The Commentariat -- April 23, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Li'l Randy Caves. Elana Schor of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) flipped from 'no' to 'yes' on Mike Pompeo's nomination to be secretary of state Monday, paving an unexpectedly easy path for the CIA director to win confirmation from the full Senate as soon as this week. Paul's surprising turnabout on Pompeo came after multiple conversations with ... Donald Trump, the Kentucky Republican said, as well as getting what he described as 'assurances' that the hawkish nominee sees the war in Iraq as 'a mistake' and wants to wind down the U.S. presence in Afghanistan."
Jenna Moon & Jesse McLean of the Toronto Star: "At least three people have been killed and many more injured after a van ran down pedestrians along Yonge St. [a major street] between Finch and Sheppard Aves. on Monday afternoon. Sunnybrook hospital says it has received eight patients from the scene.... Police say both the van and the driver are in custody but don't know the motive or cause of the crash." Mrs. McC: At least one witness/videographer caught the capture of the suspect, & CTV has played the video. In the video, the suspect is seen pointing a gun at the police officer moments before the officer talked him into dropping the gun & dropping to the sidewalk. Eyewitnesses say the van driver was deliberately plowing down pedestrians. Reporters are now saying that 9 pedestrians were killed & 16 were injured.
Well, Of Course. Victoria Guida of Politico: "The Treasury Department Monday eased sanctions on Russian aluminum producer Rusal and said it would consider lifting them altogether if the company severs ties with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. Rusal was sanctioned earlier this month by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control because of Deripaska's stake in the company. The Russian billionaire is alleged to have conducted a range of illegal activities, including money laundering, extortion and ordering the murder of a businessman, according to Treasury. He is also reportedly part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election."
Rafael Bernal of the Hill: "Mexico's top diplomat on Monday rebuffed President Trump's suggestion to make immigration enforcement a precondition for a trade deal. 'Mexico decides its migratory policy in a sovereign way, and migratory cooperation with the United States happens because it's in Mexico's interest,' tweeted Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Videgaray. Videgaray's tweet came an hour after Trump used the platform to threaten tying Mexico's record on immigration to the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations. 'Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement,' tweeted Trump." (See also news of Mexico's pending trade deal with the E.U., linked below.)
Michael Sykes of Axios: "Senator Joe Manchin [D-W.Va.] announced via Twitter on Monday that he would vote to confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State."
Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "John Bolton..., Donald Trump's new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory, an NBC News review found. The group's authors also appeared on Russian media, including Sputnik and RT News, criticizing mainstream European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron. From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based advocacy group that warns of a looming 'jihadist takeover' of Europe leading to a 'Great White Death.'"
James Shaw, Jr., who -- unarmed himself -- wrestled an assault weapon from a mass-murderer.We Have Met the Real Donald Trump. And He Is Black. (Also, young & good-looking.) As Akhilleus writes in today's Comments, "Isn't this what Trump himself boasted, with great pomp and bravado that he would have done (brave, brave Sir Donald) had he been in Stoneman Douglas High School when a shooter opened fire? He told a phalanx of Confederate governors that he, brave Sir Donald, would have run, unarmed up to the gunman and valiantly disarmed him, because...well, I guess it sounded good." Real Akhilleus' entire commentary on this as he explores how things likely would have gone had black been white & white black. ...
... Alan Blinder & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "During a sudden break in the firing, [James] Shaw[, Jr.,] sprinted through [a] door [near a restroom] as fast as he could, slamming into the gunman and knocking him to the ground. He grabbed the rifle and tossed it over the restaurant counter.... Mr. Shaw said Sunday that he eventually learned that the pause in the gunman's firing came when he was trying to reload the rifle. It was a brief enough break, Mr. Shaw said, for him to make a move. ...
... Natalie Alund & Adam Tamburin of the Tennessean: "Police on Monday said they planned to expand the search for Travis Reinking, 29, the suspect in a deadly shooting at an Antioch Waffle House shooting after investigators said a Tennessee resident found evidence in a different part of the city." Mrs. McC: I heard on TV that Reinking had stolen a BMW using some kind of automatic key. Police recovered the vehicle via GPS tracking, but Reinking is still at large. ...
... Update: "Metro police announced Monday afternoon that Travis Reinking, the suspect in a shooting that killed four people at an Antioch Waffle House, had been arrested after a 34-hour manhunt. Shortly after 1 p.m. [CT], police announced Reinking had been arrested in a 'wooded area' near Old Hickory Boulevard and Hobson Pike -- less than two miles from the Waffle House where the shooting took place. Police photos from the scene showed Reinking, 29, being loaded into a car wearing a torn maroon T-shirt with scratches on his exposed shoulders." Thanks to Marvin S. for the heads-up. ...
... Christal Hayes of USA Today: "The suspected gunman on the run after riddling a Tennessee Waffle House with bullets dubbed himself a 'sovereign citizen,' before being arrested in July 2017 outside the White House. Travis Reinking, 29, used that term -- which the FBI has also used to describe a group of anti-government extremists -- during a clash last year with the Secret Service, according to a police report obtained by USA Today. Reinking told agents he needed to see President Trump and defined himself as sovereign citizen who had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an arrest report by the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. He was arrested on an unlawful entry charge after refusing to leave the area."
Look Away, Look Away. Leada Gore of AL.com: "Monday, April 23 is Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama, meaning state offices are closed. Only two states - Alabama and Mississippi - make the day with an official state holiday. Georgia stopped officially recognizing Confederate Memorial Day in 2015, replacing it with the generically named 'State Holiday.' Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April. Florida and South Carolina celebrate the day but not as a state holiday. Alabama has three Confederate-related holidays: Robert E. Lee's birthday on third Monday in January (celebrated along with birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King); Confederate Memorial Day on fourth Monday in April; and birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on first Monday in June."
*****
Trump Is in Way over His Head. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "As negotiations over a summit meeting with the ruler of North Korea accelerate, President Trump on Sunday disputed any suggestion that he had made too many concessions at the outset of an unpredictable and potentially volatile diplomatic exercise. From his Florida estate, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to criticize Chuck Todd, the host of 'Meet the Press,' who had questioned on his program whether the president had gotten anything in return for the 'huge gift' he had given the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, by agreeing to meet with him.... 'Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake News NBC just stated that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Wow, we haven't given up anything & they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!' North Korea has not in fact agreed to denuclearization. It has told the South Koreans that it is willing to discuss the issue, but Mr. Kim has made no such statement to his own people, as he did with his declaration that his country did not need to conduct further nuclear testing."
John Oliver and the Catheter Cowboy explain the Iran nuclear deal to the guy who is in way over his head on everything. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead:
** Diana Bass, in an illuminating New York Times op-ed, on Donald Trump's understanding of gratitude: for him, it's transactional. Bass provides another, more profound, explanation for Jim Comey's observation that Trump "has an emptiness inside of him, and a hunger for affirmation, that I've never seen in an adult. He lacks external reference points. Instead of making hard decisions by calling upon a religious tradition, or logic, or tradition or history, it's all, 'What will fill this hole?'"
Emily Stewart of Vox: "Kellyanne Conway does not want to talk about her husband George Conway's habit of subtweeting ... Donald Trump. She accused CNN's Dana Bash of a sexist line of questioning when the journalist asked about the matter on State of the Union on Sunday, saying it was meant to 'harass and embarrass' her. George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer who was under consideration for two Trump administration posts last year, has raised eyebrows with his habit of tweeting and retweeting tweets that are critical of the president.... Bash pointed out that Trump repeatedly targeted former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, and in a call with McCabe told him to 'ask his wife how it feels to be a loser.' 'The president has excellent instincts,' Conway said of Trump's targeting of Jill McCabe. During the 2016 campaign, Trump infamously attacked Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) wife, Heidi Cruz, threatening to 'spill the beans' on her and retweeting an unflattering photo of her that he still has not taken down. He tweeted and deleted an item attacking Jeb Bush's wife because she is Mexican and, of course, spent much of the 2016 presidential campaign criticizing Hillary Clinton for her husband’s misdeeds." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: A fun read. Kellyanne went on quite a rant, & her husband's tweets & retweets are choice. Here's the video. The exchange begins at about 9:50 min. in:
** Portrait of James Comey. Elizabeth Drew in the New Republic: "I see Comey as someone who dedicated his life to public service and trying to do the right thing, but who played the angles a bit too much. For example, he couldn't just recommend that Clinton not be prosecuted over her email server, but had to publicly upbraid her as well, which was most unusual." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. ...
... ** Mrs. McCrabbie: The most jawdropping part of Drew's essay is not her analysis but a new fact -- or at least new to me -- that she reveals. If it's true, then Jim Comey not only did more than the Russians did to throw the election to Trump, he did it based on a lie or a stunning incidence of "misremembering": Drew: "By my count, Comey has offered at least three different explanations of why he announced eleven days before the election that he was reopening the case of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.... At the time when Comey sent the letter to Capitol Hill..., his allies spread the point that Comey had told the House Republicans that he'd let them know if anything new came up. But according to Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department when the Democrats were in power..., in response to a question by a congressman of what he would do if he came across any new information, Comey replied, 'I'd take a look at it.'" Mrs. McC: There is certainly a record of Comey's testimony, whether it was made in a classified hearing or not. The public has a right to know what he said. So does Andy McCabe, who must be looking right now for evidence that Comey's memory is, at best, selective. ...
While You Weren't Watching. Ruth Graham in Politico Magazine on Trump's capture of Christian broadcasting. "This audience recognized [Trump] as a kindred spirit in everything but religion. His hair-sprayed reality-TV persona -- to say nothing of the bluster and the heroic monologues -- aren't that far from the preaching style that has prospered on cable evangelism."
Sean Hannity, Real Estate Baron. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: Sean Hannity has "a real estate portfolio of remarkable scale that has not previously been reported. The records link Hannity to a group of shell companies that spent at least $90m on more than 870 homes in seven states over the past decade. The properties range from luxurious mansions to rentals for low-income families. Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them. Dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013, after banks foreclosed on their previous owners for defaulting on mortgages. Before and after then, Hannity sharply criticised Barack Obama for the US foreclosure rate. In January 2016, Hannity said there were 'millions more Americans suffering under this president' partly because of foreclosures. Hannity, 56, also amassed part of his property collection with support from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development (Hud), a fact he did not disclose when praising Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, on his television show last year.... Hannity praised privatisation plans pushed by Trump and Carson."
Lesley Stahl of NBC News interviews Aleksandr Kogan & Sandy Parakilas for "60 Minutes" about the Cambridge Analytica purchase & use of your Facebook profile. She doesn't interview Mark Zuckerberg because he said no. Video & transcript. If you were all persuaded by Zuck's, um, profound contrition voiced during his Congressional testimony, you might be less so after listening to Stahl's interviews.
Adios, Trumpado. Jackie Wattles of CNN: "Mexico and the European Union have reached a trade deal that virtually eliminates tariffs. The wide-reaching deal will simplify the customs process and eliminate tariffs for 'practically all' goods traded between EU-member nations and Mexico, according to an announcement posted Saturday by the European Commission. Mexico and the EU said last year they would accelerate their talks to update a trade agreement signed in 2000 as the United States threatened to slap tariffs on Mexican imports and withdraw from NAFTA. Officials appeared to take a jab at US President Donald Trump's policies in statements praising the Mexico-EU deal as a defense of 'open' and 'rules-based' trade. 'Mexico and the EU worked together and reached a mutually beneficialoutcome,' said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. 'We did it as partners who are willing to discuss, to defend their interests while at the same time being willing to compromise to meet each other's expectations.' The deal marks a move by Mexico to pivot away from its reliance on trade with the United States."
Senate Race. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, [retiring Sen. Bob] Corker [R-Tenn.] praised [the likely Democratic Senate nominee, Phil] Bredesen, a two-term governor whose tenure overlapped with Corker's first term, as 'a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person.' Hours later, President Trump called Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) to reiterate his support for her in the race, and McConnell confronted Corker to say that his remarks had been unhelpful. But on Sunday, Corker had more to say about the heavy hand of Senate Republicans [-- who had criticized his favorable remarks about Bredesen --] than he had to say about Blackburn. 'I'm supporting the nominee, everyone knows that,' he said on ABC. 'I've sent the maximum check, plan to vote for them.'"
A Very Special President*. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court's final oral argument of the term will be one of its most important and potentially far-reaching, an examination of the president's authority to protect the country by banning some foreigners who seek entry. But, similar to a debate that has consumed Washington for the past 15 months, a major issue for the court is separating 'the president' from 'this president.'... If [Trump]' comments and tweets were not a factor, many legal experts said the court would likely extend the deference to the political branches it has shown in the past when considering issues of immigration and national security.... The court will also consider whether the judiciary even has authority to 'look behind' the face of an immigration proclamation to examine whether it was drawn with improper motives."
Isaac Chotiner of Slate interviews Priya Satia, author of Empire of Guns. Satia explains the historical reasons for the U.S.'s gun culture. What Satia doesn't explain, at least in the interview, is how gun ownership moved from being a public deterrence of tyranny to being a private right to own an arsenel. Mrs. McC: But it's probably safe to say that the current state of U.S. gun "rights" is as attributable to fear of black people as it was in the colonial, slave-trading days Satia recounts.
Christopher Mele & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "A gunman wearing only a jacket and carrying an assault-style rifle opened fire at a Waffle House in Nashville early on Sunday, killing four people and leaving the police searching for him and a motive, officials said.... The police said murder warrants were being drafted for the suspect, Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, Ill., who remained at large.... James Shaw Jr., 29, was in the restaurant when he heard the shots and hid behind a door. When Mr. Shaw heard the shooting stop and saw Mr. Reinking look down at his rifle, he rushed the gunman, wrestled the weapon away and threw it over the counter.... The gunman, who was naked but for a green jacket, then fled and shed the jacket as he reached a corner not far from the Waffle House.... [Reinking] was known to the authorities for previous encounters, including one at the White House grounds in July, officials said.... [After the incident at the White House, where Reinking crossed a barrier & refused to leave,] the four guns he owned -- including the AR-15 he brought to the Waffle House on Sunday -- were given to his father by the authorities for safekeeping and his father apparently gave them back to his son, officials said." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The elder Reinking should be charged with something. Donald Trump has posted quite a few tweets today but nothing about hero James Shaw who ended the massacre in Nashville. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that Shaw is black & the mass murderer is white. Nah.
The Mysterious Suicide of a Diplomat. Philip Shenon of the Guardian: The widow of U.S. diplomat Charles Thomas & others are pleading with the Trump administration to release documents that may shed light on Thomas' death four decades ago. Thomas had attempted to re-open the investigation into Lee Harvey Oswald after he found evidence that "that showed ... Oswald -- who visited Mexico City in September 1963, weeks before killing [President] Kennedy -- had been in contact there with Cuban diplomats and spies who wanted JFK dead and might have offered help and encouragement.... For historians, Oswald's trip to Mexico has never been adequately explained. Available records shows that the CIA and FBI knew much more about it -- and the threat Oswald posed -- than they ever shared with the Warren Commission. The agencies appear to have withheld evidence out of fear they might be blamed for bungling intelligence that could have saved Kennedy's life."
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Reader Comments (15)
If there is one thing I wish for as much as seeing the King being dethroned is the undoing of Kellyanne Conway. She is like Scylla, the sea monster who devoured sailors when they tried to navigate––nothing seems to deter her from gobbling up anyone who disagrees with her boss with whom she has some kind of loyalty that boggles the mind.
Here is John Oliver, a bit too flamboyant for my taste, but does a really good job of explaining basic math to Trump by buying an ad on "Hannity." His explanation of the Iran deal emphases again, as we have done here, the large problem of having two key cabinet members, Bolton and Pompeo, who are in sync about destroying the Iran Nuclear deal. This is scary stuff.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-donald-trump-iran-deal_us_5add7d00e4b075b631e7346b
Ants pissing on cotton...
That's the sound coming from Confederates, the White House, and the NRA after James Shaw jumped out of his seat in a waffle house in Nashville, charged a gunman, tackled and disarmed him, saving everyone else in the restaurant.
Isn't this exactly the sort of thing that wingers and the NRA have been promoting? Isn't this what Ben Carson said numerous times on the campaign trail a couple of years ago? That citizens should attack gunmen? Isn't this what Trump himself boasted, with great pomp and bravado that he would have done (brave, brave Sir Donald) had he been in Stoneman Douglas High School when a shooter opened fire? He told a phalanx of Confederate governors that he, brave Sir Donald, would have run, unarmed up to the gunman and valiantly disarmed him, because...well, I guess it sounded good.
But here we have exactly that situation. Not some made up bullshit hypothetical story by the First Liar. A gunman shooting people in cold blood, and an unarmed citizen going after him and driving him off.
So where are the accolades? Where's the tweet about what a great guy he is? Where are the attaboys? The commendations for bravery?
I've skimmed at least a dozen stories so far with not a single mention of any politician outside of the mayor of Nashville (a Democrat) acknowledging Shaw's incredible bravery. Nothing from the scumbags at the NRA either.
Had Shaw been a white supremacist who had taken down a black guy on a rampage, Fox would be calling for sainthood. Trump would have invited him to Marred a Lago for a round of golf (and funny stories about Hitler). Had Shaw been a Confederate flag wearing Trump supporter, the NRA would have awarded him a year's free supply of ammo for whatever guns he owned. Hannity would invite him on as a guest host to talk about the folly of gun control. Ted Cruz would invite him to a family picnic so they could both cook bacon wrapped around the muzzle of an automatic rifle.
But sorry, Shaw is black and the shooter was white.
On to the next story...
Racism is not just a feature of the Republican Party, it's one of the essential reasons for its existence.
Just wondering what else Hannity might be hiding.
He's already been shown to be an unethical liar and self-serving con man. What else is he trying to hide? He's worth almost $100 million and a lot of that he skimmed off the misfortune of other Americans, and with help from the hated government. Why is it that so many guv'mint hating winger scroungers, when the light is turned on, are found with their pockets being filled with assistance of the federal government?
There's gotta be a lot more under the bed (beside the porn mags he borrowed from Trump, that is).
It would be one thing if Fox were just a right-leaning news organization. But it's not. It's a cesspool of amoral abusers, liars, con artists, hyper-partisan mad dogs, ignorant fools, unethical narcissists, and money grubbing chiselers.
The apex (or more accurately, the nadir) of Right-Wing World.
Marie wrote: "...it's probably safe to say that the current state of U.S. gun 'rights' is as attributable to fear of black people as it was in the colonial, slave-trading days Satia recounts."
And things haven't progressed a lot since those days. Today, open carry is the rule in every NRA controlled Confederate state, and fear of darkies certainly plays a role. But that fear also caused the NRA and Saint Ronnie of Raygun to band together to rush gun control through the California legislature when Black Panthers had the temerity to carry weapons in public.
And there was no dithering about it either, or lengthy, convoluted debates about the philosophy of gun control. Horrible nee-groes owned guns, and by Robert E. Lee, they wasn't gonna be allowed to carry them in public. Not when white people were scared to death that Huey Newton and Bobby Seals might shoot them down on sight, and steal their daughters.
"The bill was introduced in April 1967, six weeks after it had been reported that an armed group of Black Panthers [acted] as an escort for Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz...The bill cleared the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee on 1 June 1967...and had the support of the National Rifle Association, according to a United Press report published the following day. It was passed... and signed into law by Governor Reagan in July."
So full speed ahead when scary nee-groes are "threatening" law-abidin' white folk by doing something that was entirely legal.
And, as George Zimmerman and scores of shootings of unarmed black men prove, nee-groes are scary without even carrying weapons. Which is why, now, white people all need to carry guns. And lot's of 'em.
And don't think for a second, that if Trump and McConnell and Ryan thought they could get away with it, all those open carry laws would be amended to ban that practice by any and all non-whites.
Occam's razor?
In anticipation of the Great Summit with N. Korea and mindful of the contrasts already being limned between N. Korean's and Iran's nuclear program and our reactions to them, I would offer this observation:
The Saudis, with whose royal autocracy the Pretender is very comfortable, don't like Iran because they view Iran as a threat, so the Pretender doesn't either.
(And through Flynn and others on the Pretender's team [wonder how Flynn's doing these days], we've already tip-toed into nuclearizing Saudi Arabia.)
So if we could get the Saudis to weigh in on N. Korea's nuclear ambitions, we could guess what the Pretender will be willing to agree to when he sits down with Kim Jong Un.
Most anything I'd guess, but whatever shape it takes, the Pretender will count it as a win.
Those beleaguered autocrats have to stick together.
Or is that too simple to portray fully the subtleties of our current foreign policy?
Anent the two stories on Mexican hubris linked above:
Who do those brown people from s-hole countries think they are?
Grumble, grumble. Mutter, mutter. Tweet, tweet?
OK, they caught the Waffle House killer. Looks like he will go to mental hospital. Hope his daddy goes to prison. A serious nutcase with a load of guns. Welcome to America.
Couldn't ignore it forever, I guess...
Finally the Blight House comments on a story that has been front and center for more than 24 hours, the shooting at a waffle house in Nashville and the heroic (as opposed to Trumpy Fake Heroic) actions of James Shaw. Only it wasn't Trump who said it, it was his press agent, Sarah Liarbee Sanders, according to CNN:
"'I also want to commend the heroic actions of James Shaw Jr.,' Sanders said, crediting him with saving lives."
Mighty white of you, Sarah. (Jesus, it must have killed them to mention the black guy.)
Trump, she said, something, something, something, thoughts and prayers for the victims. But no mention on his part of Shaw's actions.
Sanders then added that Trump was watching the TV to get caught up. Guess he was "monitoring events around the world".
Yeah. Me too.
What I'm waiting for now is a Trump Tweety on how it's not guns, it's the mentally deranged who are to blame. Prob'ly all Obama's fault. And that Hillary. Didn't she want to arm all disturbed people? Yeah, yeah. I think I heard that on Hannity! Goddam Democrats!
Interesting and thought provoking article: How American Racism Influenced Hitler
@Ken Winkes: More like Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Had never heard of Hanlon's Razor, Bea. Thanks. Always something new to learn.
Interesting, too, that, according to Wikipedia, R. A. Heinlein managed to get his fingerprints on the expression.
Heinlein was a great one for pithy sayings (see the Notebooks of Lazarus Long, in "Time Enough for Love"), some of them wrong headed but all of them far more memorable than the novel in which they were embedded.
@Ken Winkes: And then there's McCrabbie's Corollary: "When it comes to Trump, never attribute only to malice that which is better explained by malice AND stupidity."
Bea,
No kidding. My thoughts, exactly. Malice and stupidity. It's a hell of a combination.
And on Lil' Randy's "surprising turnabout on Pompeo" (above) exactly who among the not stupid (RC'ers if not the "Politico" journalists themselves) was surprised?
The Littlest Loser, still selling those flip-flops. Integrity and “principles” to be had on a first come, first served basis. No wonder the neighbor knocked him down.