The Commentariat -- October 28, 2016
Afternoonish Update:
** Comey's October Surprise Is One Helluva a Friday Afternoon News Dump. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal law enforcement officials said Friday that the new emails uncovered in the closed investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server were discovered after the F.B.I. seized electronic devices belonging to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, and her husband, Anthony Weiner. The F.B.I. is investigating illicit text messages that Mr. Weiner sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The bureau told Congress on Friday that it had uncovered new emails related to the Clinton case -- one federal official said they numbered in the thousands -- potentially reigniting an issue that has weighed on the presidential campaign and offering a lifeline to Donald J. Trump less than two weeks before the election. In a letter to Congress, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that emails had surfaced in an unrelated case, and that they 'appear to be pertinent to the investigation.' Mr. Comey said the F.B.I. was taking steps to 'determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.' He said he did not know how long it would take to review the emails, or whether the new information was significant." Thanks to Victoria for the heads-up. -- CW ...
... The Washington Post's story, by Rosalind Helderman & others, is here. "As the news broke, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 150 points." CW: Thanks how much the markets like Trump. ...
... CW: I must say I never guessed something as insignificant as Anthony's Weiner's dick would lead to the downfall of the United States. But there you go. ...
... Michele Gorman & Matthew Cooper of Newsweek: "Comey's letter doesn't say his agents have discovered new witnesses or documents suggesting a criminal act occurred. Rather, he only suggests that evidence that had not yet been examined and, because it was relevant to the case, needs to be reviewed.... In his letter, Comey did not use the phrase being touted by Republicans that the case had been reopened. Technically it was never closed. Nor did he signal at all about the importance or unimportance about the emails.... 'I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,' Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire early Friday afternoon. 'This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood. And it is everybody's hope that it is about to be corrected.' [CW: Notice how he completely mischaracterizes Comey's letter.] House Speaker Paul Ryan called for an end to classified briefings for Clinton." Thanks to Haley S. for the link. -- CW
It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election. The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. -- John Podesda, Clinton campaign chair, in a statement
Comey needs to provide full info immediately. Otherwise he has clearly made a partisan intervention, betraying his office. -- Paul Krugman, in a tweet
Journalist Twitter is full of shock at FBI behavior here. That same shock should make it into news reports; not doing so misleads public -- Paul Krugman, in a tweet
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said it will decide whether the Obama administration may require public school systems to let transgender students use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, putting the court again at the center of a divisive social issue." -- CW
Ben White of Politico: "The U.S. economy grew at a nearly 3 percent pace in the third quarter of the year, a better-than-expected reading that dents Donald Trump's case that growth has stalled out. The faster pace of 2.9 percent may not hold up in the final quarter of 2016 but it offers a positive headline to Hillary Clinton less than two weeks until Election Day...." -- CW
Mark Sumner of Daily Kos: Donald Trump is stiffing his campaign "at a point where he had promised to 'triple match' contributions by his supporters.... [His] real cash contributions to his campaign was $0 in the first three weeks of the month." -- CW ...
... Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast: "Even Trump's Kids Haven't Donated to His Campaign." -- CW
Ryan Hutchins of Politico: "Closing arguments in the trial of two former Chris Christie aides accused of closing access lanes to the George Washington Bridge began on Friday morning, with federal prosecutors saying the two defendants took their loyalty to Christie to such an extreme that they subjected average residents to a bizarre 'political game.'" -- CW ...
... Matt Friedman of Politico: "Once a GOP star, [Chris Christie's] fortunes have plummeted since the high point of his landslide re-election in 2013, and now look to be nearing rock-bottom as an aide's trial leads to embarrassing revelations about his possible complicity in the notorious lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Budget and infrastructure setbacks have wrecked his narrative of a renewed New Jersey. His failed presidential bid made him a punchline in his deep-blue home state, and his subsequent embrace of Trump has only made things worse. Christie is now in the awkward position of trying to distance himself from the candidate, even as he reportedly remains a key behind-the-scenes player.... And looming over everything is the sordid election-season revenge plot known as Bridgegate, which has been thrust back into the headlines in recent weeks by the trial of two of Christie's former subordinates -- and which has gone even worse for the governor than generally expected." -- CW
Well, Isn't This Speciial. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress. "On Thursday, news broke that Justice Clarence Thomas allegedly groped a 23 year-old woman at a dinner honoring Truman Scholars. And this is hardly the first time that a woman has come forward with similar allegations against Thomas. The justice famously faced sexual harassment allegations from his former employee Anita Hill during his confirmation hearing. Regardless of what may have occurred between Thomas and the women speaking out against him, his record as a justice suggests that he is not at all sympathetic to women's legal claims, especially in the context of sexual harassment. As a justice, Thomas has largely been hostile to litigants seeking to protect women's rights... And, in one of the most under-reported decisions of the last several years, he cast the key fifth vote to hobble the federal prohibition on sexual harassment in the workplace. Akhilleus: Does that include high tech harassment?
Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "A months-long standoff over the Dakota Access oil pipeline took a violent turn Thursday, when law enforcement officers used pepper spray and high-pitched warning tones to force protesters from a camp on private land in the pipeline's path in North Dakota, and at least one demonstrator opened fire on police, authorities said. Hundreds of local police officers and National Guard soldiers in riot gear began closing in on the protesters at midday, slowly advancing on the camp of about 200 with trucks and military Humvees, arresting people who refused to leave. By the end of the day, at least 141 protesters had been arrested, according to the Morton County Sheriff's Office." -- CW
This Gun Shop Owner is A'Skeert of You. Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Paul Chandler, the owner of Altra Firearms in rural Jackson Center, Pennsylvania, says he turns customers away at his door who are Muslim or who are supporting Hillary Clinton for president. The 54-year-old business owner posted a sign on the door of Altra Firearms conveying those rules, and he's currently running an ad in a local newspaper declaring: 'Please NO Muslims or Hillary Supporters -- We do not feel safe selling to terrorists!'" -- CW
*****
** The Definition of Jury Nullification. Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal jury on Thursday found Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and five co-defendants not guilty of conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs through intimidation, threat or force during the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The Bundy brothers and occupiers Jeff Banta and David Fry also were found not guilty of having guns in a federal facility. Kenneth Medenbach was found not guilty of stealing government property, and a hung jury was declared on Ryan Bundy's charge of theft of FBI surveillance cameras." -- CW ...
... AP & Seattle Times: "The trial had a chaotic, dramatic end as Ammon Bundy's attorney Marcus Mumford argued his client should be released from confinement while U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown said he must be returned to the custody of federal marshals, since he still faced charges in Nevada. Mumford's protests grew louder and louder until he was finally tackled and tased by marshals.... The judge ordered the courtroom cleared." -- CW ...
... Leah Sottile of the Washington Post: "The jury was hung on the charge of theft of government cameras against Ryan Bundy. Ammon and Ryan Bundy will remain in custody over charges they face in Nevada -- where they will stand trial for the 2014 standoff with Bureau of Land Management officers on the family's ranch. The men will be transferred to Nevada, where their father, Cliven, is currently incarcerated, officials said." -- CW ...
... Betsy Hammond of the Oregonian: "That an all-white jury would acquit an all-white band of armed protesters of all wrongdoing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff riled people across America, many of whom pointed to counter-examples that they say prove a similar band of blacks or Latinos would never have been cleared. The scenes of white Malheur refuge occupiers walking free on the same day that police and National Guard officers used mace and batons to arrest and drive away unarmed Native Americans protesting an oil pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation raised particular ire. The acquittals also follow police action against a diverse group of protesters in Portland who opposed a recently approved police union contract." -- CW ...
... German Lopez of Vox: "The verdict is completely absurd.... The militants staged their protest because they want to get federal employees out of these lands.... It is impossible to ignore race here. This was a group of armed white people, mostly men, taking over a facility. Just imagine: What would happen if a group of armed black men, protesting police brutality, tried to take over a police facility and hold it hostage for more than a month? Would they even come out alive and get to trial? Would a jury find them and their cause relatable, making it easier to send them back home with no prison time?" -- CW
Presidential Race
Scott Clement & Emily Gustin of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump has gained on Hillary Clinton during the past week, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll, solidifying support among core Republican groups as well as political independents.... Clinton holds a slight 48-44 percent edge over Trump among likely voters, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 4 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 percent in the survey completed Sunday through Wednesday." -- CW ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker argues that Trump won't enjoy a Brexit-like surge & prevail November 8. CW: I remain superstitious.
Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump raised about half as much as Hillary Clinton for his presidential campaign committee in the first 19 days of October, putting him at a severe financial disadvantage in the crucial final days of the White House contest, campaign finance reports filed late Thursday show.... And there was scant evidence that [Trump] ... will end up giving the $100 million he has repeatedly claimed he is donating to his bid. Trump gave his campaign about $31,000 in in-kind contributions in the first 19 days of the month -- down from the $2 million a month in cash he had been donating. Trump's total personal contributions to his campaign currently total a little more than $56 million." -- CW
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "In their first joint campaign appearance on Thursday, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton made a public show of sisterhood and mutual admiration as the current first lady, a star on the campaign trail, sought to use her soaring popularity to boost the former first lady into the Oval Office." -- CW ...
... Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "On Thursday..., First Lady Michelle Obama ... compared [Hillary] Clinton's trajectory as potentially the first female president to the historic role played by her husband. The U.S., she said, was not only the place where a 'biracial kid from Hawaii' could win the White House, but where the 'daughter of an orphan can break that highest, hardest glass ceiling.'... It was the first campaign appearance featuring both Clinton and the first lady, whose passionate stump speeches have helped frame opposition to Republican nominee Donald Trump. In an arena [in Winston-Salem, N.C.,] packed with 11,000 supporters..., Obama acknowledged that it's 'unprecedented' for a first lady to campaign as much as she has." -- CW
How one tax-exempt student newspaper got around the prohibition against engaging in political activity: "The Yale Record believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code. In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton's exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country -- a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8." Via Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly. -- CW
Tim Egan: "At least one of my siblings, and some of my friends from high school, will be among the 50 million or so Americans waking up on Nov. 9 after giving their vote to a man who thinks very little of them, and even less of the country he wants to lead. Allow me one last attempt to help you avoid a hangover that will stay with you the rest of your life." -- CW
And just thinking to myself right now, we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right? What are we even having it for? What are we having it for? -- Donald Trump, arguing that elections are unnecessary, at a rally in Toledo, Ohio, Thursday ...
... If you think a President Trump might "just cancel" the 2020 election, you're probably right. And he would probably speak of himself in the third person when he announced he was accepting a second term by his own proclamation. -- Constant Weader
By Driftglass.Jose DelReal & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "As he heads into a potential loss on Nov. 8, Trump has expanded the scale and scope of his accusations [about how the election is 'rigged'] to include ... Hillary Clinton, the media, establishment leaders from both parties and unidentified 'global financial powers.' 'When the people who control the political power in our society can rig investigations like [Clinton's] investigation was rigged, can rig polls, you see the phony polls, and rig the media, they can wield absolute power over your life, your economy and your country and benefit big-time by it,' Trump told a crowd this week in St. Augustine, Fla. 'They control what you hear and what you don't hear, what is covered, how it's covered, even if it's covered at all.' The 'power structure' he describes ... includes banking institutions, the judiciary, media conglomerates, voting security experts, Democratic tricksters, scientific polling and also perhaps military leaders. He has also accused Clinton of meeting 'with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty to enrich these global financial powers, her special-interest friends and her donors.' By emphasizing such rhetoric, the GOP nominee -- who has a history of circulating unsubstantiated accusations -- has sown distrust in basic democratic institutions among his supporters." -- CW
Joshua Green & Sasha Issenberg of Bloomberg go inside the Trump campaign, and it's more organized (as a money-making machine) -- and uglier -- than you might have imagined. Under the leadership of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the campaign, with the help of the Republican National Committee, has built a sophisticated donor-base digital operation for use both before & after the election, which means Trump is not planning to go away. In the meantime, a senior campaign official says, "We have three major voter suppression operations under way." The aim is to discourage voting among "idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans.... If the election results cause the party to fracture, Trump will be better positioned than the RNC to reach this mass of voters because he'll own the [donor] list himself -- and [RNC chair Reince] Priebus, after all he's endured, will become just the latest to invest with Trump and wind up poorer for the experience." ...
... OR, as Jonathan Chait puts it, "... Steve Bannon and other members of the Trump inner circle have to transition their campaign into a white-nationalist media organization after the campaign. Bannon came from Breitbart news, which he turned from a right-wing site with frequent racist overtones into a racist site with Republican overtones. He has helped merge Trump's campaign into the messaging operation he built, reorienting the conservative agenda around its xenophobic element. It is difficult to overestimate what a nightmare this would pose to the regular GOP should it come to fruition.... The Republicans built a monster to stave off defeat in the 2016 election. And that monster may torment them for years to come." -- CW ...
... Anne Laurie of Balloon Juice: "Steve Bannon and his fellow 'alt right' racists are using the Trump campaign as a shell to grab customers frustrated with the GOP brand.... The 'Trump campaign' is no longer about winning voters (if it ever was). It's about market share." -- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: "Unless the whole thing is some kind of Potemkin fundraising scam, and I do not dismiss that possibility entirely, any hope that the Republican establishment has of hand-waving Trumpism into ancient history is clearly doomed.... Suppressing minority voters -- rather than, say, earning their support with something beyond 'What have you got to lose?' -- is now as conventional a piece of Republican electoral strategy as tax cuts and fetus-fondling are. This is true at all levels, from the local polling place all the way up to the Supreme Court, and has been for quite some time. Hell, it was how William Rehnquist got his start in Republican politics and he went on to a sweet career, if I recall correctly. So having a senior official come clean on it is a nice detail to have, and it will make a lot of noise and, if American democracy continues its historic run of luck, the revelation will piss off enough people at whom the strategy is aimed to bury it under a landslide. I'm not betting heavy either way on that one." -- CW ...
... Kevin Drum Is Underwhelmed: "Ahem. For those of you new to American elections, allow me to blogsplain. This is called 'negative campaigning.' It is designed to make ones opponent look bad, and it has been a feature of every US election since -- well, roughly forever. The fact that a 'senior official' calls this voter suppression doesn't mean that it is. It just means that the Trump folks are amateurs who are laughably ignorant about what a 'major' operation of any kind actually looks like in a modern presidential campaign." -- CW ...
... Steve M.: "But here's what's not standard: '... neither Trump's campaign nor the RNC has prioritized registering and mobilizing the 47 million eligible white voters without college degrees who are Trump's most obvious source of new votes....' Right -- Team Trump isn't bothering to reach out to the unmotivated in the hope of persuading them to be Trump voters. That's what you do if you want to win an election. But maybe that's not what you do if you're really more interested in building a list of Trump hero-worshippers who might be the target market for future Trump-branded products.... I don't think the long-term post-defeat plan is to build a political movement. I think Trump-branded products will increasingly be marketed to Trump admirers." -- CW
Droit du Seigneur, Ctd. Scott Bixby of the Guardian: "A former beauty queen has become the 12th woman to openly accuse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of sexual assault. Ninni Laaksonen, a former Miss Finland in the Miss Universe competition that Trump once owned, alleged in an interview with the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that Trump groped her before an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2006. 'Before the show we were photographed outside the building,' Laaksonen said, according to a translation provided by The Telegraph. 'Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt. He really grabbed my butt.... Somebody told me there that Trump liked me because I looked like Melania when she was younger,' Laaksonen said. 'It left me disgusted.'" -- CW
Senate Race
New GOP Rule: If one parent was born outside the U.S., you're not a "real American," no matter what. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "In a stunning moment during a Thursday night debate, an embattled U.S. senator cast doubt on his opponent's military and ethnic heritage. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), seeking to unseat GOP Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois, invoked her family's military service while answering a debate question. 'My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution,' Duckworth said. 'I am a daughter of the American Revolution. I've bled for this nation....' Kirk was offered a chance to rebut. 'I'd forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington,' he said. Duckworth's mother, Lamai, is Thai, but her late father, Franklin, was a Marine veteran whose family roots in this country trace to before the American Revolution. Tammy Duckworth was severely wounded in the Iraq War.... Democrats immediately slammed Kirk for the attack. A spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called the remark 'offensive, wrong, and racist.'" -- CW
Election News
Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: "The North Carolina conference of the NAACP is threatening the state with lawsuits after reports poured in about hours-long early voting lines and the improper removal of elderly voters from the rolls less than two weeks before Election Day. 'We will invoke legal action if necessary to stop this runaway train,' North Carolina NAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber told reporters on a conference call." -- CW
Other News & Views
Lydia Wheeler & Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama has commuted the sentences of 98 inmates, the White House announced Thursday. It was Obama's eighth round of commutations this year, bringing him to a total of 872 since taking office -- more than the past 11 presidents combined. He's commuted the sentences of 688 inmates this year alone." -- CW
David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The spike in premiums [on the ACA exchanges] is a sign that not enough healthy people are signing up for the exchanges. Without healthy people to balance out the sick, insurance stops being insurance and becomes terribly expensive. The basic solution is straightforward. It involves increasing the subsidies for lower-income families -- while also increasing the penalties for people who refuse to sign up for health insurance." -- CW ...
... Paul Krugman: "The people who have been claiming all along that reform couldn't work, and have been wrong every step of the way, are, of course, claiming vindication. But they're wrong again. The bad news is real. But so are reform's accomplishments, which won't go away even if nothing is done to fix the problems now appearing. And technically, if not politically, those problems are quite easy to fix." -- CW
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: The federal government plans to house immigrant detainees in a privately-run facility it deems unfit for American prisoners: "When the Justice Department announced two months ago that it wanted to end the use of private prisons, Cibola County Correctional Center was exactly the kind of facility that officials desired to shut down. After a history of questionable deaths and substandard medical care, the New Mexico facility lost its contract. In recent weeks, it was emptied of inmates.... As soon as this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- which is separate from the Justice Department -- is going to begin moving immigrant detainees into the facility under a new set of agreements with Corrections Corporation of America, a county official said.... Those detainees are not criminals, but often people who have fled countries where violence has grown rampant." -- CW
Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans are choosing sides ahead of a brutal conflict over how to handle the lingering Supreme Court vacancy, with Jeff Flake firing back Thursday at a suggestion by Ted Cruz that the party could indefinitely block any nominee from Hillary Clinton. The internal GOP battle over what to do about Merrick Garland -- President Barack Obama's choice for the court -- and any future Clinton nominee will dominate the lame duck session of Congress after the election." -- CW ...
... ** Dahlia Lithwick: "With threats now emanating from the Senate to continue this blockade indefinitely, it's time for the chief justice to weigh in.... What can John Roberts say?... He can say, in the most sober, measured, and nonpartisan fashion that the court needs nine justices. He can note that although the court began with six justices -- and from 1863 to 1866 had 10 -- the Judiciary Act of 1869 stipulated that the court be made of nine justices. He can note what happened to FDR when he attempted to pack the court in 1937 and observe parenthetically that this revolt came from the American public. He can also point out that fluctuations in the authorized strength of the court came with changes in the circuit courts, not recreational obstruction in the Senate." -- CW
Tierney Sneed of TPM: "A 41-year-old lawyer has accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of groping her in 1999 when she was a young foundation fellow in Washington, D.C., National Law Journal reported Thursday. The lawyer, Moira Smith, said that Thomas repeatedly touched her rear multiple times as he pleaded for her to sit next to him at a dinner party hosted by the head of her scholarship program. The alleged incident occurred, Smith said, when just the two of them were alone near the table she was setting for the party. Four people who knew Smith at the time confirmed to National Law Journal that they recalled her recounting the incident to them soon after it happened. Thomas denied the claim." -- CW.
Beyond the Beltway
Ryan Hutchins & Katie Jennings of Politico: New Jersey "Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno staked her independence from Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday morning, in a highly public break with the governor.... In a radio interview..., Guadagno ... contradict[ed] the administration's position on a major ballot measure by suggesting voters can blow up a hard-won $16 billion infrastructure plan by opposing the amendment. Less than 15 minutes after Guadagno's remarks on New Jersey 101.5 FM, the governor's office emailed reporters saying that 'it must be a misunderstanding'.... But, as Guadagno quickly made clear, there was no misunderstanding. At a news conference in Trenton on Thursday afternoon, she said she 'was concerned and did my own research and took my own position.'" -- CW
News Lede
Washington Post: "The figures released by the Commerce Department indicate the economy is picking up steam after a slow first half of the year. In the second quarter, the economy had grown at a disappointing annual pace of only 1.4 percent." That's a good headline for Democrats.
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Reader Comments (23)
I'll bet we see more accusations about Justice Affirmative action for me but not for thee. You don't go from pointing out pubic hairs on a Coke can and regaling your targeted victim with stories about the exploits of Long Dong Silver to being a cloistered monk without some recidivism along the way.
According to Mark Kirk, nationalistic douchebag, millions of Americans are not "real" Americans. I guess that includes Ted Cruz and Kirk's party's candidate for president, Donaldo Trumpado. Well, in those two cases at least he might be on to something. There are few things to which Confederates will not stoop when faced the loss of power to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.
I still say Clinton should nominate Barack Obama for Supreme Court justice. Yes, Merrick Garland seems the soul of sober jurisprudence and likely will make a fine justice, but the thoughts of all those Confederate noggins imploding upon hearing of the hated Kenyan Muslim usurper taking over for far right hater and phony originalist (when it was convenient) curmudgeon, Nino Scalia, is just too delicious. That aside, I think he'd make one of the great justices in our history, coming, as he does, from the real world and not having resided in a juridical bubble for most of his life.
@AK, I've often thought the same about HRC naming BO as a SCOTUS justice. It would only the second time that a President became a Justice, the first being Taft. I like the idea but fear the screaming of "Quid pro Quo" by the Confederates (if they could pronounce it.)
While it is legally possible, if not politically, maybe he wouldn't even want the job.
"But Obama himself may not favor the idea. In an interview with the New Yorker in 2014, President Obama...[U]ltimately, Obama rejected the idea. ...partly because I don’t think I have the temperament to sit in a chamber and write opinions.”
Unwashed,
Well perhaps Clinton can float the idea through back channels. That might nudge the Constitutional scofflaws to move on Garland's nomination, although now that Cruz has injected them with a mainline shot of Permanent Obstructionism, they might decide to lay back and ride out that high for the next four years or so, making the call to Ted the Pusher if they start jonseing for another hit of Unconstitutional Malfeasance.
News of Pin Point Georgia's man who lied his way up to the highest court having a bit more snatch grabs before he retires gives me the willies. What must Ginny think? Does he once again cry and say it's all a racist plot?
And that high court that Ted evidently thinks he can prevent putting the right number on makes my blood boil. This weasel of a man is gonna wield his power once again after the election––he has always worked for Ted–-the people be damned.
I watched an excellent interview the other night with Ruth and Sonia who both stressed the importance of having nine justices––"the court doesn't function well without nine."
Obama is too fluid at this time to sit on the S.C. He's going to engage in something far more active, I would think. Since Michelle is getting such positives from her speeches, we may just see her get into the political arena but I think both he and she will just want to run around the block like a couple of kids and rejoice in being just plain citizens who can drive their own cars and eat their burgers in piece–- for awhile at least.
History of Violence.
I must admit I am completely shocked by the verdict in Oregon. Although, given the history of the right-wing in this country, I shouldn't be. Letting those treasonous sons of bitches off with not even a wrist slap? I agree with Marie. This is a textbook case for jury nullification. I don't care what kind of phony, wingnut Clarence Darrow speech Ammon Bundy employed to harangue the jury, I don't care what kind of quixotic and querulous quietus the defense attempted to enact upon the very serious and entirely provable charges, there is no denying what they did and further, no possible way to reasonably deny that what they did was criminal. The violent takeover of government property.
If they had been found guilty, as they should have been, the whackos would be screaming that the hated guv'mint had railroaded their he-roes. But now that they've been found not guilty, I have yet to hear a single acknowledgement that government was not "out to get them". Because treason is bred in their bones.
It's still possible that the Bundy spawn will be found guilty of their equally criminal actions a couple of years ago in Nevada but that will just inflame the anti-government imbeciles even more. And now that there is an orange headed anti-government bigot running around screaming about revolt, and his surrogates and supporters are yelping about picking up weapons and murdering the winners of a democratic election, an action, by the way, sanctioned by Trump as well, who can doubt that bloodshed is in the offing? Maybe keyboard revolutionaries like Joe Walsh are too cowardly to actually pull the trigger themselves, but there are plenty more Bundies out there just waiting for their chance at glory and now they see that they can pull guns on federal authorities and get away with it.
There are a lot of reasons for this but the biggest one is hatred. Once the Civil Rights movement got going, it triggered a number of similar movements on the part of groups that had been repressed and sublimated. Once these groups began standing up for their natural rights, many cheered alongside them. Plenty more started cleaning the guns. Violence was the answer to social upheaval they despised.
White conservatives, especially, began to feel squeezed. Groups and individuals they had previously been able to step on and keep in their places (minorities, women, gays and lesbians, eg) were not taking it anymore. The nation was at a crossroad. Where we went depended largely on the leadership of the country and many "leaders" opted for intransigence, violence, stirring up hatred, and promoting revenge narratives, which proved useful at the ballot box.
So we got Nixon's Southern Strategy and Jesse Helms and later Ronald Reagan. We got Bull Connor and attack dogs and billy clubs and Mississippi burning and bombed churches. Once right-wing media began, they took these narratives of hatred and revenge and juiced them up with edited video and feature length diatribes directed at the heart of those who had long felt that power belonged back with them. They amped up feelings of separateness and hatred, of victimization and leaned ever more toward what they considered a reasonable answer: more violence. Oh, but of course, it was justified, because.....well, it just was.
And now we have an entire subculture that has bought into the story line fed to them for a generation about how they've been screwed by minorities and liberals and women and Muslim traitors and thus pretty much anything they do is okay. Remember what Conservative 0 (Goldwater) said about extremism? Trump is saying the same thing today. And so are a lot of others. What is permanent obstruction in the senate but extremism, violence against the Constitution, against the heart of democratic institutions? They are saying that extremism is the answer.
And that so did that jury in Oregon.
But we still have "leaders" on the right who support the most outrageous forms of anti-Americanism, who keep quiet in the face of calls to murder the winner of a presidential election if it's not the one they choose, or at the least, to put her in prison and throw away the key.
Plenty more to come. None of it good. These people have a lot to answer for. The government has been playing it cool with these traitors, but at some point, there has to be reckoning or we will find ourselves embedded in a sort of "Lord of the Flies" story line, without the deus ex machina ending.
Beyond the Bundy outrage (one friend sees echoes of the O. J. fiasco), two themes in today's news. First, the Repug fracture is occurring before our very eyes, and while it may well (it will) have disturbing consequences for the nation, I admit my mean self takes some pleasure in watching it happen.
That sour satisfaction is heightened by the knowledge that these ignorant touters of good ole 'Merican Bidness have offered themselves as the willing victims of one of the greatest consumer fraud schemes in the nation's history. Pioneered by the likes of Gingrich, who have extracted millions from the Confederated chumps since the 1990's, the Bannon-Trump machine is just getting started. I would not be surprised if their take in the first four years of the HRC Presidency did not reach the hundred of millions.
Not a bad business to be in if all you have to offer is nonsense and hateful rhetoric in return for bundles of cash.
The other notion: Saw a polling report in my morning local paper, headed, "Most Republicans believe...the election is rigged."
Who the hell cares? Why can't the headline read, "Most Republicans WRONGLY believe...?" The article did suggest voter fraud was extremely rare, but only in the article's last paragraph. I would think the lunacy is the real news....
Seems to me political news about the Right is often presented in the same vein as what passes for "news" on the religion page...where belief is always (understandably?) more important than fact.
Bundy, the Alt-Right, the elevation of belief over fact.
Maybe I should be paying more attention to this whole walking dead thing.
Last night, paging through my dog eared copy of Robert Strassler's "Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War" (a wonderful book, by the way), it occurred to me that a certain character in that history bore some relation to the Trump Monster.
Alcibiades is most definitely the bad guy of the piece. Thucydides knew him personally and it's pretty clear the guy was, at least in the author's opinion, a rat bastard. He was rich, had lots of affairs, screwed over everyone he ever knew, turned traitor in the middle of the war, helping Sparta against Athens (going for Russia over Americans?) but then screwed Sparta by offering his services to their enemies, the Persians. He even had his own tax evasion scandal. The activating principle in his life seemed to be whatever was good for Alcibiades, that's what he would do, screw patriotism, friendship, loyalty, and love. He desired money, power, and above all else, was enamored of public admiration. He craved attention and praise.
Sounds like Trump, no? But then I realized that unlike Trump, Alcibiades was no coward. He was a successful and wily general. He had a much greater facility with language as well, being recognized as a fine speaker in a culture that prized oratorical skills almost above all other public abilities (see Pericles, Funeral Oration). So no exact analog, he. In fact, as I think about it, although there have been plenty of snake oil salesmen, liars, cheats, mountebanks, and con artists in the political history of many countries, at this point, I think the Trumpy Cheese stands alone with his particular brand of idiomatic ignorance and demagoguery.
Anyway, speaking of great literature, I noticed that an American has won the Man Booker prize. Congrats to Paul Beatty for his book "The Sellout", a satire on race and politics. I haven't read it yet but it's now on the list. Largely because satire is so freaking hard to do well. Twain did it, Swift, of course, John Kennedy Toole and Thomas Pynchon were no slouches. But it's a tough genre.
It's too early to think of satirizing the Trumpus Agonistes, but if anyone needs satirizing (not parody, mind you), it's him. And his minions. Thucydides wasn't much good at it, but I'll bet he'd enjoy it.
By the way, just so's you guys don't think I'm exclusively doom and gloom today, here's a Friday chuckle. The dad of a good friend of mine, a native Greek speaker, once told me that Greeks pronounce Thucydides' name "Thoo-kee-DEE-dees" Try saying that with a straight face.
(He might have been having me on, but I can't help but smile whenever I think of it.)
"Next week, class, we will begin "The Peloponnesian War" by Thoo-kee-DEE-dees."
Ha!
@Marie: Excellent comment of yours to Paul Krugman's column today in the times. (Who the hell is the annoying Urko 27514 who apparently needs to share his 'wisdom' with a multitude of comments. Perhaps the Times should limit number of posts by nuts!)
@AK: Do you suppose that if Thoo-kee-DEE-dees were alive today that he would wear Ahhhh-DEE-Das? (Overexplaining my joke: Addidas for the bewildered!)
AK: Here's a link to an interview with Beatty from the PBS News:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/paul-beatty-sellout/
Thanks for the info on Alcibiades who sounds as though he's far more skillful than Trump could ever be. And yes, the Cheese doth indeed stand alone––hi ho the derry-o.
@Ken: the comparison a friend of yours sees in the O.J. trial is a wee bit off I think but I understand why he saw a connection. Those that rejoiced at O.J's "not guilty" were furious at the police brutality toward blacks for decades. Finally a black man could buck the system. Those that were sick at heart over the verdict knew he was guilty and realized what a sham that trial was. The Goldman's got some due later in their civil suit, but it wasn't the same. But in the end O.J. crucified himself––cold comfort for those that are still living with that crime.
Okay back to doom and gloom....
I'm wondering, given the controlled and organized procession of Wikileaks releases of Russian/Putin hacked Clinton e-mails, what they have in mind for the last couple of days before the election? I'm guessing they're saving the worst for last.
I'm not sure any of this affects those who have already made a decision, but those imbecilic undecideds ("Hmmm....a rational person or Hitler? I just can't decide....") who believe an e-mail in which a Clinton staffer worries about a server is the same as Trump saying people should murder his opponent, will probably be persuaded to vote against Hillary when they read that she prefers Amazon streaming video to Netflix. Horror! I'm voting for Trump!
Christ, I can't wait for this thing to be over.
MAG,
Well since the guy was European, I'm guessing he would not have used the American pronunciation of Adidas, so you're probably right.
Based on absolutely no special knowledge, I'd allow Mark Kirk a bye on his terrible response to Tammy Duckworth. I believe his stroke has impaired his mental abilities. He has made several other controversial remarks (sorry I can't be more specific) and people have noted that they were quite uncharacteristic of him before his stroke.
Don't have much time, as I and my trusty .30-06 are headed out the door to see what fresh hell I can bring to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve.
But, I saw an interview the other day on MSNBC, with some of rural Pennsylvanians residents of the same street. Surprisingly, there were a couple woman who expressed support for Clinton. They both wanted to do so quietly as a lot of their neighbors were nuts (my word not theirs). A man in his 30's expressed solid support for Trump, " 'cause he tells it like it is." The reporter said well I guess you'll be voting for Trump. He said "no, I'm not voting." Right answer. Don't care why. Hope there are a lot more of you.
@Diane: Interesting anecdote. Let's hope a good percentage of that "silent majority" of "secret Trump voters" is so disenchanted with our "rigged" political system that they'll just stay home. As Green & Issenberg pointed out in the piece linked above, Trump isn't really trying to get them to vote; he's more interested in mining them for cash.
Marie
Whoa. There's a Pirate Party in Iceland. Who knew? Sounds like a rough collection of anarchists, hackers, and anti-establishment types who are advocating free healthcare for all Icelanders and have an aversion to global copyright laws and any form of centralized authority. Their logo is the Jolly Roger.
Somehow I have an image in my head of a Monty Python sketch with a bunch of eye patch wearing peg leg ruffians approaching their Blackbeard looking pirate captain demanding profit sharing, paternity leave, disability, and a dental plan, along with direct democratic decision making on all future targets.
I'm guessing an assent on any vote would be noted with a hearty "Arrrghh, matey!"
James Comey has done the equivalent of reopening the email thing. Drumpf has run wild with this just a few moments ago. His crowd was screaming and sounded rageful to me. Very frightening response. Can someone tell me why Comey created this "October Surprise?" What's in it for him?
This Newsweek article answers a lot of the questions about Comey's letter.Please read. Also, it is inaccurate to say it is 'reopening' the investigation.
http://www.newsweek.com/fbi-reviewing-more-clinton-emails-514825
I'm working in Winston-Salem. Two friends went to the Clinton-Obama event yesterday. Both said it was filled with happy people.
The latest batch of Julian Assange/Vladimir Putin hacked e-mails are just the beginning of the end (at least of the campaign revelations). Earlier today, I predicted that these assholes are saving the best for last. I didn't actually mean the day before voting takes place. It takes a few days for bullshit to percolate through the various media and political and social filters. The punditry needs a few days before their faux outrage reaches the kind of critical mass that penetrates the domes of the undecideds, that daft class of voters whose mental infirmity is being relied upon by the forces of evil.
A big revelation on the day before election day might not have anywhere near the time needed for the desired effect of truly damaging the Clinton campaign. And it doesn't even matter what is in those e-mails at this point (barring anything truly illegal or the sort of salacious and defamatory Trump-like stuff that comes out every day) because the media will eat it up, and spin it out. They have Clinton chasing in their DNA. Trump has only been on their radar (as a political figure) for a matter of months. Hillary Clinton has had a bulls eye on her back for decades.
Earlier today I read the New Yorker piece on why the US won't experience a Brexit like shock next week. After each bullet point I wanted to say "Yeah, but..." and I'm not sure, with the opening this new e-mail deluge gives Confederates and the criminal Trump clan, that Clinton is a lock. Not sure at all.
Expect even more Trump assisting data dumps from Julian and Vlad on Monday and Tuesday. The idea is to keep Clinton dancing as fast as she can and allow the Bigot to guffaw his stupid way to the White House.
This is bad.
The Market over-reacted as usual, from the 150 point drop on the 'breaking' e-mail story...to end up the day at Meh! Think we need to sit back on this so-called shocker and wait for the facts. (Oh? too much to expect?).
Of course, it's great weekend fodder for Faux & Company.