Sunday
Sep132020
The Commentariat -- Sept. 14, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Julia Ainsley & Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone..., according to two sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on events in February, according to the two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when prosecutors for Stone have said they were told to seek a lighter sentence for Stone than they had previously considered. One of those prosecutors, Aaron Zelinsky, testified before Congress in June that he was told by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone than he otherwise would have because of Stone's close personal relationship with [Donald] Trump. Zelinsky said the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Shea, was 'receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations.' Attorney General William Barr ultimately intervened to override the prosecutors' recommendation of seven to nine years and ask for a lighter sentence. All four prosecutors quit the case as a result."
AP: "Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered 'non-life-sustaining' businesses to shut down are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by ... Donald Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer's market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary.... Courts had consistently rejected challenges to Wolf's power to order businesses to close during the pandemic, and many other governors, Republican and Democrat, undertook similar measures as the virus spread across the country."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here.
Mrs. McCrabbie @2:15 pm ET: Biden gave a very good speech, raising his message & rhetoric way above & beyond Trump's remarks, which so far have been mostly limited to his old admonition to California to "clean the forest floors" -- a remark made more ridiculous by the fact that 58% of the forests in California are federally-owned, so Trump is responsible to "manage" them, while California state owns only 3% of them, the rest in private or Native American hands:
~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Joe Biden said Monday that ... Donald Trump's refusal to acknowledge the scientific reality of the climate crisis is 'unconscionable' and that he has failed to protect the United States from the 'ravages of climate change.' 'Donald Trump's climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes, but if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly,' Biden said, speaking from Wilmington, Delaware.... The former vice president said, 'If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?'"
"Shadows on the Ceiling." A Crazy Trump Aide Tosses Out Conspiracy Theories & Warns of Violence. Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus accused career government scientists on Sunday of 'sedition' in their handling of the pandemic and warned that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election. Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a 'resistance unit' determined to undermine President Trump. Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletins to fit Mr. Trump's pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger. 'You understand that they're going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that's where this is going,' Mr. Caputo, a Trump loyalist installed by the White House in April, told followers in a video he hosted live on his personal Facebook page....
"'I don't like being alone in Washington,' he said, describing 'shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.' He then ran through a series of conspiracy theories, culminating in a prediction that Mr. Trump will win re-election but his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will refuse to concede. 'And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,' he said. 'The drills that you've seen are nothing.' He added: 'If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it's going to be hard to get.'" Mrs. McC: You may remember Caputo from his days as a rabid, fact-averse CNN "commentator" who labelled George Papadopolous as the "coffee boy." He is a protégé of Roger Stone's.
"A Useful Idiot." Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic interviews Alexander Vindman. "'President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,' [Vindman] says.... 'They [the Russians] may or may not have dirt on him, but they don't have to use it,' he says. 'They have more effective and less risky ways to employ him. He has aspirations to be the kind of leader that Putin is, and so he admires him. He likes authoritarian strongmen who act with impunity, without checks and balances. So he'll try to please Putin.'... In the Army we call this "free chicken," something you don't have to work for -- it just comes to you. This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.... Authoritarianism is able to take hold not because you have a strong set of leaders who are forcing their way,' he says. 'It's more about the fact that we can give away our democracy. In Hungary and Turkey today, in Nazi Germany, those folks gave away their democracy, by being complacent.' He goes on, truth is a victim in this administration, I think it's Orwellian -- the ultimate goal of this president is to get you to disbelieve what you've seen and what you've heard. My goal now is to remind people of this.'" The site is subscriber-firewalled. Mrs. McC: I used one of my freebies on this.
Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "As Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies tackled Josie Huang to the street on Saturday night, the reporter for NPR affiliate KPCC screamed repeatedly she was a journalist. Deputies arrested her anyway, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, a five-hour stay in custody -- and an obstruction charge that carries up to a year in jail. Police claimed Huang, who also reports for LAist, didn't have credentials and ignored demands to leave the area. But those claims are contradicted by video Huang shared on Sunday showing her quickly backing away from police when ordered to do so and repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. Huang said she also had a press badge around her neck. NPR executives and reporters groups condemned Huang's arrest, demanding her charges be dropped and the sheriff's department explain why officers forcefully tackled her." Related story linked below.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race, Etc.
Jennifer Medina & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Thousands of Trump supporters, the vast majority of them forgoing face masks, packed inside a manufacturing plant on Sunday night in a Las Vegas suburb, where President Trump brashly ignored a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to under 50 people. There were no signs of any attempts at social distancing inside the venue. Attendees wearing red MAGA caps sat in white folding chairs crammed together on the floor of the Xtreme Manufacturing plant, which said on its website that it had 'restricted meetings and gatherings to no more than 10 people in large areas.' In his remarks, Mr. Trump unloaded his regular, inaccurate onslaught against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., falsely accusing him of waging a 'dangerous war on the police' and claiming that 'he's shot and everybody knows it.'" Mrs. McC: Look at the photo of Trump at the top of the story. He looks exactly like a wind-up doll whose batteries ran down mid-sentence, mid-gesture. Weird. Maybe Jared got one of his "brilliant" friends to build an automaton alter-Donald because the real Donald Trump died of Covid, doesn't want to catch it, or is too busy watching Fox "News."
~~~ Earlier. Eric Fiegel, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to rally thousands of supporters indoors on Sunday for the first time in nearly three months. The campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada -- which will be held inside a facility of Xtreme Manufacturing -- is expected to violate the state of Nevada's restriction on gatherings of 50 people or more. ... The venue is not expected to enforce social distancing for the attendees who will be sitting in chairs lined up next to each other in rows, and few people attending any of the recent rallies have been wearing masks. Mrs. McC: Brian Stelter said on CNN Sunday, "Some, if not all, of the major TV networks have decided not to send their cameras inside." He said there would be a pool camera set up inside the facility. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump should be encouraging, rather than discouraging mail-in voting. Some of his supports will be dead or too sick to go to the polls on election day. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak slammed ... Donald Trump Sunday night for violating state rules by holding a 2020 campaign rally indoors with thousands of people. In a lengthy thread on Twitter, the Democratic governor said that Trump 'is knowingly packing thousands into an indoor venue to hold a political rally' and has 'forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic.'... Henderson authorities said in a statement late Sunday that officials warned the event organizer in writing and verbally that they must obey the governor's directives, which include not gathering in groups larger than 50 people, wearing face coverings and social distancing."
Trump Plans Unconstitutional Third Term. Daniel Politi of Slate: "Speaking to a packed, largely mask-less crowd in Nevada on Saturday night..., Donald Trump once again said he wanted to serve three terms in office. Trump said he is 'probably entitled' to an additional four years in the White House. 'Fifty-two days from now we're going to win Nevada, and we're going to win four more years in the White House,' Trump told a crowd of at least 5,000 people in Minden, Nevada that was standing shoulder-to-shoulder. 'And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we're probably -- based on the way we were treated -- we are probably entitled to another four after that.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
RNC Chair Blames Biden for Trump's Covid-19 Failure. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "On Twitter Sunday, Republican Party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel blamed former Vice President Joe Biden for the virus, saying that Biden 'can't run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus.' The virus didn't exist when Biden was in office, as it started in 2019." Mrs. McC: I think Ronna is pretending that Biden is Trump, and therefore a complete fuck-up, and Trump is Biden, the guy vowing to correct the mistakes of the fuck-up. I'm sure backing a complete fuck-up is a challenge for Ronna, and I'm sad to see it has driven her off the deep end.
Colorado. Elizabeth Joseph & Devan Cole of CNN: "A federal judge has temporarily barred the US Postal Service from sending mailers containing what Colorado's top election official calls 'false statements' that may discourage voters from participating in the November election, according to court documents filed Saturday evening. Unless extended by the court, the temporary restraining order remains in effect through September 22, the filings shows.... Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state..., a Democrat, filed a lawsuit on Saturday seeking a temporary restraining order to stop delivery of mailers that have yet to be delivered."
Florida. Sabrina Rodriguez & Marc Caputo of Politico: "George Soros directs a 'Deep State' global conspiracy network. A Joe Biden win would put America in control of 'Jews and Blacks.' The Democratic nominee has a pedophilia problem. Wild disinformation like this is inundating Spanish-speaking residents of South Florida ahead of Election Day, clogging their WhatsApp chats, Facebook feeds and even radio airwaves at a saturation level that threatens to shape the outcome in the nation's biggest and most closely contested swing state. The sheer volume of conspiracy theories -- including QAnon -- and deceptive claims is already playing a role in stunting Biden's growth with Latino voters, who comprise about 17 percent of the state's electorate. 'The onslaught has had an effect,' said Eduardo Gamarra, a pollster and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at Florida International University."
Chutzpah, Corruption, Laziness & Lies
** "Trump Endorses Extrajudicial Executions." Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as 'retribution.' Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. 'This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him,' Trump told Pirro. 'And I will tell you something, that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure other news media are picking up on this remark, but every outlet should attach a big fat caveat to every instance in which they allow Trump to self-describe as a "law & order" advocate.
Eric Tucker of the AP Puts It Mildly: "A whistleblower's allegation that he was pressured to suppress intelligence about Russian election interference is the latest in a series of similar accounts involving former Trump administration officials, raising concerns the White House risks undercutting efforts to stop such intrusions if it plays down the seriousness of the problem. There is no question the administration has taken actions to counter Russian interference, including sanctions and criminal charges on Thursday designed to call out foreign influence campaigns aimed at American voters. But Trump's resistance to embracing the gravity of the threat could leave the administration without a consistent and powerful voice of deterrence at the top of the government heading into an election that U.S. officials say is again being targeted by Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin 'is not deterred,' said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee. Himes said Putin feels 'empowered, probably inoculated in the U.S. because of the president's behavior.'"
Heidi Pryzbyla of NBC News: "A two-decade-old audit of mail equipment transport contracts by the U.S. Postal Service's inspector general found that a company previously run by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was awarded multiple noncompetitive contracts by the Postal Service that may have cost taxpayers as much as $53 million more than if they'd been competitively bid. The 2001 audit found that New Breed Logistics, a supply chain services provider based in North Carolina, was awarded more than $300 million in Postal Service mail equipment transport contracts that could have come in at a much lower price had they been shopped competitively to a range of vendors.... The audit raises questions about whether New Breed knowingly overbilled the Postal Service, and it renews scrutiny of the background and qualifications of DeJoy.... The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing Monday to delve further into DeJoy's business history and qualifications to run the Postal Service." --s
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "It's standard for drug companies to withhold details of clinical trials until after they are completed, tenaciously guarding their intellectual property and competitive edge. But these are extraordinary times, and now there is a growing outcry among independent scientists and public health experts who are pushing the companies [developing coronavirus vaccines] to be far more open with the public in the midst of a pandemic that has already killed more than 193,000 people in the United States. These experts say American taxpayers are entitled to know more since the federal government has committed billions of dollars to vaccine research and to buying the vaccines once they're approved. And greater transparency could also help bolster faltering public confidence in vaccines at a time when a growing number of Americans fear President Trump will pressure federal regulators to approve a vaccine before it is proved safe and effective."
Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CNN's Jake Tapper abruptly ended his interview with White House adviser Peter Navarro after repeatedly confronting him and clashing with him on President Donald Trump's admission to Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus." The articles includes video. Mrs. McC: This is Navarro's SOP in on-air interviews. I don't know why CNN books him unless producers think a liar shouting lies is good teevee. (Also linked yesterday.)
Here's a video & transcript of Scott Pelley interview of Bob Woodward on "60 Minutes" re: Trump's lies on the effects of the coronavirus. In their last phone call, on August 14, Woodward told Trump, "'It's a tough book. There are going to be things that you are not gonna like, judgments that I made.' And he, at the end, said, 'Well, I didn't get you on this book. Maybe I'll get you on the next one.'... [Woodward says,] 'An hour and a half later, he tweeted out that the Bob Woodward book is gonna be fake.'"
Kevin Freking of the AP: "Public health officials were already warning Americans about the need to prepare for the coronavirus threat in early February when ... Donald Trump called it 'deadly stuff' in a private conversation that has only now has come to light.... Trump, however, had a louder megaphone than his health experts, and in public he was playing down the threat. Three days after delivering his 'deadly' assessment in a private call with journalist Bob Woodward, he told a New Hampshire rally on Feb. 10, 'It's going to be fine.'... Mixed safety messages added to confusion. There was considerable discussion about mask-wearing in the early days of the pandemic, with leading experts advising the public against it, saying to leave the masks for health care workers." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is absolutely clear that public health officials, including Anthony Fauci, have spent months bending over backwards to appear to align with Donald Trump's lies about the severity of the coronavirus. Their duty is to the public (that's why they're called public health officials), not to politicians. At some point, these scientists & doctors should have had the guts to stand up, en masse, to Trump. They did not, and people died because of it.
Lara Jakes & Pranshu Verma of the New York Times: "... as President Trump campaigns for re-election and the coronavirus has claimed more than 193,000 lives nationwide, the [U.S.A.I.D.] has been micromanaged by the White House and the State Department. That has prompted critics to say the intervention has slowed pandemic relief efforts to some places, weaponized aid in other areas to chastise Trump administration adversaries and disengaged the United States from the World Health Organization's coronavirus response." (Also linked yesterday.)
Casey Smith of the AP: "With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and in some places lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door. Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis." ~~~
~~~ Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "From picket lines to Zoom calls and even jail cells, the pandemic has thrust teachers unions to the forefront of the debate over education during the coronavirus pandemic. How to safely reopen schools has become a central question, with school closures affecting well over a billion students, according to the United Nations, in addition to economies and daily life for working families.... Last month, the Trump administration did that, declaring teachers 'essential' front-line workers, in an effort to push schools to reopen.... The 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers has authorized unions nationwide to strike if their demands, including billions of dollars in emergency federal funding to ensure schools are safely equipped, are not met."
Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Susan Sandler, a liberal philanthropist, will invest $200 million in racial justice organizations, targeting areas across the South and the Southwest that are experiencing rapid demographic transformation. Ms. Sandler, who learned she had a rare form of brain cancer four years ago, will announce the effort in a lengthy post on Medium scheduled to publish on Monday morning. In the post, which was shared with The New York Times before publication, Ms. Sandler says her investments will be made through a new organization, the Susan Sandler Fund, aimed at combating systemic racism and building civic power.... Initial recipients of grants from Ms. Sandler's fund include several progressive organizations working in battleground states to register new voters from underrepresented groups. The organizations include the Texas Organizing Project, New Virginia Majority, New Florida Majority and the Arizona Center for Empowerment."
Riding While Black. Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "A white Georgia sheriff's deputy seen in a viral video repeatedly punching a Black man who was pinned to the ground has been fired after the man's family demanded he be released from jail immediately. Roderick Walker, 26, remained locked up at the Clayton County Jail on Sunday, two days after video surfaced showing him being held on the ground by two Clayton County sheriff's deputies and being pummeled by one as he cried out 'I can't breathe' and as his 5-year-old son sat in a car screaming, 'Daddy.'... An attorney for Walker said the incident quickly escalated after a ride-share vehicle Walker was a passenger in was pulled over for a routine traffic violation." Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill says Walker remains in jail because of several outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions. (Also linked yesterday.)
Artemis Moshtaghian & Amir Vera of CNN: "The two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies who were shot and critically injured Saturday night are out of surgery, according to a LACSD spokesperson. The deputies, one male and one female, were 'ambushed as they sat in their vehicle, police said. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference Saturday night that the shooting in Compton was done 'in a cowardly fashion' and that both deputies were being treated at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Capt. Kent Wegener said the shooting happened at 7 p.m. Wegener said the suspect approached from behind the deputies' vehicle and walked along the passenger side. He acted as if he was going to walk past the car, raised a pistol and shot multiple times hitting both deputies, Wegener said." (Also linked yesterday.) A New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Emily Zanotti of the Daily Wire: "A Los Angeles National Public Radio reporter was arrested early Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriffs said, after she 'interfered' with police trying to prevent alleged Black Lives Matter protesters from storming the hospital where two severely wounded LA County Sheriffs deputies were taken following a horrific ambush attack.... 'Witnesses later said that the far-left activists, who shouted outside that they hoped the deputies died, attempted to storm the emergency room where the deputies were taken,' the Daily Wire's Ryan Saavedra reported Sunday. A number of protesters were arrested in the altercation.... Footage shows deputies taking [KPCC's Josie] Huang to the ground and handcuffing her before taking her away in a police vehicle.... A number of people on Twitter lashed out at the LA Sheriffs Department for arresting Huang, arguing that her press credentials can be seen hanging around her neck in the ABC footage. The Sheriff's Department, though, later tweeted that Huang admitted that she was not properly identified."
David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "The owner of the Chinese app TikTok rejected an offer on Sunday from Microsoft to take over the firm's U.S. operations, Microsoft said, as time runs out on an executive order from President Trump threatening to ban the popular app unless its American operations are sold. Microsoft was seen as the American technology company with the deepest pockets to buy TikTok's U.S. operations from its parent company, ByteDance, and with the greatest ability to address national security concerns that led to Mr. Trump's order. The move leaves Oracle -- one of the few Silicon Valley firms to publicly ally with Mr. Trump -- as the sole publicly known remaining bidder for TikTok." ~~~
~~~ Update. New Lede: "The Chinese owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle to be the app's technology partner for its U.S. operations and has rejected an acquisition offer from Microsoft, according to Microsoft officials and other people involved in the negotiations, as time runs out on an executive order from President Trump threatening to ban the popular app unless its American operations are sold." A Washington Post story is here.
Ben Smith, the New York Times' media columnist, has a long piece on troubles at the Intercept, stemming largely, but not entirely, from its failure to do the least thing to protect whistleblower Reality Winner. Mrs. McC: I read it because I don't like Glenn Greenwald.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Belarus. Radio Free Europe: "Tens of thousands of Belarusians jammed the streets of Minsk and other cities and towns, as opposition protesters pressed their nearly five-week campaign to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to call new elections. The Interior Ministry reported more than 400 arrests in the September 13 protests. Still, the turnout in the Belarusian capital and elsewhere was the latest indication that opposition activists, and many average Belarusians, have been undaunted by thousands of arrests, beatings, and other intimidation tactics used by Belarusian security forces.... The Interior Ministry's press department, meanwhile, described the women protesters as 'aggressive.' It's a shame to watch: screams, screeching...' the ministry said. 'Such behavior is unfeminine.'" Mrs. McC: Really, ladies, must you?
Indonesia. The Jakarta Post: "Eight people in Gresik regency, East Java, were ordered by local authorities to dig graves for those who have died of COVID-19 as punishment for not wearing face masks in public." --s
Japan. Ben Dooley & Makiko Inoue of the New York Times: "Japan's governing party on Monday anointed Yoshihide Suga, the current chief cabinet secretary, as its choice for the next prime minister, settling on what it saw as a safe pair of hands to grapple with the country's many economic and strategic challenges. Two weeks after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was stepping down because of ill health, Mr. Suga was overwhelmingly elected as leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party during a conclave of members of Parliament and select delegates at a luxury hotel in central Tokyo. The party handily controls Parliament, virtually guaranteeing that Mr. Suga, 71, will be elected prime minister this week during a special session of the legislature."
News Ledes
Weather Channel: "Sally has quickly intensified into a hurricane as it tracks toward the northern Gulf Coast, where it will bring an extremely dangerous storm surge, flooding rainfall and damaging winds early this week. Sally will also pose a threat of flooding rainfall farther inland across parts of the Southeast. Sally will produce a deadly duo of human-height storm surge and a foot or more of rainfall in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Nearly 90% of deaths caused by hurricanes are the result of a combination of rainfall flooding, storm surge and rip currents."
The New York Times' live updates of West Coast wildfire developments Monday are here.
Guardian & agencies: "Nearly all the dozens of people reported missing after a devastating blaze in southern Oregon have been accounted for, authorities said, as crews battled wildfires that have killed at least 35 from California to Washington state. The Democratic governors of all three states say the fires are a consequence of climate change, taking aim at Donald Trump ahead of his visit Monday to California for a briefing. Joe Biden planned to address the fires and the climate crisis during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. Flames up and down the west coast have destroyed neighborhoods, leaving charred rubble and burned-out cars, forcing tens of thousands to flee and casting a shroud of smoke that has given Seattle, San Francisco and Portland some of the worst air quality in the world. The smoke filled the air and spread to nearby states. While making it difficult to breathe, it helped firefighters by blocking the sun and turning the weather cooler as they tried to get a handle on the blazes, which were slowing in some places."
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Reader Comments (18)
The Orange Menace sez “Hell yeah, retribution! Gotta kill those people who need killin’!”
So, prezdent lawnorder appeals to the most bloodthirsty MAGA droolers as well as giving the green light, the thumbs up, and a great big “attaboy, go get ‘em” to the psycho gun knobbers, Qanon creeps, white supremacists, and garden variety right-wing vigilantes.
Retribution, eh? That’s the way it’s gotta be, eh?
So how about forty or fifty thousand Americans taking turns shooting this fat pig in the head for killing their family members? They should want retribution too. Is that the way it should be? What about family members of unarmed black men murdered by cops? Do they get retribution? How about the millions Fatty’s incompetence and calculated criminality has put out of work and who are now denied assistance? Do they get to demand retribution?
Yeah. Didn’t think so. Retribution, like the right to vote, the right of free speech, and the right not to be murdered for being the wrong color, is only for righty-whitey Trump supporters.
So nice to see that cheap, ratfucking criminal, Roger Stone, recently handed a gift wrapped get out of jail card by Lawnorder Man, has learned his lesson and is, at long last, walking the straight and narrow and behaving like a decent, civilized adult.
Yeah. “Martial law! Stop Democrats from voting! Send federal officers to abscond with ballot boxes, automatic win for the Orange Weasel, imprison anyone who complains!”
Decent, civilized, adult. Got it.
And the thing of it is, Stone is not some extreme Republican psycho outlier. He’s just got a bigger mouth than most of them.
Just wondering, because I couldn’t stomach listening to that whiny, screechy, self-pitying voice scream for extrajudicial killings, what was the response by “Judge” Jeanine? Did she say “Um, gee, Mr. President, your advocating something wasaay out of line here. Extrajudicial killings are basically murder, which is, ya know, kind of illegal.”
Or did she say “Well, blow me down, Donald, that’s one rootin’ tootin’ bugger of an idea you got there! Guns for everyone! Oh, ‘ceptin’ them uppity nee-groes, who don’t know their place, and white race traitors who support them!”
Or did she just smile and sagely nod her head full of hate and right-wing surströmming (yeah, I watched that video; holy moley!)?
Looks like the Trumpian Horde is perhaps getting ready for a defeat for the Dear Leader. They're already practicing their "Joe Biden is to blame for EVERYTHING!" screams. This, of course, is the flip side of "Trump is not to blame for ANYTHING! (unless it's some good thing Obama did)".
I guess this is their pre-season. They're just getting ready. If Biden is able to overcome Russian/Republican collusion-ratfucking (yes, it's collusion if you know it's going on and do nothing to stop it), voter suppression, threats of gun toting Trump agents at polling places, and the blizzard of lies and disinformation, and gets elected, one hour after inauguration, Fox and the wingnut media echo chamber will start with two headlines:
"Inauguration Crowd MUCH Smaller Than Trump's Millions"
and
"What? Coronavirus? People dying? Why Hasn't Joe Biden Done Anything to Save Us? Aiiiieeeeee!"
But for now, just blaming him for stuff he has no control over is a good start. Republicans are never far from lying about Democrats; their SOP is lying about Trump, so it's not exactly a big change of direction. It still involves non-stop, serial lying.
Peter Navarro's weaselspeak is one for the books and I always thought no one could beat Kellyanne. Marie wonders why CNN bothers to have these critters on their programs; they have ALWAYS had these kinds of "other siders of dubious dealings " because their audience is broad and obviously many of those "broads" get off on this kind of thing. But the main reason, of course, is money. As Les Moon-vees once said, while smiling broadly, "I know I shouldn't say this but Trump [and his minions] is the best thing for ratings–-[makee lots of money] so bring it on!"
Peter, by the way, would have made a dynamite traveling salesman; a knock on your door, you usher him in and before you know it you've bought the whole set of cleaning tools even though you live in a two room apartment. My father called these kinds of peddlers, "slick willies"–––Peter though, is much more than that–-he's utterly corrupt–-big difference.
Yes, I did tune in to some football yesterday.
It felt a little off key, the outside still mired in smoke, on the TV no fans in the stands, but the barbarian in me still enjoys the displays of pure athleticism the youthful me could not imagine well enough to envy and certainly could never equal.
But I was interested in the politics of it all, too. Have heard some of the rhetorical gymnastics the NFL has displayed since the George Floyd murder and wondered how the players and commtators would manage the death-defying tightrope act, trying to deal with the nation's racial schisms while at the same time hoping to stay above it all, hovering in that safe space beween acknowledgement and denial.
Didn't catch as much of the political element as I would have liked but thought what I saw qualified as progress. Some banners on the empty stadiums, BLM slogans on helmets and occasional commentary. A dose of mostly pablum, yes, but pablum is food of a sort, and better than nothing at all offered to a starving nation..
This from the WAPO summed up the NFL's 2020 dreamy outlook nicely.
“We’re not here to make political statements,” Goodell told Tirico Wednesday night. ESPN executive Stephanie Druley said on a conference call last week, “We don’t see the social justice movement as being political.”
Social justice, not political? Good luck with that!
But saying that social justice matters takes the league at least part way to the finish line.
More broadly, the whole thing has made me think we shouldn't be concerned only with the NFL, that it's impossible to separate any aspect of the economy from its political consequences, and that by playing let's pretend that's not true as we have done from our beginnings we have allowed many scenes in the American Dream to become nightmares.
@Bea, my first thought when seeing that image was - Madam Tussaud's. Don't know if it came from or is going to.
That blowup doll of Fat Donald needs something else (don't show this to Douthat!). That big mouth needs something in it, like a Big Mac. Otherwise he looks terminally constipated.
"Finding a Place for Third-Culture Kids in the Culture:" this is a most interesting piece from the NYT––Obama and Harris are pointed out as examples of those whose value systems transcend borders to instill a sense of home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/t-magazine/luca-guadagnino-third-culture-kids.html?referringSource=articleShare
Fatty demands a third term (Fuck the Constitution© donnie trumpie) because people have been "unfair" to him. There is no end to the knee slapping over this pickpocketing scam artist, for whom fairness, as a concept, and in practice, is an entirely alien notion (on a par with Herr Drumpf's Nazi pals becoming conversant with the Torah), complaining loudly that he doesn't get enough of it. It's like a con man whining that people just can't be trusted. Oh, wait...
Fairness, as used by Trump, in both its philosophical and worldly appearances, requires the sort of lexical rejiggering that the rest of his vivisected vocabulary demands. One is tempted to refer to his mutilation of the language, from standard bombastic bastardizations to the sort of meretricious persiflage that populate his daily word pukes, as an entirely new language, but in fact, because he doesn't have all the "best words", nor does he possess the skill or energy to invent a new language, like everything else "Trumpy", he steals what he doesn't understand and THEN beats it to death with the cudgel of incognizance.
What we need is for someone to perform the same sort of service offered by Ambrose Bierce over a century ago in the form of his Devil's Dictionary, a more exact explanation/definition of commonly misunderstood words and phrases. To wit:
"DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and keep.
and...
MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders. [Lookin' at you, Roger Stone.]
and, of course...
PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."
I do not intend to spend years expostulating on the dismal dissociative delinquencies of Trump's laceration of the language, merely let me offer a start at the Fatty deformation of "fairness".
Fair: Whatever benefits me and fucks my enemies.
One could do the same for the usual sad, anemic word choices by Stable Genius Guy:
Fake News: Stuff that's true but doesn't make me look good.
Okay, it ain't Ambrosial, (which I prefer to Bierceian), but this is basically what he means. In his reworking of the concept of fairness, the Constitution (excepting, one must suppose, Article II, Trump's Swiss Army Knife of desperately desired despotism), is eminently unfair to the Orange Menace, and thus he must needs have a third term. Because.
But let's go a bit further down this rabbit hole (but not too far, lest we butt up against the Oracle of Stoopid). The Constitution should be upended because a racist, lying, treasonous criminal doesn't feel the love he believes is his just due. For doing, essentially, nothing.
Okay, that's far enough. I can feel my synapses starting to wilt. I'm heading back to the Devil's Dictionary for a spell, a pastime I commend without prejudice (PREJUDICE, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support), whereat I can try to relieve myself from the daily Cant of Corrupted Language.
It's only fair.
I don't know what my daughter was just listening to, but she says the brainwashed, unwashed MAGA hordes believe that Dump saved the auto industry and also saved health care. That is in addition to believing Democrats drink the blood of babies. These people are certifiable/eligible for imprisonment. I no longer think they are sick-- they are simply evil. Along with Fatstuff. He may be some grade of mental patient according to the manual, but his basic instincts are all wrong/bad/harmful/toxic. That makes him evil, too. And I don't even believe in evil...
Lt. Col. Vindman says trump may be a useful idiot, and a week ago I would have believed it, but after hearing the clips from Woodward, where dt sounded rational and coherent, I now think the idiot thing is at least partly an act. Let people think you are an idiot and you can get away with murder.
@NiskyGuy: I'm inclined to agree with you. Trump makes "stupid" remarks on a daily basis, but it now appears a huge percentage of them are "calculated stupid" remarks. Not all of them, tho: "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice."
Maybe not a wholesale or even a retail idiot but nuts to the point that as time passes only those equally crazy (see Caputo) are willing to work in the Pretender's administration.
And the Pretender blamed Woodword for drinking the Kool-aid...
Used to be that the R's had to resort to regular, old-fashioned lying.
Now all they have left to combat reality is insanity.
Naw, they're all stupid remarks, just some of them turn out to be useful to him.
He really is a moron.
Guess I might have put it this way
The Deep State is Reality.
@Patrick: How does this sound? He’s a moron, but maybe a bit less of a moron than he presents to the public.
Looks like there's another inspector general about to bite the dust.
Will that be six or seven?
Guess they're all habitants of the Deep State, too, and the Pretender is saving us from them, one by one.