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
Saturday
Feb172018
The Commentariat -- February 18, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Michael Birnbaum & Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "Amid global anxiety about President Trump's approach to world affairs, U.S. officials had a message to a gathering of Europe's foreign policy elite this weekend: Pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain. U.S. lawmakers -- both Democrats and Republicans -- and top national security officials in the Trump administration offered the same advice publicly and privately, often clashing with Trump's Twitter stream: The United States remains staunchly committed to its European allies, is furious with the Kremlin about election interference and isn't contemplating a preemptive strike on North Korea to halt its nuclear program."
David Willman of the Los Angeles Times: "A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days -- and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul J. Manafort Jr., the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign. The change of heart by Trump's former deputy campaign manager, Richard W. Gates III, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manafort's, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case."
Pruitt Cancels Taxpayer-Funded Vacation Official Trip. Juliet Eilperin & Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has canceled a nearly week-long trip to Israel, agency officials confirmed Sunday. Pruitt, who had been scheduled to leave this weekend for an extensive tour of the Mideast ally, has come under fire over the past week for the cost of his domestic and international travel. In May, the head of Pruitt's security detail recommended he travel either business or first class whenever possible to avoid public confrontations with critics."
*****
A Leaderless Nation. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "After more than a dozen Russians and three companies were indicted on Friday for interfering in the 2016 elections, President Trump's first reaction was to claim personal vindication: 'The Trump campaign did nothing wrong -- no collusion!' he wrote on Twitter. He voiced no concern that a foreign power had been trying for nearly four years to upend American democracy, much less resolve to stop it from continuing to do so this year.... In 13 months in office, Mr. Trump has made little if any public effort to rally the nation to confront Moscow for its intrusion or to defend democratic institutions against continued disruption.... The administration has been left to respond without the president's leadership.... Rather than condemn Russia for its actions, Mr. Trump in the past has said he accepts the denial offered by President Vladimir V. Putin.... Mr. Trump's own aides readily acknowledge the reality that he does not.... For the moment, the government is left to act without the president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is an astonishing article to appear as the top story in America's paper of record. Baker writes nothing we don't know, but it's a stark admission of where a POTUS* has left us. Update: Read on, because it only gets worse. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, when are you going to say out loud what we know you know: that the POTUS* is nuts. ...
... digby: "The worst case scenario here is that the president conspired with a foreign adversary (and yes, they are an adversary if not an enemy) to win the presidential election, either for their mutual personal benefit or due to some form of blackmail. The best case scenario is that the president of the United States was an unwitting dupe but is so deranged and ignorant that he refuses to take action to prevent this from happening in the future and is actively covering up the scandal to assuage his fragile ego. And in the process, he's implicating himself in the scandal after the fact. There are no other explanations for this and it's terrifying." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, the worst case scenario (a) is that Mueller charges the POTUS* on conspiracy against the United States and obstruction of justice, and the best case scenario (b) is that Mueller charges him only with (multiples counts of) obstruction. In Bea McCrabbie's Constitutional theory class, if (b), then the 25th Amendment + obstruction. (How can there be obstruction if there were no underlying crimes? The crimes the POTUS* was covering up, if he himself had committed none, would be crimes committed by subordinates & others -- like Mike Flynn.) ...
(Insane) Defendant-in-Chief
NEW. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump, in a series of angry and defiant tweets on Sunday morning, sought to shift the blame to Democrats for Russia's virtual war to meddle in the 2016 election, saying that President Barack Obama had not done enough to stop the interference and denying that he had ever suggested that Moscow might not have been involved. Mr. Trump, who has said little to publicly acknowledge a threat to American democracy that even one of his top aides [H.R. McMaster] called 'incontrovertible' on Saturday, asserted that the efforts to investigate and combat the Russian meddling had only given the Russians what they wanted, saying that 'they are laughing their asses off in Moscow.' 'If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,' Mr. Trump wrote. From his Florida estate, the president has spent the weekend stewing over news coverage of an indictment secured last week against more than a dozen Russians by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel leading an investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia." ...
... NEW. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump questioned the intensifying special counsel investigation of his 2016 campaign and his administration while attacking his own national security adviser, the FBI, Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, Democrats in Congress, CNN and others in a remarkable nine-hour span of tweets that included profanity and misspellings. Posting from his palatial estate, he seemed most aggrieved that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team on Friday had filed 13 indictments against Russians and alleged that the effort was intended to push voters toward Trump and away from Clinton.... Trump has chafed at accusations that he had any help, resisting calls to decry Russian meddling and take more action against it even as he has fired and threatened to fire law enforcement officials investigating him and frequently ranting on Twitter." ...
... NEW. Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "He did not criticize Russia, or voice concern over Vladimir Putin's attempts to undermine U.S. elections." ...
Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud! -- Donald Trump, Saturday night
Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: Like me, the 35,000-person-strong FBI cannot walk & chew gun at the same time. That's why their motto is "One Crime at a Time." P.S. Have I mentioned this Russia thing is a hoax? ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday attacked the news media for its coverage of special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of more than a dozen Russians accused of interfering in the 2016 election. In a series of tweets, Trump said news outlets have not highlighted the ways he believes the charges exonerate his campaign from colluding with Moscow's election-meddling efforts. 'Funny how the Fake News Media doesn't want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn't know!' the president tweeted. Trump has repeatedly seized on the charge, included in Mueller's indictments released Friday, that the Russian efforts began well before the business mogul entered the presidential race. There were signs, however, that Trump was exploring a run as early as 2014.... The tweets are part of Trump's efforts to spin the indictment in his favor, even though it undercut his longstanding claim that Russia's election meddling was a 'hoax.'" ...
... Josh Marshall: "Facebook seems still to be committed to lying, albeit now more artfully, about its role in the 2016 election and more broadly as a channel of choice for propaganda and misinformation.... Here's the tweet I saw from Facebook's VP of advertising: Rob Goldman ... 'Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal.' [AND] 'The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn't align with the main media narrative of Tump and the election'... President Trump himself clearly saw immediately that Goldman's line was an effort to align Facebook with President Trump's messaging -- namely, it wasn't about electing Trump [& he retweeted the Goldman's second tweet]...." ...
... Trump also cited the first Goldman post in another tweet. ...
... Tara Culp-Ressler of ThinkProgress: "Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley claimed during an appearance on Fox News on Saturday that Democratic politicians and the mainstream press have done more to interfere in the electoral system than Russia has.... 'What the Russians were trying to do, as outlined by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, was create chaos in the American election system,' Gidley said. 'And I will just say this: There are two groups that have created chaos more than the Russians, and that's the Democrats and the mainstream media, who continued to push this lie on the American people for more than a year -- and quite frankly Americans should be outraged by that.'" ...
... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "On Friday, the Department of Justice detonated a legal bombshell, announcing the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election.... Standing at the podium was Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Donald Trump's much-reviled 'Democrat from Baltimore,' who is widely believed to be just barely hanging on to his day job as special counsel Robert Mueller's minder and whose deputy has just lurched off the national stage for a gig at Walmart. This was a fairly impressive piece of political maneuvering. On the one hand, it makes any attempt by Trump to remove Rosenstein an even more explicit obstruction of justice. Rosenstein has, after all, just publicly linked himself to indictments of Russians (foreigners!) who tried to throw the election to Trump. He's also linked himself even more tightly with Mueller and the special counsel's investigation.... Rosenstein now indisputably stands for the proposition that Russia interfered in the election and that anyone who denies this is lying. Earlier this week, incidentally, CNN reported that 'Trump still isn't buying that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sheera Frenkel & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "While the indictment does not accuse Facebook of any wrongdoing, it provided the first comprehensive account from the authorities of how critical the company's platforms had been to the Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. Facebook and Instagram were mentioned 41 times, while other technology that the Russians used was featured far less. Twitter was referred to nine times, YouTube once and the electronic payments company PayPal 11 times.... When suggestions first arose after the 2016 election that Facebook may have influenced the outcome, Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive, dismissed the concerns. But by last September, Facebook had disclosed that the Internet Research Agency had bought divisive ads on hot-button issues through the company. It later said 150 million Americans had seen the Russian propaganda on the social network and Instagram. [Facebook owns Instagram.]... Facebook's multiple mentions in Friday's indictment renew questions of why the world's biggest social media company didn't catch the Russian activity earlier or do more to stop it. How effective the company's new efforts to reduce foreign manipulation have been is also unclear."
Party Like the Kids Next Door Didn't Get Shot. Aldan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump met with survivors of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting on Friday, before heading to his Mar-a-Lago resort for a disco-themed party. Trump met with survivors of Wednesday's mass shooting at Broward Health North hospital in Pompano Beach with his wife Melania. They also stopped at the Broward County Sheriff's Office." ...
... At least Trump didn't go golfing Saturday. Christine Stapleton of the Palm Beach Post: "Despite the cloudless skies and 80-degree temperature, the president did not golf [Saturday]. Instead, he sent out a string of tweets Saturday afternoon...."
... Mark Hand: "With school mass shootings on the riseacross the country, the Trump administration is proposing major funding cuts for violence prevention and recovery assistance programs at public schools. Funds targeted for reduction or elimination in ... Donald Trump's FY-19 budget request, which was released two days before the tragedy at a high school in Parkland, Florida, have helped pay for counselors in schools and violence prevention programs. In fact, the funding levels sought by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would 'completely abdicate responsibility' for school safety, violence prevention, and recovery, according to a report released Friday by the Center for American Progress (CAP)."
A Tottering Alliance. Griff Witte & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster acknowledged Saturday that evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is 'incontrovertible.'... The comments, a day after the Justice Department indicted 13 Russians for interference in the election that catapulted Donald Trump to the White House, follow months of efforts by the president to cast doubt on assertions of Moscow's meddling. They came as McMaster used a high-profile address at a global security conference to try to rally Western allies against common enemies, offering an olive branch to U.S. partners that have often felt battered and neglected in the age of Trump.... But the appeal to solidarity could not hide the deep fissures among Western allies, examples of which abounded Saturday.... Most glaring was the gap between the United States and its European allies." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** How Trump Waged War on Dreamers. David Nakamura & Mike DeBonis: "As much of the country was gripped Wednesday by horrific images from the mass shooting at a Florida high school, two dozen senior Trump administration officials worked frantically into the night to thwart ... a vote the next day in the Senate [that would have spared Dreamers from deportation].... But to the men and women huddled in a makeshift war room in a Department of Homeland Security facility, the measure would blow open U.S. borders to lawless intruders. 'We're going to bury it,' one senior administration official told a reporter at about 10:30 p.m. that evening. The assault was relentless -- a flurry of attacks on the bill from DHS officials and the Justice Department and a veto threat from the White House -- and hours later, the measure died on the Senate floor. The Trump administration's extraordinary 11th-hour strategy to sabotage the bill showed how, after weeks of intense bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill, it was the White House that emerged as a key obstacle preventing a deal to help the dreamers. The episode reflected President Trump's inability -- or lack of desire -- to cut a deal with his adversaries even when doing so could have yielded a signature domestic policy achievement and delivered the U.S.-Mexico border wall he repeatedly promised during the campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly announced Friday that beginning next week, the White House will no longer allow some employees with interim security clearances access to top-secret information -- a move that could threaten the standing of Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law.... Two U.S. officials said they do not expect Kushner to receive a permanent security clearance in the near future.... And apart from staff on the National Security Council, he issues more requests for information to the intelligence community than any White House employee...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... All the Best People, Ctd. In yesterday's Comments, Capt Russ drew a parallel between "undocumented immigrants" & "undocumented White House staff": "... so happy to see that the Chief of Staff for the President* who promised serious vetting of immigrants has discovered 'serious shortcomings with the system for vetting top-level officials with access to the United States' most closely guarded secrets' just 1 year and 29 days into the administration. Looks like this administration is 'extremely careless' with classified information. LOCK 'EM UP!!"
All the Best People, Ctd. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Doug Manchester, the billionaire nominated by President Trump to be ambassador to the Bahamas, made a fortune as a real estate developer in San Diego while also earning a reputation for his philanthropy, conservative convictions and lavish lifestyle. In 2011, Manchester, then 69, decided to buy the struggling San Diego Union-Tribune. Over the next four years, he employed an unconventional, anachronistic management style that upended the newspaper's culture and made many female workers uncomfortable, according to more than a dozen current and former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity. During the taping of a promotional video, Manchester once pulled a reporter in for a hug so intimate that it startled onlookers in the newsroom, multiple people said. He complimented young female employees on their appearances, and he and other senior managers required some of them hired for a new in-house television operation to wear short black dresses and serve as hostesses for advertisers and other guests at Union-Tribune events, current and former employees said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Selling Trump. Maria Abi-Habib & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: Donald Trump, Jr. is on his way to India "to help sell more than $1 billion in luxury residential units being built by the Trumps and their local partners, has been promoted with newspaper advertisements that read: 'Trump has arrived. Have you?'... The younger Mr. Trump's weeklong itinerary of cocktail parties, dinners and events with real estate brokers, business leaders and prospective buyers comes as President Trump is working to strengthen ties between the two countries.... India is the Trump Organization's biggest international market, with four real estate projects underway."
Audra Burch, et al., of the New York Times: "A Florida social services agency conducted an in-home investigation of Nikolas Cruz after he exhibited troubling behavior nearly a year and a half before he shot and killed 17 people at his former high school in Florida, a state report shows. The agency, the Florida Department of Children and Families, had been alerted to posts on Snapchat of Mr. Cruz cutting both his arms and expressing interest in buying a gun, according to the report. After visiting and questioning Mr. Cruz at his home, the department determined that he was at low risk of harming himself or others.... 'Mr. Cruz stated that he plans to go out and buy a gun,' the report states. 'It is unknown what he is buying the gun for.'... The report noted that a mental health agency had been contacted in the past to detain Mr. Cruz under Florida's Baker Act, which allows the state to hospitalize a person for several days if they are a threat to themselves or others. The center determined that he was not a risk to himself or others." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A prominent Republican political donor demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians. Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer who was a leading fund-raiser for George W. Bush's campaigns, said he would seek to marshal support among other Republican political donors for a renewed assault weapons ban." ...
... Maureen Dowd: "Now children in this country go to school every day knowing that they are not safe, that a crazed predator could show up at any moment with an assault rifle and cut them down. America shrugs. Our children are collateral damage." ...
... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The United States, to put it bluntly, has grown callous about the lives of its children.... Guns are ... one of three main reasons the United States has become 'the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into,' according to a study in Health Affairs. The other two are vehicle crashes and infant mortality.... When you look at the big causes of preventable childhood death, it's hard not to notice a political pattern. One party -- the Republican Party -- is blocking sensible gun laws. The same party has been trying to take away people's health insurance. And while traffic safety is a bipartisan problem, blue states are generally trying harder than red states."
Senate Race
Josh Voorhes of Slate: "Republicans have finally gotten their man -- at least one of them, anyway. Rep. Kevin Cramer [R-N.D.] has decided to mount a challenge to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, one of 10 Senate Democrats running for re-election in states that went to Donald Trump in 2016.... Cramer's official announcement Friday comes more than a month after he publicly declined his party's invitation to run, saying then he'd take the easier (and cheaper) route and simply seek a fourth term in the House. But the Republican Powers That Be didn't give up until they got the answer they wanted.... For all the attention paid this week to Sen. Bob Corker and his second thoughts about retirement, Cramer's decision has a more immediate impact on the battle for control of the Senate. Cramer gives the Republicans a very good chance to win back a seat in what is otherwise shaping up to be a very good year for Democrats."
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Reader Comments (9)
Mentioned to my wife last night I see no reason (that's reason, not money) internet entities like Google, Facebook and Twitter that present themselves to the public as purveyors of information are not immediately declared public utilities and regulated as such.
Then today saw this. Facile in places but worth a skim. The numbers (I’m a sucker for them) are interesting.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a15895746/bust-big-tech-silicon-valley/
Once again, capitalism's consumers: we're so awesome. We happily pay people big money to lie to us.
Yesterday Capt Russ––good to see you again–––gave us a link to a New Yorker piece featuring an interview with Philip Roth whose book about Lindbergh becoming president said this:
" Lindbergh, despite his Nazi sympathies and racist proclivities, was a great aviation hero who had displayed tremendous physical courage and aeronautical genius in crossing the Atlantic in 1927. He had character and he had substance and, along with Henry Ford, was, worldwide, the most famous American of his day."
Unlike Trump, he says, who is just a scam artist. First, I'd argue about Lindberg having such character and substance although one could make a case for that, I suppose. The thing is many people who voted for Trump–-they were the ones who sincerely believed HE was a man of substance–––after all look at all he had acquired–-smart businessman, tall towers, so much gold and sparkle–– He even created a university that would help people become as successful as he. HE was the man at the center, even had a successful T.V. show where he fired at will. This is someone who spoke their language––he connected bigly. Even Barbara Walters on the View three years ago said to Ivanka Trump, "You know how fond I am of your father but he Can be a bit..."and she waved her arms about. So fondness at that time perhaps continued as he took the center stage and decided, "sure, I'd like to be president–-why not?"
And I think Russ, your conversation about Bermuda with "rolling eyes" guy, once again tells us the mindsets of those who Roth describes so well. Those people in his book that rallied round Lindberg, denounced a president like FDR as communistic, are the same kinds of people now that see and feel with a different lens and a different perspective; I am being kind here–-there are other names for many of these people but when referring to them collectively, it's better to skip the epithets.
After all it's Sunday–-the Lord's Day.
Aggrieved Cadet Bone Spurs attacks... "his own national security adviser, the FBI, Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, Democrats in Congress, CNN and others in a remarkable nine-hour span of tweets..."
Placing blame on nearly everyone, BUT....
..."He did not criticize Russia, or voice concern over Vladimir Putin's attempts to undermine U.S. elections."
This deranged man is up to his surgically-reduced bald spot in dirt.
Every hour that goes by now that Drumpf refuses any directive to protect American democracy should be exponential motivation for Mueller's team, and any patriotic American really, to permanently brand his flabby ass as a traitor to the nation. I can't even imagine what Mueller is thinking right now as he watches the primal screams and emotional unravelings of our supposed "leader".
There's absolutely nothing stopping this administration from saying, "While the idea Russians helped us is fake news, we're sanctioning them for their interference....", except that apparently the White House occupant has "emotional issues". Fucking hogwash.
Too many excuses have been made for the "chafed ego" in the White House. It's passed the stage of outrage. His blatant inaction is frankly evidence for treason. The whole current GOP network aiding and abetting this complete abdication of protecting our nation from enemies, both foreign and domestic, is complicit and should be similarly branded.
The entire GOP has melted away before our eyes, all to throw in their lot with Donald Fucking Trump. Despicable, wretched cowards.
Over sixty years ago when walking home from school I would pass by this house that had a parrot in a cage on the porch. If you spoke loudly or called out the bird would yell "Damn You" several times. Like that bird, if anyone says "Russia" Trump will reply "no collusion" over and over. It's automatic.
Trump says the Russians are laughing their ass off. Yes they are, at him. He is a tool that can't see that he has been and is still being used.
@Safari
The "enemy" as in non-combatants spewing misinformation from Russia were (are) far far fewer in number than the misinformed citizen rabble among us. Does it matter that the originators of misinformation were sponsored (i.e. not discouraged) by the state of Russia, more than if they were just some Russians? The USA doesn't have a clean enough record in that regard to be throwing stones at Russia (e.g. covert CIA operations in central and south America). I suspect this is one of the reasons there is so little outrage.
All political speech is to some extent cherry-picked factoids and to some extent misinformation. We combat misinformation about candidates with a free press. That's all we got. There is no provision in the constitution for disqualifying the outcome of an election because there were too many lies floating around. The base assumption is that all elections are valid after the FEC has determined that all votes came from valid citizens - regardless of whether they acted on misinformation. Foreign state-sponsored election tampering is a different kettle of fish. In that situation I think we are pretty vulnerable.
I think the important question is whether the press and media do an adequate job of unbiased candidate vetting. The 2016 election suggests not. Further, by the SS Huckabee logic, which goes something like - we (the majority by the electoral college) knew what we were getting before the election (implied: lies , misogyny , racial bigotry, unchecked greed), and because he was elected, all of these qualities and character flaws of the leader must be accepted. There is no further due process allowed to prosecute moral turpitude. The people have spoken. The press and the media supposedly did their vetting jobs.
I am outraged that she is right - until he gets caught and impeached. The consternation continues.
Let's imagine for a moment what would have happened if President Obama had said even the tiniest thing about Russia meddling during the election. Would trump have said "That's very wrong of them "?
Hell no. It would have been full on "The election is rigged!" He laid that groundwork very effectively.
And now we're stuck with the dog that caught the car.
@ Periscope
I agree with all you said, especially in our interference of foreign elections or straight up orchestrated/assisted coup d'états. The world is run by realpolitik and raw power rules above all else. The Central or South American countries you cite are excellent examples of this. And yet, if the countries on the receiving end of our meddling could, their leaders would be derelict if they didn't punch back and let it be known that such actions have consequences. Those countries generally can't do much, but our history of meddling shouldn't arrest us from defending ourselves. Double standards? Sure. But that's reality, as real as the masses of simple-minded dimwits profilerating across our country. I don't know how voters went for Trump influenced by the misinformation campaign, but the Kremlin paying to play in our elections needs to have a price.
In this Russian case, we've got lots of options. I'm absolutely not advocating for any military actions, and a measured response is key. The brashness of their actions seems to have even been deliberate, awaiting a tit for tat response with their middle finger right in Hillary's face. Sitting on our hands in this case, in our position as a superpower, would be unprecedented and frankly an invitation for more. Cyber and information warfare are grey areas where the rules are still undefined. Even so, it's treasonous to not defend the country against attacks orchestrated by a foreign power.
Marie asked several days ago whether anyone else was as peeved as she about the Louise Linton photo in Elle––how appropriate was it to pose suductively, silken thighs, come hither look, that touch of caressable luxury when you are the wife of the Treasury Secretary? Well! having to see her picture every day now as I scroll down I'm here to say––BAD FORM lady–––very bad form.
@PD Pepe: Yeah, I've had the same feeling about Madame Munchkin. Might have to take that one down.