The Commentariat -- September 22, 2017
Afternoon Update:
** Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced on Friday that he will vote against the latest GOP effort to repeal ObamaCare, potentially dooming the legislation. 'I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,' he said in a statement, referring to the legislation spearheaded by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C) and Bill Cassidy (La.)."
Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump warned Republicans Friday morning to fall in line behind last-ditch legislation in the Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare, writing online that any GOP lawmaker who votes against the bill will be remembered as 'the Republican who saved Obamacare. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of the repeal-and-replace bill's loudest opponents in the Senate, was singled out by the president's Friday morning warning. 'Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as "the Republican who saved ObamaCare,"' Trump wrote on Twitter." ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Rand Paul, a definitive 'no' on Senate Republicans' last-ditch effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, 'won't be bribed or bullied' into supporting the bill, the Kentucky Republican said Friday." ...
... Joe Lawlor of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "U.S. Sen. Susan Collins all but said she would vote 'no' on an Affordable Care Act repeal bill on Friday morning at an event in Portland. 'I'm leaning against the bill,' the Maine Republican said after listing a series of serious deficiencies in the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In theory, there are now three GOP votes against Graham-Cassidy if Collins keeps a-leaning till she topples over. That's all they need. But I'd feel a lot better if Murkowski & several other Republican senators announced "no" votes.
Michael Shear & Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "President Trump's ban on travelers from six majority-Muslim countries is set to be replaced as soon as this weekend with more targeted restrictions on visits to the United States that would vary by country, officials familiar with the plans said on Friday. The new restrictions, aimed at preventing security threats from entering the United States, could go into effect on Sunday after the conclusion of a 90-day policy review undertaken as part of the administration's original travel ban. Though the restrictions would differ for each country, people living in the targeted nations could be prevented from traveling to the United States or could face increased scrutiny as they seek to obtain a visa." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hard to tell at this point, but the move looks a bit like part of the de-Bannonization of the White House.
Tommie & the Jets. Dan Diamond of Politico: "The HHS inspector general's office is reviewing HHS Secretary Tom Price's taxpayer-funded travel on private jets, a spokesperson told Politico. 'We take this matter very seriously, and when questions arose about potentially inappropriate travel, we immediately began assessing the issue,' the spokesperson said. 'I can confirm that work is underway and will be completed as soon as possible.' Politico first reported on Tuesday that Price had been taking private jets to conduct official business for months. Democrats on Wednesday formally requested an investigation. The review focuses on whether Price complied with Federal Travel Regulations but may address related issues, the spokesperson said. Those regulations expressly advise officials that 'taxpayers should pay no more than necessary for your transportation.'"
Greg Sargent elaborates on the "statement from the National Association of Medicaid Directors that sharply criticizes Cassidy-Graham as unworkable and deeply destructive."
*****
David Nakamura & Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday announced an executive order to grant additional authority to the Treasury Department to enforce economic sanctions on North Korea and countries that do business with the rogue nation in Northeast Asia. The president also said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had ordered Chinese banks to cease conducting business with North Korean entities. Trump called the move 'very bold' and 'someone unexpected,' and he praised Xi. 'I must tell you this is a complete denuclearization of North Korea that we seek,' Trump said in brief public remarks during a meeting with the leaders of South Korea and Japan to discuss strategy to confront Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. Trump said the United States had been working on the North Korea problem for 25 years, but he asserted that previous administrations had 'done nothing, which is why we are in the problem we are in today.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Reuters: "China's central bank has told banks to strictly implement United Nations sanctions against North Korea, four sources told Reuters, amid U.S. concerns that Beijing has not been tough enough over Pyongyang's repeated nuclear tests.... The sources said banks were told to stop providing financial services to new North Korean customers and to wind down loans with existing customers, following tighter sanctions against Pyongyang by the United Nations." ...
... Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "Responding directly for the first time to President Trump's threat at the United Nations to destroy nuclear-armed North Korea, its leader called Mr. Trump a 'mentally deranged U.S. dotard' on Friday and vowed the 'highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history. The rejoinder by the leader, Kim Jong-un, who is about half as old as Mr. Trump, 71, added to the lexicon of Mr. Kim's choice of insults in the escalating bombast between the two." ...
... Chaucer! Shakespeare! Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I was wondering what a dotard was, so Rachel Chason & Freedom du Lac of the Washington Post obliged with a full explanation. Short definition: "Merriam-Webster defines the noun as 'a person in his or her dotage,' which is 'a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.'" So Kim got that right. Searches for "dotard" spiked yesterday. ...
... The Dotard Replies. John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump fired back at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday after Kim stated the U.S. would 'pay dearly' for threats Trump made in his speech at the United Nations. 'Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!' Trump tweeted." ...
... Margaret Talev & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump heaped praise on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday, comments that came amid international condemnation of Erdogan's crackdown on political dissent and just months after Turkish security officials beat up protesters during a visit to the U.S.... 'Frankly he's getting very high marks,' Trump said, sparing Erdogan any public admonition over international concerns about election violations and human-rights abuses. 'He's also been working with the United States,' Trump said. 'We have a great friendship and the countries -- I think we're right now as close as we've ever been.' Trump added that 'a lot of that has to do with a personal relationship.'" ...
... Forever Deplorable. In "Diplomatic" Meeting Trump Insults Clinton, Obama, South Korea. David Nakamura: "As he's shown repeatedly, Trump just can't seem to let go of his 2016 opponent, and Trump made a joke at her expense during a meeting with Moon on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly here. An interpreter for [South Korean President] Moon [Jae-in] used the word 'deplorable' in translating his remarks about the North's provocations, prompting Trump to cut in: 'I'm happy you used the world 'deplorable.' I was very interested in that word,' [he said, referring to Hillary Clinton's campaign remark].... As people in the room chuckled, Trump added in front of television cameras and reporters, 'I promise, I did not tell them to use that word. That's been a very lucky word for me and many millions of people.' Moon, waiting for a translator to repeat Trump's remarks, appeared uncomfortable but did not say anything. Wrapping up the introductory remarks, Trump also bashed the bilateral trade pact signed by President Barack Obama in 2011 as 'so bad for the United States and so good for Korea.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump insults a strong ally but "heaps praise on" an autocratic leader, one who reportedly sanctioned his "security team" to beat up Americans in the U.S. capital, which he sat in a limo & watched.
Scott Shane & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "Under growing public pressure to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on its site, Facebook said on Thursday that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to Congressional committees investigating the Kremlin's influence operation during the 2016 presidential election. 'I care deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity,' Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said during an appearance on Facebook Live, the company's video service. He added that he did not want anyone 'to use our tools to undermine democracy.'... Facebook had previously shown Congressional staffers a sample of the ads -- some of which attacked Hillary Clinton or praised Donald J. Trump -- but had not shared the entire collection.... Twitter, which has kept a low profile since Facebook's disclosure of the Russian intrusion, said it will brief the Senate Intelligence Committee next Wednesday behind closed doors." ...
... "Russia Hoax," Ctd. Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "President Trump early Friday called reports of Kremlin-linked groups buying Facebook ads to sway the 2016 election part of a 'Russia hoax.' 'The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?'..." ...
... Josh Dawsey of Politico: In addition to requesting written records, "Special counsel Robert Mueller has sought phone records concerning the statement written aboard Air Force One defending a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians at Trump Tower last year that was set up by Donald Trump Jr., according to two people familiar with the investigation. Mueller has also asked the White House for documents and email connected to a May 3 press briefing where Sean Spicer said the president had confidence in James Comey as FBI director, these people said. The request seeks to determine what White House officials -- particularly Spicer -- knew about the president's plans to fire Comey in the days before it happened, according to one of the people familiar with it." ...
... Ken Vogel & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Five years ago, Paul Manafort arranged for a prominent New York-based law firm to draft a report that was used by allies of his client, Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, to justify the jailing of a political rival.... The Justice Department, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, recently asked the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, for information and documents related to its work on behalf of Mr. Yanukovych's government, which crumbled after he fled to Russia under pressure.... As part of [Robert] Mueller's investigation, prosecutors last month issued grand jury subpoenas seeking testimony from officials from at least two lobbying and public relations firms that worked on the team Mr. Manafort assembled to plead Mr. Yanukovych's case in Washington -- Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group.... In a recent interview, John E. Herbst, a former United States ambassador to Ukraine..., said that Skadden 'should have been ashamed' of the report, calling it 'a nasty piece of work.'" ...
... Secret Agent. Noor Al-Sibai of the Raw Story: "'It's possible that Russia actually sent and dispatched Paul Manafort to the Trump campaign,' Jeremy Bash, who formerly served as chief of staff for the Defense Department and the CIA, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. 'Or at least that once Paul Manafort attached himself to the Trump campaign, the Russians said, okay, now our agent is inside.' The Kremlin, Bash argued, might have 'manipulated the campaign not just through propaganda ... but also through agents of influence.'... 'The ultimate question,' he continued, 'is whether or not Trump himself knew about it ... and once he found out that the bureau was investigating them, why did he try to shut down that investigation?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sometimes Conspiracy Theories Make Sense. Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "I wasn't surprised to see that ex-CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash was on television yesterday saying that it is quite possible that Paul Manafort was sent to the Trump campaign by the Russians. That had been my first thought ever since I read that Manafort had applied for the job unsolicited and with the promise that he would require no pay. All I knew about Manafort at the time was that he had been a partner with Roger Stone in an epically cynical influence-peddling consulting and lobbying firm during the 1980s. He'd worked for some of the most notorious dictators in the world and had a business model based on his ability to win the votes of the candidates he helped to elect. In other words, if I thought I knew anything about Manafort it was that he, like Roger Stone, lacked any core principles and would do unconscionable things for a buck. He was the opposite of the kind of ideologically committed person who offers to work for free." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... Paul Manafort used his presidential campaign email account to correspond with a Ukrainian political operative with suspected Russian ties, according to people familiar with the correspondence. Manafort sent emails to seek repayment for previous work he did in Ukraine and to discuss potential new opportunities in the country, even as he chaired Trump's presidential campaign, these people said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Robert S. Mueller III is clearly building a case against Paul Manafort.... The inescapable conclusion from that is that he is hoping Manafort will cut a deal -- that he'll 'flip' on Trump and spill whatever beans he might have to spill.... And if the initial response to the latest Manafort news is any indication, the White House is preparing to fight Manafort head-on.... [Wednesday the Post reported on some e-mails Manafort wrote. In one, he] discusses his newfound high profile as a Trump strategist and asks an employee, 'How do we use [this] to get whole?' -- apparently referring to debts he believed he was owed but had been unable to collect. The White House is now seizing on that latter email. In comments to Bloomberg's Margaret Talev late Wednesday, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said that 'it would be truly shocking. if Manafort tried to monetize his relationship with the president.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Cobb's "shock" is of course hilarious. Never in history has a president so actively "monetized" the office as has Cobb's boss Donald $$$ Trump.
Spicey Unfriends Mike Allen of Axios: Allen writes, "Now we can tell you about another potential honey pot for Mueller. Former colleagues of Sean Spicer tell Axios that he filled 'notebook after notebook' during meetings at the Republican National Committee, later at the Trump campaign, and then at the White House.... When we texted Spicer for comment on his note-taking practices, he replied: 'Mike, please stop texting/emailing me unsolicited anymore.' When I replied with a '?' (I have known Spicer and his wife for more than a dozen years), he answered: 'Not sure what that means. From a legal standpoint I want to be clear: Do not email or text me again. Should you do again I will report to the appropriate authorities.'" About an hour later, after Allen emailed Spicer again, Spicer wrote back, in part, that if Allen sent him any more "unsolicited" message, "I will contact the appropriate legal authorities to address your harassment." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Spicey Lies about Lying. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "In an interview broadcast Thursday on 'Good Morning America...,' Spicer said he doesn't think he's lied to the American people. 'I made mistakes, there's no question. Some of them I tried to own very publicly,' Spicer said.... Correspondent and weekend host Paula Faris also asked Spicer whether Trump had ever asked him to lie, to which Spicer said 'no,' without elaborating." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dan Diamond of Politico: "Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has taken at least 24 flights on private charter planes at taxpayers' expense since early May, according to people with knowledge of his travel plans and a review of HHS documents. The frequency of the trips underscores how private travel has become the norm -- rather than the exception -- for the Georgia Republican during his tenure atop the federal health agency, which began in February. The cost of the trips identified by Politico exceeds $300,000, according to a review of federal contracts and similar trip itineraries. Price's use of private jets represents a sharp departure from his two immediate predecessors, Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Kathleen Sebelius, who flew commercially in the continental United States." Price could easily have made many of flights on commercial carriers. Mrs. McC: Price, of course, promised to eliminate "waste fraud & abuse" at HHS. ...
... Margaret Hartmann's Headlines Are So Funny: "HHS Explains Tom Price Spent $300K on Private Jets Because He's a Man of the People." Mrs. McC: The story justifies the headline. BTW, Betsy DeVos, when on official business, also travels the country on a private plane or planes. She owns them, & she doesn't charge the taxpayer for her trips. DeVos is dimwitted, but apparently she's rich enough not to try to stiff the Treasury to accommodate her personal comfort. Unlike her boss.
"Cruelty, Incompetence & Lies" -- The Essence of Graham-Cassidy
This is by far the most radical of any of the Republican health care bills that have been debated this year. And the reason for that is that this would be the biggest devolution of federal money and responsibility to the states for anything, ever. -- Larry Levitt, a senior vice president with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, on the Graham-Cassidy ACA-Medicaid repeal bill ...
... Kate Zernike, et al., of the New York Times: The Graham-Cassidy bill "dismantles the Medicaid expansion and the system of subsidies to help people afford insurance. It gives the states the right to waive many of the consumer protections under President Obama's landmark health law. And it removes the guaranteed safety net that has insured the country's poorest citizens for more than half a century.... The legislation would turn over more than $1 trillion that would have been spent on ... Obamacare over the next seven years -- everything from the funds for the expansion of Medicaid to the subsidies to help people buy private insurance -- to states as 'block grants' with very few strings attached. They would then use the money to set up their own health care programs. Congress would have to reauthorize the money after 2026 or it would go away." ...
... ** Paul Krugman: "Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on next week, is stunningly cruel. It's also incompetently drafted: The bill's sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together. Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies. Nonetheless, the bill could pass. And that says a lot about today's Republican Party, none of it good." ...
... Gene Robinson: "Motivated by the cynical aims of fulfilling a bumper-sticker campaign promise and lavishing tax cuts on the wealthy, Republicans are threatening to pass a health-care bill they know will make millions of Americans sicker and poorer. Do they think we don't see what they're doing?... The GOP's efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have undergone a process of devolution, with each new bill worse than the last.... It is tempting to let the Republican Party drive itself, Thelma-and-Louise style, off this cliff. But the human impact of the latest repeal-and-replace measure would be too tragic. Call your senator." ...
... "Senator Cassidy, Please Stop Lying about Health Care." David Leonardt of the New York Times: "Here's a giveway about how bad the new Senate health care bill is: Bill Cassidy, one of its authors, keeps trying to sell it by telling untruths. 'The relatively new phenomenon of just "up is down" lying about your bill's impacts is jarring,' says Loren Adler of the USC-Brookings-Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy. Most egregiously, Cassidy is claiming that the bill would not ultimately deprive sick people of health insurance. That's false, as NPR calmly explained when Cassidy said otherwise.... In the least surprising development of all, President Trump is now repeating Cassidy's falsehoods." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: The Graham-Cassidy bill "would require all the states in the country to make a ... soup-to-nuts evaluation of how they'd like their health care systems to work, to build such a system and be ready to open their doors in ... just over two years[: half the time it took Massachusetts to get RomneyCare up & running].... The Obamacare coverage programs would disappear everywhere in 2020, and any state unable to make a plan and submit an application would be ineligible for the new grant funding. If a state succeeds in obtaining the funding but doesn't have a functioning new system on Jan. 1, 2020, consumers and markets would be thrown into chaos." ...
... Update. The Week: "On Thursday, the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD), a group representing the Medicaid directors from all 50 states, joined other medical and patient advocacy groups in opposing the latest Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, named after sponsors Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.). The bill would scrap ObamaCare's subsidies for consumers and Medicaid expansion and redistribute that money as state grants, in what the NAMD board of directors calls 'the largest intergovernmental transfer of financial risk from the federal government to the states in our country's history.' The Medicaid directors said they don't want that risk, especially without being consulted first, and they called a Congressional Budget Office score -- which Graham-Cassidy won't have before voting -- 'the bare minimum required for beginning consideration.' Setting up entire new health-care programs in 50 states requires an enormous amount of work and resources, NAMD said, and 'the vast majority of states will not be able to do so within the two-year timeframe envisioned here, especially considering the apparent lack of federal funding in the bill to support these critical activities.'" ...
... Dylan Scott of Vox: "The Alaska auction is on.... Over the past two days, it's become clear that Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to funnel more money to Alaska and persuade [Sen. Lisa] Murkowski that this is the Obamacare repeal bill she should back. Take a look: Business Insider eyed an oddity in Sen. Bill Cassidy's spreadsheets that suggests Alaska could end up receiving an additional bump to its block grants under the bill. Politico noticed that Alaska could also end up being exempted from the bill's Medicaid spending caps. Now IJR is reporting that the plan might be revised to allow Alaska (along with Hawaii) to keep the Obamacare tax subsidies, while also still receiving block grant money. Nothing is baked in until we see a final bill -- the rumor mill in Washington is working overtime right now.... But remember: Every outside analysis we've seen estimates that Alaska would lose funding under Graham-Cassidy." ...
... Caitlin Owens of Axios: "A new estimate obtained by Axios from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that Alaska, home to key swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski, would lose 38% of federal funding for premium subsidies and Medicaid by 2026 under the Graham-Cassidy proposal. John McCain's home state of Arizona would also lose funding (-9% in 2026).... Even though the CMS numbers are rosier than other estimates, they still show states like Alaska and Arizona would be worse off under Graham-Cassidy, making it that much harder to wrangle the votes needed to pass the last-gasp Republican plan." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "Some of the [CMS] figures are almost unbelievable, like Connecticut's loss of 52 percent of its federal health dollars by 2026, and Mississippi's 347 percent funding increase." ...
... Update: Amy Goldstein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "An internal analysis by the Trump administration concludes that 31 states would lose federal money for health coverage under Senate Republicans' latest effort to abolish much of the Affordable Care Act, with the politically critical state of Alaska facing a 38 percent cut in 2026. The report, produced by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, focuses on the final year of a block grant that states would receive under the Cassidy-Graham legislation. It shows that government funding for such health insurance would be 9 percent lower overall in 2026 under the plan than under current law. The predicted loss is less than that forecast by three independent analyses of the bill's impact in recent days, but the internal numbers show a similar checkerboard of states that would be big winners and equally big losers." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... there is one scenario in which the Cassidy-Graham repeal bill could ... go down in spectacular fashion.... The Senate parliamentarian still may rule on whether key aspects of the bill can pass by a simple majority under reconciliation rules [which allow a simple majority vote]. If she strips out one of its most important features -- the one allowing states to waive some of the Affordable Care Act's regulations -- it could suddenly upend the deliberations of undecided senators. It would force a rapid vote on a measure that has changed dramatically with only a few days left, rendering this whole process even more abysmally absurd. And it would make failure -- spectacular failure -- more likely.... Some health policy analysts think there's a decent chance that the parliamentarian will strike those deregulatory features under the Byrd Rule, because they don't have a direct budgetary component." Stripped of some of its major components, Senators would vote next week on a very different bill from the current one. ...
... BUT Joan Walsh of the Nation looks at Senate political dynamics & makes a very good case that the bill will pass. Mrs. McC: In fact, if Graham-Cassidy comes to the floor, it is almost guaranteed to pass, as McConnell has said he'll only bring it up if he has the 50 votes to pass it. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd add these factors to Walsh's analysis. (1) GOP senators -- as Chuck Grassley made clear a couple of days ago -- campaigned on ObamaCare repeal, so by cracky, they're gonna keep that promise, no matter how; and (2) as Joy Reid said on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night, wealthy donors are telling GOP senators that they will withold campaign contributions if the senators don't vote for Graham-Cassidy -- these rich people know that gutting & eventually ending Medicaid will free up billions of dollars to be converted to tax cuts for the wealthy. It's all about the money, Reid said. ...
... Charles Pierce notes that Graham-Cassidy's block grants to states were Rick Santorum's idea. The words "shameless" & "asshole" come up in Pierce's report. ...
... Dan Boyd of the Albuquerque Journal: New Mexico "Gov. Susana Martinez [R] has waded into the debate on the latest Republican-backed Obamacare repeal plan -- and she's not sold on the bill's merits. 'While it's encouraging that Congress is working on a healthcare solution, the governor is concerned this bill could hurt New Mexico and still needs some work,' Martinez spokesman Joseph Cueto told the Journal.... That's likely because any loss of federal dollars -- the federal government currently pays 95 percent of the cost of those receiving benefits under Medicaid expansion -- could hit New Mexico particularly hard." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Medlar's Sports Report
Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end who committed suicide in April while serving a life sentence for murder, was found to have a severe form of C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma that has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L. players. Researchers who examined the brain determined it was 'the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron's age,' said a lawyer for Hernandez in announcing the result at a news conference on Thursday. Hernandez was 27. C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, can be diagnosed only posthumously. Hernandez is the latest former N.F.L. player to have committed suicide and then been found to have C.T.E., joining Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling and Jovan Belcher, among others. Seau and Duerson shot themselves in the chest, apparently so that researchers would be able to examine their brain." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a case in which at least two people died as a result of playing football. (Hernandez was acquitted of two other murders besides the one for which he was convicted.) So maybe four people died because of Hernandez's brain damage. Please stop watching or otherwise supporting football.
Beyond the Beltway
Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "The fertility rate in Flint, Mich., dropped precipitously after the city decided to switch to lead-poisoned Flint River water in 2014, according to a new working paper. That decline was primarily driven by what the authors call a 'culling of the least healthy fetuses' resulting in a 'horrifyingly large' increase in fetal deaths and miscarriages."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Tens of thousands of people in northwestern Puerto Rico were ordered to evacuate Friday afternoon after floodwaters from Hurricane Maria damaged the Guajataca Dam, which the National Weather Service said is in 'imminent' danger of failing. The dam, built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1929, suffered a "fissure," Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in a news conference Friday. An estimated 70,000 people in the municipalities of Quebradillas, Isabela and part of San Sebastian could be affected if the dam collapses, he said. A failure would likely send a massive amount of water from an inland lake along the Guajataca River, which flows north through coastal communities toward the ocean."
New York Times: "As Hurricane Maria plowed on from a stricken and sodden Puerto Rico, residents on Friday faced the arduous work of rebuilding that awaited them, a task made all the more formidable by the fact that, for now, the island has no power. With cell service spotty and roads tough to access across the island, communication with family members and among Puerto Rican officials was sparse, making it difficult to assess the extent of the damage. Flash flooding from the storm's trailing rain bands persisted on parts of the island and in the Dominican Republic, according to the National Hurricane Center."
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Reader Comments (10)
NYT: "Kim to Trump:
You’re a ‘Deranged U.S. Dotard’"
Congratulations Kim, excellent diagnosis.
And we need a new demonstration in Washington focusing on a chant:
Murderers, murderers, Republicans are murderers.
Trump obviously thinks he can cozy up to dictators like Erdogan ––"hey, he's my buddy, we get along like brothers, believe me." Strobe Talbott told us years ago that one of the obvious problems with personalized diplomacy, for all the hard work it may entail, is its intellectual laziness. It is the eternal fantasy of U.S. foreign policy that leaders can simply get together and talk things over like regular guys. Of course in this case it's more than intellectual laziness, it's a case of just plain laziness since there is no intellectual there there.
Learned last night from one of Rachel's guests that the Trump leftover campaign money (we wondered where it had gone) can go to pay for Trump's legal fees or anything else he may want to use it for. We just might want to change that––but it would be up to Congress to do it.
Once again Jimmy Kimmel is using his platform for political purpose and what a platform! He also knows that he may very well lose part of his audience––thems that cotton to Trump––but that has not prevented him for doing what he thinks is right. whata guy!
PD, while Kim has an excellent diagnosis, unlike Erdogan, he doesn't know how to 'treat' it. All he needs to say is Trump is the greatest POTUS in history and S. Korea is his. Americas new 'foreign policy'.
I'm betting that the tax write off for Devos' use of her private jet costs us more than the price of her flying commercial - remember she should be in the 40% marginal bracket though I doubt she actually pays anything close to that.
"Russia Hoax". Per trump, "The Russia hoax continues, now it's
ads in Facebook. WHAT ABOUT the totally biased and dishonest
media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
'Whataboutism is a propaganda technique formerly used by the
Soviet Union in its dealings with the Western World and subsequently
used as a form of propaganda in Post-Soviet Russia. When
criticisms were leveled at the Soviet Union, the Soviet response
would be "What about".......followed by an event in the Western
World'.
It appears that trump has learned a lot from his hero, Putin, but not
much about governing, except, it's my way or the highway.
@forrest Morris: Thanks for the whataboutism lesson. It seems similar to the "kitchen sink" argument: I'll complain about something Medlar has just done, & he'll respond with a litany of things I did or he thought I did going back years or decades. Of course his list of horribles is at least as bad as whatever quibble I have with him.
Can't wait for trump's Saturday morning toilet tweets about John
McCain. Will he be despicable, dotard, reprehensible or trump's
favorite, the one he can spell, "sad".
Whataboutism!! Fabulous! The Soviets may have used it to their advantage, but the Rs do it to perfection! Witness everyone asking the cheap bastards building Graham Crackerdy anything this week, and all you got was "...but Obamacare...blah blah blah..." and they never answered any questions directly... So glad to have a name for this kind of diddlysquat!
Forrest, my darling, puh-leeze don't explode the eyeballs of my mind with the suggestion of Cheetojesus on the throne tweeting between...whatever. Gack.
@Jeanne; That's why trump's spelling and sentence structure are so
crappy. (Sorry, couldn't help myself).
He picked the worst possible running mate, and he's quirky and mavericky, but John the McCain will leave a very positive legacy.
Besides he's got absolutely nothing to lose at the moment and everything to gain ("concentrating his mind wonderfully" to coin a phrase). Dignity, integrity and the license to serve the public interest.
We should all be so focused on the end game. Thanks, John.