Monday
Sep032018
The Commentariat -- September 4, 2018
Senate confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh are scheduled to begin at 9:30 am ET today.
Massachusetts is holding primary elections today.
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Yvonne Sanchez & Maria Polletta of the Arizona Republic: "Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday publicly chose Jon Kyl, once one of the most powerful Republicans in the U.S. Senate, to succeed the late Sen. John McCain.... Kyl could be sworn in as early as Tuesday night, though Wednesday is more likely, according to a governor's aide. He has agreed to serve at least through the end of the year.... If Kyl opts to step down after the end of the session, the governor would be required to appoint another replacement." Mrs. McC: It goes without saying that Kyl will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
New York Times reporters are liveblogging the Kavanaugh hearings. "Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday began with a bang, as Democrats moved angrily to adjourn to consider newly released documents and protesters screamed in support. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, called it 'mob rule.'" ...
... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed News: "After two days of questions about how it was decided that more than 100,000 pages of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's White House work would be withheld from the Senate Judiciary Committee's review, the Justice Department took responsibility for the decision on Monday night.... The news that the documents were being kept from the public and the committee was reported on Friday night.... Lawyers for [George W.] Bush, led by William Burck of Quinn Emanuel, reviewed the documents requested and then provided the presidential records they found to the Justice Department for review.... Both career lawyers and political appointees in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and Office of Legal Policy reviewed those documents, electronically tagging the documents that they believed should not be turned over as 'withhold for executive privilege.' Ultimately, that decision was reached with 27,110 documents, amounting to 101,921 pages."
The Lunatic in the White House: A (Mostly) Nonfiction Book. Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: In his new book, Bob "Woodward depicts Trump's anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for entire days.... The 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post.... A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump's inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.... The ... forthcoming book ... paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals. Woodward writes that his book is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on 'deep background,' meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also drawn from meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents." Read on. ...
... Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump has become increasingly exasperated in recent weeks that he wasn't interviewed by Bob Woodward ahead of the publication of his upcoming book, three sources with knowledge of the President's concern tell CNN. Trump's irritation reflects a heightened sense of unease in the West Wing about next week's release of the veteran reporter's book 'Fear: Trump in the White House,' which details life in the Trump administration.Woodward made several attempts to interview Trump, CNN is told.... But the interview never panned out.... Multiple people close to Trump have speculated that part of the reason an interview never happened was because of a policy instituted by chief of staff John Kelly after the January publication of [Michael] Wolff's 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' which portrayed Trump as an ill-equipped leader who refused to read even one-page briefing papers."
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "The hosts of 'Fox & Friends' on Tuesday appeared visibly deflated after legal analyst Andrew Napolitano told them that ... Donald Trump's latest tweets attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions would provide 'fodder' for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. In particular, Napolitano turned a critical eye to Trump's tweet attacking Sessions for letting the Department of Justice file charges against Reps. Chris Collins (R-NY) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who were respectively indicted on charges related to insider trading and campaign finance fraud.... '... there can't be two standards: One for members of Congress -- Republican members of Congress -- and one for others. It is the duty of the Justice Department to prosecute crimes when they find them and to bring indictments when a grand jury has decided there's enough evidence there,' [Napolitano said]."
Gone But Not Forgotten. Stephanie Ebbs of ABC News: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not justify increased spending on former Administrator Scott Pruitt's 24-hour security detail, which grew by almost $2 million in less than a year, the EPA's watchdog said. 'Failure to properly justify the level of protective services provided to the Administrator has allowed costs to increase from $1.6 million to $3.5 million in just 11 months,' the agency's inspector general said in a long-awaited report ... released Tuesday."
Gubernatorial Race. Kansas. Hunter Woodall of the Kansas City Star: "Republicans in Kansas further splintered Tuesday as the last moderate member of the party to hold the governor's office in Kansas endorsed a Democrat for governor over Kris Kobach, the GOP nominee. In a statement, former Kansas governor Bill Graves said he planned to support [state] Sen. Laura Kelly in the November election. Kelly is running against Kobach and independent Greg Orman. 'Laura Kelly is the only Democrat I have ever endorsed for public office,' Graves said in the statement."
*****
Catherine Lucey of the AP: "... Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen. In his latest broadside against the Justice Department's traditional independence, Trump tweeted that 'Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.' He added: 'Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......' The first two Republicans to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primaries were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading. Both have proclaimed their innocence. Another blow in Trump's long-running feud with Sessions, the president's complaint fits with his pattern of viewing the Department of Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his political bidding." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice -- one for the majority and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began. -- Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) ...
... Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The tweet indicated that his attorney general should base law enforcement actions on how it could affect the president and the Republican Party's electoral success. It also seemed to indicate that electoral popularity should influence charges. A few minutes after the tweet on Sessions, Trump added a second tweet attacking former FBI director James B. Comey.... 'The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin' James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!'" ...
... Ben Dreyfuss of Mother Jones: "With Monday's tweets, Trump united the two big political dramas -- the midterm elections and the Mueller investigation -- and made clear that he views any actions by the Justice Department through the prism of how it pertains to him, his party, and their shared fortune." ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has a proven track record of paying extremely close attention to his favorite TV shows, to the point that a Fox guest or host's televised advice can trigger him to dramatically upend his own party and team's calculated strategy and stance. These are television shows that often have more direct influence and impact on Trump than many of his senior staffers or top officials. And now, many of the president's all-time favorite hosts and media personalities are telling him, over and over again, to get rid of Attorney General Jeff Sessions as quickly as humanly possible.... For her Labor Day weekend episode of Justice With Judge Jeanine, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro dedicated her opening monologue to personally and professionally trashing Trump's attorney general as a witless 'shill' and as a pathetic enabler of supposed 'corruption by the Democrats.'" And so forth. ...
... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "With a tweet complaining that indictments of two congressmen 'by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department' put GOP seats at risk, President Trump guaranteed a confirmation minefield for any future attorney general.... A senior Justice Department official said: 'It was a very concerning tweet. It shows how POTUS thinks DOJ should be used: As a weapon against enemies and a tool to win elections.' Referring to the two congressional indictments, the official said: 'Both cases are not even close, the facts are very bad.' One of Washington's most respected Republican lawyers said: 'Like everything else, he shoots first and then asks questions later. So in his ... mind he thinks he can find someone to take the job who will be confirmable and rein in Mueller. So he'll force out Sessions and then find there's no one who will take the job who the Senate Republicans can support.'" Emphasis original. Mrs. McC: Swan is more a breathless headline peddler than an analyst, but he might be right about this.
... Gene Robinson: "President Trump's incoherence grows to keep pace with his desperation. These days, he makes less sense than ever -- a sign that this malignant presidency has entered a new, more dangerous phase.... Trump is taking a page from the playbook of totalitarian dictators: Believe only me. Reality is what I say it is. Anyone who claims otherwise is an Enemy of the People. Trump desperately wants an attorney general who will shut Mueller down. The incumbent, Jeff Sessions, cannot do so because he is recused from the matter. Republican senators who once warned Trump not to dare fire Sessions now seem resigned to the fact that Trump will do just that. It makes sense for Trump to make his move after the election. If Republicans still control Congress, he'll get away with it. If Democrats take charge, he won't. If anyone asks you what's at stake in November, tell them democracy and justice."
Trump Is Killing His Own Voters (and They Don't Live on Fifth Avenue). Ellen Knickmeyer & John Raby of the AP: "... Donald Trump picked [West Virginia] to announce his plan rolling back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants. Trump left one thing out of his remarks, though: northern West Virginia coal country will be ground zero for increased deaths and illnesses from the rollback on regulation of harmful emission from the nation's coal power plants. An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater number of people here dying prematurely, and suffering health problems that they otherwise would not have, than elsewhere in the country, when compared to health impacts of the Obama plan.... Nationally, the EPA says, 350 to 1,500 more people would die each year under Trump's plan. But it's the northern two-thirds of West Virginia and the neighboring part of Pennsylvania that would be hit hardest, by far, according to Trump's EPA." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Post-truth Trump/Putin convergence --safari
... "They're asserting that they are not constrained by reality." Mrs. McC: Watch the video. It's really good.
POtuS Trashes Labor Leader on Labor Day. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump criticized the leader of the nation's largest union federation on Monday, escalating the feud between the administration and organized labor amid crucial negotiations for both sides over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, had on Sunday disputed the White House's strategy for renegotiating the NAFTA trade pact and argued that Trump had 'done more to hurt workers than to help' them since taking office. Those comments elicited a sharp counterattack from Trump, who blasted Trumka as an ineffectual leader just as union members across the country prepared for Labor Day celebrations. 'Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend,' Trump said in a tweet. 'Some of the things he said were so again[s]t the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Justin Wise of the Hill: "'Happy Labor Day!' Trump tweeted [this morning]. 'Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows. The U.S. has tremendous upside potential as we go about fixing some of the worst Trade Deals ever made by any country in the world. Big progress being made!" he added." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: But we're so poor we can't afford to give federal workers a measly COL increase because of, um, a "national emergency or serious economic conditions." (See Vox report, linked below.) (Also linked yesterday.)
Jessica Tyler of Business Insider: "Of his 590 days in office, Trump has gone to Trump properties on 196 days and Trump golf properties on 153 days, according to NBC's tracker. That adds up to 25% of his 590 days in office spent at least in part.... Trump once said that, as president, he was 'not going to have time to go play golf.' He also spent years attacking former President Barack Obama for golfing and taking vacations while in office. But during his first 100 days in office, Trump found more time for golf than than each of his last three predecessors, totaling 90 days in his first year alone, compared to Obama's one day golfing during his first year in office."
Campbell Robertson & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump rode to office in part by promising economic revival to sputtering towns across America. Economic growth has accelerated since he took office, from the final year of President Barack Obama's administration, and Mr. Trump frequently claims credit for it. But the growth under Mr. Trump has not helped everywhere. It has lifted wealthy areas ... which were already growing before he took office. And it has left the most economically troubled swaths of the country, the ones that Mr. Trump promised to revitalize, waiting for their share of the good times. The divide is pronounced between the high- and low-income counties that helped deliver Mr. Trump the White House."
AND Justice for All Some. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Since its founding six decades ago, the Justice Department's civil rights division has used the Constitution and federal law to expand protections of African-Americans, gays, lesbians and transgender people, immigrants and other minorities -- efforts that have extended the government's reach from polling stations to police stations. But under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the focus has shifted to people of faith, police officers and local government officials who maintain they have been trampled by the federal government. The department has supported state voting laws that could wind up removing thousands of people from voter rolls. And it has pulled back on robust oversight of police departments found to have violated the rights of citizens in their jurisdictions."
David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "They sat in seats of honor, near the front of Washington National Cathedral.... By all appearances, they were honoring their departed colleague, Senator John Sidney McCain III, during a majestic ceremony on Saturday. And by doing so they were showing America that leaders of both parties reject the hateful, petty, law-defying politics of President Trump. They were showing America what a better nation could look like. But it was all an act -- a cynical, hypocritical act that McCain, who had a keen eye for hypocrisy, would have seen right through. It was an act for Mitch McConnell..., for Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. It was an act, most jarringly, for Lindsey Graham, McCain's dear friend and the senior senator from South Carolina. It was an act for Orrin Hatch, Rob Portman and nearly all of the other Republican members of Congress who attended the service.... They have not kept faith with the principles that McCain held dear -- and that he himself organized his memorial service to celebrate, as a clear rebuke to Trump and Trumpism. McConnell, Ryan, Graham and the others have instead ... made possible Trump's hateful, petty, law-defying politics." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "After John McCain's death..., Chuck Schumer proposed another kind of tribute to the iconic senator and war hero: that the Russell Senate Office Building, currently named for a segregationist southern Democrat, be renamed for McCain. His Republican colleagues, however, demurred. They could not admit that their real reason for opposing the honor was that McCain had crossed Trump. Nor could they defend Senator Richard Russell's ardent white supremacy, which extended to denouncing laws to ban lynching. Instead, they flailed about, inventing pretexts on the fly.... Senate Republicans demonstrated their willingness to turn on a colleague out of fealty to Trump, and all the better for him that they did so out of transparent fear rather than conviction.... As Republicans' scant interest in inhibiting Trump has waned, his authoritarianism has grown more uninhibited.... As Trump plunges deeper into his war against the rule of law, the Republican Congress marches along beside him, unindicted co-conspirators all."
Paul Krugman: "... now McCain is gone, and with him, as far as we can tell, the only Republican in Congress with anything resembling a spine. As a result, if Republicans hold Congress in November, they will indeed repeal Obamacare. That's not a guess: It's an explicit promise, made by Vice President Mike Pence last week.... Republicans haven't rethought their ideas on health care (or, actually, anything else). Partly that's because the modern G.O.P. doesn't do policy analysis.... In the case of health care, however, there's an even deeper problem: The G.O.P. can't come up with an alternative to the Affordable Care Act because no such alternative exists.... Obamacare is the most conservative option for covering pre-existing conditions, and if Republicans really cared about the scores of millions of Americans with such conditions, they would support and indeed try to strengthen the A.C.A.... Do they imagine that voters are stupid? Well, yes. In recent rallies Donald Trump has been declaring that Democrats want to 'raid Medicare to pay for socialism.'"
Fred Barbash & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Hours before the start of hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, the lawyer for former president George W. Bush turned over 42,000 pages of documents from the nominee's service in the Bush White House, angering Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, who issued what is certain to be a futile call to delay the proceedings. 'Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow,' Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted Monday evening.... A few hours later, a tweet from the committee said that the 'Majority staff has now completed its review of each and every one of these pages.'... The hearings are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, with opening statements by committee members. No information was released on the subject matter of the documents, and Bush's lawyer asked that they be kept from the public...."
Counting Their Chickens. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "House Democrats, increasingly optimistic they will win back control in November, are mining a mountain of stymied oversight requests in preparation for an onslaught of hearings, subpoenas and investigations into nearly every corner of the Trump administration. While they continue to distance themselves from the most extreme recourse -- impeaching President Trump -- senior Democrats who stand to control key House panels could soon oversee inquiries into some of the most precarious threats to Mr. Trump's presidency. Those include whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election, if the president obstructed a federal investigation into the matter and what role Mr. Trump played in paying to silence two women in the closing weeks of the campaign.... Their scrutiny could also extend beyond Mr. Trump's legal troubles to include his administration's remaking of federal regulations and other policies that the party has disagreed with."
Journalists Looking Silly
What Were They Thinking? Sopan Deb of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon ... will no longer appear as a headliner at this year's New Yorker Festival, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, announced in an email to the magazine's staff on Monday evening. The announcement followed several scathing rebukes and high-profile dropouts after the festival's lineup, with Mr. Bannon featured, was announced. Within 30 minutes of one another, John Mulaney, Judd Apatow, Jack Antonoff and Jim Carrey announced on social media that they would be pulling out of scheduled events at the festival. Right around the time when Mr. Remnick announced the cancellation..., Patton Oswalt did the same.... The backlash was not limited to would-be festival attendees. The writer Roxane Gay announced that she would no longer be writing an in-progress essay that had been commissioned by the magazine." ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN in Medium, publishes David Remnick's memo to staff. Mrs. McC: It may add to public discourse to speak with someone who holds different views from yours, but only if that person offers honest arguments. Bannon -- besides being a racist nationalist -- is a malevolent shape-shifter, & there's no benefit to anyone in hearing his propaganda. ...
... Update. Steve M. "... Bannon ... bamboozles listeners ... with a firehose spew of words that sound reasonably intelligent but mostly serve as a delivery system for (a) white nationalism and (b) self-promotion. The former is reason enough not to invite him, but so is the latter. Here's a guy who lost his powerful government job, who lost his Mercer family financing, and who is now going from interviewer to interviewer looking for a way to shoehorn himself back into the public consciousness. If his racism isn't enough reason to give him a wide berth, then his current irrelevance ought to be the deciding factor. He was a noxious presence in our political life, but now he's out of the picture -- except that he's desperate to be a noxious presence again. Why help him?... I don't want to help him fulfill either of these needs. I don't know why the hell David Remnick wanted to."
John Koblin of the New York Times: "The discord between NBC News and Ronan Farrow went public on Monday night. At 7 p.m., Andrew Lack, the chairman of NBC News, sent an email to network staff members arguing that Mr. Farrow's reporting last year on the film mogul Harvey Weinstein was not 'fit for broadcast.' Hours later, Mr. Farrow fired back at his ex-boss with a pointed statement that took issue with Mr. Lack's version of events. Mr. Farrow, while working on contract for NBC, spent eight months reporting on the alleged transgressions of Mr. Weinstein -- only to end up publishing an award-winning series centered on the film executive and his many accusers in The New Yorker magazine. Since then, people in media and entertainment have wondered why the network allowed the reporter to go out the door with the makings of such a big story." Mrs. McC: Looks like a war without winners, except to the extent it raises Farrow's profile.
Medlar's Sports Report. Darren Rovell of ESPN: "Colin Kaepernick ... the former NFL quarterback, who is suing NFL owners for allegedly colluding to keep him out of the league, is one of the faces of a new Nike campaign meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the brand's iconic 'Just Do It' motto.... The new ad, which Kaepernick shared on social media Monday afternoon, features the message: 'Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Thomas Maresca in USA Today: "Two Reuters journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday in Myanmar, convicted of possessing state secrets in a case that many supporters believe was retribution for their reporting on a massacre of 10 Rohingya men by security forces in 2017. The reporters, Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were investigating a September 2017 attack at Inn Din village in Myanmar's violence-plagued Rakhine State. They were arrested on December 12 and accused of obtaining classified documents under the Colonial-era 1923 Official Secrets Act. The pair, both Myanmar nationals, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carried a maximum penalty of 14 years. Both claimed they had been set up, telling the court they had been given documents by police relating to their investigation and then were arrested by plainclothes policeman. During the trial, a police captain testified that he had witnessed the plot to entrap the reporters by planting the documents on them. The defense is able to appeal the decision to regional court and Myanmar's supreme court."
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Reader Comments (23)
I used to think David Remnick was a pretty smart guy. But...KKK Steve? Jesus, David, what the hell? Why not invite KKK Steve number 2 (Miller) and David Duke while you’re at it. If it’s the idea of seeing a guy onstage wearing two polo shirts under a wrinkled dress shirt, talking shit, I’m sure you can find someone else who is nuts without the white supremacist, Nazi nationalist, pseudo-intellectual nihilist crap.
Then again, maybe not.
I have to say I’m feeling particularly low today as the rubber stamp shoe-in pretend confirmation “hearings” begin, to ram through the ascension of Trump’s next future Nuremberg Trials defendant to the Trumpy Supreme Show Court.
In a few weeks Trump and his jackals in the Senate will have succeeded, in less than two years, in turning all three branches of government into savage scam operations, and it doesn’t matter if certain decent and responsible jurists in the lower courts perform their duty, once decisions anathema to Confederate totalitarian schemes are selected for destruction, they’ll be shunted, toot sweet, up the line to the Trumpy “judges”, for efficient and quick disposal. The leading candidates will be voting rights, rights of workers, women, immigrants, minorities, and non-evangelicals. Oh yeah, and the essence of the American Experiment.
At the very last minute, R’s deigned to release tens of thousands of Documents providing a close look at Kavanaugh’s Hackology, far too late for anyone to give them more than a cursory glance. But those are only 20% of his output. Clearly there is evidence of Kavanaugh’s upcoming hack work on the court, evidence the Turtle and Grassley, et al, want to keep under wraps.
The whole thing is rotten to the core.
And look for Kavanaugh to lie through his teeth, like Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts about his belief in stare decisis (*cough-cough*) and things that should, at this point, be settled law, such as Roe.
I give a woman’s right to choose less than a year once Hackman is confirmed. Voting rights too. Look for R gerrymandering to be found perfectly A-OK.
Jesus, here we go. Down the tubes.
I’m taking bets on how long before Schumer throws in the towel on this carny con of a confirmation. I say three hours.
Just heard Blowjob Kavanaugh say, on the radio, that if confirmed (he meant “when confirmed”) he promises to keep an open mind on every case.
Hahahahahaha. Wonder how hard it was for him to sling that bullshit with a straight face. Open mind. Sure, sure.
I have always had great respect for David Remnick––who IS "a really smart guy"––but in this case he erred in his decision to have Steve Bannon share the spotlight. I have no doubt David thought by interviewing Bannon in this venue it would be illuminating (maybe also humiliating)–- put feet to the fire in front of a large audience. The backlash was swift and rightly so and the pullout was necessary. What I find hard to understand is not the interview itself but these words at the end of the invitation that was sent to Bannon:
"We would be honored to have you."
Here is an addition to the terrible story coming out of Myanmar (with video).
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/imprisoned-reporters-who-revealed-rohingya-massacres-guilty-of-committing-journalism-reuters-chief-says
Last night watched RBG––the documentary on Ginsburg. You want a hero? Here she is–-that tiny woman who fought like hell to lift women out of that second class citizenship of inequality. And the relationship she had with her Marty, husband of many years, was testament to a marriage that was right and fine from the start. The fact that she was a lousy cook makes her even more admirable in my book.
And so today we are embarking on another hearing for a new S.C. Justice, one I suspect RBG isn't too keen about and I bet if he gets on that bench she won't be doing any opera connecting as she did with Scalia––a man she was able to laugh with despite their vast differences.
Agree, PD-- I watched RBG wearing my RBG tee shirt, and came out wondering how she found such a good guy in the 50s!! He was so in love with her and put her first in employment considerations. Of course, she had moved her law studies to NY for him, so fair play and all... I would imagine she dislikes GorSUCK heartily, and will equally distrust KavaNO... He is just as slimey. With you, Ak...:(
Maybe not the thing to do here, but see discussion of Remnick's boo-boo taking the stage today so am re-posting my thought from late last night on the matter.
Since then I have had another one. To wit:
I'm guessing Remnick believes so strongly in free speech and more generally in the standard liberal ethos that he thought Bannon's exposure in the New Yorker milieu would only emphasize the destructiveness and bankruptcy of Bannon's "ideas." I take Remnick's initial decision as good intention mounted on the awkward combination of liberal hubris and naivete (a combination to which I confess I too am prone). Mostly.
And maybe just a little hope that the expected controversy would boost the magazine's commercial prospects by advertising the superiority of the magazine itself.
But as I said last night, market forces are a bitch, and Remnick didn't understand them either.
"It's easy to hear the outrage from the Right building here on the Left Coast on this otherwise quiet Labor Day afternoon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/arts/bannon-new-yorker-festival-remnick.html?
What? That librul elite afraid of a little free speech?
As a long time "New Yorker" subscriber (and occasional reader), no we're not, I say.
Mr. Bannon can say anything he wants in any marketplace that tolerates his presence, but markets, which I would define as anywhere anything--from widgets to ideas--is sold or exchanged have the right to act on market principles; and when the vast majority of consumers (students and teachers at universities, shoppers at stores, or participants in a festival), don't want to buy, even object strongly to the product's presence, sane markets will offer something more appealing in its place.
That's the way markets work.
Take that you neo-libruls (and alt-righters)!"
And one last market comment: Won't be watching Kavanaugh market himself today or any day.
Saw enough of him on Rachael last night, and the way he toyed with the fate of that pregnant Jane Doe held in U. S. captivity and seeking an abortion sickened me the point I have no stomach for any more of him.
As my two year old grandson has just learned to say, "He bad man."
Very.
PD,
Regarding the Notorious One, I always found her relationship with Scalia around their mutual love of opera cute, in a weird sort of way. I also read how kind Scalia was to her on her husband's passing, which made me think better of him. It said something about both of them. But you're right. It wouldn't matter if Kavanaugh had a complete collection of Verdi operas and could sing all fifteen minutes of Wotan's Abschied from memory, he is no Scalia. Did I think Scalia was a dark and dangerous character? Yes. Did I think he cherry picked certain elements of his intellectual support for originalism? Yes. But I would never have regarded him as a Kavanaugh-like hyper-partisan hack.
Of course RBG outshines everyone on that court presently. And when Blowjob Kavanaugh gets there, it will be as if Themis, ancient Greek personification of natural law is sitting next to a small, nasty little boy in short pants, shooting spitballs at Democrats and thinking lascivious thoughts about their sex lives.
Trump's idea of a great America is dragging everyone down to his level of sleaze and incompetence.
@Ken Winkes: Free speech has nothing to do with it. Remnick works for a private company, not a governmental agency. He has no more obligation to provide a platform for Bannon (and pay him an honorarium plus transportation & lodging) than I do to invite Bannon to dinner (I wouldn't). Remnick's decision, as you suggest, had to be combination of hubris & naivete -- with maybe ignorance of Bannon's modus operandi thrown in. Maybe Barry Blitt's next cover will be of the New Yorker with egg on its face.
Bea,
Agreed. Was not suggesting obligation on Remnick's part. Only that liberals' large-mindedness, of which they/we are rightly proud, often opens the door and invites in the small-and mean-minded who don't wish an honest debate, only another chance to spread their poison.
Ken,
I'm not sure (in fact, I have no idea) what David Remnick might have been thinking in inviting a thoroughly debased and outré character like Bannon, but by rescinding the invite, he's given him a huge win, of sorts. Granted, it's a win with the white supremacists and Trumpbots and knuckdragging droolers, still, it allows them to paint themselves as First Amendment heroes, and liberals as the patrons of censorship.
And no one should pay attention to those cries of free speech being denied Bannon. Like all the other wingers who constantly whine about being kept out of general public discourse, he never shuts up. There are plenty of platforms from which Bannon can spray his swill from his fire hose-like mouth.
The New Yorker festival should never have been one of those.
But having sent the invitation, perhaps Remnick should have let it be and play out the hand. It's become a common part of the winger playbook to announce a speaking engagement at some university or other, at which they are sure to spread their vile propaganda, then beat their chests and cry about censorship when protesters arrive to challenge their lies.
Listened to just a bit of Kavanaugh's blow job "confirmation" proceedings. I'm always amazed at the ability of R's to insult Democrats in small and smaller ways. Grassley seems determined not to even say the word "Democrat", referring twice in a five minute span to the "minority party" and later, responding to a point by Pat Leahy (D-Vt), lecturing him that "something, something, something, lie, your political party...." as if the Republican Party is above politics.
This ain't gonna end well.
There's no McCain (although I'm not sure he'd have voted no on this guy), and where will Murkowski and Collins land?
I think we all know the answer.
WoPo: 'Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency.'
'White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.” '.
LOVE IT!!!! LET THE TRUTH FINALLY BE TOLD.
Minority, My Ass
A little background on Grassley's reference to Democrats as "the minority party". They may be in the minority in the Senate, but how 'bout this?
"Republican control of Capitol Hill and the White House is based on a 'fake majority.'
'A majority of the Senate now represents just 18 percent of the nation’s population,' David Wasserman, an editor for The Cook Political Report, wrote in a recent New York Times column."
This means that the "majority party" in the Senate, the Party of Traitors, do NOT represent 82% of Americans.
They denied a sitting president who represented far more Americans than they do, the right under the Constitution, to a nominee for the court, wouldn't even give him an up or down vote.
Not to mention that an ABC/Washington Post poll shows that more Americans say Kavanaugh should not be confirmed than those who support his ascension to the Trump Court.
But now the Party of Traitors still sniff about a "minority party" and are ready to install a partisan hack, for life, on the highest court in the land.
No wonder they don't want anyone looking to deeply into Kavanaugh's background. But would it matter if they did? Would it matter if it came out that Kavanaugh is startlingly unqualified because of something in his past writings or decisions?
Nope. The are most definitely not a democratic party.
Marvin,
I don't doubt that Kelly is a whiny baby, but no one should shed any tears over his angst at living in Trump World. He decided it would be a good idea to play Sancho Panza to a crazy Don. Now he's complaining about all the donkey dung he has to clean up?
Fuck him. He should just take a nap and fuggedaboutit. As Cervantes' Sancho Panza said, "I'm never afraid when I'm asleep", or something close.
Another nail in the nation's coffin?
Former Arizona senator Kyl appointed to replace McCain just in time to vote for his buddy Kavanaugh's confirmation.
As Akhilleus says, more minority government.
Someone please tell Ben Sasse that this IS a banana republic. The junta is speeding through the confirmation process of one of their party hacks at this minute. Blowjob Kavanaugh may not be an actual mob lawyer, but between them, he and Gorsuch might soon make Hit Man Sam Alito look positively jurisprudential. There's no hope for Clarence Thomas who is about as rubber stampy as Confederates could hope for (interesting that the Party of White Supremacy's most reliable rubber stamp on the court is black), and Little Johnny lives in his own alternate universe where's there's no racism and no corruption by Republicans.
So, Yes, Ben. Banana republic it is, and for my money, you can forget the republic part (per Wikipedia: "A republic (Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which the country is considered a 'public matter', not the private concern or property of the rulers" which is exactly what government under Trump and his stooges is not. They believe they own it and can do with it as they please.)
As soon as Hacky McHackface gets the thumbs up from Grassley and company as their latest Trump crush, we might as well pass out Che Guevara issue green military togs and phony fruit salad to every congressional stooge voting "Aye" for killing America.
What we're left with is bananas. Trump and the Confeds get the fruit. We get the peels.
Apologies for all the crazed posts today. I am just so incensed at the outright, brazen theft of this country by a small minority of racists and traitors. I mourn for the nation.
AK-- we are all squarely in your court. The "representative" nonsense of the senate and electoral college makes me crazy-- considering CA has as many senators as SC, you and the Cook report completely describe what is happening here. Ruled by a minority-- it's such utter dishonesty.
Okay, one more then I'm done with this bullshit for today.
The whole charade can be summed up in one comment.
Democrats on the committee are insisting that the confirmation process be carried out in a responsible and open manner, letting the crooks on the committee know that they will not go along with being given five and a half minutes to look through thousands of files and be denied access to the rest.
John Cornyn calls this attempt to stop traitors from shoving their guy in with as little oversight as possible, "mob rule".
This, after he and his cronies denied the last real president's choice for the court even so much as a hearing.
'Nuff said.
Corey Booker is kicking ass. Grassley doesn’t like it one little bit. He’s trying to rush him along. Fuckers.
Kamchatka for These Assholes
Okay, I lied about not posting anything else, but I have a good reason for adding to my litany of complaints against traitorous monsters in the Senate.
So, as I mentioned, Cory Booker was kicking some serious traitor ass when he started to get on to Blowjob Kavanaugh about why he was not going to vote for him. Referencing Kavanaugh's tired winger hype about the Founders being perfect and Originalism, and all that blah, blah, blah Confederate tripe, Booker reminded Perfect Kavy that the founders weren't perfect after all. For instance, they referred to Native Americans as savages and determined that black people (like Booker) were only a percentage of a person.
Kavanaugh smirked.
At that point, Grassley, outraged at his beloved Confederates being called congenital racists, without even telling Booker his time was up, called upon another senator to take over.
Booker decided he wasn't going to allow Fuck Face Chuck to force him to Steppinfetchit, kept talking, which pissed Fuck Face off no end.
Next up ( I didn't get the name of this asshole), another
R traitor, commended poor Bretty Boy on keeping calm while Evil Democrats asked him un-nice questions. He said something like he was surprised that Bretty Boy didn't throw a hatchet at them, and he was doubly surprised that Blowjob Kavanaugh's mommy (in attendance) didn't try to off the offending Demycraps.
This after just a couple of hours. What did they expect? That he'd waltz in untouched?
But then....
KAMALA HARRIS!!!
Man, if I wasn't already married, I'd be sending this lady mash notes.
Her testimony (for this sister was testifying, children) was on the money, in the face, and up the ass.
For one thing, she brought up Liar Kavanaugh's own words against him. She mentioned that, in her meeting with him, Blowjob Boy said that rushed judgement was flawed judgement.
Exactly!
Why are we going forward with only a tiny percentage of Kavanaugh's work product in evidence when, as Booker suggested, you wouldn't hire an intern on such flimsy grounds?
She also pointed out that, because Grassley, et al, had demanded that the archive people take their time looking over Kavanaugh's paper trail, that they took 57 days to do so, but Democrats were then given less than 57 hours to digest the same. How is that fair, and don't the American people deserve better? Clearly Republicans don't think so.
She also pointed out the amazing coincidence of confirming a judge who has all of a sudden decided, post-Clinton, that (Republican) presidents can do whatever they want, and having that judge, potentially ruling on the legal jeopardy that the Glorious Leader finds himself in. And she also pointed out that (something I didn't know) Kavanaugh was NOT on the list compiled by the Federalist Society for [possible Nuremberg Trial judges. Kavanaugh was only picked by Donaldo after it was clear that his ass might have an orange jumpsuit in its future AND after it was equally clear that little Brett wasn't cool with Republican presidents being investigated for even crossing the street when the light was against them. Ooooh. What a coincidence!
To all but the stupidest outside observers, it seems absolutely ridiculous that such a confirmation should not proceed without rock solid evidence that the nominee can overlook the criminal actions of his patron and rule in a non-partisan manner, especially after Harris pointed out, chapter and verse, of Kavanaugh's embarrassingly hyper-partisan background as a judge.
As she points out, Kavanaugh's position is not even ideological. It's purely partisan. My side wins, no matter what.
Kamala Harris for president.
Brett Kavanaugh for night court.
Fuck Face Chuck Grassley for dog catcher. In Kamchatka.
After that, Lindsey (fainting couch) Graham ran down some outrageously ridiculous comparisons between Clinton investigation (blow job) and Trump (treason). His conclusion? They're both the same.
Kamchatka for him too.
Asshole.
@AK: Having watched most of this charade I agree with your loud claps for Kamala and Booker, although Durbin and Whitehouse did an excellent job as did ALL the other democrats. And I hope you can watch Ben Sasse's fifteen minute diatribe––most impressive–-sounds as though he WAS describing a banana republic. I'm a little bug-eyed–-not used to watching T.V. during the day, but this hearing was for the books. Like every thing else we are experiencing, this was not normal. A plea for postponement by the Democrats was put on the table so that they would be able to read the voluminous material plus an urging to Kavanough to ask for a delay–-"You want this to be a fair assessment, don't you?" asked Blumenthal. Doesn't look like that is going to happen and they will resume tomorrow.
Grassley––a man too long at the fair.