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
Mar242018
The Commentariat -- March 25, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Question: Who actually said this on national TV about the March for Our Lives?: "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that."
Answer: Close yo' mouth. It was this guy. (Sorry, his most famous page is down.) Now you're not so surprised, are you?
Hilarious Breaking News. Everything Is Going So Smoothly. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has decided not to hire two lawyers ... Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing ... who were announced last week as new additions to his legal team, leaving him with a shrinking stable of lawyers as the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, enters an intense phase.... The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team.... According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing. But beyond that, Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump's legal team in 2017 before they parted ways. Mr. Corallo has told investigators he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign." ...
... Josh Dawsey & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Trump's legal team has now shrunk to two: Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer who does not personally represent the president and occasionally draws grumbles from him, and [Jay] Sekulow, an outside conservative attorney and radio host. Trump had not closely researched di Genova or even consulted with top aides, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and White House counsel Donald McGahn, before hiring him." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As noted below, Trump tweeted this morning that "Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...." So no problem. On the other hand, if Trump fires Mueller, destroys the documentation the Mueller team has assembled & pardons himself, he doesn't need any Russia-related lawyers.
*****
Peter Jamison, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the nation's capital and cities across the country Saturday to demand action against gun violence, vividly displaying the strength of the political movement led by survivors of a school massacre in Parkland, Fla. Organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ... the March for Our Lives showcased impassioned teens calling on Congress to enact stricter gun-control laws to end the nation's two-decade stretch of campus shootings. Hundreds of 'sibling protests' took place across the world, from New York City -- where demonstrators spread across 20 blocks -- to Jonesboro, Ark., a small city marking the 20th anniversary of a middle-school shooting that left four students and a teacher dead. Gun-rights advocates mounted counterprotests in Salt Lake City, Boise and Valparaiso, Ind., where one sign read 'All Amendments Matter.'" ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Standing before vast crowds from Washington to Los Angeles to Parkland, Fla., the speakers -- nearly all of them students, some still in elementary school -- delivered an anguished and defiant message: They are 'done hiding' from gun violence, and will 'stop at nothing' to get politicians to finally prevent it. The students, as they seized the nation's attention on Saturday with raised fists and tear-streaked faces, vowed that their grief about school shootings and their frustration with adults' inaction would power a new generation of political activism." ...
... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "Well over 1 million students -- and their supporters -- packed the streets in Washington, D.C., and around the globe Saturday to make a powerful statement against gun violence and call on lawmakers to pass stricter laws or face their wrath at the polls. Busload after busload filled the nation's capital with students from across the country, including some from as far away as California and Minnesota, for the March for Our Lives, a rally announced just days after a Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. In passionate speeches, students from Marjory Stoneman gave a rallying cry to wild cheers from the thousands assembled along Pennsylvania Avenue.... About 800 sister marches were scheduled in every U.S. state and across several continents. About 800,000 descended on the nation's capital, exceeding expectations including many from Parkland." ...
... The New York Times has photos from across the country the world. More photos at the Washington Post. Sure looks like a lot more participants than at the "American Carnage" inaugural. More pix from Slate.
Looking for a supportive tweet from the president? Hey, there is one!
Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today's marches happen. Keep at it. You're leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change. -- Barack Obama, Saturday ...
... Trump Really Goes out of His Way to Avoid the March. Benjamin Hart of New York: "As of midafternoon on Saturday [Mrs. McC: and as of 9 pm ET], President Trump, who is in Florida, had not weighed in on the march. His only tweet during the day focused on Friday's terrorist attack in France. However, the White House did indicate some support for the march.... Making its way from Mar-a-Lago to Trump International Golf Club, where Trump engaged in his favorite weekend activity, the president's motorcade took an unusual route, seemingly in an effort avoid a March for Our Lives protest in West Palm Beach. That was one of about 800 such events around the world." ...
... Luis Sanchez of the Hill: "Protesters at the 'March for Our Lives' rally for gun control in Washington, D.C., left their signs outside Trump Hotel after they marched." ...
... Here are more highlights, via New York. ...
... Luis Sanchez: "Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Saturday during a March for Our Lives..., 'You know the NRA gave me an "F" and I am proud to wear that "F,"' the civil rights hero told a crowd gathered in Atlanta. 'On the Democratic side of the House of Representatives, many members of Congress are wearing an F.'..."
... Luis Sanchez: "Asked about estimated attendance at the rally [in Washington, D.C.], which was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, [Sen. Chris] Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Hill, 'I can tell you for sure, it's larger than the Trump inauguration.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Benjamin Hart: "Beatles legend Paul McCartney was among the many celebrities who took to the streets on Saturday around the country, joining hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding action to stem gun violence in America. Interviewed by CNN in New York City, McCartney, sporting a 'We Can End Gun Violence' T-shirt, made clear that the issue is personal to him.... 'One of my best friends was killed by gun violence right 'round here,' he said. McCartney was of course referring to his former bandmate John Lennon...." ...
... Here are some other celebrities who marched, some of whom performed. ...
... Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "In the six weeks since the young survivors of Parkland, Florida, jump-started a vibrant new movement for gun control, its leadership has managed to broaden the locus of concern beyond mass shootings at comfortable suburban schools like Marjory Stoneman Douglas, to gun violence in urban neighborhoods as well.... The speakers at Saturday's rally included students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who talked about the sudden intrusion of terror into their lives on February 14th, and young black and Latino activists from Chicago and Los Angeles who talked about the threats they faced from guns every day." ...
... Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "The latest attack [against the Parkland organizers] came from Colion Noir, a host on NRATV who took to the airwaves on the eve of the Parkland teens-led March on Washington, telling them: 'No one would know your names' if a student gunman hadn't stormed into their school and killed three staff members and 14 students.... Colion Noir is a pseudonym for Collins Iyare Idehen Jr., a lawyer and gun rights activist from Houston who has nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube." -- Mrs. McC: That's 650,001 gun-totin' hatemongers right there. Feel safer now? ...
... Here Are Some More. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "Across the country, supporters of the Second Amendment gathered at state capitals and in city centers, hoping to counter the swell that has emerged in the wake of a February massacre that killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla. Their message in many cases was that the surviving Parkland students have it all wrong -- more guns, not fewer, is what will end the violence that has ripped through so many American communities." Mrs. McC: Sorry, I would not call this riffraff "Second Amendment supporters." ...
... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Since it's very hard to hate child victims of school shootings, the best available critique that could be mustered for Saturday's March for Our Lives was the familiar refrain that 'these children are puppets.' What began in the days immediately after the shootings as a widespread internet claim that the victims were paid crisis actors morphed rapidly into the allegation that student leader David Hogg had been 'coached' on what to say during his TV interviews. That was followed by former Rep. Jack Kingston demanding on CNN, 'Do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?' CNN was accused, falsely as it turned out, of 'scripting' student questions during a town hall. On Saturday, the NRA said on Facebook, '... Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.' The notion that the whole operation was choreographed by George Soros and Hollywood meant that if, as I did, you watched Saturday's event on Facebook Live, you were barraged by comments that the entire event was 'fake,' and that the sheep-like students had been unwittingly conscripted into a vicious liberal fake media stunt." ...
... Perfect News for March for Our Lives Day. John Bowden of the Hill: "A Department of Justice (DOJ) agency has cancelled a pair of efforts to improve school safety after their funding was cut under the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that President Trump signed Friday. A message posted on the website for the DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) states that funding for the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) and Research and Evaluation of Technologies to Improve School Safety solicitations was reapportioned under the recently-passed Stop School Violence Act of 2018." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** "America First." David Sanger & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The incoming national security adviser has called for the 'swift takeover' of North Korea by the South. He and the newly nominated secretary of state have urged withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The pick for C.I.A. director once oversaw interrogations in which terrorism suspects were tortured. The two generals celebrated by President Trump for their reputations for toughness are now considered the moderates -- and at risk of falling out of favor. Not since the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, have key national security leaders so publicly raised the threat of military confrontation if foreign adversaries do not meet America's demands. But George W. Bush's war cabinet was responding to the biggest direct attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor. The current moment of peril arises from Mr. Trump's conviction that the United States is being pushed around by adversaries who need to understand that 'America First' means they have a brief window to negotiate a deal, or force may follow."
It's a day ending in "Y" & we have, according to Maureen Dowd, "a president who is treated like a boy king, requiring minders; who is easily swayed because he is underinformed; who can sit still only long enough for short oral briefings; who swaggers and mocks to mask his insecurities; who tries to replace real news with faux...." ...
... SO of course King Donaldo is tweeting some crap. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday claimed that many lawyers want to represent him in the special counsel's Russia investigation. 'Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...don't believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,' he tweeted. 'Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,' he continued. 'Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country.' Trump then reiterated that he is pleased with his current legal team. 'I am very happy with my existing team,' he tweeted. 'Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: A way to attract good legal counsel is to defame all lawyers. I do think it's interesting that Trump may think the Mueller investigation into his shenanigans is quite simple & would not really "take months to get up to speed" but for a desire to rack up more billable hours. I expect the reason we keep hearing that Trump is champing at the bit to meet with Mueller is that he thinks he can waltz in, yell "NO COLLUSION" several times & Mueller will say, "Okay then, case closed." ...
... Oh, and not a word about those million-plus gun-shy hippie chickens who caused all the traffic jams this weekend.
AP: "Stocks around the world plunged Friday as investors feared that a trade conflict between the U.S. and China, the biggest economies in the world, would escalate. A second day of big losses pushed U.S. stocks to their worst week in two years.... It wound up being the worst week for U.S. indexes since January 2016. The S&P 500 index sank 6 percent. Among notable decliners was Facebook, which lost 13.9 percent, or $68 billion in value, as outrage mounted over its handling of user data. That's about as much as the company was worth in in 2012, the year of its initial public offering." Thanks, Donald! Thanks, Mark! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Donald Trump Corruption Racket, via Democracy Now! --safari
...Anjali Kamat of the New Republic (March 25): "Investigations into Donald Trump's foreign entanglements may have largely begun with Russia, but the president and his family have a special relationship with India, too.... [T]he Trump Organization has entered into more deals there than in any other foreign country. Five of them are still active -- four luxury residential projects and one commercial tower -- and are valued at an estimated ;$1.5 billion." A long read, fruits of a year-long investigation. --safari
Congressional Race. Fair Elections Are Such a Bummer. Veronica Stracqualursi and Eric Bradner of CNN: "Republican Rep. Ryan Costello plans to drop his bid for reelection in the 2018 House election for Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District and will retire at the end of his term, a Republican familiar with Costello's plans told CNN Saturday.... Pennsylvania's Supreme Court recently ruled that the state's congressional districts were gerrymandered and put a new map in place for November's midterm elections. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to block new congressional maps.A two-term congressman, Costello won his previous races in a then-more favorable district for Republicans with 57% of the vote in 2016 and 56% in 2014.The new map, however, favors Democrats in the redrawn district...."
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Employers are moving to adopt or strengthen policies to prevent bias against transgender people after the latest in a series of court rulings that have extended protections for an increasingly diverse work force. A federal appeals court, rejecting the position of the Trump administration, ruled this month that transgender people are protected by a civil rights law that bans workplace discrimination based on sex. Lawyers who specialize in employment cases said that the decision, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, was highly significant."
David Streitfeld, et al., of the New York Times: "The contemporary internet was built on a bargain: Show us who you really are and the digital world will be free to search or share.... Now, the consumer surveillance model underlying Facebook and Google's free services is under siege from users, regulators and legislators on both sides of the Atlantic. It amounts to a crisis for an internet industry that up until now had taken a reactive, whack-a-mole approach to problems like the spread of fraudulent news and misuse of personal data."
Dorothy Wickenden & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker talk about how data mining & dark money are being used to influence elections:
Way Beyond the Beltway
Mrs. McCrabbie: If I told you that a New Yorker writer claimed that member of the Russian Duma named "Leonid Slutsky, who is the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs" was accused of sexual assault & harassment, you'd probably say, on it's Andy Borowitz again. Actually, no.
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (11)
We went down to our local march around noon, and it was a large, several thousand strong (or more--), enthusiastic crowd of oldsters, kids, dogs and lots of creative signs. Our favorite sign, on the back of an elementary school boy, decried gun "vilents" and said people were "dieing" with a sad face drawn. The sound system downtown (Lancaster, PA) was faulty, so we peeled off when we couldn't hear the rabbi's speech, and went to lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent gathering Easter stuff for baskets and watching MSNBC as it covered quite a few marches. Of course, Emma G. wowed all of us older people, and the poise and ability of the young people from Florida and other places were pretty impressive, all in all. Of course, the Fake Prez scarpered his fat ass and we saw his wife and kid exiting the plane, no smiles on those faces. This nightmare is unending, but the "kids are okay." Glad the moron-in-chief threw out a nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-nyaa to those evil trans people hoping to serve their country. What a despicable baboon he is. Apologies to baboons everywhere.
More than a million marchers calling for congress and the little dictator to act, but there’s only one person they listen to.
Once these kids start voting, and kick those NRA scumbags out of office, maybe that one asshole won’t carry so much weight.
One headline reads “Trump midterm rallying cry: ‘I Need Allies!’”
It leaves out the “Please, please, pretty pleeeeaase!”
In other words...
“I came into office with the help of Russian mobsters, an Australian wiki weasel, and British ratfuckers, I had a Congress completely controlled by my own party, but I need more, dammit cuz I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing. I fucked it up and now, if you want me to get rid of blacks and browns, stick it even more to people we all hate, and put an AK in every pot, I need you to bail me out.
I know I’m more toxic than a Russian nerve agent, I know I bang porn stars and cheat on my wife, I know I supported a child molester, and let’s face it, most of those campaign promises, like getting Mexicans to pay for my wall, I was just pulling out of my ass because I loved to hear you cheer for me. Oh yeah, I’m still a racist sonovabitch, just like all of you, but things aren’t going as Fox and Friends—you know, my new cabinet members—would like.
Democrats are beating my guys like a dusty rugs on a line. I need helllllllp! C’mon now, I just hired two new guys you love to watch on Fox screaming about tax cuts and bombing countries we all despise and talking about how it’s all Obama’s fault. We need guys like that in congress who won’t ask questions and won’t bother me with details, like what’s in a 2,000 page spending bill I have never and will never read. I’d much rather be playing golf. So helllllp!”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/24/politics/trump-2018-midterms/index.html
My dream: the number one political issue in this years election-guns. That could clean up a mess in many areas.
Tonight I will be watching the storm on 60 Minutes.
I find the energy and willingness of these remarkable young people to put themselves on the line for the country to be an inspiration for all of us. The decision to include students from inner cities who have long fought this horror was Brilliant.
But I fear for the effects of so much adulation on the young. We see so many high school and college "stars" of one kind or another lose their sense of humility. This would be a shame for the individuals as well as for the movement. I hope that they can, at least in part, return to their high school life as well as find the help they will need to deal with all that they have gone through. All of us need to throw our passion and energy into a solution. I intend to call and write my reepresentatives about the elimination of the school safety programs at the NIJ.
The overwhelming spectacle of the marches yesterday was historic in its size and participation––and those like our small towns here in Ct., although not featured in the N.Y.T's photos, were just as energized albeit with much smaller crowds. My friend (she wore her "pussy hat") and I have sent messages to our grandchildren with the photos signaling how their generation can make a difference–-can make a change.
@Ann's concern about these kids losing their humility could be something to wonder about, but I bet their taste of what they were able to accomplish has only made them stronger. I think of the young John Kerry––it was clear that this young man was going to make a difference. We saw yesterday that many of these youngsters are bound for making this country a better place––some sounding as though they already have their future mapped out. Let's celebrate their passion and wish them well and help them on their way.
Just to make sure that we have Trumpchaos today:
WaPo:"In another blow to Trump, diGenova will no longer join legal team." Some 'conflict' problem.
@PDPepe, I agree with you. I did not express myself well. I just have some fears for these young people. They have risen above a horrifying experience and have much responsibility thrust upon them.
We must do more than support them but take our share of the work and give them a chance to heal and be young even as they go forward to inspire us.
I want to thank Marie and all of you for your educated and thoughtful messages.
Great to see our old pal Rick (Savonarola) Santorum back from his trip to the 10th century where he was looking for pointers on the best ways to tell if someone is a witch.
Sooo...CPR, eh? Poor Rick. He must have missed those articles we linked on the extreme damage done to the human body by rounds from an AK-15. I don’t think someone whose liver or lungs have just been liquefied will respond to CPR. But hey, how about teaching those lazy moocher kids front line combat triage techniques? Could come in handy for the next NRA supported mass murder.
@Ann: you expressed yourself very well and your concern is something, as I said, to be concerned about and actually, I hadn't thought about that so I thank you for bringing it up.
I'd like to hear from you more often. Thanks again for your comment.
Present time is very fruitful for those who are planning to move to Australia for their studies. There are now maximum chances to study and pursue bright future. More: http://immigrationexperts.pk/australian-student-visa/