The Commentariat -- Sept. 22, 2016
... Natasha Geiling of Think Progress on how climate change is ruining fall. -- CW
Afternoonish Update:
This Is Quaint. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a devastating blow to the governor's innermost circle and a repudiation of how his prized upstate economic development programs were managed.... The charges against the former aides, Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and the state official Alain Kaloyeros..., stemmed from 'two overlapping criminal schemes involving bribery, corruption and fraud in the award of hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts and other official state benefits,' federal prosecutors said in the complaint." CW: Maybe not up to par with bundles of cash in the freezer, but good, old-fashioned, Supreme Court-approved bribery: "In emails and other correspondence, Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe referred to the bribes as 'ziti,' according to the complaint."
It's All Obama's Fault. Philip Bump of the Washington Post reports that, in a not so surprising interview with a Trump campaign chair in an Ohio county, Kathy Miller, "... she doesn't think 'there was any racism until [Barack] Obama got elected' and that black Americans 'have an advantage' over whites because they 'got into schools without the same grades as white kids.' If black Americans haven't been successful in the last 50 years, she said, 'it's [their] own fault.'" Akhilleus: Well, whadaya know? I never realized that there was NO racism until Obama came along. Damn that Kenyan guy! He ruined it for all of us....so what does the boss say?...
It IS Obama's Fault! Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump on Thursday pinned the blame for the turmoil in Charlotte, North Carolina, on President Barack Obama, suggesting that the violent protests there show a 'wounded country' that 'looks bad to the world.' Pausing for roughly 10 minutes during an energy speech in Pittsburgh at the Shale Insight Conference to address the Charlotte unrest, Trump also presented himself as the man to heal America's racial divides. Akhilleus: I can see it now, President KKK will be the guy to fix all those racial problems caused by that divisive creep Obama. Whadda guy. Will "Stop and Frisk" be a big part of the fix?
Freedom of Speech in Trump's Amerika: Protesters piss you off? Kill them. Elizabeth Preza of Alternet: "What should peace-loving citizens do if they encounter protesters blocking a highway in Charlotte, NC? Well, if you're USA Today columnist and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, you should 'run them down.' Reynolds, who produces a website called 'Instapundit' and whose Twitter account presumably doesn't constitute legal advice, quickly deleted the tweet -- but this is the internet, and there's nothing like Instashaming to remind a person that advocating for the death of innocent people is really never a good idea." Akhilleus: Only in an Amerika where millions of morons are lining up to vote for a racist demagogue could you find a professor of law from a major university suggesting the cold-blooded murder of citizens for daring to exercise their first amendment rights. Trump must be sending this guy a lot of love.
*****
Richard Fausset & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A second night of protests sparked by the police killing of a black man spiraled into chaos and violence after nightfall on Wednesday when a demonstration was interrupted by gunfire that killed a man in the crowd and law enforcement authorities fired tear gas in a desperate bid to restore order. Within an hour, officials used the city's Twitter account to confirm the death of the unidentified man, which they attributed to a 'civilian on civilian' confrontation." -- CW ...
... The Charlotte Observer story by Ely Portillo & others, is here. The Observer is updating developments here.
Presidential Race
Matt Flegenheimer & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Of all the attacks that Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats have tried against Donald J. Trump..., one has stood out...: No one, it seems, can abide Mr. Trump's mockery last year of a reporter's physical disability. And as Mrs. Clinton strains to make a more forceful case for her own candidacy..., her campaign believes that a focus on an often-overlooked constituency -- voters with disabilities -- can accomplish both goals at once. On Wednesday, without mentioning the Trump episode, Mrs. Clinton discussed her vision for an 'inclusive economy' with expanded job opportunities for what she called 'a group of Americans who are, too often, invisible, overlooked and undervalued -- who have so much to offer, but are given far too few chances to prove it.'" -- CW
Hillary Clinton, in a New York Times op-ed, outlines her plans to help the poor: "The best way to help families lift themselves out of poverty is to make it easier to find good-paying jobs.... I will work with Democrats and Republicans to make a historic investment in good-paying jobs.... And we need to make sure that hard work is rewarded by raising the minimum wage and finally guaranteeing equal pay for women.... We also need a national commitment to create more affordable housing.... My plan would expand Low Income Housing Tax Credits in high-cost areas.... Tim Kaine and I will model our anti-poverty strategy on Congressman Jim Clyburn's 10-20-30 plan.... Donald J. Trump has a different approach. He divides America into winners and losers.... His economic plans would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans, and would include an estimated $4 billion tax cut for his own family just by eliminating the estate tax.... One independent economic analysis revealed that with Mr. Trump's proposals in place, our economy would fall back into recession and inevitably push more families into poverty." -- CW
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton gave voice Wednesday to a question on the minds of many of her fiercest advocates in her race against the controversy-prone Donald Trump: Why isn't she way, way ahead? The Democratic nominee raised the issue here during an address via video conference to a gathering in Las Vegas of the Laborers' International Union of North America.... [Clinton] The former secretary of state ticked off her pro-union positions, including investing in infrastructure, raising the minimum wage and supporting collective bargaining. 'Having said all this, "Why aren't I 50 points ahead?" you might ask?' Clinton said.... 'If you do know somebody who might be voting for Trump, stage an intervention.... Try to talk some sense into them. Lay out the facts. The facts are on our side, about what I've done versus what he's done. Remember, friends don't let friends vote for Trump.'" -- CW
Ed Kilgore: "[O]ne aspect of [Clinton's] debate prep is much more of a crapshoot: anticipating what Donald Trump might do and how she can parry it. Therein lies the mystery: Trump is unpredictable and unconventional enough that counting on any one approach from him might be an unfortunate gamble. He has no history of general-election debates to consult...Only he and perhaps his handlers know what he's going to do. And so, methodical to a fault, it seems Team Clinton is planning for every contingency." --safari
Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump "is making high-income voters Democrats again. A new poll from Bloomberg Politics shows Hillary Clinton besting Trump among voters with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more by a margin of 46 to 42 percent. If Clinton maintains that advantage through Election Day, it would mark a new milestone on the Democratic Party's long path to conquering the upscale electorate ... no Democratic nominee has won that demographic since Bill Clinton's reelection in 1996." --safari
Issie Lapowsky of Wired: "As the Clintons move to disentangle themselves from their philanthropic group ahead of Hillary Clinton potentially clinching the presidency, the Clinton Foundation is winding down the [Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting] that has served as a victory lap for global do-gooders.... Just last week, Guidestar, an independent organization that keeps records on non-profit work, released a report comparing the Trump Foundation with Clinton's, and while Guidestar didn't come out and say it outright, there was no comparison. For starters, it found that the Clinton family has done the majority of its charitable giving through its foundation.... And while the Clinton Foundation has provided Guidestar with enough data to receive the organization’s top transparency seal, the report shows, 'the Trump Foundation provides no such metrics,' and thus, has not received a seal." -- CW
Do the Wrong Thing. Daily Beast Editors: "During a pre-taped 'core black issues' town-hall interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News..., Donald Trump revealed Wednesday that he would like to see 'stop-and-frisk' policing enacted nationwide as a way to end violence in black communities. 'I would do stop-and-frisk. I think you have to,' he reportedly said in response to an audience member's question about stopping 'black-on-black' crime." --safari ...
... The New York Times story, by Michael Barbaro & others, is here. Trump's "support for the polarizing crime-fighting policy -- which involves officers' questioning and searching pedestrians -- collides with his highly visible courtship of African-Americans, who have been disproportionately singled out by the tactic, data show. It also came as police shootings were once again drawing scrutiny and protest. For Mr. Trump, the timing was especially inauspicious.... As [Don] King, the retired boxing promoter, sought to explain how society unfairly categorizes African-Americans, he referred to a 'dancing and sliding and gliding nigger,' before quickly correcting himself. 'I mean Negro,' he said as Mr. Trump looked on a few feet behind him, grinning." -- CW ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "In a pre-taped interview on Fox News scheduled to air Wednesday night, Trump was asked by an audience member what he would do to address 'violence in the black community' and 'black-on-black crime.' Trump responded by proposing that 'stop-and-frisk' policing, in which an officer is empowered to stop an individual and frisk them for weapons or any other illegal contraband, be adopted nationwide. 'We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well and you have to be proactive and, you know, you really help people sort of change their mind automatically,' Trump told the questioner. '... In New York City it was so incredible, the way it worked.'" ...
... CW: It's incredible, all right. It makes a crime of walking while black or Hispanic. And the manner in which police forces employ it is unconstitutional. And, yeah, it "really helps people sort of change their minds automatically." Imagine you were walking down the street minding your own business & an aggressive cop thought you needed some frisking. If you thought stop-and-frisk was a good idea before, you would "automatically" change your mind. ...
... White Man's World. Eric Levitz points out numerous reasons stop-and-frisk is bad policy. "Beyond the weak substantive case for Trump's proposal, there's the audacity of a candidate who rails against moderate gun-safety reforms as civil-liberties violations -- but suggests that racially discriminatory police searches are an acceptable means of promoting public safety." -- CW ...
Ben Jacobs & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: At the event, Trump "also addressed the police shooting of Terrence Crutcher, an unarmed African American, on Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 'I don't know if she choked,' Trump said of the policewoman who allegedly killed Crutcher. 'He was walking, his hands were high, he was walking to the car, he put the hands on the car -- now maybe she choked, something really bad happened.'" CW: Of course she choked. She's a girl trying to do a "man's job." She doesn't even look like a police officer.
David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Using American Express points, Univision's late-nite anchor Enrique Acevedo, tipped off by WashPo readers, checked into the Trump National Doral hotel & resort in Miami, then snooped around, talking to cleaning staff, till he found one of Donald Trump's "philanthropic" portraits. "In 2014, the painting had been auctioned off during a charity gala at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump himself was the winning bidder, buying the painting for $10,000. Then, later, Trump actually paid for the painting with a check from his charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation.... A portrait paid for by a charity [funded by other people's money] was decorating the wall of Trump's for-profit business." -- CW ...
... "Trump's Slimy, Shameless Approach to Philanthropy." Washington Post Editors: "Sometimes charities associated with wealthy families or businesses tiptoe near ethical lines -- but charity experts say Mr. Trump's activity appears to be brazen.... Though the campaign insisted that The Post's reporting 'is peppered with inaccuracies and omissions,' it pointed to none and has offered no evidence telling a different story. In fact, Mr. Trump has a secret trove of documents that could help to clarify how much he has really given to charity in recent years, what his business dealings look like and potential conflicts of interest should he be elected president. These documents are his tax returns.... Mr. Trump is the least transparent major-party presidential nominee in recent memory -- and the one who Americans have the most reason to fear is hiding something." -- CW ...
... CW: If you are wondering how Donald Trump will perform in next week's debate, Judd Legum of Think Progress has a preview, not that we haven't seen this kind of evasion before: "Trump has not held a press conference since July. But he was finally asked about the misuse of his foundation's cash by a local reporter in Columbus, Ohio.... Trump was asked to 'explain to people why you may have used some charitable donations for personal uses.' 'The foundation is really rare. It gives money to vets. It's really been doing a good job, Trump replied. He added that 'we put that to sleep just by putting out the last report.' It's unclear what 'report' Trump is referencing and how it put the controversy 'to sleep.'" -- CW
No, Donald, Immigrants Don't Take Americans' Jobs. Julia Preston of the New York Times: "... according to a report published on Wednesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine..., immigrants do not take American jobs -- but with some caveats.... Donald J. Trump ... has called for a crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying they 'compete directly against vulnerable American workers.'... Do immigrants burden government budgets? That answer is 'more mixed,' Professor [Francine] Blau[, who led the study,] said.... The report called immigration 'integral to the nation's economic growth.'" -- CW: Yeah, but the study is just another scam propagated by left-wing elite eggheads who have no common sense & even if they have very good brains & have said a lot of things, they don't speak with themselves, number one.
Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "The Model for Donald Trump's Media Relations Is Joseph McCarthy." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CNN's Puppet Boy. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post contends that, by its hefty monthly "severage" payments -- and a possible balloon payment -- to former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the Trump campaign is "controlling every word" Lewandowsky utters in his other paid job: CNN "contributor." -- CW
** Meet Your Trump Supporters. David Neiwert & Sarah Posner, in Mother Jones: "According to an investigation by Mother Jones and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, since Trump officially announced his bid in June 2015 he has drawn effusive praise and formal backing from some of the country's most virulent neo-Nazis, white supremacists, militia supporters, and other extremist leaders. They include the head of the American Nazi Party, three former Ku Klux Klansmen, four people involved in a recent armed standoff against federal authorities at an Oregon wildlife refuge, and at least 15 individuals affiliated with organizations described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups. Trump has disavowed none of them." -- CW ...
... Then There's Alan. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Evan McMullin's presidential campaign has taken a racist tirade recently left in a staffer's voicemail inbox and turned it into a political ad highlighting the dangers of 'Donald Trump's America.' The ad, which will air online in select markets, features a recording of a personal cell phone message campaign spokeswoman Rina Shah received after appearing on Fox News last Friday. 'You frothing, libtard piece of shit Islamic dog,' the caller, identified only as 'Alan,' is heard saying in the ad.... 'Vote for the pathological lying criminal you fucking piece of shit ... and get out of our country ... while you're at it, got back and get fucked by your dirtbag Islamic terror scum friends. Slut.'... Shah was born in West Virginia. She is also not a Muslim. But in an interview with BuzzFeed News, she said Alan's voicemail was just a small sample of the abuse she has endured from Trump supporters.... Alan, who is Alan Pryce, told BuzzFeed he was a Trump supporter. "He claimed he had been disabled by an undocumented immigrant, and said he was supporting Trump as a consequence...." -- CW
Senate Races
Manu Raju of CNN: "Sen. Mark Kirk's campaign falsely asserted on its website that the Illinois Republican was a veteran of the Iraq war, a misstatement that comes six years after exaggerations over his military record nearly cost him his state's Senate seat.... Moreover, Kirk is now running for reelection against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who lost both of her legs during combat in Iraq.... Kirk campaign officials said the webpage was not meant to be made public, saying that it was supposed to be a private site while edits were being made to the page." -- CW
MEANWHILE in Missouri. Guns of November. Gail Collins: "Jason Kander, who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, assembles an assault rifle blindfolded while saying that he believes 'in background checks so the terrorists can't get their hands on one of these.' His opponent, Senator Roy Blunt, had been lambasting Kander for his failure to toe the straight National Rifle Association line.... The race is close and Kander cites polls that show most voters are fine with background checks. (The people he talks to, he added, are more worried about college debt, which Blunt once blamed on the students' 'personal living standard.') Still, it would be amazing if Missouri elected a candidate who's middle-of-the-road on guns, right after the State Legislature just set a record in the extremely competitive category of Loopiest N.R.A. Cave-In.... The N.R.A. went much, much further, and wiped out the permits entirely.... The new law also includes one of those 'stand your ground' provisions. Now people walking around after dark could reasonably presume that anybody they ran into might have a concealed weapon, and would have a right to fire first if they felt physically threatened." -- CW ...
Other News & Views
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Wednesday establishing that climate-change impacts must be factored into the development of all national security-related doctrine, policies and plans. The move signals Obama's determination to exercise his executive authority during his final months in office to elevate the issue of climate in federal decision-making, even though it remains unclear whether his successor will embrace this approach....John Holdren, the president's top science and technology adviser, said changing weather patterns and other climate impacts -- including drought, more-intense storms and rising sea levels -- are already exacerbating regional conflicts and 'straining the capacity of the United States and allied armed forces to deliver humanitarian and disaster relief.'" -- CW
Vanity Fair: "... Barack Obama recently invited the presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to the White House for a long, personal, open-ended conversation. The meeting, arranged by Vanity Fair, took place in the president's private dining room, just off the Oval Office." A transcript of their conversation follows. -- CW
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "A divided Federal Reserve, struggling to decide how soon to prune its economic stimulus campaign, said on Wednesday that it would wait at least a little longer. The Fed left its benchmark interest rate unchanged after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, although most of its officials said they expected to raise rates by the end of the year. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed's chairwoman, said she saw no reason to rush.... Even the decision to wait, however, exposes the Fed to continued attack by Donald J. Trump..., who has repeatedly charged that Ms. Yellen is delaying necessary action to help Democrats." -- CW
** Dana Milbank: "Impeachment is among the most severe and solemn powers Congress has, right up there with declaring war. Not since 1876 has an executive-branch appointee been impeached, and not in the history of the republic has Congress impeached an executive-branch official below the Cabinet level. Now, Republicans in Congress would change that. On Wednesday, they wheeled out the sacred tool of impeachment -- weeks before an election -- for the purpose of smearing an honorable public servant, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, in service of a lie.... To say this impeachment inquiry is a kangaroo court would be an insult to marsupials." Read on. -- CW ...
... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans have said they will not take up a House impeachment resolution. It would be up to the Senate to try Mr. Koskinen on any charges leveled by the House. But senators have instead praised him for his varied government career going back decades." -- CW
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers chastised Mylan's chief executive [Heather Bresch] for amassing an $18 million salary at a contentious congressional hearing Wednesday afternoon, as she evaded questions about how much profit the pharmaceutical company made off the lifesaving allergy drug EpiPen. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held up an EpiPen to punctuate his point that epinephrine - 'the juice' inside the device - costs about $1. The list price for a two-pack of the pens is $608, up about 500 percent in a decade. The hearing was the latest drug-pricing outrage to unite politicians from both sides of the aisle." -- CW ...
... New York Times Editors: "Meanwhile, Mylan has been lobbying to have the EpiPen included on a federal list of preventive medical services, which would require employers and insurers to pay the cost, without a patient share. Mylan, which controls nearly 90 percent of the market for epinephrine injectors, can raise the price so readily because it faces little competition.... Mylan's price gouging is only the latest example of a disturbing trend.... To have a real impact on drug prices, Congress will need to do a lot more than browbeat pharmaceutical executives in the hopes of shaming them into reducing their prices." -- CW ...
... Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "A US drug company has increased the price of an acne cream by more than 3,900% to $9,561 in less than 18 months in the latest example of drug 'price gouging', which has enraged the American public and become a central topic of debate in the presidential election campaign. Novum Pharma, a recently formed privately held Chicago-based company, bought the rights to drug Aloquin in May 2015. The 60g cream, which contains two cheap ingredients, was sold by its previous owner, Primus Pharmaceuticals, for $241.50." --safari
Tim Berners-Lee & Daniel Weitzner in a Washington Post op-ed explain to Ted Cruz that he does not own the internet. "Sen. Ted Cruz wants to engineer a United States takeover of a key Internet organization, ICANN, in the name of protecting freedom of expression. Cruz's proposal is one of the key sticking points in finalizing the government spending bill necessary to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30.... ICANN, in fact, has no power whatsoever over individual speech online. ICANN -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- supervises domain names on the Internet. The actual flow of traffic, and therefore speech, is up to individual network and platform operators." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Akhilleus: Cruz's contention comes from the mistaken, not to say ignorant, belief that somehow the US owns the internet. It does not. In fact, Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited with inventing the modern internet, is an Englishman who was working in Geneva when he came up with the original programming for internet protocols. Once again, Cruz is trying to shut down the government based on lies. Lying has become the most essential item in the Confederate tool box. Oh, and by the way, since when has Ted Cruz been a proponent of free speech for anyone who isn't a far right Confederate asshole?
Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "When Ahmad Khan Rahami returned in March 2014 from a nearly yearlong trip to Pakistan, he was flagged by customs officials, who pulled him out for a secondary screening. Still concerned about his travel, they notified the National Targeting Center, a federal agency that assesses potential threats, two law enforcement officials said. It was one of thousands of such notifications every year, and a report on Mr. Rahami was passed along to the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies, according to the law enforcement officials. Five months later, when Mr. Rahami's father told the police that he was concerned about his son having terrorist sympathies, federal agents again examined his travel history. And again..., the concerns were not found to warrant a deeper inquiry. Ahmad Rahami was not interviewed by federal agents." -- CW
Frank Rich on the recent terrorist attacks & coverage of them, the presidential race, & NBC Entertainment's Trump toadying.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker: "Arlie Russell Hochschild, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has just published a book, 'Strangers in their Own Land,' that tries to understand the emotional roots of the Tea Party movement and the Trump phenomenon.... Hochschild noticed that Tea Party enthusiasts and traditional conservatives gave her accounts of American society that boiled down to a single 'deep story.' This story was that America, which was once characterized by hard work, was now characterized by cheating; the image that Hochschild chose was that of people cutting in line." An interesting sociological study of rural America's decay. --safari
Cafeteria Catholics. Emma Green of The Atlantic: "There are lots of ways to be a Catholic public leader in the United States. But the only path that's impossible, it seems, is to advocate policies that fully follow the Church's teachings on Jesus. Politicians of both parties have to pick and choose their theology, sticking to party lines that defy the United States Conference on Catholic Bishops' guide to faithful citizenship.... Far from taking positions that are distinctive to their faith, many hold views that reflect their partisan allegiances." --safari
Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "On Wednesday morning, 31 countries officially ratified the Paris climate agreement, pushing it over one of the required thresholds needed for the agreement to enter into force. Sixty parties, representing 48 percent of the world's emissions, have now officially joined. For the Paris agreement to enter into force, at least 55 nations, representing at least 55 percent of global emissions, must formally ratify. That means that the agreement needs just 7 percent more greenhouse gas emissions before the agreement can enter into force." --safari...
... BUT Capitalism is Too Awesome, Ctd. Arthur Nelson of the Guardian, "A far-reaching global trade deal being negotiated in secret could threaten the goals of the Paris climate deal by making it harder for governments to favour clean energy over fossil fuels, a leak of the latest negotiating text shows. The controversial Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) aims to liberalise trade between the EU and 22 countries across the global services sector, which employs tens of millions in Europe alone...But a new EU text seen by the Guardian would oblige signatories to work towards 'energy neutrality' between renewable energy and fossil fuel power...but governments would first have to prove the necessity for regulations that legally constrain multinationals. The same clause was used in the World Trade Organisation's Gatt and Gats treaties which entered into force in 1995, and led to 44 complaints by multinationals via their governments. Of these, 43 were upheld." --safari
If this [whistleblower] was supposed to be at the branch at 8:30 a.m. and they showed up at 8:32 a.m, they would fire them. -- Former Wells Fargo human resources official ...
... Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Adam Raymond of New York: "On Tuesday, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf told the Senate Banking Committee that bank employees are 'encouraged to raise their hands' if they see illegal activity taking place. Turns out, that's so they can be fired. That's allegedly what happened to a handful of employees, who told CNN that they were let go after blowing the whistle on the fraudulent practices that resulted in $185 million in fines for the bank.... In addition to the fired employees, CNN spoke to someone who used to work in Wells Fargo HR. This official confirmed that the bank's strategy for dealing with whistle-blowers was to find ways to fire them 'in retaliation for shining light.'" -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Kate Zernike & Noah Remnick of the New York Times: "On the morning that Patrick J. Foye ordered the reversal of the mysterious lane closings near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, Bill Baroni, [now on trial] appeared in his office, visibly on edge. Mr. Baroni, Gov. Chris Christie's top appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge, beseeched Mr. Foye, the agency's executive director [appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York], to reclose the lanes. He kept pressing even after Mr. Foye reminded him that ambulances had been caught in the gridlock caused by the lane closings.... 'He said the issue was important to Trenton,' Mr. Foye recalled on Wednesday during testimony in United States District Court. 'I took that to be the governor's office.'" -- CW
Republicans demand hands off by big government and reduced spending. Oops...unless they're the ones who want it. Rich Perry of Saint Peter's Blog: Florida governor Rick Scott is incensed that President Obama won't open the door to the money room for him to mooch off. 'But in a letter directed to the President on Tuesday, the governor lays out the case that it's beyond time for the feds to help out the nation's third-biggest state, following the damages incurred from Hurricane Hermine.... The governor states there has been more than $36 million in damages due to the hurricane. A presidential disaster declaration would provide federal resources to support recovery efforts in Florida." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: Funny that wingers in Florida are demanding help from the government for events caused largely by climate change, something they claim doesn't exist. Then they want government money for the Pulse nightclub slayings, this in a state that celebrates gun ownership to the point of rampant idiocy. The reporter suggests that denial of assistance is due to Scott's repeated attempts to undermine the president's programs such as the ACA but offers no proof. Typical.
From Lovely Farm-to-Table Dinner to "Bloody Brawl." Nick Miller of the (Sacramento) East Bay Express: "Multiple sources have confirmed that Sacramento Mayor, former NBA star, and UC Berkeley standout Kevin Johnson was hit in the face with a pie [Wednesday] night at a farm-to-table dinner event -- then he tackled and assaulted the protester in a 'bloody' brawl.... After [throwing the pie], the protester reportedly said something to Johnson. This prompted the mayor to allegedly tackle the protester and punch him in the face "repeatedly," more than half a dozen times, landing 'five to 10' blows.... witnesses say that the pie-thrower was hit multiple times in the face and will definitely need stitches, and that there was visible blood.... Police said that the there was a cut above the suspect's eye, but that he did not know the size. However, Thompson was transported to a local hospital after the incident, police confirmed.... [The pie-thrower' Sean Thompson was arrested for felony assault of a public official." Apparently Johnson was not. ...
... CW: Mayor Johnson, who attended the high school where the event was held, is married to education wingnut Michelle Rhee, who also was at the dinner. Johnson turned the school into a charter school. I'd say a pie-in-the-face was warranted. Note the difference in tone & content of the SacBee's coverage, linked here, & the Express's report. ...
... Last year Dave McKenna of Deadspin wrote an extremely negative account of Kevin Johnson's "civic" career. -- CW
Way Beyond
Barbara Starr of CNN: "ISIS is suspected of firing a shell with mustard agent that landed at the Qayyara air base in Iraq Tuesday where US and Iraqi troops are operating, according to several US officials. The shell was categorized by officials as either a rocket or artillery shell. After it landed on the base, just south of Mosul, US troops tested it and received an initial reading for a chemical agent they believe is mustard.No US troops were hurt or have displayed symptoms of exposure to mustard agent." -- CW
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Reader Comments (16)
Yup––the Kevin Johnson pie in the sky story rang a bell. Here a redux from 2012:
I found the Campbell Brown video from yesterday most interesting given that
her husband, Dan Senor, is on the board of StudentsFirst N.Y.arm of
Michelle Rhee's coalition funded by Rubert Murdoch and others who have an
interest in destroying teacher's unions. And the fact that Senor who has been is a Romney
advisor sheds a lot of light on Ms. Brown's allegations which according to
Diane Ravitch are poppycock. Then if we follow Michelle Rhee's political
minglings we find she was on Rick SCOTT's transition team, was beside SCOTT
Walker during one of his speeches, and her coalition launched an initiative
to defend Rep. Paul SCOTT against a recall effort. We could conclude Rhee
may be suffering from Scotophilia! When we also learn about her husband,
Kevin Johnson, former NBA star (Rhee's first husband also named Kevin and by
the way, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a terrific film) we find he was
accused of sexual misconduct at his charter school (he is now mayor of
Sacramento under investigation for the improper use of City Hall resources
by his nonprofits). Adding to all this is Michelle's snarky past cheating
scandal in the DC schools; lying about her past experience; lying about the
300 teachers she fired quite a few, she said, were child molestersthere
was actually only ONE ––makes for a fascinating story especially when you connect all the
dots which point to the destruction of unions and privatizing our schools.
The idea of an openly racist, white supremacist and Nazi courting pig like Massa Trump and his plantation overseer Sean Hannity holding a town hall meeting to discuss "core black issues" is as far beyond the pale as Trump serving as the keynote speaker at a conference on women's equality. It would be like hiring Jim Inhofe to lecture climate scientists about how they can improve their research, or inviting Kim Davis to address the importance of equal Constitutional protections for members of the LGBTQ community.
It's an insulting farce. Pretty much like the whole of this Potemkin campaign.
The funny thing is that here's a guy (Donaldo) who, had he stayed out of the race, would have been known, to most of the public, as a self-promoting rich guy, a bit of a jerk, very full of himself, and a minor TV personality who had made some seriously bonehead plays over the years. Instead he'll be remembered as one of the most terrible, bigoted, lying cheaters, a cowardly thug and a smirking, ignorant clown. And that's only if he loses. If he wins I cannot imagine what this creepy little putz will add to his litany of horribles when he has control of the power of the federal government and the office of the president.
And the most stunning discovery, although it shouldn't be? Even after all the revelations of Trumpian perfidy, hatreds, and scams, millions will vote for him.
PD,
Michelle Rhee is just another self-promoting piggy at the trough. And just like that biggest of trough devouring pigs, Trump, her scams, while personally enriching, do serious damage to the vulnerable communities she has darkened with her vulture wings.
Evan Osnos from the New Yorker tells us what it would be like if Trump becomes President:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/president-trumps-first-term?intcid=mod-most-popular
No wonder Michelle Obama is so beloved. She has all the attributes of someone who you'd like to have as a friend. She truly connects to "the people" in a way most first lady's don't. Someone once said "she is so real"––I think that's about the best explanation ever.
It's amazing to me that Trump would be advocating "Stop and Frisk" when it was found unconstitutional, and after it was stopped the crime rate in NYC went way down. The Donald LIVES in NYC and he is ignorant of this? Add this nugget to all the others whose mound of golden oldies that are are going to fuck him in––––Nah, this one like all the others won't budge the bunch that believe in Bullshit.
Keith Olbermann goes off on Trump for his dog whistle calls of political assassination. I've been amazed myself that Trump hasn't received more scrutiny for his completely disgusting innuendos towards unarming Hillary's bodyguards. Olbermann is the first I've seen to go at him hard, with historical context.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7d2ayLb2lg
@PD Pepe: I can't tell if your first comment is your original work or if it is somebody else's writing. I am leaving it up for now on the assumption it's something you wrote in 2012, since you give no credit to another writer.
However, the broken lines suggest it may be somebody else's work you have copied & pasted. If so, unless it's from quite a long article, you have borrowed too much of the writer's work. Please let me know, as I certainly don't want to remove your original writing on the basis of my unverified suspicion.
Marie
@Marie: Sorry to confuse you. I save many of my postings from R.C. for historical purposes so yes, this is my own comment from 2012. I should have indicated such. May I add that I have also saved some of your gems as well as others.
@PD Pepe: Great! Thanks for following up.
Marie
Akhilleus
"core black issues"?
Is this what is referred to in the South as "the Negro problem"?
Tip: Not trying to be a wisea**, but here's a tip for PD and others—about Copy and Paste in the Post window—it is always a good idea to click on the Preview Post button, then you can check to see how sentences will appear in your post. Sometimes, it take a bit (and sometimes a lot!) of backspacing and line tweaks with another Preview Post review or two to avoid those odd one or two word sentence breaks!
Why isn't she way, way ahead?
She is a she.
She isn't a racist.
She can't get her positions into the minds of half the population.
Dan,
Ha. Yeah, I suppose it could be, except that there is no "negro problem" for Trump. His plan is to stop 'em all and frisk 'em (even Steppinfetchits like Don King won't be immune no matter how amusing the King finds them), and even if they've got nothing on them, arrest them anyway because you just can't be too safe from those awful non-white moochers.
A couple of years in solitary followed by a show trial lasting 30 seconds, overseen by a judge from Junior's rolodex of white supremacist supporters, then it's off to prison, or if they're Hispanic, loaded into a trebuchet and fired over the parapets of the Trump Wall to Mexico, even if they're not from there (also, without the net).
I'm wondering if he's decided at what intervals he'll have gigantic Soviet style portraits of himself painted on that wall. Every 1000 feet? Nah...better make it every 100, just so's they can all see the face of the Great Leader as they're flung out of the country.
No problem.
Clinton isn't far ahead because for a generation now, angry white voters have been courted by Fox style narratives crafted to appeal our worst instincts, fears, and prejudices. It's so much easier than actually trying to make sense of events. Simply reporting the news is not enough for the demagogues. They need "news" they can use, that is, manipulate to fit into their vision of what will raise the most hackles, cause the most outrage, and incentivize white voters to pull the lever, often against their own best interests, for an invented vision of a dark and scary America.
Rupert Murdoch, and his sexually abusive pet shark Roger Ailes are largely to blame for this state of affairs. But also the wider media that has gone along with slightly modified versions of the No Fact Zone reporting that Fox specializes in. At this point, all they need is the angry drunk guy at the end of the bar who spouts incessant nonsense, at least until he passes out, and whose every fabrication is taken as gospel by the rubes who listen in. These are people who don't want nuance. They don't want lengthy explanations, they don't want understanding. They want their most vicious beliefs to be supported, their darkest, most baseless fears stoked, and their most violent fantasized reactions to be exonerated and given a pass because "those people" have it coming anyway.
This is why Trump's worst excesses don't bother them. He is the avatar of their own inner demons let loose upon the world. He is the beast through whom they get to spit in the faces of all those Bill O'Reilly has been warning them about for years.
He is the most malignant spirit of their nature.
And after listening to manufactured outrage after manufactured outrage for years, they finally have someone as stupid and angry and ignorant as themselves but someone they believe to be powerful enough to kick around all those non-white usurpers and moochers they've been taught to hate without reservation or understanding.
And that's the biggest reason Hillary isn't doing much better. A candidate with spotless personal and public credentials would have a tough time of it as well. It's so much easier to give in to the dark side. Taking the high road is hard. It requires commitment, critical thought, compassion, appreciation for nuance and knowledge, and most of all, a well defined spirit of humanity that can accommodate openness and tolerance.
This is not the world Stormtrumpers inhabit or want anything to do with. They want a vicious, mouthy pig, and that's what they have.
Watch for the little boy from New York who offered a home to Omran Daqneesh, the boy from Aleppo made famous by the photograph taken of him sitting stunned and bleeding in an ambulance after a bomb attack, to become a target for Trump family hatred for daring to invite a future terrorist Skittle into the country.
The decency of a six year old boy shines a glaring light on the stunning lack of that same quality in the Confederate now trying to scheme, scam, bluster, and bully his way into a seat of world power.
Scroll down the CNN piece linked herein and see another story linked in which the Trump campaign fully supports and defends Little Adolf's comparison of Syrian refugees to poisoned candy.
Execrable assholes in comparison with the simple virtue and faith in humanity of a young boy, clearly a boy brought up without the toxic blood borne pathogens that warp the Trump family.
The Gail Collins story about the veteran running for a senate seat in Missouri reminded me of a BBC World Service story I heard last night about a trip across America, this installment, mostly investigating the thinking of Americans in the South and Midwest. A stop in Missouri was especially, well, enlightening is not the best word for it. How about eye opening?
First you discover that the only hard working Americans are Republicans. Hard working Americans also don't believe in handouts, unless they are for themselves. On one hand, the poor are castigated as lazy. If they're not rich, or at least well off, they have only themselves to blame. And it's all Obama's fault. Meanwhile, down the street, another Missourian who is not well off, says she needs help but is not getting it. And it's all Obama's fault.
Missourians attack people going in to Planned Parenthood clinics, shouting slurs and hate filled epithets at them, encouraging violent reactions then blaming the citizens themselves. They brag about photographing and harassing anyone going in to a clinic, calling them murderers. Also, you learn that real Americans are all Christian fundamentalists who are desperately trying to keep the country from slipping under the control of the haters of America.
And it's all Obama's fault.
The essential racism of it all seeps through like fetid groundwater rising up from a poorly covered sump. It stinks to high heaven.
And you also learn that Democrats are bad. Very bad. And that's Obama's fault too.
The interviewer, who had previously done this same trip after Obama was first elected was interested to see if the children who had been taught to hate the first black president had learned a thing or two in the intervening years and perhaps developed their own take, their own set of principles apart from those of their parents. Maybe that's happened somewhere, but not among any of those interviewed.
It's a scary trip. Even though I now live in the heartland of Red State America, it still seems like a foreign country to me, and Missouri seems like a place even more alien. Trump Country.
The Don-Dons: Two More Vultures Of A Feather
How (infuriatingly) typical of The Media to focus on King's 'misspoken' use of The N Word while endorsing his buddy, Drumpf.
Why not, instead, shine light on the following (not an inclusive listing, btw) . . . ?
The money from King's (alleged) Ali "charity" fight that donated a mere pittance to the charity while King pocketed the rest.
King invoking the Fifth Amendment during a Senate investigation of King's "business" relationship with John Gotti.
King has been sued, multiple times, by the likes of
The Late Muhammed Ali
Lennox Lewis
Terry Norris
Larry Holmes
Tim Witherspoon, and more -
for ripping them off (ie: not paying his employees, as promised/ contracted: sound familiar?)
As for King's - and Drumpf's - claims of loving, supporting & promoting the safety of women . . .
King hired an attorney (whom Tyson's defenders believe was the wrong attorney & why Tyson was [unjustly] convicted of raping Desiree Washington) to defend Tyson.
And here's how Donny-boy weighed-in, articulating his own style of love, understanding & respect re: women -
http://www.mediaite.com/online/donald-trump-blamed-mike-tysons-rape-victim-she-went-to-hotel-room-on-her-own-will/
A rushed & peeved offering while poised for the subway -
From My MoBile