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
Wednesday
Aug012018
The Commentariat -- August 2, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday formally announced its long-awaited proposal to dramatically weaken an Obama-era regulation on planet-warming vehicle tailpipe pollution. The publication of the proposal sets up a race among opponents of the change -- an unusual mix of environmentalists, automakers, consumer groups and states -- to temper the plan before it is finalized this year. The proposal would freeze rules requiring automakers to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids and electric vehicles, and unravel one of President Barack Obama's signature policies to combat global warming. It would also challenge the right of states to set their own, more stringent tailpipe pollution standards, setting the stage for a legal clash that could ultimately split the nation's auto market in two." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: How does this make America great again? Well, for one thing, you'll be able to see the air better. ...
... Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "... the Trump administration... is now arguing [that] ... forcing automakers to build cleaner cars will lead to more highway accidents and deaths." Plumer discusses the arguments, pro and con.
Ivanka Will Save Us! John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump said Thursday that she does not agree with her father's characterization of the media as 'the enemy of the people' and that she was 'vehemently against' separating children from parents at the border, calling that a low point of her White House tenure. The comments from Trump, a White House adviser, came during an event hosted by Axios...."
Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "After congressional Republicans repeatedly failed last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump promised to 'let Obamacare implode' on its own. A new lawsuit being filed Thursday argues that Trump's efforts to make good on that promise violate the U.S. Constitution. Trump has 'waged a relentless effort to use executive action alone to undermine and, ultimately, eliminate the law,' the complaint charges, according to a draft obtained by NBC News. The lawsuit is being filed in Maryland federal court by the cities of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati and Baltimore."
Manu Raju of CNN: "Two leading senators are asserting that ... Donald Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted most -- if not all -- sitting US senators. Ratcheting up the push for a more robust US response to Russian interference in the midterms and 2020 elections, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are now slated to get a committee vote this month on a bipartisan bill is aimed at shoring up the nation's election system. But the two senators said their plan has run into hurdles for months -- and say the Russian threat is real headed into the midterms."
Elisabetta Povoledo & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Pope Francis has declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases because it is 'an attack' on the 'dignity of the person,' the Vatican announced on Thursday, in a definitive shift in Roman Catholic teaching that could put enormous pressure on lawmakers and politicians around the world. Francis, who has spoken out against capital punishment before -- including in 2015 in an address to Congress -- added the change to the Catechism, the collection of beliefs for the world's 1.2 billion Catholics."
Mrs. McCrabbie: In the past, I may have linked to one Red State story. So this will be my second. Unless the author of the story mocked up the tweets he's posted (and that's possible -- all of the tweets start with Sarah Jeong's "professional twiter name" -- and yeah, that's "twiter," not "twitter"), it's a disturbing story: "Yesterday, the New York Times announced that it was hiring a journalist named Sarah Jeong as a member of their editorial board.... Ms. Jeong is apparently more than a journalist, she's also a virulent racist." The post goes on to reproduce quite a few awful anti-white tweets. Other right-wing sites -- Daily Caller & National Review -- have the story, too. What do you think? ...
... Here's a follow-up by Brian Flood of Fox "News": "The New York Times is standing by its hiring of tech writer Sarah Jeong despite several derogatory tweets of hers aimed at white people having been recently unearthed on her Twitter account.... [Jeong issued a statement: ] 'I engaged in what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again,' Jeong wrote."
*****
... Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "As of day 558 [of his presidency, Trump has] made 4,229 Trumpian claims -- an increase of 978 in just two months. That's an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day. When we first started this project for the president-s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.... In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.... Not surprisingly, immigration is the top single source of Trump's misleading claims, now totaling 538.... But moving up the list quickly are claims about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether people in the Trump campaign were in any way connected to it."
Trump Gone Wild! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly into the president.... '..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'... Mr. Trump's lawyers quickly elaborated on the president's message, saying it was not an order to a member of his cabinet, but merely an opinion.... Mr. Trump gave the directive in a series of Twitter posts hitting familiar notes in his objections to the investigation and accusing an investigator of being 'out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP.' Some of his messages contained quotations the president attributed to a staunch supporter, the lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Trump also tweeted on Wednesday that Mr. Manafort did not work for his campaign long, a defense he has used repeatedly to distance himself from his former campaign chairman.... The special counsel is also looking into some of Mr. Trump's tweets about Mr. Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and whether the messages were intended to obstruct the inquiry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, Trump gave [Robert Mueller] more potential evidence [of obstruction of justice].... Trump is apparently calling for Sessions to un-recuse himself from a case in which he has acknowledged he cannot be seen as neutral, and then to end it.... In defending the tweet, Trump's lawyers told The Post that it wasn't an explicit command. 'He carefully used the word, "should,'" [Rudy] Giuliani noted. Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow added: 'The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this.'... Every person has the right to defend themselves publicly, but as the Starr Report showed, a president's misleading public statements can be used against him." ...
... AND Al Capone Is Back. Jeet Heer: "Trump makes bad Al Capone analogy while trying to obstruct justice. On Wednesday, the president returned to tweeting on a familiar theme that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a witch hunt. But Trump did so with a new urgency:... 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and "Public Enemy Number One," or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?'... The Capone tweet is remarkable for a number of reasons. First of all, the president misspelled 'Alphonse.'... More substantially..., [the analogy] cuts against the argument Trump is making. Capone was a gangster but the government couldn't prove it, so they used the charge of income tax evasion to put him behind bars. This clearly parallels the way that Mueller is using money laundering charges to put the squeeze on Paul Manafort.... Bringing up Capone cuts against Trump's claim that Mueller is conducting a witch hunt because it reminds us that federal prosecutors often use the broad sweep of the law against offenders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The stupidest part: even most Trumpbots don't see Capone as a sympathetic figure picked on by a bunch of overzealous G-men. There's no upside to comparing your own campaign manager to Al Capone.
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed his lawyers in recent days to try once again to reach an agreement with the special counsel's office about him sitting for an interview, flouting their advice that he should not answer investigators' questions, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Mr. Trump has told advisers he is eager to meet with investigators to clear himself of wrongdoing, the people said. In effect, he believes he can convince the investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, of his belief that their own inquiry is a 'witch hunt.'" The reporters provide some details about the substance of the negotiations. ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's hard for me to believe that Trump is stupid enough to believe his own hype. This sounds like posturing on his part to me. If my lawyers told me not to testify, I wouldn't testify. ...
... Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "... Robert S. Mueller III indicated this week that he is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to President Trump in an interview, renewing negotiations with Trump's lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended standoff, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and Mueller personally. In a letter sent Monday, Mueller's team suggested that investigators would reduce by nearly half the number of questions they would ask about potential obstruction of justice, the two people said. It's unclear which topic or topics would be left out." ...
... John Santucci of ABC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office wants to ask ... Donald Trump about obstruction of justice, sources close to the White House tell ABC News.... According to sources familiar with the President's reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm." ...
... President Bizarro. Margaret Hartmann: "On Wednesday President Trump's day started, as it often does, with a bizarre tirade attacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... Once again, Trump seemed to be undermining his own case, providing Mueller with fresh evidence of obstruction of justice as he lashed out.... There's no good explanation for Trump's tweet -- so instead, his team made one nonsensical claim after another.... A few hours later, several stories emerged [that suggested Trump was willing & eager to sit down for a Mueller interview.]" Ergo, shut down the investigation I want to participate in. Mrs. McC: If Trump thinks he can end the "witch hunt" by sweet-talking the hunters, these two threads are not contradictory.
Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is hurtling through its tax- and bank-fraud case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, with prosecutors predicting their case could wrap up as soon as next week. Under constant pressure from U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis to keep their questioning brief and to the point, prosecutors whipped through eight witnesses Wednesday -- all vendors who sold Manafort items like luxury suits or services like home remodeling. All indicated that payment for the bills Manafort ran up came from obscure companies in offshore banking havens like Cyprus or the Grenadines.... [Prosecutor Greg] Andres said prosecutors said they plan to present two more vendors Thursday -- a home theater installer and a landscaper -- before moving on to a slew of bookkeepers and accountants who dealt with the veteran lobbyist and political consultant. Many of those witnesses demanded immunity in exchange for their testimony." ...
... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post live-updated Day 2 of the Paul Manafort trial. "Witnesses described how Manafort paid for a life of luxury -- spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on suits and home renovations -- via wire transfers from foreign bank accounts. The judge repeatedly warned prosecutors not to dwell on the extravagance of the purchases Manafort made. Prosecutors suggested they might not call Manafort's former business partner, Richard Gates, as a witness. They also revealed they are ahead of schedule and could rest their case next week." (Same story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Tierney Snead of TPM posts a bunch of photos of Manafort's expensive wardrobe which the prosecution wished to enter into evidence. Judge Ellis so far has not allowed the prosecution to do so. Mrs. McC: It probably doesn't matter. My reaction to, for instance, to the photo of the ostrich jacket: "You paid $15K for that?" ...
... Mark Mazzetti & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "At the trial of Paul Manafort, an unflattering picture has emerged of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants from both political parties winning big paydays for work on behalf of a Kremlin-aligned former Ukrainian strongman. Some spent the money on cars and homes, prosecutors said, and a jacket made of ostrich for Mr. Manafort. The vigor with which Mr. Mueller has investigated the flows of foreign money from Ukraine, Turkey and other countries into Washington could be as much a part of his legacy as special counsel as whatever he discovers about possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign or presidential obstruction of justice.... Over the past year, Mr. Mueller and the Justice Department have pursued numerous cases both under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, and related to foreign influence operations more broadly. FARA prosecutions were once almost unheard-of.... Whereas the public once thought of the Justice Department's counterintelligence mission as primarily trying to catch foreign spies seeking to obtain government secrets, the department has made clear in a recent cybercrimes report and congressional testimony that influence has become as great a threat." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times story fits into the narrative both Franklin Foer of the Atlantic & Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast told in pieces I linked yesterday. If you missed those stories, I recommend you take a peek now. Even as the players may change, the game will never get old.
Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bid by Democrats to appropriate an additional $250 million in grants to individual states to bolster the security of their voting systems. The rejection of new funding comes ... as ... Donald Trump's intelligence chiefs are sounding the alarm about the continued threat of election interference emanating from Russia.... All Republicans, except for Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), voted against the measure. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and John McCain (R-AZ) were not present for the vote. The amendment, offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), received 50 votes. It needed 60 to pass. Earlier this year, the Senate set aside $380 million for similar protective measures to guard against election interference and cyberattacks launched by foreign governments."
Aaron Blake: "... Sarah Huckabee Sanders just accused the media of hindering the American government's pursuit of Osama bin Laden just a few years before 9/11.... While defending Trump supporters' vulgar treatment of a CNN reporter..., [Sanders claimed,] 'The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools...,' clearly reading a prepared bit of gaslighting. 'One of the worst cases was the reporting on the U.S. ability to listen to Osama bin Laden's satellite phone in the late '90s. Because of that reporting, he stopped using that phone, and the country lost valuable intelligence.' Except this has been pretty well debunked -- and Sanders's version of it is particularly flawed." ...
... Greg Sargent: "On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta -- one of President Trump's favorite human targets -- and other members of the media were abused and heckled by Trump supporters at a rally in Florida. Videos of the event -- see here or here -- show the crowd at one point loudly chanting 'CNN sucks,' with many angrily brandishing middle fingers in the direction of the living, breathing members of the press corps.... Eric Trump tweeted out video of the 'CNN sucks' chant, with the hashtag #Truth, while directly singling out Acosta. And the president himself retweeted his son. The president's son is actively encouraging Trump supporters to direct rage and abuse toward working journalists, and the president is joining in, helping to spread the word.... Jay Rosen calls all of this a 'hate movement against journalists' that is essential to Trump’s political style, and urges them to recognize it as such.... The deliberate goal, as [Steve] Bannon has put it, is 'to throw gasoline on the resistance.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm with Sargent & Rosen. Time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to add "Trump administration" to its list of hate groups. ...
Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018
... Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "In Tampa..., several journalists described an atmosphere of hostility that felt particularly hard-edge. And far from condemning these attacks on the press, the president and his team have endorsed them." ...
... Charles Blow: "It is simply not healthy for the country to have a president stuck perpetually in attack mode, fighting enemies real and imagined, pushing a toxic agenda that mixes the exaltation of grievance and the grinding of axes. The president's recent rallies have come to resemble orgies for Donald Trump's ego, spaces in which he can receive endless, unmeasured adulation and in which the crowds can gather for a revival of an anger that registers as near-religious. They can experience a communal affirmation that they are not alone in their intolerance, outrage and regression.... Such was the case again this week at a Trump rally in Florida, at which his supporters aggressively heckled and harassed the free press that Trump incessantly brands with the false descriptor of 'fake news.'... Trump doesn't want a free press; he wants free propaganda."
... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Making matters worse was a dark novelty: The emergence at the [Trump] rally [in Tampa] of a cultish group called QAnon. These are the deranged devotees of a supposed government agent who they believe is waging war against the 'deep state' that threatens the Trump presidency.... As the Washington Post reported, 'As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience. "We are Q,' it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a "Q" pattern: "Where we go one we go all."' The group, born on Internet message boards such as Reddit and 8Chan, is a close cousin to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that led a gunman to open fire in a D.C. restaurant last year. The Huffington Post's Andy Campbell described it as a mishmash: 'It's every conspiracy, all at once, an orchestra tune-up of theories.' And although the group has staged public events in recent months, Tuesday night's Trump rally was its real coming-out party." ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The QAnon theories are elaborate and contradictory but at their heart is the idea that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a cabal of pedophiles who hold positions of power in the government and the media.... The curious thing about the QAnon conspiracy theory is that Trump will have a hard time either embracing it or denouncing it." ...
... Steve M. "I don't think QAnon-style thinking is just a sideshow. I think it's the point of conservatism now. Not every pro-Trump conservative believes the specific QAnon theories, but they all believe that their enemies -- who now include not just all Democrats but every Republican who won't genuflect to Trump -- are unspeakably evil.... So I'm not sure that Trumpism requires Trump at all. Trump is the center of a personality cult because he's the first politician at his level who seems to regard us as the unholy monsters that rank-and-file conservatives believe we are.... Trump isn't the point -- the fight against us is the point. Trump is just, in their belief, the greatest fighter they've had." Steve posts a QAnon video "so you know how far around the bend your right-wing neighbors have become."
Eric Levitz of New York: "The Trump administration is doing (virtually) everything in its power to make the Affordable Care Act more costly for the federal government; Obamacare's plans more generous for the poor; and 'market-based' approaches to universal health care more toxic within the Democratic Party." --safari
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced it had imposed sanctions on two top Turkish government officials whom the United States accused of playing a leading role in the detention of an American pastor being held on espionage charges. The move was an unusual use of financial sanctions against the government of a vital NATO ally, and is sure to inflame tensions that were already simmering over Washington's refusal to extradite a cleric suspected of leading a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The sanctions target Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey's justice minister, and Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister. They were issued just days after President Trump warned the Turkish government to immediately release the pastor, Andrew Brunson -- a demand he made directly last week in a telephone call with Mr. Erdogan." ...
... Constantine Courcoulas & Tugce Ozsoy of Bloomberg: "Turkish markets are plunging deeper into the wild. Unprecedented sanctions imposed by the U.S., its NATO ally, have added to the cross-currents buffeting investors.... The U.S. 'move will likely only incense Erdogan and a commensurate response is already promised,' Timothy Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, said in emailed comments." --safari
Min Joo Kim and Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "More than 60 years after the last shot was fired in the Korean War, the U.S. military prepared Wednesday to fly home what are believed to be the remains of more than 50 service members after the first such handover by North Korea in more than a decade. North Korea transferred the remains last week, the first tangible moves from agreements reached between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their meeting in Singapore on June 12. After a solemn ceremony at the U.S. military’s Osan Air Base in South Korea, 55 boxes of remains draped in the United Nations flag were taken to a pair of U.S. military planes, which flew them to a military laboratory in Hawaii for analysis and identification.... Vice President Pence, who was on hand at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii to receive the remains in an honorable carry ceremony.... The Pentagon estimates that nearly 7,700 U.S. troops are unaccounted for from the war.... Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week it was possible that some of the remains could belong to soldiers from those nations [which fought alongside the U.S.], and if so, they would be repatriated once they have been identified."
Alex Emmons of The Intercept: "The Intercept has learned of a previously unreported episode that stoked the UAE and Saudi Arabia's anger at [then-Sec. of State Rex] Tillerson and that may have played a key role in his removal. In the summer of 2017, several months before the Gulf allies started pushing for his ouster, Tillerson intervened to stop a secret Saudi-led, UAE-backed plan to invade and essentially conquer Qatar, according to one current member of the U.S. intelligence community and two former State Department officials, all of whom declined to be named.... Some Gulf watchers speculate that the incentive for the planned invasion may have been partly financial.... Since the current king [Mohammed bin Salman] came to power in 2015, the country has spent more than a third of its $737 billion in reserves, and last year, the Saudi economy entered a painful recession." --safari
Rebekah Entralago of ThinkProgress: "An employee atan Arizona facility that houses immigrant children separated from their families at the border has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Phoenix police.... One of the victim's roommates informed police on July 25 that she had witnessed the suspect kiss the girl multiple times and touch her breasts and crotch over her clothes in the bedroom she shared with two other minors.... According to the Phoenix Police Department, the suspect admitted to his involvement and was booked into jail on one count each of molestation, aggravated assault, and sexual abuse." --safari
Sam Fulwood III of ThinkProgress: "Black Lives Matter activists in Memphis, Tennessee learned last week that they'd made some new friends on Facebook: Local law enforcement.... In response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU in Tennessee..., Memphis city officials released a cache of previously sealed documents.... The materials ... painted a detailed, if reluctant, portrait of how the Memphis police -- under the direction of its Office of Homeland Security, a special team created after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- used social media platforms to spy on BLM activists." --safari
March of the Lemmings. Doug Sosnik in Politico Magazine: "There's an underappreciated reason for Congress' inability to stand up for itself: the mass departures of leading members who were more committed to the institutions of the House and Senate than they were to their political tribe.... [A] dramatic turnover in the composition of Congress has occurred at the same time as the emergence of a newly rigid partisanship. The convergence of these two forces -- an inexperienced Congress and political tribalism — has hastened the decline of institutional politics.... Loyalty to party is now the most important thing.... Not long ago..., congressional leaders defined themselves as stewards of the bodies they served, and they were rewarded by their ability to bridge differences and build coalitions of diverse interests. Now, our politics rewards politicians who ... draw sharp lines to emphasize their cultural identity and to convey the shared preferences and -- just as important -- the resentments and grievances of their supporters.... Contrary to popular opinion, this state of affairs is not all Donald Trump's fault."
Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Retired Ohio State wrestling coach Russ Hellickson reached out to two ex-team members and asked them to support their former assistant coach, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a day after they accused the powerful congressman of turning a blind eye to alleged sexual abuse by the team doctor, according to the wrestlers and text messages they shared with NBC News. The former wrestlers said their ex-coach made it clear to them he was under pressure from Jordan to get statements of support from members of the team.... Complicating things further for Hellickson is the fact that he was videotaped ... this year [by Michael DiSabato, whose whose whistleblowing spurred the university's investigation], before the accusations against Jordan were reported, talking about some of the lewd behavior he had witnessed at the wrestling team's headquarters in Larkins Hall.... Asked if Jordan got Hellickson to contact the wrestlers...," Jordan's spokesman wouldn't say. ...
... Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Ohio State announced Wednesday evening that the head coach of its storied football team, Urban Meyer, was being put on paid administrative leave while the university investigates allegations that Meyer knew a longtime former assistant coach had been accused of domestic abuse in 2015. Meyer, one of the most successful coaches of the past two decades, said last week that he had not heard of the domestic abuse accusations until they came to light in recent days, but a report has accused Meyer of having known about the accusations for far longer.... The escalation to paid administrative leave for Meyer came after Brett McMurphy, an independent journalist who formerly covered college football for ESPN, published a report on Facebook in which Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of the former assistant coach Zach Smith, said Meyer's wife had extensive knowledge of the abuse allegations. Courtney Smith's story was backed up by text messages, according to the report."
2018 Elections
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama took a public step back into the electoral arena on Wednesday, issuing a slate of 81 endorsements for Democrats running in the 2018 elections and giving his stamp of approval to more than a dozen veterans of his administration and election campaigns who are seeking office in their own right. Among the most prominent candidates to earn his backing were Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who is running for governor of Ohio; J.B. Pritzker, the private equity executive and Hyatt Hotels heir who is the party's nominee for governor in Illinois; and Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader who is vying to become the first African-American woman elected governor of a state. But Mr. Obama also extended his political blessing to Democrats running far down the ballot, backing legislative candidates in states such as North Carolina and Texas, as well as Democrats running for relatively low-profile offices...." ...
Kavanaugh Double-Speak. Manu Raju of CNN: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has privately told senators he views the appointment of a special counsel by the Justice Department as appropriate, a comment that could shed new light about his views of Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to sources familiar with the meetings. But Kavanaugh has also stood by his stated views that question whether a sitting US president can be indicted on criminal charges, instead saying Congress should play the lead role in impeaching and removing a president -- and also enact a law ensuring a president can be indicted after leaving office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter: TVEyes, a service that stores TV content for researchers, is taking Fox "News" to the Supreme Court in a challenge to case it lost to Fox in appellate court over the fair-use doctrine.
"Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd". Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept: "Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal. The project -- code-named Dragonfly -- has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official.... The app Google is building for China will comply with the country's strict censorship laws, restricting access to content that Xi Jinping's Communist Party regime deems unfavorable." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Josh Marshall of TPM: "2018 has been a year with constant new innovations in the field of politician revenge porn.... Meet rising star State Rep. Nick Sauer from Illinois.... Two years ago ... Sauer began a relationship with a California woman [Kate Kelly] who he met on the dating app Tinder.... [Long story short] Kelly shares nude photos of herself with Sauer as part of their long-distance relationship. Sauer takes those photos and posts them to an Instagram account which is based on her identity but which she doesn't know about. Sauer then sexts with the men who express sexual interest in 'Kelly' under the guise that Sauer is his then-girlfriend. Sauer is sexting wit other men while impersonating his girlfriend.... The crap hit the fan earlier this month." --safari...
... UPDATE: Sauer has since resigned from the legislature. Sad.
Way Beyond
Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "Three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic this week were investigating a Russian private military company with links to the Kremlin, their editors said. The Investigations Management Centre (IMC) said on its website on Tuesday that the team of reporters, led by the veteran war correspondent Orkhan Djemal, had been researching the actions of the Russian military firm Wagner, which has also been active in Syria and Ukraine.... Media reports said that the men may have been ambushed and killed Monday evening near the village of Sibut, about 185 miles (300km) north of the CAR's capital, Bangui.... The three Russians were accomplished journalists who had worked with independent or opposition media organisations." --safari
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Reader Comments (22)
On the other hand, Bea, the Pretender may be that demented.
I remember an interview with his younger self, which I might have mentioned here, in which be claimed that had he continued in the sport he would have become one of the greatest baseball players of all time...and while I could hear the interviewer's eyebrows raise in disbelief, the Pretender himself sounded utterly convinced by the nonsense he heard coming out of his own mouth.
Then there's the Kessler count above. It takes a "special" creature to rely so heavily and so often on lying so obviously to the public.
As Marvin has said many times, this man is seriously deranged. Plus he's not very nice.
But equally "special" is the audience that eats it all up and asks for more. Even though they don't have their finger on the button that's why, thinking long term, it's the Trumpbot audience that scares me more.
I said it yesterday, but what is this QCrap? What IS with these people?
Mr. Fish, (over on Truthdig) the innovative cartoonist, has drawn a perfect solution to what has become the daily onslaught we deal with. His heading:
WE NEED A DAY OFF
His cartoon is of a large pencil that resembles a missile that looks like a person whose mouth is open spewing out dozens of heads of the Donald and underneath are the words:
MOURNING SICKNESS
@ Ken, I agree. I suspect that many are gun owners and fear that some might start "exercising" their 2nd Amendment "rights".
@Ken: It is sometimes inconceivable to me that such a sick, deranged, seriously flawed human being is not only our president* but is fawned over by those orgiastic crowds over and over. I, too, fear them more than I do Trump because I know he can't last forever while these angry, hyped-up followers of his are out there and will lash out somehow, some way. The feed on each other–-Trump needs his fix as much as they do.
"What is with these people" begs answers I'm afraid some of us can't get our minds around. We have read all sorts of reasons for, but none I fear can ferret out the deep insecurity of this mob. If we could take them out of the crowd, one by one, we may find some answers but perhaps none that we can really understand.
I find it ironic that these Trump crowds are allowed to spew vile epitaphs at journalists while the people protesting Kavanaugh the other day in the halls of Congress were arrested.
I'm still laughing after reading this Q messaging.
"Every president before 45 was a criminal in league with the likes
of global banking elite, Hillary's death squads, deep-state operatives,
pedophile rings. According to Q, in order to break this up, the
military convinced trump to run for president."
I'm wondering which military that would be. Russian perhaps?
Because the only thing trump would be good at breaking up would
be marriages, his own and other peoples.
And here's a joke to cheer up Jeanne.
A lawyer, a spy, a mob boss, and a money launderer walk into a bar.
The bartender says: " You guys must be here to talk about adoption."
@forrest morris: The joke cheers me up, too. Thank you.
Ken, just add this last week. Al Capone was treated unfairly and the US has a bad groceries system.
My overwhelming frustration is that America ignores reality.
(One exception: Andy Borowitz is having a good time.)
Forrest,
Hahahahahaha...
I'm inclined to agree with Ken's assessment that the Glorious Leader may just be stupid enough to sit down for an interview with Mueller. He's the classic half-smart guy who believes himself always to be the smartest guy in the room. When it's proven that he's not, he simply attacks the messenger or runs away.
The idea of this dimwit sitting down with Mueller and his bloodhounds must terrify the White House, who see how easily and often this guy is dazed and confused.
Just yesterday, Liarbee Sanders spent some time cleaning up another Trumpy mess, the grocery store ID laugher. As usual, she lied. She tried to say that, of course, Trump meant that when he goes into the grocery to buy beer or wine, he's asked for an ID. A reporter shot back, "Why does the president, who doesn't drink, buy wine or beer at a grocery store?" And, also as usual, Sanders tried to shoot out some misdirection bullshit. Ignoring the problem of a guy who doesn't drink trying to buy beer, she stated that everyone who buys beer needs to show an ID. If they don't, that's a problem with the grocery store.
Oh.
So now the problem is all about grocery stores who don't card people buying alcohol and not at all about a coddled billionaire so out of touch with the daily lives of average Americans he doesn't have a clue about what happens in thousands of grocery stores every day.
But then, think of this jamoke sitting down with Mueller, thinking he's really gonna show this guy how it's done.
Anyone familiar with Trump's many interviews with opposing lawyers in the past, in depositions, for instance, understands how easy it is to crack him like an egg. He's been forced to backtrack, eat his words, admit to lying, and basically turning tail. And I'm betting none of those interviewers was Robert Mueller.
Great. I say let him do it. He can bring Rudy with him. And Sanders, while he's at it.
"Sure I colluded" sez Trumpy. "Wait" says Sanders, "What he meant was he intruded. He intruded, um.....um....on....um....a conspiracy by Hillary Clinton to, um....to...work with Russians to destroy America!"
"Oh" sez Rudy. "The president actually said "concluded". He had just concluded an investigation into Hillary's dirty deeds and was, um,...just about to call the FBI. And anyway, collusion isn't illegal. Right Bob?....Bob?"
Oughta be a howl.
Time for Bob Mueller to stop mollycoddling Trumpie. He should send Trump a list of sample questions with a "take it or leave it" note. Maybe Mueller doesn't want to alert Trump to the actual questions he'll be asking, so he can take his sample questions from ones that Trump's very own excellent Supreme Court nominee dreamed up to ask Bill Clinton during the Starr chamber probe. Here are a few (and I'm not making these up):
"If Monica Lewinsky says that you ejaculated into her mouth on two occasions in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?”
“If Monica Lewinsky says that on several occasions you had her give [you] oral sex, made her stop, and then ejaculated into the sink in the bathroom of the Oval Office, would she be lying?”
“If Monica Lewinsky says that you masturbated into a trashcan in your secretary’s office would she [be] lying?”
Quotable quip of the week.
Apparently those acquainted with Judge T.S. Ellis's (overseeing the Manafort trial) expeditious courtroom habits have dubbed his schedule the "Rocket Docket".
RC should not be held responsible for the contents of this message....but some of the thoughts therein were tried out here first, which did provide some useful momentum.
The one typo I found is all my fault, too.
http://www.thestand.org/?p=68646
@Ken Winkes: Your article in the stand says it all in a nutshell.
We're outnumbered by 5 justices.
The Pizza Guy is at the Door
The QAnon supporters of Trump, bubbling up from the deeply disturbed depths of some internet cauldron, have been brewing their distinctive combination of wild conspiracy theories, hatred, misogyny, racism, anarchic Libertarianism, and white supremacy for some time.
A couple of weeks ago I was tempted to post a link to a long article referencing the GamerGate debacle of a few years ago but I declined. There is a connection (a very important one, it turns out) to the rise of the Trump Monster, but you'd have to wade through the whole history of the GamerGate Movement and it's outcroppings, and unless you've been immersed in the gamer world for some time, the issues, problems, reactive forces, and the inside baseball of that domain might seem forbiddingly recondite (as in "I really don't have time for this crap").
So here's the nutshell version. Back in the pre-Trump era (remember that?), around about 2014, a backlash began among gamers (I should say among angry, white male gamers) against anyone demanding some sort of sense of equality in the industry. Minorities and women were scarce and those who ventured in became targets. Strong reactions were also directed toward journalists covering the industry who questioned the serial and often dangerously vicious misogyny and violence of some games. Harassment turned serious. People were "doxed", i.e., their private information, addresses, phone numbers, names of family members, were released to the howling mob for further abuse and torment.
"The 2014 hashtag campaign, ostensibly founded to protest about perceived ethical failures in games journalism, clearly thrived on hate – even though many of those who aligned themselves with the movement either denied there was a problem with harassment, or wrote it off as an unfortunate side effect. Sure, women, minorities and progressive voices within the industry were suddenly living in fear. Sure, those who spoke out in their defence were quickly silenced through exhausting bursts of online abuse. But that wasn’t why people supported it, right? They were disenfranchised, felt ignored, and wanted to see a systematic change."
Assholes who feel put upon, victimized by undeserving minorities and pesky women, all of whom need to be put in their place. Sound familiar?
"The similarities between Gamergate and the far-right online movement, the 'alt-right', are huge, startling and in no way a coincidence. After all, the culture war that began in games now has a senior representative in The White House [article written in 2016]. As a founder member and former executive chair of Brietbart News, Steve Bannon had a hand in creating media monster Milo Yiannopoulos, who built his fame and Twitter following by supporting and cheerleading Gamergate. This hashtag was the canary in the coalmine, and we ignored it."
The issue began as a way for a disgruntled guy in the industry to punish his ex-girlfriend. Things quickly spiraled out of control and rape and death threats followed her everywhere. She was driven out of the industry. Women, and even men, who spoke up in her defense were given the same treatment.
The same angry white men who began developing these tools of harassment were immediately attracted to Trump, who promised punishment for political correctness. Offshoots of the GamerGate crowd drove the conversations at places like 8chan and on sub-Reddits (smaller groups on the larger message board site Reddit).
"They found a voice in Trump, particularly after former Breitbart News chair Steve Bannon took a role in Trump’s campaign. Many of Trump’s biggest online supporters came into pro-Trump activism from Gamergate. These include people like Mike Cernovich, who called Gamergate 'the most important battle of the culture war this century,' and disgraced former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who attempted to 'legitimize' the alt-right within conservative media and take it (and its racism and anti-Semitism) mainstream."
Of course Trump, as he always does, fucked these guys, who were some of his earliest and most vicious and underhanded supporters. After the Parkland shooting, Trump and his NRA masters needed a way to point fingers elsewhere. They settled on video games as the culprit for mass murders.
"As one poster commented on Reddit’s biggest Gamergate-themed message board: 'Congratulations Trump supporters, the next push to censor videogames is your fault.'
The political elements of Gamergate helped contribute to the rise of the alt-right. Some of them morphed into hardcore online Trump fans — defending him with aggressive tactics from trolling to doxxing. But Trump’s anti-video game views have roared back to the surface — putting many gamers on the defensive."
Pretty quickly things got worse down in the pits of internet hatred, and what is now QAnon began with insider references to "pizza"
: "...in the worldview of [Mike] Cernovich and [Rosanne] Barr, there is a massive left-wing conspiracy to engage in pedophilia and protect fellow pedophiles, often using 'pizza' as a code word for child sex."
And from there we get to QAnon supporters with signs at Trump rallies.
Fans of the "West Wing" may remember a famous scene in which Josh Lyman tried to take on a bunch of internet trolls. They kicked his ass. The barely controlled fury of those online loonies seems quaint now in the Age of Trump where evil things have come out of dark places to dance in the street.
A writer in the Guardian offers this warning.
"Prominent critics of the Trump administration need to learn from Gamergate. They need to be prepared for abuse, for falsified concerns, invented grassroots campaigns designed specifically to break, belittle, or disgrace. Words and concepts will be twisted, repackaged and shared across forums, stripping them of meaning. Gamergate painted critics as censors, the far-right movement claims critics are the real racists.
Perhaps the true lesson of Gamergate was that the media is culturally unequipped to deal with the forces actively driving these online movements. The situation was horrifying enough two years ago, it is many times more dangerous now."
"Words and concepts will be twisted, repackaged and shared across forums, stripping them of meaning." Isn't that Liarbee Sanders' job description? The job description of every member of the Party of Traitors?
And as that Guardian article was written two years ago, it's even worse now. Talk about quaint, it seems ridiculous to think that a group like this should feel impelled to associate themselves, happily, with the President* of the United States, who welcomes their support, but that's where we are right now.
Sorry for the length. I said it would be the nutshell version. Turns out those nuts are huge.
It occurs to me that Ivanka Trump, politically speaking, is essentially lil' Randy Paul in reverse.
As @Ak has superbly shown in his "flip-flop" series, Paul wants all the love by always staking out a position for himself early that gives him the air of stopping the imminent train wreck building up momentum in Washington. Then, as the press and non-GOP faithful commend him for being the potential Savior of Sanity, he quickly abandons all principles and sits back in line with all of the other mindless GOP rubber stampers.
Ivanka, however, has chosen a different approach. She came to Washington ordering up articles, à la David Pecker at AMI, to paint her as the Goodwill Ambassador in the Trump White House, the voice of sanity, fighting for more liberal positions, especially those involving women and children. Now whenever train wrecks are coming down the line, instead of blowing horns or flashing signal lights to change course, she sits down faithfully by Daddy's side providing him his needed warm support and watches the sausage gets made, mostly distracted anyway by the likes on her Instagram account pics of her soon to be broken up family.
Once the trains collide and the twisted metal comes to rest at her feet, she calls up the microphone to make sure it's known that she is SO upset about this train wreck, and would love to help out next time but she's so laser-focused on maternity leave and she can't be expected to walk and chew gum at the same time.
From Russia with Votes
So here we are again. Another national election in a couple of months or so and Putin's boys are hard at work. Why? The Party of Traitors have left the back door open for them. Not only have they left the back door open, they shut off the alarms and left the keys to the car and the SUV and an envelope with gas money on the kitchen table. They've left out plenty of vodka and cookies, and instructions for logging onto Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon on the smart TV in the family room, and log in information to all the family computers.
AND they've left a great big thank you note from Presidentsky* Trumpskyev, with a big heart emoji on it and plenty of X's and O's.
Why wouldn't Russia continue to ratfuck our elections? It costs them less than a single tank. No shooting war could do as much damage. Plus, no one is calling them on it, well, no one with any power to stop them, that is. And look at what happened last time. They succeeded in putting a galumphing goober in the White House, a guy who hearts him some Putin and who's more obedient than a trained poodle. Why not try it again? They'd be stupid not to.
But this time, they're likely feeling much more emboldened. Maybe this time they hack right into those unprotected voting machines, you know, the ones that've been hacked in tests by high school kids. When you see Senator Douche (R) getting 120% of the vote, you'll know who did it.
Trump and Fox and the entire Party of Traitors are perfectly fine with all of this. And when they come home at night and find the cookies gone, vodka stains on the couch, the cars wrecked, the TV busted, the computers frozen from viruses picked up off internet porn sites, and lipstick messages on the bedroom mirrors from hookers who have peed on the bed, they'll simply chalk it up to the price of stealing power any way they can.
Viva Moscow!
Fascinating nuts, Akhilleus.
Know nothing of the gaming world, but your account of the culture wars in that world parallels the controversy that erupted over the Hugo nominees in sf fandom at roughly the same time.
Too much feminism and one-world progressivism for a cadre of ill-humored fans who set out to "game" the nomination process to keep those annoying libruls at bay.
Feelings ran high, as I remember, and after the troglodytes were slapped down, I've often wondered how many of those abused nerds (I count my younger self as a card-carrying member of nerd-dom, but missed most of the self-loathing) turned to the idiot Pretender as some kind of savior. Too many, I suspect.
More proof that being a smartie isn't enough to qualify someone as a human being.
That takes work.
Ken,
I do indeed recall the brouhaha over the Hugo Awards and the way they were gamed and taken over via tactics employed by a small but very active right-wing reactionary group of sad, victimized (again) white males, the Sad Puppies I think they called themselves.
Sad is the word alright.
Any incursion into sacred domains previously dominated by white males (and Sci-Fi, certainly in its golden age, qualified) was, and is, sure to ignite resentment and even hatred by those who see any change as a sure index of imminent Armageddon.
Mostly these guy just sit in their mom's basement and complain to each other about how life has become so unfair, but some, like the Puppies and GamerGate creeps have taken it upon themselves, very much like the entire Republican Party, to try to win at all costs. Cheating, scamming, lying, doxing and threatening those they consider enemies are not just acceptable elements of their action plans, but required.
I haven't been following the Sci-Fi world as much as I used to, but I recall, years ago, being in a conversation with other Sci-Fi fans hearing a couple of guys rip Ursula K. Le Guin as not being a "real" Sci-Fi writer because "girl", of course (one of them hated her "Left Hand of Darkness" because of the presence of androgynous characters--no Manly Men). The rest of us gave them shit for being such cave men, but I don't think we appreciated how the sense of self pity, victimization, and disenchantment with change could morph so easily into hate and political action based on fear and loathing.
And now they have a Glorious Leader who shares their animus and hatreds, and prizes fear and loathing as the hammer and saw of his toolbox.
re: Sarah Jeong. My first thought after reading the (out-of-context) tweets was to say 'ok that's IT NYT, first Bret Stephens on top of all that other stuff (e.g., Haberman) and now this etc, etc. cancel CANCEL!’
The second thing I did was to remember I've probably re-Tweeted some of Ms. Jeong’s Tweets. Any of us who view Twitter as an instrument of free speech & opinion and who challenge the entrenched, smug, entitled, and yes, almost all-white-straight-male-identified core of the Trumpista mob--we have to support those of us who are fighting back.
I've lived most of my life with Asian friends and been close enough to them to see the prejudice, fear & ignorance--and hate--that gets shoved their way by this bunch. It’s not just the blacks & the browns & the LGBTXq's. Ms. Jeong has the right to speak back & up to that on Twitter, Facebook, wherever, while also pursuing a (respected) tech career online.
So I won’t be canceling. yet, anyway. The NYT makes me uneasy in its apparent & ongoing desire to placate & appease dangerously nihilistic and destructive forces in our world. Hiring Sarah Jeong doesn’t qualify.
Google in China:
We're a long way from "Do no evil" aren't we?'
Maybe they forgot the qualifier, "....unless it makes money."
Ken,
Both Facebook and Google have demonstrated clearly that money trumps (oh god, that word!) almost everything. I don't want to be completely black and white about decisions like this, but at some point you're either for open societies or you're not. You're either for the concept of freedom of access to information, or you're not. I realize China is a huge market and if Google didn't do it, someone else will. But isn't that a little like saying "If I don't transport these Jews to Treblinka, someone else will?" Is that too harsh? Too much of an alarmist analogy? I dunno.
I don't think so.
Forrest— love it! Thanks! Barreling across the Midwest with MSNBC—- Aaaaargh—