All entries by this author

An extremely unflattering evidentiary record

Jul 23rd, 2018 4:41 pm | By

Jennifer Rubin points out that what Trump is doing is an attack on the First Amendment (you know, the first amendment to that thing he swore an oath to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic).

the attempt to squelch criticism of the administration based on the content of these ex-officials’ speech is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. “Despite the great latitude given the president in national security matters, and particularly on clearances, this is a new low,” says former White House counsel Norman Eisen. “It is so transparently based upon personal and political retaliation.” He continues, “It brings to mind other Trump classifications found unconstitutional by courts, including on First Amendment grounds, like the first

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Those who criticize the boss will be punished

Jul 23rd, 2018 3:46 pm | By

A disgusting display:

They will take their revenge on everyone if they can. We just have to hope they’ll be stopped in time.… Read the rest

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Reactions

Jul 23rd, 2018 2:52 pm | By

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Punishing the vocal critics

Jul 23rd, 2018 2:43 pm | By

Astonishing.

President Donald Trump is considering revoking security clearances from ex-officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

Sanders said Trump believed that the former officials “politicized” their positions by accusing Trump of inappropriate contact with Russia, and she said in that some cases they “monetized their clearances,” without clarifying what she meant.

“The fact that people with security clearances are making baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence,” Sanders said. She also said Trump was eyeing clearances held by former NSA Director Michael Hayden, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former FBI Deputy

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A word has not been said

Jul 23rd, 2018 12:03 pm | By

This one, in particular.

That sub-literate phrasing – “A Rocket has not been launched by North Korea in 9 months” when he means “No rocket has been launched by NK” or “NK has launched no rocket”…he can’t even get something that basic right.

But then of course the substance is just fatuous. The fact that they’re not currently launching rockets doesn’t … Read the rest

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The ruling elites have enriched themselves through corruption

Jul 23rd, 2018 10:19 am | By

Pompeo was ranting at Iran yesterday a few hours before Trump’s late-night all caps threat.

Pompeo’s remarks Sunday reprised his criticism of the Iranian government, but on a deeply personal level that is likely to be repeated in the U.S. government broadcasts into Iran.

He lit into what he called Iran’s “hypocritical holy men,” saying the ruling elites have enriched themselves through corruption, and called out officials by name who he said had plundered government coffers through embezzlement or by winning lucrative contracts.

I wonder if any thoughts of his boss occurred to him while he did all that.

He cited “the billionaire general,” Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsouli; Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, the “Sultan of Sugar”; and Sadeq Ardeshir Larijani,

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It’s a religious requirement

Jul 23rd, 2018 9:39 am | By

Carving up girls like so much deli meat is “culture” in Somalia (and elsewhere).

The father of a 10-year-old girl who died after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia has defended the practice.

Dahir Nur’s daughter died of blood loss on 17 July, two days after being taken to a traditional circumciser.

But he told Voice of America (VOA) “people in the area are content” with FGMeven considering the dangers, adding it is the country’s “culture”.

Cultures can change, though. It’s possible to examine particulars of a culture and decide that some of them are bad and have to go.

Efforts to criminalise FGM in Somalia have been stalled by politicians, who fear it will alienate voters who

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Be cautious my dude

Jul 23rd, 2018 9:17 am | By

More extreme crazy.

We’ll just ignore for now the absurdity of Trump yelling at someone else for “demented words of violence and death” and go directly to wtf.

The Times:

Mr. Trump’s message was apparently in response to a speech on Sunday by Mr. Rouhani, who warned the United States that any conflict with Iran would be the “mother of all wars.”

Mr. Rouhani

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Look out, look out, don’t lose your minds

Jul 22nd, 2018 6:05 pm | By

Not your call, dude.

First of all…please. When do Democrats ever rush to the left of any kind, let alone socialist? Democrats never do anything but drag us ever farther to the right, in the name of exactly that kind of “oooh everybody wants to be in The Center” bullshit. Voting for one socialist in one primary in New York is not “rushing to the socialist left” let alone losing anyone’s mind.

Second, it’s not his job to … Read the rest

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Amen, Ed

Jul 22nd, 2018 2:33 pm | By

Berman wrote about Kavanaugh and voting rights in Mother Jones a couple of days before the Times piece (perhaps inspiring the Times to commission the later piece), and in that one he provided this piquant detail:

Kavanaugh downplayed the racially charged origins of South Carolina’s voter ID law and its impact on voters of color. Members of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus walked out of the Legislature when the bill was first considered. After the law passed, Ed Koziol, a Republican supporter of the law, wrote an email to the bill’s author, Rep. Alan Clemmons of Myrtle Beach, saying that if African Americans were offered a $100 award for obtaining voter ID, “you would see how fast they

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The threat of voter disenfranchisement

Jul 22nd, 2018 2:09 pm | By

Ari Berman in the Times July 13 on Brett Kavanaugh as a threat to voting rights:

In late 2011, the Obama administration blocked a South Carolina law that required voters to show a photo ID before casting their ballots, finding that it could disenfranchise tens of thousands of minority voters, who were more likely than whites to lack such IDs.

But when South Carolina asked a federal court in Washington to approve the law, Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion upholding it. He ruled that the measure was not discriminatory, even though the Obama administration claimed that it violated the Voting Rights Act.

Kavanaugh pointed to a 2008 Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana’s voter ID law.

“Many states, particularly

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Voter suppression

Jul 22nd, 2018 11:45 am | By

Rachelle Hampton at The New Republic last year:

A new Mother Jones report on voter suppression in 2016 found that as many as 45,000 people in Wisconsin were deterred from voting due to the state’s voter ID law, possibly costing Hillary Clinton the election. In the majority-black city of Milwaukee alone, voter turnout decreased by 41,000 for the 2016 election. “I would estimate that 25 to 35 percent of the 41,000 decrease in voters, or somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 voters, likely did not vote due to the photo ID requirement,” said Neil Albrecht, Milwaukee’s election director.

An MIT study found that 12 percent of all voters—an estimated 16 million people—encountered at least one problem voting in 2016. There

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Shocked shocked

Jul 22nd, 2018 9:51 am | By

Aaron Blake at the Post appears to be shocked by what he calls the “tribalism” of what he calls “liberals” – that is, by the fact that people who dislike Trump dislike him a lot.

Liberals don’t just hate President Trump; lots of them don’t even like the idea of being in the company of his supporters.

That’s the big takeaway from a new Pew Research Center survey, which is just the latest indicator of our remarkably tribal and partisan politics. And when it comes to Trump, it’s difficult to overstate just how tribal the left is and how much distaste he engenders. Indeed, that distaste apparently extends even to people who decided they would like to vote for

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Buckle your tinfoil hat

Jul 22nd, 2018 8:56 am | By

News world is abuzz over the release of documents related to the surveillance of Carter Page, with Trump screeching that it all shows how right he is about everything and rational people saying no it doesn’t.

President Trump claimed without evidence on Sunday that his administration’s release of top-secret documents related to the surveillance of a former campaign aide had confirmed that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. had “misled the courts” in the early stages of the Russia investigation.

“Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.

In a series of early-morning tweets,

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Sunday eloquence

Jul 22nd, 2018 8:38 am | By

Today Trump is combining noisy vituperation aimed at the government he supposedly leads and passionate glorification of violence. That’s a good look.

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Trump frustrated with that nice talented Mr Kim

Jul 21st, 2018 7:12 pm | By

Oh my what a surprise, North Korea is being difficult.

U.S. negotiators have faced stiff resistance from a North Korean team practiced in the art of delay and obfuscation.

Diplomats say the North Koreans have canceled follow-up meetings, demanded more money and failed to maintain basic communications, even as the once-isolated regime’s engagements with China and South Korea flourish.

Meanwhile, a missile-engine testing facility that Trump said would be destroyed remains intact, and U.S. intelligence officials say Pyongyang is working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear program.

Other than that everything’s marvelous.

The lack of immediate progress, though predicted by many analysts, has frustrated the president, who has fumed at his aides in private even as he publicly

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Another wall

Jul 21st, 2018 3:39 pm | By

Is Trump’s malign influence spreading?

A prominent international human rights activist has no idea if she’ll be able to attend an international conference in Auckland following lengthy delays with her visa.

Critics say Immigration New Zealand’s slow response to keynote speaker Gulalai Ismail’s application is shocking and embarrassing.

Why yes, it is – Gulalai Ismail of all people. She does brilliant work, she’s received international awards, she’s a star.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU)  is meeting in Auckland in early August to discuss projects and policy. It campaigns against human rights abuses, particularly from religious influences, and has representatives at the European Union and United Nations.

Gulalai Ismail from Pakistan has been campaigning since she was 14 for 

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His spiritual side

Jul 21st, 2018 11:56 am | By

Trump, it turns out, is a medium.

A few weeks ago, while posthumously honoring a World War II hero, Trump gave the man’s family a report on their departed loved one. He was “looking down from Heaven, proud of this incredible honor, but even prouder of the legacy that lives on in each of you. So true.”

A few weeks before that, at what was billed as a celebration of patriotism at the White House, Trump reported to the crowd that fallen soldiers are pleased with his economic policies and increases in the stock market. “Many of them are looking down right now at our country, and they are proud,” he said.

Sometimes, Trump pinpoints the location of the

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It’s the sense of entitlement

Jul 21st, 2018 10:55 am | By

Obama says men are just getting on his damn nerves now, ok?

Barack Obama thinks that more female leadership when it comes to social movements and governance will improve policies.

The former president of the United States said that “men have been getting on my nerves lately” and suggested that the solution might be to empower women, in a speech during a town hall meeting with young African leaders at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Everyday I read the newspaper and just think like ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys? What’s wrong with us? We’re violent, we’re bullying. Just not handling our business,’” Obama said. “I think empowering more women on the continent, that… is going to

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Executive time

Jul 21st, 2018 9:28 am | By

Trump’s exciting week was exciting.

Executive time began early on Thursday, just after sunrise.

Feeling exasperated and feisty as he awoke in the White House residence, President Trump fired off his grievances on Twitter about how the media had been covering his Helsinki summit. And, refusing to be cowed, Trump gave national security adviser John Bolton an order: to schedule a second summit and officially invite Putin to visit Washington.

Because that’s what it’s all about – Trump’s mood, Trump’s need to ignore all advice and expertise, Trump’s image of himself as a dictator. They don’t like the way Trump dealt with Putin? Well he’ll show them: he’ll invite Putin over to do it even more so.

The

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