The Commentariat -- November 3, 2016
Think Leonidas at Thermopylae, think William the Conqueror at Hastings, think Henry V at Agincourt, think George Washington crossing the Delaware, think the Great Twitter War of Fuckface von Clownstick:
*****
Presidential Race
Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Heading into the final days of the presidential campaign, the race has settled back into a tight contest, with Hillary Clinton holding an edge over Donald J. Trump after a month of tumult. Most voters say their minds are made up and late revelations about both candidates made no significant difference to them, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll released Thursday. Five days before Election Day, the margin between the candidates is narrow, with 45 percent of likely voters supporting Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, to 42 percent for Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee. The difference is within the poll's margin of sampling error. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has the support of 5 percent of likely voters, and the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein, takes 4 percent." CW: If you're a Jill Stein voter (I'm talking to you, Susan Sarandon), you're an irresponsible, confused fool.
... Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "By driving women, educated white voters and, most significantly, growing blocs of minorities away from the Republican Party, Mr. Trump has hastened social and political changes already well underway in two key regions, the interior West and the upper South, that not long ago tilted to the right. Now, even as Hillary Clinton contends with inflamed Democratic anxiety over renewed scrutiny of her private email server, these once-red areas are providing an unexpected firewall for her campaign." -- CW
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama is sounding the alarm about low turnout among black voters in key battleground states, arguing it could sink Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the White House and put his legacy in jeopardy. 'Im going to be honest with you right now. The Latino vote is up. The overall vote is up. But the African-American vote, right now, is not as solid as it needs to be,' Obama said in an interview that aired Wednesday on the 'Tom Joyner Morning Show.' The president's comments amplify concerns from top Democrats about low black turnout in early voting, something they fear could cause a problem for Clinton, who is clinging to a narrow lead over Republican Donald Trump. African-American turnout is down from four years ago in both North Carolina and Florida. The Clinton campaign is plotting a final-week blitz in both states, including two visits to each state by Obama. Black returns in early voting are also down in Ohio, where Obama rallied Democrats on Tuesday." -- CW ...
... Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Barack Obama returned to North Carolina Wednesday more insistent than ever the state's college students and African-Americans cast ballots for Hillary Clinton, telling them 'the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders.' But on his third campaign stop in the state since July, he also appealed to Republicans, saying certain standards transcend party politics." -- CW ...
... The full speech is here. Here's a clip:
Sari Horwitz & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Senior FBI officials were informed about the discovery of new emails potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server at least two weeks before Director James B. Comey notified Congress, according to federal officials.... The officials said that Comey was told that there were new emails before he received a formal briefing last Thursday, although the precise timing is unclear.... In notifying lawmakers on Friday about the new investigative steps, Comey said he had been 'briefed' about the newly discovered emails a day earlier but did not mention that he had first heard about them before that. The news media has widely reported that Comey was first told about the emails last week.... When Comey and the officials decided to seek a warrant, they knew that would involve more people, both at the FBI and the Justice Department. Comey was concerned that the explosive information that they had to renew the Clinton investigation would leak out." ...
... CW: This is a major CYA leak, one Comey almost certain authorized. It's also, if you notice, an attempt to shift blame to the DOJ for Comey's "need" to notify Congress. ...
... ** Gardiner Harris & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: " President Obama sharply criticized the decision by his F.B.I. director to alert Congress on Friday about the discovery of new emails related to the Hillary Clinton server case, implying that it violated investigative guidelines and trafficked in innuendo. 'We don't operate on incomplete information,' Mr. Obama said in an interview with NowThis News, broadcast Wednesday. 'We don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made. When this was investigated thoroughly the last time, the conclusion of the F.B.I., the conclusion of the Justice Department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was that she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable," Mr. Obama said." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) floated the possibility Wednesday that FBI Director James Comey could be one 'the casualties' of the 2016 election.... 'Maybe he's not in the right job,' Pelosi said to CNN. 'I think that we have to just get through this election and just see what the casualties are along the way.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "There are two possible explanations for James Comey's decision to announce last week that he was examining emails that 'appear to be pertinent' to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. One explanation, which I tend to believe, is that Comey ... set out to interfere in the campaign on behalf of the Republican Party, a shocking act that would render him unfit for his powerful office. (In that scenario, the aim may have ... been ... to preserve the Republican majorities in Congress, which suddenly seemed in danger this fall....) The other possible explanation is that he acted out of ... self-righteousness -- a dangerous current in modern right-wing politics that has its roots in the rise of the Moral Majority.... Certainly, Comey was not acting out of respect for protocol, ethics and procedure.... Comey has always enjoyed flexing his power." -- CW ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The FBI never asked Hillary Clinton's top aides to turn over all the computers and smartphones they used while Clinton was secretary of state, an omission that is now triggering questions from Republican lawmakers." CW Translation: We fucked up, so now we're obliged to fuck up the election. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... David Mack of BuzzFeed: "The teenage girl who allegedly received indecent messages from Anthony Weiner said she is 'upset' with FBI Director James Comey after she found out via the media that her case had been tied to the use of Hillary Clinton's private email server.... 'The FBI asked for me to speak to the media as little as possible. I have tried to stay quiet, but Comey has upset me,' the teenager told BuzzFeed News. 'The last thing that I wanted was to have this become political propaganda.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Den of Reprobates. Veteran investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, writing in the Daily Beast, on the web of confederates tied to the FBI "investigations" of Clinton: Trump, Giuliani, Comey, former head of the FBI's New York office Jim Kallstrom, current FBI agents, Fox "News," et al. Barrett's lede: "Two days before FBI director James Comey rocked the world last week, Rudy Giuliani was on Fox, where he volunteered, un-prodded by any question: 'I think he's got a surprise or two that you're going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I'm talking about some pretty big surprises.' Do read on, especially if you think the FBI is a band of high-minded boy scouts (and we're pretty much talking all boys). P.S. It isn't a conspiracy "theory" if there's a real conspiracy. Thanks to safari for the link.
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "It would seem that basically everyone at the FBI is leaking their sides of various internal disputes and turf wars, largely tied to various investigations of the Clintons or attempts to start investigations of the Clintons. That alone paints a picture of Director James Comey as having totally lost control of the organization. But the points of dispute themselves, well ...." Read on. CW: The "evidence" the anti-Clinton agents are pushing is astonishing. And Trump's alt-right campaign manager Steve Bannon turns out to be behind the FBI's "evidence"-gathering. Bannon's delusions of grandeur are not looking so delusional. He pulls a lot of crap-wrapped string. ...
... Update: "... Margaret Hartmann of New York has more on the FBI sieve: "While a number of FBI agents and Justice Department officials appear to be airing their grievances about how the Clinton and Trump investigations were handled, a few are going even further by sharing their predictions about the outcomes. Fox News's Bret Baier said Wednesday that two FBI sources said the Clinton Foundation probe is likely to lead to an indictment. One of the sources said the bureau has collected 'a lot of' evidence, and 'there is an avalanche of new information coming every day.'" ...
... CW: [As Hartmann notes,] over there at the Fair & Balanced Network, "news" anchor Bret Baier is reporting a "likely indictment" related to the Clinton Foundation "'barring some obstruction in some way' from the Justice Department." The "obstruction" is probably something like, "We hold to the quaint notion that an indictment should be based on something we like to call 'evidence of wrongdoing.'"
Dylan Byers of CNN: "Donald Trump once again singled out NBC News journalist Katy Tur by name during a rally on Wednesday, reigniting concerns about reporters' safety at Trump rallies. Speaking at a rally in Miami, Trump launched into his oft-repeated line about how the 'dishonest' media never showed the size of his rallies before singling out Tur. 'There's something happening. They're not reporting it. Katy -- you're not reporting it, Katy,' Trump said. 'But there's something happening, Katy. There's something happening, Katy.'... Following Trump's remarks on Wednesday, other journalists at the rally reported that some Trump supporters were harassing Tur. It was not the first time Trump had singled out Tur, who has been covering his campaign since last summer." -- CW ...
... Greg Sargent: "Ever since Trump first called Megyn Kelly a 'bimbo' for daring to press him over his ugly attacks on women, and ever since Trump subsequently described a Hillary Clinton debate bathroom break as 'disgusting,' it's been obvious Trump's low standing with female voters might eventually doom his candidacy. Despite feints at addressing this problem, he has been unable to control his impulse towards belittling women." Sargent suggests that Trump's idea of a "media cover-up" is their refusal to report out Trump's repeated lies. -- CW
Jonathan Salant of NJ.com: Donald "Trump, who was slow to repudiate former KKK leader David Duke's endorsement in February, quickly renounced this show of support [from the Crusader, a KKK publication, which ran a full front-page story praising him]. 'Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form,' the campaign said in a statement sent to the Washington Post. 'This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign.' An official at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, questioned Trump's sincerity. 'Trump has been dog whistling white supremacists from the very first day of his campaign when he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers,' said Mark Potok, a senior fellow with a civil rights organization in Montgomery, Ala. 'I don't take his disavowal of white supremacist groups seriously at all.'" -- CW
** Donald Trump, Huge Tax Cheat & Horrible Citizen, Ctd. Fred Goldberg & Michael Graetz, in a New York Times op-ed: "Trump ... reported only $14,222 in total salary on his 2015 financial disclosure form.... By declaring such a low salary, Mr. Trump, we believe, avoided paying millions of dollars of Medicare taxes that should have gone to support senior citizens and their families. He may even have shortchanged Social Security by declaring salary and self-employment income below the limit on Social Security taxes ($118,500 in 2015).... If you work for a corporation, you are expected to declare a reasonable salary, and if you are a member of a partnership, you are expected to declare fair compensation for your management services." Goldberg is former IRS commissioner under Bush I & Graetz served in Bush's Treasury. ...
... CW: In other words, janitors & maids pay more in Medicare & Social Security taxes than Trump does. That is outrageous. Seriously. And, no, that doesn't "make him smart." It makes him a low-life piece of garbage who has cheated every American who works or worked for a living. But we knew that. ...
... Dana Milbank now counts himself among the tens of thousands of workers, vendors, lawyers & donors whom Donald Trump has directly ripped off. Milbank wants his money back. Good luck with that, Dana. -- CW
The Trumpster Hosts the Mobster. Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "A newly uncovered video appears to contradict Donald Trump's claim that he never knew a high-stakes gambler who was banned from New Jersey casinos for alleged ties to organized crime. The reputed mob figure, Robert LiButti, can be seen standing alongside Trump in the front row of a 1988 'WrestleMania' match in Atlantic City, N.J.... Edith Creamer, [LiButti's daughter...,] also attended the event. 'We were his guests,' she told Yahoo News in a text message this week.... The video appears to lend new support to assertions Trump once had close relations with LiButti, who was banned from the state's casinos in 1991 because of his ties to Mafia boss John Gotti, then the chief of the Gambino crime syndicate. Separately, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that same year levied $650,000 in fines against the Trump Plaza hotel over its dealings with LiButti, who gambled huge sums at the hotel's casino. LiButti died in 2014."CW: Maybe dead men tell no tales, but videotapes and daughters do. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Gerstein: "Lawyers suing Donald Trump for fraud over his Trump University real-estate seminar program say his campaign trail statements -- including some alleged whoppers -- should be fair game at a civil trial set to start later this month. Last week, Trump's attorneys asked that all his comments connected to his presidential campaign be off limits in the class-action lawsuit, along with all discussion of what his legal team euphemistically called 'personal conduct accusations.'... 'Donald Trump's dizzying array of objectively false, contradictory, and self-defeating statements have left him so flummoxed he is demanding that the Court create a new category of immunity to protect him from himself,' the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote. 'As a key witness in a case about his deception of others, Trump's representations, acts (or lack thereof), and credibility will be among the most important issues for the jury to determine. Trump wants to rig the deck by hiding from the jury his own words.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Election News
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Tuesday, Americans will elect a president without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.... In 2013, the Supreme Court declared that voter discrimination was no longer a problem and effectively struck down the only portion of the act designed to stop discrimination before it affects an election. The court let stand the provisions of the act that allow lawsuits after a discriminatory law takes effect, but unfortunately, the United States has learned the hard way that there is no satisfactory cure for discrimination after an election occurs.... Along with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), I introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015 to modernize the original law and to respond to the Supreme Court's objections in Shelby County.... Unfortunately, despite the legislation having more than 100 co-sponsors, Congress still has not acted on it.... If voters are worried about rigged elections, Congress must act with urgency to pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015." -- CW ...
... CW: Why, Jim, what could possibly go wrong? ...
... Trump Alt-Right Allies Plan Election-Day Mayhem. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin plans to muster thousands of poll watchers across all 50 states. His partners at the alt-right website 'the Right Stuff' are touting plans to set up hidden cameras at polling places in Philadelphia and hand out liquor and marijuana in the city's 'ghetto' on Election Day to induce residents to stay home. The National Socialist Movement, various factions of the Ku Klux Klan and the white nationalist American Freedom Party all are deploying members to watch polls, either 'informally' or, they say, through the Trump campaign. The Oath Keepers, a group of former law enforcement and military members that often shows up in public heavily armed, is advising members to go undercover and conduct 'intelligence-gathering' at polling places, and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone is organizing his own exit polling, aiming to monitor thousands of precincts across the country." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Was He Lying Then or Is He Lying Now? Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Mike Pence declared confidently over the summer that the Trump campaign would be working hand-in-glove with the Republican National Committee to prevent voter fraud. Now, in a court filing, the GOP's vice presidential nominee says he misspoke. After facing a legal threat from Democrats, Pence and the RNC are disavowing his comments, with both insisting that the RNC has no role whatsoever in the Trump camp's ballot security operation.... As a result of Pence's assertion -- and a similar one by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway -- the Democratic National Committee filed suit alleging that the RNC was violating a consent decree from the 1980s settling a case alleging that GOP poll-watchers sought to intimidate minority voters in a practice then known as 'caging.'" -- CW ...
... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "A historically black church in Greenville, Mississippi was set on fire and vandalized with graffiti reading 'vote Trump' on Tuesday night. 'It is being investigated as a hate crime,' Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons told TPM on Wednesday...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
Senate Races
Mini-Trump. Francis Clines of the New York Times: "Echoes of Donald Trump's worst campaign instincts -- on gun control and the news media -- are registering down ballot in North Carolina, a crucial toss-up state where Senator Richard Burr, a Republican, is in a tight re-election race.... [Burr's] bullseye talk recalled Mr. Trump's remark in August that 'Second Amendment people' could 'maybe' find a way to deal with Hillary Clinton.... Later in the week, in a move that recalled Mr. Trump's crusade to demonize and black-ball selected media outlets, Mr. Burr's campaign vindictively banned the state's main newspaper, The News & Observer, from receiving advance notice of the senator's daily campaign schedule." -- CW
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The FBI is investigating an alleged illegal donation scheme involving a wealthy Saudi family that supports Democratic Florida Senate candidate Patrick Murphy. The Hill has found no evidence that Murphy himself was involved in, or even aware of, the alleged scheme. The Murphy campaign declined to say whether the candidate is aware of the FBI probe, but the campaign said neither Murphy nor his campaign staff is being investigated. The Murphy campaign noted that a conservative super PAC earlier this year filed a complaint on the issue that the FBI is looking into.... The FBI investigation, however, relates to Murphy's first run for the House in the 2012 campaign cycle.... The allegation -- originally submitted by a Republican super PAC run by a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- is that Murphy's high school friend and major political donor, Ibrahim Al-Rashid, coordinated a 'straw donor' scheme to boost Murphy."...
... CW: Looks as if we're seeing a pattern here consistent with the Clinton "investigations": (1) Confederates concoct story involving foreigners who have ties to Democratic candidate; (2) Confederates notify receptive FBI agents; (3) agents open inquiry; (4) Confederates leak story to press; (5) Press publishes leaked news of investigation & allegations. Now if Rubio would only start calling Murphy "Crooked Patrick," the circle would be complete. Solution: campaign finance reform.
Other News & Views
Brian Stelter & Tom Kludt of CNN: "Hulk Hogan and the remnants of Gawker Media have struck a confidential settlement agreement, rewarding the wrestler with millions of dollars. 'After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached. The saga is over,' Gawker founder Nick Denton wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.... As part of the settlement, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, will receive $31 million in cash, according to a court filing." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Brian Feldman of New York: "Even people suspicious or dismissive of the Hogan story -- concerning as it did a sex tape -- should feel nervous about the fact that two indisputably true articles were taken down because their subjects were lucky enough to find a billionaire backer with a grudge.... But this is what happens when a billionaire goes to war against you. As Denton writes, the drain of looming litigation had become unsustainable, in particular because the lawsuits personally targeted journalists.... [Billionaire Peter] Thiel [CW: a Trump backer] is so wealthy as to place him effectively outside the network of incentives that make the legal system a just forum for negotiating disputes." -- CW
Dina Bass of Bloomberg: "Microsoft Corp. said a computer-hacking group that has previously targeted government agencies attacked its Windows software and Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash program. The company will release a security patch for its operating system on Nov. 8, Windows chief Terry Myerson said Tuesday in a blog post on Microsoft's website. Users of Microsoft's Edge browser on the latest update to Windows 10 are protected from the flaw, the company said. The security exploit, by a group Microsoft calls Strontium, was discovered by Google's Threat Analysis Group and announced on Monday." CW: Several sites (here's one) recommended disabling Flash. I just uninstalled mine. I hope Adobe gets its fix up soon, as I need Flash to cover the election results since I don't have cable TV where I am. If you depend on Flash, at least make sure you have the latest update. If you're using Windows 10, Microsoft Edge is supposed to protect you. (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Brexit? Not So Fast. Owen Bowcott & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: "Parliament alone has the power to trigger Brexit by notifying Brussels of the UK's intention to leave the European Union, the high court has ruled. The judgment (pdf), delivered by the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, is likely to slow the pace of Britain's departure from the EU and is a huge setback for Theresa May, who had insisted the government alone would decide when to trigger the process. The lord chief justice said that 'the most fundamental rule of the UK constitution is that parliament is sovereign'. A government spokesman said ministers would appeal to the supreme court against the decision. The hearing will take place on 7-8 December." -- CW
News Lede
New York Times: "Investigators quickly identified a suspect in the slayings [of two Iowa police officers], who then surrendered -- a local man described as a troubled loner who was familiar to the police in his suburban town, Urbandale. He had a string of arrests and confrontations with officers and others, but nothing in his record approached the scale of violence that erupted here." -- CW
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Reader Comments (16)
More shady FBI agents being unearthed, more evidence of anarchy within the agency. I'm not even sure how you clean up a mess like this with so many compromised ideologues intent on going rogue regardless of precedent.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/03/meet-donald-trump-s-top-fbi-fanboy.html
If you put together two stories & an opinion piece linked today, you'll probably get over any lingering impression that Jim Comey is an honorable man caught between a rock & a hard place because of nasty Clinton's careless e-mail practices.
Horwitz & Nakashima of the WashPo reveal that Comey knew about the Abedin e-mails weeks before he notified Congress. All Comey told Congress was that he was "briefed" the day before, and in fact, he did get a formal briefing last Thursday, according to the WashPo reporters. But unless you think Comey is so distracted he doesn't care what hot political "investigations" are going on under his nose, you can bet he'd been thinking about that trove of Abedin e-mails -- and probably getting updates -- in the weeks before the formal briefing.
Barrett's lede in the Daily Beast suggests Giuliani knew what was going down the day before Comey's supposed big briefing. Excuse me? Giuliani, who hasn't been in law enforcement for years, knows what Comey is going to do before Comey is briefed? Comey was massaging that vague, cryptic, innuendo-dripping letter to Congress for weeks, & Giuliani heard what the drift of it would be.
And Andy Rosenthal of the NYT editorial page suspects Comey of purposely sending the letter to Congress to help Republicans. Rosenthal isn't a loose cannon who makes up stuff.
So, no, it isn't a gang of rogue FBI agents gone wild. They're doing what the director intended: opening bullshit investigations, then leaking them to the press if those liberal Democrats (i.e., career DOJ lawyers) at Justice won't immediately open criminal cases against politicians.
Comey and his pals have compromised the FBI almost irreparably, and if Clinton wins the election, she is going to have to clean house ASAP. When Republicans shout all the things they'll shout, I have confidence that Clinton will have the guts to stand up to them. Nobody has more experience doing just that.
Marie
RE: trouble within the FBI: Every teacher knows that sometimes you get a class that just doesn't fit together–-the grouping facilitates chaos and impedes successful teaching. And anyone who has worked with people–-I imagine animals would be easier––in some kind of grouping knows there are inevitably problems of some sort or another. However––squabbles are different from serious divisions and it appears that within the FBI there are serious divisions. The head of this organization, as with any organization, is responsible for maintaining a modicum of problems. Looks to me as if Comey has fallen down on the job along with having poor judgement on this email business.
We teachers can't fire an unruly class; heads of organizations can be.
After reading Marie's comments above I got to thinking about Comey's shellacking of David Petraeus and recalled many Republicans pressing him during the hearings of Hillary's emails to justify not prosecuting her. Here is a good overview of this situation from Politico:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/18/donald-trump/fbi-director-james-comey-says-donald-trump-has-it-/
To sums things up. Thanks to Trump we now know that about 40% of the US population is seriously racist or is misogynist or a combination of both. And the primary 'excuse', religion.
This morning on NPR, I heard a piece, a regular feature called Hidden Brain, which looks at various types of recent research on a variety of topics. Today's topic was how coaches and players on football teams can influence referees' calls and decisions. On one hand, refs and umpires are supposed to be immovable objects but anyone who has played or watched a sport for long realizes that this just ain't so. And when coaches and managers run up to an official and start in on them, they're working them. Maybe they don't change the call at hand but the goal is to make sure the next call goes their way. Long story short, yes, screaming and yelling and hectoring a referee will have an effect on the calls which in turn affect the outcome of the contest.
Which brings us to hyper partisan party hack James Comey. Word is that he has been, poor dear, undergoing "withering" scoldings and ceaseless importuning by the likes of the fearsome Jason Chaffetz and plenty of other Confederates demanding that he throw a flag on the Clinton campaign. They don't really care what the penalty call is as long as it will hurt. And their screaming and yelling and hectoring got the desired effect.
One may complain that this isn't a football game, that the head of the FBI should be able to call upon a deep well of personal integrity to withstand such calls for party favoritism. But then you realize you're talking about a person who is a pure political creature, a Confederate with a spine of spun yarn.
And this has been a tried and true technique employed by wingers for decades. Scream louder and longer than everyone else, whine that you're being treated unfairly (Sound familiar? Trump didn't invent that particular grievance) and being held to a different standard. When in fact, the goal is to make sure the other side is never treated fairly and that they will constantly be held to higher standards than you and your confederates.
It's been working for a long time. It works on football refs. It works on reporters, feature writers, assignment editors, producers. Why not a cheap, chiseling, gutless, weaselly FBI director?
Marvin,
The other day I heard billionaire idiot Peter Thiel lecture the national press corps on why Trump needs to be taken seriously (But not, interestingly, literally--ie, believe in him, but don't believe him, or some crazy bullshit like that. Thiel calls this common sense. Most people call it chicanery.). At one point he said something along the lines that Trump is not crazy and (in an interview afterwards--I haven't been able to find the link yet) declared that the people who support him cannot be wrong because there are so many of them (or something along those lines).
My first thought was that, at one point, tens of millions of people thought slavery was just fine and dandy. They thought women should not be allowed to vote. They thought it was okay for children to work 12 hours a day. They thought the best treatment for a raft of medical complaints was to slice open the patient and bleed them white. Many believed witches could destroy their crops, and they believed that the world was only 5,000 years old--oops, some Confederates still believe this! I guess, according to Thiel's thinking, they were all rock solid in their thinking because there were so many of them.
That Trump supporters are terribly wrong about so much of what he represents, however, doesn't offer additional (or any) relief from the fact that there ARE so many Americans who think misogyny, racism, hatred, ignorance, religious tests, ridiculing the handicapped, attacking Gold Star families, wild, cowboy foreign policy (or no discernibly rational policy), lying, cheating, self-aggrandizement at the expense of so many others, are all perfectly okay.
Trump 2.0 is out there somewhere. Maybe Ted Cruz. Maybe Tom Cotton, maybe some heretofore unseen thing slithering among the Confederate weeds. But they're out there. Trump has blazed the trail and they'll be hot on his heels to colonize the new world and spread their contagion from sea to shining sea. And they'll be working the refs all the way.
Cotton is scary, but rotten Chaffetz is just a yappy chihuahua in comparison. (Not that he doesn't cause mahem wherever he goes--)Absolutely: they have all been granted absolution from societal condemnation of all of the above specified conditions, and social media communication is the added ingredient for total uncivilization. Factor in agencies like the people who are supposed to guard the first family (SS seems to suit them--)and the spy people and the mobster chasers, and you have a system that seems broken to me. Couple them with Breitbart/Nazi-land and we have a mess on our hands. Sure wish there was some good news somewhere...YAY CUBBIES!
Meanwhile, in other parts of the Confederacy. Part 3,456 of IOKIYAR.
It might be All Trumpado All the Time in most parts of these here You-nited States, but weasels still weasel on in other parts of the dark, dank stink hole of the Confederate States.
Down in Mitch McConnell's particular stink hole,for example, whereat you may recall a while back yet another Confederate demanded that she be allowed to whatever the fucking hell she wanted to do, ignore her job description, defy her oath of office, and stay far away from icky gays who wanted to do something as terribly unChristian as get married. Oh, the horror!
Anyway, Saint Kim of Redneckia is back in the news (yeah, I know, facepalms all around). And once more, she is demanding that she be treated differently, because Jesus. First she told same sex couples wanting a marriage license to fuck off. Attempting to get her do her fucking job (for which she gets paid the ungodly--literally--sum of 80,000 smackers), they had to take her to court. This takes money. Lots of it, when the plaintiffs have to take on a scofflaw clerk in Jesus Land trying to do the Jesus like thing of discriminating against people because of who they are.
"Attorneys for the couples who sued Davis last year to get marriage licenses have asked U.S. District Judge David Bunning for an order letting them recoup $233,058 in legal fees and costs. Their lawsuit went to the U.S. Supreme Court and back, with Davis losing at every step and even going to jail for five days on contempt charges, before the Kentucky legislature made the point moot in April by changing the state’s marriage licenses to remove county clerks’ names."
But now St. Kim has declared that she doesn't have to pay the legal fees her law breaking entailed because she was bailed out by the legislature which changed the law just for her.
The point is, however, the law was different when the suit was first brought and there would have been no suit if she had done her fucking job. It should be an open and shut case, but anyone who thinks she won't be let off the hook again isn't paying attention.
But, hey, IOKIYAR.
Ain't it great to be so superior?
Somewhere this morning I read about the two 'Victory' parties both planned in NYC. It appears Hillary has the Javits Center and fireworks lined up.
Trump is going low key, mostly family and friends at the Hilton. Wonder if they've reserved the large ballroom? or a junior suite on the 30th floor? No fireworks—though rumor has it that sparklers might be handed out!
But afterward, wonder if the Hilton bill gets paid? Because we all know that Trump doesn't pay if: the room is too hot, the room is too cold, there was a shortage of hors d'oeuvres, there weren't enough chairs, the mic didn't work, and most offensive of all: the balloon drop used yellow and green ones, yadda yadda yadda....
Jeanne,
Cotton IS scary. He's a true believer of the medieval variety. He's a fire and brimstone "Never Wrong" variety of demagogue, not matter how crazed his thoughts. And you're right, Chaffetz is a yippy ankle biter. And to mirror your final thought, good going, Cubs. Stayed up to watch the whole thing (sheesh-luckily it was a great game). We need some good news and the Cubs can keep the black dog from the door, at least for a few minutes.
MAG,
Luckily the Trump camp is not inviting all the women he's groped. They'd have to hold it in Central Park. Which might not be a bad idea. I know a few cages that could hold the Trumpus Monster. Kids could throw popcorn at him. "Look mommy! Look at the loser! He's funny looking!"
The president may appoint but the Senate confirms. Unless the Democrats gain control of the Senate nobody is going to replace Alito or Comey or any other Republican appointee. And I thought that the 50's was the nadir of American political life! Birch and McCarthy would be rejected as moderates by today's right.
Ooooohhhh god.
If Marie thinks I could refrain from watching a video prefaced with references to Thermopylae, the Battle of Hastings, Agincourt, and the events of Christmas Eve, 1776....well, she's right. I cannot.
And luckily so. The Jon Stewart clip is Hie-Larious. It really takes only the tiniest bit of separation (not even of the ironic variety) to see what a douchey little 8th grader is running on the Confederate ticket. The guy is not just a moron, he's a whiny-baby moron.
Thank god for people like Stewart and Samantha Bee. Christ, it's no wonder demagogues and "strongman" authoritarian types hate, hate, hate real comedians (we've had the discussion before about the galactic silliness of Confederate "comics"; it's like hiring your drunk right-wing uncle who shrieks his way through the Star Spangled Banner, mouthing only every eighth word, while criticizing those who don't know it as well as he does, to comment with cogency and cleverness on the distinction between Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. His first question would be "Wait! Are them guys darkies?").
Fuckface von Clownstick it is, from now until election day.
Just to make sure, I had to watch it again.
Had to close my office door.
Really, kids, pick a few of the dullest presidents. Do you think President Fillmore would be sitting up in the middle of the night wondering why people thought Millard von Fuckstick was a funny name?
Watch it J. Edgar, Comey is coming up fast on your right. He may yet cross the terminal dickhead finish line before ya.