The Commentariat -- September 15, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

That guy Mark Judge who vouched for Brett Kavanaugh? His credibility is great! And an all-around perfect character witness. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: Judge is a "conservative" writer who wrote an "addiction memoir" titled Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk. "That book chronicles Judge's time as a teenage alcoholic. Like many works of the genre, it devotes a lot of ink to the kinds of debauchery that leads to AA and recovery. While there's nothing in the book that resembles the incident reportedly described in the private letter given to the FBI, Judge says his own black-out drinking while he and Kavanaugh were Georgetown Prep students 'reached the point where once I had the first beer, I found it impossible to stop until I was completely annihilated.'... The amount of drinking Judge describes himself undertaking might suggest that his memory of those days may not be entirely reliable." Mencimer copies a compelling excerpt about Bart O'Kavanaugh. Name totally changed to protect the guilty.

Dennis Romero of NBC News: "... Donald Trump may soon be communicating with you directly on your phone.... Next Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.... The test message will have a header that reads 'Presidential Alert,' according to the agency.... The wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system was authorized by Congress in 2015 under a law that states the 'system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.' Experts didn't appear to be too concerned that Trump, known to use his smartphone to blast opponents, berate subordinates and take shots at the news media on Twitter, could abuse WEA.... The test is supposed to take place at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Sept. 20. Under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, cellphone users cannot opt out of the presidential alerts."

Dennis Romero and Dystany Muse of NBC News: "A member of a U.S. Coast Guard team responding to Tropical Storm Florence in South Carolina appeared to flash a white power hand gesture in the background as a captain was being interviewed Friday by MSNBC. The man has since been removed from the Florence response operations and the incident is under investigation, said Coast Guard Lt. J.B. Zorn. The decision from the federal agency came after heavy backlash online to the apparent gesture captured on 'Live with Ali Velshi.'"

Texas Board Determined to Prove Value of Pointy-Headed Experts. Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News: "As part of an effort to 'streamline' the social studies curriculum in public schools, the State Board of Education voted Friday to adjust what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. Among the changes, board members approved the removal of several historical figures, including [Hillary] Clinton and [Helen] Keller, from the curriculum. The board also voted to keep in the curriculum a reference to the 'heroism' of the defenders of the Alamo, which had been recommended for elimination, as well as Moses' influence on the writing of the nation's founding documents, multiple references to 'Judeo-Christian' values and a requirement that students explain how the 'Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict' in the Middle East. The vote Friday was preliminary. The board can amend the curriculum changes further before taking a final vote in November." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Though you may think I make up this stuff to drive you nuts, the only fictional thing in the report, as far as I know, is the Biblical character Moses.

*****

Trump: L'Opera Buffa. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's not over till the fat man sings, but a full choir is in voice: Manafort, Cohen, Gates, Flynn, Papadopoulos & a couple of understudies. And of course we have no idea what-all the dozens of other witnesses have told investigators.

New York Times Editors: "How many more guilty pleas and convictions will there be in Trumpworld before all this crime starts to look -- how can we put it -- organized?"

** Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort is pleading guilty Friday to two criminal charges under terms of a plea deal that includes his cooperation as a potential witness for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The decision by Manafort to provide evidence in exchange for leniency on sentencing is a stunning development in the long-running probe into whether any Trump associates may have conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Manafort's defenders have long insisted that he would not cooperate with Mueller, and didn't know any incriminating information against the president. Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said at the beginning of Friday's plea hearing that Manafort has agreed to cooperate with investigators.... A criminal information -- a legal document filed by prosecutors to detail the criminal conduct to be admitted by the defendant -- was filed in advance of the plea. The document shows Manafort intends to plead guilty to two crimes of the seven he faced at trial: conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice.... As part of his deal, the government plans to seize four properties, including a nearly $2 million house in Arlington, Virginia, owned by one of Manafort's daughters. The deal also calls for forfeiture of four financial accounts and a life insurance policy." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Here's a pdf of the charging document & exhibits, via the New York Times. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: From what I understand from MSNBC on-air discussions, Manafort pled guilty to all 18 charges for which he was tried in Virginia, including the 10 for which he was not convicted. In addition, he effectively pleaded guilty to all counts in the D.C. case because the two counts to which he pleaded guilty incorporated the substance of the other five counts. ...

... Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "It was not immediately clear what information [Paul Manafort] might be providing to prosecutors or how the plea agreement might affect Mr. Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related questions about possible collusion by the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump. The president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, quickly sought to distance Mr. Trump from the development. 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing t do with President Trump or the Trump campaign,' he said in a statement. 'The reason: the president did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "In court Friday morning, prosecutors revealed that Manafort had completed a successful meeting with investigators in which he offered them information they considered valuable. They did not specify what information he agreed to share, but made clear the cooperation would be 'broad' and would include participation in 'interviews, briefings, producing documents, [and] testifying in other matters.'... The agreement marked a significant shift for the Mueller investigation -- providing them cooperation from someone who participated in the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting, in which a Russian lawyer came to New York during the campaign promising 'dirt' on Trump's Democratic opponent. As the campaign chairman, Manafort was also privy to the inner workings of the Trump campaign for critical months in 2016." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "After Manafort ... agreed to cooperate with prosecutors working for the special counsel on Friday..., Donald Trump's legal team released the following statement attributed to Rudy Giuliani...: 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth.' Minutes later, they ... [put out] a 'corrected' statement removed the bit about Manafort telling the truth:... 'Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "The revised statement leaves open the possibility that Trump and his legal team will ultimately dispute the information Manafort shares with Mueller.... It suggests the president's team is bracing for the possibility that they will have to try and assassinate Manafort's character...." Mrs. McC: Rupar is far too shy; of course Trump will trash Manafort & what he says. It's what Trump does. And Manafort is an easy guy to trash. ...

... "What Manafort Knows." Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: "... we can guess the lines of questioning that might dominate Manafort's meetings with the lawyers in the special counsel's office. The Oleg Deripaska Connection.... Deripaska might have been a crucial intermediary between Manafort and the Kremlin. The Curious Case of Konstantin Kilimnik.... Kilimnik was Manafort's primary interface with Deripaska. Manafort’s Loans.... Roger Stone.... If Mueller does intend to pursue a case against Stone, he suddenly has his oldest confidant as a cooperating witness. The Trump Tower Meeting." ...

... Trump Can't Pardon Manafort to Stop Manafort's Cooperation. Paul Rosenzweig & Justin Florence in a Washington Post op-ed: "Trump's supportive tweet about Manafort after his conviction in August on eight felony fraud counts, praising him for not cooperating with prosecutors, was widely interpreted as a hint of future presidential leniency. Trump has insisted on his 'absolute' power to pardon even himself, and his lawyers in a secret January memo to Mueller asserted the president's complete control over federal investigations as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Trump and his team have tried to lay the groundwork for pardons to protect him from criminal charges. But ... a self-pardon, or a pardon that is self-protective and serves the same purpose as a self-pardon, would be an abuse of power that violates the Constitution and, as such, could warrant impeachment. If the president can use the pardon power to protect himself from prosecution, it would effectively transform him into an authoritarian ruler, incapable of being limited by law or any other branches of government. In constitutional terms, using the pardon power in this way would appear to violate Article II, which requires the president to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.'" ...

... Also Too. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel: "Here's why this deal is pardon proof: 1. Mueller spent the hour and a half delay in arraignment doing ... something. It's possible Manafort even presented the key parts of testimony Mueller needs from him to the grand jury this morning. 2. The forfeiture in this plea is both criminal and civil, meaning DOJ will be able to get Manafort's $46 million even with a pardon. 3.Some of the dismissed charges are financial ones that can be charged in various states." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico takes a longer look at the effects of a pardon in Manafort's case. It isn't as straightforward as Wheeler suggests, & experts don't agree. Mrs. McC: Manafort, according to statements the prosecutor made in court, has already made at least two proffers. I'd assume interviewers have in writing and/or on tape every song he's sung. I don't know much about the rules of evidence, but I'd guess anything Manafort has said can be used in court, and it certainly can be used in any report Mueller makes.

Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "In recent weeks, it has ... become common knowledge among close friends of Michael Cohen ... is talking to the Mueller team, according to people familiar with the situation." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "What will the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, do when he wraps up his investigation...? The leading theory is that Mr. Mueller will write a report for his supervisor at the Justice Department. That could lead to a new fight: Mr. Trump's lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, has suggested that the White House may then invoke executive privilege and order the Justice Department to keep portions of such a report confidential from Congress. But there is historical precedent for another model. Echoing a move by the Watergate prosecutor in March 1974, the grand jury with which Mr. Mueller has been working could try to send a report about the evidence it has gathered directly to the House Judiciary Committee. And on Friday, seeking to draw more attention to that option, three prominent legal analysts asked a court to lift a veil of secrecy that has long kept that Watergate-era report hidden.... [A] petition [to unseal the Nixon investigation Road Map] was filed by Benjamin Wittes, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and the editor in chief of Lawfare...; Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration; and Stephen Bates, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor who, as a federal prosecutor working for Ken Starr...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If there are actual national security matters revealed in the report (and there well might be, given the subjects of the investigation) sensitive material can be redacted, but the public has a right to see everything else. After all, we paid for it. All these people work for us.

The Mysterious Case of Brett Kavanaugh -- just got less mysterious:

** Ronan Farrow & Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding ... Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago. The woman, who has asked not to be identified, first approached Democratic lawmakers in July, shortly after Trump nominated Kavanaugh. The allegation dates back to the early nineteen-eighties, when Kavanaugh was a high-school student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and the woman attended a nearby high school. In the letter, the woman alleged that, during an encounter at a party, Kavanaugh held her down, and that he attempted to force himself on her. She claimed in the letter that Kavanaugh and a classmate of his, both of whom had been drinking, turned up music that was playing in the room to conceal the sound of her protests, and that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand. She was able to free herself." Kavanaugh denies the allegation; the male classmate has "no recollection" of the incident. Dianne Feinstein has had the letter since late July & had kept it secret from other Judiciary Committee members -- Mrs. McC: apparently until Ryan Grim of the Intercept reported on its existence. The other members are not amused. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, young Brett (allegedly) attempted to rape a young woman. My only surprise here is at Feinstein's withholding this information, a lapse I find unconscionable. ...

... Update. Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "... what in blazes was Dianne Feinstein thinking?... She had no right to keep [the letter] from them. For that matter, she had no right to keep it from us, the public, who also live with the consequences of a new Supreme Court.... Now, single-handedly, she has returned things to the Incompetent Democrats narrative. Well, no. Not Incompetent Democrats. Incompetent Democrat, singular. Beyond belief.... This man, if confirmed, is going to spend the next 30 or 35 years of his life deciding whether 16 year old girls like the one he allegedly attacked have any rights to control their own reproductive fates. We all know, his 'open mind' notwithstanding, that he is going to spend 30 or 35 years saying they have none." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John McCormack of the Weekly Standard: "The Kavanaugh classmate quoted in the New Yorker is Mark Judge, a writer in Washington, D.C. Judge spoke to The Weekly Standard Friday afternoon, strongly denying that any such incident ever occurred. 'It's just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way,' Judge told TWS." Mrs. McC: We should bear in mind that Judge is protecting not only Kavanaugh, but also himself, inasmuch as the accuser has apparently indicated that Judge took part in the assault. His denial is as credible as Kavanaugh's. ...

... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Sixty-five women who knew Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in high school have testified to his good character in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in light of recently surfaced allegations that he tried to force himself on a girl during his time at Georgetown Preparatory School, an all-boys school in Bethesda, Maryland." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Really, what Supreme Court nominee doesn't have a list of 65 random women they didn't sexually assault while attending an all-boys high school lined up?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Almost anyone who has played any part in the #MeToo movement might say with confidence that the cost of coming forward is crippling. And indeed, as soon as the New Yorker published its story, Kavanaugh defenders were quick to say that the woman, still unnamed, was a drunk and a liar.... The real tragedy is that we do not need this woman's story to understand who the current Supreme Court nominee is." Lithwick goes on to list the hard evidence that's already out there. Read it. "... demanding that any one woman bear the full professional and social and emotional cost of dismantling the machinery of men in power propping up other men in power is expecting entirely too much." ...

     ... Mrs. McC: I want to think I would have the guts to come forward and that if Dianne Feinstein stymied my effort, I'd go to the press. I'd like to think I had the guts to do what I could to stop the Kavanaugh Lithwick so clearly describes. But since I have not had to do so, I can't be certain I would (tho the odds are pretty high that I would). I disagree with the advice Lithwick says she would give the woman. Not only would I encourage her to expose Kavanaugh, I'd be there for her before, when & after she did.

Erica Ordan & Evan Perez of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in New York are weighing criminal charges against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig as part of an investigation into whether he failed to register as a foreign agent in a probe that is linked to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to sources familiar with the matter. In addition, these sources said, prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York are considering taking action against powerhouse law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where Craig was a partner during the activity under examination.... The investigation involving Craig and Skadden was referred to federal prosecutors in New York earlier this year by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported in August.... The investigation pertains to whether Craig improperly performed lobbying work on behalf of a group associated with Ukraine without registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent."

Mrs. McCrabbie: A couple of days ago, there was this from the Capitalism Is Awesome file. There is a reason I didn't link a story about the Bezos' generosity:

... Molly Schuetz of Bloomberg: "Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, launched a $2 billion fund to help homeless families and create a network of nonprofit preschools in low-income communities.... The move catapults the world's richest person into a rarefied group of billionaire megadonors at a time when his company, Amazon.com Inc., faces growing scrutiny over its rising power and impact on the economy." ...

... So Here's the Reason. Marina Hyde of the Guardian: "Off the top of my head, Jeff has already had two very clear chances to help homeless people and low-income families. The first was in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, and where the firm recently killed a proposed city tax on big firms to alleviate the homeless crisis by threatening to halt a building project. The second was by simply paying his own low-income workers better. As the old saying goes, charity begins in aisle 89 of the Amazon warehouse, where workers are so terrified of being docked points for nipping to the bathroom that they're pissing in bottles. But guys like Jeff don't want governments, or properly paid worker ants, taking credit for what is, after all, his bounty.... [If] the poor people who literally already work for you ... want to humbly queue up and apply for it via some thinly disguised hardship grant that you take the applause for, that's a different matter. Dignity is something you hand out, not something that others get to earn."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "Two Russian spies caught in the Netherlands and expelled had been plotting cyber sabotage of a Swiss defense laboratory analyzing the nerve agent used to poison a former Russian agent in Britain, Swiss officials said Friday.The story -- first reported by the Dutch newspaper NRC and the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, and confirmed by Swiss officials -- adds a new dimension to the charges by Western governments that the Kremlin is waging a sophisticated and unconventional campaign to work its will abroad, and undermine adversaries and their alliances. Britain contends that Russia sent two other spies to a quaint English cathedral city in March, carrying a military-grade poison to assassinate a turncoat former colleague, Sergei V. Skripal, which the Kremlin denies. The two men, publicly identified and charged by the British authorities, appeared on Russian television on Thursday to deny involvement in the poisoning that sickened Mr. Skripal and three others, and killed one person, insisting that they were sports nutritionists, not spies."

News Ledes

New York Times: "After slamming into the Carolina coast on Friday with powerful winds and torrential rains, Hurricane Florence left a trail of devastation as it crawled over the southeastern part of the state, posing what may be its greatest threat in the days ahead as it roars inland with what are shaping up to be record-setting quantities of water. The storm, whose destructive power was unlike any the area has seen in a generation, had already caused at least five fatalities as of Friday afternoon, and rescue crews across a wide region were attempting to pluck distressed residents from rooftops." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Florence, the powerful storm that has already left at least nine people dead and nearly a million without power on the East Coast, continued to move inland at an ominously sluggish pace Saturday, fat with rain and threatening to deliver hardship and devastation far beyond the wind-battered coasts."

The New York Times is providing free access to its Hurricane Florence coverage. The Times front page is here. "The [Washington] Post has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Florence to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post has links to several Florence-related stories on its front page. the (South Carolina) State home page is here. The State is granting free access to its site during the storm. The Raleigh News & Observer home page is here.

MEANWHILE. New York Times: "Typhoon Mangkhut struck the Philippines early Saturday, after tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes to escape the 550-mile-wide storm as it roared across the Pacific. More than 12 hours after landfall, at least three deaths were reported, but there were no signs of the kind of devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan five years ago. Still, officials had barely begun to assess the damage. Some places could not be contacted because of communication outages, and several provinces had suffered complete power blackouts. The ferocity of the storm -- which arrived at 1:40 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of around 120 miles per hour -- in some ways eclipsed Hurricane Florence on the other side of the world...." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Typhoon Mangkhut, which meteorologists called the most powerful storm in the world this year, swept through the northern end of the Philippine island of Luzon, leaving at least 16 people dead and wreaking havoc. It uprooted trees, ripped off roofs, set off landslides and flooded farms and roads."

Comments

[PD Pepe]

THE FULL MONTY

Judge: goes through long list of "did you's"...

Manafort: Says after each, "I did"–––

And there you have it, folks, bare naked and pleading guilty he joins the long line of kick ass actors in this chorus line- up who are singing up a storm. Great performances with tickets to ride.

And once again we are getting film shots from the Thomas confirmation hearings in which Anita Hill was dismissed and three other female witnesses were never called. Talk about a high class lynching! This situation we have now with Kavanaugh is fraught with problems and I doubt whether the woman in question will come forth. Orin Hatch, in a voice that drips with sincerity and wisdom, said the same thing about Kavanaugh that he had said about Clarence Thomas: accolades galore while dismissing any sniff of female interference.

I'm with Dahlia: " And indeed, as soon as the New Yorker published its story, Kavanaugh defenders were quick to say that the woman, still unnamed, was a drunk and a liar.... The real tragedy is that we do not need this woman’s story to understand who the current Supreme Court nominee is."

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: Yep. As Lithwick ticks off the clues hiding in plain sight, there's no question as to what kind of guy Kavanaugh is. That soccer dad thing is an act for public consumption. It may be who Brett wishes he were, but "Dad in 1990s sitcom" is not who he is.

[NiskyGuy]

Remember, the most popular Dad in a sitcom was Bill Cosby.

[Marie Burns]

@Nisky Guy: Well, yeah, okay. I stand corrected.

[Akhilleus]

Well hey, Thomas will be happy that he won’t be the only Conferderate on the court with sexual wrongdoing in his past.

When Kavanaugh is confirmed that will make 2 out of the 5 R’s up there sexual predators. That’s 40%. On the Supreme Court. Glad I’m not a woman whose fate may ultimately come down decisions by Coke Can Thomas and Turn Up the Music so They Can’t Hear Her Scream Kavanaugh.

Anyhow, good job Mitch and Chuck for helping to increase the percentage of lying misogynists on the Supreme Court. Family values and all that, right? But it wouldn’t make a difference to these assholes if they had known about Kavanaugh’s background from the start. The whole point of ramming him onto the court in the first place was to deny women their rights and make them second class citizens, not to affirm their rights as citizens and human beings. So what’s s little attempted rape? In fact, him trying to force himself on a woman is just proof positive that he’s the kind of guy they’re looking for. He’ll make a nice complement to Neil (You Should Have Died in Your Truck) Gorsuch.

A few years ago they nominated a scumbag who once chased down a fellow student, attacked and physically assaulted him because of issues related to real or imagined sexuality. And next time up, they nominated, and are now doing everything they can to protect, a self-described sexual predator.

So, after putting the last two creeps up for president, shoving another like minded prick onto the Supreme Court won’t faze them in the least.

No one with an R after their name gets to claim moral high ground forever more.

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: I hate to say it, but that's about as good a summation of the Republican party as anyone could write. The last refuge of scoundrels.

[Fleeting Expletive]

I believe that 65 women could be rounded up via Facebook to vouch for Kav w/o much difficulty. Will they be willing to testify to a Senate Judiciary committee about their personal relationships with him? We gonna replay that Anita Hill horror show of misogyny? And Brit Hume's daughter was a signatory--he's fifty two, was he dating her too? I somehow don't think Grassley thought this through but my disgust with this spectacle has not diminished.

I've called my (RW) senator's office three times this week. For heaven's sake, man, don't chain yourself to the mast of this sinking ship--if you survive, the stink will never wash off. I point out he's young enough and so far unsullied enough with T to salvage a career and a reputation, but the backwash is going to catch up a lot of people who went along with Russia/NRA/RNC shenanigans.

There's none so blind..I suppose.

[Akhilleus]

Marvin is Right

The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that Trump is mentally unstable, and close to deranged.

The proof comes by way of his astounding contention that 3,000 people could not possibly have died in Puerto Rico during, and in the aftermath, of Hurricane Maria, simply because he is a superior person.

There have been times when I was unsure whether his fake claims, his myriad lies, his brutal and embarrassing assaults on truth were simply the work of a lifelong charlatan and trickster trying to save his own ass, or whether he really believed his fantasy tales.

But proficient con artists don't crumb the plate. They're careful. They don't go out of their way to call attention to their gimmicks and chicanery. The idea is to hold the con as long as possible.

No con artist would make an outrageous claim that only six people had died in the face of widely accepted evidence that the death toll was thousands, and then try to explain it away by saying that such evidence had been manufactured purely to make him look bad.

And so we are left with Sherlock Holmes' conclusion about the condition of truth, even truth that seems on its face to be highly improbable, a statement that comes in the midst of one of Conan Doyle's most amazing stories, "The Sign of Four":

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

Thus, there is no reason left for not agreeing with Marvin's longstanding contention that Trump is mentally unstable.

And thus incredibly unfit for office. ANY office.

Denying the deaths of thousands of Americans because he thinks it makes him look bad (which it does), is perhaps the most astounding, by any measure, moment in American presidential history. (Although the Decider's claim that the deaths, displacement, and physical and mental wounds inflicted on millions of human beings from his War of Choice, were absolutely necessary, is close. The difference is that Bush and Cheney, and Co. know that this is a despicable lie.)

And yet, Republicans still hold him up as a Great Man and line up to protect him and privilege his lies.

Beyond belief. But, as Holmes (and Marvin) maintain, the truth.

[Akhilleus]

Wow. So according to Texas, Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller never existed.

Why not just go whole hog, boys, and say that blacks should still be slaves and the South won the War of Northern Aggression and Trump is making the Confederacy Great Again?

So what's the problem? It would take 30 extra minutes to talk about the first woman to be nominated for president in this country? Yeah, I guess that's not very important. Better to talk about the heroics at the Alamo, a fight that took place, actually, in MEXICAN territory. I guess the John Wayne movie will now be considered actual historical fact.

We've been in Fake History Land for a long time. Confederates have long dismissed facts that were inconvenient to their various Whites and Christians First narrative. And now they're even erasing a living person from their "history" books.

Pretty soon we'll find out that Trump really IS more popular than some no 'count nigger lover named Lincoln.