The Commentariat -- October 24, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
I will always remember where I was when the president responded to a mass internal assassination attempt with a powerful, stirring 'Ditto!' -- Joel Stein, in a tweet today ...
... Marcus Gilmar of Mashable: "As authorities investigated explosive devices sent to the home of Hillary Clinton, the office of Barack Obama, and the building that houses CNN's New York office..., Donald Trump incurred the wrath of Twitter for putting in the least possible effort condemning the threats by quote-tweeting Vice President Pence. Earlier in the day, Pence sent a tweet condemning the actions as 'cowardly' and 'despicable,' the kind of message you expect from a leader. Trump, then, decided the best he could do was a quote tweet of Pence with an added line that amounts to 'Yeah, what he said!'... Later on Wednesday afternoon, both First Lady Melania Trump and the president gave fuller statements on the incidents, though President Trump didn't mention any of the recipients by name." ...
... William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Explosive devices were sent to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as to CNN's offices in New York, sparking an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after targets that have often been the subject of right-wing ire. The three devices were similar to one found Monday at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor who has come under fierce criticism from conservatives and conspiracy theorists. None of the devices harmed anyone. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether all the devices were sent by the same person or persons. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros and CNN have all figured prominently in the pantheon of conservative political attacks -- many of which have been led by President Trump. He has often referred to major news organizations as 'the enemy of the people,' and has had a particular animus for CNN."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good for the Times for implicitly laying the blame on Trump. And think of that: the POTUS* is -- as we've said for a long time -- inciting violence against his political enemies. This is, needless to say, a first in modern American history. Investigators certainly will find the perp. ...
... Update: According to Pete Williams of MSNBC, the package sent to CNN was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan at CNN's New York address. Also, the fake return address name on the devices was Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), who has also received a suspicious package at her Sunrise, Florida office, which may or may not be a similar device. ...
... Update 2: MSNBC is reporting that a bomb always was sent to former AG Eric Holder, but it was intercepted before it got to him.
... Update 2a: The device sent to Wasserman Schultz was actually one meant for Holder. The address for Holder was wrong, & the perp had made Wasserman Schultz's address the return address.
... Update 3: CNN is reporting that Rep. Maxine Waters (D) also received a suspicious package. As you know, Trump often targets Waters. Mrs. McC: Doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. ...
... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "The U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday that reports of a suspicious package addressed to the White House are 'incorrect.'" ...
... Josh Margolin, et al., of ABC News: "Explosive devices addressed to Hillary Clinton's home and the house of former President Barack Obama were intercepted, and the Time Warner Center that is home to CNN in New York City was evacuated after a suspicious package was sent there, officials said." ...
... Democrats Did It. Kelly Weill & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Minutes after news broke of 'potential explosive devices' being mailed to the homes of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with CNN's New York City studio, the dark corners of the conservative Internet were declaring it a plot to gin up empathy for Democrats. Cries that the bomb threats was merely a 'false flag' operation were evident on Twitter and pro-Trump forums. Many of the personalities pushing the claim were fringe types. But not all of them. Popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh hinted that the attempted bombings were set-up by Democrats, saying they would serve a political 'purpose.' 'It's happening in October,' Limbaugh said. 'There's a reason for this.'"
Kevin Sullivan & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "In his first public comments since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi security agents in Istanbul three weeks ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Wednesday that his country is doing all it can to complete an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Addressing a gathering of more than 3,000 business leaders from around the world at the Future Investment Initiative, Saudi Arabia's signature economic forum, often called 'Davos in the Desert,' Mohammed acknowledged no responsibility in the case. He called the killing 'a heinous crime' that was 'really painful to all Saudis' and to all other people. He accused unidentified critics of trying to use the case to 'drive wedge' between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and pledged that this would not happen as long as his father is king and he is the crown prince."
Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Republicans are starting to point to evidence -- and some fresh numbers -- that their chances of retaining the House majority when voters go the polls in 13 days may have slightly improved. And even some Democrats agree.... Most of the battleground House races are being fought on Republican turf (63 out of 69 seats, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll). That means that Democrats have a built-in edge that makes it easier to capture the net 23 seats needed to regain House control. But there's decent evidence those House races remain tight or could be tightening. That's not to say Democrats aren't still favored to take over the House -- by polls, history and sky-high enthusiasm to vote against President Trump."
Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Wednesday that his office is running an 'ongoing investigation' into the state's two Catholic dioceses and whether there has been any sexual abuse and coverup. The announcement comes a day after D.C.'s top prosecutor made a similar announcement. The statement said the probe was launched in response to the Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer, 'that documented decades of sexual abuse and coverup by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania.' It also announced the creation of a hotline staffed by state police investigators and a website for reporting clergy abuse."
*****
Mark Landler & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday condemned Saudi Arabia's account of the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi as 'the worst cover-up ever,' and his administration warned for the first time that it would impose human rights sanctions on those who took part in the plot. Mr. Trump's latest criticism, and the threat of sanctions delivered by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, highlighted the mounting pressure on the White House after Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the killing of Mr. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as a premeditated and 'savage' murder. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said, 'They had a very bad original concept, it was carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups.' Mr. Pompeo said the United States will revoke visas from and is considering imposing economic sanctions on the Saudis it had identified as being involved in the operation. But he did not name the Saudis to whom the punishments would apply, and he left open the possibility that people at the very top level of the Saudi royal court who might have ordered the killing could remain untouched. The chief State Department spokeswoman said later that 21 Saudi suspects would have their visas revoked or be barred from getting a visa to the United States. The United States would take action under the Global Magnitsky Act...." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That's funny, because on Saturday, Trump said the very same nonsensical cover story was "credible." The NYT reporters don't bother to note that Trump's changing "assessment" is just as pathetic as the Saudis'. As for Pompeo's so-called sanctions, how tough is it exactly to revoke the visas of men who will probably be spending a few years in a Saudi jail and to impose economic sanctions on police functionaries who probably have very little money? These measures are an insult to Jamal Khashoggi's loved ones. ...
... MBS Gets a Standing O. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, received a standing ovation as he made an unannounced appearance at a global investment conference here on Tuesday, further clouding an event that has been thrown into disarray after the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist. The crown prince, who is suspected of playing a role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, appeared just ahead of a late afternoon presentation about technology but did not give any remarks. His presence came as American business executives attending the conference tried to keep a low profile and Saudi business leaders attempted to distance themselves from Mr. Khashoggi's murder." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just in case you thought global investors had an ounce of decency. ...
... Josh Lederman of NBC News: "The 15-man team sent by Saudi intelligence to Istanbul planned to hold Jamal Khashoggi against his will for up to two days in a safe house in Turkey while persuading him to return to his home country, Saudi officials said, adding another element to the kingdom's evolving explanation about the journalist's killing. Although Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that its operatives killed Khashoggi, it has maintained that the goal was not to kill him but to bring him back to Saudi Arabia, and that the exfiltration turned violent when Khashoggi resisted, leading to a fatal fistfight or strangulation. Turkish authorities have steadfastly disputed that account, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan using a major speech Tuesday to say Turkey believes Khashoggi's murder was 'premeditated.' 'We have strong signs that this murder did not stem from a momentary incident, but it is rather a planned operation,' Erdogan said in Turkish." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't it odd to confuse a "fistfight" with a "strangulation"? Obviously, one doesn't strangle a person with his "fists" but with open hands. ...
... Alex Crawford of Sky News: "Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found, according to two Sky sources. The sources have told Sky News the writer had been 'cut up' and his face 'disfigured'. One source also suggested Mr Khashoggi's remains were discovered in the garden of the Saudi consul general's home - situated around 500 metres away from the consulate. It contradicts the explanation being made by Saudi officials that the body was rolled up in a carpet and handed to a local collaborator who was tasked with disposing of the evidence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "There is no evidence that 'unknown Middle Easterners' have infiltrated the migrant caravan heading toward the United States' southern border. Reporters with The New York Times and other news media outlets traveling with the caravan say they have not seen any Middle Easterners in the group. No government agency has confirmed Mr. Trump's claim.... Nowhere in the White House's newly released 25-page counterterrorism policy or in testimony this month by Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center officials was the threat of terrorists infiltrating the nation's southern border raised.... 'We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border,' said an American counterterrorism official...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Julie Davis of the New York Times goes in a vain search for some evidence to back up Trump's claim that Middle Easterners had joined the largely-Honduran caravan. Trump administration departments were not helpful. Trump blew up at Jonathan Karl of ABC News when Karl asked him directly about evidence. Finally, "Mr. Trump, questioned by reporters in the Oval Office about his assertions about the caravan, says, 'There's no proof of anything, but there very well could be' Middle Easterners who have joined the group. Minutes later, Tyler Q. Houlton, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted, 'Citizens of countries outside Central America, including countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere are currently traveling through Mexico toward the U.S.'" Okay then. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There "could be"? There could be gorillas & intergalactic aliens, too. War of the Worlds, people. I'm terrified! More under "Election 2018" below. ...
Who Knew that President Dumbo Was an Epistemological Nihilist: "There's No Proof of Anything":
... Trump Warns of Terror Penguins:
... Alyza Sebenius of Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. haven't detected Chinese meddling in the 2018 elections, company officials said, casting doubt on claims by ... Donald Trump that the Asian nation is trying to interfere. The social media giants have reported online disinformation campaigns ahead of the Nov. 6 elections that appear to originate from Russia and Iran. But press representatives for both companies, who spoke on condition they not be identified by name, said they haven't found evidence so far of such activity from China. Facebook and Twitter are the latest in a string of tech companies that have made findings undercutting Trump's claim. Last week, top cybersecurity firms -- FireEye Inc., Symantec Corp., and Crowdstrike Inc. -- said that, in working to help safeguard the November elections, they haven't seen evidence of digital interference by China." ...
... Trump Is Getting Worse. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: We "compared Trump's Monday night speech in Texas to one he made as a presidential candidate and found that what Trump is saying in the past few weeks makes some of his 2016 rhetoric look fairly tame. Whereas Trump in 2016 allowed for some nuance that, say, 'some' immigrants in the country illegally might be good people, in 2018, he routinely describes cities 'overrun' with violent, illegal immigrant gangs. In 2016, he focused plenty on murders allegedly committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally, but now, he seems to revel in describing the violence committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally. Whereas in 2016, the Washington establishment was to blame for all this, in 2018, it's the Democrats." Phillips provides examples: "They carve you up with a knife" is a nice one. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems to me that the actual carving of bodies in the news is the work of Donald & Jared's buddy Mohammmed bin Salman. ...
... William Saletan of Slate: "Trump has been testing the GOP's tolerance for demagoguery that explicitly promotes brutality. And so far, Republicans seem willing to go along." Saletan puts Republican "leaders"' responses into several categories: 1. No comment, 2. It's not news, 3. Nobody got hurt this time, 4. It's fun, 5. It's just politically incorrect, 6. It shows strength. "A day after Trump celebrated [Greg] Gianforte's [violent physical] assault on [Guardian reporter Ben] Jacobs, [who asked Gianforte about his position on health care,] a Republican official in Montana called in to a radio show to say she would have gone further. 'If that kid had done to me what he did to Greg, I would have shot him,' she said. Don';t pretend it can't happen here. It's happening." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So in the view of this official, a reporter should be shot for asking a political candidate -- right before an election -- his position on a topic of interest to most Americans and one on which he would be, if elected, in a position to decide. If there's anything worse than murdering a dissident opinion writer in cold blood, shooting a reporter for asking a question would be it. ...
... His Subjects Hop to the Tune the Mad King Plays. Philip Rucker & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The great election-eve middle-class tax cut began not as a factual proposal, but as a false promise. When President Trump abruptly told reporters over the weekend that middle-income Americans would receive a 10 percent tax cut before the midterm elections, neither officials on Capitol Hill nor in his administration knew anything about such a tax cut. The White House released no substantive information. And although cutting taxes requires legislation, Congress is not scheduled to be back in session until after the Nov. 6 elections. Yet Washington's bureaucratic machinery whirred into action nonetheless -- working to produce a policy that could be seen as supporting Trump's whim.... The mystery tax cut is only the latest instance of the federal government scrambling to reverse-engineer policies to meet Trump's sudden public promises -- or to search for evidence buttressing his conspiracy theories and falsehoods." ...
... Okay, We're All Dancing. Elliot Hannon of Slate: "Early on [in his presidency, [Donald Trump] recognized the positive feedback loop of saying unthinkably dumb things out loud. Doing so set off a frenzied chain reaction of analysis, reporting, and speculation about what was meant by whatever came out of his mouth that didn't make any sense at all.... And it's not that Trump is dumb himself that irks, although he very much is; it's how baldly dumb the things he says are, all the time.... The lying grates, but how poorly crafted and executed the lies are, how telegraphed they are in his own interest, and how unmoored from any semblance of reality they are, makes them particularly crushing."
Ted Kemp & Joanna Tan of CNBC: "... Donald Trump directly accused Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell of endangering the U.S. economy by raising interest rates, according to The Wall Street Journal. '"I'm just saying this: I'm very unhappy with the Fed because Obama had zero interest rates,' Trump told the Journal on Tuesday. 'Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates.' The president said Powell 'almost looks like he's happy raising interest rates,' but declined to elaborate, according to the Journal. Trump acknowledged that the Fed is traditionally independent of political influence, the Journal reported, but he still pressed his attacks and appeared to view the United States' current economic performance as a competition between himself and President Barack Obama." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what Prof. Trumpity-Doo-Dah understands about macroeconomics: __________. ...
... Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Stocks declined in early trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, as the American industrial firms Caterpillar and 3M reported earnings that failed to ease investors' growing concerns about China's slowing economy and growing trade tensions. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down more than 1.5 percent late Tuesday morning in New York. Stock markets in China, Japan and Germany -- some of the countries most heavily exposed to a slowdown in global trade -- all dropped earlier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Patti Domm of CNBC: "By late afternoon, the Dow reversed much of a more-than-500-point loss...."
We're in a hell of a mess in every direction.... Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it's all gone. Even respect for the Federal Reserve.... How can you run a democracy when nobody believes in the leadership of the country? -- Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. Cyber Command has begun targeting Russian operatives, warning them that the military is tracking their activities in an attempt to deter them from disrupting the fast-approaching midterm elections, according to defense officials. Begun in recent days, the operation is the first under a new presidential order easing restrictions on offensive cyberspace actions against foreign networks and represents Cyber Command's initial foray into safeguarding U.S. elections, officials said. The news comes as President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, warned officials in Moscow this week that he considered Russian interference in the American election process 'intolerable.'"
"I Don't Know Much about KKK Art, But I Know What I Like." Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs said he removed a portrait of the Ku Klux Klan's first grand wizard from his Washington, D.C., office after offended employees began signing a petition to present to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. David J. Thomas Sr. is deputy executive director of VA's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, which certifies veteran-owned businesses seeking government contracts. His senior staff is mostly African American. Thomas said he took down the painting Monday after a Washington Post reporter explained that its subject, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate general and slave trader who became the KKK's first figurehead in 1868. He said he was unaware of Forrest's affiliation with the hate group, which formed after the Civil War to maintain white control over newly freed blacks through violence and intimidation. A basic Google search of Forrest's name returns various biographies detailing his role in the Confederacy and the white-supremacist strains of its aftermath. 'It was just a beautiful print that I had purchased, and I thought it was very nice,' Thomas said. He said he knew of Forrest only 'as a Southern general in the Civil War' and kept the portrait in his basement before decorating a new and larger office at VA's administrative headquarters a few months ago. Thomas, who has worked at VA since 2013, is a civil servant employed by the federal government -- not a political appointee posted there by President Trump..." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's assume you didn't know Bedford was a KKK founder. Still, why the hell would you hang a "beautiful print" of "a Southern general in the Civil War" in your office, especially when most of your staff are African-Americans? Seems like an intimidation tactic to me. Put that "very nice" print back in your basement, you dimwitted honky. And apologize.
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "To a far greater degree than its predecessors, the Trump administration has sought to bypass adverse lower-court rulings on some of its signature issues by seeking extraordinary relief from a refortified conservative Supreme Court. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco have repeatedly gone outside the usual appellate process to get issues such as the travel ban, immigration and greater authority for top officials before the justices. They were rewarded Monday night when the court, in an unsigned opinion, put a hold on a planned deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Ross had been ordered to submit to questioning because of shifting versions he has given about why he wanted to add a question to the 2020 Census regarding a respondent's citizenship."
Robert Barnes: "Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the first female justice in 1981 and then one of the court's most influential members, announced Tuesday that she suffers from dementia and is 'no longer able to participate in public life.' In a letter released by her family, O'Connor, 88, said she wanted to 'be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Election 2018
Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump and his political allies have embarked on an aggressive, end-of-the-campaign effort to drum up fear among voters about a caravan of poor migrants several thousand miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Much of it is mistruths and embellishments, but Trumpland could care less. 'It doesn't matter if it's 100 percent accurate,' a senior Trump administration official told The Daily Beast. 'This is the play.' Over the past few days, Trump has issued cryptic warnings about the southern border being overrun. His vice president has amplified baseless accusations that terrorists may have infiltrated the group of -- largely -- Honduran asylum seekers. And conservative media have provided 'round-the-clock coverage of what they depict as a mob gaining in size and steam. Stoking immigration fears is a tried and true political winner for the Republican Party." ...
... James Poniewozik, the New York Times' TV critic, on how Fox "News" latched onto fear of ISIS & immigrants as a 2014 vote-getter, how Donald Trump picked up on the trend then & how both are going back to the same playbook this election season. Poniewozik's analysis of Trump's Twitter "focus-group" method is interesting. Remember, "It doesn't matter if it's 100 percent accurate"! Or, you know, even 10%.
Connecticut. Max Reiss of NBC Connecticut: "In a grainy video recorded over the summer at a campaign event, Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate for governor, shared some of his thoughts on childhood immunization laws.... [A] member of the audience ... asked, 'Do you think the state should dictate [immunizations] or should local [Boards of Education] handle that?' Stefanowski responded by saying, 'I think it depends on the vaccination. We shouldn't be dumping a lot of drugs into kids for no reason.' Connecticut mandates that students receive certain vaccinations at different points in their education."
Florida. Ali Vitali & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "A racist robocall that refers to Andrew Gillum as a 'negro' and a 'monkey' is making the rounds in Florida, prompting a furious response from the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's campaign. Florida voters who receive the call -- audio of which was obtained by NBC News -- hear a man impersonating the African-American politician.... A spokesperson for [Gillum's GOP opponent Ron] DeSantis said the campaign had 'absolutely nothing to do with' the robocall 'and joins those in condemning it.'" Mrs. McC: I won't repeat the text of the robocall, but you can read it on the linked page.
Georgia. Thanks, New York Times. Ed Kilgore: "I Remember Stacey Abrams's 1992 'Flag-Burning' Incident. It Was a Small, Peaceful Protest [against the inclusion of the Confederate flag on the state flag].... [A minor 1992 protest] would be a forgotten footnote to the long story of social change in the Deep South had not one of those protesters at the Georgia Capitol been Stacey Abrams.... Someone dug up a 1992 article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that showed Abrams among the flag-burners, and posted it on Facebook. The New York Times wrote it all up, omitting most of the context.... The protests in which Abrams participated were righteous then and now, and posed no threat to public safety or order.... Abrams's underlying position on the flag is now, of course, accepted by everyone other than hard-core neo-Confederates." Mrs. McC: So Abrams has been cool for decades. Kudos. ...
... Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: Secretary of State & GOP goobernatorial nominee Brian Kemp [R] is upset that Georgians are exercising their right to vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nevada. Just to remind you what a real campaign speech sounds like:
William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Federal authorities believe that an explosive device found Monday in a mailbox at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has been a focus of right-wing vitriol and conspiracy theorists, was left there by someone and was not delivered by the Postal Service, several law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Mr. Soros]s home is in a suburb of New York City. The device was constructed from a length of pipe about six inches long filled with explosive powder, and it was 'proactively detonated' by bomb squad technicians, according to one of the officials, all of whom were briefed on the investigation.... Mr. Soros, who made his fortune in finance and is now a full-time philanthropist and political activist, is often a subject of the ire of right-wing groups. In recent days, some have falsely speculated that he funded a caravan of migrants moving north in Mexico.... His activism has made him a villain to conservative groups and the target of anti-Semitic smears. Roseanne Barr called him a Nazi in an infamous tweetstorm." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would think that in the neighborhood of the rich & famous, there would be CCTV cameras trained on the roads.
We Are Not Surprised. Talal Ansari of BuzzFeed News: "The wife of Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader, has accused him of being 'physically, emotionally, verbally and financially abusive' throughout their marriage, according to divorce filings in Flathead County District Court in Montana. Nina Koupriianova, who married Spencer in August 2010 and has two young children with him, alleges that Spencer physically abused her, including instances where she was 'being hit, being grabbed, being dragged around by her hair, being held down in a manner causing bruising, and being prevented from calling for help.... Much of the abuse has occurred in the presence of the parties' children.'... Koupriianova said that Spencer’s favorite statement to her was, 'The only language women understand is violence.' He also allegedly told her once, 'I'm famous, and you are not! I'm important, and you are not!'" Mrs. McC: This is the same "argument" Trump uses to belittle reporters: "I'm president, and you're not" (here and here).
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you forgot about Megyn Kelly because she has a show on NBC that nobody watches. Well, somebody watches it because Opheli Lawler of New York (and some others) noticed that Kelly (and three other white people on her show) decided that it was okay for white kids to dress up in blackface for Halloween, "as long as you were dressing like a character." Like a "character" who'd been lynched, or what? Following a backlash, Kelly sent a note to colleagues apologizing for not being "more sensitive in this day and age." No doubt Megyn is looking forward to a "day and age" she doesn't have to be so "sensitive."
Beyond the Beltway
Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "... what appeared to be a vintage plane painted in Nazi insignia crashed onto the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills, a city in Los Angeles County.... The plane was decorated to resemble World War II craft flown by the Nazi Luftwaffe air force.... According to Jalopnik, the plane was identified as a North American T-6 Texan.... This isn't even the first time a plane like this has crashed on an American freeway in the last two years. In 2017, another small plane painted in a Luftwaffe design had to make an emergency landing on a freeway in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The pilot, Fred Meyer, told AJC at the time that the Nazi paint job was 'just for fun.'... But in a time when our president is slamming 'globalists' on TV while crypto-white nationalists keep emerging from his administration, it's a little harder to justify celebrating Nazi imagery as 'just for fun.'" Also according to Jalopnik, "The plane allegedly belonged to the Condor Squadron, a history group that flies old planes often in World War II-era liveries, and was dressed up to look like a WWII-era German Wermacht plane...." Mrs. McC: Nice metaphor, anyway.
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