not to mention the effect on the flow of goods, raw materials and the U.S. supply chain. Inside the White House, officials frantically spent the day searching for ways to limit the economic impact of shuttering the border.... Publicly, Republican leaders expressed their own dismay at the threats, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called potentially 'catastrophic.' But Trump did not seem swayed. 'Sure, it will have a negative effect on the economy,' Trump told reporters ... on Tuesday afternoon. 'But to me, trading is very important, the borders are very important, but security is what is most important. I mean, we have to have security.'" ...
... Chris Isidore of CNN: "The entire US auto industry would shut down within a week if ... Donald Trump goes through with his pledge to close the US-Mexican border, according to a leading expert on the industry. That's because every automaker operating an auto plant in the United States depends on parts imported from Mexico, said Kristin Dziczek ... of the Center for Automotive Research. About 16% of all auto parts used in the United States, both at assembly plants and sold at auto parts stores, originate in Mexico. Virtually all car models in America have Mexican parts, she said. Because of that reliance, she said the auto industry would stop producing vehicles relatively quickly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jill Colvin & Colleen Long of the AP: "... Donald Trump eased up Tuesday on his threats to shut the southern border this week as officials across his administration explored half-measures that might satisfy the president's urge for action, like stopping only foot traffic at certain crossings.... While Trump on Tuesday did not back off the idea completely, he said he was pleased with steps Mexico had taken in recent days and renewed his calls for Congress to make changes he contends would solve the problem.... Mexican officials announced Monday they'd pulled 338 Central American migrants -- 181 adults and 157 children -- off five passenger buses in a southern state that borders Guatemala, and said they had detained 15 possible smugglers on immigration law violations. But that was not unusual for Mexico, which has for years been cracking down on migration.... Meantime, administration officials grappled with how they might minimize the impact of a shutdown or implement less sweeping actions."
Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA.... -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...
The $91BB payout is a giant lie (see Tim Elfrink's WashPo story, linked yesterday), & Puerto Rico is "USA"; ergo, it can't "take from USA." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie, writing for the real world ...
... Daily Beast: "In an explosive interview on MSNBC Tuesday morning, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley referred to Puerto Rico as 'that country' twice -- even though the island has been a U.S. territory for over 120 years. The mis-identification came while Gidley was defending Trump's Tuesday morning tweetstorm slamming Puerto Rico and its need for 'too much money' after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017.... Trump 'says Puerto Ricans are taking from the USA,' [host Hallie] Jackson responded. 'Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. Citizens. You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you're rolling your eyes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Trump wants journalists to look into the oranges (not a typo) of the Mueller investigation:
... Seated beside Trump, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is not a native English speaker, deserves the poker-faced prize. ...
... Fruit Salad. Akhilleus (in today's thread): "The 'oranges' of the Russian investigation is that you are president, Donald. And you were helped into the White House by an adversarial foreign power. Thus, we needed to look at anything that apples to that. There was a lot of liming going on about the whole thing, from you and yours, an a-pear-ance of possible collusion, with you plum smack in the middle trying to berry everything, which caused a less than cherry outlook for most of America, raisin even more questions. This is not a grape time in The country, and you are the cause. You are the melon-oma on the face of America. So if you're looking for oranges, find a mirror" ...
... There's Something Wrong with Trump's "Very Good Brain." Aaron Rupar of Vox: "During an Oval Office event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon..., Donald Trump either lied or got confused about where his father was born, admitted that closing the border with Mexico will be economically harmful to the US (but threatened to do it anyway), pushed a baseless conspiracy theory, and repeatedly struggled to say the word 'origins.' Oh, and he urged Congress to 'get rid of judges' who are making it harder for his administration to summarily deport migrants -- a position in tension with the idea that the United States is a nation of checks and balances that respects the rule of law. Even by Trump's standards, it was a troubling performance.... Trump's comments [on the border closing] were a complete reversal from last Friday, when he mistakenly argued that closing the border 'will be a profit-making operation' because of the US's trade deficit with Mexico."
MoveOnDotTrump. Jonathan Chait: "In the immediate wake of Robert Mueller's announcement that he has not established a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Donald Trump, the jovial president declared he would be happy to display the entire report before the public. 'Let it come out. Let people see it -- that's up to the attorney general,' he said. But over the last few days, the administration's position on full disclosure has grown quieter. Meanwhile, periodic murmurs have suggested perhaps the report will amount to something other than total vindication.... [Tuesday] morning, Trump tweeted, "There is no amount of testimony or document production that can satisfy Jerry Nadler or Shifty Adam Schiff. It is now time to focus exclusively on properly running our great Country!' [Tuesday], White House press secretary Sarah Sanders answered a question about the Mueller report by calling Democrats 'sore losers' who need to move on. Trump is now calling demands to release the report a 'disgrace' and a 'waste of time.'... Maybe, just maybe, the Mueller report is less flattering than William Barr's topline summary indicated?"
Rebecca Shabad & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to issue subpoenas seeking information on both the White House security clearance process and on the process that led to the administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The panel, led by Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., voted along party lines 22-15 on a resolution to subpoena the testimony of former White House personnel security director Carl Kline to discuss the security clearance process at the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... How to Give an Interview & Say Nothing. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday dismissed concerns raised by a whistleblower about the White House's security clearance process, saying President Trump's administration has faced 'a lot of crazy accusations' during the past two years.... Kushner, who Trump ultimately demanded be granted a permanent top-secret clearance despite concerns of intelligence officials, told Fox host Laura Ingraham that he 'can't comment for the White House's process.'... During the Fox News interview, Ingraham noted that [long-time White House security advisor Tricia] Newbold had said she has 'grave concerns' about the security-clearance process and asked Kushner if he poses a 'grave national security concern to the country.' Kushner laughed and said: 'Look, I can say that in the White House I work with some phenomenal people and I think over the last two years the president's done a phenomenal job of identifying what are our national security priorities. He's had a great team in place that are helping implement it, and I hope I've played a good part in pushing those objectives forward.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mar-a-Lago's Loose Security. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "A 32-year-old woman from China carrying four cellphones and a thumb drive infected with malware gained access to Mar-a-Lago during President Trump's visit to the Florida resort over the weekend, federal court records show.... She was allowed to enter by Secret Service agents stationed outside the resort after the Mar-a-Lago security manager on duty verified that her last name matched the surname of a member of the club, according to a complaint filed in federal district court in South Florida. Once inside, according to the account filed with the court, the woman said she was there to attend a United Nations Chinese American Association event later in the evening. But no such event existed, according to the complaint, so the club receptionist alerted the Secret Service.... Don Mihalek, executive vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents the Secret Service, said ... the fact that Secret Service agents apparently relied on the determination by a Mar-a-Lago security agent that [Yujing] Zhang was related to a member of the club -- simply because she shared the member's last name -- was problematic." Mrs. McC: No kidding. ...
... Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "... In both years prior to Charlottesville, Mar-a-Lago hosted 33 events, according to the Herald's analysis of the Palm Beach Daily News' social events calendar. It dropped to 10 events in the season after Charlottesville.... [Into that vacuum came] Li 'Cindy' Yang, an Asian-themed day-spa magnate.... She helped promote the cobbled-together replacement galas, selling them online as opportunities for Chinese businessmen to gain face time with the Trump family.... 'What's different here is that the president and his family have a direct financial interest in putting on these events,' said Jeffrey Prescott, a former National Security Council aide in the Obama administration and a senior fellow at the Penn Biden Center.... Through his private estate, the president has profited from Yang's many guests, who attended Mar-a-Lago events that charged hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars for tickets.... Yang has maintained that she has no allegiance to the Chinese government. But [her major "bundler," Charles] Lee's travel packages were explicitly intended to promote Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 business diplomacy agenda." Read on. Yang has quite a scam going. ...
... David Corn, et al., of Mother Jones: Yujing "Zhang's alleged attempt to enter Mar-a-Lago coincided with an event that had been scheduled that night and that also had been promoted by Cindy Yang's company, GY US Investments, which claimed to be able to provide opportunities to 'interact' with 'the president, the [American] Ministe of Commerce, and other political figures.'... According to the affidavit, [Yujing] Zhang 'claimed her Chinese friend "Charles" told her to travel from Shanghai, China to Palm Beach, Florida to attend this event and attempt to speak with a member of the President's family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations.'... Zhang's arrest again raises the question of whether there is a national security problem at Mar-a-Lago. Democrats in Congress sent a letter to the FBI on March 15 requesting 'criminal and counterintelligence investigations' into Yang for 'unlawful foreign lobbying, campaign finance and other activities by Ms. Yang.'"
A Strange Trump Lie. Cristal Hayes of USA Today: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday falsely stated his father was born in Germany -- the fourth time the president has made such a claim in less than a year. His father, Fred Trump, was born and raised in New York. The issue came up again on Tuesday when the president was discussing NATO and Germany needing to pay more as part of the alliance during a White House event with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The meeting took place amid tensions over Trump's attacks on the alliance, especially his claims that some countries don't contribute enough to mutual defense. 'I mean, Germany, honestly, is not paying their fair share. I have great respect for Angela and I have great respect for their country,' the president said of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 'My father is German. Right? Was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, and so I have a great feeling for Germany.'"
A Strange Trump Health Theory. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump has long despised wind power. He has repeatedly blamed wind turbines for killing birds (which they do at a lower rate than other energy sources) and for allegedly causing electrical power to halt when the wind stops blowing (in fact, electricity grids using mixed power sources and battery storage have solved this problem.) In a speech tonight to House Republicans, Trump claimed that wind turbines cause cancer. 'They say the noise causes cancer,' the president of the United States asserted. Wind turbines do not cause cancer.... A power source that does cause many health problems, including cancer, is coal, an extremely dirty fuel Trump loves and has attempted to bolster, with almost no success Aside from costing more to produce energy than other sources of power, and in addition to enormous air pollution side effects, coal also emits greenhouse gases in large amounts. Though this of course is another aspect of science Trump rejects." ...
... At the end of his post, Chait does point out that sometimes Trump's peculiar fears are warranted: "'Someone's gonna leak this whole damn speech to the media,' Trump worried aloud. It was a valid fear, given that reporters were in the room and C-SPAN cameras were covering the speech live."
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted Tuesday to authorize subpoenas to compel Trump administration officials to provide documents related to the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The committee voted 23-14 along mostly party lines to approve three separate subpoenas, ratcheting up the panel's legal fight with the administration. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) joined Democrats in authorizing the subpoenas, which will allow committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to seek testimony and unredacted information about the controversial change to the decennial survey. One subpoena is aimed at securing testimony from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Gore. A second subpoena is to compel Attorney General William Barr to turn over a memo to Gore from James Uthmeier, general counsel to the Department of Commerce, in fall 2017. It also would demand any Department of Justice communications about the citizenship question with the White House, the Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign or members of Congress. The third subpoena is targeted toward Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and seeks unredacted copies of several documents and internal communications related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Melanie Zanona & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Republican Rep. Mark Walker has been caught up in a federal corruption probe that has rocked the North Carolina Republican Party and led to the indictment of former congressman Robin Hayes (R-N.C.). A Walker-controlled political committee received $150,000 from a business owner, Greg Lindberg, at the same time Lindberg allegedly asked him to pressure North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey to replace his deputy, according to criminal indictment unsealed on Tuesday. Walker, a member of GOP leadership, is not named in the indictment. However, Politico has identified him as 'Public Official A'.... The Justice Department announced indictments of four individuals Tuesday on charges of public corruption and bribery, including Lindberg and Hayes, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party until earlier this week. Lindberg and two of his associates allegedly tried to bribe Causey, who was working with federal authorities and not charged in the probe, to oust North Carolina Department of Insurance's senior deputy commissioner. Lindberg allegedly sought more favorable treatment of his company in the state."
Presidential Race 2020
Sheryl Stolberg & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "... the political ground has shifted under [Joe] Biden, and his tactile style of retail politicking is no longer a laughing matter in the era of #MeToo. Now, as he considers a run for president, Mr. Biden is struggling to prevent a strength from turning into a crippling liability; on Tuesday alone, two more women told The New York Times that the former vice president's touches made them uncomfortable. For Mr. Biden, 76, the risks are obvious: the accusations feed into a narrative that he is a relic of the past, unsuited to represent his party in the modern era, against an incumbent president whose treatment of women should be a central line of attack.... As if on cue, the president went after Mr. Biden at a fund-raiser in Washington on Tuesday night. Cracking a joke about asking for a kiss, Mr. Trump said, 'I felt like Joe Biden.'... Caitlyn Caruso, a former college student and sexual assault survivor, said Mr. Biden rested his hand on her thigh -- even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort -- and hugged her 'just a little bit too long' at an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was 19.... D. J. Hill, 59, a writer who recalled meeting Mr. Biden in 2012 at a fund-raising event in Minneapolis, said that when she and her husband, Robert, stepped up to take their photograph with the vice president, he put his hand on her shoulder and then started dropping it down her back, which made her 'very uncomfortable.'"
Zachary Basu of Axios: "2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that he has raised $18.2 million from more than 900,000 individual donations since launching his campaign on Feb. 19. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Party of Drumpf. Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "... power struggles [within the Republican party infrastructure] have now been resolved in a one-sided fashion. In every state important to the 2020 race, Mr. Trump and his lieutenants are in firm control of the Republican electoral machinery, and they are taking steps to extend and tighten their grip. It is, in every institutional sense, Mr. Trump's party. As Mr. Trump has prepared to embark on a difficult fight for re-election, a small but ferocious operation within his campaign has helped install loyal allies atop the most significant state parties and urged them to speak up loudly to discourage conservative criticism of Mr. Trump."
Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC: "April 2 marks Equal Pay Day, our annual reminder that women's pay is not in fact equal to men's. Not nearly: Women make about 80 cents to a man's dollar. That's a wage gap of nearly 20 percent, and unfortunately, at the rate we're going, it will take nearly 41 years -- until 2059 -- to achieve parity. For Hispanic women it won't happen until 2224, and for black women, it's 2119." Mrs. McC: That is, women, on average, have worked three months into 2019 to receive the same pay men, on average, made in 2018. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jean Chatzky of NBC News: "Black women earn 63 cents for every dollar that men do, Native American women earn 58 cents and Hispanic women make just 54 cents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Anna North of Vox: "But matters are actually worse than any of these numbers would suggest, according to a 2018 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), a think tank that looks at public policy through the lens of gender. Measures of the pay gap typically compare the wages of men and women working full time in a given year, as Emily Peck notes at HuffPost. But women are more likely to drop out of full-time work to take care of children or other family members. To account for this, the report's authors looked at women's earnings across a 15-year period, and compared those with men's. What they found was a pay gap nearly twice as big as what's traditionally reported: averaged out over 15 years, women made just 49 cents for every dollar men made." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Illinois. Bill Ruthhart of the Chicago Tribune: "Lori Lightfoot won a resounding victory Tuesday night to become both the first African-American woman and openly gay person elected mayor of Chicago, dealing a stinging defeat to a political establishment that has reigned over City Hall for decades. After waging a campaign focused on upending the vaunted Chicago political machine, Lightfoot dismantled one of its major cogs by dispatching Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, whose candidacy had been hobbled in part by an anti-incumbent mood among voters and an ongoing federal corruption investigation at City Hall."
Pennsylvania. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "A Democratic Navy veteran who served in former President George W. Bush's Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday won a special election to fill a state Senate seat in suburban Pittsburgh, a district President Trump won in 2016. Pam Iovino will represent the state Senate district that covers parts of Allegheny and Washington counties after she beat out D. Raja, a businessman who chairs the Allegheny County Republican Party."
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Reader Comments (17)
ORANGES! Oranges! Oranges! What?
Must be a parasite eating his brain.
The “oranges” of the Russian investigation is that you are president, Donald. And you were helped into the White House by an adversarial foreign power. Thus, we needed to look at anything that apples to that. There was a lot of liming going on about the whole thing, from you and yours, an a-pear-ance of possible collusion, with you plum smack in the middle trying to berry everything, which caused a less than cherry outlook for most of America, raisin even more questions. This is not a grape time in The country, and you are the cause. You are the melon-oma on the face of America. So if you’re looking for oranges, find a mirror.
Orange u glad his dad was born in chermania not Ken, yeah?
"I want to tell you the oranges of my father–-I call it the FOO family legacy–-what? Oh, FOO stands for Family of Orange-gin–-he, my father was born in Germany, ––a really nice country–-right? Jens?–-Jens knows first hand–-he's German, right Jens? He fought in the German army––What? Excuse me? Oh, no, Jens, sorry, I meant my father–-not you–-Germans are our friends although Angela–-I call her Angee-panchee for the hell of it––isn't too friendly. Very much like democrats–-think they are superior. My wall is going up like it or not. right now––it's being built. So yes, I want to know the oranges of the Miller report–-I pronounce his name that way because I always think of beer–-I want to know the oranges of that report. But first I'm gonna close the border––-you watch–-I don't fool around. Right? "
It's not nice to make fun of the mentally handicapped, (but I think
it's ok(ra) in this case.)
Climate change is killing crops in Honduras and driving farmers north. (with video)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-killing-crops-in-honduras-and-driving-farmers-north
When I was wee I always asked my father "What did you bring me?" when he'd come back from some trip and he'd always answer,"I brought you a pool table from sunny Honduras." I remember I pictured it as a large body of water on a table from a strange sounding country that was always sunny.
Forrest,
Normally, such behavior would not citrus well with me, but when your mangoes bananas, I think it’s just peachy. Especially because his papaya wasn’t born in Germany. Another lime. But since the currants of popular opinion are often out of date, I don’t give a fig. He’ll be apricot for something else, so for the nance, I’m okay if someone wants to cucumber the coconuts.
Enough of the Prickly Pear paroxysms : Clear your palate and read something wonderful (although I love all that fruitiness–-you, Akhilleus are one clever dude–-can I call you that?).
When a laundromat becomes a library: (with video)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/when-a-laundromat-becomes-a-library
Speaking of food, I've been following the youtube coverage of the floods - in the midwest and elsewhere. In the '90's there were bad floods along the Mississippi River, but these recent floods are much bigger. In Nebraska, the flooding isn't simply along the Missouri River. Footage shows endless miles of communities under water - with roads collapsed and communities cut off from food and water supplies. This has been presented in minibits on TV, but it's really a catastrophe when one realizes that the flooding will not recede until May, and this is the area of the country which produces so much of our food.
Imagine how it would go over if Trump mentioned the threat to our food supply caused by this flooding together with his announcement of closing the Mexican border. Do you think his bots would get it that their own food supply is threatened - even at Walmarts or Aldi's across the south?
So Trump had another 25th Amendment moment, and we're all just joking about it. Nobody will do anything about it.
After Reagan had left office, Lesley Stahl reported that while he was still in office, she & a small group of people were in the Oval for a social event when Reagan -- who had Alzheimer's -- zoned out. Stahl spoke to White House aides about the incident, & they admitted they had experienced similar moments. But Stahl, a CBS reporter, never reported it.
We protect our presidents & president*, even when that's a bad idea.
That hoary illustration of randomness about a monkey given enough years and access to a typewriter eventually producing a work worthy of Shakespeare came to mind when I read this:
"And to be honest with you, have to get rid of judges,' Mr. Trump (aka The Pretender) said..."
Randomly or not, the man who seems constitutionally incapable of telling the truth just did.
He doesn't much like judges.
And we know why. They keep telling him "No."
Not something we should wish to hear from someone who has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution and the rule of law, but once again, we did.
More worrying to me than the weevil eating his brain.
Or maybe it's an evil weevil.
@Marie: It's quite amazing, isn't it? How some protect a president as though he's a king and is there for reasons other than being responsible for running a country. You mentioned Biden yesterday: good man, but past his prime perhaps––a man of yesteryear. But look what's happened to that man whose affectionate displays have been described by two women as disturbing–-they felt violated or perhaps just uncomfortable? He must be devastated. I, like you, have always had a soft spot for Biden but wouldn't vote for him for reasons other than he's past his prime. But the fact that a good man like this is being brought down by two women and will probably kill his running–- and the Other Man that has ruined this country sails along leaving dead bodies in his path.
Last night watched the documentary on the Central Park Five–-black youths convicted of a crime they did not commit. At the end a lovely man of color–-a historian–-says that this malfeasance of justice and the ramifications that followed showed such a dearth of hatred that he has to conclude that we humans lack humanity and many are simply soul-less. Trump, by the way paid lots of $$$ to the NYT for an editorial condemning these youths and giving his dish of dimes about crime. Five years after these boys were found innocent–-the real assaulter came forward–-Trump continued to berate them.
Ken,
Trump is essentially a monarchist. Or more accurately, a tyrant. He sees himself as the overlord of all he surveys; nothing and no one should stand in the way of his every desire. His professional life was one long battle with the law, with rules, with decorum, and with decency and honor.
Until he got to the White House, he was able to treat each of these categories with contempt, suffering no real consequences. His life is not a whole lot different now (in terms of consequences, at least so far--it's looking more and more like re-election is nowhere near the crap shoot it should be) but his every whim is no longer treated as a decree of Kubla Khan seated on his throne in Xanadu, and he doesn't like it.
Just look at his most recent from-the-hip pot shots: CLOSE THE BORDER! I DEMAND IT! "Um, sorry Donald, no can do. Economy will tank." I WILL KILL OBAMACARE! "Yeah, about that..."
He shoots his mouth off and with it, typically, his foot. He is unthinking and unprepared, he is the unbridled ID baby. After being told his healthcare threat was a non-starter, he needed to save face so he announced that he will definitely repeal the ACA and replace it with something unbelievably good--wicked good! Right after he's re-elected. I'm waiting to see what face-saving bullshit he'll come up with to back down on his border-closing threat. "Well, Mexico did what I ordered them to do, so I'll be nice and I won't close the border. But they better watch their step!"
Who knows what crazy shit he dreams up while watching the Fox imbeciles sing his praise that has to be shot down days or even hours later. "Unfit" is a state we would be lucky to have him inhabit. He is so far from being merely that. Unfit would be someone unqualified, uneducated, incurious, and simply not up to the task. That describes his staff and pretty much his entire cabinet. But Trump is far worse than merely unfit.
More than a few times he's seemed completely off his rocker. It's one thing to make a slip of the tongue, but to do it again and again...and to come out with ridiculous, stupid, even illegal demands, again and again...Even the 18th century Brits, as hidebound a group as you can find in the post-Medieval world, decided to relieve George III of his duties when the old boy went 'round the bend. Although I'm certainly not advocating for a sort of regency. Jesus, Prince Regent Junior? Or Princess Ivanka? But Prince Regent pence is not a whole helluva lot better.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty certain he wouldn't have be talked off a ledge every three days and told that threats of nuclear war were not a good idea.
At the onset of the 2016 campaign, he was a sideshow, a laughing stock, the guy who said stupid, outrageous things but got away with it because no one took him seriously. Now, he's in control of nuclear armaments.
The Electoral College has to go. It will be harder for Putin to put this idiot back in the White House without it.
And Democrats better get it together. Getting us free from Trump will be hard enough.
All for one and one for all.
Last night I watched a Nova on the odyssey of the human race, tracing the spread of humanity across the globe. DNA researchers identified the remains of young boy who died 13,000 years ago and was buried near Bozeman, Montana. He was descended from a small group of travelers whose DNA was 2/3rds East Asian and 1/3rd from a group of nomads inhabiting Mongolian steppes, who crossed a land bridge around 15,000 years ago into North America. It seems that all Native Americans, both North and South Americans, share a huge portion of their DNA with this boy. And we all share DNA with the first humans who came out of Africa. Most humans now inhabit regions that our president disdains as shithole countries. What he does not take into account is how related we all are.
People like Trump look askance at non-European cultures, finding them backward and primitive, but paleoanthropologists have discovered, through the track of DNA, that these "backward" types were incredibly sophisticated, brave, and innovative. Europeans traversed the mighty oceans with three masted ships and crews of hundreds. Prehistoric humans from Asia populated distant regions in the middle of the Pacific ocean using no known forms of navigation and traveling in small bands using things like dugout canoes. To disdain 75% of humanity because they don't look like someone you'd invite to your country club is not just ignorant, it's dangerously stupid. And really, it's un-human.
I think of the character of Preacher Casy in "Grapes of Wrath". He's the guy who sacrifices himself first, for Tom Joad, and later, gives up his life to protect migrant workers. In his final speech, Tom recalls what he's learned from Casy, who maintained a belief that we are all part of one great spirit:
"'Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one — an’ then —'
'Then what, Tom?'
'Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where — wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build — why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talkin’ like Casy. Comes of thinkin’ about him so much. Seems like I can see him sometimes.'"
Trump is the one sending out the cops to beat people up. It behooves the rest of us to consider that we truly are all one, physically and spiritually. The founders had it right, we are all born with inalienable rights. Trump and his kind didn't give them to us, and they cannot take them away, no matter how many foot-stampings ensue.
This just in: Dateline: Crazytown.
"Noise causes cancer", reported by your intrepid something, something, Donald J. Trump.
Noise causes cancer? Who knew? I thought trees caused cancer. Or maybe that was acid rain.
Who knew science could be so easy? You don't like something? It must cause cancer. At least "they" are saying so.
Another "they say" assertion. All true, no doubt, all true. How come I didn't come up with this idea in college? When a professor asked how I could possibly claim that A=BCD x 32 ft/sec squared but only on Thursdays, I could have said "They are all saying so". Presto. A+.
I could have been another successful carny barker just like DJT! At least that's what "they" are saying.
Last night Lawrence had on a psychiatrist, who was clearly uncomfortable diagnosing over the phone, but the show was about how batty Orange-a-tan really is. I'm with Marie: when is someone with power going to rein in this afflicted person? When is someone in the mainstream press going to say the words out loud to the populace? He is going downhill fast: why in the name of god doesn't he choose to play cheaty golf every day, all day, retire to Bedminster or wherever, and leave us to horrible Pence? Of course I know the answer-- he loves sitting on the golden throne issuing proclamations and enjoying the spotlight. He's delegated almost his entire job to his female blabmistresses and his crazy cabinet and he would miss the ringkissing that goes on hourly... I am under no delusion that Pence is much of an improvement, but I think he might not invade Mexico or Costa Rica or Spain for the hell of it...or maybe he would, if it would bring about the last days faster... I wonder if he would approve of eating pork that has been deemed jes' fine by the people selling the pork, or fly in planes inspected solely by Boeing... I think the entire Right side of the country is bonkers--
So they're going to replace government inspectors at packing plants with company employees. Somehow this seems familiar and we're seeing how well it worked for the FAA with Boeing.